Network Policy Now Favors Integrated Ensembles
“An average of 52.5 million viewers tuned in for the hour-long ‘Friends’ finale last night, according to Nielsen Media Research final numbers,” Television Week reports. The 10-year-old series earned NBC more than $1.9 billion during its lifetime, according to the Washington Post’s Frank Ahrens, but the show might be notable for another reason:
It could be the last virtually all-white sitcom on NBC. As reported here in June 2002, NBC’s then-diversity chief, Paula Madison, general manager of NBC’s station in Los Angeles, declared in the Los Angeles Times that, “NBC’s approach to diversity is ensemble casting. When people would cite ‘Friends’ or ‘Frasier,’ they came into being before we understood that we wanted diversity in our casting. . . . Now look at the diverse casts of ‘Scrubs’ and ‘ER.’ “
The current vice president of diversity for NBC, General Manager Michael Jack of Washington’s WRC-TV, told Journal-isms that the policy was still in effect. “Ditto . . . What paula said,” he replied by e-mail.
The composition of sitcom-land can affect television news. As Cheryl Smith of KKDA radio in Dallas noted on the National Association of Black Journalists’ e-mail list, “If prime-time programming can get away with all these lily-white shows, what makes us think they are going to let their audiences turn to a more diverse newscast?”
Another contributor, Michael Wamble of the Daily Press in Newport News, Va., noted that NBC’s application of its policy has been uneven. “Good Morning, Miami,” set at a Miami television station, had a Latina as the morning co-anchor when it debuted in 2002, even though the main story involved two whites: the show’s executive producer and the makeup artist.
But, Wamble said, the Latina didn’t make it past the first season.
NABJ Prez: “Harder . . . to Get the Coveted Jobs”
“From Philadelphia to Los Angeles, and from Montgomery, Ala., to Kalamazoo, Mich., black journalists are seizing new challenges and gaining more authority at higher levels. We laud these accomplished journalists and are confident they will represent us well while ably leading their newsrooms,” Herbert Lowe, president of the National Association of Black Journalists, writes today on the NABJ Web site.
“But even as we note these key movements, we are deeply disappointed that black journalists were not among those tapped for the most significant jobs elsewhere.
“We could not help but notice, for example, that we were all but shut out in the recent high-profile management shake-ups at USA Today and the Dallas Morning News.
“We recall wistfully when the Morning News had three black assistant managing editors seemingly on the fast track in the early 1990s. A decade later, the top African American in its management is still at the AME level. This comes as the paper just promoted journalists to, among other jobs, publisher, vice president/associate editor, vice president/managing editor and senior deputy managing editor.
“USA Today, the nation?s largest daily newspaper, just named its sixth editor in its 22-year history, and promoted journalists to executive editor, editorial page editor and managing editor for Money and managing editor for News. The newspaper has never had a black journalist serve above the level of deputy managing editor in any of its four main sections, which also include Sports and Life.
“Again, we celebrate our success stories. But we worry it is becoming harder for us to get the coveted jobs that come with the offices with glass walls. As one highly respected editor passed over for a top job told me recently, ‘Any time we think we?ve made some strides, something happens to remind us that we haven?t.’?
Kerry Tells Univision Bush Is Bad for Latinos
Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry answered charges that his campaign lacks Hispanics in his inner circle, said he is learning to speak Spanish, and addressed immigration and other issues in his one-on-one interview in Los Angeles Wednesday night with Univision anchor Jorge Ramos.
“Some Hispanic leaders complain that you do not have enough Hispanics in your inner circle, in decision-making positions, and that your organization lacks diversity,” asserted Ramos. “How do you respond to that?”
“We have, I think, extraordinary diversity in my campaign,” Kerry replied, according to a transcript. “And we?re growing every single day.
“I didn?t reach out to Antonio Villagrosa and ask him to be a chairman of my campaign, to be a token. I don?t think he?s ever thought of himself as that and I wouldn?t allow somebody to be treated that way. Henry Cisneros is involved in my campaign very deeply and any time he wants to call me he can reach me anywhere in the country. Others all across the nation have been involved in national politics. Nicky Vera. Aida Alvarez. Many people are involved and we?re reaching out every single day. This is a growing campaign. I?ve only been the nominee for six weeks, seven weeks. At least the tentative nominee and what I need to do now is grow the campaign. But I have a 35-year lifetime record of inclusivity of having diversity in all of the offices I?ve been part of. In my Senate office and every part of my life. And I intend to be a president who opens new doors, broader opportunity, and has the greatest level of diversity we have ever, ever seen in the government of the United States.”
On immigration, Kerry said he favored “earned legalization which embraces the ability of people who have paid their taxes, who have a job, who have played by the rules.” He said all Americans should have the right to travel without restriction to Cuba, and supported the embargo against that country. Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, he said, “is fast, fast on the road to being . . . a dictator.”
But Kerry’s chief pitch was that the incumbent has been bad for Latinos. “President Bush has broken almost every promise, almost every promise, to the Latino community,” he said. “He promised on Cuba that he was going to be tough on Castro, that he was going to crack down on travel, that he was going to help the dissidents — that he was going to do all kinds of different things. All of those promises have been broken. He promised that he was going to fully fund ‘No Child Left Behind’. Few communities have been affected as the Latino community, by lacking 26 million dollars. That he is in a shortfall, so that he can give tax cuts to wealthy Americans. He has no plan to provide healthcare to all Americans. I do. And that will greatly help children in America. Our youngest are hurt because we don?t have healthcare, and particularly in Latino and the African American community. I?m going to change that, and I have a long record of fighting to change those things.”
The interview was to air on ?Noticiero Univision,? which Univision calls “America?s most-watched Spanish-language evening TV newscast.”
Kerry Meets With Black Journalists
Univision Reaching a Record Audience
“Univision Communications, the top Spanish-language broadcaster in the US, on Thursday reported record television audiences, attributing the growth to a rising preference among Hispanics for Spanish-language media,” reports Holly Yeager in the Financial Times.
“Its principal Univision network and TeleFutura, a new general-interest network, combined to win 81 per cent of growth in the primetime Hispanic audience aged 18-49 in the first quarter.”
Fox, Too, Wants to Target Hispanics
“Rupert Murdoch’s News Corporation is planning to launch at least one new US television channel before the end of the year as the media mogul seeks to take advantage of his recent acquisition of DirecTV, the satellite broadcaster,” writes Peter Thal Larsen in the Financial Times.
“Mr Murdoch did not offer further details, stressing that a final decision had not yet been made,” Larsen writes.
But he notes that, “This week Chase Carey, a veteran News Corp executive who is now chief executive of DirecTV, said the broadcaster was planning to beef up its appeal to Hispanics, who represent one of the fastest-growing segments of the US pay-TV audience.”
Columnist Questions Need for TV Helicopters
“Nobody was killed in Tuesday’s crash of a Channel 4 news chopper in Brooklyn — and for that, we should all be grateful,” writes Matt Zoller Seitz in the Star-Ledger of Newark, N.J.
“But we should also be asking ourselves if news choppers are more trouble than they’re worth.”
Russ Mowry, the helicopter pilot, told New York’s WABC-TV that: “I knew then, this is my death. Done deal, no problem, but this is it. There is nothing I can do about it. It is over. Then, I woke up in the ambulance.”
Reporter Andrew Torres, who was covering a shooting in Flatbush, suffered a mild concussion in the crash and was expected to be released Friday, WNBC spokeswoman Liz Fischer said, according to the Associated Press.
The pilot and pilot trainee were released Wednesday.
Chairman, Partner Leave Air America
“In yet another sign of trouble for Air America Radio, the liberal talk network’s co-founder and chairman, Evan Cohen, resigned Thursday along with his investment partner and vice chairman, Rex Sorensen,” reports John Cook in the Chicago Tribune.
“The company also failed to make its scheduled payroll Wednesday, leaving its staff of roughly 100 writers and producers unpaid until Thursday.”
Greg Harris Dies, Early TV Reporter in Vietnam
“Allen G. ‘Greg’ Harris, 78, a Tuskegee Airman during World War II and one of the first black television correspondents in Vietnam, died of complications from lung cancer April 19 at Beth Israel Hospital in New York,” as Patricia Sullivan reports in the Washington Post.
“Mr. Harris was a journalist for newspapers, radio, television and magazines for much of the tumultuous second half of the 20th century.
“His journalistic assignments included the American civil rights movement and the war in Southeast Asia. He began as a police, criminal court and city hall reporter for the Chicago Defender in the 1950s. During his career, he was a domestic and overseas correspondent for Newsweek and Time magazines, a war correspondent for NBC and a staff producer for “The CBS Evening News.”
“He also reported for WINS Radio and the Amsterdam News, both in New York, and was a freelance photographer for Life and Time magazines. He retired in the mid-1980s,” Sullivan wrote.
Diversity Institute Graduates Fifth Class
“The fifth class of seven journalism fellows graduated April 16 from the Freedom Forum Diversity Institute, a training program at Vanderbilt University designed for people of color who want to become journalists but have not had formal journalism training. After graduating from the 12-week program, fellows will join the staffs of their sponsoring newspapers as full-time journalists,” the Freedom Forum reported this week.
They are: Marcela Creps, The Herald Times, Bloomington, Ind.; Margaret Anne Davis, South Bend (Ind.) Tribune; Joe Manuel Rodriguez, San Angelo (Texas) Standard-Times; Leonard Thornton Sr., Times-Mail, Bedford, Ind.; Shauna Watkins, The Reporter-Times, Martinsville, Ind.; Rochelle Williams, The Fayetteville (N.C.) Observer; and Shanika Williams, The Tuscaloosa (Ala.) News.
Michael Holley Quits Globe for New Fox Show
Michael Holley, Boston Globe sports columnist since 1994, has quit the Globe to become co-host of “I, Max,” a daily sports news-and-talk show featuring former ESPN personality Max Kellerman that makes its debut Monday at 6 p.m. on Fox Sports Net.
“The sports columnist, who left in 2001 for a job at the Chicago Tribune, only to return several months later, then took a book leave during the Patriots’ 2003 season, is off again,” writes Bill Griffith in the Globe.
“Of his Globe departure, Holley said, ‘Writing takes so much energy and passion – and I still have it — but once the column was finished, so was I. I was out of energy.'”
CNN’s Aneesh Raman Leaves Atlanta for Bangkok
Aneesh Raman, currently an assignment desk editor for CNN International in Atlanta, will become a full-time video correspondent in Bangkok, reports the British web site Digital Spy.
Tom Joyner’s Black America Web Turns Profit
“BlackAmericaWeb.com has gone where few dot-coms have ventured: into profitability,” reports Dianne Solis in the Dallas Morning News.
“The Internet site is part of the Dallas-based media empire of Tom Joyner, a 54-year-old syndicated radio host whose show featuring comedy, commentary and Motown rhythms is heard in about 115 markets. It’s already one of the nation’s largest black-owned sites and is in a position to grow further as more blacks, an underrepresented group online, take to the Web.
“‘What differentiates our site from others is that we are really focused on the news,’ says Katrina Witherspoon, vice president for Interactive Media at Reach Media.
“Many dot-coms aimed at demographic niches have struggled, particularly Spanish-language sites.
“Univision.com is still bleeding red ink despite the fact that its owner, Los Angeles-based Univision Communications Inc., enjoys ratings heaven in several U.S. cities for its Spanish-language television programming. Univision reported in a securities filing in March that it expects another operating loss in 2004.
“But iVillage.com — a widely viewed site for women, according to Internet research house comScore Media Metrix — turned its first quarterly profit in the fourth quarter. Black-focused sites such as BlackPlanet.com and Africana.com have also fared well.”
Prosecutor Says Ex-Reporter Offered Hush Money
“After juveniles confronted former WCPO television reporter Stephen Hill about having sex with them and videotaping it, Hill tried to quiet them with a payoff, a prosecutor contended today in court,” Kimball Perry reported in the Cincinnati Post Thursday. “‘He actually gave them money to buy their silence,’ assistant prosecutor Rick Gibson told Hamilton County Common Pleas Court Judge David Davis at hearing today,” she wrote.
“Hill wants a judge to bar from his June 7 trial about 18 videotapes that police say show the defendant performing oral sex on four teen boys and having them perform anal sex on him,” Perry reported today.
AAJA Members Contribute to “Voices of Healing”
“Voices of Healing: Spirit and Unity after 9/11 in the Asian American and Pacific Islander Community,” described as the only written documentation of the impact of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on Asian Pacific Americans, includes contributions from members of the Asian American Journalists Association.
“Photojournalist Corky Lee wrote the foreword and contributed the cover photo of an Asian American firefighter and several other photos that, in his words, ‘chronicle the humility, humanity and patriotism of my fellow Americans who happened to have Asian and Pacific Islander roots,'” AAJA notes.
“A personal essay by author Helen Zia opens the chapter, ‘Call for Tolerance.’ KGO-TV reporter David Louie describes two weeks of reports from the Pentagon and an exclusive interview with Transportation Secretary Norman Mineta. Knight Ridder correspondent Ken Moritsugu provides a first-person account of his encounter with fear at the World Trade Center. Reuters photographer Hyungwon Kang contributed a photo of the Pentagon in flames.”
The book is published by the Organization of Chinese Americans.
Edward R. Murrow Aided Integration in the ’30s
Legendary broadcaster Edward R. Murrow, whose father’s family were Quaker abolitionists in slaveholding North Carolina and whose mother’s owned slaves, aided integration efforts in the 1930s, according to Bob Edwards of National Public Radio, who this week discussed his new book, “Edward R. Murrow and the Birth of Broadcast Journalism” (Wiley).
The first convention of the National Student Federation with Murrow as president “was to be held in Atlanta at the end of 1930,” Edwards writes. “Stunningly bold and years ahead of his time, Ed Murrow decided he would hold an integrated convention in the unofficial capital of deepest Dixie. Howard University was the only traditional black college that belonged to the NSFA. Murrow successfully recruited half a dozen more black schools and urged them to send delegates to Atlanta.
“Next, Murrow negotiated a contract with the Biltmore Hotel in Atlanta and attached to the contract a list of the member colleges. If the manager of the Biltmore failed to notice that the list included black colleges, well, that wasn’t the fault of the NSFA or its president.
“At a meeting of the federation’s executive committee, Ed’s plan faced opposition. Using techniques that decades later became standard procedure for diplomats and labor negotiators, Ed left committee members believing integration was their idea all along.
“Then Ed made an appointment with [Adolph] Ochs, publisher of the New York Times. He told Ochs exactly what he intended to do and asked Ochs to assign a southern reporter to the convention. This later proved valuable when a Texas delegate threatened to disrupt the proceedings. The Times reporter, an Alabamian, asked the Texan if he wanted all this to end up in the Yankee newspaper for which he worked. The Texan backed off.
“Housing the black delegates was not a problem, since all delegates stayed in local college dormitories, which were otherwise empty over the year-end break. The real test of Murrow’s experiment was the closing banquet, because the Biltmore was not about to serve food to black people. Murrow solved this by having white delegates pass their plates to black delegates, an exercise that greatly amused the Biltmore serving staff, who, of course, were black.
“Ed was reelected president by acclamation. Not for another thirty-four years would segregation of public facilities be outlawed.”
For Mother’s Day, Book Celebrates Black Aunts
“With Mother[‘]s Day almost here, many aunts deserve a day of love too, said author Ingrid Sturgis. She is editor of a new anthology, ‘Aunties: Thirty-Five Writers Celebrate Their Other Mother,'” writes Wayne Dawkins on BlackAmericaWeb.
“In ‘Aunties,’ the contributors, most of them black women, explain in rich detail how aunts are ‘unsung heroines who step into our lives bringing joy, unconditional love, support, and sometimes confusion,’ wrote Sturgis in her introduction. ‘An aunt can be like your mother or a protective older sister. Or she can be much more.’?
Sturgis is editor of essence.com.
