N.Y. Reporter Helps Nab Murder Suspect
WABC-TV New York reporter Sandra Bookman was instrumental in the capture of a suspected wife-killer, Newsday reports.
Former WorldCom Inc. software engineer Robert Cabassa, who had been on the run for three weeks, was nabbed in Harlem after he called Bookman and threatened to kill himself, police said.
That call helped lead to Cabassa’s capture, said Lauren Kapp, a station spokeswoman. Cabassa, 52, had met Bookman 2 1/2 years ago at a wedding, where she gave him her business card after he told her his daughter was interested in a TV news career. Bookman talked to the daughter and has kept in touch with her, Kapp said.
Since the slaying of his wife, 33, who worked as a research technician at Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, Cabassa had been calling Bookman trying to persuade her to correct some of the mistakes he said had been made in reporting on the slaying, Kapp said.
Cabassa called Bookman, who hasn’t worked on the story, at 7:05 p.m. Tuesday and said he’d call back at 7:30. She called investigators, police said. Detectives got the number of the phone Cabassa used from Bookman’s cell phone and traced it to a pay phone. He was arrested when he returned to call Bookman back.
Philly Paper Apologizes for Mug-Shot Front Page
“Would we do a story again about 41 fugitives wanted for murder by the Philadelphia Police Department?,” writes Ellen Foley, Philadelphia Daily News managing editor, in an apology to readers today.
“Absolutely.
“Would we do it differently?
“Absolutely,” Foley wrote.
The page pictured 18 police mug shots of fugitives wanted for murder by Philadelphia police. All were either African American, Hispanic or Asian.
“The front page photos from last Thursday sent the message to some readers that only black men commit murder. That was a mistake.
“In addition, the stories didn’t address a key question: Why are there no white suspects on the loose? That also was a mistake.
“Our first story should have looked harder at this question. The Daily News apologizes for the error.”
Editors Called Cautious on Identifying by Race
“Every few months,” writes Don Wycliff, public editor of the Chicago Tribune, “I get a letter or phone call from a reader wanting to know why, in an otherwise thoroughly reported story–and these seem to come up most often in the context of crime stories–we neglected to include the person’s race.
“As often as not, after I’ve queried the editors, the answer turns out to be that someone exercised an excess of caution.”
More Shakeups by Greg Moore at Denver Post
Stories about Denver Post Editor Gregory Moore ripping up front pages because they’re not interesting enough and making his people try again are becoming commonplace, as are accounts of his eagerness to make changes immediately if not sooner, reports the Denver weekly Westward.
As a result, some folks have been coming, other staffers are heading in new directions, and at least one person — Jim Sheeler, whose long-form obituaries have been arguably the finest regular contribution to the Sunday Post — was given an ignominious heave-ho.
Also on the move is religion editor Virginia Culver, who’s covered sacred matters at the Post for over three decades. Given that Moore has said that anyone who’s held a beat for more than five or six years has probably been there too long, Culver’s targeting didn’t come out of the blue. But Peggy Lowe, who worked with Culver at the Post before signing up with the Rocky Mountain News, was still shocked by it.
“Her nickname around the Post is ‘God,’ and it’s not just because of her beat; it’s because people really respect her,” Lowe says. . . . as a Rocky reporter, I feel like Greg Moore’s done us a favor — because now we don’t have to watch our backs for Virginia Culver.” Culver has been reassigned to write obits.
Rukeyser’s Revenge: Cutbacks at Md. Public TV
The aftershocks of Rukeyser’s revenge continue, reports the Baltimore Sun.
Last week, officials at Maryland Public Television told employees they were laying off 32 staffers, demoting executives and slashing the pay of those left behind to close a projected $2.1 million shortfall for this fiscal year. Most of that shortfall stemmed from the loss of corporate sponsors from the financial news program “Wall Street Week” after the dismissal of host Louis Rukeyser in March.
One of those affected was Everett L. Marshburn, who lost his job as vice president of news and public affairs. But Marshburn, 54, an African American who has spent 34 years at MPT, told Journal-isms he would remain as a producer and is “not unhappy” because he will continue to produce his “Hard Working Families” series, which looks at services available to citizens to help them improve the quality of their lives, and an upcoming documentary on fatherhood issues. “I’m more concerned about the content of what I’ve done,” he said. On public television, he said, “we can have that impact and effect.”
PBS replaced Rukeyser with a revamped “Wall Street Week With Fortune” June 28, with co-hosts Karen Gibbs, 50, an African American who was most recently a business correspondent and substitute anchor for Fox News Channel; and Geoff Colvin, 48, editorial director for Fortune. Before Fox, Gibbs was a CNBC anchor, and she also worked as a vice president and senior futures strategist at Dean Witter Reynolds.
‘Priceless’ Archives Taken From Indy Black Paper
Not all the things stolen from The Indianapolis Recorder can be replaced.
“It was the stuff on the hard drive. Pictures, historical artifacts — those things are priceless,” editor Anare Holmes told the Indianapolis Star. “Those people not only robbed us; they robbed the community.”
As many as 10 computers used to produce the newspaper, along with fax machines and other equipment, were taken in a burglary discovered when employees at the newspaper arrived for work Tuesday. Thieves smashed doors and ransacked offices inside.
The Recorder, dedicated to covering the city’s black community, plans to keep publishing and put out an edition this week. The weekly is distributed on Thursdays and has a paid circulation of about 14,000.
The burglars appeared to know exactly which telephone lines to cut to disable the building’s alarm system. They were particular about what they took, leaving behind a monitor that didn’t work. “It appeared to be a professional job,” said Indianapolis Detective Peter Perkins. “They took the good ones, not the old ones.”
Authorities so far do not believe the break-in was racially motivated.
Texas J-Prof Claims Institutional Racism
University of Texas journalism professor Paula Poindexter, a former director of the Los Angeles Times in Education Program and Houston television producer, has sued the university and the dean of the College of Communication, saying she was denied a promotion because she is African American.
The Austin American-Statesman reports that Poindexter alleges that she suffered discrimination and retaliation as a tenured associate professor and that university officials gave inaccurate information to federal authorities investigating her complaints. The suit also accuses the university of institutional racism, claiming minority faculty and staff members suffer discrimination.
Poindexter received a tenure appointment as an associate professor at UT in 1992. Three years later, she was passed over for a job as head of the journalism department even though a majority of the faculty members told Poindexter they preferred her over the other candidate, who was white, the lawsuit says.
Since 2001, the lawsuit notes, three African Americans have been appointed to senior-level positions in the college. They include Lorraine Branham, a former Pittsburgh Post-Gazette executive, who was appointed this year as director of the School of Journalism.
A Native Reports on Native New Yorkers
The city with the largest American Indian population, according to the 2000 Census, is not Phoenix. Not Los Angeles. It is New York City, reports Jason Begay in the New York Times, who adds that the news is a surprise even to some Indians in the city.
Part of what makes this piece special is its author, Begay, a Native American who wrote it as a Times summer intern.
Last year, in the student convention newspaper of the American Society of Newspaper Editors, Begay wrote:
“I hate being a minority.
“I wouldn’t mind it so much if it wasn’t flashed in my face like a finger-pointing strobe light. I wouldn’t mind it so much if it didn’t set me apart from other students and a ‘Native American’ prefix was attached to me to prove that diversity in journalism is on the rise.
“After three years, numerous Native American scholarships and three different minority/Native American internships, I still don’t know how to play my part in this movement.
“They say I am equal; and they say I am as good as everyone else; and they say I can be as good as I want to be if I put my mind to it ?- but I don’t feel like I am ‘equally as talented.’ Instead I feel like I should be Native American-ly talented.”
Jackie Mason Denies Removing Columnist-Comic
An irate Jackie Mason defended himself over allegations that he demanded a local comic of Palestinian descent be removed as his opening act at Zanies comedy club this week because of ethnicity, the Chicago Tribune reports.
“It never involved me,” said Mason, who is Jewish, at a news conference. He added that remarks made by fledgling comedian Ray Hanania to the contrary were an “out and out lie.” In a separate news conference, the columnist-turned-comic joked that maybe Mason’s “hearing must be bad. He thought they said Robin Williams” was the opening act.