Most Journalists of Color Are Heading Out the Door

The Star-Ledger of Newark, N.J., is losing about 40 percent of its newsroom staff to buyouts, Editor Jim Willse said on Friday, in one of the largest hemorrhagings in a newspaper industry coping with Internet-driven, industry-wide economic upheaval.

“It’s an apocalypse,” business reporter George Jordan, one of the departing black journalists, told Journal-isms. “I’ve been in the business for 28 years and have seen nothing like it. The wheels fell off with a blink of the eye. Throw your notebooks in the air and run the other way.”

Willse said 151 buyout offers were accepted in a newsroom of about 330 people. Seventeen people, who were part-timers or had not worked at the paper very long, were turned down. Jordan and others said a large number of journalists of color are among those leaving. Many were angry with scare tactics used by the Newhouse-owned paper to induce employees to take the buyout.

“We’ll get through it. We’ll find a way to have a good paper,” Willse told Journal-isms, though he acknowledged, “This has a certain magnitude that’s hard to match.”

Willse said diversity “was and remains one of our concerns,” but that “the buyout offer was open to all” and the company could not structure them to account for diversity among those remaining.

In the most recent census of the American Society of Newspaper Editors, the Star-Ledger reported 18.6 percent journalists of color, including 5.1 percent Asian Americans, 10.6 percent black or African Americans and 2.9 percent Hispanic.

Kevin Dilworth, a black journalist¬†who has covered most of Essex County, which includes Newark, said he had been at the¬†paper 28 years and said he had no idea what he would do next. “It used to be considered a very family-oriented newspaper, but the tactics that were used frightened most people and made people leave. Most people are very disgusted and can’t wait to get out of here.”

Dilworth was in the 1973 class of the Michele Clark Program for minority journalists at Columbia University, a predecessor of the Maynard Institute for Journalism Education. He said he knew of only one person in his class of 35 who was still in journalism.

Others also mentioned the scare tactics.

The paper reported on Oct. 3:

“Advance Publications announced in July that it would sell The Star-Ledger if the newspaper failed to win concessions from two unions and persuade at least 200 of the paper’s 756 non-union full-time employees to accept buyouts by this week. The paper’s total workforce is 1,412.

“The company has said it would close the paper if it fails to sell by Jan. 5.

“. . . The Star-Ledger has been New Jersey’s dominant newspaper for decades. But like others in the industry, the newspaper has been buffeted by losses as readers turn to the internet. The paper has struggled for several years, freezing hiring and wage increases, but avoiding the kind of layoffs that have beset similar-sized operations.”

Barry Carter, a black journalist who writes a local human-interest column, is remaining. “It just suited me to stay,” Carter, 46, said, citing his family situation. Carter, who has been at the paper 19 years, has two daughters — one in college and another on the way.

Also staying is Robin Wilson-Glover, bureau chief for Morris, Warren and Sussex counties and a Maynard Institute graduate. “In my bureau I have 10 people and five are leaving,” she told Journal-isms. “It will be a very different newspaper than the one I came to 10 years ago, and I hope that it will stay a good paper.” She said she was remaining because “it still can be.”

Kasi Addison, who covers Newark schools, said she is among those taking the offer, and her next job “probably won’t be in journalism.” She came to the paper in 2003.¬† Reginald Roberts, who covers Essex County and has been at the paper for 25 years, said on Monday he did not know what he would do next. He said he would be at the paper until the end of the year.

Departures will be staggered between now and the end of the year, Willse said, according to the Wall Street Journal.   [Updated Oct. 27.]

• Rod Dreher blog: Black Friday at the Dallas Morning News
  

At Least 5 of Color Among 75 Leaving L.A. Times

Movie critic Carina Chocano, veteran black journalists John Mitchell and Lynell George, Latino cultural writer Agustin Gurza and sportswriter Lonnie White, another African American, are leaving the Los Angeles Times as the paper undergoes yet another staff trimming, they told Journal-isms on Monday. In his farewell note, Mitchell said he was the last African American male on the Metro staff and that there were none on the National or Foreign staffs.

 

“I deeply regret to report that today, 75 of our friends, colleagues and capable staff members in Editorial will be told that they are losing their jobs. This is about 10% of our total staff and these cuts are comparable in scale to those made on the business side of The Times last week,” Editor Russ Stanton said Monday in an e-mail to the staff.

“Yes, I’ve been forced to take the buyout package,” White, 44, the Inside/Behind The Lines sports columnist,¬†told Journal-isms. “I’ve been working at the LA Times since 1987. When I began, the LA Times had only one African American sportswriter (Chris Baker) and when I leave 21 years later,” there will be two (Kurt Streeter and Brad Turner).

“As a former USC player who actually played in a Rose Bowl game, it was a pleasure to cover the game as a sportswriter for the Times.”

“No matter how far we saw it coming, it still feels like a shock,” Gurza told Journal-isms.

“No plans so far. Once I gather my wits, I have to start scouting for
¬†work.”¬† Gurza said he spent almost 10 years with the Times. Before that, he worked about seven years each with the Orange County (Calif.)¬†Register and the Riverside (Calif.) Press-Enterprise.

Mitchell, 57, joined the paper in 1979 and has been a suburban reporter, metro reporter, deputy state editor and south county bureau chief, his current position. He said he was leaving voluntarily because “It’s time.

“I’ve got some projects I’m thinking about,” he said, but meanwhile, he plans to just take some time off. “It’s been a tough year for everybody. This is the third buyout in a year.”¬†

In 1993, Mitchell was a member of the team of Times reporters who won the Pulitzer Prize, awarded for coverage of the second day of the Los Angeles riots. Before coming to the Times, he worked as a reporter for the New York Post. He is a graduate of City University of New York, according to a bio.

He said this in his farewell note:

“It’s my turn to say farewell. Nearly thirty years ago, I began working at The Times in a small suburban office next to a fish market on the Westside. I was among a wave of new hires brought in at a time when the paper’s resources seemed limitless. I’ve enjoyed one hell of a ride at one of the best newspapers in the nation with colleagues who are second to none. I’ve had the pleasure of working on some of the biggest stories of our time and I’ve enjoyed finding tales that, in their own way, were timeless. I’ve been an editor working with some of the best talents in the business.

“But as this phase of my life comes to a close, my good fortune is tempered by a troubling reality: I am the only African American male on a metro staff responsible for covering the most diverse city in the nation. There are no blacks in Foreign. And at a time when the nation may elect the first African American president, there are none on the national staff.

“As I head for the door, I know I owe a lot to this place. It’s been part of my identity for more than half my life. I’ve raised two children and have made more friends than I can count. And for all of that, I’m deeply, deeply thankful.”

Chocano, who joined the L.A. Times in 2003 as a television critic, said she would like to write a book. Her first, “Do You Love Me, or Am I Just Paranoid?: The Serial Monogamist’s Guide to Love,” was published in 2003.

Chocano’s family hails from Lima, Peru. She has a fan at the MediaBistro Web site FishBowl LA. “We’re outraged by the bone-headedness of this decision: The LAT needs more excellent, smart coverage — not less,” FishBowl LA Editor Mayrav Saar wrote on Monday, “something bigger and better. Hell, with all the cuts these days, it won’t be hard to find something bigger and better than the L.A. Times.” Saar called Chocano “one of the best film critics in the country.”

George, an arts and culture writer who said she was busy quickly cleaning out her desk, had been at the paper since 1993.

According to a staff memo last year when George joined the Calendar section, “Lynell joined The Times in 1993 in the View section. A decade later, she became a member of the Pop Music staff in Calendar, where she covered jazz, pop and world music. Through the years, her eclectic tastes, distinctive voice and graceful writing have set her work apart — and brought many honors, including a National Assn. of Black Journalists Award for her six-part series ‘Sometimes a Light Surprises: The Life of a Black Church.’

“Prior to coming to The Times, Lynell was a staff writer at L.A. Weekly, where she wrote about culture, the arts and social issues. Her work has appeared in various magazines, including The New Left Review, Ms., Essence and Vibe, as well as in several essay collections, including ‘Writing Los Angeles: A Literary Anthology.’ She is the author of ‘No Crystal Stair: African-Americans in the City of Angels.'”

Frank O. Sotomayor, a former editor at the newspaper who is now associate director of the Institute for Justice and Journalism at the USC Annenberg School for Communication, told Journal-isms:

“The newest buyouts — and force outs — at L.A. Times represent another harsh setback to serious news coverage. And with the departures of Agustin Gurza, John Mitchell, Lynell George, Lonnie White — and,¬† likely, other outstanding journalists of color — the Times is now less able to cover the incredible diversity of Southern California. Gurza, for example, provided knowledgeable perspectives about the Latino music, arts and culture scene in a city that is 50% Latino. I don’t understand why the Times would not retain such a valuable asset.” Sotomayor is also a co-founder of the Maynard Institute for Journalism Education.

Stanton said in his memo, “The growing economic downturn is forcing us to undergo another round of job reductions and cost cuts.” [Added Oct. 27]

Media¬†Spread, Debunked McCain Worker’s Hoax

Web sites and the news media played roles in promoting as well as debunking the story by John McCain volunteer Ashley Todd that she was attacked by a large black man who carved the letter “B” into her cheek. Todd admitted she made up the story and has been charged with filing a false police report, a misdemeanor.

“It started yesterday afternoon with Matt Drudge screaming at the top of his site in red type — but no siren — that a Pittsburgh campaign worker for McCain, age 20, had been viciously attacked and the letter ‘B’ carved into her face, presumably by a Barack Obama fan. Her name, it soon emerged, was Ashley Todd and she had come to Pittsburgh from College Station, Texas, to help out,” as Editor & Publisher reported.

“Still later, conservative columnist Michelle Malkin, and some others, grew skeptical. For one thing, the ‘B’ was carved a little too lightly and perfectly — and backward, as if done using a mirror. Smoking Gun probed a too-pat ‘Twitter’ angle and Gawker looked at her MySpace page.”

“Let’s talk in a little more depth about the eagerness and even glee with which some in the right-wing blogosphere jumped on that story and immediately claimed it as proof of their worst nightmares coming true,” Jay Bookman wrote for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. “So much of that story was unbelievable from the very beginning, yet certain people wanted to believe it so badly that they ignored all the warning signs and launched into full battle cry.

“Andy McCarthy at the National Review’s Corner responded with a post so embarrassing he has now taken it down so nobody can see it.

“Dan Riehl at riehlworldview.com posted under the headline ‘Thugs for change,’ claiming that ‘Obama’s run his campaign just like a street thug out of Chicago. Now we get to see what some of his worst supporters are like.’

“Noel Sheppard at newsbusters.org [chastised] AP for daring to be skeptical of the initial report. Most of all, he wanted to know why the AP didn’t report that the alleged perp was black. How dare they exclude a detail that had no bearing whatsoever on the alleged crime!!

“. . . But perhaps the most interesting response came from John Moody, executive vice president at Fox News:

“‘If Ms. Todd’s allegations are proven accurate, some voters may revisit their support for Senator Obama, not because they are racists (with due respect to Rep. John Murtha), but because they suddenly feel they do not know enough about the Democratic nominee,’ Moody wrote. ‘If the incident turns out to be a hoax, Senator McCain’s quest for the presidency is over, forever linked to race-baiting.'”

• Huffington Post, Ashley Todd Story Pushed By McCain Campaign Aide, Say Reporters
• Phillip Martin, Huffington Post: ¬†ATM “Beating” Victim: Echo of the Charles Stuart Case
• Barb Shelly, Kansas City Star: The campaign worker’s lie¬†
• Jose Antonio Vargas, washingtonpost.com: McCain Volunteer’s Claim of Attack Unravelled, Online and Off

Tavis Smiley Again Portrays Himself as a Journalist

Tavis Smiley, the commentator and activist, is claiming to be a journalist again.

“Even his strongest African-American critics were acknowledging that Smiley is, in his words, ‘the most credible black journalist’ out there today,” Jon Friedman wrote Friday in his MarketWatch column.

“‘They see me as “Brother No. 1,’ Smiley said, nodding. ‘They see me as the “go-to commentator” in black America.'”

Smiley’s occupation previously came up¬†when Smiley pledged $1 million to boost Texas Southern University’s communications school. Smiley accepted an automobile from¬†sponsor DaimlerChrysler, and had campaigned for Kwame Kilpatrick to become mayor of Detroit.

Smiley’s publicist, Joel Brokaw, replied then: “Mr. Smiley is not a journalist by training or profession, nor does he refer to himself by that title. . . . Mr. Smiley is a television and radio talk show host, commentator, author, public speaker and activist.”

But in February, Smiley again referred to himself as a journalist in a conversation reported by the Washington Post’s Darryl Fears.

Brokaw replied then:

“Mr. Smiley said that Mr. Fears was referring to him as a journalist in their conversation. As a teacher of English as a second language in Europe many years ago and a good speaker of foreign languages, I learned that we naturally look to use as few words as possible in conversation, our own form of spoken shorthand. So, for Mr. Fears, it was easier to lump all the roles Mr. Smiley does in that one word. I can only assume that it came up in the context, and Mr. Smiley did not make a big deal out of it to clarify in the short time he had to speak with him. I certainly wouldn’t attach any greater meaning to it than that.”

In the most recent instance, Smiley told Friedman he didn’t expect presidential candidate Barack Obama to agree to come on his PBS late-night talk show before the election.

“Smiley said that to the consternation of a number of Obama supporters, he hasn’t given the Democrat a free pass during the campaign,” Friedman wrote. “Smiley said he has acted like an objective, probing journalist. It makes no difference to an ethical journalist — whether he works in a news room or hosts a talk show — what a candidate’s skin color is or whether or not Smiley privately supports that person’s prospects.”

Clayton Riley, New York Writer and Critic, Dies at 73

Clayton Riley, a prolific New York-based critic, radio host and author, died Friday at New York Presbyterian Hospital after a long illness, his first wife, Nancy Riley, told Journal-isms. He was 73.

Riley had been an actor, boxer and sportsman before he settled on writing and broadcasting, Nancy Riley said.

A 2007 summary of his career for a Westchester County, N.Y., production said:

“Clayton Riley appeared in various off-Broadway shows in the 60‚Äôs including LeRoi Jones‚Äô ‘Dutchman’ and Martin Duberman‚Äôs ‘In White America.’ As a journalist, he wrote critical pieces about theater, film, and music for the New York Times from 1969-1975, and for a multitude of publications such as Ebony, Essence, Emerge, Daily News, and the Village Voice as well as for the WGBH Boston series, ‘On Being Black,’ Channel 13‚Äôs ‘I Remember Harlem,’ ‘The Different Drummer,’ and ‘Black Champions.’ He also had the pleasure of writing a publication entitled ‘Daddy King’ with Martin Luther King, Senior. He has been a radio host, a film production assistant, and an educator.”

According to Renee Graham, writing in the Boston Globe, Riley criticized the landmark 1971 film “Shaft” in the New York Times, calling it “an extended lie, a distortion that simply grows larger and more unbelievable with each frame.” In particular, he objected to Shaft as an infallible superhero who always gets the last word, always wins the fight, always emerges from every hairy situation with his ‘fro intact.”

Riley said of Melvin van Peebles‘ “Sweet Sweetback’s Baadasssss Song,” released in the same year, “Sweetback, the profane sexual athlete and fugitive, is based on a reality that is Black. We may not want him to exist but he does.”

His larger point, as quoted by¬†David Denby, writing in the Atlantic Monthly,¬†was that “The superhero creates elitist, worshipping attitudes and enforces your sense of personal worthlessness. . . . Watching Poitier kill whitey with his custom made shotguns may make you feel good, but it doesn’t help you to live on the streets of Chicago.”

Riley criticized the Negro Ensemble Company for accepting money from the Ford Foundation, challenging the company to produce “one proud work . . . on its feet, rather than a hundred plays produced in a kneeling position before its dubious benefactors and the critics.”

In 1994, Pierre Sutton, chairman of the board of Inner City Broadcasting Corp., fired Riley 15 minutes before he was scheduled to go on the air at WLIB radio.

“I told Riley that because of the increasing number of letters we had received from listeners complaining about his on-the-air style that we would have to terminate him,” said Sutton in a phone interview Tuesday morning, Herb Boyd reported then in the New York Amsterdam News.

“Essentially the complaints had to do with his inability to handle disagreement. While I personally like Clayton and it is rather painful that we have to let him go, we must retain a mutual respect with our audience. It’s all about communications, and that’s a two-way thing.”

In Newsday, columnist Les Payne took up for Riley, describing him as, “This voice of thunder from the left, with a caustic but discerning tongue.”

“The Daily News wrote that Riley was fired for ‘among other things — taunting Jewish demonstrators’ protesting the station’s alleged anti-Semitism,” Payne wrote. “‘Take a bath,’ he reportedly said off-air to Beth [Gilinsky], the head of the protesting Jewish Action Alliance and, for good measure, ‘kiss my black ass.'”

“. . . Riley himself has not been accused of on-air anti-Semitism; in fact, he has been praised for aggressively heading it off.”

Riley also worked at Pacifica station WBAI-FM and earlier wrote for New York’s public television station, WNET. Among the pieces he did there were “The Different Drummer: Blacks in the Military,” a three-part series, and “Miles Ahead:¬†The Music of Miles Davis.”

Among his books was “The Golden Gospel of the Reverend Ike” (1975), and he was co-author of the 1980 autobiography¬†of “Daddy King.”

A brother, Mark Riley, is a political analyst on WLIB.

 

 

Interview of Colin Powell on Sunday’s “Meet the Press” averaged 6.062 million total viewers.

Opinion Pages Called Slow to Censure Anti-Muslim Bias

“It’s hard to compete with Colin Powell, especially if you’re a small media watchdog group,” Lester Feder wrote¬†Wednesday for the Columbia Journalism Review. “But the former Secretary of State did in a few sentences what the progressive group Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting has been trying to do for months: push back on anti-Muslim media bias, which they term ‘Islamophobia.’

“A FAIR report entitled “‘Secret Muslims,’ Open Bigotry” argues that while mainstream press has been quick to contradict rumors of Obama’s faith ‚Äî he is, in fact, a Christian ‚Äî reporting has tended to reinforce the anti-Muslim sentiments that make these rumors so politically potent. The report states, ‘Journalists often accepted the idea that there was something suspicious or bad about being Muslim by referring to the canard as a ‘smear’ (New York Times, 1/17/08; ABC News, 12/5/07), an ‘unsubstantiated charge’ (Washington Post, 6/28/08), or an example of ‘nasty and false attacks’ (New York Times, 1/17/08).’

“FAIR especially faults opinion writers for their silence. When Polish elections were tainted by allegations that a presidential candidate was a ‘secret Jew,’ the report points out, the opinion pages of The Washington Post, The New York Times, and The Atlanta Journal Constitution vigorously denounced this anti-Semitism and congratulated Americans for being above such fear-mongering.

“But while ‘secret Muslim’ rumors have been circulating for two years, it’s only after Colin Powell goes on television that the opinion pages wake up.”

• Amy Alexander, the Nation: Rocking the Black Vote
• Monroe Anderson blog:¬†McPalin’s Ayn Rand economics¬†
• Betty Bay?©, Louisville Courier-Journal:¬†Powell’s endorsement of Obama makes waves
• Alexander Bolton, the Hill: Colin Powell splits with son over White House race
• Mary C. Curtis, Nieman Watchdog blog: The Powell Endorsement
  
• Rex Feng, AsianWeek:¬†Who Is The Asian American Voter?
• Sam Fulwood III, theRoot.com:¬†Sleepless in Obamaland
• Patrice Gaines, Washington Informer:¬†Jean the Mother
• Vlada Gelman, TV Week: Powell Boosts ‘Meet the Press’ Ratings
• Dexter Hill, Editor & Publisher:¬†‘Hartford Courant’ To Endorse Obama, Only 2nd Democrat Ever — ‘St. Pete Times’ Joins In
• Nicholas D. Kristof, New York Times: Rebranding the U.S. With Obama
• Julianne Malveaux, National Newspaper Publishers Association:¬†Obsession — The Campaign Contribution
• Roland Martin, Creators Syndicate: Republican Attacks Show Fear and Desperation¬†¬†
• Askia Muhammad, Washington Informer:¬†Colin Powell: Redeemed?
• Tony Norman, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette:¬†Palin fairy tale doesn’t end well for GOP
• Michael E. Ross, theRoot.com:¬†The All-American Family Crisis
• Yussuf Simmonds, Los Angeles Sentinel:¬†Economy Trumps Bradley Effect
• Ron Walters, National Newspaper Publishers Association:¬†America Needs Barack Obama Now

With Palin, “I Saw a Mother, Not Just a Candidate”

“My interview¬†with Sarah Palin recently was really interesting,” Univision anchor Jorge Ramos told¬†Mariel Bird of Broadcasting & Cable. “She’s no expert on Latino American issues or international relations but she did her homework. You might only see this politician who has been portrayed in a certain way but what I saw was a mother.”

“Ramos described how Palin arrived with her daughter Piper, who brought Ramos’ children’s book, ‘I’m Just Like My Mom; I’m Just Like My Dad,’ for him to sign. ‘[Piper] stayed for the entire interview while I asked [Gov.] Palin about Venezuela and immigration and things like that,’ he said. ‘This is something that you don’t see on TV and why it’s such a privilege to be a journalist. I saw a mother, not just a candidate.’

“Ramos accepted the B&C/Multichannel News Lifetime of Achievement in Hispanic Television award Thursday, less than two weeks before what he called the biggest election in American history‚Äîthe outcome of which he says will hinge on the rapidly expanding Hispanic community.

“‘Nobody can make it to the White House without Univision,’ Ramos declared in his acceptance speech at the New York Hilton, on the second day of the Sixth Annual Hispanic Television Summit. ‘That’s how simple it is. If Barack Obama or John McCain want to win Florida or Nevada, they have to talk to us.'”

Network to Target Central Americans in U.S.

“DirecTV is expected to officially announce this week the launch of Telecentro, a Spanish-language channel with programming from six TV networks in Central America,” Laura Mart??nez reported¬†for Multichannel News.

“Telecentro, which soft launched on the satellite leader this summer, hopes to capture the estimated 4 million to 6 million Central Americans who live in the United States with 24/7 live programming from their home countries, putting a special emphasis on live newscasts, variety shows and first division soccer matches. According to the Telecentro’s creators, the programs have been carefully chosen to bring the best shows from top networks in Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador, Costa Rica, Nicaragua and Panama.”

Short Takes

• “It is not economic prosperity but peace that guarantees press freedom. That is the main lesson to be drawn from the world press freedom index that Reporters Without Borders compiles every year and from the 2008 edition, released today,” the international press-freedom organization said. “Another conclusion from the index — in which the bottom three rungs are again occupied by the ‘infernal trio’ of Turkmenistan (171st), North Korea (172nd) and Eritrea (173rd) — is that the international community’s conduct towards authoritarian regimes such as Cuba (169th) and China (167th) is not effective enough to yield results.”
• “Photojournalist Alex Rivera, who spent his career covering the civil rights movement and working at North Carolina Central University, has died. He was 95,” the Associated Press reported¬†Friday from Durham, N.C. Rivera worked as a Washington Tribune photographer after attending Howard University and in 1939, was recruited to create the news bureau at the North Carolina College for Negroes, which later became North Carolina Central University. After World War II, “Rivera joined the Norfolk Journal and Guide, then in 1946 became a North Carolina-based correspondent for the Pittsburgh Courier, among the country’s top black-owned newspapers. Rivera covered the last lynchings in South Carolina and Alabama, and legal challenges to school segregation. He won a Global Syndicate Award for his coverage in 1955,” the story said.
• Jackson (Miss.) “Clarion-Ledger Executive Editor Ronnie Agnew will receive one of the state’s most prestigious journalism awards from his alma mater during a ceremony next month at the University of Mississippi,” the newspaper reported on Wednesday. “Presented annually by the Ole Miss Department of Journalism, the Silver Em goes to a Mississippi native who has excelled outside the state, or a Mississippi-based journalist who has contributed to journalism within its borders.”
• Barbara Blake Hannah wrote¬†to Britain’s Guardian newspaper Thursday to correct the record: that she, in 1968, became the nation’s first black presenter, or anchor. “It was the first time a black person had appeared on British TV in a non-entertainment role and, as I had been a journalist all my professional life, I enjoyed the job which involved interviewing everyone: Prime Minister Harold Wilson, movie star Michael Caine and round-the-world yachtsmen, as well as ordinary people in newsworthy situations,” she wrote. “After nine months, though, my contract was terminated and I was told that the producers were under pressure from viewers who called in daily to say, ‘Get that n****r off our screens.’ My producer tried to break it to me gently, but it still hurt, especially when I was replaced by an Australian girl.”
• Faced with criticism from member papers, some of whom said they would drop the service, the Associated Press announced¬†Thursday it would reduce U.S. newspaper member assessments by another $9 million next year and immediately begin a re-examination of the AP membership structure. While his paper was not one of those dropping the service, Alberto Vourvoulias, executive editor of New York’s El Diario/La Prensa, told Journal-isms, “AP is very expensive. It is a big chunk of the editorial budget . At a time when the editorial budget is under pressure,” the money paid to the news cooperative could be used “to hire a large number of journalists to do stories.”¬†
• The idea that New York Yankees pitcher Joba Chamberlain‘s arrest for allegedly driving under the influence¬†is somehow connected to his Native American background is real for Native journalist Dalton Walker, Anthony Rieber wrote¬†Thursday for Newsday. “The stereotype always goes back to the drunken Indian,” said Walker, who covered Joba at Nebraska and blogs about Native American athletes at www.reznetnews.org,” Rieber wrote. ‘I knew it was coming,’ Walker said. ‘Just because of that old stereotype about the drunken Native American. People are going to put that together, even if the story didn’t mention he was Native. It’s definitely not a reflection on Indian country. He just happened to be a Yankee baseball player who is Native American.”
• “I’m sure by now you’ve seen the story¬†about the black family members of Sen. John McCain on CNN, and in The Wall Street Journal,” Bradley C. Bennett, executive editor of the South Florida Times, told Journal-isms on Thursday. “But would you believe a small, black-owned weekly paper like ours beat both those big news organizations to the story?”
• “A Boston conservative radio host has been busted for allegedly raping a Manhattan girl four years ago when she was only 12,” the New York Daily News reported¬†on Thursday. “Reese Hopkins, 39, who had dubbed himself the ‘Crossover Negro’ on his WRKO-AM morning show, waived extradition to New York Thursday during an appearance in a Massachusetts courtroom. . . .As he was being led from the courthouse in shackles Thursday, Hopkins vehemently denied the charges, explaining that he wasn’t living on the upper East Side at the time of the alleged attack.”
• “Since late spring and early summer, I’ve dropped more than 60 pounds through a regimen of diet, exercise, science and medicine,” Wichita Eagle columnist Mark McCormick told readers on Oct. 12. “Losing weight isn’t something you should do for someone else. Or even because of someone else. You’re more than what people see in front of them. And to truly understand what that means, I had to see it for myself.”
• In Los Angeles, “KCBS morning traffic reporter Vera Jimenez is busy chronicling the mess this morning on the 405, which was partly closed in the Sepulveda Pass due to brush fires. After spending a few serious minutes discussing the traffic snarls, Jimenez suddenly brings up her recent test drive of a Lincoln MKS (not so coincidentally, KCBS’ morning traffic coverage is sponsored by SoCal Lincoln dealers, whose screen bug remains on the lower left-hand corner throughout). Cut to video of Vera, hanging out inside the vehicle and extolling the virtues of the car. Then cut to weather,” wrote¬†the bloggers who compile “Franklin Avenue.” “Local news orgs have been criticized in the past for occasionally embedding commercial messages into the middle of newscasts . . . But I can’t remember seeing anything as blatant as this.”