Obama Meets With 9 Spanish-Language Reporters at White House
Walt Swanston Wins NABJ’s Ida B. Wells Award
New Owners Keep Sandra Long a V.P. at Philadelphia Newspapers
The nine Spanish-language reporters who met with President Obama at the White House on Tuesday asked questions of concern to a variety of Hispanic constituencies.(Credit: Peter Souza/ White House)
Obama Meets With 9 Spanish-Language Reporters at White House
President Obama, continuing his outreach to core Democratic constituencies. met with Latino journalists at the White House Tuesday and held a conference call with reporters for African American newspapers.
“During the half-hour conversation on Monday, there was concern that the programs in place aren’t reaching the workers who need them most,” Mary C. Curtis wrote of the black-press conference call for Politics Daily. “Though the majority of African-American voters don’t seem to buy the GOP message, it’s not certain that Democrats and the president have closed the deal.”
The meeting with Latino reporters, held in the Roosevelt Room, touched on a variety of topics raised by journalists largely from Spanish-language media: Hernando Amaya of El Tiempo in Las Vegas; Victor Perez of Hoy; Jordi Zamora of Agence France-Presse; Antonieta Cadiz of La Opinion/ImpreMedia; Isabel Morales of El Nuevo Herald in Miami; Luis Alonso of the Associated Press; Ruben Barrera of Notimex, the semi-official Mexican news agency, Macarena Vidal of EFE, the leading Spanish language news agency; and Jose Delgado of El Nuevo Día in Puerto Rico.
The Latino journalists’ took away from the White House meeting news geared toward their individual constituencies. In the Miami Herald, sister paper of El Nuevo Herald, noted that Obama said Cuba must act more swiftly in releasing political prisoners.
The Las Vegas Review-Journal, published in a state where Senate Majority Leader Harry A. Reid, D-Nev., is in a close race with Republican Sharron Angle, quoted Obama on a controversial advertisement that urges Latinos not to vote this year.
“Obama said Latinos who withhold their vote in Nevada would hurt Reid and ‘reward’ Angle, who he said ‘would never vote for immigration reform,'” the Review-Journal reported, noting the presence of Amaya in the White House meeting.
Luis Alonso told Journa-isms he wrote six stories for the AP’s Spanish service.
Univision announced Wednesday that Eddie “Píolin” Sotelo, three-time winner of the Marconi Radio Award, will interview Obama live and in-studio on Monday at 9 a.m. Pacific Time on Univision Radio’s “Piolin for la Mañana.”
Noting this increased activity, Laura Wides-Munoz of the Associated Press reported Wednesday, “Spanish-language networks and publications are taking on a more prominent role this election season, nabbing debates with major candidates and increasingly seeing their political coverage spin out into mainstream English-language media.
“The attention highlights not only the growing influence of Hispanics, the nation’s largest and fastest-growing minority group, but also the power of the companies that provide much of their news.
As an example, Wides-Munoz wrote, “Take recent comments by U.S. Rep. Loretta Sanchez, D-Calif., during a Sunday morning talk show with Spanish-language Univision Network anchor Jorge Ramos.
“Sanchez told viewers her Republican opponent Van Tran, who fled Vietnam as a child, was anti-immigrant and anti-Hispanic. In previous years, those words might have gone unnoticed outside the Spanish-speaking community.
“This year they were picked up by a blogger, replayed on YouTube and seized upon by Republican Party leaders, demonstrating not just the increased influence of Spanish-language media but also how ever-more-powerful social media has made the information it provides easier to disseminate.”
Luis Miranda, White House liaison for Hispanic media, told Journal-isms that “our outreach to Hispanic media has been unprecedented, not recently, but from day one.”
Meanwhile, Darlene Superville the Associated Press, reported on outreach to other groups: “He’ll reach out to women Thursday in Seattle, discussing women and the economy with a female-only audience.
“And next week, Obama will court younger voters and those who don’t rely on traditional media for their news when he takes his campaign message to Comedy Central’s ‘The Daily Show’ with Jon Stewart.”
- Luis Alonso, Associated Press: Obama: Venezuela debe actuar responsablemente
- Luis Alonso, Associated Press: Obama advierte a hispanos sobre posibles retrocesos
- Luis Alonso, Associated Press: Obama no descarta reforma migratoria integral
- Luis Alonso, Associated Press: Obama: Muy pronto para saber futuro de TLC con Colombia y Panamá
- Luis Alonso, Associated Press: Obama requiere más información antes de modificar embargo a Cuba
- Luis Alonso, Associated Press: Obama: Informe de estatus de Puerto Rico incluirá economía
- Charles M. Blow, New York Times: Threat Response
- Mary C. Curtis, Politics Daily: Obama Continues Outreach with Message to Black Newspapers
- Cord Jefferson, theRoot.com: The Root Interview: Valerie Jarrett on Blacks and Obama
- Clarence Page, Chicago Tribune: Can the black vote save the Democrats?
- Kevin Sack, New York Times: Black Turnout Will Be Crucial for Democrats on Election Day
- Michael D. Shear, New York Times: Obama to Appear on “Mythbusters”
- Cynthia Tucker blog, Atlanta Journal-Constitution: Obama tried too hard to work with Republicans
- Lynne K. Varner, Seattle Times: The president gets into campaign mode
- Tonyaa Weathersbee, BlackAmericaWeb.com: Obama Determined to Stay On High Road
- Tonyaa Weathersbee, Florida Times-Union: Obama has faith in essential common sense of Americans
Walt Swanston Wins NABJ’s Ida B. Wells Award
Walterene Swanston, diversity consultant and the retired director of diversity management for NPR, has won the National Association of Black Journalists’ Ida B. Wells Award, NABJ announced on Tuesday.
The award annually honors a media executive who has helped diversify the nation’s newsrooms and improve coverage of people and communities of color
Past Ida B. Wells recipients include Jay T. Harris, former publisher of the San Jose Mercury News, Reginald Stuart, corporate recruiter for Knight Ridder, Steve Capus, president of NBC News, Donald Graham, publisher of the Washington Post, Johnita P. Due, senior counsel and Diversity Council chair of CNN, and Bobbi Bowman, diversity director of the American Society of News Editors.
“She has a decades-long professional track record as a champion of media diversity. For more than 25 years, she has worked with newspapers, television and radio stations to recruit, promote, train and retain people of color and women. Swanston also served as the first executive director of UNITY: Journalists of Color, the joint convention of the Black, Asian, Hispanic and Native American journalism associations,” NABJ said. “She has a decades-long professional track record as a champion of media diversity. For more than 25 years, she has worked with newspapers, television and radio stations to recruit, promote, train and retain people of color and women. Swanston also served as the first executive director of UNITY: Journalists of Color, the joint convention of the Black, Asian, Hispanic and Native American journalism associations.”
The award is to be presented Jan. 27 at the Newseum in Washington as the organization inducts five journalists into its Hall of Fame: the late Ed Bradley of CBS News’ “60 Minutes”; Merri Dee of WGN-TV Chicago; J.C. Hayward of WUSA-TV, Washington; Eugene Robinson, Washington Post columnist; and Ray Taliaferro of KGO newstalk radio in San Francisco.
New Owners Keep Sandra Long a V.P. at Philadelphia Newspapers
Sandra D. Long, an employee of the Philadelphia Inquirer 
since 1984, Wednesday was named vice president for editorial product development for Philadelphia Media Network, the new owners of the Inquirer and Philadelphia Daily News.
“For the last two years, Sandra has been vice president/newsroom operations, playing an integral role in consolidating the photo departments and support staffs of The Inquirer and the Daily News as well as sharing resources on the copy desks and in the graphics departments. She also helped coordinate special sections jointly produced by the papers,” an announcement from Acting Editor Stan Wischnowski said.
“She will be part of a companywide team working to develop new products across multimedia platforms.”
Long is also a founder of the National Association of Black Journalists.
Short Takes
- Voting is over for the the best business concept produced by “New U,” a Ford Foundation-funded program for journalists of color who want to become entrepreneurs. Winners are, for the Native American Journalists Association, Rose High Bear and her mentor, Jodi Rave; for the National Association of Hispanic Journalists, Ray Ruiz and his mentor, Veronica Villafane; for the Asian American Journalists Association, Toam Lam and his mentor, Chrys Wu, and for the National Association of Black Journalists, Ciara Calbert and her mentor, Gina Gayle. Sixteen participants attended two-day “boot camps” over the summer to learn business skills and how to pitch ideas to mentors and financial experts.
- “Daniel Viotto is leaving CNN en Español, the network
where he has worked as an anchor for the past 13 years,” Veronica Villafane reported Wednesday for her Media Moves column. “I have decided not to renew my contract,” Danny tells me. “It was a difficult decision to make after so many years with the company, but I felt it was necessary to make a change in my career. I have been with CNN en Español since its launch in 1997 and I feel it’s time to move on and explore new opportunities.” - “In a special November issue of studies and analyses of PBS’s major public affairs shows, FAIR’s magazine Extra! shows that ‘public television’ features guestlists strongly dominated by white, male and elite sources, who are far more likely to represent corporations and war makers than environmentalists or peace advocates,” Fairness & Accuracy in Reporting said on Tuesday. “And both funding and ownership of these shows is increasingly corporate, further eroding the distinction between “public” and corporate television. There is precious little ‘public’ left in “public television.”
- “John H. Murphy III, former Chairman of the Board and Publisher of AFRO American Newspapers, died Oct.
16 at the Stella Maris Nursing Home in Timonium, Maryland. He was 94,” Zenitha Prince of the Baltimore Afro-American reported on Sunday. “Murphy, grandson of AFRO founder John H. Murphy and son of Sarah and Daniel H. Murphy, served in a variety of positions at the AFRO for 49 years. He started as the office manager of the Washington AFRO, and became chief executive officer in 1967. He was at the helm as president and/or chairman of the board until his retirement in 1986.” - Robin Washington, editor of the Duluth (Minn.) News Tribune, has created a 50th anniversary tribute to John Coltrane’s classic album “My Favority Things.” It airs nationally Thursday on public radio stations nationwide, including WGBH Boston (http://tinyurl.com/ycjcnhd) Oregon Public Radio (http://tinyurl.com/3yyz7ed) and KJazz in L.A. (http://tinyurl.com/5f9cho). Washingotn has created a fan page http://tinyurl.com/25lkmkv
- “Today marks 33 years since the apartheid regime banned 17 black organisations and two black-oriented newspapers,” Simphiwe Sesanti, a lecturer in the Department of Journalism at the University of Stellenbosch, wrote Tuesday in South Africa’s Cape Times. “The apartheid regime closed down the newspapers and detained black journalists working for them because the journalists of the 1970s, under the influence of Bantu Biko’s Black Consciousness, had declared that they were blacks first and journalists second.” Referring to the ruling African National Congress, he continued, “So, when the ANC spokesperson, Jackson Mthembu says the press freedom journalists enjoy today was fought for by the ANC — making it sound as though press freedom was a gift from the messianic ANC — he is distorting the history of this country’s liberation struggle.”
- Editor & Publisher owner Duncan McIntosh said he fired his editorial staff because “Moving toward expert-generated copy is something I’ve wanted to do for a long time,” according to Jason Fell, writing Monday in Folio. “We need to utilize as many experts in the field as possible. I’d rather clean up their copy than rely on reporters who might not know to ask the right questions.”
- Former CNN anchor Lou Dobbs, commenting on Rick Sanchez, fired from the network after lambasting late-night comedian Jon Stewart in a series of comments that also mentioned Jews, said on NYNonstop, the digital channel of WNBC in New York: “Aside from the lamentable stupidity of what he said, if everyone at CNN — all of the anchors had been fired for stupid things, they wouldn’t have anyone to fill up the air,” according to Chris Ariens, reporting for TVNewser.
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