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Obamas Take “60 Minutes” to Ratings Peak

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"Not only are the Obamas redefining what the President and his first family look like, they are also redefining what our familial roles are," ebonyjet.com’s Ronda Racha Penrice wrote after watching Steve Kroft interview Barack and Michelle Obama on CBS-TV’s "60 Minutes."¬†(Aaron Tomlinson for CBS News)

Newsmagazine Draws Biggest Audience in 9 Years

On Thursday, Ebony magazine announced the "breaking news" that, "This afternoon, Ebony magazine conducted the first interview and photo shoot with President-elect Barack Obama since his victory on Nov. 4." But by Friday, Ebony’s coup was all but forgotten as CBS-TV’s "60 Minutes" also interviewed the president-elect, promoted it with a video clip and a story and aired it in two days’ time.

On Monday, the Nielsen ratings rendered their verdict. The interview "60 Minutes" claimed as the first since Obama’s election gave the show its biggest audience in at least nine years.

"The CBS News program was seen by 24.5 million viewers and earned a 6.4 preliminary [rating among] adults 18-49 . . . That marks the show’s largest viewership since 1999," James Hibberd reported¬†for the Hollywood Reporter.

"Veteran correspondent Steve Kroft interviewed Obama about a range of domestic and foreign policy issues in the show’s opening 15-minute segment, then he spoke to Obama alongside his wife, Michelle, for two more segments covering how the election has impacted their family.

"Obama said the government should help the U.S. auto industry and reiterated his plan to pull troops out of Iraq, though the president-elect largely refused to answer questions about his cabinet choices, saying only that announcements would be made ‘soon.’ Though Kroft asked significant issue-oriented questions, he also delved into territory that some viewers might consider frivolous – such as the oft-discussed First Family’s dog acquisition plans and college football."

If there were complaints, they were from a few on the Web¬†who said the questions weren’t tough enough, or from some on the e-mail list of the National Association of Black Journalists who lamented the 2006 death of correspondent Ed Bradley. Since then, they said, no journalist of color has been regularly assigned to the program to conduct such interviews. But overall, Kroft’s interview revealed insights into Obama as president-elect and family man.

"Watching Barack Obama handle Steve Kroft’s questions with ease on "60 Minutes," his first full television one-on-one interview as President-elect, only reaffirmed that America did indeed make the right choice," Ronda Racha Penrice wrote¬†Monday on the ebonyjet.com Web site.

Viewers apparently will have to wait a few weeks to find out what Obama said to Ebony, and whether he made any news there.

"The exclusive interview and cover shoot, held at the headquarters of Johnson Publishing Co. in Chicago, will be the centerpiece of Ebony magazine’s January 2009 commemorative issue, which goes on sale nationwide Tuesday, December 9," Ebony’s news release said.

Media Critic Asks How Much Obama Is Too Much

"Are journalists fostering the notion that Obama is invincible, the leader of what the New York Times dubbed ‘Generation O’? Howard Kurtz asked¬†on Monday in the Washington Post.

"Each writer, each publication, seems to reach for more eye-popping superlatives. ‘OBAMAISM – It’s a Kind of Religion,’ says New York magazine. ‘Those of us too young to have known JFK’s Camelot are going to have our own giddy Camelot II to enrapture and entertain us,’ Kurt Andersen writes. The New York Post has already christened it ‘BAM-A-LOT.’

". . . what happens when adulation gives way to the messy, incremental process of governing? When Obama has to confront a deep-rooted financial crisis, two wars and a political system whose default setting is gridlock? When he makes decisions that inevitably disappoint some of his boosters?

"’We’re celebrating a moment as much as a man, I think,’ says Newsweek Editor Jon Meacham, whose new issue, out today, compares Obama to Lincoln. ‘Given our racial history, an hour or two of commemoration seems appropriate. But there is no doubt that the glow of the moment will fade, and I am sure the coverage will reflect that in due course.’

". . . The media would be remiss if they didn’t reflect the sense of unadulterated joy that greeted Obama’s election, both here and around the world, and the pride even among those who opposed him," Kurtz said.¬†

Do Media Need Affirmative Action for Conservatives?

Reporting that more than 900 people have stopped subscribing to the Washington Post in the past four weeks after complaining it was too liberal, Post ombudsman Deborah Howell wrote Sunday that the newspaper should seek more conservatives for its newsroom.

"Some of the conservatives’ complaints about a liberal tilt are valid," Howell wrote. "Journalism naturally draws liberals; we like to change the world. I’ll bet that most Post journalists voted for Obama. I did. There are centrists at The Post as well. But the conservatives I know here feel so outnumbered that they don’t even want to be quoted by name in a memo.

". . . Are there ways to tackle this? More conservatives in newsrooms and rigorous editing would be two. The first is not easy: Editors hire not on the basis of beliefs but on talent in reporting, photography and editing, and hiring is at a standstill because of the economy. But newspapers have hired more minorities and women, so it can be done."

Eric Boehlert of the liberal Media Matters for America replied, "If newsrooms tilt so tragically to the left, why don’t conservatives try to get jobs in newsrooms? Why don’t they jump at the chance to become poorly paid reporters in a dying industry? The answer: Conservatives would rather be partisan pundits and complain about the press and hope that people like Howell blame journalism."

 

  

Pat Oliphant Has a Problem: He Likes Obama

While liking a new president might not seem to be a serious problem for most people, it is for a political cartoonist, Matt Schofield wrote last week in the Kansas City Star. He was profiling Pat Oliphant, 74, considered the most influential cartoonist working today.

"’I came here in 1964, in the midst of Johnson ‚Äî (Barry) Goldwater, the whole mess that was defining the world,’ he said, in a gentle Australian lilt that has faded over 44 years in the U.S. ‘I thought at the time I liked Johnson. It’s not a problem I’ve had since. Until now,’" Schofield quoted the cartoonist as saying. The reference is to Lyndon Johnson.

"Which, he knows, means he’s now required to make fun of Obama, to poke at his weaknesses, to note his feet of clay and . . ." the writer continued.

"’I’m now trying to deal with the dilemma of liking the new guy,’ Oliphant notes, over a glass of white wine, his laughter shaking a mane of gray hair. ‘Cartoonists need villains. The Bush years were better than the Nixon years, professionally.’"

Oliphant’s cartoon about Barack Obama‘s election night victory is pictured above, along with the work of Tim Jackson, a cartoonist, illustrator and graphic designer whose work has appeared in the Chicago Defender and other publications, and David Fitzsimmons of the Arizona Daily Star.

Jackson’s Web site¬†includes a salute to pioneering African American artists, illustrators and graphic designers who drew "the funnies" of the black press from the 1920s to the 1960s.

Fitzsimmons, 53, told Journal-isms he feels fortunate to be in Tucson, a Democratic corner in a red state that is represented by the Republican presidential nominee, Sen. John McCain. "I was in the tank for Obama," Fitzsimmons said, "absolutely and completely." A white cartoonist with a black son-in-law and sister-in-law, he said family members would joke among themselves about the racial dynamics of the election. Other cartoons were published on Friday. The additional ‘toons are by reader request.

Can anyone identify the artist who drew the uncredited cartoon?

Sam Fulwood Leaves Plain Dealer, Returns to D.C.

Sam Fulwood III, who joined the Cleveland Plain Dealer in 2000 as a Metro columnist from the Los Angeles Times Washington bureau, then was yanked as a columnist last year by outgoing editor Douglas C. Clifton, left the paper on Friday and headed back to Washington.

Fulwood told Journal-isms he took a buyout.

Plain Dealer Editor Susan Goldberg told staff members last week that the paper had increased from 38 to 50 the number of jobs that will be cut from the newsroom by year’s end, the paper reported.

"On Oct. 7 the newspaper cited worse-than-expected advertising revenue and hard times across the industry in announcing plans to eliminate 38 jobs held by reporters, copy editors, photographers, artists and page designers," the Plain Dealer wrote.

Fulwood had been working in the paper’s features section. "It’s exciting to be back in D.C. at a time when there is so much interest in Barack Obama," he told Journal-isms. He said he was looking for work, but in the meantime, continuing to contribute to theRoot.com.

Goldberg told Journal-isms she could not confirm who was taking the buyout. "Our buyout is ongoing ‚Äî it won’t be final until Nov. 28, which is the last day people have [to] rescind their buyout decision. So we won’t know until then who is or isn’t taking it," she said.

Newkirk Becomes Reader Representative in Houston

James Newkirk, who joined the Houston Chronicle from the old Houston Post in 1991, has become the paper’s reader representative. Newkirk was an assistant managing editor.

He succeeds another black journalist, James T. Campbell, who left a year ago for a public relations job.

Among the first items on Newkirk’s plate was the Chronicle’s endorsement of Barack Obama, only the second time since 1960 that the red-state paper had backed a Democrat for the presidency.

"It would be fair to say that many of the calls and e-mails were from readers who said in no uncertain terms they were either ‘very disappointed,’ ‘shocked,’ ‘angry,’ ‘furious,’ or even ‘appalled,’" he wrote on his blog.

"Some told me they canceled their subscriptions. Some disagreed and provided passionate reasons why. Some said the Chronicle should not endorse political candidates. Some congratulated the Chronicle for a brave move."

3 Sue Station for Age, Gender Discrimination

On Thursday, three of KMBC-TV’s most senior female on-air talent ‚Äî including Maria Antonia, Kansas City’s most recognizable Hispanic journalist ‚Äî filed suit against KMBC alleging gender and age discrimination, Aaron Barnhart reported on Friday for the Kansas City Star.

"The story is a familiar one: As these women aged, they were eased out of their plum positions in favor of younger, fresher female faces . . . and meanwhile, their male counterparts were, to quote the lawsuit, ‘allowed to age, gain weight, turn grey, and wear glasses.’

"And indeed, this story played out not too long ago in Kansas City, when several employees of KCTV-5 filed suit claiming age discrimination. But that was Channel 5, where 65 percent of the staff turned over in what most people agree was a necessary (if brutal) transition.

"But this was Channel 9. It was supposed to be different here."

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