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Will Economy Story Make Business Journalism Sexy?

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Lack of Outreach Said to Limit Journalists of Color

For her Tuesday business-section column, Tannette Johnson-Elie of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel told small business owners they need to network. "Getting out, meeting people and building relationships is a good way to be actively seeking new business instead of obsessing on the ailing economy," she instructed.

It was another Johnson-Elie column tying into the world’s biggest continuing story,¬†one likely to remain so for months. But as a black business columnist in the mainstream media, Johnson-Elie is a rarity.

"Business is usually the last frontier for African-Americans and journalists of color," Johnson-Elie told Journal-isms. "We typically want to be on the front page and that often means working on the metro desk. Those of us that write opinion, we are primarily concentrated in the Editorial departments of newspapers.

"Look at me, I’m the only columnist in business among the Trotter Group" of African American columnists, "and other than Michelle Singletary," who writes a syndicated personal finance column for the Washington Post, "you’re not going to find many black women penning columns in the business section of a major daily paper.

"It’s probably not even possible for there to be a large number of journalists of color reporting on the economic crisis, because our numbers tend to be few in business news."

That there are "few" in the mainstream media doesn’t mean "none." And some business journalists of color are indeed visible and high-ranking. But when the meltdown of the financial markets exploded this month, leading to a $700 billion bailout of Wall Street,¬†the journalists of color were generally not the ones out front.

Terri Thompson, director of Columbia University’s Knight-Bagehot Fellowship in Economics and Business Journalism, spoke of business journalists and the heightened interest in financial journalism. "We needed these people before; now they’re panicking," she told Journal-isms.¬† "People gave up on it when it was ‘uninteresting.’ The unfortunate thing is it was always an important story."

No one seems to be formally keeping track of the number of business journalists of color. The Society of American Business Editors and Writers in 2002 commissioned a survey of 21 large newspapers and found that people of color comprised 22.7 percent of business-news staffs: 7.9 percent were Asian American, 7.6 percent Hispanic and 7 percent African American.

The American Society of Newspaper Editors found then that 12.07 percent of all newsroom staff came from minority groups, but ASNE includes many smaller papers that have no people of color at all.

Anecdotally, several names come to mind when those in the field are asked to list them.

Jacqueline Simmons, who is African American, reports from Paris about investment banking for Bloomberg News; Mary Irby-Jones, African American, is business editor at the Dayton (Ohio) Daily News; Betty Wong is the global head of editorial operations at Thomson Reuters, said to be the highest ranking Asian woman in all of journalism.

Jesse Lewis, a black journalist, is managing editor of the Wall Street Journal Europe, "playing a leading editorial role covering the financial crisis and anchoring our coverage from Europe. His contribution is critically important given that Europe is a big part of the economic crisis story," Wall Street Journal spokesman Robert Christie said.

Rick Christie is assistant managing editor for business at the Palm Beach (Fla.) Post and Trevor Delaney is personal finance editor at the Associated Press. Sharon Epperson is at CNBC and USA Weekend magazine. At the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Andre Jackson oversees business coverage as senior editor, Gertha Coffee is an assistant business editor, Tammy Joyner writes about business and Peralte Paul and Leon Stafford are business beat writers. "Any of them could write stories about the crisis," James Mallory, senior managing editor, said. All are black journalists.

Latinos include Carl Quintanilla at CNBC, Michelle Caruso-Cabrera of CNBC, Bertha Coombs Sague at CNBC and Beatrice Garcia at the Miami Herald. Among Asian Americans, Sandra Sugarawa is assistant managing editor for business news at the Washington Post; Shirley Leung is the business editor at the Boston Globe, Patrick Chu is a managing editor for Bloomberg News in San Francisco, Vikas Bajaj has been covering the fallout for the New York Times¬†and Edward Iwata writes for USA Today’s Money section. Yoki Noguchi reports for National Public Radio.

For those who have gotten a piece of the story, it has been thrilling.

Keith Reed, business reporter for the Cincinnati Enquirer, told Journal-isms last week, "I wrote our A1 centerpiece last Monday about how retirees have been battered by the crisis. I was also on NPR’s ‘News & Notes’ discussing it the same day. In the past few weeks, I’ve gotten so many emails to my blog¬†on bet.com that I’m dedicating this entire week to answering the questions of worried young professionals who are mainly concerned about their 401(k) accounts and I’ve even started a Facebook group aimed at that same audience. In less than a week, more than 130 young professionals joined and many of them asked me questions about the crisis over the weekend."

"As international business editor, I’ve been very involved in our coverage, though not a tenth of what our Wall St./financial team has been doing. They have been extraordinary, working 6 and 7 day weeks for going on two months now," the New York Times’ Marcus Mabry, who appeared this month on National Public Radio, CNN and PBS, said last week. "My piece is the international piece, which was a late comer to the crisis, which most Europeans insisted was American for the longest. And my Asian reporters only started feeling it last week. But our reporter in Tokyo pissed off the [Wall Street] Journal by scooping them on Japan’s sudden mood change."

""It’s been exhilarating," agreed Ronald A. Taylor, one of three copy editors at the Daily Report for Executives, published by the Washington-based Bureau of National Affairs. "For BNA, this was a huge story complicated by timing outside the usual 8 a.m.-6 p.m. Washington window. It has meant pushing daily deadlines a bit and some weekend work to keep up with developments that often weren’t released until after the markets closed. At the same time, we needed to keep up with a steady stream of news; we publish to an audience of lobbyists, congressional staffers, financial regulators, and administrative officials — in and outside the federal government.

"But the arcane language of securities markets and financial institutions is pretty common around here, so it was mostly a matter of staying ahead of normally casual reporters who were suddenly energized by the swirling events of an economic meltdown."

More journalists of color are involved than are listed here. But why isn’t the number larger?

"It’s supply and demand," said one black editor who did not want to be named because he didn’t have his company’s authorization to speak. "Many of us are attracted to journalism because we’re interested in the community and policy. For old-timers like us, it’s an extension of activism. We didn’t focus in on business.

"We didn’t grow up reading the Wall Street Journal, and if we discovered it, it was late in the game.

"But from a journalistic standpoint, it’s the biggest story in the world. This is the biggest financial calamity in seven decades. Who wouldn’t want a piece of that?"

He added, "one way to increase your worth is to have a specialty, and if you understand markets and business, you’re more valuable. Money is the one thing that cuts across all bias."

Johnson-Elie agrees with some of that. But she adds, "the news industry finds itself in this situation because there wasn’t enough effort put into filling the pipeline with enough people who could cover business news. Since business news is not on the radar of many minority journalists, it becomes incumbent on news organizations to seek them out and encourage them to be part of their staffs.

"I’m in business news mainly because I was recruited by the senior business editor who saw the need to diversify a staff that had no minorities. We later went on to have several other African-American business reporters on staff. Today, I’m the lone person once again. I think there has to be acknowledgement of the problem on the part of management and then there has to be a concerted effort to recruit journalists of color."

Wall St. Journal Won’t Say Why It Ran This Photo

The Wall Street Journal used a photo of Colin L. Powell with what appear to be two black rappers to illustrate an opinion piece criticizing Powell for his endorsement Sunday of Sen. Barack Obama for president.

The opinion piece, by Bret Stephens, had nothing to do with rap music or rappers. The picture had no caption.

Then why use such a photo?

"We don’t discuss our editing decisions," replied Robert Christie, Wall Street Journal spokesman. "Actually," he added, "it is a long held policy here."

Others were not so closed-mouthed.

"They say a picture is worth a thousand words," one reader wrote on the Journal Web site. "The picture accompanying Stephens’s op-ed piece certainly ‘helps’ readers evaluate Powell’s endorsement of Obama, offering an image of Powell flanked by two rappers. The picture suggests (1) that he is, first and foremost, a black man rather than a statesman (cf. [Rush] Limbaugh’s criticism of the endorsement); (2) that he is a ridiculous has-been; (3) that he hangs out with gangstas.

"Needless to say, the photo is not from Powell’s appearance on Meet the Press or his interviews afterwards. It’s from an African festival event¬†at Royal Albert Hall in London.

"I’m a Democrat who reads WSJ online regularly to get a reasoned conservative point of view. This sort of stunt belongs on Fox News, not in the Wall Street Journal."

Actually, Fox News did use the photo. In an Oct. 15 story, Fox captioned it, "Colin Powell has his dancing shoes on, fueling speculation that he’s gearing up to do the Obama Two-Step.

"The normally staid former U.S. secretary of state and chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff performed an impromptu hip-hop dance alongside well-known rap stars Tuesday following a speech at a festival in London celebrating African-American music and fashion.

"Powell — who has yet to back a candidate — told the audience: ‘I stand before you as an African-American. Many people have said to me you became secretary of state of the USA, is it still necessary to say that you are an African American or that you are black? And I say yes, so that we can remind our children.’"

Powell said on Sunday that if he had wanted to endorse Obama simply because both men are black, he would have done that months ago.

Survey Finds Black Identification With GOP Drops 60%

"Exactly two weeks before Americans select the next President of the United States, a new survey of African Americans’ political attitudes confirms that support for Senator Barack Obama (D-IL) among black voters is at near record levels for a Democratic nominee, while black identification with the Republican Party has dropped by 60 percent since 2004. In addition, the poll found that both former President Bill Clinton and Senator Hillary Clinton (D-NY) have retained their high favorability ratings among black voters," the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies reported¬†on Tuesday.

"The poll also found a significant change in party identification among African American voters, with 73 percent identifying themselves as Democrats, up from 63 percent in 2004, and black Republicans in the survey declining to four percent, down from 10 percent four years ago. The percentage of black Independents declined from 23 percent to 19 percent over the same four year period."

In addition:

. . . Louder Chorus Tries to Debunk "Bradley Effect" 

Asked what the news media could take away from his survey of African American political attitudes, David Bositis, senior political analyst at the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies, said reporters could stop talking about the so-called "Bradley effect." "Senator Obama is going to do better among white voters probably than any Democratic candidate going back to Jimmy Carter," he said at a news conference on Tuesday.

In 1982, former Los Angeles Mayor Tom Bradley, an African American, lost the California gubernatorial election. It was suggested that his race cost him the election despite polls that showed him with a substantial lead.

But Bositis, who has supervised the Joint Center’s polling, said the effect "has been amplified with the purpose of trying to give some hope to the McCain supporters."

None of those discussing the effect quote those who have dealt with racial voting, as he has done in the issue of redistricting to take account of race, Bositis said.

Moreover, whites have elected black candidates in such states as Colorado and Illinois.

On ABC’s "This Week" on Sunday, former Republican House speaker Newt Gingrich said, "First of all, I don’t think there was a Bradley effect. I think that was an excuse by Melvin Field because his poll was entirely wrong."

"He missed absentee voters. Right," said host George Stephanopoulos.

"Well, and he missed rural voters in a year when he had a gun control initiative on the ballot. I had lunch with one of Wilson’s deputies this week who pointed out Wilson beat Brown coming from behind exactly the same week that Deukmejian beat Bradley." Referring to state Attorney General George Deukmejian and California Gov. Edmund G. (Jerry) Brown Jr.’s Senate race against San Diego Mayor Pete Wilson, Gingrich said, "Brown of course is white and is now the attorney general. But so let me just start and say, the most you can find in California is 2% or 3% difference between Deukmejian and Wilson. So it’s very hard to argue there was a Bradley effect in the first place."

In Poll, Voters Say Media Are Pulling for Obama

"Voters overwhelmingly believe that the media wants Barack Obama to win the presidential election. By a margin of 70%-9%, Americans say most journalists want to see Obama, not John McCain, win on Nov. 4. Another 8% say journalists don’t favor either candidate, and 13% say they don’t know which candidate most reporters support," according¬†to the News Coverage Index conducted by the Pew Research Center’s Project for Excellence in Journalism.

"In recent presidential campaigns, voters repeatedly have said they thought journalists favored the Democratic candidate over the Republican. But this year’s margin is particularly wide," the Pew Center said on Wednesday. "In the current campaign, Republicans, Democrats and independents all feel that the media wants to see Obama win the election."

It also said, "For its part, the national media devoted more newshole [to] the campaign (51% of all coverage) than to any other story, including the nation’s financial crisis."

In a separate study, the Pew Research Center’s Project for Excellence in Journalism reported Tuesday, "The media coverage of the race for president has not so much cast Barack Obama in a favorable light as it has portrayed John McCain in a substantially negative one, according to a new study of the media since the two national political conventions ended.

"In the six weeks following the conventions through the final debate, unfavorable stories about McCain outweighed favorable ones by a factor of more than three to one—the most unfavorable of all four candidates—according to the study."

Chicago’s Warner Saunders Readying Final Sign-off

"WMAQ-Ch. 5 lead newscaster Warner Saunders, who’s been part of Chicago’s television landscape for 40 years, expects to leave the station he has called home since 1980, retiring at the end of May from the 10 p.m. newscast he has co-anchored for 11 1/2 years," Phil Rosenthal reported¬†Wednesday for the Chicago Tribune.

"Although WMAQ has yet to make any formal announcement, Saunders, who turns 74 in January, said by e-mail that he signed a brief contract extension that smooths out the transition for the NBC-owned station’s newscasts.

"Saunders intends to move off the station’s 5 p.m. and 6 p.m. newscasts with the new year, while remaining on Channel 5’s marquee 10 p.m. broadcast alongside Allison Rosati for another five months. Barring something unexpected, Saunders indicated he looks to retire June 1."

 

Jane Velez-Mitchell Replacing Glenn Beck on CNN

"She replaced provocative talk show host Glenn Beck on Headline News Friday night. On Monday, her show got an official name," Kristi E. Swartz reported Tuesday in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

"’Issues with Jane Velez-Mitchell’ is Headline News’ answer ‚Äî at least for now ‚Äî to fill the void left by Beck. He wrapped up his 7 p.m. weekday show last Thursday and is headed for archrival Fox News Channel.

"Beck debuted on Headline News in May 2006 and was part of the network’s prime-time makeover, which included legal talker Nancy Grace and Showbiz Tonight. He also was arguably the network’s most conservative political voice and stirred up both controversy and better ratings in his time slot.

"His commentaries have upset Hispanic groups, Arab-American organizations and the liberal Media Matters for America.

"Velez-Mitchell, a true-crime author, has been a popular fill-in anchor for Nancy Grace and on other Headline News’ shows. Her show is supposed to be personality-driven, topical and opinionated, according to an internal staff memo."

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