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Writers Tweet From Bombing: “Damn Scary”

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Right-Wingers Bash Obama’s Sympathy for Ugandans

Pius Njawe Death Makes Virginian-Pilot Front Page

NAACP Stirs Pot With Resolution on Tea Party

Rush Limbaugh Gets Racial on Steinbrenner Death

SI Cover Switches From LeBron to Steinbrenner for iPad

State Dept. “Not Familiar” With Denial of Nieman Visa

Through Journalism, Teen Dealt With Racial Frustrations

Reporter’s Push Played Key Role in Serial-Killing Arrest

Short Takes

Right-Wingers Bash Obama’s Sympathy for Ugandans

“Since the beginning of Somalia’s Islamist extremist insurgency, the Al-Shabaab militia has targeted journalists and others that it considers opposed to its goals,” Tom Rhodes and Mohamed Hassim Keita wrote Tuesday for the Committee to Protect Journalists. “Al-Shabaab is now reaching beyond Somalia’s borders, as the group claimed responsibility for two bomb attacks Sunday evening that rocked Uganda’s capital, Kampala, and left an estimated 74 people dead, including radio presenter,” or host,  “Stephen Tinkamanyire.

“Tinkamanyire had gone to Kyadondo Rugby Club . . . to emcee a World Cup viewing event sponsored by his media company New Vision. An explosion hit the club just as Spain and the Netherlands went into extra time, shortly after another blast had hit Ethiopia Village, a restaurant in the Kampala suburbs, where customers were also watching the match. Tinkamanyire, a part-time presenter for local radio station Vision Voice, fell unconscious and was taken to a local hospital, New Vision reporter Norman Katende told CPJ. Tinkamanyire died from his injuries at around noon on Monday, another victim in what some are calling Uganda’s 7/11 terrorist attacks.

“Ugandan journalists, bloggers, and citizen journalists who witnessed the bombings expressed their shock in real-time on social networking sites like Twitter. Albert Ahabe, a local sports journalist, had been tweeting about the World Cup and the [LeBron] James free agency @tragicanon until he wrote to his followers on Monday morning ‘Hey tweeps, am back, had to deal with seeing peeps die just next to me and having human flesh and blood on my clothes, damn scary!’ Stone Atwine, another journalist tweeting @StoneAtwine reassured a friend about his well-being: ‘I did sleep but I think my ears are still messed up from the sound of the explosions.’ Other journalists like Mark Keith Muhumuza (@mumakeith) relayed emergency info: ‘blood shortage being reported in Mulago. In case you want to donate, there is a blood bank in Nakasero.’ Trevor Snapp, a Kampala-based photojournalist (@20yof) shared a slideshow of photographs taken after the blasts.”

President Obama, discussing the blast in an interview Tuesday with South African Broadcasting Corp., said, “What you’ve seen in some of the statements that have been made by these terrorist organizations is that they do not regard African life as valuable in and of itself.

“On the one hand, you have a vision of an Africa on the move, an Africa that is unified, an Africa that is modernizing and creating opportunities; and on the other hand, you’ve got a vision of al Qaeda and Al Shabaab that is about destruction and death. And I think it presents a pretty clear contrast in terms of the future that most Africans want for themselves and their children. And we need to make sure that we are doing everything we can to support those who want to build, as opposed to want to destroy.”

Right-wingers found an opening, according to Greg Sargent, blogging Wednesday on the Washington Post website:

“Some on the right are on a tear because President Obama allegedly said Al Qaeda kills Africans because the organization is ‘racist.’

“The hint here is that Obama cares more about black victims of terror than about white ones. Get it? It’s the latest version of GOP Rep Steve King’s recent claim that Obama has a ‘default mechanism’ that leads him to ‘favor the black person.’

“Drudge is on the case. Commentary decried ‘Obama’s race obsession.’ And Right Wing News proclaimed: ‘Obama Finally Finds A Reason To Hate Al Qaeda.’ “

Pius Njawe Death Makes Virginian-Pilot Front Page

The death of African journalist Pius Njawe Monday in a traffic accident in Virginia’s Hampton Roads area was front-page news in the Virginian-Pilot of Norfolk, though it was simply a “regional briefs” item in the Daily Press in nearby Newport News.

“I don’t think when the traffic accident happened that we knew who he was,” Nelson Brown, the Pilot’s news editor, told Journal-isms. “Within 24 hours, we knew that he was a pretty distinguished journalist from Cameroon. That just was a little unusual, that here in our town this fellow would come to meet his end.

“It was an unusual death” and editors thought it would be “a story our readers would find interesting and talk about,” Brown said. “It was like, once we realized who he was, it was like, ‘oh.’ We need to be sure we fill in the blanks” for readers. The one-column story ran on the lower left-hand side of the page.

As reported Tuesday, Njawe, 53, was in the United States attending a conference at Howard University of the Cameroonian Diaspora for Change (CAMDIAC). He was a passenger in a sedan traveling south on I-664 in Virginia when the car was rear-ended by a flat-bed tractor-trailer.

Njawe was much honored as a press-freedom advocate and said he had been arrested 126 times and served prison time on three occasions.

Tributes continued on Wednesday. “This man who has just died was a real icon, an icon for press freedom. I am extremely saddened by his death,” said Jean-Fran?ßois Julliard, secretary general of the Paris-based Reporters Without Borders.

Ernie Gates, editor of the Daily Press in Newport News, about 20 miles away from the crash site, said its coverage of the story was dictated by proximity to the scene.

“Hampton Roads is split into two distinct circulation and coverage zones between the Daily Press and the Pilot, and the crash was in a part of the region where we don’t circulate,” he told Journal-isms by e-mail. “We devote our front page to local stories, and we put that story inside in a package of regional briefs ‚Äî the same place we put the Pilot’s dominant front-page story today about the recall of a mayor in one of the cities they cover (but we don’t).

“In addition, we cleared out a lot of local newshole for the big, breaking local news last night about the possible sale of the shipyard that dominates the local economy, so even the regional briefs package was under space pressure. I’m glad we got the Njawe story in. I doubt we’ll pursue it further in the local news section.”

As of Wednesday, it appeared that no big-city U.S. newspapers reported Njawe’s death.

NAACP Stirs Pot With Resolution on Tea Party

“The NAACP passed a resolution Tuesday calling on all people ‚Äî including tea party leaders ‚Äî to condemn racism within the tea party movement,” Judy L. Thomas and Matt Campbell reported for the Kansas City Star.

“The measure passed overwhelmingly on the fourth day of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People‚Äôs annual convention in Kansas City.

“Delegates said, however, that they wanted to make it clear the resolution wasn‚Äôt intended to indict the entire tea party movement as racist. The resolution was amended to include the word ‘some’ tea party supporters.

“Nonetheless, the response from tea parties was sharp and swift.

“Many denied the existence of racism in their ranks, and the St. Louis Tea Party Coalition passed a resolution of its own, calling the NAACP resolution ‘a gutter tactic of attempting to silence opponents by inflammatory name-calling.’ “

The movement, however, reaped a wave of negative publicity when the North Iowa Tea Party put up a billboard depicting President Obama next to Adolf Hitler and Vladimir Lenin.

Columnists also weighed in:

Rush Limbaugh Gets Racial on Steinbrenner Death

“Rush Limbaugh had his own view of George Steinbrenner,” the Associated Press reported.

” ‘That cracker made a lot of African-American millionaires,’ the radio commentator said Tuesday on his show after the New York Yankees owner died at age 80. ‘He fired a bunch of white guys as managers left and right.’

“Rev. Al Sharpton called Limbaugh’s statements ‘repugnant and offensive whether they were intended to be facetious or tongue and cheek.’ “

Columnists had their own perspectives on Steinbrenner.

SI Cover Switches From LeBron to Steinbrenner for iPad

“So far, most magazine publishers have tried hard to make their iPad editions a faithful translation of their paper-and-ink copies: What you pay for at the newsstand is the same thing you get from Apple‚Äôs . . . iTunes store, with some added bells and whistles,” Peter Kafka wrote Wednesday for All Things Digital.

“But they don‚Äôt have to be that way. Case in point: The newest edition of Sports Illustrated. Print readers get a cover featuring LeBron James and his new teammates. But anyone who buys the iPad version will see a cover story on Yankees owner George Steinbrenner, who died this week.

“News of Steinbrenner‚Äôs death broke early Tuesday morning, a half-day after Sports Illustrated‚Äôs conventional issue had gone to the printers. After a relatively quick conversation, says editor Terry McDonell, the magazine staff decided to give the iPad edition a new cover, along with a story by Tom Verducci.”

Meanwhile, GQ has scored James for its September cover, Amy Wicks reported for Women’s Wear Daily.

State Dept. “Not Familiar” With Denial of Nieman Visa

As protests from journalist groups mounted about the denial of a visa to Colombian journalist Hollman Morris to accept a Nieman fellowship at Harvard University, a State Department spokesman said at a media briefing he had no knowledge of the case.

According to a transcript of Tuesday’s briefing, a reporter said to Assistant Secretary Philip J. Crowley:

“I’d like to follow up on a story that came up in the papers a couple days ago about this Colombian journalist, Hollman Morris, who was denied a visa, apparently, to do a fellowship at Harvard under terrorism concerns under the Patriot Act. There’s ‚Äî the National Association of Hispanic Journalists is asking that decision be repealed. There’s some concern that his criticism of the Uribe government led him to be blacklisted. There’s some pressure from the Colombian government. I’m wondering if you have anything to say about that.”

Crowley replied, “Let me take the question. I’m not familiar with that particular case.”

Robert H. Giles, curator of the Nieman program, wrote an op-ed piece on the Morris case that appeared Wednesday in the Los Angeles Times.

The International Federation of Journalists and Unity: Journalists of Color  [PDF] are among the latest groups to protest the visa denial.

Through Journalism, Teen Dealt With Racial Frustrations

Aimee LaPlant, 18, enters her freshman year this fall at the University of Missouri-Columbia, where she hopes to major in convergence journalism and report through multiple forms of media. She is an intern at the State Journal-Register in Springfield, Ill.

“Since I was adopted from China, I have experienced racial discrimination throughout my life,” she wrote in an essay published this month on the website of the PBS “NewsHour.”

“It became even worse when my parents stopped homeschooling me and placed me in public school. I was embarrassed that some people could not accept me for the way I am. In fact, I hated being Chinese and wanted to be white, like my parents. I ate lunch alone with my sister Ma Cai, who is also adopted from China. I was depressed and bitter for the first two years of high school and hated almost everything about life.

“At the beginning of my junior year, I had the opportunity to join The Voice, a section of The State Journal-Register written by teens. The experience gave me the chance to deal with these frustrations as I realized the importance of good journalism and the dangers of stereotypes and skewed reporting. . . .

“When I break more into the journalism field, I would definitely love to work with some type of media devoted to promoting diversity. For the most part, my reporting will hopefully keep people more informed about different societies.”

Reporter’s Push Played Key Role in Serial-Killing Arrest

“How deep did reporter Christine Pelisek get into the Grim Sleeper serial killer case?” media writer James Rainey asked rhetorically Wednesday in the Los Angeles Times.

“So deep that the victims’ families demanded she sit in on one mass meeting with police. So deep that people she had never met delivered hunches and, in one case, a napkin smeared with a semen sample. So deep that the mystery figure killing young black women in South Los Angeles seemed to pop up everywhere, even in her dreams.

“When police finally identified and arrested Lonnie David Franklin Jr. last week in connection with a string of 10 killings dating to the 1980s, the credit went largely to an innovation that allowed criminals to be tracked through their relatives’ DNA.

“An inherently inquisitive Canadian with a knack for winning the trust of people unlike herself, Pelisek pushed to get authorities to tell her about their suspicion that the killings of seven young women in the 1980s might be connected to a skein of new deaths that began in 2002.

“The reporter battled and succeeded in getting hesitant Los Angeles police investigators to drop the veil of secrecy around their work and acknowledge their hunt for a suspect Pelisek described as ‘a monstrous phoenix.’ Her resulting story in summer 2008 spread the word to poor and working-class residents of South L.A. about the menace lingering in their community.”

Short Takes

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