Heart & Soul Pays Writer, Says It Hopes to Rise Again
Heart & Soul magazine, which has paid only about half of what it promised a dozen freelance and writers more than a year ago, has been unable to pay more because “we didn’t have the business last year. We were barely able to keep the doors open,” Wil Adkins, a marketing specialist for a merchant banking firm brought in to assist the company, told Journal-isms on Monday.
However, Adkins paid Allegra Bennett, who describes herself as a contractor doing business as a writing and editing consultancy, last week. “I contacted her and we paid her,” Adkins said. “We are a virtual operation and sometimes you get people who were overlooked. I’m the guy paying the bills,” Adkins said. “It is our intention to pay everyone.” The publication formerly had offices in Silver Spring, Md.
Bennett was so frustrated that she went public on her Facebook page on June 11. But on Monday, she told the same forum, “I received payment from H&S Friday. I most appreciated the old fashioned phone call from the new finance guy I got the day before I received the check apologizing and alerting me that the payment was in the mail. An investment banking company is now involved helping the magazine address old debts and obligations and navigate the future. It was good to hear they weren’t throwing in the towel and ditching the mag. I love Heart & Soul’s concept and mission and really want to see it thrive. There’s nothing like it in the marketplace for women of color. I wish them well.” Heart & Soul, a health-and-wellness publication, targets women of color.
The National Writers Union and representatives of Heart & Soul magazine had agreed that a dozen freelance writers and editors would collect more than $125,000 in unpaid fees. But, Adkins said, “no one could predict what the business was going to be like. Business for last year was down significantly. There were quite a few issues of the magazine that were unprofitable.”
Still, said Adkins, who was contacted by a business partner to advise the Heart & Soul owners, “last year we hope was the bottom. A lot of people are committed to this magazine and making sure it comes back to where it once was.”
While there is no permanent editor, he said, Anita Kopacz, a former writer at Uptown magazine who describes herself as an author and spiritual adviser, edited the most recent edition of the magazine, which publishes six times a year. She is author of “Finding Your Way: Alphabetical Keys to the Divine.”
Mekahlo Medina Sole Seeker of NAHJ Presidency
Mekahlo Medina, a technology and social media reporter at KNBC-TV in Los Angeles and vice president for broadcast of the National Association of Hispanic Journalists, is the association’s sole — though unofficial — candidate for president, President Hugo Balta told Journal-isms on Monday.
Balta cautioned that the organization is still going through the vetting process, so no candidate is officially on the ballot. Voting will be completed at the association’s Aug. 6-10 convention in San Antonio.
All potential candidates are unopposed. The others are:
Vice president/Broadcast: Ivette Davila-Richards, Region 2 director.
Vice president/Online: Rebecca Aguilar, the incumbent
At Large Officer: Ken Molestina, who has been Region 3 director
Spanish At-Large Officer: Cesar Arredondo, president of the Los Angeles chapter.
Academic Officer: Yvonne Latty, the incumbent.
When Medina ran for the vice president/broadcast position in 2012, defeating Nick Valencia 148 to 95 with nine write-ins, he wrote, “He has a proven record of innovation and success as a pioneer of the country’s first digital news channel, an anchor/reporter at NBC Los Angeles focusing on technology and social media and as a journalist entrepreneur attempting to bridge the divide between relative content and consumers.
“Mekahlo also has a deep understanding of NAHJ’s mission and priorities. He has been active with NAHJ since he was 16 as a participant of the student projects. Over the past 18 years, Mekahlo has mentor students, lead panels, helped membership drives, donated money, co-programmed a convention and transformed the student projects into one of the country’s first multi-platform programs. The project graduated close to 400 students with skills that prepared them for our current industry. Students have gone on to serve with the dozens of media outlets like the LA Times, NY Times and NBC Network News. . . .”
Medina was part of the NAHJ delegation to Unity: Journalists for Diversity that voted the leave the coalition last year over what they called a lack of transparency and dissatisfaction with its revenue-sharing formula.
Calif. Auditor Confirms Investigative Report on Sterilizations
A California state audit last week validated the conclusions of an investigative report by Corey G. Johnson of the Center for Investigative Reporting that found that “Doctors under contract with the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation sterilized nearly 150 female inmates from 2006 to 2010 without required state approvals.”
Johnson wrote the story about the audit himself, although it was also reported by such major news organizations as the Associated Press, and the Los Angeles Times and Time magazine.
“The California state auditor today blasted federal and state oversight of sterilization surgeries for female prison inmates, finding numerous illegal surgeries and violations of the state’s informed-consent law,” read Johnson’s story, which was picked up by the San Francisco Chronicle.
“Of the 144 tubal ligations performed on inmates from fiscal years 2005-06 to 2012-13, auditors found, more than a quarter – 39 – were done without lawful consent, according to the report by State Auditor Elaine Howle. The ‘true number’ of illegal procedures might be higher, the audit said, because auditors found seven cases at one hospital for which health records were lost in a routine purging.
“The findings ‘made me sick to my stomach,’ said state Sen. Ted Lieu, D-Redondo Beach, who was the first to call for the Medical Board of California to investigate the surgeries after The Center for Investigative Reporting broke the story nearly a year ago. That probe has not been completed.
“Former inmates and prisoner advocates have claimed that prison medical staffers coerced the women, targeting those deemed likely to return to prison after they were released. The new audit notes that all women receiving tubal ligations in state prisons from 2005 to 2013 had been incarcerated at least once before. However, prison medical officials have denied any ill intent. . . .”
Johnson is one of the few black journalists doing investigative reporting full-time.
Band’s Idea Fits Redskins Controversy to a T
“What’s in a T-shirt? Turns out, quite a lot,” Derrick Clifton wrote Wednesday for mic.com.
“Using little more than the shirts on their backs, award-winning Canadian band A Tribe Called Red just sent a bold message: Native Americans aren’t here for your entertainment.
“The shirt is part of the continuing controversy over the use of Native American imagery for the logos of professional sports teams like the Washington Redskins. Simultaneously sarcastic and witty, the shirt — a play on Chief Wahoo and the Cleveland Indians logo — draws attention to franchise names and mascots that demean Native Americans while lampooning the creators and perhaps the most vocal supporters of such team mascots: Caucasians.
“Sadly, the backlash to the band’s creative statement has already begun . . .”
Meanwhile, William C. Rhoden, sports columnist for the New York Times, told readers on Saturday, “I’ve committed to stop using the nickname in public and in private, except in columns addressing the debate,” noting that “Other journalists do the same, and some news media outlets are refusing to use the nickname in coverage. . . .”
- Lewis Diuguid, Kansas City Star: Trademark agency correct to go after racist NFL team nickname
- Ricardo A. Hazell, the Shadow League: The Fight for Inclusion in America Often Begins on the Field
- Clyde Hughes, Society of Professional Journalists: Make Your Call on the Washington Football Team Name
- Indian Country Today Media Network: Outpouring of Universal Praise for Redskins Ruling
- Clarence Page, Chicago Tribune: Snyder’s insulting Redskins logic
Craigslist a Window Into Uncensored Thoughts on Race
Post-racial?
Not if you check the Craigslist personals, Wendi Muse writes for Racialicious.
In a post originally written in 2007 but reposted on Thursday, Muse reported:
“I checked the CL personals about as often as I checked for apartments, or, in other words, every five seconds, even though I wasn’t really looking for anything heavy duty in the love department and happened to be quite satisfied with my Brooklyn 2-bedroom and its 14 month lease. Reading the personals was a perfect way to find a little piece of reality TV-esque drama without all the heavy editing, good lighting, and stage makeup.
“The ads were frank, the boards were frequently updated, and the content never failed to amuse me, but behind all the fun, there was an underbelly of racism. This came as a bit of a surprise considering that so many of the CL posters were young, educated, and lived in diverse and densely populated urban environments — all oft-cited demographic factors in the commonly held belief that racism is on its way out. Though politicians, institutions of higher learning, and Ward Connerly would like for us to believe that the United States is on its way to becoming a colorblind utopia, a simple examination of Craigslist personal ads proves quite the opposite. . . .
“In the world of online dating, where a user name, masked email address, and optional photo sharing means freedom to speak ones mind in complete anonymity, users frequently abandon political correctness and resort to exotification, stereotypes, and blatant racism when referring to racial/ethnic ‘others’ in their attempts to choose a mate. While some ads include the user’s thoughts on race in more subtle ways, for example, simply stating a racial ‘preference’ (still, arguably, a sign of prejudice), others are more obvious in their descriptions — ranging from the utilization of explicitly racist phrases or terms to describe his/her own background and/or the background of the person being sought to downright exclusion a la Jim Crow style (‘No — insert race here — need apply’). . . .”
CBS Report Spotlights Racism in Stands at World Cup
“As soccer enthusiasts gather in Brazil to enjoy the World Cup, incidents of racist behavior in the stands have spurred calls for FIFA to do more to stop the problem,” Elaine Quijano reported Friday for the “CBS Evening News.”
The video is one of several items on Black Brazil News, a Facebook fanpage “to inform the International community about the Unofficial Apartheid of Brazil.“
Meanwhile, “Univision reported its most-viewed telecast involving the U.S. men’s national team on Sunday,” according to Mike Reynolds in Multichannel News. “Univision and Univision Deportes Network’s simulcast of the 2-2 draw [with Portugal] averaged 6.5 million viewers on June 22, surpassing the tally of 4.8 million watchers for Sam’s Army’s 2014 World Cup opening match against Ghana on June 16 by 35%. . . “
N.Y. Post Unrepentant in Central Park Five Case
“The Central Park Five,’ last year’s film about the wrongful conviction of five teenagers in the savage 1989 rape of a jogger in Central Park, demonstrated the complicity of the news media in convicting the suspects with their headlines, commentary and television scripts about “wilding” youths and a marauding “wolf pack.”
No apologies from the news media have been forthcoming, though the city of New York last week reached a settlement of about $40 million to the five men.
On Sunday, a defiant New York Post editorialized against the verdict with the inflammatory headline, “Wilding for profit.“
“There remains strong evidence that, as famed anti-corruption prosecutor Michael Armstrong found in his review of the case, the five “more likely than not” took part in the jogger attack,” the Post said, concluding that ” the five, having been declared exonerated and hailed as casualties of racism, will be handed a huge check. This is the real miscarriage of justice.”
The Daily News, which like the Post reveled in sensationalizing the original crime, wrote Saturday, “The size of the reported deal demands that the mayor and his top lawyer, Corporation Counsel Zachary Carter, provide a public justification for payments that would be on the extremely high end of compensation for wrongful imprisonment.”
Only the New York Times, among the city’s dailies, approached contrition. “Mayor Bill de Blasio acted in the interest of justice when his administration agreed to pay about $40 million to the five black and Hispanic men wrongly convicted in the brutal beating and rape of a white, female jogger in Central Park in 1989,” it editorialized Friday. “If the settlement is approved by the city comptroller and a federal court, it will bring to a close one of the more shameful and racially divisive episodes in New York City history.”
- Charles F. Coleman Jr., Ebony: Is $40 Million Enough for the Central Park Five?
- Earl Ofari Hutchinson, syndicated: Donald Trump’s Arch Race Baiting Again with the Central Park Five
Short Takes
- About 100 people from around the country surprised Rich Holden, laid off this year after years of helping high school and college journalism students as a teacher and as executive director of the Dow Jones News Fund, on Saturday near his Madison, N.J., home. “It was a complete surprise for Richard who totally speechless when walked into the room,” Walter Middlebrook of the Detroit News messaged Journal-isms. The tribute included “Many great stories about all facets of Holden’s life from his time at the University of Missouri to his time in the Air Force to the Wall Street Journal to starting up the Asian Wall Street Journal to joining the Dow Jones News Fund.” Gov. Chris Christie issued a declaration in Holden’s honor and Holden was named a lifetime member of the American Copy Editors Society (ACES).
- “The Knight Foundation awarded $3.4 million on Monday to 19 projects aimed at making the Internet free and accessible to the masses,” the foundation announced. “From a platform helping journalists quickly verify the accuracy of online media to tools that can detect and prove network neutrality violations, winners of the Knight News Challenge spanned the spectrum of solutions. . . .”
- Ta-Nehisi Coates, author of the Atlantic magazine cover story, “The Case for Reparations,” gave readers interested indigging more deeply into the subject a list of books Monday. “Whiteness and blackness are not a fact of providence, but of policy — of slave codes, black codes, Jim Crow, redlining, GI Bills, housing covenants, New Deals, and mass incarcerations,” Coates wrote on his blog.
- “The first-ever UNITY Reporting Fellowship has been awarded to University of Maryland, Merrill College of Journalism graduate Melanie Balakit ’14,” Unity: Journalists for Diversity announced on Monday. “As the UNITY Reporting fellow, Balakit will cover the Asian American Journalists Association, the National Association of Black Journalists, the National Association of Hispanic Journalists, the Native American Journalists Association, and the National Lesbian & Gay Journalists Association, with travel and hotel accommodations provided. . . .”
- “Chinese immigrants helped build, feed early Nevada,” was the headline on a weekend story by Michael Lyle in the Las Vegas Review-Journal. “Nevada 150 is a yearlong series highlighting the people, places and things that make up the history of the state,” an editor’s note explained. About 100 people. Organized by Linda Shockley, Merrill Perlman, William Connolly and wife, Mary-A, honna Holden.
- “Charles Payne is using a recent personal experience as motivation to help young job-seekers,” Merrill Knox reported Saturday for TVNewser. “On his Fox Business show this week, Payne recounted a story of seeing his godson coming back from a job interview in a suit and a black dress shirt. . . . ‘ Any New York City teen graduated from high school going straight into the job market, if you don’t have enough money to get a white dress shirt, go to Portabella on White Plains Road in the Bronx, ask for a Dr. Manuel. I’ve already pre-paid for 50 of these shirts — you’re going to get a shirt, and a tie, and a little hanky, too.’ . . .”
- “Authorities in Somalia must immediately investigate the murder of a Somali journalist in Mogadishu on Saturday,” the Committee to Protect Journalists said Monday. “Yusuf Ahmed Abukar, who also used the name Yusuf Keynan, was killed when a bomb believed to be attached to his car exploded while he was on his way to work, according to news reports. . . .”
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