Lawyer: “There Was a War Against the Media Out There”
N.Y. Times Reporter Says She Quit Over Colleague’s Israel Ties
Surviving the Days When Black Reporters Were “Traitors”
N.Y. Times Somalia Correspondent Flees After Death Threats
Indian-Americans Say Time Satire Missed the Mark
On Fox News, a Revolutionary Choice for Colonial Hero
Is Google Experiment Fair to Seekers of Diversity?
Critics See Deeper Problem in Chicago Public TV Cuts
KTTV news report from May 1, 2007, shows police attacking camerawoman Patricia Ballaz. (Video)
Lawyer: “There Was a War Against the Media Out There”
A jury has awarded a Los Angeles camerawoman more than $1.7 million in the latest consequence of the rough treatment meted out to journalists and protesters at a pro-immigration rally in L.A.’s MacArthur Park on May Day 2007, according to weekend news reports.
In a news release, lawyers for Patricia Ballaz of KTTV, known as Fox11, said, “The police officers verbally threatened her at gunpoint because she was a member of the news media and because of her Hispanic/Mexican ancestry; the LAPD also shot weapons at or near her body. Ms. Ballaz sustained severe physical and emotional injuries, and she is unable to return to her job as a cameraperson.”
“There was a war against the media out there that day,” Ballaz’s attorney, Browne Greene, told the jury.
Jurors further awarded KPCC radio reporter Patricia Nazario $39,000, but the panel could not reach a verdict on allegations made by Fox11 reporter Christina Gonzalez KTTV reported on Friday.
” ‘This has been an extremely difficult and exhausting road to travel,’ Ballaz said. ‘And I’m grateful to the jury for holding the Los Angeles Police Department accountable for its unwarranted attack upon my body and soul. . . . ‘My genuine hope is that this trial and its verdict will serve as a strong reminder to the LAPD to think twice about using excessive force in any kind of situation. Our free speech and civil rights are precious and if we can’t rely on the police to protect them, who can we trust?’ ‘”
Mitchell Landsberg noted in the Los Angeles Times, “Police were widely criticized for overreacting in their efforts to put down the disorder and for targeting reporters and camera crews trying to cover it.
“The Los Angeles Police Department later apologized and instituted sweeping changes in its crowd control policies.
“The city had previously agreed to pay about $13 million to settle class-action claims brought by about 300 demonstrators, bystanders and some journalists who said they were mistreated during the incident. Last month, the City Council approved an additional payout of $450,000 to five other journalists.”
In her closing argument, Deputy City Attorney Jessica B. Brown told jurors the journalists’ legal rights were not infringed upon, the Fox station reported.
“She said Ballaz and Gonzalez ignored seven warnings from police to stay out of the line on which officers were advancing through the park on May 1, 2007.”
But “attorneys for the journalists argued during the trial that police violated their constitutional rights in a manner that drew the ire of the mayor and police chief.”
N.Y. Times Reporter: I Quit Over Colleague’s Israel Ties
Palestinian journalist Taghreed El-Khodary said she had to quit being a New York Times correspondent in the Gaza Strip after it was confirmed that Times’ Jerusalem bureau chief Ethan Bronner’s son joined the Israeli Defense Forces, student blogger Alex Kane wrote Thursday. His item was picked up by mondoweiss.net, a project of the Nation Institute.
El-Khodary’s comments came during a June 23 panel discussion at the Washington, D.C.-based Palestine Center, Kane wrote. The Palestine Center published an edited transcript and video.
In response to a question about Bronner from the Palestine Note’s Jared Malsin, a Jewish journalist deported from Israel, Kane reported, “El-Khodary said she had to leave the Times because she feared losing her sources and her life after the revelation about Bronner‚Äôs son. She said:
” ‘I have succeeded to be considered a very critical journalist on the ground, and I don‚Äôt want to lose that. If Ethan‚Äôs son joined the Israeli army, OK it‚Äôs his issue. If The New York Times decided to keep him there, OK, they took a decision. But I took a decision too. I mean, you‚Äôre not going to report this. It‚Äôs fine, but it‚Äôs not a new story, it‚Äôs old now. And I decided, because I don‚Äôt want to lose my sources, and I don‚Äôt want to lose my life, and I don‚Äôt want him to lose his life, so it‚Äôs as simple as that. So, I came out with that decision because it‚Äôs important to keep my sources.
“It‚Äôs a challenge, and I don‚Äôt want to lose it. I don‚Äôt want to be tainted like ‚Äòthe one who writes for someone that has a son in the army‚Äô ‚Äî I don‚Äôt want, I don‚Äôt need that. Already there are many challenges around you and you don‚Äôt want to add another one. It‚Äôs not worth it.’
“El-Khodary talked about the difficulties of being a reporter in Gaza, saying that being a Palestinian journalist, even if you work for Reuters or AP [Associated Press] or The New York Times, Israel will never give you access to the West Bank or to Israel.
“She also said that when it came to reporting on Gaza for the Times, you need the Israeli narrative in the story.‚Äù
Then-New York Times Public Editor Clark Hoyt recommended in February that Bronner be reassigned; but Executive Editor Bill Keller defended Bronner and said Bronner would remain Jerusalem bureau chief.
El-Khodary is now a scholar at the Middle East Program at Washington’s Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. Her last Times byline appeared in November.
Michael Paul Williams of the Richmond Times-Dispatch accepts the 2010 George Mason Award from Bonnie Newman Davis, center, and Nicole McMullin, president of the Virginia Pro Chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists. (Credit: Jessica Seaman/Virginia Pro SPJ)
Surviving the Days When Black Reporters Were “Traitors”
“To say receiving the George Mason award wasn‚Äôt on my radar is an understatement,” Williams said, recounting his speech in the Richmond (Va.) Times-Dispatch.
“Perhaps a dozen years ago, Richmond Magazine readers voted me as the reporter ‘Who makes you want to tear up the newspaper.’ I assume it was a landslide.
“To my disappointment, I did not subsequently receive the ‘Reporter who makes you want to smash your laptop’ award. In fact, Richmond magazine readers later voted me as best reporter. That made me wonder: Had they changed, or had I?
“I was equally proud of being voted best reporter and the reporter who makes you want to become a human paper-shredder. But I must say, I‚Äôm most proud of the George Mason Award.
“I came into this profession 28 years ago, without much of a clue. The profession had found me, but I hadn‚Äôt found myself or my place in journalism.
“I could hammer out perfectly serviceable copy filled with the 5 Ws and the H. But the S ‚Äì the soul ‚Äì was missing. What was I doing here?
“I started my career at the Richmond Times-Dispatch at a time when black reporters were still viewed as a liability. I remember reading as much during an anonymous survey of colleagues who said we weren‚Äôt up to the prevailing standards.
“I‚Äôd leave the newsroom pen and pad in hand and venture into the black community I vowed to give voice to, only to be treated like a traitor.
“Richmond Times-Disgrace, I heard, again and again. I thought it was ironic that so many people held me in contempt for wanting to tell their story. . . .”
Williams successfully pitched himself to editors as the newspaper’s first African American columnist and went on to relate his experiences earning love from some readers and insults from others.
He also said, “We have become far too preoccupied with forecasting our impending doom, and that robs our industry of the energy and passion our readers and subjects need. We must refocus on our job as watchdog, storyteller and all-around resource. We must believe in ourselves. If we don‚Äôt, who will?”
N.Y. Times Somalia Correspondent Flees After Death Threats
“A Somali correspondent for the New York Times, Mohammed Ibrahim, told IPI by phone on Thursday that he had fled the country following death threats and attempted arrest by government security forces,” the International Press Institute reported on Friday from Vienna, Austria.
“On 15 June, the New York Times ran an article headlined “Children Carry Guns for a U.S. Ally, Somalia,” under the byline of the newspaper‚Äôs East Africa bureau chief, Jeffrey Gettleman. The piece included information from interviews conducted by Mohammed Ibrahim with child soldiers.
“The Somali government has since denied that its army employs child soldiers.
“In a later New York Times article, foreign backers of Somalia expressed concern over the allegations.
“In response, the Somali government began hunting down anyone involved in the child soldier piece, said Omar Faruk Osman, who heads the National Union of Somali Journalists ‚Äî for which Ibrahim also works.
Members of the Somali security services began contacting Ibrahim shortly after the story ran, he told IPI. He received an email from the director of communications at Villa Somalia, the presidential palace, asking him to appear for a meeting with security chiefs. The communications director assured Ibrahim that he would not be harmed.
” ‘It was like a trick,’ Ibrahim said. He never showed up.”
- Committee to Protect Journalists: Somali government harassing journalists as fighting rages
Indian-Americans Say Time Satire Missed the Mark
“On the last page of the most recent issue of Time magazine is a column that has many people in Edison ‚Äî and elsewhere ‚Äî fuming,” Brent Johnson wrote Friday for the Star-Ledger in Newark, N.J.
“In the piece, ‘My Own Private India,’ Time humor columnist Joel Stein writes about how Edison, his hometown, has transformed from a mostly white suburb to one of the largest Indian communities in the United States.
” ‘I am very much in favor of immigration everywhere in the U.S. except Edison, N.J.,’ the column begins.
“Time says the piece is satirical. Even critics say they understand the column was meant to be a humorous take on someone coming to grips with the changing cultural face of his hometown.
“But the column has drawn fire from Indian-American organizations and bloggers, and infuriated officials in Edison, where Indians number about one-fifth of the town‚Äôs 100,000 population. Critics say the piece panders to stereotypes. . . .
“Edison, the state‚Äôs fifth-largest town, has seen its Asian-American population triple since 1990. It‚Äôs now lined [with] Indian restaurants and shops.
“Stein writes that he did enjoy many of these changes: ‘better restaurants, friends who were dorky enough to play Dungeons & Dragons with me.’ But after he left, ‘the town became a maze of charmless Indian strip malls and housing developments.’
“He also jokes that when the influx of Indians started in town, ‘we all assumed Indians were geniuses.’
” ‘Then, in the 1980s, the doctors and engineers brought over their merchant cousins, and we were no longer sure about the genius thing,’ he writes. ‘In the 1990s, the not-so-brilliant merchants brought their even less-bright cousins, and we started to understand why India is so damn poor.'”
A July 2 statement appended to the story says, “I truly feel stomach-sick that I hurt so many people. I was trying to explain how, as someone who believes that immigration has enriched American life and my hometown in particular, I was shocked that I could feel a tiny bit uncomfortable with my changing town when I went to visit it. If we could understand that reaction, we‚Äôd be better equipped to debate people on the other side of the immigration issue.”
James Wells Champney’s 1856 painting of Crispus Attucks’ death in the Boston Massacre of 1770.
On Fox News, a Revolutionary Choice for Colonial Hero
The request from guest host Major Garrett on the July 4 edition of “Fox News Sunday” was that each panelist name his or her hero of the revolutionary era.
The guests were Bill Kristol of the Weekly Standard, Nina Easton of Fortune magazine, Stephen Hayes of the Weekly Standard and Juan Williams of Fox News and National Public Radio.
With the late Thurgood Marshall back in the news via the Elena Kagan Supreme Court confirmation hearings, it was easy to recall what the first black Supreme Court justice said during the 200th anniversary celebration of the Constitution in 1987 when the nine justices were invited to attend a reenactment of the Founding Fathers’ deliberations. Marshall refused to go, later telling an interviewer, “If you are going to do what you did 200 years ago, somebody is going to give me short pants and a tray so I can serve coffee.”
Heroes? Kristol named Alexander Hamilton; Easton chose George Washington; Hayes picked James Madison.
Then Garrett turned to Williams, the only African American on the panel, and one who is often critical of black leaders.
“I picked Crispus Attucks, the first martyr of the Revolutionary War, a black man who, you know, responded to the call from Sam Adams to protest the British presence at the customs house in Boston. [He] told his fellow revolutionaries, ‘Don’t be afraid,’ and led the fight and was the first to die in the Revolutionary War,” Williams said.
“And the idea that he, a former slave, would stand for American independence and American principles ‚Äî gosh, I can’t think of someone who better personifies the American idea of freedom for all.”
Attucks’ father was said to be African; his mother Indian, possibly Natick Indian.
Concluding, Garrett went with Jefferson.
- Javier E. David, theGrio.com: Why blacks should embrace the red, white and blue
- Deron Snyder, theRoot.com: Right-Wingers Aren’t the Only Patriots
Is Google Experiment Fair to Seekers of Diversity?
In an experimental new section on Google News called Editors’ Picks, discovered by the Nieman Journalism Lab, “Google is offering a dozen or so news organizations the opportunity to prominently display their top links on the popular news page,” as Brad Stone wrote last month for the New York Times.
“The program can only be viewed by a small subset of Google users. The partners in the program include Reuters, The Washington Post, Newsday, Slate, BBC News, Computer World, US Magazine, The Atlantic and Fast Company, said Chris Gaither, a Google spokesman. These companies are not paying to participate.”
The links from those publications will appear on a rotating basis. So when someone visits Google News, they might see five ‘Editors’ Picks’ links from Slate toward the top of the page. When they visit the page again a few minutes later, they will then see the top links of one of the other media partners.”
Fair to seekers of media diversity? David Honig, who heads the Minority Media Telecommunications Council, thinks not.
“Google News has built its reputation on ‘serendipity’ ‚Äî the selection of news items by a computer algorithm,” he told Journal-isms on Monday via e-mail.
“But now, in its experiment with editor-driven news, Google has introduced the very cultural bias that its computer news-selection algorithm had avoided. Why would Google draw from US Magazine but not the far more serious Ebony Magazine? The Washington Post but not El Diario? BBC News but not AURN? Fast Company and Computer World but not BlackWeb2.0?
“Foreign and technical media made the cut ‚Äî but not one U.S. minority publication, and not one minority editor-in-chief.
“So much for the argument that search engines are transparent or are ‘net neutral’ to the benefit of minorities.
“Three generations of history have taught us how this is going to turn out. Journalism is still burdened by the exclusion of minorities from radio news in 1920, television news in 1949, and cable news in 1979. Once minority exclusion begins, the expectations of incumbency kick in. Incumbents mentor and hire from their social and family networks ‚Äî that‚Äôs how homogeneous staffs replicate themselves across generations. It takes years for minorities to catch up ‚Äî if they ever do. Maybe the Internet will turn out differently ‚Äî we all hoped. But it won‚Äôt be easy.
“Our grandchildren will be fighting for digital media civil rights, just like we‚Äôre still fighting for analog media civil rights and print media civil rights.”
Gaither told Journal-isms, “We just rolled out the experiment with a small set of publishers and to a small set of our users. We’ll gather data and feedback before making any decisions about whether to expand the experiment. Should it prove successful, our hope is that we can make this available to all users and publishers, but I don’t have a timeline for that yet.”
- Jeremy W. Peters, New York Times: At Yahoo, Using Searches to Steer News Coverage
“Destination Freedom” was a weekly, half-hour radio drama highlighting the accomplishments of noteworthy African Americans. Written by African American journalist and dramatist Richard Durham, above, it premiered on NBC/WMAQ in Chicago on Jan. 27, 1948, and ran for two years. It was part of “DuSable to Obama: Chicago’s Black Metropolis.”
Critics See Deeper Problem in Chicago Public TV Cuts
The good news is that “DuSable to Obama: Chicago’s Black Metropolis,” an original documentary filled with stories of African Americans and their descendants who lived the history, struggles and triumphs of everyday existence in Chicago, was a smashing success for Chicago’s public television station, WTTW.
The bad news is that WTTW implemented a staff reduction after the show that hit two African Americans ‚Äî Shaunese Teamer, a 22-year veteran of the station who was manager of community outreach and national publicity, and Andre Jones, who works in information technology. Colleagues say Teamer generated much of the money and community support that made “DuSable to Obama” successful.
Twelve positions are being eliminated, and about 25 people are taking early retirement, Joanie Bayhack, senior vice president of corporate communications and direct marketing, told Journal-isms. “It’s not based on performance,” she said of those chosen for layoffs, but on which functions could be redistributed.
Chicago media observers saw a bigger problem.
“WTTW-TV/Channel 11 CEO Daniel Schmidt blames a state funding cut for the station’s decision to ax 12% of its staff this month,” Lynne Marek wrote in Crain’s Chicago Business. “The Chicago PBS outlet faces a more fundamental problem, however: attracting viewers in a digital era that’s bombarding them with options.
“WTTW’s monthly viewership has declined almost every year since 2005, dropping 12% over the period. The decline came as the station added three separate channels following a 2004 digital overhaul.”
Television writer Robert Feder wrote, “To suggest that these layoffs can be made ‘without jeopardizing the quality of our content’ is ludicrous. “And if the loss of corporate underwriting and state funding, which were the reasons cited for the cuts, came as such a surprise to Schmidt & Co., what does that say about their competence and foresight as managers?”
Short Takes
- In a rare appearnace by a Hispanic journalist on the English-language Sunday talk shows, anchor Jorge Ramos of the Spanish-language Univision network joined the opinion panel Sunday on ABC’s “This Week.” Ramos, author of “A Country for All, an Immigrant Manifesto,” discussed President Obama’s speech on immigration, but his thick accent proved a distraction. Adding to the panel’s diversity was Cynthia Tucker of the Atlanta Journal-Constituion.
- A small Tennessee-based newspaper has become the center of a free speech firestorm after it was banned from a grocery store chain and a KFC for allegedly publishing ‘hate’ speech, Diane Macedo reported for FoxNews.com. “The Rutherford Reader, a family owned and operated business, runs feature columns of local interest, many of which lately have related to controversy surrounding a mosque being built in Rutherford County.”
- “A Venezuelan journalist who has been held for two years without a trial reported he has gone on a hunger strike, saying he wants the judge in his case to recuse himself,” CNN.com reported. “Leocenis Garcia made the announcement June 30 on Twitter.”
- Philip P. Pan, Moscow bureau chief for the Washington Post, “is leaving The Post after 15 years. He will move to Hong Kong to pursue other opportunities there, including another book,” Post editors announced last week. “Phil is the author of ‘Out of Mao’s Shadow,’ a powerful, memorable and award-winning book that was a product of his previous foreign tour, in Beijing. He began his Post career as an intern in 1995 and took up his post in Moscow in September 2008.”
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