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Who Killed Chauncey Bailey?

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Press Freedom Group Urges Feds to Take the Lead

“On the eve of the first anniversary of Chauncey Bailey’s murder, Reporters Without Borders is very disappointed that the investigation has not made any progress,” the international press freedom group said on Friday. “Instead, the case has become more complicated as aspects surrounding the motives for Bailey’s murder have been unleashed.

“Evidence, some recorded by the police and some uncovered by investigative reporters, points at someone other than the currently accused defendant as a potential perpetrator(s) and/or mastermind(s) of the crime, and suggests that local police officials may be protecting those responsible for Mr. Bailey’s death. Reporters Without Borders also disapproves of Oakland Police Chief [Wayne] Tucker and Deputy Chief Howard A. Jordan’s unwillingness to talk to the media.

The press freedom organization is launching a petition calling for “Justice for Chauncey Bailey” and urging the U.S. attorney general to take the lead in the case.

” . . . On August 2nd, 2007, Bailey, the late editor for the Oakland Post, was walking to work when he was gunned down by a masked man in downtown Oakland.

“The day after, the police department raided the facility of Your Black Muslim Bakery, suspecting some of its employees were involved in the killing, as well as other unrelated felonies. A group of young men who worked at the Bakery and were adopted by Yusuf Bey, the founder of the bakery, were already well-known because of involvement in previous crimes, ranging from vandalism to kidnapping. The leader of this particular group of young men was Yusuf Bey IV, of the Bey family.

“Bey IV and others were apprehended that night. Devaughndre Broussard, the youngest and newest member of the Bakery employees, confessed to killing Bailey, after an unrecorded conversation with Bey IV without the presence of an officer. Broussard later recanted and his lawyer, LeRue Grim, stated his client’s confession was coerced.

“As of Friday, 1, August, Broussard was scheduled to begin his trial on 19 September 2008 at 9:00 a.m. No one else has been charged even as an indirect participant.””

“Chauncey Bailey was killed because of his work as a journalist,” added the organization. “Murders of reporters are rare in the United States. In informing people and denouncing public wrongdoings, the news media play an important role in the checks and balances that are essential to any democracy. The justice system has to send a strong signal to those who would silence the media, and show them that impunity will not prevail. We call upon press freedom supporters to sign the petition to show public support for a swift resolution of the murder”.

Chauncey Bailey Project Hits Funding Snag

“More than 24 Bay Area journalists from competing news outlets joined forces to complete the fallen editor’s story,” Sherry Ricchiardi writes of Chauncey Bailey and the Chauncey Bailey Project for the August/September issue of American Journalism Review.

“Area media groups and journalism schools participated in the effort as well.

“It’s the biggest journalistic show of force since 1976, when reporter Don Bolles‘ car was blown up by a bomb while he was investigating organized crime in Phoenix. Journalists from all over the country gathered to continue Bolles’ work under the banner of the Arizona Project.

“During the past 10 months, media professionals in the Bay Area have taken collaborative journalism to new heights as they produced more than 140 stories related to Your Black Muslim Bakery and Bailey’s assassination. They also have posted numerous multimedia packages on their Web sites.

But, the story says, “In June, the project hit a snag. The $145,000 budget, much of it provided by the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, was running out.” Dori J. Maynard, president of the Maynard Institute for Journalism Education, and Sandy Close, director of the San Francisco-based New America Media, a national network of about 2,800 ethnic media organizations, embarked on a hunt for additional funding. Bailey was an alumnus of the Maynard Institute.

“‘I think there are possibly some foundations that could help,’ says Close, who delivered a eulogy at Bailey’s funeral.”

Robert J. Rosenthal, the executive director of the Center for Investigative Reporting who came to head the Bailey project, “says the project will continue, but it could lose people and momentum without additional funding.” Freelancers such as Bob Butler, “a crucial contributor, no longer are being paid. ‘People like Bob will have to pick up other part-time work if we can’t pay them,’ Rosenthal says. ‘It also means our Web site could be curtailed or slowed.’

“The project faces another painful reality: Some of the participating news outlets have experienced severe job cuts in recent weeks, which could limit their ability to lend reporters to the project. ‘This story would not have been peeled back as much as it has without this alliance,’ Rosenthal says. ‘It is crucial.'”

As reported in this space, the idea for the project originated with freelance journalist Kenneth Cooper, former national editor of the Boston Globe and a member of the National Association of Black Journalists, who proposed the investigative alliance on Aug. 7, 2007, on the Journal-isms message board. Then-NABJ President Bryan Monroe announced the collaboration two days later at the NABJ convention in Las Vegas.

Staffers in Newark Anxious, Bitter at Cutback Prospect

“When word broke yesterday that The Star-Ledger of Newark, N.J., was looking to slash some 200 jobs through buyouts — and threatened to be sold if it did not get enough takers — the bombshell meant more than the usual newspaper facing a crisis,” Joe Strupp wrote Friday for Editor & Publisher.

“The Ledger, as it is known to any Jerseyan, was different. It was the big fat and happy daily that got most of the advertising, paid employees well enough that they didn’t need a Newspaper Guild, and circulated statewide.”

It also scored highest among New Jersey newspapers reporting their diversity figures to the American Society of Newspaper Editors this year, claiming 18.6 percent journalists of color, narrowly edging out the Record of Hackensack. However, the Star-Ledger lost two high-ranking news managers of color in recent years, Glenn Proctor, who became editor of the Richmond (Va.) Times-Dispatch, and David Ng, now executive editor of the New York Daily News, and now has none in top management.

“There’s sadness, bitterness, confusion,” one journalist of color told Journal-isms of the latest development. “We knew things were bad, but I don’t think anyone expected the possibility of a sale. We just got new computers, new BlackBerrys, new phones, new video cameras and had new (very expensive) video classes, so this is a little bit out of left field for some people. Plus, we expected the Newhouses’ job pledge to protect us.”

“Earlier this week, Advance, which is owned by the Newhouse family, announced it will close the Newhouse News Service in Washington, D.C., following the presidential elections,” as Steve Chambers reported Friday in the Star-Ledger.

“Advance owns 27 daily newspapers, including The Oregonian in Portland, Ore.; The Plain Dealer in Cleveland, and The Times-Picayune in New Orleans. It also owns Cond?© Nast Publications, the second-biggest magazine publisher in the country.

“Similar buyouts have not been offered elsewhere in the chain, but Advance President Donald Newhouse said The Ledger had been hit harder than most. Combined, The Times of Trenton and The Star-Ledger are losing between $30 million and $40 million a year, Newhouse said. As for The Star-Ledger, Newhouse said the paper relied more heavily on classified advertising, and those ads have been disappearing to the internet.”

Atlanta Paper Accepts 73 Buyout Applications

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution will accept 73 applicants for buyouts in its newsroom, and “As a result, there will not be any involuntary separations,” Editor Julia Wallace told staffers on Friday.

“We understand it was a difficult decision for many individuals and we want to grant their request. This will take us to a newsroom of 335,” Wallace said.

The newspaper announced on July 16 it planned to cut its work force by about 8 percent, or 189 jobs, and eliminate all of its geographically targeted news sections.

Such journalists of color as James A. Mallory, senior managing editor and vice president-news; Cynthia Tucker, editorial page editor; Angela Tuck, public editor; Kent D. Johnson, photo assignment editor; and Ernie Suggs, a reporter who is vice president for print of the National Association of Black Journalists, were not eligible for the buyout or decided not to take it.

However, Yemi Toure, a copy editor, and Stephanie A. Reid, a reporter, both black journalists, told Journal-isms they would do so.  Reid has been at the paper more than 15 years.  

“I’m looking to make a career change, but I’m still open to media-related possibilities,” Reid said. “I’m moving toward the non-profit sector in pursuit of my passion for education and improving college access for minority and low-income kids. That’s work I’ve been doing on the radar for years. With any luck, someone will pay me to do what I’ve been doing for free.”

Toure, 60, said he had no definite plans. He has been at the newspaper since 1993.

Many of the others were said to be editorial assistants.

“Last year (December 2007) we reported to ASNE that our professional staff diversity was 26 percent,” Mallory told Journal-isms, referring to the American Society of Newspaper Editors. “After the buyout, the diversity percentage will remain about the same. This means we should still be among the top for newspapers our size.”

Buchanan Asks for Proof of News-Media Discrimination

Fresh from being awarded a Thumbs Down by the National Association of Black Journalists for previous racial remarks, commentator Pat Buchanan asks, “Is this what we have come to 50 years after the triumph of the civil rights movement? Flat-out demands, by American journalists, for the hiring and promotion of colleagues based on race and color?

“Is there any evidence major news organizations in this country have engaged in systematic discrimination to keep out men or women of color this last half century? The reverse seems true. They have bent over backward to advance minority journalists,” Buchanan wrote in his latest column for Creators Syndicate, “Whitey Need Not Apply.”

The “demands” Buchanan was referring to comprise the “Ten by 2010” initiative announced last week by Unity: Journalists of Color. It is “designed to obtain commitments from 10 media companies to select at least one high-potential manager of color and to provide that employee with an opportunity to compete for a promotion to a senior management position by midyear 2010. Participants will receive customized training and coaching to help prepare them for specific senior level positions,” Unity said.

The alliance of black, Hispanic, Asian American and Native American journalists announced on Friday that South Bend, Ind.-based Schurz Communications, which publishes 13 daily and seven weekly newspapers in small and medium markets, would become the third company to join, after the New York Times Co. and Gannett Co.

Buchanan continued: “And if journalists have been hired and promoted based on ability and merit, why in the 21st century should these criteria be thrown out as the standards for advancement ‚Äî in favor of race and color?

“Isn’t this what they did in the days of Jim Crow ‚Äî hire and promote based on race? What UNITY is calling for is a return to the old rules but with new beneficiaries ‚Äî blacks, Hispanics, Asians and Native Americans ‚Äî and new victims, all of whom will be white.”

Journalism organizations that have assessed diversity efforts have a different assessment. Gilbert Bailon, in presenting the latest diversity figures as president of the American Society of Newspaper Editors, said in April it was encouraging that minority figures held steady despite troubled economic times, but noted that the number of journalists of color at newspapers declined by nearly 300 last year and was still below parity with the general population.

Barbara Ciara, president of the National Association of Black Journalists, said at the Unity convention last week, “We all know that when times get tight, diversity training and recruiting are the first things to go.”

Media Seen Buying Into GOP Talking Points on Obama

“Did you hear the one about Barack Obama not caring about our troops? About being so obsessed with his image that he snubbed a group of injured American heroes when he learned that there wouldn’t be cameras around to capture his act of patriotic empathy?” Megan Garber wrote on Monday for Columbia Journalism Review.

“Yeah, so did we. The story started last week, when Obama cancelled a planned trip to visit injured American soldiers convalescing at Landstuhl, an Army medical center in Germany. It gained steam when John McCain’s campaign released an ad ‚Äî to be aired in [swing states] Colorado and Pennsylvania and, via the Web, everywhere ‚Äî that frames Obama as caring more about his own image than he does about the welfare of our military.

“. . . But as TPM’s Greg Sargent points out, that claim isn’t true,” referring to the Talking Points Memo Web site. “Yes, Obama cancelled his visit, but that had nothing to do with the Pentagon’s refusal to let him ‘bring cameras.’ The Obama campaign had never planned for the media to accompany him there in the first place; the visit was cancelled when the DOD reminded Obama of its 2006 directive against campaigning on military premises.”

On Thursday, Carrie Budoff Brown of Politico.com wrote that the news media seemed to be buying into a Republican campaign strategy: “Obama’s critics laid down the foundations of the strategy months ago: The Republican National Committee started the ‘Audacity Watch’ back in April, and Karl Rove later fueled the attack by describing the first-term Illinois senator as ‘coolly arrogant.’

“It wasn’t until the last week, however, that the narrative of Obama as a president-in-waiting ‚Äî and perhaps getting impatient in that waiting ‚Äî began reverberating beyond the inboxes of Washington operatives and journalists.

“Bloggers at the Huffington Post launched a backlash to the backlash against Obama’s overseas trip, arguing in part that he wouldn’t face such criticism of acting premature if he were white. Separately, the Obama campaign pushed back hard at journalists who used a report that detailed Obama’s move to assemble a transition team to describe him as presumptuous by pointing to an interview in which McCain had owned up to the same thing.”

Obama Gets Advice from Condoleezza Rice

“This week’s issue of TIME magazine, arriving on Friday, details the surprising respect and productive relationship between Barack Obama and Condoleezza Rice,” Editor & Publisher reported¬†on Thursday.

“Massimo Calabresi writes that Obama and Secretary of State Rice, ‘have come to have a certain respect for each other . . . because both take an intellectual, sober view of foreign affairs.’

“An aide to Barack Obama tells Calabresi, ‘They’ve had good exchanges. Does he treat her as someone whom he has respect for? Absolutely. Does he listen to her on occasion? Absolutely.” The aide added that Rice ‘can expect the phone calls to continue.’

“The article opens: ‘A few days before he left on his eight-country world tour, Barack Obama wanted to discuss the trip with an old contact in Washington: Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. Obama’s phone call was in part courtesy, but over three years of occasional phone conversations, the two have quietly discussed everything from foreign aid to the Middle East and nuclear proliferation.'”

As reported here last week, when Rice appeared on Wolf Blitzer’s “Late Edition” on CNN on July 21, she passed up a chance to publicly support the presumptive nominee of her party, Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz. She did note the historic nature of Obama’s candidacy. It was an unusual failure to express party solidarity that got by most of the news media.

In the ’90s, Bob Maynard Anticipated the Shift to Online

Robert C. Maynard, namesake of the Maynard Institute for Journalism Education, “would not be surprised by the state of newspapers today,” according to his daughter, Dori J. Maynard, president of the institute. “He anticipated the shift to online in the early 1990’s. He was talking then about convergence, how the news would be bundled differently. He saw it coming,” she said, according to a centerpiece story on the Maynard Institute Thursday by Gregory E. Favre for the Poynter Institute.

“He would be disheartened that the news industry didn’t pick up on the changes quicker and didn’t do more to hold on to their franchises.¬† The last diversity figures for new media are 16 percent, slightly better than newspapers.”

Favre wrote, “One of the problems at this moment in history, of course, is the drastic economic news that has cast a cloud of despair and disillusionment over newspaper newsrooms. ‘It’s been tough raising money,’ Maynard said. ‘The money from newspapers and newspaper foundations is disappearing. We will have to find others that care about social justice and democracy.

“‘We can’t let up on our efforts. Some foundations say that if newspapers won’t contribute for training, let them suffer the consequences. But it’s just not the newspapers suffering. We all will suffer, especially people of color who are portrayed inaccurately on a daily basis. We have to see that all communities are covered in a fair way and we have to help all people make informed decisions.’

“Maynard believes that the current economic conditions are causing the industry to pay less attention to diversity and that this will ‘create a spiral effect and will push away more potential readership at the industry’s peril.'”

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