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Don Flores Quits as El Paso Editor

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Exit Is Immediate So as Not to Cause "Distraction"

Dionicio "Don" Flores, an early president of the National Association of Hispanic Journalists and a founder of what is now Unity: Journalists of Color, resigned Tuesday as editor of the El Paso (Texas) Times and told Journal-isms he simply wants to "catch up with a lot of priorities I had" but were set aside.

Flores, one of just a handful of Hispanic top editors of English-language dailies, left the paper abruptly. "Once you decide something . . . you become a distraction" if you stick around, he said on Wednesday. "The management staff is so solid, it’s on cruise control.

"I need to reintroduce myself to my wife," Flores, 57, said. "When you’re married to this business, you’re married to this business. We’re just constantly on." He said he’d been involved with newspapers since he was 12.

"Flores’ departure ended a 15-year turn as top newsman at the paper, the largest and arguably most influential news outlet in the community," Sito Negron wrote on Wednesday for the El Paso Web site newspapertree.com. "His departure, made without fanfare and announced by [the] Times president in the afternoon following multiple inquiries from local media, left newsroom staff and observers wondering what’s next for the paper.

"The Times is owned by the Texas-New Mexico Partnership, which in turn is majority owned by MediaNews Group, known for its cost-cutting, bare-bones operations. The Partnership replaced Gannett ownership in 2003."

The story quoted Bob Moore, executive editor of the Fort Collins Coloradoan, who worked under Flores as city editor, assistant managing editor, managing editor and then executive editor until going to Fort Collins in 2005.

"Don leaves a very deep legacy in journalism, at the Times and nationally. He was a true champion of diversity at a time when others gave it only lip service. He was the first recipient of the APME’s Robert McGruder diversity award, and I can’t think of anyone who deserved the honor more," Moore said. "In El Paso, Don played a key role in better connecting El Paso with state government. At a time when many newspapers backed away from legislative coverage, Don was a firm advocate for making sure that El Pasoans understood what was happening in Austin."

Flores told Journal-isms "El Paso was a good fit for me." He said he might look at teaching, but another media job might energize him. He said he was pleased that he could provide an environment at the Times where those who wanted to move on to larger papers could do so, and those who wanted to stay also felt comfortable.

An NAHJ leader in the late 1980s and early 1990s, Flores said he was particularly disappointed in the number of Hispanic journalists on television. He said he hoped that "reflecting our communities and our culture, aren’t lost" as media outlets cope with economic turmoil.

News Outlets Prematurely Report Tubbs Jones’ Death

Rep. Stephanie Tubbs Jones, D-Ohio, died on Wednesday after suffering a brain aneurysm, but a number of news organizations falsely reported that she had succumbed hours before she did.

They had attributed news of the death of Tubbs Jones, the first African American woman elected to Congress from Ohio, to anonymous sources.

"The AP was talking to sources in Ohio and Washington, D.C.," Michael Oreskes, the Associated Press’ managing editor for U.S. news, told Journal-isms. "A Democratic source in Washington who usually gives us good information gave us bad information. We fixed the error the instant we knew of it."

"Kill the APNewsAlert saying U.S. Rep. Stephanie Tubbs Jones has died. A doctor says she is in critical condition," read an AP dispatch filed at 2:46 p.m. Eastern time.

"CNN was the first of the cable networks to report the death at 2:03 p.m. ET, sourcing the Cleveland Plain Dealer," the TV Newser Web site said. "Fox News reported the news at 2:08 p.m. ET. Both networks later had . . . graphics claiming their networks had individually confirmed the story.

"But at 2:31 pm family friend Joe Hewitt announced, ‘at the present time Stephanie is in critical condition.’"

"So here’s the question:" TV Newser asked. "Does a network confirmation really mean confirmation? Or does it mean ‘the local paper says so, so it must be true.’"

On washingtonpost.com, Capitol Briefing’s Ben Pershing recapped his error and said, "It is not clear why Capitol Briefing’s source and those cited by other news organizations believed she had died, though it may be related to confusion over a report in the Plain-Dealer saying she had been taken off life-support. Capitol Briefing apologizes for the error and will be more careful as he continues to report this story."

Readers praised the transparency but criticized the use of anonymous sources.

Few Big-Paper Journalists of Color Expected in Denver

Don’t expect to see many more than a handful of journalists of color representing the major U.S. newspapers at the Democratic and Republican conventions, according to an ongoing compilation by Patrick W. Gavin at the Web site fishbowlDC.

So far, those attending include, at the New York Times, Mike Luo, Ray Hernandez and Dean Baquet, the Washington bureau chief, at the Democratic convention next week, and Luo and Baquet at the Republican gathering Sept. 1-4 in St. Paul, Minn.

USA Today’s contingent includes Fredreka Schouten and Alan Gomez at both conventions. Barbara Martinez is going from Politico. Perry Bacon will report for the Washington Post, along with editorial writer Jonathan Capehart, Style reporter Jose Antonio Vargas,¬†associate editor Kevin Merida, national editor Rajiv Chandrasekaran, Akira Hakuta, a video journalist with washingtonpost.com, and¬†Michel duCille, assistant managing editor for photography.¬†¬†

The Washington Times is sending Deborah Simmons, editorial page editor, to Denver, and Tara Wall, her deputy, to St. Paul, along with Carleton Bryant, an assistant managing editor.

The Los Angeles Times plans to send John Mitchell, assistant metro editor, to Denver.

Separately, Leonard Greene of the New York Post told Journal-isms his paper is sending him to Denver.

Barbara Ciara, president of the National Association of Black Journalists, noted the paucity of black journalists covering the campaign in general in a commentary on the question some in the mainstream media have asked, "Is it possible for journalists of color to cover the Obama campaign without bias?"

"Is it true?" Ciara said. "Let’s see, have you counted the number of African Americans who are on the Obama campaign plane? There is not one single front-line Black reporter from ABC, CBS, or NBC assigned to cover the Obama campaign, nor will you find an African American assigned to cover the candidate from the New York Times, or Time magazine. You need the opportunity to play the game before you can be accused of misplaying it."

Big papers aside,¬†"there are definitely more journalists of color than ever before from covering this year’s convention," Flo McAffee, senior media adviser for the Democratic National Convention Committee’s specialty media operation, told Journal-isms.¬†

"When it comes to community-based and issue-based such as national and local  African American, Latino, Native American, GLBT, etc., print, broadcast and online media outlets, there is a big increase over previous years of journalists of color covering the convention," said McAffee, who has been working with the quadrennial Democratic event since 1984.  "Our operation does a lot of care and feeding the diverse media."

Separately, The Web site Jossip.com questioned the appropriateness of a CNN image of Obama that¬†asked whether he was the anti-Christ. It was used last Thursday to illustrate a discussion of Democrats’ charges that John McCain’s campaign was sending a coded message to Evangelical Christians making that assertion. [updated Aug. 24.]

Vegas Television Reporter Fired Over Internet Sex Ad

Las Vegas reporter Jeff Gradney has been fired from KTNV-TV after he and his girlfriend were accused of soliciting male partners for three-way sex on Craigslist, Norm Clarke reported Wednesday in the Las Vegas Review-Journal.

"Gradney, who joined the ABC affiliate three years ago, was dismissed Monday, after a disgruntled employee sent management and staffers a Craigslist ad, a source said, that appeared to show the reporter having sex with his girlfriend. The ad read: ‘hot, intensely passionate couple looking for a cool guy to play with,’" Clarke wrote.¬† Gradney came to Las Vegas from Seattle’s KING-TV.

"Jim Prather, vice president and general manager of the Journal Broadcast Group station, confirmed Gradney was let go but declined further comment, saying it was a personnel matter."

More Cutbacks at Newspapers, CNN Chicago

The New York Daily News "is cutting jobs in the latest round of downsizing at
the embattled tabloid," Holly M. Sanders reported Wednesday in the rival New York Post.

"The Mort Zuckerman-owned paper is looking for 25 volunteers in the
newsroom to take buyouts as the paper copes with a decline in ad
revenue." f

Elsewhere, "The Plain Dealer extended a voluntary buyout offer to most of its 370 non-union office employees Tuesday as part of the daily’s effort to reduce expenses in the wake of a newspaper-industry advertising slump," Frank Bentayou reported Tuesday in the Cleveland newspaper. f

"Also on Tuesday, the Akron Beacon Journal rolled out a buyout and early retirement program designed to reduce its newsroom staffing by 20. It’s offering up to 54 weeks of pay to those taking a buyout, based on years of service," Bentayou wrote.

Meanwhile, "The Rockford Register Star has laid off 13 full and part-time employees and closed its Springfield bureau because of the economy, officials said Monday," the Associated Press reported from Illinois.

And "The Buffalo News announced today it will offer voluntary resignation incentives to about 10 percent of its workforce in an attempt to reduce operating expenses. Newsroom and outside advertising representatives will not be affected," Samantha Maziarz Christmann reported in the New York newspaper.

In broadcasting, Phil Rosenthal reported Wednesday in the Chicago Tribune that "What CNN is calling expansion will mean reducing the number of staffers assigned to its bureau in Chicago by 25 percent, to nine from a dozen.

"Instead, it is scattering ‘all-platform journalists’ across the map, each working solo in locales such as Columbus, Ohio, and Minneapolis until reinforcements are needed."

"American Journalists" Stamp Series Sold Out

The Postal Service’s "American Journalists" stamp series — honoring "five journalists who risked their lives reporting some of the most important events of the 20th Century" — sold out within three weeks, spokesman Roy Betts told Journal-isms.

The stamps had a press run of 30 million and included a stamp honoring Ruben Salazar, the first Mexican-American reporter to have a major voice in mainstream news media. The National Association of Hispanic Journalists subsequently honored Salazar, who worked for the Los Angeles Times and KMEX-TV, at its annual scholarship dinner.

Salazar was killed in 1970 while he and his KMEX-TV news crew were covering the Chicano Moratorium March Against the Vietnam War.

The stamps went on sale April 22. Betts said there were no indications of mass orders that would have hastened their sale, and said there are no plans to issue any more.

"We’re quite contented that American journalists have such high appeal," Betts said.

Bodette, Pittman Win McGruder Diversity Awards

John Bodette, executive editor of the St. Cloud (Minn.) Times, and Charles Pittman, senior vice president for publishing at Schurz Communications, have been named winners of the seventh annual Robert G. McGruder Awards for Diversity Leadership, the Freedom Forum announced on Wednesday.

The two are to be honored at the Associated Press Managing Editors convention on Sept. 10 in Las Vegas.

"The awards are given by the Freedom Forum, which provides the funding and administers the program, in partnership with APME and the American Society of Newspaper Editors (ASNE). Each honoree receives $2,500 and a sculpture.

"The awards go to individuals, newsrooms or teams of journalists who embody the spirit of McGruder, a former executive editor of the Detroit Free Press and relentless diversity advocate who died in April 2002.

"Pittman chairs the diversity committee of the Newspaper Association of America, sits on the Associated Press and American Press Institute boards of directors and will be president of the Inland Daily Press Association in 2010.

"In August, UNITY: Journalists of Color, Inc., announced that Schurz is one of only three media companies working with it to increase the number of senior newsroom managers of color through the ‘Ten by 2010’ initiative. Each summer, Schurz Communications newsrooms also host a dozen multimedia journalism interns from the Freedom Forum Diversity Institute. And Schurz filled several full-time positions in recent years with graduates of another Diversity Institute journalism-training program."

NBC, Telemundo Scoring With Olympics Telecasts

"Thus far, NBC’s Summer Olympics coverage from Beijing has pulled significant audiences in the first week of its two-week coverage blitz -‚Äì a clear sign that marquee sporting events on television can still draw huge audiences within a very competitive landscape, Tom Umstead reported Monday for Multichannel News.

"Led by the gold-medal story line of amazing swimmer Michael Phelps and the gutsy athleticism of the U.S. women’s gymnastics team, NBCU TV is averaging nearly 30 million prime time viewers through Aug. 17, 14% above the 26.2 million that tuned in the action through the comparable span in Athens during 2004, according to Nielsen Media Research data."

In addition, "NBC-owned Hispanic broadcast network Telemundo, over the first 10 days of Summer Olympics coverage from Beijing, has drawn a total of 12 million unique persons, already surpassing the audience for the entire run of coverage for the 2004 Summer Olympic games on Telemundo, by 12 percent," John Consoli reported Wednesday for Mediaweek.

"This is the second Olympic broadcast for Telemundo, and the network is offering 380 hours of exclusive coverage through its standard daily broadcast schedule. It is also offering round-the-clock broadband coverage via its special Web site, OlimpiadasTelemundo.com.

"The TV coverage includes Games’ events narrated in Spanish, as well as a series of special programs focusing on participating Latin American countries, Hispanic athletes and stories surrounding the Games.

"Those numbers are up more than 20 percent over its usual non-Olympics audience."

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