“Unfair to . . . Black Journalists in This City”

Chicago’s Saunders Accuses Retired Sun-Times Critic

"The biggest story in local broadcast news Monday night had well-known names, controversy, plenty of TV reporters on the scene-and it didn’t air on a single station that night," media writer Phil Rosenthal wrote Wednesday in the Chicago Tribune.

"WMAQ-Ch. 5 lead anchor Warner Saunders accused former Chicago Sun-Times TV/radio columnist Robert Feder of bias at the local American Federation of Television and Radio Artists chapter’s annual meeting, where Feder was a guest.

"Saunders, 74, brought a prepared speech to confront Feder before 100 or so at the Allerton Hotel.

"Saunders said Feder diminished ‘the accomplishments of black talent while placing the spotlight on our deficiencies.’ Noting it was Black History Month, the Channel 5 anchor said inviting Feder was ‘like choosing David Duke to serve as mohel at a circumcision.’

"The comparison was loaded: Duke is a former Ku Klux Klan leader. Mohels perform Jewish circumcisions. Feder is Jewish.

"’From the very beginning, [it] became a personal attack,’ Feder, who did not want to speak to the Chicago Tribune, said Tuesday to WLS-AM 890’s Erich ‘Mancow’ Muller and Pat Cassidy.

"Saunders alluded specifically to Feder’s take on African-Americans such as NBC’s Lester Holt, ex-anchor Diann Burns and WBBM-AM’s Felicia Middlebrooks.

"’What I was writing about in each case had nothing to do with the individual’s race,’ Feder said.

"Much of Saunders’ remarks focused on Feder’s treatment of him and his health woes in 2002 and 2006.

"Left unmentioned was the fact that Feder, whose 28 years at the Sun-Times ended with a buyout in October, said Saunders, set to end his 40-year broadcast career in May, had stayed too long.

"’I simply wanted to confront him, face to face,’ Saunders said. ‘I just spoke my truth in front of a person who I felt has been unfair to me and to black journalists in this city.¬†¬† .¬† .¬† . Very few people who are not in our skin can understand this.’"

On the Poynter Institute Web site, Steve Daley, a white former Tribune journalist, backed Feder. "I knew, read and sometimes competed with Robert Feder when I wrote about media for the Chicago Tribune in the 1980s," Daley wrote. "Warner Saunders’ complaint is self-serving buncombe. Feder was a pro, and an honest man. Chicago TV and radio folk who read him most mornings for more than 20 years know that."¬†

Activist Tavis Smiley, right, and professor Cornel West view a century-old West African chief mask during a Jan. 14 preview party for "AmericaI AM: The African American Imprint" at the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia. "Everyone assumes that anything of value in American history and culture came out of Europe," said John Fleming, president of the Association for the Study of African American Life and History. (Credit: Carol H. Feeley)

With Black President, Who Needs Black History Month?

Each Black History Month, some African American columnists argue that the month is no longer needed. The difference this year is that the election of Barack Obama as the nation’s first black president gave at least three of them an updated rationale for the idea.

"I propose that this month we become not the America of Rush Limbaugh or the America of Al Franken, but to become an America where all opinions matter and hope trumps hate," Rochelle Riley wrote Sunday in the Detroit Free Press.

"I propose that this February, we become not an America of black or white or Hispanic or Asian but an America of black and white and Hispanic and Asian, an America where each of those heritages is a mandatory part of school curriculums."

In the Cleveland Plain Dealer, Phillip Morris wrote on Tuesday, "now that we’ve reached this crowning point in our history, are we mature enough as a nation to accept as fact that our histories really are one ‚Äî and have always been one?

"Can we begin to identify those things — real or ceremonial — that racially divide and work to systematically eliminate them?

"At what juncture then does Black History Month run the risk of becoming a pointless exercise in race chest bumping? At what point does the celebration —or sustained memorial — become any less acceptable than a national white history month?"

And on theRoot.com, contributor Michael E. Ross wrote¬†on Tuesday: "The fact of President Obama necessarily calls into question the long-standing African-American preoccupation with life in that rear-view mirror. His election doesn’t diminish or undercut the importance of black history as an index to the future; it does make the reflexive reverence of Black History Month seem like what it’s fast becoming: an observance with an existence that reinforces a sense of apartness, of separation, that Obama’s election directly contradicts."

For good measure, Everdeen Mason, a black student writing for the Daily Lantern at Ohio State University, wrote a piece headlined, "Black history month celebrates discrimination."

Such sentiments made little headway when Washington journalist Tracie Powell posted Riley’s column for comment Tuesday on the e-mail list of the National Association of Black Journalists.

"Sure, I love my wife every day, but that doesn’t mean I shouldn’t take time during Valentine’s to make sure she knows how much I care," Eric Deggans, media critic for the St. Petersburg (Fla.) Times, wrote in a sentiment he’s expressed during previous Black History Month discussions.

"I just think some people are weary of racial politics. But we shouldn’t let that push us into forgetting our heritage."

Askia Muhammad, who writes for the Final Call and the Washington Informer¬† newspapers and broadcasts for Washington’s WPFW-FM, said, "In Chicago they have not cancelled ‘Pulaski Day’ celebrations. And Cinco de Mayo is also not going anywhere soon.

"In South Africa, where they’ve had a Black President for nearly 15 years, and in Mali, West Africa, where they’ve had Black presidents for decades now, those two countries are collaborating to preserve some of the documents and manuscripts in the libraries at Timbuktu (where Askia Muhammad was The Great King in the 15th Century). According to some of the reasoning in this get-rid-of-Black-History-Month-stream, they needn’t bother with those chores there in Black Africa ‚Äî but fortunately, they’re not listening to voices like those which would do [away] with Black History Month here."

Eugene Kane, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel columnist, wrote, "I never liked Black History Month before but I think I’m REALLY gonna enjoy it this time around. Think about all the black children who won’t have to reach so far back in history to identify a black hero. They are living the day."¬†

. . . "This One Event Has Not Changed Our History"

In their commentaries urging an end to Black History Month, Rochelle Riley, Phillip Morris and Michael E. Ross all cited Carter G. Woodson, who in 1926 originated Negro History Week, which evolved into Black History Month. Journal-isms asked John Fleming, director emeritus of the Cincinnati Museum Center and president of the institution that carries on Woodson’s work, the Association for the Study of African American Life and History, to comment on their columns.

"In reading Morris, Ross and Riley, I am reminded of those who advocated 50 years ago giving up our communities and schools in the name of integration," he wrote. "Not once did those individuals demand that integration should be a two-way street where whites come into black neighborhoods to integrate black schools and black communities. Why, because we did not value what we had. We thought white was better.

"They admit that Black history is American history. Who should know this better than I, as I have just completed the development with Tavis Smiley of ‘America I AM, the African American Imprint.’ This exhibition is about how Africans and Europeans came together to create this new nation and new culture. Why did we have to devote millions of dollars and 12,000 sq. ft. to tell this story? Because everyone assumes that anything of value in American history and culture came out of Europe. [For more information on the exhibition, go the National Constitution Center Web site.]

"I do not hear Morris et al asking that we stop celebrating National Constitution Day. Why, because not one out of 10 people can list the first 10 amendments to the Constitution, let alone explain what they mean. They do not call for the elimination of the study of Southern history or New England history just because we offer courses in American history. African American history is a serious discipline that continues to fill the gaps left out of American history. If we can not understand Black history, we will never be able to understand American history, who we are and how we came to be. They all seem to say, without understanding what they mean, that Black history is American history.

"If Morris and Riley really would like to understand why we need Black history and Black History Month, they should venture into the school systems in Cleveland and Detroit to learn just how little schoolchildren, black and white, know about our inclusive history.

"ASALH understands the need and advocates the study of African American history year round and produces its BHM materials for use throughout the school year.

"The election of Mr. Obama is a great event and milestone in our history, but this one event has not changed our history and what little we know as a nation about our past."

• Doug Davis, Nashville Tennessean: Editor Eugene Robinson reflects on black progress¬†(Feb. 5)
• Eugene Kane blog, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel:¬†Black History Month is special this year
• President Obama’s proclamation for National African American History Month

Times-Picayune Ends Lolis Elie Column After 13 Years

Lolis Eric Elie is leaving behind the Metro column he wrote for 13 years at the New Orleans Times-Picayune to return to the reporting ranks, Elie told his readers on Monday.

"The Times-Picayune has reorganized the city desk staff. In so doing, the editors determined that I would serve the newspaper best as a reporter," he wrote.

"I’ll be covering the city’s neighborhoods and writing occasional profiles of its colorful citizens.

"In some ways, those topics parallel what I’ve already been writing. But, I know, in the coming months I’ll miss not being able to write about certain topics from a columnist’s perch."

The paper’s editor, Jim Amoss, told Journal-isms, "I, too, hate to lose a column voice but I think it’s more important to replenish the reporting ranks, which we haven’t been able to do for several months. Lolis brings a deep knowledge of New Orleans, its culture and neighborhoods to our city desk. We think our readers will appreciate it, though it comes at the cost of his column."

Amoss said the staff had been reduced by about 18 percent, with most of that occurring in the immediate aftermath of Hurricane Katrina in 2005.

Elie narrated and is chief writer of Faubourg Trem?©: The Untold Story of Black New Orleans," a documentary about his quest to uncover the history of black New Orleans, interrupted by Katrina. It airs on PBS this month.

He joins a number of other African American journalists who have lost their columns in the recent economic turmoil, some leaving the paper entirely. They include Lewis Diuguid of the Kansas City Star, Mary C. Curtis of the Charlotte (N.C.) Observer; Les Payne and Shaun Powell of Newsday, Elisa Cramer of the Palm Beach (Fla.) Post, Gregory Kane of the Baltimore Sun, Rickey Hampton of the Flint (Mich.) Journal, Donna Britt of the Washington Post and Shanna Flowers of the Roanoke (Va.) Times.

One of the things Elie told readers he’d learned in his 13 years is that "the outsiders who choose to move here are as potent a force in the preservation of our culture as those of us who are native born. New Orleanians by birth may lament our lack of the chain stores that dot the landscape elsewhere. Having lived in cookie-cutter world of suburbanized America, New Orleanians by choice lament the fact that we seem intent on becoming less of who we are."

Also, "I have learned that as corrupt as a Louisiana politics may be, we are not distinguishable from the citizens of Illinois, Alaska, Rhode Island or Alabama."

2009 Could Be Deadliest for Journalists, Group Says

"The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) today issued its report on the killings of journalists in 2008 with a warning that 2009 could be the deadliest year yet for journalists. A wave of killings in the first days of the new year have undermined hopes that the falling death toll recorded in 2008 was the first sign of a change in the pattern of killings which have risen dramatically in recent years," the group said on Wednesday.

"’The welcome relief brought about by the decline in the killings of journalists in 2008 has been [short] lived;’ said Aidan White, IFJ General Secretary at a press conference to launch the report entitled ‘Perilous Assignments: Journalists and media personnel killed in 2008’. ‘Ten colleagues died in January alone and from all regions of the world either in targeted killing or as a direct result of their work.’"

"The IFJ recorded 109 deaths of journalists and media staff in 2008, marking a decrease from the 2007 all time record of 175 deaths." 

Somali Journalist Assassinated in Broad Daylight

"A prominent Somali journalist was shot and killed by suspected Islamist gunmen in broad daylight on Wednesday, as one of his colleagues watched in horror," CNN reported.

"The journalist who witnessed the assassination of Said Tahlil Ahmed in Mogadishu said the two gunmen also intended to kill others.

"’First, they shot him in the back and then one of the armed men came over him and fired more shots into his head to finish him off,’ he said. ‘One of the gunmen was shouting, ‘Kill the other one,’ which they meant another one of us.’

"Tahlil, the director of independent HornAfrik Radio and host of a popular radio talk show, was on his way to a meeting that had been called by the Islamist militia Al-Shabaab, when gunmen from the group attacked him, his colleague said."

With 11 journalists killed there since 2007, Somalia is Africa’s deadliest countries for the profession, Reporters Without Borders said. The founder of HornAfrik Radio was killed in 2007 while a representative of the National Union of Somali Journalists was in Las Vegas accepting the Percy Qoboza Foreign Journalist Award from the National Association of Black Journalists.

Meanwhile, the International Federation of Journalists called Wednesday for urgent humanitarian action by the international community over the plight of Dawit Isaac, a journalist and writer who has been held in Eritrea without trial for almost eight years and who is believed to be seriously ill. Eritrea is also in the Horn of Africa.

Issac was one of 10 journalists imprisoned in Eritrea recognized with the Qoboza award last year by NABJ.

President Obama says to Chris Wallace of Fox News, "I don’t always get my most favorable coverage on Fox, but I think that’s part of how democracy is supposed to work."¬†

Obama and Fox: "Not Supposed to Be in Lock Step"

"President Barack Obama had complimentary words for Fox News Channel in that string of interviews he gave Tuesday afternoon," Hal Boedeker wrote on his Orlando Sentinel blog.

"Chris Wallace asked if Obama is ‘a trifle thin skinned.’ The reason? The president had told the House GOP Caucus that he’d watch Fox News and feel bad about himself.

"But Obama said he made that comment in good humor. ‘I think everybody understood that that was a joke,’ Obama added. ‘I think it’s fair to say that I don’t always get my most favorable coverage on Fox, but I think that’s part of how democracy is supposed to work. You know, we’re not supposed to all be in lock step here, and you’ve always been very gracious to me.’

"Wallace replied: ‘Improves or hurts my stock at Fox.’

"Obama: ‘It may hurt it.’

Pundits Weigh Obama on Immigration, Press Staffing

The whiteness of the White House press staff and the reporters who interact with its members were subjects of recent commentary, along with the swearing in of such new Cabinet members as Attorney General Eric Holder and the implications for immigration and deportation policies.

"While we hold the media accountable for the need to diversify their ranks, it’s quite telling to see the lack of diversity in the White House’s press office," Roland Martin said in a commentary¬†on CNN.

"Just because there is a black president doesn’t mean that issues like diversity should be cast aside."

As reported¬†on Monday, there are no African Americans assigned so far to President Obama’s press office, according to a memo distributed Monday by Press Secretary Robert Gibbs. However, there are still slots to be filled.

[Update: See Feb. 11 column, "I Am Biracial, That’s Right."]

Who’s staffing both sides of the press-room briefing lectern is assuming greater importance in the Obama administration, according to Jim Rutenberg, who wrote in the New York Times on Monday, "An unusual number of journalists from prominent, mainstream organizations started new government jobs in January, providing new kindling to the debate over whether Mr. Obama is receiving unusually favorable treatment in the news media."

On the Huffington Post, veteran writer Jill Nelson asked, "Why is it okay for George Will to have President Obama to dinner with conservative journalists with not a black face in the room? How many journalists attended parties in Washington during the inauguration where there were no journalists of color present? Isn’t it disturbing to the journalistic establishment that the vast majority of journalists, commentators, talking heads, pundits, and experts discussing the new president and his administration are white?

"In 2009 can anyone seriously argue that aren’t more than a handful of black, Latino, Asian, or Native Americans who fit these categories? Is this time for change we can believe in, or is it still time for black to get back?"

Nelson also discussed her piece on National Public Radio’s "Tell Me More."

On the Latina Lista blog, Marisa Trevi?±o noted that, "Today’s swearing-in of Eric Holder Jr. as the nation’s newest Attorney General has been as anticipated among immigration lawyers and families of immigrants detained in detention facilities as was Obama’s own Inauguration Day."

During his confirmation hearings, Holder said he would re-examine the Bush administration’s decision that those in the country illegally have no constitutional right to challenge deportation orders based on lawyer error.

"Many in the Latino community wonder how long it will be before immigration reform becomes politically cool enough for the new administration to handle," Trevi?±o wrote in another piece.

In the Miami Herald, columnist Myriam Marquez asked whether bureaucrats were deporting Haitians before the Obama administration could change policies.

"’They lifted the halt of deportations in late December,’ noted Randolph McGrorty of Catholic Legal Services. ‘We heard about a handful of people who had been deported. Now there’s this flurry of activity. . . . There are too many signs to deny it,’" Marquez wrote.

In a National Public Radio newscast on Monday, reporter Ari Shapiro plumbed the NPR archives for quotes from Holder about race.

"Eric Holder grew up in Queens, New York," Shapiro said. "His father was an immigrant from Barbados. As a young man he found a quote by the Rev. Samuel Proctor of Harlem.

"And when Holder became the first black deputy attorney general in 1997, he showed that quote to an NPR reporter.

"’I have it in fact right here in my wallet, and it’s something I carry around with me because I think it reflects in a really fundamental way a strong belief that I have. It says that blackness is another issue entirely apart from class in America. No matter how educated affluent and mobile a black person becomes, his race defines him more particularly than anything else.’"

• Stanley Crouch, New York Daily News:¬†With Barack Obama in the White House, an adult leads the way
• Gayle Fee and Laura Raposa, Boston Herald:¬†New cover stud Barack Obama takes over
• Earl Ofari Hutchinson, thedailyvoice.com:¬†Caution and deliberation still the watchword for Michelle Obama
• Luciana Lopez, the Oregonian, Portland: On being a ‘mutt’ like Obama
• Leonard Pitts Jr., Miami Herald:¬†Why politics has become so destructive
• Richard Prince, Jill Nelson and Tatsha Robertson with Tony Cox, "News & Notes," National Public Radio: Black Journalists Weigh Role In An Obama Era [Feb. 5]

Short Takes

• "The House today has voted to delay the nation’s transition to digital television by four months, less than two weeks before broadcasters were scheduled to turn off traditional analog signals and air only digital programming Feb. 17," Kim Hart wrote¬†Wednesday for the Washington Post.
• "Is The Miami Herald just waiting for Fidel Castro to die?" Joe Strupp asked¬†Wednesday in Editor & Publisher. "Well, according to at least one top editor, the ongoing waiting game has become a true, well, deathwatch. . . . Editor Anders Gyllenhaal admits the plans are in place and bigger than for any other death-in-waiting: ‘There is no other story like this. What happened in Cuba, in many ways, built Miami.’"
• "Fabio Prieto Llorente, one of 21 independent journalists jailed in Cuba, has been outspoken in describing the inhumane and unsanitary conditions in which he and others have been held. On Wednesday, he began a hunger strike to call attention to the situation at El Guayabo Prison in the western Isla de la Juventud province, the Miami-based news Web site Payolibre reported today," Mar??a Salaza wrote¬†on Monday for the Committee to Protect Journalists.
• "The traditional media industries will continue to make New York City their home, no matter how bad things get. But according to the media bigwigs who spoke at Crain’s Future of New York City conference Tuesday, media executives admit they weren’t prepared for dealing with the pain of a recession and transition to the Internet simultaneously," Matthew Flamm reported¬†Tuesday for Crain’s New York. Jeff Zucker, chief executive of NBC Universal. was joined at the conference’s media and information session by Shelly Lazarus, chairman of Ogilvy and Mather Worldwide, and Mortimer Zuckerman, owner and publisher of the Daily News.
• Empowered Health Partnerships, Inc., a 501(c)(3) not for profit corporation, is launching the Mark R. Griffith/Black Men’s Health Empowerment & Longevity Project (HELP) to call attention to an increase in hypertension among African American men and its correlation to premature deaths due to such illnesses as heart attacks and strokes, Meta J. Mereday, co-founder of the corporation, said. She added that the company is seeking to raise $50,000 to expand its initiatives and launch the project. Griffith, a freelance producer for CBS News and friend of Mereday, was active in the National Association of Black Journalists. He died¬†Dec. 18 of heart failure at age 48.
• At Telemundo, "our Network News team is strategically reorganizing and consolidating its operation. Consequently, about a dozen positions were eliminated" last week, spokesman Alfredo Richard told Journal-isms. He was commenting on a¬†report¬†Tuesday¬†by Veronica Villafa?±e on her Media Moves blog.
• "NBC is calling Sunday’s Super Bowl XLIII broadcast "the most-viewed television program in U.S. history with a total audience of 151.6 million viewers," John Madden reported¬†for the Los Angeles Times.
• The National Football League rejected as "advocacy" a 30-second spot¬† presented for the Super Bowl that showed a gay black male couple with five children that "could best be described as sweet," according to the blog FishBowl LA. NBC-owned KNBC-TV in Los Angeles had presented the spot for approval to the NFL. The same ad was rejected by ABC-owned KABC-TV as too controversial to air during the inauguration, according to Susan Jones of CNSNews.com.
• One station that "gets" diversity is WLS-TV in Chicago, Laura Washington wrote¬†last week in the Chicago Sun-Times. "Charles Thomas takes over the station’s political beat from Andy Shaw, who retired after a quarter century as the station’s political reporter. Thomas is the first African American to ever hold that job at a Chicago TV station," she wrote.
• "It happens every few weeks. [On] one hand, I love meeting someone who reads the paper closely enough to remember individual writers," Eric Deggans wrote¬†Sunday in the St. Petersburg (Fla.) Times. "But getting a compliment for somebody else’s work falls somewhere between cheating on a test and having a beautiful woman approach you at a bar, only to ask for your best friend’s phone number." Deggans was writing about being confused for another black columnist at the paper, Ernest Hooper.
• "Many Channel 8 viewers remember Polly Gonzalez, a popular news anchor beloved by the community, who died tragically in a car accident nearly four years ago. Eyewitness News has learned that Polly’s family has resolved their lawsuit against the Ford Motor Co.," KLAS-TV in Las Vegas reported on Tuesday. "Informed sources tell the I-Team a settlement has been reached in Polly’s case, pending approval from the court. Sources say under the terms of the agreement, Ford will not admit any liability and the amount of the settlement will remain confidential."
• Funeral services for Sandra R. Gregg, a former Washington Post reporter who died of cancer at age 53 on Monday, are scheduled for Monday at 11 a.m. at Antioch Baptist Church, 6531 Little Ox Road, Fairfax Station, Va. 22039, the family said on Thursday.¬†Visitation takes place from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m. Sunday at Demaine Funeral Home, 5308 Backlick Road, Springfield, Va. 22151, a time set aside¬†especially for those unable to attend the funeral. The family requests that, in lieu of flowers, donations be made to¬†the Alexander Journey Gregg Family Fund, c/o Josh Collier, 4311 Hollowstone Court, Chantilly, VA 20151; or African American Women‚Äôs Giving Circle, in Honor of Sandra Gregg, c/o The Washington Area Women‚Äôs Foundation, 1411 K Street NW, Suite 800, Washington, DC 20005. "We have been overwhelmed by the outpouring of love and eloquence on this site. Know that we are reading every soul-healing entry, and we will be compiling them all for Journey," Gregg’s 12-year-old son, the family said.
• "Some are startled by the title of Chuck Shelton’s new book, ‘Leadership 101 for White Men.’ He understands why," Jerry Large wrote in his Seattle Times column. "A few years ago he Googled ‘white men’ and most of the listings were either supremacy groups or porn sites. "His book is subtitled, ‘How to Work Successfully with Black Colleagues and Customers.’"
• "The Committee to Protect Journalists is gravely concerned about mounting government threats to media and Internet freedom in Thailand, including legal action against community radio stations and censoring thousands of Web sites," the Committee said¬†last week. "On Thursday, Justice Minister Pirapan Salirathavibhaga told a parliamentary session that his ministry intends to censor 3,000 to 4,000 Web sites for posting materials considered offensive to the Thai monarchy."