 
San Antonio Paper Lays Off 135, Including 2 Columnists
Two Latino columnists and four black women journalists are among 135 people being laid off at the San Antonio Express-News, staff members told Journal-isms on Friday.
Publisher Tom Stephenson announced on Wednesday the Hearst-owned paper would lay off 15 percent of its employees and leave 30 positions unfilled in an effort to reduce costs and cope with economic troubles that have hit the U.S. newspaper industry, Jennifer Hiller reported in the newspaper.
Longtime sports columnist David Flores and Metro columnist Ken Rodriguez  were said to be among the casualties, along with features editor June Wormsley and business writer Aissatou Sidime.
"I am moving into financial planning – which I had begun preparing financially for after the first layoffs here," Sidime told Journal-isms. "Five months ago I began talking to local planners to get tips on the best way to enter the field given that I would need some income and that I wanted a successful, experienced planner to mentor me and recently had settled on becoming a paraplanner."
Sidimi has been at the Express-News since 1999 and previously worked at the Tampa Tribune and the Nashville Tennessean.
Editor Robert Rivard was out of the office on Friday and Managing Editor Brett Thacker did not return telephone calls.
In Dallas, Belo’s Al Dia Down to 2 a Week
"Spanish-language newspaper Al D??a has cut back to two print editions per week, as A.H. Belo, corporate parent of the free Dallas broadsheet, looks to lower costs and eliminate more jobs," Hispanic Market Weekly reported on Monday.
"Effective the week of February 16, Al D??a is only distributed on Wednesdays and Saturdays – with a combined press run of about 215,000 copies – down from a six-day, Monday-Saturday schedule.
"Only last July, Al D??a had expanded its Wednesday and Saturday print runs to about 120,000 copies from the normal daily run of about 40,000, with those additional copies slated for home delivery."
- Silicon Valley / San Jose Business Journal: Speculation grows on MediaNews bid for S.F. Chronicle 
- Mike Reynolds, Multichannel News: Univision Latest To Make Layoffs
White Cartoonist’s "N—a Please" Causes Stir at FAMU
A white editorial cartoonist used the phrase "N—a please" Tuesday in a talk before an audience at the journalism school at historically black Florida A&M University, but the cartoonist and a columnist for the student newspaper have decidedly different takes on what that meant.
Under the headline "Panelist Makes Racist Comment," Marlon Williams explained in a column Friday in the Famuan that four middle-aged white men: Ed Hall, Artizans Syndicate; Andy Marlette, Pensacola News Journal; Jeff Parker, Florida Today (Melbourne); and Rob Smith Jr., Glennbeck.com, took part in a panel discussion about the decline of editorial cartoonists.
"Because diversity is important to most FAMU students, many questions were asked about diversity within the editorial cartoonist field," Williams wrote. "Our questions weren’t directly answered. As a matter of fact they weren’t answered at all. But the icing on the cake was when Andy Marlette said, ‘N**** Please!’
"A cloud of dissension hovered over the lecture hall as no one knew how to react to something that had just slapped everyone in the face. Silence filled the room until one student shouted, ‘Say what?’
"Then most of the room burst into laughter to ease the situation, and the discussion continued even though most students were furious at wh
at Marlette said. How were we supposed to respond – riot? "What led to the remark was when Marlette explained a controversial cartoon he drew in 2005 at the University of Florida that had Kanye West holding the race card, and Condoleezza Rice opposite of him saying, ‘N****, please!’
"Now, I’m not sure what made Marlette think it was okay to draw that cartoon, let alone say the N-word aloud and in front of over 70 black students. It was appalling and a disgrace. We have gone through too much as a people to allow a white person to come into our house and say the N-word without any regard. The more shameful thing was no one, myself included, decided to say anything. Well, I’m saying something now."
Asked to respond, Marlette told Journal-isms via e-mail, "I don’t think that the columnist’s take on the forum was quite accurate. The forum was hosted originally as discussion of the role of Florida’s editorial cartoonists as watchdogs of state government. However, given the recent news surrounding the NY Post cartoon and the publication of a cartoon in the South Florida Sun Sentinel of Charlie Crist in blackface, the discussion naturally went towards race and cartoons.
"We were asked several questions as to why the majority of editorial cartoonists (there are less than 60 in the U.S.) are white males. The assertion that those questions weren’t answered is probably correct, but primarily because nobody knows a concrete reason as to why that is. Jeff Parker, cartoonist for Florida Today, speculated that given the fact that the number of cartoonists in the country is so small to begin with, the number of minority cartoonists is as well.
"I believe a question was asked as to how the lack of diversity affects the subject matter and opinions that are presented in cartoons. So in response, I related a story about a cartoon I had drawn in college for the Independent Florida Alligator that became the center of debate at the University of Florida. I always prefer to show a cartoon, but without the image at hand, I described it. The words ‘Nigga, please!’ were the exact words in the caption bubble in the cartoon. I repeated them for that reason only, to specifically and accurately describe the cartoon in the context of the discussion.
"I then explained the intention of the cartoon; that those words were chosen for their irony, being that it was Kanye’s word put into [Rice’s] speech bubble to represent her objection to his claim post-Katrina that Bush did not care about black people.
"I went on about the debate that carried on following the publication of the cartoon and about the University’s condemnation of it. I told how at the end of the day, after many opinions on all sides of the issue were voiced, the folks who still took offense agreed ultimately, that it would have been okay if a black cartoonist had drawn it.
"I then pointed out that at that time, nobody knew what race, religion or culture I came from, and how that is really a great virtue of cartoons, that they can be a form of expression by themselves, unhindered by any labels.
"That being said, I also expressed my hope that our industry will become more diverse and thereby stronger, and my belief that if it is to survive, it will necessarily have to do so."
NAACP Visits Fox Stations Over N.Y. Post Cartoon
"NAACP chapters across the country turned up the volume of protests Thursday aimed at media giant News Corp. over the publication an editorial cartoon in the New York Post last week, viewed by many as a racist assault on President Barack Obama," Denise Stewart reported Friday for BlackAmericaWeb.com.
"Representatives of 70 NAACP chapters held press conferences and delivered letters to Fox News affiliate stations calling for the firing of Sean Delonas, the Post’s cartoonist, and its editor-in-chief, Col Allan, as well as increased diversity in the newsrooms of News Corp. outlets."
The cartoon shows two policemen, one with a smoking gun, looking at a dead chimpanzee. One says, "They’ll have to find someone else to write the next stimulus bill." Though the president did not write the stimulus bill, the chimpanzee was widely taken to represent him. The Post denied the cartoon referred to Obama but News Corp. Chairman Rupert Murdoch later apologized.
"In Lansing, Michigan, NAACP chapter President Winston Williams ….. ….. Jr. went to Fox affiliate WSYM unannounced and asked to see the General Manager Gary Baxter. The two had never met, but Thursday, Williams was armed with a letter stating the NAACP’s position and determined to have a face-to-face talk about diversity and other issues.
"Williams didn’t have any problems or roadblocks getting to the general manager. They talked and decided to follow up with lunch at another time.
"Johnnie Turner, the executive director of the Memphis NAACP had a similar experience when she went Thursday to Fox13.
”We’ve always had a good relationship. We get extensive coverage,’ Turner told BlackAmericaWeb.com."
In Roanoke, va., "Debbie Reardon, WFXR’s director for news and creative services, also took a turn at the microphone. She told the crowd that she voted for Obama and valued their presence," Pete Dybdahl reported¬†for the Roanoke Times.
"We fully support you in what you’re saying and your right to say it," she said.
- Stanley Crouch, New York Daily News: Cartoon makes a monkey out of those who try to defend it
- Patrice Gaines, Washington Informer: The Ego of the Media
- Dwight Lewis, Nashville Tennessean: Hate groups are spreading racist propaganda
- Mary Mitchell, Chicago Sun-Times: Monkeys, watermelons and black people
- Joe Strupp, Editor & Publisher: Internal Dispute Kept SPJ From Criticizing Chimp Cartoon
 
Pictures taken by military photographers of the flag-draped caskets of war dead were released only after Freedom of Information Act lawsuits were won in 2004 and 2005. (Credit: National Press Photographers Association)
U.S. to Let Bereaved Families Decide on Media Coverage
"Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates announced yesterday that he is lifting a 1991 government ban on news coverage of the return of the remains of fallen service members to Dover Air Force Base in Delaware and will let families decide whether to allow photographs and videos," Ann Scott Tyson reported  Thursday in the Washington Post.
"The ban, upheld by both Republican and Democratic administrations, has generated lawsuits as well as conflicting emotions on the part of military families.
"After receiving input from a number of sources, including all of the military services and the organizations representing military families, I have decided that the decision regarding media coverage of the dignified transfer process at Dover should be made by those most directly affected: on an individual basis by the families of the fallen," Gates told reporters at a Pentagon briefing. "We ought not presume to make that decision in their place."
"Pictures of casualties have long played into the politics of a war ‚Äî most notably in Vietnam, dubbed the ‘living room war’ for its extensive television coverage. Indeed, starting in the 1990s, politicians and generals used the term ‘the Dover test’ to describe the public’s tolerance for troop casualties."
Keith Boykin, thedailyvoice.com:¬†Barack Obama’s audacity of hope
Black History Month Ends With Discussion of Its Worth
Black History Month 2009 is ending with a continuing debate over Attorney General Eric Holder’s comments that the United States is "a nation of cowards" in discussing race and more discussion about the value of the month.
In the Washington Informer, a weekly, Shantella Sherman wrote, "To choose mass communications as a college major seemed acceptable in the late 80‚Äôs as I considered colleges and career paths; but history, particularly African American or Black history, was deemed by my mentors and academic cohorts alike to be a dead-end career choice. ‚Äú’Who wants to know about Black people?’ and ‘Who cares about Black people?’ seemed to be the overarching themes of criticism. I prided myself on being a ‘race woman,’ not because of racial pride, but because I had once been colorstricken into believing that White was right.
". . . I am an historian today, because it is critical to the stability and continued success of African Americans to know and understand their place in the context of larger, mainstream society. . . .
"Let it be clear, racial pride is not a call to hate other races or cultures, but Black self-loathing must be answered with collective Black loving. People who love themselves, do not hurt themselves or others who look like them. People who know their history do not engage in behaviors that will ultimately lead to the destruction of that history or those who created it. We have plenty to celebrate as African Americans; let us begin by embracing ourselves."
- Bill Fletcher, Black Commentator: Race, History and Eric Holder’s Remarks
- Eugene Kane, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: There is no shortage of candidates for Black Excellence awards
- Tony Norman, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette: Paging AG Holder: Can we talk?
- David Person, Huntsville (Ala.) Times: From slave ships to rocket ships
- Rochelle Riley, Detroit Free Press: 94-year-old implores America to never forget black history 
- Mary Sanchez, Kansas City Star: Film buff details public lynching in Sikeston, Mo., in 1940s
- Wendi C. Thomas, Memphis Commercial Appeal: No give on Black History Month
- Dawn Turner Trice, Chicago Tribune: On different pages when it comes to race
- Adrienne T. Washington, Washington Times: History points to work undone
Chaudhary, Jackson Named to White House Photo Team
Arun Chaudhary has been named as the official White House videographer, Pete Souza, official White House photographer, announced on Wednesday. Among others named to the White House photo team was Lawrence Jackson, who will be an official photographer and be assigned primarily to work with Souza covering the president, Donald R. Winslow reported for News Photographer magazine of the National Press Photographers Association.
Chaudhary will also facilitate producing multimedia projects for the White House Web site, www.whitehouse.gov.
"During the campaign, Chaudhary was Obama’s director of field video production and he brought the Obama campaign to life on YouTube and the Obama Web site," Winslow wrote. "Chaudhary, who has been slugged the ‘YouTube Guru,’ has said that the campaign’s success with video came about because they ‘took video seriously from the start.’ During the campaign Chaudhary had six staffers shooting, editing, and posting video, and most of it ended up online (some within minutes of the conclusion of Obama events)."
Chaudhary, a New York University film-school professor, is the son of an immigrant Indian father and a Jewish mother, both scientists, according to the National Journal.
Jackson has been a photojournalist for the Virginian-Pilot in Norfolk, VA, where he spent a decade, and most recently for the Associated Press in Washington, where he’s worked for more than five years.
Short Takes
News, has been named deputy bureau chief of the Washington Bureau of NBC News, Bureau Chief Mark Whitaker announced on Friday. Sanfuentes is half-Chilean, he told Journal-isms.
