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Writers Tie Auto Bailout to Blacks’ Fate

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Columnists Point Out Link to Growth of Middle Class

As pleas for a bailout of the domestic automobile industry fall on unsympathetic ears in Washington, journalists of color who cover the automobile industry are warning that African Americans would be disproportionately affected if the industry went under. That’s not mentioning, some add, the negative impact on newspapers and broadcast outlets that depend on automobile advertising.

"I mean, we’re talking about a good brunt of Detroit area’s black middle-class and the businesses it supports," Mary Chapman, an editor at large for African Americans on Wheels magazine, said Tuesday on National Public Radio’s "Tell Me More."

"These are the folks who buy the rental properties, the second cars, the boats.

"So, when you take that tax base away in the nation’s poorest black city, one with a new administration, where unemployment already hovers around 14 percent, where the housing market is already one of the worst in the nation, you know, it’s hard to foresee how the city, which is more that 80 percent black, by the way, can keep going."

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid called off a planned vote this week on a $25 billion auto industry bailout, the Associated Press reported¬†Wednesday, saying he wanted to figure out some way to help Detroit’s struggling Big Three but that efforts to do so had stalled.

"After two days of testimony, the chief executives of General Motors, Ford Motor Company and Chrysler were unable to persuade lawmakers to aid their industry by tapping the $700 billion financial rescue program," reported the New York Times.

On "Tell Me More," longtime Washington Post automobile columnist Warren Brown was passionate in linking the fate of the domestic auto industry to African Americans.

"People ask me and say, ‘You know, why are you so passionate in your support of the domestic auto industry?’ Well, I make no bones about it," Brown said. "I am passionate because this is the one industry that has basically, you know, defined us as equally competent workers getting equal pay, which . . . helped us to develop a middle class."

Brown and John Schmitt, a senior economist at the Center for Economic and Policy Research, argued that workers should not suffer because of the failure of politicians to come up with a national energy policy.

"All car companies do what companies do. That is that they play to market. The market, historically, in the United States has been saturated with cheap gasoline. We’ve been drunk on cheap gasoline. . . . If the Democrats want more fuel-efficient vehicles, you know, put a $4 floor on the price of regular unleaded gasoline. You’ll get more fuel-efficient vehicles," Brown said.

Separately, Frank Washington, another veteran automobile writer of color who is managing partner and editor of the AboutThatCar.com Web site and freelances on automotive subjects, maintained, "The collapse of a domestic automaker would send out an economic tsunami across this country which has never been seen.

"Media outlets like local newspapers and radio stations, already feeling the pinch, would get put in financial binds. Automobile advertising, which always ranks first or second in a newspaper’s revenue stream, would be drastically reduced," Washington told Journal-isms.

"There’s no way to really understand the scale of the economic impact until the businesses and the jobs they create are gone. It’s hard to sympathize with a guy like GM CEO Rick Wagoner who reportedly made $15 million last [year]. If GM were to go under, Rick would be just fine.

"However, the independent contractor who made $15,000 last year as part of a janitorial crew that cleans a Chevrolet dealership won’t be okay, if that dealership folds. In other words, tens of thousands of regular people will lose their incomes (let’s not talk about health care and pensions) in a collapse of one of the domestic automakers. And the long-term pain is that the vast majority of those jobs won’t be coming back. That will cause an extended economic nightmare. So yes, I support the buyout, but not for the companies themselves, but because of the people and the smaller businesses that will be irreparably damaged if one of the domestics goes under.

"However," Washington added, "I’m with the president-elect. There should be no blank-check bailout. The loans should be transparent. How will the money be used? It should not be used for bonuses, no dividends to stockholders and the loans should be paid back promptly. A buck a year in pay for the CEOs until the loans are repaid is not a bad place to start in terms of accountability. And no fat paycheck for them when it’s done, either."

In Detroit, both major newspapers, the Detroit News¬†and the Free Press, have come out strongly for aid to their city’s signature industry. And Detroit News Auto Editor Manny Lopez was scornful on Wednesday of the suggestions offered by outsiders, whom he said know little about how the industry actually works.

"The auto industry is an easy target and the solutions are easy and obvious if you listen to drop-in executives or columnists who proffer advice from afar," Lopez wrote.

L.A. Times Had a Gotcha, but She Got Away

For three weeks, reporters from the Los Angeles Times watched the comings and goings of prominent Los Angeles politician Yvonne Braithwaite Burke ‚Äî a county supervisor and onetime member of the Congressional Black Caucus ‚Äî and concluded, as reported¬†in this space in July 2007, that Burke, "who was elected to represent some of the county’s poorest neighborhoods, is living in a gated Brentwood home, despite laws requiring her to reside in the predominantly South Los Angeles district she serves."

On Wednesday, Jack Leonard, one of the reporters on the stakeout, wrote what must have been a frustrating follow-up:

Burke had prevailed. She apparently stonewalled prosecutors investigating the matter.

"Los Angeles County prosecutors said Tuesday that they have decided against filing criminal charges against Supervisor Yvonne B. Burke after investigating allegations that she was living in a gated Brentwood home last year rather than in her predominantly South Los Angeles district," the story began.

"Head Deputy Dist. Atty. Dave Demerjian said his office could not determine whether Burke intended to abandon the Mar Vista town house she owns in the 2nd Supervisorial District when she registered to vote there in 2006. A successful prosecution would have had to prove that Burke intended to move to Brentwood at the time she registered, he said.

"Burke, 76, declined to talk to district attorney’s investigators about the matter, according to a memo Demerjian wrote last month outlining his reasons against filing charges."

In any event, Burke’s term expires in December, likely ending a career in which she was the first African American woman elected to the California Legislature and the first elected to Congress from California.

Nancy Sullivan, a spokeswoman for the newspaper, told Journal-isms the Times would have no further comment.

Washington Post’s Steven Holmes to Become CNN Exec

CNN has hired Steven A. Holmes, deputy national editor for domestic affairs at the Washington Post, to join its office of standards and practices, Holmes told Journal-isms on Wednesday. He described the job as vetting shows before broadcast, similar to an ombudsman. 

A CNN spokeswoman said Holmes would fill the newly created position of executive director of standards & practices.

Holmes, 58, joined the Post in 2005 after having covered race, politics, Congress and foreign affairs at the New York Times since 1989, and before that working at Time magazine in Chicago, Los Angeles, London and Washington.

At the Post, he helped cover the recent presidential campaign, supervised domestic bureaus and worked on the seven-month "Being a Black Man" series of 2006.

Holmes spoke on the same day the Post announced internally that Darryl Fears, another black journalist on the National Desk, covering prison and social issues, would be leaving that desk to cover local affordable housing and poverty issues at the newspaper.

Holmes starts at CNN on Dec. 8, working first in Atlanta and then returning to Washington, reporting to Rick Davis, executive vice president, and Jim Walton, president of CNN Worldwide.

"Of the move, Holmes said that CNN’s doing ‘cutting edge journalism,’ and is a growing company that’s ‘trying new things,’" Michael Calderone wrote¬†on his Politico blog Wednesday. "In addition to news coverage and ‘an incredible website,’ Holmes noted that the network recently launched D.L. Hughley‘s comedy show and iReport, and plans to start a wire service."

Ex-Candidates Palin, Clinton Return to the News

"Barack Obama may have toured his new home with President Bush, but much of last week’s media coverage focused on two women who ran losing campaigns for the executive branch.

"With Hillary Clinton, the speculation was whether she would become the top diplomat in the new Obama administration. With Sarah Palin, the question was whether she would emerge as the top Republican," Mark Jurkowitz reported¬†Tuesday for the Pew Center’s Project for Excellence in Journalism.

"By the end of the week, Palin and Clinton were the second and third-leading newsmakers of the week from Nov. 10-16, trailing only the president-elect.

". . . For the week, the media narrative of the incoming Obama administration was the No. 1 story, but only barely, filling 24% of the overall newshole studied. Most of the coverage of the new presidency (about two-thirds) was devoted to three major storylines — the logistics of the transfer of power from Bush to Obama, predictions about the tone and substance of an Obama presidency and speculation about who might populate the top jobs in that administration."

Reporters Who Wouldn’t Leave Assigned to Mailroom

"When a newspaper cuts its staff, those who remain in the depleted newsroom become valuable. But as The Star-Ledger of Newark, N.J. slowly says farewell to 151 newsroom folks who took buyouts last month, at least two longtime journalists have been reassigned to the mailroom," Joe Strupp reported Wednesday for Editor & Publisher.

"Reporter Jason Jett and Assistant Deputy Photo Editor Mitchell Seidel have been filing, sorting, and delivering mail for more than a week, according to sources." Jett is black and Seidel is white.

"Jett and Seidel, who could not be reached for comment, apparently declined to take one of the buyouts offered this fall as part of a companywide move to cut costs.

"Publisher George Arwady threatened to sell or close the Advance Publications daily last summer if at least 200 buyouts were not taken and new deals forged with two unions.

"As the buyout-takers continue to leave, the paper distributed a list to employees of those who will stay." It includes Mitsutaro Yasukawa, Chanta Jackson, Lisa Irizarry, along with others on a list obtained by E&P.

Time Inc. Layoffs Claim Black Group’s Co-Chairs

Layoffs at Time Inc. have claimed both co-chairs of BlackEmployees@TimeInc, one of the "affinity groups" at Time Inc.

The two are Ayanna Victorin, a senior marketing manager at Sports Illustrated who had been at the company 11 years, and Sharen Phillips, who joined Time Inc. in 2000 as a marketing manager for Time Direct Venture, a new business development arm for consumer marketing. She worked on developing relationships for Essence consumer marketing, Essence Music Festival and Essence.com.

Time Inc. helps support four employee "affinity groups," created in 1998: BlackEmployees@Time (BEAT), Hispanic & Latino Employees@Time Inc., the Asian American Association of Time Inc. (A3) and Out@Time Inc., comprising gays and lesbians.

In 2005, Norman Pearlstine, then Time Inc. editor in chief, told Journal-isms the affinity groups were important in expanding Time Inc.’s horizons.

"We’re working with the leaders of BEAT to decide on a new co-chair(s)," Time Inc. spokeswoman Dawn Bridges said Wednesday.

Jeffrey L. Bewkes, Time Warner president and CEO, has said the "restructuring" will mean a loss of approximately 6 percent of the workforce. Globally, Time Inc’s total number of employees until recently was 10,200, Bridges said.

"Terrorist Fist Jab" Anchor Out at Fox News Channel

The contract of Fox News Channel anchor E.D. Hill will not be renewed when her current contract expires, the TV Newser Web site reported on Wednesday. Hill, who has been with Fox News for more than 10 years, will continue with the network for the next few months until her current deal expires.

On the June 6 edition of Fox News Channel’s "America’s Pulse," Hill teased an upcoming discussion on a gesture Sen. Barack Obama shared with his wife, Michelle, saying, ‘A fist bump? A pound? A terrorist fist jab? The gesture everyone seems to interpret differently.’"

Hill’s use of "terrorist fist jab," for which she issued a clarification after criticism from journalists and bloggers, helped earn Fox News a Thumbs Down Award¬†this year from the National Association of Black Journalists.

Hill has been without a regular Fox News program since June 16, when "America’s Pulse" was replaced by two hours of "Live Desk," TV Newser said.

"SVP of Programming Bill Shine tells TVNewser that he ‘chose not to renew E.D.’s latest contract’ but noted that ‘Hill has been a valued contributor to the success of FNC over the years, and we wish her all the best,’" the Web site reported.

Kendall Wilson, Philadelphia Tribune Writer, Dies at 74

Kendall Wilson, a senior writer with the Philadelphia Tribune for two decades, died on Monday at age 74, the Tribune, the venerable African American community newspaper, reported. The cause of death was not listed, but he had been ill.

"This was someone who had forgotten more about covering politics in the Black Community both locally and nationally than any of us will ever know," Denise Clay, a former president of the Philadelphia Association of Black Journalists, wrote to colleagues in the National Association of Black Journalists. "And he did almost all of it for African American news organizations."

In 1998 Wilson won the National Newspaper Publishers Association’s A. Philip Randolph Award for a series on black family-owned funeral homes’ struggle to avoid corporate takeover.

"He brought a degree of credibility to Black newspapers . . . sometimes, people have a tendency to take the Black press lightly or they sometimes have a tendency to favor what they read in the Daily News, the Inquirer over what they read in the Tribune, but what he did was, he was able to bring a degree of credibility," said Barnett Wright, former colleague and close friend, in the Tribune story.

"He made people pay attention to the Black press. He made people pay attention to what was in The Philadelphia Tribune. He made people pay attention to the things that he wrote and everybody read Kendall — from Mary Mason on the radio to the editors of the Daily News and the Inquirer to people over there at the Sunday Sun, everybody read Kendall Wilson."

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