Dallas Paper Accused of Age Bias

18 Say They Were Tossed in Bid to Skew Younger

In the rush to appeal to younger readers, does it make sense to get rid of older journalists? A lawsuit filed Tuesday by former employees of the Dallas Morning News says that is illegal, and charges that’s what the Morning News tried to do.

The 18, who include journalists of color Raul Prezas Reyes, Timothy Arthur O’Leary, Ira Hadnot Alexander and Linda Jones, were part of the “massacre” at the Morning News two years ago in which 60 to 70 people were laid off. They are charging age discrimination, and their attorney, Karen G. Shropshire, said they might add racial discrimination.

Unlike many newspapers that offered voluntary buyouts that were so attractive that older workers had almost no choice but to accept them, the News in 2004 imposed layoffs.

That deprived the older journalists of benefits from a pension plan structured so that the most lucrative benefits went to those who stayed until ages 55 to 60, according to the complaint. The layoffs also deprived them of future wages, says the complaint, filed in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas. All who filed were past 40.

The severance package each was offered was “nowhere close” to what they would have earned, Shropshire told Journal-isms.

“The environment at DMN became hostile for many employees over age 40, some of whom became the subject of derogatory comments based on their ages, made by younger managers; some were targeted in reviews by the younger managers, including older employees with medical problems, as DMN began to focus on hiring younger writers, editors and artists,” the complaint reads.

Many under-40 employees were assigned to work for Dallasnews.com and for Quick, a new, free publication designed to appeal to readers under 40, the complaint said.

“Many DMN employees over age 40 were stereotyped as . . . inflexible and unable to adapt to new technology or to assume multiple job responsibilities, although the older employees had filled many positions throughout their careers,” it continued.

Carey P. Hendrickson, spokesman for the Belo Corp., which owns the Morning News, told Journal-isms, “We are aware of the complaint. We believe the complaint is without merit and intend to defend against it vigorously.”

Of the African Americans filing the action, Hadnot, the then-president of the Dallas/Fort Worth Association of Black Communicators who worked on the News’ religion desk, co-owns, with her husband, a company for self-published authors. She planned to launch her own religion information company, to “showcase the work of minority religion writers and teach congregations how to improve their internal media products and effective external media relations,” according to her bio.

Jones, a 10-year reporter, is freelancing, mainly for the Austin bureau of People magazine, she told Journal-isms. This week, she is teaching feature writing at the Freedom Forum’s Diversity Institute in Nashville. She converted the back room of her house into a writer’s retreat and has a writing and media consulting business, as she told Journal-isms in June 2005.

Of the Latinos, O’Leary, a Morning News editorial writer and columnist from 1993 to 2004, is director of communications at the World Heart Federation in Geneva, Switzerland. After leaving the Morning News, he became senior writer for the Joint United Nations Program on HIV/AIDS, also based in Geneva.

Reyes, a national desk editor at the Morning News, now works as a Metro reporter at the New York Times. He declined to answer any questions.

Others filing the complaint are Larry Randall Powell, Lawrence William DeOre, Paula F. Watson, Gary Van West, Jan Michael Hubbard, Michael S. Coons, John Paul Chamless, Deborah Sue Voorhees, Linston Robert Lofley, Karen Patterson, Gary Stratton, Ewina H. Schumacher, Paulette Ladach and Stephen Wayne Yount.

In September, the Morning News accepted the applications of “a little more than 100” newsroom employees for buyouts, and 10 to 12 percent of them were journalists of color, editor Bob Mong told Journal-isms then.

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NABJ Expecting to End Year With a Deficit

The National Association of Black Journalists, faced with declining support from media companies and a decrease in membership, has a deficit of $120,233, according to minutes of a board meeting held two weeks ago, and “we’ll probably still have a deficit” when the year ends, NABJ President Bryan Monroe told Journal-isms on Wednesday.

The association, which remains the world’s largest organization of journalists of color, cut $1 million in expenses in the last year, including letting go of three people in its national office at the University of Maryland.

Any deficit will be absorbed by reserve funds, Monroe said.

It would follow a $200,000 deficit last year.

As a partial remedy, the board voted to increase annual dues from $80 to $100 for full members, from $50 to $75 for associate members, from $25 to $40 for college students, and from $25 to $35 for high school students. It will be the first dues increase since 1998.

Membership dropped by 207 members from August to October, to 3,232, the board was told, with the number of full members falling and the student member categories increasing.

Monroe said in a president’s message on the NABJ Web site, “While we have put in place the processes and procedures to more effectively run the association, and have cut nearly $1 million worth of annual spending, we are still, from a revenue standpoint, dependent on many media organizations for support. However, from sponsorships to donations to subsidizing your own dues, many media companies are not stepping up to the table, cutting their contributions this year significantly. That has hit us hard in the past few years.”

He urged lapsed members to renew before the increased dues structure takes effect Dec. 1, and told Journal-isms he wanted NABJ members to step up recruiting of other journalists to the organization. The association’s chief selling point is networking, he added, saying many can testify to the jobs they secured through networking at the annual convention.

Also at its meeting, the board picked Philadelphia and Orlando as tentative hosts, pending contract negotiations, for the annual convention in 2011 or 2013.

Monroe is expected to address youth delegates and General Assembly members at the United Nations at the opening of the U.N. Global Youth Summit on Sunday. Monroe said it would be a 10-minute speech and he planned to discuss the importance of youth, a free press and diversity. It would be the first time an NABJ president has addressed such a forum.

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Amount of Jury’s Award Disputed in Source Case

“A day after a jury handed down a multimillion-dollar award to a hip-hop magazine editor who claimed she was fired because she’d complained of sexual discrimination at work, the two sides in the case began disputing the size of the award,” Nahal Toosi reported Wednesday for the Associated Press.

“Initial reports and statements from lawyers representing both sides said the total awarded to Kimberly Osorio on Monday was $15.5 million. But on Tuesday afternoon, after a teleconference with Judge Jed Rakoff, of the U.S. District Court in Manhattan, lawyers representing The Source magazine and its two founders said the award was $7.5 million.

“The jury rejected Osorio’s claims that she was subjected to sexual discrimination when she worked at the magazine from 2000 until 2005, becoming the magazine’s first female editor-in-chief.

“But it concluded she was fired in retaliation after she made her sexual discrimination claims, complaining of a workplace in which pictures of G-string-clad women hung on the walls and an X-rated movie was shown in the mail room.

“On Tuesday afternoon, Osorio expressed satisfaction with what she believed was a $15.5 million verdict, and her lawyers painted it as affirmation that sexual discrimination should not be tolerated at any workplace, despite the jury’s rejection of that claim.

“‘I definitely hope this has an impact on the attitude of hip-hop toward women,’ said Osorio in a news conference. ‘It was very hard for me emotionally. There was a lot of harm to my reputation.'”

“The Source and its founders, who no longer work there, intend to appeal.The Source and its founders, who no longer work there, intend to appeal.”

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Unity Says Chicago Columnist Wrong on Facts

Chicago Sun-Times columnist Robert Feder took Unity: Journalists of Color to task on Wednesday for designating Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., as “honorary chair” of a Chicago offshoot and giving away free copies of Obama’s new book.

However, Unity President Mae Cheng told Journal-isms that Feder’s comments were the result of a “misunderstanding.”

Feder wrote, “It’s bad enough that an organization that purports to advocate ‘fair and accurate news coverage about people of color’ would encourage journalists to accept free books from a man who regularly leads every newscast and appears on every front page in town, but it’s even worse that they’d set aside all pretense of objectivity when it comes to any politician—no matter how high he’s risen.”

Cheng said Obama is honorary chair of the Nov. 9 reception kicking off the 2008 Unity convention in Chicago, and the headline speaker, but not honorary chair of the group. The purpose is “to reach out to the greater Chicago community, to let them know we’re having this terrific event with 10,000 journalists,” Cheng said.

In addition to Obama, Mayor Richard Daley has agreed to have “a leading role” in the event and has agreed to be the voice behind a Unity video, Cheng said.

As for the books, Unity bought 50 of “The Audacity of Hope” to distribute to the guests as enticement to attend, she continued. Journalists will not be eligible for them.

Feder noted that “sponsors of the reception include ABC 7, CBS 2, NBC 5, WGN, Fox Chicago, Telemundo, Ebony and Jet magazines, the Chicago Tribune, Hoy and, yes, the Chicago Sun-Times.”

• Jon Friedman, MarketWatch: Obama fails to wow a magazine conference
• Monica Lewis, BlackAmericaWeb.com: As Obama Fever Spreads, the Question Begs: Is U.S. Ready for a Black President?

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Columnists Look Soberly at an Obama Candidacy

The announcement Sunday by Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., that he would consider running for the presidency in 2008 prompted sobering looks at such a prospect by African American columnists.

• Bob Herbert, New York Times: “My feeling is that Senator Obama may well be the real deal. If I were advising him, I would tell him not to move too fast. With a few more years in the Senate, possibly with a powerful committee chairmanship if the Democrats take control, he could build a formidable record and develop the kind of toughness and savvy that are essential in the ugly and brutal combat of a presidential campaign.”
• Earl Ofari Hutchinson, syndicated: “The dangling question that Obama must wrestle with is will white voters, and that includes Democrats as well as moderate to conservative independents, vote for a black presidential candidate. The answer is very much up in the air.”
• Eugene Kane, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: “He’s being viewed as a savior for black folks who are more than ready to see a black president as well as for all the white people who want to prove they will vote for a black person if he has the right stuff. . . . When he gets to Milwaukee, we should check this guy out closely, because that’s a lot to put on anyone’s shoulders — especially for someone who has yet to be tested in a fierce, mud-slinging campaign battle.”
• Tony Norman, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette: “Don’t think about the road ahead. Counting the cost is grossly overrated. Remember, you’re the man of the hour. You have the scent of a winner on you. The people will never abandon you. It’s Jerusalem or bust.”
• Clarence Page, Chicago Tribune: “For the foreseeable future, only 2008 offers an open campaign with no incumbent president or vice president planning to run. That’s rare. Seize the day, I say.”
• Rochelle Riley, Detroit Free Press: “If he runs, he will wear a heavy cloak. He would do well to study Jesse and remember that America is as fickle as it is lost. Or he could listen to what my grandma might have said: Beware of bees with honey. They still sting.”
• DeWayne Wickham, USA Today: “If he is going to make a successful run for the presidency two years from now, he’ll have to defend his positions on a range of issues that tear at the soft underbelly of our democracy â?? and which have derailed the campaigns of many presidential wannabes.”

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NAHJ, Studies Argue Against Media Consolidation

The National Association of Hispanic Journalists filed statements opposing a Federal Communications Commission plan to ease restrictions on consolidation of media companies, while studies showed such consolidation would lead to less local news and fewer choices for radio and television audiences.

“In its filing, NAHJ stated that it opposed further media consolidation because of the impact it has on minority ownership and on communities of color. NAHJ called on the FCC to stop its current ownership proceedings and address how to increase minority broadcast ownership. NAHJ noted that the FCC currently has no policies in place to foster the growth of minority owners, meanwhile people of color currently make up 33 percent of the U.S. population,” an NAHJ statement said.

“NAHJ believes that increasing minority ownership will increase viewpoint diversity, a cornerstone of FCC policy. It will also increase employment opportunities for people of color and programming for communities of color. According to a recent study, people of color make up just 3.26 percent of all TV station owners.

“In its comments, NAHJ also discussed the FCCâ??s history of neglect in dealing with minority ownership issues and reminded the commission that the Third Circuit Court of Appeals, in a 2004 ruling in the Prometheus case, told the commission that it had not addressed how to increase minority owners or examine the impact of its policy decisions on minority owners. In that 2004 case, the court remanded the FCCâ??s attempt to usher in new broadcast regulations.”

Nick Madigan reported Tuesday in the Baltimore Sun, quot;The Benton Foundation and the Social Science Research Council, authors of the studies, concluded that media consolidation does not create better, more local or more diverse media content, as the FCC maintains. For instance, the studies said, a radio company that owns multiple stations in a local market is less likely to offer niche formats such as easy listening, bluegrass, tejano and classical music.”

On the other side, “Broadcasters on Monday urged the Federal Communications Commission to recognize how competition has changed over the past 30 years and ease media ownership rules, while consumer groups said changes aren’t warranted,” Ira Teinowitz reported in Broadcasting & Cable.

“In an outpouring of filings on the last date the FCC is to accept comments on its media ownership rule re-examination, all sides are pulling out all the stops.”

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No Honor Seen for Natives in “How” Statue

George Benge, columnist for Gannett News Service who is also a news executive at Gannett Co., concluded a three-part look at American Indian sports team mascots with a column about the Warriors’ statue at Erwin High School in Asheville, N.C.

“Standing prominently on the school’s elevated front lawn is a two-story high statue of a generic American Indian male that is intended to embody the name of Erwin’s sports teams, the Warriors,” Benge wrote.

“A three-feathered headband crowns black hair tied on two sides. He’s wearing pants, moccasins and a waist bag. His left hand holds a tomahawk-like weapon and his right is raised in the stereotyped ‘how’ gesture.

“How destructive is Erwin’s faux Indian statue to the self-esteem of any Native American schoolchildren who must walk past a monument that so crudely demeans their racial and cultural identity?” Benge asked.

“I’ve been asked if any statue can truly honor Native American culture.

“Yes. If the statue is commissioned by real Native Americans to honor a tribally specific Native American hero or to respectfully and accurately commemorate a significant Native American event, moment or tradition.”

• Gerald Ensley, Tallahassee Democrat: Relation of FSU, tribe distinctive
• Letter to the Editor, Indianapolis Star: For the uninformed: facts about Chief Illiniwek

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Obituary Gives Black Americana Collector Her Due

The Los Angeles Times devoted 1,800 words Saturday to an obituary of librarian Mayme Clayton, who “amassed what experts today regard as a valuable and eclectic collection of black Americana. Its most glorious holding is a signed copy of the first book published by an African American: ex-slave Phillis Wheatley’s ‘Poems on Various Subjects, Religious and Moral’ of 1773.

“A bit of an eccentric, Clayton piled the Wheatley book and all her other treasures in the garage behind her humble West Adams home. She filled it to the rafters and prayed that the roof wouldn’t leak, all the while maintaining faith that one day she would share its riches with the public in a more suitable setting,” Elaine Woo wrote.

“Her dream moved an important step closer to fruition last week, when a group of local officials toured the future home of the Mayme A. Clayton Library, Museum & Cultural Center: a 21,000-square-foot former courthouse in Culver City. It is conceived as a temporary resting spot, but a crucial one, where an estimated 30,000 items can be conserved, cataloged and protected from humidity, insects and other hazards that made Clayton’s garage an archivist’s nightmare.

Howard Dodson, director of the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, part of the New York Public Library, “called Clayton’s collection ‘major and significant,’ particularly for its holdings on the black experience in the American West. He said it is stronger than the Schomburg in its materials dealing with African American migration to California and blacks in Hollywood.

“There are two kinds of collectors of black Americana, Dodson said: those who are interested in collecting as a financial investment and those with a passion for finding ‘the missing pages of history.’ Clayton, he said, clearly belonged in the latter category: ‘She had this notion that there was important material out there that was not being preserved,’ a sense of ‘if not her, then who?'”

Clayton was 83 and died of pancreatic cancer.

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U.S. Slips in Group’s Index of Press Freedom

“Some poor countries, such as Mauritania and Haiti, improved their record in a global press freedom index this year, while France, the United States and Japan slipped further down the scale of 168 countries rated, the group Reporters Without Borders said yesterday,” Nora Boustany reported Tuesday in the Washington Post.

“The news media advocacy organization said the most repressive countries in terms of journalistic freedom—such as North Korea, Cuba, Burma and China—made no advances at all.

“Although it ranked 17th on the first list, published in 2002, the United States now stands at 53, having fallen nine places since last year.

“‘Relations between the media and the Bush administration sharply deteriorated after the president used the pretext of ‘national security’ to regard as suspicious any journalist who questioned his “war on terrorism,” ‘ the group said.

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Short Takes

• “U.S. Rep. George Miller (D-Calif.) says the Armstrong Williams settlement is ‘a small step in the right direction,’ but he doesn’t consider the matter settled,” Editor & Publisher reported on Monday. “‘Armstrong Williams is going to pay back $34,000 to the government for work he failed to deliver, but who’s going to pay the taxpayers for the rest of the quarter million dollars Williams was paid for his propaganda services to the administration?’ asked Miller in a statement. ‘And who is going to be held accountable for having hired Williams in the first place?'”
• Lori Waldon, a news manager, journalist, communications instructor and member of the National Association of Black Journalists, has been named news director at WISN-TV , the Hearst-Argyle Television station in Milwaukee, the station announced on Monday. “Waldon joins WISN-TV from Sacramento duopoly KOVR-TV and KMAX-TV, where she served as assistant news director. She previously spent 13 years in news management roles at KPIX-TV in San Francisco.”
• David Goodwin, editor of the Middletown (Ohio) Journal since 2003, has been named managing editor for presentation of Cox Ohio Publishing, effective Nov. 12. Cox Ohio operates eight newspapers in Dayton, Springfield and Northern Cincinnati media markets, and Goodwin is to be responsible for production, design, graphics and copy editing for them.
• Everett J. Mitchell was transferred from the editor’s job at the Nashville Tennessean last month, and on Monday, new editor Mark Silverman announced that the managing editor, David Green, is being reassigned as well. Green was named the paper’s administrative editor. Margaretta “Meg” Downey, 55, who had been executive editor of the Poughkeepsie (N.Y.) Journal, was named managing editor. Mitchell is now executive editor of the Courier-Post in Camden/Cherry Hill, N.J.
• Rajiv Chandrasekaran, the Washington Post’s assistant managing editor for its Continuous News Desk, praises his employers and the culture they created in an interview with Jill Geisler of the Poynter Institute. “If not for the leadership of the Post, my book wouldn’t even be an unrealized dream,” said Chandrasekaran, author of the “Imperial Life in the Emerald City,” an well-received account of life in and around Iraq’s Green Zone during the earliest days of the American occupation.
• Geoffrey Nyarota, a veteran Zimbabwean journalist, announced the launch of an Internet publication, The Zimbabwe Times.com. Nyarota is the founder and editor of the banned Daily News and is currently based in the United States, Zimbabwe’s Financial Gazette reported.
• Publisher Wintilio Ortiz of the Spanish-language Tiempos newspaper in Wichita, Kan., has found that covering the local news for Hispanic readers in Wichita also means covering the local news in the Mexican towns of Guadalupe Victoria, Durango and Miguel Auza, Zacatecas, Editor & Publisher reported on Tuesday.
• “The Committee to Protect Journalists condemns the suspension of two newspapers in Vietnam that reported on corruption and printing problems with the country’s new non-paper banknotes,” the committee reported on Tuesday. “The Ministry of Culture and Information slapped a one-month ban on two small newspapers and was considering disciplinary measures against other, more widely read newspapers in connection with their critical reporting on the new notes, according to international news reports.”
• “The Committee to Protect Journalists is alarmed that a Colombian journalist has been forced into hiding following threats. Television host Otoniel Sanchez became the sixth journalist this year in Colombia to flee after being threatened or intimidated,” the organization said on Tuesday.