Maynard Institute archives

Journal-isms 11/5

by richard0600

Read Financial Pages for Political Predictions, Analyst Says


Olbermann Suspended Over Political Contributions


Reporter Hurt After Clown Yanks Him Off Halloween Float


Rod Richardson May Be Laid Off, but He’ll Still Be at Seminar


Considered, but Not Included in NPR History


Short Takes



President Obama says on “60 Minutes” that he failed to properly explain his policies and persuade people to agree with them. “Leadership isn’t just legislation,” he told Steve Kroft. (Video) 


Read Financial Pages for Political Predictions, Analyst Says


David A. BositisFor the better part of two decades, Dr. David A. Bositis of the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies has been one of the key go-to guys for data on African Americans and politics. He says that journalists who want to interpret Tuesday’s election results would do as well to read the financial pages as much as those dealing with politics.


“This election was solely about the economy,” Bositis told Journal-isms on Friday, citing exit polls. And the Federal Reserve Board can affect the economy more than an incoming Republican-controlled House of Representatives, which still must face off against a Democratic-controlled Senate and White House, he said.


If the economy improves sufficiently by 2012, he continued, things will look good for President Obama‘s reelection.


The financial pages seem to offer backup for Bositis’ position. Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke decided Wednesday to pump $75 billion a month more into the economy over the next eight months, Jon Hilsenrath reported for Saturday’s Wall Street Journal an action taken independent of Congress.


Moreover, “Since the central bank said it would launch a new round of government-bond buying, an effort to drive down long-term interest rates and support a recovery that lost steam around midyear, the economic news has been surprisingly good,” the story reported. The Fed might not even need to continue its infusion of dollars for the full eight months, the story continued.


Bositis, senior research associate at the think tank, also does not agree with pundits who bemoan an insufficient African American turnout on Tuesday. Blacks were 10 percent of the electorate on Tuesday according to exit polls. That is down from 13 percent in 2008, but the same as it was in 2006, he said, and it played a key role in several contests.


“Black turnout was fine,” he said. “The black population is poorer less educated than the white population. These are people who don’t get midterm elections. There is no focal point at the top of the ticket,” as there would be in a presidential election.


In the 2008 presidential election, 60.8 percent of eligible blacks went to the polls, compared with 59.6 percent of whites, 32.1 of Asian Americans and 31.6 percent of Hispanics. The overall figure was 58.2 percent.


Meanwhile, the Latino vote was credited for playing a decisive role in a number of contests.


“Latino voters may have saved the Senate for the Democrats, even as Latino candidates gained a record number of congressional seats on the Republican ticket,” Elena Shore reported for New America Media.


“Political observers say these seemingly contradictory outcomes make one thing clear: Latinos — as candidates and as voters — played a decisive role in Tuesday’s election.


“Ironically, the party that was accused of using anti-immigrant rhetoric gained victories for Latino candidates. Republican Susana Martinez was elected New Mexico’s first Latina governor and Brian Sandoval became Nevada’s first Latino governor. Latino Republicans won five new House seats, and one new Senate seat, giving Latino Republicans a record total of eight seats in both houses of Congress.”


President Obama taped another interview with Steve Kroft of CBS-TV’s “60 Minutes,” saying the defeat of his party in the midterm elections was probably because the people thought his emergency stimulus and bailout spending was “a huge expansion of government,” the network said. It was a reiteration of what Obama said in his Wednesday news conference, except the setting was the president’s first one-on-one interview since the election. It is to be broadcast Sunday at 7 p.m. ET/PT.



Olbermann Suspended Over Political Contributions


Keith Olbermann MSNBC has suspended star anchor Keith Olbermann following the news that he had donated to three Democratic candidates this election cycle,” Danny Shea reported Friday for the Huffington Post.


” ‘I became aware of Keith’s political contributions late last night. Mindful of NBC News policy and standards, I have suspended him indefinitely without pay,’ MSNBC president Phil Griffin said in a statement.


“Politico reported Friday that Olbermann had donated $2,400 each to Reps. Raul Grijalva and Gabrielle Giffords of Arizona, and to Kentucky Senate contender Jack Conway. While NBC News policy does not prohibit employees from donating to political candidates, it requires them to obtain prior approval from NBC News executives before doing so.


“In a statement earlier Friday, Olbermann defended his donation, saying, ‘I did not privately or publicly encourage anyone else to donate to these campaigns nor to any others in this election or any previous ones, nor have I previously donated to any political campaign at any level.'”


Fairness & Accuracy In Reporting: If Olbermann’s Donations Are Bad, What About GE’s?





Reporter Arthur Chi’en of New York’s WPIX-TV was on board the “Heroes and Villians” float, left, when he was dragged off by a man dressed in a clown costume at Sunday’s Village Halloween Parade. (Credit: WPIX)


Reporter Hurt After Clown Yanks Him Off Halloween Float


Reporter Arthur Chi’en of New York’s WPIX-TV “was scheduled to undergo surgery Thursday, four days after he suffered extensive injuries to his face when an unidentified man yanked him off a float at Sunday’s New York City Village Halloween Parade,” the station reported.


“Chi’en was on board the ‘Heroes and Villians’ float when the suspect, dressed in a clown costume, attempted to hitch a ride near W. 14th St. along Sixth Avenue just after 9 p.m.


” ‘I started waving him off, telling him it was unsafe but then he grabbed my forearms and tried to pull himself up that way,’ Chi’en told PIX 11 News as he recounted the ordeal. ‘The combined weight caused the railing at the top of the float to collapse and we went over. I tried to brace myself but he clung onto me as we fell.’


“As the two men fell on the pavement, Chi’en landed face first, causing six facial fractures among other injuries. The veteran newsman was rushed to nearby Bellevue Hospital where he remained hospitalized for two days.


“Chi’en was scheduled to undergo surgery Thursday, where doctors will attempt to reconstruct the half dozen facial fractures they have labeled a ‘crash injury.’ Recovery will be determined on the outcome of Thursday’s procedure, Chi’en said.”


 


Rod Richardson May Be Laid Off, but He’ll Still Be at Seminar


Rod Richardson, who was laid off this week as managing Rod Richardsoneditor at the Times in Shreveport, La., said Friday he was not sure what he would do next, but “I still have a great passion for journalism but I realize there are many ways to make a positive contribution in this world so I won’t close my eyes to opportunities in other areas.”


As reported Thursday, Richardson was part of cost-cutting at Gannett newspapers that also claimed Don Hudson, managing editor of the Clarion-Ledger in Jackson, Miss. He joined the Times in 2004 from the Associated Press, where he was assistant bureau chief in Dallas.


“I still plan to attend a seminar at Poynter this month,” he told Journal-isms on Friday, referring to the Poynter Institute in St. Petersburg, Fla. “I won an NAA Fellowship to participate in ‘Editing 2010: How to wear 5 hats and still succeed.’ I was encouraged that the organizers were willing to let me come even after Wednesday’s announcement. So, I take that as proof that this temporary setback won’t keep me down.” The reference is to the Newspaper Association of America.


Considered, but Not Included in NPR History


Michele Norris“When Michele Norris joined National Public Radio in 2002 to host its popular afternoon news show ‘All Things Considered,’ she made history as the first black woman to host a major show at the public radio outlet,” Eric Deggans reported Friday in his St Petersburg (Fla.) Times blog.


But you won’t find that achievement in the new book about the news organization’s 40-year history, This Is NPR, because Norris was left out of the book completely.


“I’m disappointed,” said Norris, who declined to speak in detail on the issue when contacted by telephone. “But you have to ask NPR why it happened.”


“Norris was asked to contribute a chapter, along with other staffers or people who appear regularly on NPR for the book, which weaves the stories into a chronological history. Other contributors include Cokie Roberts, Nina Totenberg, P. J. O’Rourke and Paula Poundstone. But because she was on sabbatical writing her own book, The Grace of Silence: A Memoir, Norris couldn’t contribute an essay and was not included anywhere else, said NPR spokeswoman Dana Davis Rehm.


” ‘It was an inexcusable mistake,’ Rehm added. ‘She should have been in the book.’ “


 

Short Takes



  • ABC’s ill-fated invitation to right-wing provocateur Andrew Breitbart to participate in its election night coverage, which backfired, was extended because “ABC News had no idea what it was doing when it invited Breitbart to be a part of its coverage,” Jay Rosen of New York University wrote Tuesday on his Press Link blog. “It had no idea what it was doing when it gave the floor on election night to Big Journalism’s editor, Dana Loesch. By handing the microphone over to people who seek its destruction and are prepared in a flash to accuse it of lying, blacklisting, caving to political pressure and selling out the First Amendment, ABC acted out the stupidity of news professionals who believe that their refusal to think politically can only be a good and honorable thing.”


  • Doug Mitchell Doug Mitchell, who has worked with the journalist of color organizations to train the next generation of multimedia journalists, joins the National Federation of Community Broadcasters Nov. 15 as a project manager, he announced on Friday. He will be “overseeing the development of 28 stations across the US identified as African-American public radio stations. . . . working with the leadership of each station (yes, all 28) to help them grow in areas such as programming, finding and developing talent, fundraising and other forms of infrastructure. My big idea is to find away to bring new media makers into the station either as over-the-air or online programs and/or as future employees.”


  • Writing Thursday in the Texas Observer, Melissa del Bosque examines “What becomes of kids who are deported [to Mexico] without their families?” She reports, “Sometimes the kids are paid by smugglers to be caminantes (walkers) accompanying migrants through the remote South Texas ranches. They get from $10 to $20 a head for every migrant they guide through the rough terrain, he says. Others are paid or intimidated by the cartels to smuggle drug loads in backpacks.”


  • “Time Inc. plans to sell the house it bought last year in Detroit’s West Village as its year-long Assignment Detroit bureau and will donate the proceeds to four youth-oriented nonprofit groups in the city,” Bill Shea reported Thursday for Crain’s Detroit Business. The publishing giant bought the five-bedroom, three-story arts and crafts-style house built in 1914 for its $99,000 asking price last summer and will put it back on the market for that price. The print and digital immersion journalism project run from the house ended this past weekend.”


  • The Society of Environmental Journalists Diversity Task Force is launching a listserve on Monday, according to Ayana A. Meade, founder and co-chair of the task force. It “will serve as a forum for the discussion of environmental journalism issues as they relate to communities of color, and we are encouraging all UNITY coalition members to join. All a UNITY coalition member has to do is forward their name, email address and a sentence or two about their journalism affiliation and previous coverage or interest in environmental issues to me,” she said. She is at aameade23 (at) gmail.com.


  • “Undercovers,” an NBC comedy-drama that features two black leads as a married couple who are also spies, is being canceled. “Undercovers had a lot of strikes against it that had nothing to do with the race of its lead actors,” media writer Eric Deggans wrote Friday in his St. Petersburg (Fla.) Times. The show ranked No. 18 on the Nielsen Co.’s ratings of the top 25 primetime programs watched by African Americans for the week ending Oct. 31.


  • “On Thursday, United Airlines unveiled a newly painted plane at O’Hare International Airport commemorating the 25th and final season of ‘The Oprah Winfrey Show.’ The Boeing 757’s tail is blue with Winfrey’s signature, with the words ‘The Farewell Season’ painted on the fuselage,” Ameet Sachdev reported for the Chicago Tribune.


  • “Ugandan High Court judge Vincent Musoke-Kibuuka has ordered Uganda’s Rolling Stone newspaper (no relation to the US American magazine) to stop publishing the names of homosexuals, after the paper’s ‘revelations’ led to attacks against allegedly gay Ugandans,” Naomi Hunt of the International Press Institute reported on Thursday. “Editor Giles Muhame has not apologized, and says his paper will continue to publish the series.”


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