Michael Days Stays, William Marimow Demoted in Philly
Nobel Literature Winner Is Also Newspaper Columnist
E-Mails Released on Sherrod Case Provide No Smoking Gun
Dobbs on Defensive After Nation Piece Charging Hypocrisy
Tamron Hall Hosting Afternoon Political Show on MSNBC
Steve Forbes, Washington Post Defend Running D’Souza
Rogers Plans Community Outreach to Boost Jet, Ebony
Philadelphia Daily News reporters Barbara Laker, left, and Wendy Ruderman, and Daily News Editor Michael Days react in April to the news of their Pulitzer Prize for investigative work. (Credit: Sarah J. Glover/Philadelphia Daily News)
Michael Days Stays, William Marimow Demoted in Philly
Michael Days will “absolutely” remain editor of the Philadelphia Daily News, the new owner told Journal-isms on Friday, even though his counterpart at the Philadelphia Inquirer, William K. Marimow, is being demoted.
“Michael and I have had lots of conversations,” said Gregory J. Osberg, chief executive officer for Philadelphia Media Network Inc., the new owner of the Inquirer, the Daily News, and the website Philly.com.
“I’ve found him to be creative,” good with his staff and “very open to experimentation with respect to how philly.com and the Daily News can operate in an integrated operation,” Osberg said.
Days, 57, a Philadelphia native, is among the handful of African American top editors at daily newspapers. A Philadelphia native, he joined the newspaper more than 20 years ago and was named editor in 2005. This year, two Daily News reporters, Barbara Laker and Wendy Ruderman, won the 2010 Pulitzer Prize for investigative reporting for a series on allegedly corrupt narcotics cops.
The new owner said Thursday that Marimow will remain on the staff as a reporter.
“The company’s new management told Marimow that despite his national reputation as an outstanding print journalist, he did not have the background in digital media necessary to lead the paper going forward,” Christopher K. Hepp wrote in the Inquirer.
“Marimow, 63, a two-time Pulitzer Prize winner, will continue at The Inquirer as an investigative reporter.
“Stan Wischnowski, The Inquirer’s deputy managing editor/operations and vice president for shared services, was named acting editor. He will be among the candidates to fill the open position, said Gregory J. Osberg, chief executive officer for Philadelphia Media Network Inc., the new owner of The Inquirer, the Philadelphia Daily News, and the website Philly.com.
“The demotion of Marimow and appointment of Wischnowski came as Philadelphia Media Network prepared to finally take control of the local media company.
“Philadelphia Media Network, owned by 32 financial institutions, purchased the papers and website at auction Sept. 23. The new company emerges from a 20-month bankruptcy Friday.
“Osberg said there were other executive-level dismissals Thursday. They included Richard Thayer, executive vice president for finance, and Scott Baker, general counsel.”
Marimow’s name has appeared in this column largely in connection with a dispute with sports columnist Stephen A. Smith. Marimow kept Smith out of the paper for two years after demoting him from sports columnist to general assignment reporter and Smith, eventually backed by an arbitrator, refused to accept the demotion. Marimow thought Smith was making too much money at $225,000 a year. Smith finally left the paper in June by mutual agreement. He did not respond to messages Friday.
- Brian P. Tierney, Philadelphia Media Holdings: Notes on the end of an era
- Philadelphia Newspapers and Philly.com Successfully Emerge From Bankruptcy (News release)
Nobel Literature Winner Is Also Newspaper Columnist
“Peruvian novelist Mario Vargas Llosa — author of some of the most celebrated literature in Latin America and a beloved figure in Miami, a city he has often visited — won the Nobel Prize for Literature on Thursday,’ as Fabiola Santiago SANTIAGO wrote Thursday for the Miami Herald.
“In elegant and clear prose, Vargas Llosa chronicled the machinations of power and the powerful in Latin America in narratives that engrossed readers in the most intimate details of a character’s life.”
Nina Larson of Agence France-Presse added, “Unlike other literary figures who seek to avoid the limelight, Vargas Llosa embraces contemporary affairs with gusto. He writes regularly for newspapers and magazines, and travels frequently for research and to deliver lectures. . . .
“Early on he became a journalist, moving to France in 1959 where he worked as a language teacher and as a journalist for Agence France-Presse as well as for French television before establishing his reputation as an author.”
Santiago wrote on Friday, “Vargas Llosa received an honorary degree from Florida International University in 1990 and taught a humanities course for graduate students in 1991. His son, Alvaro, also lived in Miami and was El Nuevo Herald’s editorial page editor.
He quoted Eduardo Gamarra, a politics and international relations professor at FIU: ” ‘Vargas Llosa’s books are really shrewd and sophisticated political analysis,’ said Gamarra, whose FIU office was next to Vargas Llosa’s. ‘He moved from his origins as an analyst on the left of center to the most intellectually coherent perspective on the right in the world today; profoundly democratic but firmly on the right.’
“Gamarra pointed to Vargas Llosa’s column in Madrid’s El País on Sunday as an example of the shift.
” ‘His criticisms of Chávez and Castro are not knee-jerk,’ Gamarra said, referring to Hugo Chavez of Venezuela and Fidel Castro of Cuba. ” ‘They are intellectual indictments with a profoundly theoretical base.'”
- Committee to Protect Journalists: China seeks to block news of Liu’s Nobel
E-Mails Released on Sherrod Case Provide No Smoking Gun
Hundreds of pages of e-mails released to at least three news organizations under the Freedom of Information Act show that Obama administration officials knew they did not have all the facts last summer when they rushed to dismiss Shirley Sherrod from the Agriculture Department after learning of a video that painted her as a bigot.
But the e-mails, reported Friday by the Los Angeles Times/Tribune Washington bureau, the Associated Press and Salon.com, provide no smoking gun.
“The e-mails, some of which were redacted by the Agriculture Department, do not show whether the White House ordered the dismissal, long a point of speculation,” Peter Nicholas and Kathleen Hennessey of Tribune Washington Bureau wrote.
“Sherrod has said that when department Deputy Undersecretary Cheryl Cook called and asked her to resign, Cook told her the White House wanted her out, but USDA and White House officials have said the decision was made within the agency.
“However, the e-mails suggest the White House was watching with interest. ‘Just wanted you to know that this dismissal came up at our morning senior staff meeting today,’ Christopher Lu, who serves as Obama’s liaison to the Cabinet, wrote to top Agriculture officials early July 20, the morning after Sherrod was ousted. ‘Everyone complimented USDA on how quickly you took this action,’ he wrote, adding that it would stop an ‘unpleasant story’ from getting ‘traction.’ ‘Thanks for the great efforts.’
“Within the USDA, the messages show, government officials had moved at breakneck pace to try to beat the news cycle, leaving little time to ask questions, seek legal advice or consider Sherrod’s side of the story.”
“There’s no doubt that the reported $6 million a year Dobbs raked in while bashing undocumented immigrants at CNN has helped him amass real estate and boosted his family’s profile in the elite world of horse shows,” the Nation asked about Lou Dobbs. “But without undocumented immigrants, just who would look after Dobbs’s properties?” (Video)
Dobbs on Defensive After Nation Piece Charging Hypocrisy
“Lou Dobbs defended himself Thursday after a Nation magazine article claimed that the vocal critic of illegal immigration has relied on undocumented immigrant labor on his properties, including stables where the Dobbs Group owns horses,” Michael Calderone reported for Yahoo News.
“On his radio program, Dobbs slammed the Nation’s one-year investigation as ‘a fairly typical hit piece’ and a ‘smear piece’ before speaking with its author, Isabel Macdonald. He also described the liberal political magazine as a ‘left-wing activist attack publication.’
“During the interview with Macdonald, the former CNN host repeatedly asked her if he or his company had ever hired illegal immigrants. ‘The truth is,’ he said at one point, ‘I have never, nor has the Dobbs Group, at any time, hired an illegal immigrant.’
“Macdonald acknowledged that Dobbs himself hadn’t, but countered that illegal workers tended to his grounds and looked after his show horses for four years. She claimed that the contractors and trainers whom Dobbs hired then employed illegal workers.”
“Lou Dobbs is under siege, taking to news shows ranging from ‘Good Morning America’ to MSNBC’s new ‘The Last Word with Lawrence O’Donnell‘,” Ken Tucker reported Friday for Entertainment Weekly.
- Isabel Macdonald, the Nation: Lou Dobbs, American Hypocrite
- Marisa Trevino, Latina Lista blog: Revelation about Lou Dobbs underscores reality in U.S. economy that can’t be ignored any longer
Tamron Hall Hosting Afternoon Political Show on MSNBC
Tamron Hall is hosting a new hourlong political news show, “NewsNation” on MSNBC starting Monday at 2 p.m., becoming the only journalist of color hosting a show on the cable network.
“We recently added Richard Lui to our list of anchors, but he is reporting for Chris Jansing’s show, “Jansing and Co.,” so it’s not technically his. Martin Bashir will also be starting his own show at some point, but it will not likely be for a couple of months,” MSNBC spokeswoman Weesie Vieira told Journal-isms on Friday.
“Her new show will feature in-depth coverage of the day’s biggest political news, as well as interviews with pundits and policy-makers,” an announcement said. ” Hall has been with msnbc since July of 2007, where she has served as an anchor on our dayside programming, host of a 2009 Dateline series titled, ‘You Might Be Rich,’ and has filled in for Ann Curry and other anchors on NBC’s TODAY.”
“Her new show will feature in-depth coverage of the day’s biggest political news, as well as interviews with pundits and policy-makers.”
Steve Forbes, Washington Post Defend Running D’Souza
“Steve Forbes, editor-in-chief of Forbes magazine, defended the controversial article by Dinesh D’Souza that wrongly reported numerous facts, has drawn criticism from even one Forbes columnist, and required two corrections after the fact,” Joe Strupp reported Friday for Media Matters for America.
“Speaking to Media Matters for America late Thursday, Forbes said the article’s essential analysis was correct and the post-publication corrections were not a big deal. . . .
“At issue was D’Souza’s claim in the Sept. 9 cover story that President Obama’s policies should be understood as a manifestation of his African father’s ‘hatred of the colonial system.’ Forbes had said it ‘stands by the story’ and that ‘no facts are in contention,’ but D’Souza’s article contains numerous falsehoods and distortions that Media Matters has revealed.”
The Washington Post published an op-ed piece by D’Souza on Friday.
Asked why, Editorial Page Editor Fred Hiatt replied:
“D’Souza’s theory has sparked a great deal of commentary, from potential presidential candidates as well as from commentators on our own pages. Here are links to some of the criticism we have published:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/09/13/AR201009 1305307.html
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/09/20/AR201009 2004256.html
http://voices.washingtonpost.com/postpartisan/2010/09/how_gingrich_think s.html
“Under those circumstances, I thought Post readers, many of whom may not read Forbes magazine, might welcome a chance to read and evaluate for themselves what D’Souza is saying.”
- A. Peter Bailey, Washington Informer: Reality Check
Clockwise, from center: Mary J. Blige, Tarji p. Henson, Nia Long, Samuel L. Jackson and Usher appear on Ebony’s 65th anniversary cover.
Rogers Plans Community Outreach to Boost Jet, Ebony
“Johnson Publishing Co.’s new CEO Desiree Rogers plans to reach out to historically black colleges, sororities, fraternities and churches to help reverse the circulation slide of the company’s flagship magazines, Ebony and Jet http://www.chicagobusiness.com/article/20101004/NEWS06/101009968 ,” Lynne Marek reported Monday for Crain’s Chicago Business.
“ ‘I’m going to go to the community — I’m going to go direct,” Ms. Rogers said in an interview following a speech to the American Magazine Conference in Chicago.
“Currently, the average age of a Jet reader is 37; the average age for Ebony is 41. Ms. Rogers wants content of the magazines to expand their appeal to younger readers by incorporating more social media and interactive options, she says.
“Ms. Rogers, who took her post at the Chicago-based media and cosmetic company in June after leaving her job as White House social secretary in February, aims to beef up the iconic African-American magazines’ content, web presence and events. She’ll seek new advertisers at a time when the industry is trying to stem the flow of ad revenue to alternative Internet options.
“She’s already signed up New York-based Citigroup Inc. and Schaumburg-based Motorola Inc. as first-time Johnson advertisers. The company also will roll out an iPad app next week.”
- Betty Winston Bayé, Louisville (Ky.) Courier-Journal: ‘Ebony’ at 65: chronicler of struggle and triumph
Short Takes
- In a Ford Foundation-funded program for journalists of color who want to become entrepreneurs, 16 participants attended two-day “boot camps” over the summer to learn business skills and how to pitch their ideas to a group of mentors and guest financial experts. “Pitches were video recorded, and starting today, UNITY asked members to vote (http://unityjournalists.org/NewU) for the best business concept. Voting will be allowed for two weeks. UNITY alliance partner membership while encouraged, is not required to vote,” Unity: Journalists of Color announced on Tuesday.
- In Chicago, a contract stalemate has led to the cancellation of a television talk show on Tribune Co.-owned CLTV hosted by Garrard McClendon. “Covering topical issues, ‘Garrard McClendon Live’ left the air last week after a run of a little more than two years,” Bob Kostanczuk reported Oct. 1 in the Gary (Ind.) Post-Tribune. “The dismissal of talk-show host Garrard McClendon prompts me to question the media’s commitment to diversity,” Mary Mitchell blogged Tuesday in the Chicago Sun-Times. McClendon was last in Journal-isms when his parents were found shot to death a year ago near Calumet City, Ill.
- “KCET, the Los Angeles PBS member station, has decided to break away from the public broadcasting network and become an independent station,” the Los Angeles Times reported, replacing such PBS shows as “NewsHour” and “Sesame Street” with feature films and news and documentaries from other countries. “The Tavis Smiley Show” is produced at KCET, but the Smiley Group told Journal-isms, “Tavis Smiley” on PBS is independently owned and produced by TS Media, Inc. This decision by KCET in no way interrupts or impacts the ongoing production of the series. We have known of this possibility for some time and we remain committed to PBS and our loyal audience.”
- “Steve Gray, who has performed superbly as the bureau
chief of Assignment Detroit over the past year, will join our Washington team in November, covering politics and policy. Living at our house in Detroit, Steve has been a one-man band of journalistic and managerial roles: correspondent, spokesman, conference planner, and dinner host,” Rick Stengel, Time managing editor, announced to staffers on Thursday. Gray is Time’s sole black correspondent or reporter. A year ago, Time bought a house to provide “flood the zone” coverage of the city with coverage across Time Inc. properties.
- *New MSNBC host Lawrence O’Donnell has issued an apology for a segment earlier this week in which he invoked the imagery of slavery while introducing Michael Steele, the African-American head of the Republican National Committee, EURWeb reported. O’Donnell said, “As the first congressional election during his party chairmanship approaches, Michael Steele is dancing as fast as he can, trying to charm independent voters and tea partiers while never losing sight of his real master and paycheck provider the republican national committee,” according to Betsy Rothstein at Fishbowl DC.
- “Collette Wood, a former journalist and columnist with The Hollywood Reporter who covered theater and television, died Oct. 1 at her home in Desert Hot Springs,
Calif., after a long battle with lung cancer. She was 70,” Mike Barnes reported Wednesday for the Hollywood Reporter. “Wood worked at THR for four years in the 1970s at a time when few African-Americans were covering the arts in Los Angeles and became president of the Hollywood/Beverly Hills chapter of the NAACP.”
- Bobbi Bowman, diversity consultant for the American Society of News Editors, is editor of McLean (Va.) Patch.com hyperlocal website. “They saw what I was doing with the McLean Ear and offered me a job,” she told Journal-isms, speaking of the website she started this year. “I’ll do the same thing.”
- “John H. Bustamante, who worked long hours to boost
minorities in Cleveland and beyond as a lawyer, publisher, lender and leader, died Tuesday,” Grant Segall reported Wednesday for the Cleveland Plain Dealer. “Needing little sleep, he formed First Bank, headed the Call & Post and represented everything from small businesses to Rev. Jesse Jackson’s causes. He chaired Central State University, helped clean up its ledgers and closed it during a riot. He helped lead many businesses and nonprofits.”
- The Institute for Justice and Journalism invites journalists nationwide to apply for its 2011 fellowship program, “Immigration in the Heartland.” Selected Fellows will participate in a weeklong conference in Oklahoma and Texas, starting March 5. The program planbs to explore immigration issues being played out across the nation, including state legislative actions and education and legal topics. Application deadline is Nov. 30.
