NABJ President Replaced as Anchor-Reporter in Jackson
Olbermann Leaves MSNBC, Providing Diversity Opportunity
Fox News’ Credibility on the Decline; PBS Top-Rated
HuffPo’s Black Project Hiring 8 Staffers Before June
Lydia Lively, Producer at NBC News, Dies at 64
Mexican Journalist Begins Bid for Asylum in U.S.
Poll Finds Media Influence Whites’ Views on Obama More than Blacks’
NABJ President Replaced as Anchor-Reporter in Jackson
Kathy Y. Times, president of the National Association of Black 
Journalists, is “in transition” after being replaced at WDBD-TV, the Fox affiliate in Jackson, Miss., the broadcast journalist told Journal-isms on Friday.
Times was investigative reporter and co-anchor of “Fox 40 News at 9” and was NABJ’s vice president-broadcast from 2007 to 2009. She said she plans to remain president of the nation’s largest organization of journalists of color.
“I’m still very much a working journalist,” she said. “I say that unequivocally.”
The Jackson station introduced a new high-definition local morning talk show and a new 9 p.m. news team, TV NewsCheck reported on Monday.
“The station also introduced the addition of anchor Trei Johnson and Chief Meteorologist Dave Roberts to the Fox40News at 9 team.”
Johnson, who arrived from Central Florida News 13, a 24-hour local news channel covering the Orlando-Daytona Beach-Melbourne corridor, replaced Times, whose left the station a week ago.
“I was working without a contract,” Times told Journal-isms.
Times represents just one change among NABJ officers and personnel.
Keith Reed, who represents the Midwest on the NABJ board, told colleagues on Friday that the magazine he edited, Cataylst Ohio, folded at the end of the year.
He wrote about it on his blog in a post called, “Learning big lessons from losing a big job.”
“The thing to remember, if you’ve lost your gig like I have, is that that opportunity is coming. The only question is whether you’ll be ready to recognize it when it does,” Reed wrote.
“I’m developing a consultant group with several business partners based in the DC area that will focus on areas like organization design, investment analysis, program and event management and design, and strategic planning for mission driven organizations,” he told Journal-isms.
In 2006, Esther Wu, then president of the Asian American Journalists Association and a columnist for the Dallas Morning News, was among those taking a buyout. She continued her column under an arrangement with the News, and AAJA permitted her to remain as president until the end of her term.
Olbermann Leaves MSNBC, Providing Diversity Opportunity
“Keith Olbermann is leaving MSNBC, the ‘Countdown’ host announced on his show Friday night,” rival CNN reported.
“The liberal commentator told viewers he had been informed ‘this was going to be the last edition’ of his show, but offered no further details.
“NBC/Universal confirmed the news in a statement Friday night.
” ‘MSNBC and Keith Olbermann have ended their contract. The last broadcast of ‘Countdown with Keith Olbermann’ will be this evening. MSNBC thanks Keith for his integral role in MSNBC’s success and we wish him well in his future endeavors.”
The departure of Olbermann provides another opportunity for cable television to diversify.
In June, two days after CNN hired disgraced former New York governor Eliot Spitzer to co-host a new prime-time program, “Parker/Spitzer,” the National Association of Black Journalists Friday blasted the cable news networks for their failure to place African American hosts in such prime-time slots [PDF].
The CNN announcement prompted a story by Rachel Sklar in the online magazine the Daily Beast, “The Unbearable Whiteness of Cable.“
“CNN just announced two new hosts for the 8 p.m. prime time hour recently vacated by Campbell Brown: Eliot Spitzer and Kathleen Parker,” Sklar began.
“Last week, MSNBC announced that the new host for its 10 p.m. prime time show would be network staple Lawrence O’Donnell. What do these three people have in common (and thankfully for O’Donnell and Parker, it’s not being caught with your socks down with a prostitute)? Pretty obvious: They’re white.
“They’re white like Chris Matthews is white, like Bill O’Reilly is white and Keith Olbermann is white, like Wolf Blitzer is white and Megyn Kelly is white and John King is white and Ed Schultz, Greta Van Susteren, Jake Tapper, Joe Scarborough, Bob Schieffer, David Gregory, Chris Wallace, Rachel Maddow, and Dylan Ratigan are white, not unlike the lion’s share of their guests.”
Meanwhile, former anchor Rick Sanchez, who left CNN after his complaints about the lack of anchors of color on the cable shows were quickly overshadowed by his remarks about Jews in the same interview, was in Toledo, Ohio, on Tuesday.
“At one point, Sanchez told of his encounters with racism, detailing how after his CNN broadcast he would look at his Twitter account and find himself being called ‘amnesty boy’ and even more pejorative terms,” Alan Abrams reported for the Cleveland Jewish News.
Fox News’ Credibility on the Decline; PBS Top-Rated
“PPP’s annual look at the public’s trust in various TV news outlets finds that Fox News’ credibility is on the decline, that the traditional networks are seeing an up tick in their numbers, and that PBS is at the top of the heap,” Public Policy Polling reported Wednesday.
“A year ago a plurality of Americans said they trusted Fox News. Now a plurality of them don’t. Conservatives haven’t moved all that much- 75% said they trusted it last year and 72% still do this time around. But moderates and liberals have both had a strong increase in their level of distrust for the network- a 12 point gain from 48% to 60% for moderates and a 16 point gain from 66% to 82% for liberals. Voters between left and center tend to be more trusting of the media across the board, which is why a fair number of them were still rating Fox favorably even a year ago at this time. But it looks like with a lot of those folks it has finally crossed the line to being too political to trust.”
Arianna Huffington appeared on Tavis Smiley’s “America Next Chapter” forum this month. (Video) (Credit: C-SPAN).
HuffPo’s Black Project Hiring 8 Staffers Before June
The new black-oriented Huffington Post project, HuffPost GlobalBlack, “will be hiring approx eight staffers over first half of this year .. And then increase in staff as needed, Mario Ruiz, Huffington Post’s senior vice president for media relations, told Journal-isms on Friday.
Huffington Post and Sheila Johnson, entrepreneur and co-founder of Black Entertainment Television, formally announced their plans to launch “HuffPost GlobalBlack” on Thursday as “a new online platform offering news, politics, culture, opinion, and video through the lens of the black experience.
“We couldn’t be more excited to be partnering with Sheila Johnson, a true media visionary, on creating what we hope will become a go-to destination for both the African-American community and everyone who cares about these deeply important issues — in America and across the world,’ said Arianna Huffington in the statement.
Johnson said in the release, “The Huffington Post is at the center of social news: the idea that people want to engage in the news and opinion of the day and not just consume them. The Huffington Post is the ideal partner for us to create a thriving online black community of scale, a forum for ideas and discussion meant to inform, engage, surprise and entertain.”
Reaction from black journalists ranged from questions about job opportunities to deriding the idea as a return to the days of segregation.
Lydia Lively, Producer at NBC News, Dies at 64
Lydia Lively, a retired producer at NBC News in Washington, died Jan. 15. after complications from surgery at the University of Maryland hospital in Baltimore, friends and relatives said. 
She was 64.
She wrote her own obituary, her friend Roy McKay told Journal-isms. “I did the best I could with what I had. I was grateful for every gift and every kindness,” she wrote. “I had a hell of a grand life. Thanks.” She listed her relatives and said, “This is all anybody needs to know about me.”
Betsy Fischer, executive producer of “Meet the Press,” remembered more. Recalling Lively’s interaction with the late Tim Russert, Fischer told Journal-isms. “She worked on Weekend Nightly News and so I always remember her in the newsroom after the show and she wasn’t shy about telling Tim and I about what she thought about a particular guest and how they answered questions. I think she especially liked the way Tim would hold various politicians accountable — that kind of journalism was important to her. Tim also liked to get a sense from her after the show as to what she thought was newsworthy in an interview .. he’d say, “Lydia, what’s going to make Nightly tonight?”
Another former colleague, Rich Dubroff, wrote to DCRTV.com, “For a number of years before her retirement, she was the Washington supervisor of the weekend editions of ‘NBC Nightly News.’ She also worked at WRC and WJZ, where she was a colleague of Oprah Winfrey. Lydia was a most unusual and outspoken woman, and I worked with her for several years at the Washington bureau.”
A memorial service is scheduled for Sunday at 5:30 pm. at Kahler Hall, 5440 Old Tucker Row, Columbia, Md. 21044.
Mexican Journalist Begins Bid for Asylum in U.S.
“A Mexican journalist who fled what he said was persecution by the Mexican army began his bid for asylum at a federal immigration court in this border city on Friday,” Alejandro Martinez-Cabrera of Reuters reported from El Paso.
“Emilio Gutierrez Soto’s case was adjourned before witnesses could be called and will resume on February 4, according to the office of his attorney, Carlos Spector.”
“Emilio Gutierrez Soto and his son showed up at a border checkpoint in New Mexico and declared their intent to seek asylum. Gutierrez said he received near daily death threats after writing a series of stories accusing the Mexican military of abusing civilians,” Will Weissert reported for the Associated Press earlier Friday.
“Since crossing the border 2½ years ago, Gutierrez’s wait for an asylum hearing included seven months at a federal detention center in El Paso, separated from his son. His court date comes four months after another Mexican journalist, Jorge Luis Aguirre, claimed similar threats and had his U.S. asylum request granted — making him the first reporter to receive asylum since Mexico’s bloody drug war erupted and cartels began targeting the media to silence coverage.”
The El Paso Times reported in December that a benefit was planned for three Mexican journalists seeking asylum in the United States because they fear persecution in Mexico: Gutierrez, Ricardo Chavez Aldana and Alejandro Hernandez Pacheco.
- American Society of News Editors: News media coalition launches Mexican Free Speech campaign
Poll Finds Media Influence Whites’ Views on Obama More than Blacks’
“Twenty-four months after President Obama was sworn in as American’s first African-American president, 1,006 people of all races responding to an online survey by The Root are at times sharply divided on his achievements, and particularly on the racial climate in the country,” Joel Dreyfuss wrote Wednesday for theRoot.com.
In one finding, “The media apparently had a stronger impact on how whites see President Obama, compared with blacks. Sixty-five percent of whites said that their perception of him is influenced by the media, compared with 40 percent of blacks. Fifty-six percent of blacks claimed that the media had not influenced their perceptions ‘at all,’ versus 36 percent of whites who claimed the same immunity.”
In another, “While just 15 percent of whites believe that hate crimes, police brutality and injustice against African Americans have increased since Obama took office, 40 percent of blacks say such crimes have increased.”
Short takes
- Cynthia Gordy has been named Washington reporter at
theRoot.com, effective Jan. 24. The former Washington Correspondent for Essence Magazine and Essence .com, Gordy was a 2010 NAACP “40 Under 40” honoree and was named “Emerging Journalist of the Year” in 2009 by the National Association of Black Journalists,” an announcement from the Root said on Friday. - “This week on Latino USA we take a look at the actual costs of some of what we consume especially when those products come from Latin America, an announcement from the public radio program said Friday. “It turns out that some of what we consume maybe have cost other people their lives. In an audio portrait of his personal journey, private investigator and law student Paul Bieber traveled to Colombia to investigate human rights abuses. American companies like Chiquita International, Dole and Drummond are stationed there and allegations exists that paramilitaries have been forcing farmers off of their land and killing union leaders for the past decade. Did the American companies pay the paramilitaries and if so, why did they do it? Find out the answer at http://www.latinousa.org/929-2/
- “Nine years after the American reporter Daniel Pearl was captured and killed by operatives of Al Qaeda in Pakistan, more than a dozen of the militants involved in his murder remain at large, a testament to the lack of will by Pakistani authorities to prosecute the cases, according to a report released Thursday,” Jane Perlez reported for the New York Times. The report is based on investigative work by students and faculty at the journalism program of Georgetown University and the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists, a project of the Center for Public Integrity.
- “Thanks to Ben Feller and Hans Nichols for raising questions about China’s human rights and press freedom record,” Bob Dietz wrote Thursday for the Committee to Protect Journalists. “A lot of Chinese journalists are grateful, too. When we urged U.S. President Barack Obama last week to raise press freedom concerns in his meetings with Chinese President Hu Jintao, we received no response. But when Feller of The Associated Press and Nichols of Bloomberg asked tough questions at the two leaders’ joint press conference on Wednesday, we knew someone was listening.
- “Here’s an update to the changes at the Liberman Broadcasting station in L.A.: the 11 pm newscast has been canceled,” Veronica Villafane wrote Thursday for Media Moves. “Anchor Socorro Cruz, who shared the desk with Jesús Javier, has been moved to the 5 pm newscast, now partnering with Jorge Miramontes. Jesús Javier, who has been ill for some time, is currently off the air while he undergoes medical treatment. Until a news director is named, Guillermo Ahumada, currently Managing Editor, will be in charge of the newsroom.”
- “Someone wanted to set off a bomb at the Martin Luther King, Jr. Day parade in Spokane, Washington. Luckily the suspicious bag holding the bomb was spotted, which likely saved lives,” Peter Hart wrote Thursday for Fairness & Accuracy in Reporting. “. . . Will Bunch at the Philadelphia Daily News wonders why the story hasn’t received more media attention, particularly as a case of what would appear to be domestic terrorism. . . . There’s a fairly well-documented history of media playing down domestic terror threats that don’t involve Arab or Muslim conspirators.”
- Rep. Judy Chu, D-Calif., was among several who took issue with comments made by right wing radio personality Rush Limbaugh, during which he made ridiculed the accent of Chinese President Hu Jintao and made other comments disparaging of Chinese culture. “I was shocked and appalled by Rush Limbaugh’s comments on his radio show yesterday. Calling the Chinese names and imitating the Chinese language was a childish and offensive tactic. It is one thing to disagree with a nation and criticize its policies, but it is another thing to demonize an entire people,” she said in a statement Thursday.
- “Patrice King Brown, a friendly, familiar face to
Pittsburgh viewers for more than three decades, announced her retirement to her KDKA-TV co-workers Tuesday, capping a career that began in a beauty pageant and took her to the top of Pittsburgh TV news as co-anchor of the station’s most-viewed evening newscasts,” Maria Sciullo and Rob Owen reported Wednesday for the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. Brown, 56, was among the first African-American women in the country to hold 6 and 11 p.m. anchor slots. - Psychology Today is publishing a new blog by Dr. Melody T. McCloud, an obstetrician-gynecologist and the founder/medical director of Atlanta Women’s Health Care. McCloud is the author of “Living Well, Despite Catchin’ Hell: The Black Woman’s Guide to Health, Sex and Happiness!”
- “The News Media Guild on Thursday proposed that the Associated Press extend its contractual non-discrimination protections to prospective employees and that a joint committee on workplace equity and diversity be formed,” Martha Waggoner reported Thursday for the News Media Guild. “The AP rejected the proposal, saying the Guild contract only applies to current employees, not prospective ones, meaning the company wouldn’t bargain about the intern program. It also said the committee’s review of grievance settlements and lawsuits could cause legal problems for both sides.”
- One of the newest offerings of the Knight Digital Media Center at UC Berkeley is a training workshop for journalists who have or are actively seeking to venture into online community or specialty news publishing, the program announces. “The Web Publishing for Independent Journalists Workshop will provide journalists with the hands-on training and tools to get started with an online publishing enterprise. . . . The fellowship covers all lodging, meals, and instruction costs. Cost of travel to the workshop must be paid by the applicant. . . . Complete applications for the March 2011 Independent Journalists Workshop must be received by January 28, 2011 at 11:59 p.m. PST.” An online application form and instructions are available at: http://multimedia.journalism.berkeley.edu/workshops/apply/?start=1
