NPR Dropping Kojo Nnamdi’s “Public Interest”
” Public Interest ,” the daily midday talk show hosted by Kojo Nnamdi , is being dropped by National Public Radio, effective Sept. 30.
“There were just many, many local stations out there starting to produce their own shows in the talk format, and we didn’t see the potential for Kojo’s growth,” said NPR spokeswoman Jessamyn Sarmiento.
Of the general interest news-talk shows syndicated by NPR, Nnamdi’s was the only one hosted by a person of color, a sensibility he brought to the interviews with his guests. The show will remain on WAMU-FM, the Washington, D.C., station where it originates. It is broadcast from noon to 2 p.m. (“The Tavis Smiley Show” is on 36 stations as of today, and will be airing on at least 39 by Oct. 1, NPR says, but it focuses on African American issues.)
As of fall 2001, 449,200 people per week listened to “Public Interest” on 35 public radio stations, an NPR spokeswoman said. A news release issued Aug. 22 said 37 stations were carrying the program.
According to NPR, Terry Gross‘ “Fresh Air” is carried by 401 stations with 4.1 million listeners a week; “The Diane Rehm Show,” 73 stations, 3.35 million; “Talk of the Nation,” 203 stations, 3.1 million; “The Connection,” 50 stations, 666,000 listeners; and Todd Mundt, 36 stations, 400,000 listeners per week.
NPR Senior Vice President for Programming Jay Kernis noted in a statement that the decision was a difficult one but added, “We hope to work with WAMU to find ways to use Kojo’s talent and expertise in the future.”
Nnamdi is a native of Guyana who came to American University’s WAMU while hosting “Evening Exchange,” a public affairs program broadcast by WHUT-TV at Howard University. From 1973 to 1985, Nnamdi worked at WHUR-FM, where he served as news editor and then news director.
Muslim Americans’ Image Improves
The elevated profile of Muslim Americans since Sept. 11 has improved Americans’ perceptions of them, according to a new Knight Ridder poll. Today, 58 percent of Americans have favorable feelings toward Muslim Americans, up from 45 percent in a March 2001 poll. The most favorable perception among racial groups came from African Americans; Hispanic perceptions were nearly identical to those of non-Hispanic whites.
Westerners and college graduates had the strongest positive impressions, the poll found. But whites, Southerners and those older than 55 were more likely to have anti-Arab feelings.
Among white Americans in the survey of 2,000 people, the Princeton Survey Research Associates told Journal-isms, 57 percent say they have a favorable attitude and 27 percent say it is unfavorable.
Among the 150 African Americans who answered the question, 67 percent held favorable views and 15 percent unfavorable. Among the 140 Hispanics who answered the question, 57 percent were favorably disposed and 23 percent unfavorably. In March 2001, the numbers were 43 percent favorable among whites, 52 percent among African Americans and 48 percent among Hispanics.
The poll also found that since Sept. 11, it is women more than men and minority members more than whites who remain plagued by Sept. 11 fears. Fifty percent of African Americans, 50 percent of Hispanics and 44 percent of whites said they either had trouble sleeping, felt depressed, or worried that someone in their family will fall prey to another attack, the poll found. The poll has a margin of error of 2 percent.
Hip-Hop Spokesmen Challenge L.A. Times
Members of the hip-hop community challenged the results of a year-long investigation by the Los Angeles Times into the 1996 killing of rap superstar Tupac Shakur and its conclusions implicating the late New York rapper Notorious B.I.G. The newspaper published its results in a stories Friday and Saturday. The paper itself ran a story Saturday quoting Biggie Smalls‘ family denying that the rapper played a role in the murder, adding that he was in New Jersey at the time.
“The Times account was based on court documents and interviews with police investigators and gang members, including witnesses to the crime. It said Wallace was in Las Vegas on the weekend of the shooting, registered at a hotel under a false name,” The Times story said.
Hip-hop writer Kevin Powell, founder and chairperson of a group called Hiphop Speaks, issued a statement saying, “Let us wise up and understand that the Los Angeles Times article is based on unidentified sources, flimsy timelines and even flimsier evidence, and represents the worst form of sensationalized journalism. Given the world we live in today, we should demand far more than this from people who claim to serve the public interest.”
“People should not rush to judgment concerning this tragedy based on inaccuracies as reported by the LA Times. We need healing in our community. Only facts and the real truth will bring ultimate justice and peace,” said entrepreneur Russell Simmons and the Nation of Islam’s Benjamin Chavis Muhammad, who lead the the Hip-Hop Summit Action Network, a Simmons-founded group that protested Board of Education budget cuts in New York City last June.
Book Reports on Journalists Who Covered 9/11
The Freedom Forum’s Newseum is out with its book of images and recollections from journalists who covered the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks in New York City, Washington, D.C., and Pennsylvania, “Running from Danger: Stories Behind the Breaking News of 9/11” (Rowman & Littlefield, $29.95).
Among those included are:
— Ricardo Alvarez, news director of Telemundo Channel 47, who describes the difficulties of covering the New York event.
— Bolivar Arellano, New York Post photographer, who says he silently prayed for those who jumped at the Number Two tower site, “God, give them wings so they cannot touch the ground. I know you are going to take them, but take their full bodies, not in pieces.” He adds, “It was the most traumatic moment of my life.”
— Gerald Boyd, who describes the mobilization at the New York Times, where he is managing editor. “I was sitting in the (barber) chair when people walked in saying that a plane had hit the World Trade Center. I leaped out of the chair and was dashing up the street with the barber chasing after me.”
— Khue Bui, contributing photographer for Newsweek, who had gone jogging with President Bush that morning.
— Natalia Cruz, reporter for Telemundo, Channel 47, who describes reporting from the World Trade Center live when the third building collapsed. “My family was watching me on Telemundo Internacional in Colombia.”
— Harold Dow of CBS News, who says, “I ran into a subway station, and three or four people ran in with me. We ran into a shoe place. I asked if I could use the phone. I called Dan (Rather) and he put me live on the air.”
— Liz Gonzalez, general assignment reporter for Telemundo, Channel 47, who reported live with Natalia Cruz. They are shown with their face masks.
— Eugenio Hernandez, assignment manager/producer of AP Television News, who was driving on Interstate 395 near Washington when he saw the plane coming down near the Pentagon.
— Catherine Leuthold, a freelance photographer who has a two-page spread that includes a memorable photo of New York court officer Reginald Mebane, a black man with tears rolling down his ash-covered face, who helped with the rescue efforts.
— New York Post photographer Gary Miller, the very first image one sees inside the book, a full page of the photojournalist holding his camera amid the rubble.
— Al Ortiz, executive producer and director at CBS News, who describes how CBS went into “special report mode.”
— Christina Pino-Marina, reporter at washingtonpost.com , who was near the Pentagon explosion.
— Hernando Reyes Smieker, reporter for Noticias 1380, who says, “I made my report (from New York). I was live on the air. Don’t ask me how I did it.”
— Sonya Ross of the Associated Press, who was on Air Force One, where she is pictured gasping as reporters watched the North Tower collapse on the plane’s TV monitor.
— Elinor Tatum, publisher and editor in chief of the New York Amsterdam News. “All of a sudden there were a million photographers in New York,” she says. “You don’t understand how many people I had to turn down, at least 20. We paid our going rate for photos. I wasn’t about to be yanked. The front page was almost all photos.”
Meanwhile, Juan Gonzalez, New York Daily News columnist and president of the National Association of Hispanic Journalists, has written “Fallout: The Environmental Consequences of the World Trade Center Collapse” (The New Press, $20). It argues that public officials misled New Yorkers about the real dangers of toxic contamination after Sept. 11. Their failure may have profound effects on the long-term health of New Yorkers, he says.
Tabloids Ponder Touchy Issue of Race
Other metro tabloid editors agree that the Philadelphia Daily News faced a touchy issue when it decided to run a front page of mug shots that included no whites, Editor & Publisher reports. But they admit they didn’t have an all-encompassing policy for handling such a case.
Ed Kosner, editor in chief of the New York Daily News, which has run similar “most-wanted” covers, said, “You have to be sensitive, but you have to balance the news reality.” However, he declined to say what he would have done about the graphics in a similar situation. “I make my editing decisions based on specifics,” he said.
Chicago Sun-Times Editor in Chief Michael Cooke also punted. If the Sun-Times were faced with the same choices in photographs as the Philadelphia Daily News, Cooke said, “We would pull together four or five of our key people and talk about it. I don’t know how we would end up. It’s a tough call.”
USA Today’s Tamara Henry Starts Doctoral Fellowship
Tamara Henry, a national education writer at USA Today, is the second Scripps Howard Foundation Doctoral Fellow at the University of Maryland’s Philip Merrill College of Journalism, the school announced. Henry, who was a Pulitzer Prize nominee in 2000 for a package on school construction, is starting the three-year program this month after 10 years at USA Today.
