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Pundits Meet Privately With Obama

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Rebecca Aguilar Sues Dallas Station Over Firing

Black Columnists Among "Progressive" Group of 11

African American columnists Derrick Z. Jackson of the Boston Globe; Roland S. Martin of CNN and Creators Syndicate; Eugene Robinson of the Washington Post and MSNBC and DeWayne Wickham of USA Today and Gannett News Service were among 11 "progressive" commentators who held an off-the-record meeting with President-elect Barack Obama in Washington on Wednesday morning. It followed a meeting Tuesday night between Obama and conservative pundits.

The participants were promised regular meetings with Obama, but were not to report on the substance of the discussions. One observed, however, that the questions from the black columnists differed from others in that they were not from "the front page of the Washington Post and New York Times" and delved into other topics, such as education, Latin America and the environment. The president-elect was able to speak as extensively about those as on the hot-button issues, this pundit said.

The observation comes amid a backlash to a story by Howard Kurtz in the Washington Post Monday that noted the paucity of journalists of color in the White House press corps.

"With so many other things to worry about, and with the whole world able to see that racial identity is no longer a barrier to even the most powerful position in American life, you might think the press would finally be ready to abandon its unhealthy preoccupation with the color of skin – especially the skin within its own ranks. Alas, no," conservative columnist Jeff Jacoby wrote Wednesday in the Boston Globe. Sam Dealey echoed that thinking in U.S. News & World Report.

Wednesday’s "progressive" group included E.J. Dionne of the Washington Post, Gerald Seib of the Wall Street Journal, Ron Brownstein of the National Journal, Frank Rich and Maureen Dowd of the New York Times, Andrew Sullivan of the Atlantic and Rachel Maddow of MSNBC.

The gathering, which lasted an hour and 45 minutes and took place at a long table in the transition team offices, followed a dinner the previous night with conservative columnists at the $1.9 million home of George F. Will in suburban Chevy Chase, Md.

There were no women commentators of color at either gathering. Cynthia Tucker of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution was reportedly invited, but Tucker recently adopted a baby girl and is on leave until April 1, according to her office.

"Call it a charm offensive or a high-level ‘Listening Tour,’ but Barack Obama is already signaling that he intends to break with the current president in one obvious way: hearing from his critics," Jonathan Harper wrote¬†in Politico.

"Asked for a general impression of Obama, an attendee would only allow: ‘He’s an articulate, smart guy.’ The dinner apparently amounted to the equivalent of an editorial board meeting – just a bit longer. There [was considerable] wonkery and in-depth discussions of taxes, but, it being the Will household, a bit of jocular sports talk did arise."

In attendance were Charles Krauthammer, William Kristol, Larry Kudlow, David Brooks, Rich Lowry, Peggy Noonan, Michael Barone and Paul Gigot, Harper wrote.

Kenneth Bazinet of the New York Daily News wrote in his pool report that the three-hour meeting was a knot of "tight, right suits . . . The bloggers are going to love this one."

Gannett Co. to Furlough Workers for a Week

"The Gannett Company, the nation’s largest newspaper publisher, said on Wednesday that it would force thousands of its employees to take a week off without pay in an effort to avoid layoffs, Richard P?©rez-Pe?±a reported Wednesday in the New York Times.

"Gannett, which owns 85 daily newspapers across the United States including its flagship USA Today, said it could not say exactly how many people would be required to take time off, or how much money the company would save. But it said it would require unpaid leave for most of its 31,000 employees in this country.

"Also on Wednesday, USA Today notified its staff of a one-year pay freeze for all employees."

"Steve Orr, a reporter at the Democrat and Chronicle in Rochester, N.Y., seemed resigned to the furlough," Joe Strupp reported in Editor & Publisher. "But he said the lack of layoffs is not a great cushion given the recent cutbacks and uncertainty over the rest of 2009.

"’Every week seems to bring a new eye-opening experience,’ he added. ‘If this obviates the need for layoffs, it is a welcome thing. But we don’t know about next quarter.’"

Papers Go All Out to Cover, Capitalize on Inauguration

The New York Times plans to print 2.2 million copies of its post-Inauguration edition; the Washington Post plans 1.72 million; the Chicago Tribune and Sun-Times plan extras and the Washington Afro-American expects to post the reporting of students from Howard and Morgan State universities as newspapers bump up press runs, repackage their work into books and otherwise prepare to take advantage of the unprecedented interest in Barack Obama’s inauguration on Tuesday.

Here are just a few of the plans.

New York Times

"The Times is planning an inauguration news special section to run in the paper on Wednesday, Jan. 21. We anticipate a heightened demand for the January 21 issue and are increasing the print order to 2.2 million copies (versus a typical order of approx 1,250,000)," spokeswoman Catherine Mathis said via e-mail.

"There will be a special commemorative issue of The Sunday Magazine published in The Times on Jan. 18. The Magazine will feature portrait photographs of key people in the new administration and some text.

"Online, The Magazine will feature a slideshow of the photographs narrated by renowned photographer, Nadav Kander. On NYTimes.com there will be lots of interesting multimedia features, including live streaming of the video of President-elect Obama’s inauguration speech, and much more.

"Regarding advertising, the Jan. 18 issue of The Magazine is up considerably (paging is double what it was last year in a comparable week), digital is sold out, and the paper is very strong on Jan. 21 We do plan to sell copies of the Jan. 21 issue from our headquarters building on Jan. 21-23. The newsstand price for that day remains unchanged at $1.50. We will also have additional hawkers on the streets of New York, Chicago and Washington D.C.

"The first week in February we will be selling a combined package of the Nov. 5 issue and the Jan. 21 issue for $14.95. We have already had orders from wholesalers and retailers for 200,000 of these (this is on top of the 2.2 million copies I mentioned above). We were delighted with the strong sales of our Nov. 5 issue of The Times and election-related products, which totaled $2.3 million in revenues through the end of December." 

Washington Post

On Inauguration Day, the Post also plans to provide transit alerts to help people navigate the city via text message, Twitter, e-mail alert and through a special Inauguration mobile page. 

The Web site will offer a full day of live video coverage of the Inauguration from the Capitol’s Inaugural platform and from both the Post’s print newspaper and Web headquarters. Post Reporters Chris Cillizza, David Maraniss and Dana Priest will anchor the show. Reporters will live stream video interviews from their cell phones onto the show with people at Inaugural events around the city.¬†

The Post has invited readers to take out classified ads to welcome the Obamas to Washington. "Your message will appear online through Feb. 20th and in a special Classified section running in the keepsake Inauguration Day Issue of the Washington Post," the company says.

Washington Times

The Washington Times plans a special Inauguration edition for Monday, Martin Luther King Day, with an essay from Martin Luther King III linking King to Obama’s inauguration. On Tuesday will be another special edition, with a "surprise" cover. A third special follows on Wednesday. Tuesday’s paper will triple its normal print run, rising to 300,000, editor John Solomon told Journal-isms. By Valentine’s Day, the paper expects to publish a book, "Barack Obama and the Start of a New Era," that will include the best essays and photographs from its coverage of Obama. It includes the photo and headline, "President Obama," that the paper successfully used on the day after the election.

Solomon, Editorial Page Editor Deborah Simmons and others from the Times expect to be at Ben’s Chili Bowl, a Washington gustatory landmark, on Thursday to interact with readers and potential readers. Solomon called the three days after Obama’s election the most exciting moments of his career.¬†

Afro-American Newspapers

The Afro-American newspapers in Washington and Baltimore are working with as many as 50 students from Howard and Morgan State universities to post their coverage, starting on Saturday, on the Afro’s Web site, publisher John J. Oliver Jr. told Journal-isms. "We are making it available to as many members of the black press who want it," he said of that coverage. There will also be video, all posted on the Afro’s Web site. The newspapers are also selling a 52-page book, "Journey to Victory," that includes their coverage of the Obama campaign, and in Baltimore, is partnering with WMAR-TV on the video production.

Chicago Tribune

"The Tribune is planning its own extra edition for Jan. 20, according to Associate Editor Joyce Winnecke. She said no final details on price or page count were in, but the deadline for the news is 2:30 p.m. The paper is also publishing special sections of six-to-eight pages each on Sunday, Jan. 18, and Wednesday, Jan. 21," Joe Strupp reported in Editor & Publisher.

Chicago Sun-Times

The paper plans an extra, with a "late pm run of 10,000 for downtown," editor Michael Cooke told Journal-isms via e-mail. 

Rebecca Aguilar accepts the Broadcast Journalist of the Year Award at the 2007 awards gala of the National Association of Hispanic Journalists. (Credit: NAHJ)

Rebecca Aguilar Sues Dallas Station Over Firing

"Former Fox4 reporter Rebecca Aguilar filed a racial discrimination suit against the station late Monday afternoon, claiming she was suspended and ultimately terminated because of her ‘documented history of complaining about the treatment of Hispanics and Latinos by her employer,’" Dallas television writer Ed Bark wrote¬†Tuesday on his blog.

"The lawsuit was first publicized Tuesday by Courthouse News Service, which quotes Aguilar’s attorney, Steve Kardell as saying, ‘Fox4 wanted my client to advocate change in the community through her reports, but to keep silent in improving working conditions in the newsroom.’

"Aguilar’s repeated proposals that Fox4 ‘consider interviewing Latino and Hispanic candidates for management positions’ resulted in ‘strained relations with her employer,’ the lawsuit alleges."

"The seven-page suit charges that Fox4 retaliated by taking Aguilar off the air after ‘pretextual and fabricated criticism about a particular story.’ That’s a reference to her controversial Oct. 15, 2007 interview with an elderly West Dallas salvage business owner who had shot and killed two alleged burglars within three weeks time. The story and Aguilar’s paid suspension attracted national attention and pointed debate on whether she had ‘ambushed’ her interview subject or was just doing her job."

"Riot" Offers Chance to Re-Evaluate Word Choices

"By now almost everyone knows that a group of demonstrators protesting against the killing of a young father by a transit officer splintered off and began a wave of destruction in downtown Oakland," Dori J. Maynard wrote Monday for the Idea Lab of the Public Broadcasting Service, in a piece picked up later by Bay Area newspapers.

"Mainstream media outlets called it everything from a riot to a violent protest. Some bloggers referred to it as a civil unrest, rebellion or both a riot and civil unrest," continued Maynard, president of the Robert C. Maynard Institute for Journalism Education.

"Like is true with many issues, our perception of what happened is often shaped by our fault lines of race, class, gender, generation and geography. Perhaps because I live in Oakland and spent some years in Detroit, the home of one of the worst riots of the last century or maybe because the riots of the 1960s were the backdrop of my childhood, but to me a riot is a greater event than what happened in Oakland last week.

" . . . As I discussed this with journalists around the country, it was clear there was no agreed upon definition of a riot, or even if a riot should be called a riot or a rebellion.

". . . For journalists, I don’t think it’s as important for us to agree or disagree with these opinions. I think it’s important that we continually evaluate the words we use and constantly ask ourselves if we saw the same thing members of our community saw. Help us as we try to sort through these questions. What did you see and how do you think we should describe public acts of violence? Are we being too soft by refusing to call something a riot? Is there ever a reason to refer to any act of violence as a rebellion or uprising?"

Can Only White Guys Broadcast This Game?

Vin Scully, whose 59-year-old tenure as the play-by-play voice of the Brooklyn and Los Angeles Dodgers baseball team is the longest of any broadcaster with a single club in professional sports history, was voted the No. 1 sportscaster of all time by the American Sportscaster Association, the group announced over the weekend.

Scully was followed by Mel Allen, Red Barber, Curt Gowdy, Howard Cosell, Bob Costas, Jim McKay, Al Michaels and Dick Enberg on the top 50 list.

That prompted the blog the Big Lead, which is written by Jason McIntyre and David Lessa, to ask, "Have minorities ever called sporting events?"

Actually, there were some of color on the runner-up list, below the top 50. That list named Terry Bradshaw, James Brown, Andres Cantor, Skip Caray, Gary Cohen, Don Criqui, Jimmy Dudley, Joe Garagiola, Frank Gifford, Greg Gumbel, Tom Hammond, Sonny Hill, Ned Jarrett, Jaime Jarrin, Charlie Jones, Bill King, Jim Lampley, Cawood Ledford, Verne Lundquist, Tim McCarver, Joe Morgan, Bob Murphy, Van Patrick, Herb Score, Jim Simpson, Bob Uecker and Ken Venturi.

On the e-mail list of the Sports Task Force of the National Association of Black Journalists, other names came up, such as Gus Johnson and Clark Kellogg.

Johnson "can call an eighth-grade basketball game and have me riveted," one said. "And Kellogg is finally getting his due as the #1 CBS analyst."

In addition, Paul Olden has been the stadium public address announcer for every Super Bowl since 1994.

"Dick Enberg, who made the top 10 and is also the Chairman of the Board for ASA . . . emailed back before heading out to Melbourne to cover the Australia Open tennis championships starting next week on ESPN: ‘Frankly, there’s plenty of room for argument, which is common with any of the suspect ‘Best of All-Time’ lists," Tom Hoffarth of the Los Angeles Daily News wrote¬† Tuesday on his blog.


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