Immigration Day

“Day of Absence,” Protests Become Topic A

The “Day of Absence” and immigration-rights protests were topic A today, with the subject leading all three broadcast networks’ nightly newscasts. Newspaper Web sites updated stories about the events all day, and cable networks devoted prime-time shows to it.

ABC-TV’s “Nightline” planned to broadcast live from Los Angeles with reports by Chris Bury from East Moline, Ill., Heather Nauert from Dallas and Dean Reynolds from Chicago. “Nightline” was dedicating most, if not all, of the show to the immigration debate.

NBC-TV planned coverage by “Nightly News” anchor Brian Williams and reporting from Lester Holt in New York, Kevin Tibbles in Chicago, Michele Kosinski in Miami, Jennifer London in Los Angeles, Ron Allen in Denver and Peter Alexander in San Diego.

Don Teague was planning a piece from Dallas on immigrants’ economic impact, NBC was going to interview Telemundo anchor Pedro Sevcec.

All of MSNBC’s prime-time shows were discussing immigration: “Hardball with Chris Matthews,” “Countdown with Keith Olbermann,” Rita Cosby: Live & Direct,” “Scarborough Country” and “The Situation with Tucker Carlson,” a spokeswoman said.

Likewise, CBS stationed reporters around the country, with a correspondent live from Chicago for “The Early Show.”

CNN planned a look at the U.S.-Mexican border by CNN anchor Anderson Cooper on his “Anderson Cooper 360?” at 11 p.m., following border patrol officers, civilians and others chronologically during a 24-hour period.

On “American Morning,” Dan Lothian looked at a U.S. government campaign within the Mexican media to discourage Mexicans from crossing the border.

“Larry King Live” planned a panel discussion on the protests with Lou Dobbs, anchor of “Lou Dobbs Tonight,” New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson, Janet Murguía, president of the National Council of La Raza, Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn.; Univision anchor Jorge Ramos and Rep. Dana Rohrabacher, R-Calif.

Dobbs, who has made his trademark discussing “the illegal alien crisis in this country,” planned to raise the topic again on his own show, and to debate Maria Elena Salinas, news anchor with Univision, about U.S. immigration policy on CNN’s “Live From.”

The Houston Chronicle last week reported, “Univisión has come under fire from immigrant activists in recent weeks for a widely circulated e-mail message that purportedly instructs its radio personalities not to publicize the May 1 protest.

“Mexico City’s El Universal newspaper said Univisión executives allegedly met with their top DJs and ordered them not to back the May 1 boycott. ‘They prohibited them from even using the word boycott during their shows,’ an anonymous source told the newspaper.

“Rosemary Mercedes, a spokeswoman for Univisíon Radio in New York, said the El Universal report was not true; she declined to elaborate.” Univision did not respond to a request from Journal-isms today to discuss its coverage.

Two newspapers in cities that saw protests, the Express-News in San Antonio and the Arizona Republic in Phoenix, told Journal-isms they experienced normal absences for the day in their own operations.

The idea of a “Day of Absence” has its precedent in the arts, given Douglas Turner Ward’s 1965 play of that name and the 2004 film “A Day Without a Mexican,” as several observers, including Roger Moore, blogging for the Orlando Sentinel, have noted.

• Earl Ofari Hutchinson, syndicated: Why Republicans Will Cave on Immigration Reform
• Erin Aubry Kaplan, Los Angeles Times: Hoisting the flag in anger
• Julianne Malveaux, USA Today: Real test awaits ‘invisible’ immigrants
• Brenda Payton, Oakland (Calif.) Tribune: African Americans, Latinos have a common cause
• Steve Penn, Kansas City Star: Listening across the border
• James Ragland, Dallas Morning News: Potential no-shows a challenge for city
• Richard Ruelas, Arizona Republic: Policing immigration leaves other needs unmet
• Bob Ray Sanders, Fort Worth Star-Telegram: Students share wise words on divisive issue
• Andrew Skerritt, St. Petersburg Times: Immigrant irked at illegal entries
• Eric Stringfellow, Jackson (Miss.) Clarion-Ledger: Immigration reform important to businesses

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Pinning Rice Down on “Star Spangled Banner”

Asked about a new Spanish-language version of “The Star-Spangled Banner,” President Bush declared Friday that “the national anthem ought to be sung in English, and I think people who want to be a citizen of this country ought to learn English and they ought to learn to sing the national anthem in English.” It took persistent questioning (PDF) Sunday by Bob Schieffer on CBS-TV’s “Face the Nation,” but he got Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to say, diplomatically, that she does not agree.

Schieffer said: “Let me ask you also about the issue where foreign policy and domestic policy converge, and that is the issue of immigration. And now, all of a sudden, a lot of people on the right are saying this whole issue of ‘The Star-Spangled Banner’ being sung in Spanish is a bad thing. You’re not just a diplomat, you are also a musician; where do you come down on that?

Rice replied, “Well, I’ve heard ‘The Star-Spangled Banner’ sung in any number of ways and – in any number of ways. I think – I think what’s really being expressed here is that our immigration policies really need both to be humane and to defend our laws . . .,” moving on into a discussion of immigration policy.

“So – so what language the national anthem is sung in is not a problem for you?” Schieffer responded, getting back to his question.

Rice: “From my point of view, people expressing themselves as wanting to be Americans is a good thing. But we have laws about how they do that, how they become Americans. And I sincerely hope that we can come to an immigration policy that is comprehensive and that befits the fact that this is, after all, a country of immigrants.”

Schieffer: “I think you kind of dodged that question.”

Rice: “Well, we hope – Bob . . .

Schieffer: “I mean, does it make any difference or not?

Rice: “What, what, what language the national anthem is . . .”

Schieffer: “What language it’s sung in?”

Rice: “is sung in? I’ve heard the national anthem done in rap versions, country versions, classical versions. The individualization of the American national anthem is quite under way. I think what we need to focus on is an immigration policy that is comprehensive, and that recognizes our laws and recognizes our humanity.”

• Darryl Fears, Washington Post: An Immigrant DJ’s Morning in America

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Rich Luna Disciplined for Ethical Violations

“An ethics violation by Ventura County (Calif.) Star Managing Editor Richard Luna has roiled the newsroom over the past week, forcing a mass meeting with the publisher — and prompting the newspaper to bring in the head of human resources at parent E.W. Scripps Co. to investigate allegations of other ethical breaches by Luna,” Mark Fitzgerald reported Monday night for Editor & Publisher.

Luna, a former five-year board member of the National Association of Hispanic Journalists, “joined the paper as managing editor in August 2004, about five months after he abruptly left the Detroit News, where he was metro editor. Press reports at the time noted that the year before he had also suddenly left his position as managing editor of the Indianapolis Star,” Fitzgerald noted.

“According to Publisher and President Tim Gallagher, and the accounts of several journalists who talked about meetings held to address the situation, a sports reporter was pressured to obtain press credentials for Luna to attend two Final Four college basketball tournament games. At issue, Gallagher said in a telephone interview Monday night, is Lunaâ??s role in getting those credentials. He did not report on the games, and would not ordinarily have qualified for the credentials,” the story continued.

â??’Iâ??m in a difficult situation, trying to protect privacy because weâ??ve taken a personnel action on this,’ Gallagher said. The issue, he said, is ‘how much pressure did Rich apply, and how much pressure other editors applied in order to, you know, please the boss.’

“Gallagher said ‘an appropriate disciplinary action has been taken, one thatâ??s based on past practices. And he took it kind of stoically.’ Gallagher said to protect personnel privacy he could not discuss exactly what the discipline was.

â??’He knows heâ??s wrong, and heâ??s acknowledged he was wrong,’ Gallagher said.

“Gallagher said in addition to investigating other rumored ethical violations, Mary E. Minser, Scrippsâ?? director of employee relations, will look at how top management handled the investigation and discipline of Luna.”

Luna is a 1994 graduate of the Maynard Institute’s Management Training Center. The Ventura County Star is a Scripps Howard paper that is partnering with NAHJ to improve news coverage of Latinos and increase the number of Latinos in the newsroom. [Added May 2.]

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Burns, Watts Sue Contractor, Claim Racism

“Chicago’s highest-paid television news personality claims a contractor who designed and helped build her $3 million Lincoln Park mansion skimped on luxuries and did shoddy work because she is black,” Steve Patterson reported today in the Chicago Sun-Times.

“Diann Burns, top news anchor at WBBM-Channel 2, recently filed suit against Chicago-based Metzler/Hull Development Corp., demanding at least $600,000 on claims of fraud and discrimination.

“She and her husband, talent agent Marc Watts, list 84 complaints about their 5,752-square-foot home on North Burling Street – from the angle of the garage floor not being right to chipped mahogany doors being installed.”

“. . . Burns could not be reached at her WBBM-Channel 2 office, but Watts said: ‘We’re not in this for any publicity,’ and ‘we don’t want to litigate anything in the media. We did what we did because we felt it was our only recourse.'”

The News Blues Web site headlined its story on the lawsuit “Playing the Race Card,” and added, “We’re not making this up.”

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Top Black Magazines Performing Below Average

“The nation’s leading black magazines continue to struggle against a tight advertising market. For the first time in recent memory, the top African-American magazines are performing below the industry as a whole in the growth of ad pages and ad revenues,” Target Market News reported last week.

“According to figures from the Magazine Publishers of America’s Publishers Information Bureau, all of the magazines it measures had a 5.0 percent increase in ad dollars for March 2006 compared with March of last year. The five leading black magazines measured by PIB reported a drop of one percent for the same period.

“‘Jet’ magazine’s revenue growth of more than 26 percent for March far outpaced other black titles and the industry average. ‘Vibe’ was the only other publication to report an increase, with just under three percent in the growth of ad revenues for March.”

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Bob Marley Makes the Wall Street Journal

Reggae music legend Bob Marley, whose nontraditional business practices were such that he left no will, leading to suits and countersuits over the mishandling of funds by his estate, has made the Wall Street Journal.

“How Marley Caught Fire,” an excerpt from a new book by Christopher John Farley, known for his entertainment coverage in Time magazine and before that, in USA Today, ran Thursday in the “Marketplace” section.

That’s because the Jamaican-born Farley, after leaving Time last May to write the book, now works for the Journal. Farley, 39, said today he is an editor in the Marketplace section, editing technology, health, music and Hollywood news.

“The reggae star Bob Marley never sold out, but he understood the importance of selling well. He came to terms with the necessity of marketing at an early age,” the excerpt began.

The normally subscription-only Wall Street Journal site is free for 10 days as the site celebrates its 10th anniversary.

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“Face the Nation” Has All-Woman Guest List

“I had a great friend named Daniel ‘Chappie’ James,” host Bob Schieffer began his essay (PDF) Sunday on CBS-TV’s “Face the Nation.” “He was an African-American, and he became a famous fighter pilot in Vietnam, where he and his wing commander, Robin Olds, were known as Black Man and Robin. He achieved four-star rank in the Air Force, a real rarity. But he told me one day there would never be full equality in this country until we no longer noticed that someone was the first or the only.

“I thought about Chappie as I went over today’s guests here on ‘Face the Nation.’ All of them were women, and I wondered, did anyone notice but me? You see, we don’t invite guests to ‘Face the Nation’ because of race and gender, we invite the key players in the week’s big stories. But with more and more women now in positions of power, it follows that on any given week, the key players may well be all women.

“There was a time when that made some people uncomfortable. It may still. But they had better get used to it. Newsweek reports that girls are outperforming boys at every level from the third grade on. We’ll be seeing more women at the top levels of every profession.

“By now, Condoleezza Rice is neither the first women nor the first African-American to hold her powerful post. Who would have imagined that even 20 years ago? My friend Chappie James is gone now, but he would have liked ‘Face the Nation’ today. What he would have noticed is that none of our guests was the first or the only.”

His other guests were Sens. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, and Maria Cantwell, D-Wash.

As reported last month, Schieffer is named in a complaint to the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission in which fired producer Raylena Fields said, “”Bob Schieffer has a reputation for bigotry” and said he asked her to answer his phones.

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NABJ Delegation Leaving for Tanzania

A 10-person delegation from the National Association of Black Journalists is leaving for Tanzania this week on a 15-day United Nations-sponsored media trip to explore health, malaria prevention and other issues.

Participating are: Bryan Monroe, NABJ president and assistant vice president/news for Knight Ridder ; John Yearwood, NABJ treasurer and world editor of the Miami Herald; Bob Butler, director of diversity, CBS Human Resources; Damaso Reyes, reporter/photographer, New York Amsterdam News; Ervin Dyer, reporter, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette; Deborah Douglas, deputy features editor, Chicago Sun-Times; Keith Hadley, photographer, Atlanta Journal-Constitution; Syandene Rhodes-Pitts, reporter/anchor, WMC-TV in Memphis; Cherie Berkley, assistant managing editor, WebMD Health; and Stephanie Arnold, writer, Philadelphia Inquirer.

A young NABJ journalist, Akilah Amapindi, died of malaria at NABJ’s convention last year in Atlanta, having just returned from Namibia.

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Short Takes

• Will Tavis Smiley’s “second attempt at changing the tone of public radio work out better than the first?” Marc Fisher asked Sunday in the Washington Post. So far, his show on Public Radio International “has been picked up by 65 stations, almost as many outlets as his NPR program had. But a weekly show isn’t likely to have nearly the impact of a daily program.”
• “Poor, urban African American and Hispanic women in search of intimacy, love, safety and stability. . . . are increasingly finding those things with each other,” Tina A. Brown and Elizabeth Hamilton wrote last week in the Hartford Courant. “From California to Connecticut, lesbian couples of color are creating families – sharing money, homes, child-rearing, romance – in impoverished urban communities where few of the men are suitable mates and the traditional family structure has long since vanished.” Brown was interviewed about the series on the New England Cable Network, which posted the interview today.
• Eric Deggans, media critic for the St. Petersburg (Fla.) Times, was a guest Sunday on CNN’s “Reliable Sources” media show, often criticized for its failure to include journalists of color, or limiting them only to discusssions of race. Deggans, who chairs the Media Monitoring Committee of the National Association of Black Journalists, talked about Rush Limbaugh, plagiarism and a controversial “Dateline NBC” series on pedophiles.
• Raju Narisetti, the editor of the Wall Street Journal Europe who is leaving to become editorial director of an as-yet unnamed business daily in New Delhi, told Jon Friedman of Marketwatch.com, “My biggest challenge is going to be creating a form of journalism that is different.” In India, “There is not enough of stepping back and looking forward – lighthouse reporting, as opposed to lamppost reporting,” Friedman reported today.
• “The Committee to Protect Journalists welcomes the approval of two measures by the Mexico City Legislative Assembly – one decriminalizing defamation, libel and slander, and the other enabling journalists to withhold the identity of confidential sources,” the group said Friday.
• In a report on “‘Poison’, Politics and the Press” in Ethiopia, the Committee to Protect Journalists said Friday that 14 imprisoned journalists “are the most notable example of a government crackdown on the press that began in November when post-election street protests drew a show of official force, violence flared, and more than 40 died. The government issued ‘wanted lists’ of opposition party leaders, editors and writers; journalists who weren’t arrested went into hiding. Direct government orders and indirect pressure were blamed for the closing of more than half of the newspapers that once published in the capital.”
• The National Association of Minority Media Executives honored four media figures with awards of valor in Seattle Thursday night: Ricky Mathews, publisher of the Sun Herald in Biloxi, Miss.; Hannah Allam, Cairo bureau chief for Knight Ridder, for reporting; syndicated radio host Tom Joyner, founder of REACH Media Inc., for humanitarian deeds; and Bryan Monroe, assistant vice president/news at Knight Ridder and president of the National Association of Black Journalists, for leadership.
• “A St. Louis talk-radio host fired after using a racial epithet to describe Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice is back on the air,” the Associated Press reported Wednesday. David Lenihan returned to the airwaves on KRMS-AM in Osage Beach, Mo., near Lake of the Ozarks, and will continue for two weeks, the story said.
• Gary Anthony Ramsay, weekend anchor of NY1 News and president of the New York Association of Black Journalists, won the “Spirit of New York” award from the Manhattan Chamber of Commerce. “Besides his duties as chapter president Gary is a volunteer mentor to a 16 year old boy and board member for Big Brother Big Sisters of NY,” the NYABJ Web site says.
• Benin Dakar and Jacqueline Bullard now appear as bloggers on the Web site of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.