CEOs to Teach Editors About Reaching “the New America”
Malcolm X Assassination Left Alex Haley Scrambling
Univision Anchor Praised for Switch to Tough Questions
Obama’s Approval Rating Slips Among Blacks, Hispanics
Libyans Hold Four More International Journalists
Climate Change Underreported in Japan Quake Coverage
March Madness Ratings Boosted in Bars, Restaurants
150 Years Later, Survey Finds Civil War Still Divisive
Ronnie Agnew, who co-chairs the Diversity Committee of the American Society of News Editors, says, “ASNE will be a leader at keeping diversity at the forefront of this journalistic transformation.” (Credit: theworld.org)
CEOs to Teach Editors About Reaching “the New America”
Now that it has revealed that the number of journalists of color in daily newspaper and online-only newsrooms declined for the third consecutive year, the American Society of News Editors plans to enlist non-media companies to brief news executives on appealing to an increasingly brown America.
“ASNE will be a leader at keeping diversity at the forefront of this journalistic transformation,” Ronnie Agnew, executive editor of the Clarion-Ledger in Jackson, Miss., and co-chairman of ASNE’s Diversity Committee, told Journal-isms via email.
The ASNE’s annual survey showed that the number of journalists of color declined from 5,500 to 5,300, contrasting with the news industry’s stated goal of parity with the number of people of color in the general population by 2025.
The percentage of minorities in newsrooms totaled 12.79 percent, a decline of .47 of a percentage point from a year ago. The percentage of nonwhites in the general population is 36 percent, ASNE noted.
In two months, Agnew said, “we plan to hold diversity sessions at NAHJ on hiring and retention,” referring to the June 15-18 convention of the National Association of Hispanic Journalists in Orlando, Fla.
ASNE had already announced two working sessions on diversity in the news business — one in conjunction with the annual convention now taking place in San Diego, sessions that have since been postponed (“We felt we needed more time to get on the calendars of CEOs and decision-makers. We don’t want to rush this. It’s too important,” Agnew said) — and another concurrent with the NAHJ convention.
The sessions, entitled “Leadership in Diversity: New Models for Growing Audience, Talent and Revenues,” involve “more than 100 top news, digital and business executives, and selected non-news executives whose companies have executed successful efforts to reach communities of color,” ASNE announced in March. The workshops are being coordinated by Walt Swanston, a veteran of newsroom diversity efforts.
In addition to the NAHJ convention sessions, Agnew told Journal-isms on Friday, “In September we’re planning to hold sessions in New York tentatively titled: The Business Case for Diversity. Regarding the latter, we hope to attract CEOs and/or decision makers from companies to talk about the new America. We also plan to invite non-media companies that have had success attracting diverse customer bases. ASNE will be a leader at keeping diversity at the forefront of this journalistic transformation.”
Meanwhile, Ken Paulson, president and chief executive officer of the First Amendment Center and incoming president of ASNE, pledged to continue the annual ASNE diversity survey, begun in 1978.
A contract with Bobbi Bowman, who has conducted the survey for years as director of diversity and then as a diversity consultant, expires this year.
“Newsroom diversity remains a core ASNE value and we’ll continue to conduct the annual survey,” Paulson said by email.
Agnew added: “The diversity committee met this morning and was unanimous about the importance of continuing the census, which started in 1978. The issue we’re still considering is finding the most effective way of continuing this valuable system of accountability. One of the big ideas under consideration is finding a partner or contracting with an outside source to assist us. To say that we have made a final decision as to what venue we will take would be premature.
“We will discuss the census at tomorrow’s board meeting to ensure the board is fully involved and to use the board as a resource for ideas. We hope to have a final decision and bring this to closure within the next few weeks. . . . The census is one of our most important initiatives.”
According to a March news release, while the diversity sessions “are being convened by ASNE, partners in the planning process are the leaders of several newspapers and news organizations, including the Associated Press Managing Editors, the Newspaper Association of America, The Poynter Institute for Media Studies, The Maynard Institute for Journalism Education, Unity: Journalists of Color, and [its] member associations.”
- Lily Leung, San Diego Union-Tribune: Live: Facebook COO speaks to media leaders
- Joann S. Lublin, Wall Street Journal: Nooyi [chairman and chief executive of PepsiCo Inc.] Calls for More Women in Top Management
- Steve Musil, cnet.com: Schmidt sees online profits in newspapers’ future
- Dennis Romero, LAWeekly: L.A. Newsrooms Are Minority-Challenged in This Heavily Latino City, According to ASNE Journalism Survey
Journalist Alex Haley, left, hustled to publish “the Autobiography of Malcolm X” after the assassination of Malcolm, who is at right.
Malcolm X Assassination Left Alex Haley Scrambling
News of the 1965 assassination of Malcolm X quickly found journalist Alex Haley, the collaborator on Malcolm’s famed autobiography, turning to financial concerns, according to Manning Marable’s new “Malcolm X: A Life of Reinvention.”
“The terrible news of Malcolm’s murder quickly reached Alex Haley at his home in upstate New York. Less than two hours later, his grief was pushed aside by practical considerations,” Marable wrote on page 446. “Haley typed a letter to Paul Reynolds,” his agent, “fearing their lucrative deal might now be in jeopardy. ‘None of us would have had it be this way,’ Haley wrote, ‘but since this book represent’s [sic] Malcolm’s sole financial legacy to his widow and four little daughters . . . I’m just glad that it’s ready for the press now at a peak of interest for what will be international large sales, and paperback, and all.’ He also advised Reynolds that Doubleday should be alerted to a potential financial problem.
” ‘I am almost certain that within the next two or three days Malcolm’s widow, Sister Betty will contact me asking for some advance money from Doubleday or some other would be possible for her, to tide her through the immediate weeks. She hasn’t a home since last week they moved in the middle of the night, just ahead of the next day’s legal eviction to return the honor to the Muslims. And Malcolm, talking with me yesterday, said that he had ‘two or three hundred dollars,’ which would be the total extent of Sister Betty’s funds.’
“A few days later, Haley had another thought. Again writing to Reynolds, he suggested, ‘Maybe some magazine might wish to pay well enough for a probing interview of Elijah Muhammad. I could accomplish this.’ Haley proposed something along the lines of his earlier personal interviews with Malcolm and Martin Luther King, Jr., featured in Playboy . . . Nothing came of these overtures, and Haley and Reynolds’s fears were fully justified. Within two weeks, in a terribly shortsighted move, Doubleday’s owner, Nelson Doubleday, abruptly canceled the contract.”
Marable continues in a later chapter, “After Doubleday’s cancellation of the book, Paul Reynolds had shopped the manuscript to other publications, eventually securing a contract for Haley with the radical Grove Press. The reviews of the narrative of Malcolm’s life were overwhelmingly positive . . . .”
In a 2007 interview with Amy Goodman of Pacifica Radio’s “Democracy Now!”, Marable said “Haley had an entirely different agenda” from Malcolm. “He was a Republican. He despised Malcolm X’s black nationalist creed. But he was a journalist, and he understood the power of charisma.”
A May 2010 “Journal-isms” column reporting accusations that William Bradley was the triggerman in the assassination, but never charged with that crime, is cited on page 476. The wrong page is listed in the index, however, and this columnist is called an “investigative reporter.”
In a discussion with this columnist and fellow Morgan State University professor Jared Ball on Washington’s WPFW-FM, Todd Steven Burroughs said the book seemed to have been written by committee, lacked sufficient primary research and appeared to be rushed toward completion as Marable succumbed to illness. He died at 60 on April 1, three days before the book was published.
- Zaheer Ali and Michael Eric Dyson with Tom Ashbrook, “On Point,” WBUR Boston: Reimagining Malcolm X
- Dr. Benjamin F. Chavis Jr., Washington Informer: The Importance of Black Historians
- Richard Prince and Todd Steven Burroughs with Jared Ball, “We Ourselves Legacy Edition,” WPFW-FM, Washington: Marable’s Malcolm X a “Fraud?” (audio)
- Anthony Asadullah Samad, eurweb.com: Ode To Manning Marable: Provocative Scholarship In Life and Now In Death
- Dr. Boyce Watkins, thyblackman.com: Malcolm X Book By Marable Disappoints Malcolm’s Daughters…
Jorge Ramos and President Obama at the Univision Education Town Hall on March 28. (Credit: Pete Souza/White House)
Univision Anchor Praised for Switch to Tough Questions
“More and more Latinos are wising up to President Obama’s phony immigration two-step,” Ruben Navarrette Jr. wrote Wednesday for the Washington Post Writers Group.
“They include Univision anchor Jorge Ramos, who was until recently the administration’s favorite Latino journalist. Ramos earned the honor by gushing over Obama during the 2008 election run.
“Now, Ramos probably won’t be landing any more exclusive interviews or getting any more invitations to state dinners. What did Ramos do to end up in the doghouse with the White House? Answer: Journalism.
“The newsman asked Obama some tough questions about his immigration policy that the president couldn’t answer.
“Bravo. Obama needs more scrutiny. Left-leaning Latino advocacy groups — the National Council of La Raza, the League of United Latin American Citizens, the Mexican-American Legal Defense and Education Fund, et al. — have a three-pronged strategy: ‘See no evil. Hear no evil. Speak no evil.’
“. . . it’s no wonder that Obama is left with this rhetorical hash and words that don’t match his actions.
“Just like it’s no wonder that Obama seemed to get caught in a lie about whether illegal immigrant students who would be covered by the Dream Act are being rounded up and deported. Not until Ramos presented him with hard evidence to the contrary did he shift gears and talk about how it’s his job as president to ‘enforce the law.’ . . .”
- Marisa Treviño, Latina Lista blog: Obama’s reelection strategy includes reaching out to Latino youth but things are different this time
- Marisa Treviño, Latina Lista blog: Some Latinos wondering why vote for Obama in 2012
Phil Griffin, president of MSNBC, left, was among those honored by the Rev. Al Sharpton, second from left, and the National Action Network at NAN’s 13th Annual Keepers of the Dream Awards in New York on Wednesday. Griffin was recognized for the memorandum of understanding that NBC and Comcast signed to increase diversity as they successfully sought approval of the Comcast takeover of NBCUniversal. With them are Rachel Noerdlinger of Reverend Al Sharpton Media and Harold Ford Jr., NBC News political analyst. President Obama spoke to the group.
Obama’s Approval Rating Slips Among Blacks, Hispanics
“Though majorities of blacks (85%) and Hispanics (54%) continue to approve of the job Barack Obama is doing as president, his ratings among these groups slipped in March and have set or tied new lows, the Gallup Organization reported on Thursday. “His approval rating among whites, at 39%, remains above where it was in the latter part of 2010.
“These results are based on aggregated data from Gallup Daily tracking in March, including more than 15,000 interviews with U.S. adults. Overall, Obama averaged 47% approval in March, three percentage points above his term low from August 2010.
“Obama, elected to office with strong support from minority voters, has averaged better than 90% approval among blacks, and 65% among Hispanics, during his term. Prior to March, Obama’s lowest monthly average among blacks was 88% in July 2010 and December 2010. The president’s 54% March job approval rating among Hispanics ties the low from July and August 2010.
“Even with the decline in blacks’ ratings of Obama, blacks remain the most likely to approve of him among key attitudinal or demographic subgroups. Democrats (80%) and self-identified liberals (74%) are next. Republicans show the lowest level of support by a wide margin, at 14%.”
- Jonathan Capehart, Washington Post: President Obama does Al Sharpton a solid
- Pew Research Center for the People & the Press: Obama Ratings Slip Amid Economic Anxieties
- Pew Research Center for the People & the Press: Tea Party: Better Known, Less Popular
- Sheryl Huggins Salomon, theRoot.com: Does Sharpton Have the White House on Speed Dial?
- Jesse Washington, Associated Press: Obama Carefully Courts Black Votes with Sharpton
- Alex Weprin, TVNewser: MSNBC President Phil Griffin Receives ‘Keepers of the Dream’ Award from NAN
- Sean Yoes, BlackAmericaWeb.com: Rev. Sharpton, Hannity Debate Obama Presidency
Libyans Hold Four More International Journalists
“Forces loyal to Libyan leader [Moammar Gaddafi] have detained four international journalists on the outskirts of the city of Brega, news reports said today, continuing the government’s pattern of arbitrary detentions and other restrictions, the Committee to Protect Journalists reported Thursday. The committee “called on authorities to stop detaining, expelling, and obstructing journalists reporting on the Libyan conflict.
“Photographers Manuel Varela, Anton Hammerl, James Foley, and reporter Clare Morgana Gillis were detained on Tuesday, the Global Post reported. Witnesses said the four journalists came under fire while traveling in a van near the north-central city, forcing them to stop, the Global Post said, citing information from Human Rights Watch. Pro-[Gaddafi] forces detained the four journalists while releasing their driver, the Global Post and others said.
“CPJ research shows that Hammerl, who is South African, works for The Christian Science Monitor; Varela, who is Spanish, is a freelance photographer on contract with the European Pressphoto Agency; Foley, who is American, works for the Global Post; and Morgana Gillis, an American, is a freelancer for The Christian Science Monitor, The Atlantic, and USA Today.”
Meanwhile, rescuers searched for scores of migrants from North Africa missing in the Mediterranean after their boat capsized off the south Italian island of Lampedusa, the BBC reported.
The Coast Guard said those on the boat were mostly Eritreans and Somalis, but according to the International Organisation of Migration, the migrants and asylum-seekers came from Bangladesh, Chad, Ivory Coast, Nigeria, Somalia and Sudan.
Phillip Martin produced a series on the plight of such African migrants to Europe for Public Radio International’s “The World.”
- BBC: Italy and France agree [to] North Africa migrant patrol
- David Case, GlobalPost: Journalists under attack in Libya
- Reporters Without Borders: More arrests and disappearances in Libya and Syria, threats in Jordan and UAE
Climate Change Underreported in Japan Quake Coverage
“When I was a young journalist working as the environment editor for a Thai newspaper back in the 1990s, one of the first things I learned was this: In order to cover the environment, you have to understand the energy sector — not just what it emits, but the politics, economics, and technical issues surrounding it,” James Fahn wrote Tuesday for Columbia Journalism Review. “And vice versa: Those reporting on energy development have to understand its environmental impacts to provide good coverage.
“The interlocking nature of these issues has again become tragically evident in recent weeks following the disaster in northeast Japan. The media coverage — including a proverbial renaissance of reporting on nuclear power — has generally reflected the comprehensive nature of these events in a compelling way, but much of it has failed to explain the full implications of climate change in the debate about what comes next.”
- Derrick Z. Jackson, Boston Globe: It’s still oil and nuclear power for Obama
- Elizabeth Ohene, BBC: In awe of Japan’s dignity
- Cristine Russell, Columbia Journalism Review: The Importance of Energy Reporters: A Q&A with the NYT’s Matthew Wald about Japan’s nuclear crisis
- Alicia Shepard, NPR: NPR’s Coverage of Japan is ‘Trivial.’ Say What?
University of Connecticut students celebrate their victory in the Final Four. (Video)
March Madness Ratings Boosted in Bars, Restaurants
“Having posted the strongest March Madness TV ratings since 2005, CBS and Turner Sports also experienced a major bounce among a fan base that can be somewhat difficult to pin down,” Anthony Crupi reported Friday for Mediaweek.
“CBS’ and Turner’s joint coverage of the 2011 Men’s Division I Basketball Championship earned a significant lift from out-of-home viewing . . . All told, CBS, TNT, TBS and truTV saw a 15 percent boost from fans who watched the tourney in bars, restaurants, hotels and other common areas.”
- Betty Winston Bayé, Louisville (Ky.) Courier-Journal: Big game’s lost and a whole town lapses into a funk
- Mike Freeman, cbssports.com: Huskies, Bulldogs give us a final that’s bad to the bone
- John Gonzalez, Philadelphia Inquirer: ‘Weak field’ produces excellent NCAA tournament
- Jemele Hill, ESPN: A call to action for college athletes
- Joe Nocera, New York Times: N.C.A.A.’s Double Standard
- Monte Poole, Oakland Tribune: Big-time college athletics are sordid zoo run by inmates
- John Smallwood, Philadelphia Daily News: Parity comes in twos in women’s title game
- Tim Smith, New York Daily News: Skylar Diggins, Muffet McGraw and Notre Dame feel they belong in title game with Texas A&M
- David Steele, AOL Fanhouse: Rodman, Sanders, Connecticut all rewarded for their defense
- Jason Whitlock, Fox Sports: Greedy NCAA still exploiting athletes
150 Years Later, Survey Finds Civil War Still Divisive
“As the 150th anniversary of the start of the Civil War approaches, most Americans say the war between the North and South is still relevant to American politics and public life today,” Pew Research Center for the People & the Press reported on Friday.
“More than half of Americans (56%) say the Civil War is still relevant, according to the latest national survey by the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press, conducted March 30-April 3 among 1,507 adults. Nearly four-in-ten (39%) say the Civil War is important historically but has little current relevance.
“In a nation that has long endured deep racial divisions, the history of that era still elicits some strong reactions. Nearly half of the public (46%) says it is inappropriate for today’s public officials to praise the leaders of the Confederate states during the war; 36% say such statements are appropriate.
“. . . . There is no consensus among the public about the primary cause of the Civil War, but more (48%) say that the war was mainly about states’ rights than say it was mainly about slavery (38%). Another 9% volunteer that it was about both equally.
“. . . Only a small number of Americans say they display the Confederate flag, but that symbol of the Southern cause elicits more negative reactions from some groups — especially African Americans, Democrats and the highly educated. Nevertheless, most Americans say they do not react positively or negatively when they see the Confederate flag.
“. . . There also are partisan differences in reactions to the flag: about twice as many Democrats (44%) as Republicans (21%) react negatively to displays of the Confederate flag. And Republicans are more likely than Democrats to have a positive reaction to the flag (15% vs. 7%).”
Short Takes
- “A reporter who has written dozens of articles about the 2007 shooting death of journalist Chauncey Bailey received a death threat Thursday while working on a story about a former Your Black Muslim Bakery member embroiled in a series of alleged real estate scams,” Thomas Peele wrote Saturday for the Chauncey Bailey Project. ” ‘If you write that story, you are going to end up like your friend Chauncey,’ a male caller told Josh Richman, 40, a legal and political affairs journalist for the Bay Area News Group.”
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“The John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation awarded 180 Fellowships on Thursday, and Wil Haygood, national reporter for The Washington Post and a former Charleston Gazette copy editor and reporter, was one of the recipients, the Charleston (W.Va.) Gazette reported. “The award will support Haygood’s project about the confirmation of Thurgood Marshall to the U.S. Supreme Court.” Foundation President Edward Hirsch said, “. . . to me, the most significant thing about the Foundation may be the continuity of our mission, a commitment to funding individuals at the highest level to do the work they were meant to do.”
- “The Cuban government on Thursday released the last journalist remaining in its prisons, ending a dark, eight-year-long era in which the island nation was one of the world’s worst jailers of the press, at one time imprisoning nearly 30 independent reporters and writers,” the Committee to Protect Journalists said, expressing relief “that Albert Santiago Du Bouchet [Hernández] has been freed, a milestone in an intensive, international advocacy effort led by the Catholic Church, the Spanish government, and international press and human rights groups.”
- “A tweet sent out this week by WRC reporter Craig Melvin has landed onetime Virginia senator George Allen in the middle of yet another racial quagmire as he tries to regain his old senate seat in the 2012 election,” Andrew Gauthier reported Friday for TVSpy. “Melvin, who is black, tweeted that Allen, whose political career crumbled a few years back after he used a racial slur during a campaign speech, had asked him for the second time in five months, ‘What position did you play?’ ‘I did not a play a sport,’ Melvin tweeted, pointedly.” Ryan Nobles of Richmond’s WWBT-TV, who is white, defended Allen, saying he was asked the same question.
- Hispanicize, “the complete resource for Latino social media marketers and bloggers,” and Univision Communications Inc., have joined forces to provide free in-depth communications training to non-profits serving Latino communities, Univision announced on Thursday. The sessions take place at Univision offices starting in June.
- “Weekly With Ed Gordon,” the discussion of the week’s news that provide a vehicle for Gordon’s return to BET, ended its first season on March 20, publicist LeToya Glenn-Bacon said this week. The show, which was actually taped on Wednesdays, debuted at noon Eastern time Sundays but was switched to 11:30 p.m. Asked whether it had been renewed, Glenn-Bacon said, “We have not announced anything for next season yet.”
- “Back in late February, Fox News columnist Juan Williams wrote a scathing piece about racial prejudice in the media,” Mark Follman wrote Wednesday for the PBS Idea Lab. “Exhibit A was the Washington Post’s coverage of a poll showing that African Americans and Latinos are optimistic about the economy. The Post, Williams charged, had ‘buried’ this good news because it didn’t fit with the bleak racial stereotypes typically found on the front pages of ‘the big, white press.’ Since it turns out that the Post actually had splashed the upbeat poll story all over its Sunday front page and its website, the ‘entire premise’ of Williams’ column, as a reader reported at MediaBugs, was flat-out wrong . . . On Tuesday, Fox finally posted an editor’s note on the piece.”
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