Hampton J-School Dedicated — No “Muckraking?”
The Scripps Howard Foundation and Hampton University today opened the Scripps Howard School of Journalism and Communications on Hampton’s seaside campus in Virginia. But whether the historically black university will teach students to pursue muckraking journalism remains in doubt.
Charlotte Grimes, a former national correspondent for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch who was brought in two years ago to head the University’s Department of Media Arts, is not heading the new school. Instead, as the school year began, University President William R. Harvey named Rosalynne (Roz) Whitaker-Heck to lead it on an interim basis.
Grimes told interested parties in a recent memo that she “respectfully declined the conditions under which Dr. Harvey invited me to take on the leadership . . . As I wrote to him, I’m concerned about his proposal to appoint a committee to craft a mission statement for the new school. This mission statement, he advised me, should reflect his view that journalism is ‘to do good, not muckraking.'”
“I respect his view,” Grimes wrote. “But such a mission statement raises serious concerns about the academic freedom and the First Amendment protections of free speech and free press that are essential for a credible journalism program. It has prompted me to do much soul-searching on what we might be able to teach our students, and how they — as college students — might pursue thorough reporting or even investigative journalism under such a mission statement and in light of the views expressed by the university president, and whether we would face a chilling effect in our classes and assignments.”
Harvey told Journal-isms earlier this month that “there will be a nationwide search for a director to head the school. Anybody may apply. We expect this school is going to be one of the top 10 journalism schools in the country.”
Of the significance of his naming Whitaker-Heck, not Grimes, to head it, Harvey said, “Somebody is trying to make something out of nothing.”
Whitehead, Vergara, Nelson Win “Genius Grants”
Writer Colson Whitehead, photographer Camilo Jose Vergara and documentary film maker Stanley Nelson were among the 24 winners of $500,000 genius grants announced by the MacArthur Foundation.
Whitehead, 32, received critical acclaim for his first two novels, “John Henry Days” (2001) and “The Intuitionist” (1998). The foundation called him “a bold experimental writer whose social and philosophical themes speak to the heart of American society,” the New York Times reported.
“I’m just out of breath, out of words,” said Vergara, 58, a photographer who captured images of the World Trade Center from its construction more than 30 years ago to the day the towers fell.
Vergara, whose work often chronicles the changes in poor urban neighborhoods, currently has an exhibition of World Trade Center photographs at the New-York Historical Society.
Nelson’s films include a documentary, “The Black Press: Soldiers Without Swords,” “Two Dollars and a Dream: The Story of Madame C.J. Walker,” on the life and times of the African American businesswoman who became the nation’s first self-made woman millionaire; documentaries on methadone treatment for heroin addicts and the challenges faculty members of color face in higher education.
Whitehead used to be a television critic at New York’s Village Voice, one of the few African Americans with that job description. The lead character in “Days” is a free-lance journalist who spends much of his time sucking up at public relations travel junkets, then stumbles on the legacy of John Henry – a mid-19th century African American railroad laborer of legendary strength who was made to compete against a steam drill. Despite his work at the Voice and his choice of a journalist as the “Days” protagonist, Whitehead shies away from considering himself a part of the Fourth Estate. “I always just considered myself just a humble reviewer,” Whitehead said earlier this year. “Journalists, to me, do great things like break the story, expose the truth, and get to the bottom of things. The kind of critic I was, I just complained and griped a lot. I couldn’t do an interview to save my life.”
Univision’s Numero Uno at 6 in N.Y.
Univision Communications Inc.-owned Spanish-language WXTV-TV’s 6 p.m. local newscast finished first in New York’s six-way local-news-ratings race for the first time ever, with a 5.7/11 rating/share, Broadcasting & Cable reports.
Each New York Nielsen Station Index rating point represents 72,823.2 TV households.
Gwen Ifill, Clarence Page on Columbia J-Task Force
The new president of Columbia University has picked a who’s who of American media to consider a curriculum overhaul at the prestigious Graduate School of Journalism, reports the New York Daily News. The list includes Gwen Ifill of PBS and Clarence Page, Chicago Tribune columnist.
The big worry out of Morningside Heights, writes by Sridhar Pappu in the New York Observer, was that President Lee Bollinger assembled a crew that didn’t have enough out-of-left-field thinkers to stimulate the role-of-a-J-school conversation the new president said he wanted to have.
But then again, said another faculty member at the journalism school, maybe that’s exactly what he wanted. “It is certainly an impressive list,” said the faculty member. “But in the end, it’s irrelevant. [Bollinger] is going to do what he wants to do. That’s what people don’t understand. It’s completely irrelevant.”
Fangs Allowed S.F. Cops to Use Newspaper Building
When the San Francisco Examiner moved into its current headquarters in 2000, police narcotics officers were allowed to use the building to spy on possible drug deals, reports the San Francisco Bay Guardian. Examiner co-owner James Fang admitted that the SFPD had run operations from the paper’s property for approximately three months.
“When we were remodeling the building, the police were using some of the floors to look out on the street,” Fang said. “They were just here very briefly, and they were not on the floors that had editorial people on them.”
Marty Steffens, who worked for the Examiner from May to December 2000, remembers things somewhat differently. Steffens, who served as executive editor, recalls walking into her sixth floor office one day to find a narcotics cop looking out the window, surveilling the streets below. “After that, I heard from time to time that the cops were on the roof,” said Steffens, now chair of business journalism at the University of Missouri in Columbia.
Black Leaders Say ‘Barbershop’ Needs a Trim
The hit movie “Barbershop,” previewed at the National Association of Black Journalists’ convention in Milwaukee, has touched off a furor among some of the nation’s black leaders over the movie’s less-than-reverent references to civil rights figures Rosa Parks, Martin Luther King Jr. and the Rev. Jesse Jackson, the Los Angeles Times reports.
Although the film is shaping up as one of the most successful movies with a strong African American theme, leaders such as Jackson, the Rev. Al Sharpton and members of Parks’ and King’s families are incensed over one scene that pokes fun at Parks, King and Jackson. They have called for a public apology from the film makers and demanded that MGM remove the scene from its eventual home video release.
Sharpton has gone so far as to threaten a boycott of the film if MGM does not reply to their requests by Friday. MGM Vice Chairman and Chief Operating Officer Chris McGurk said he was blindsided by the criticism, considering the film has a positive message and has been embraced by African American audiences. He said the studio would not issue an apology and would not censor the movie.
Black Enterprise Starting “Teenpreneur” Magazine
With its October issue, Black Enterprise magazine is rolling out a new publication targeting teens interested in business, the Chicago Tribune reports.
The new publication, called Teenpreneur, is slated to become a stand-alone magazine in the next year or two. Until then, the magazine will be wrapped with subscribers’ copies of Black Enterprise and included inside newsstand copies.
Melvin Crenshaw, a product manager at Black Enterprise parent Earl G. Graves Publishing Co., said Teenpreneur will include stories about teenage business owners, careers, investing and celebrity stories.
“Instead of talking about what celebrities do, we talk about what the celebrities do with their money,” Crenshaw said.
Initially the publication will target African-American teenagers but will try to expand its audience after Teenpreneur becomes a stand-alone magazine, Crenshaw said.
Gov. Gray Davis Declines to Debate Before Ethnic Media
With polls showing a large number of undecided voters in the California race for governor, what could be better than an opportunity to see the top three candidates sharing a stage and addressing the issues and the people? asks Emil Guillermo on the San Francisco Chronicle’s SF Gate Web site.
More compelling was the fact that candidates would be able to engage the state’s new majority voters through the ethnic media. A recent study estimated the ethnic media’s reach in California alone at 14.2 million people.
But Gov. Gray Davis flat-out rejected the invitation from New California Media, a consortium of the state’s ethnic media outlets, citing scheduling conflicts and the governor’s workload.
Lives of People of Color Worsened After 9/11
In a study of 1,000 California residents, conducted in 12 languages, large percentages of Asian Americans, Middle Easterners, African Americans and Hispanics told interviewers that their daily lives had worsened significantly as a result of the September 11 terrorist attacks.
Many in all groups said that they or someone in their families had lost jobs or were making less money. Yet a majority also reported feeling a stronger sense of patriotism and belonging as a result of 9/11. The study was conducted by New California Media and the Annenberg Institute for Justice and Journalism at the University of Southern California, in partnership with California’s “Big Seven” ethnic dailies.
Black Journalism Icon’s Legacy Finally Sticks
When you meet someone you truly admire, writes columnist Mary Mitchell in the Chicago Sun-Times, a window opens. Your eyes light up. Your heart sprouts wings. And you become as bashful as a girl staring into the face of her first love.
“That is how I felt sitting in Quinn Chapel listening to speakers share their memories of Ethel Lois Payne, an astounding black Chicago journalist whose career took her all over the globe at a time when U.S. blacks were traveling the country in segregated trains and buses,” Mitchell writes.
Payne died May 28, 1991, at age 80. Her relatives, colleagues and public officials gathered last Friday at the historic Quinn Chapel to unveil a stamp honoring Payne as one of four American women in journalism featured in the U.S. Postal Service’s commemorative stamp series.
Oxygen, BET Team up for Animated Series
Oxygen and Black Entertainment Television are teaming up on a new animated series — BET’s first — that will air on both cable channels, Broadcasting & Cable reports.
“Hey Monie” follows the escapades of a young, urban-dwelling African American woman. Oxygen and BET will share episodes in the same week, although it’s not clear which network will get the first play. The two channels are co-financing and sharing rights to “Hey Monie,” which premieres in spring 2003.
Soup2Nuts, a television production company that specializes in animated comedy, produced the first five episodes and will continue to create the following eight.
With original series by Oprah Winfrey, Isaac Mizrahi, Candice Bergen and Carrie Fisher, Oxygen Media says it provides more original programming than any other women’s network. BET is a subsidiary of Viacom.
Venezuela Said to Encourage Attacks on Reporters
Two international press freedom watchdogs, beginning a three-day visit to Venezuela, have accused President Hugo Chavez of encouraging attacks against journalists.
The Inter-American Press Association and the International Press Institute condemned a Saturday attack on a television news crew by Chavez supporters. They said the attack was inspired by Chavez’s vitriol against the news media.
“That’s how it starts,” said IPI president Jorge Fascetto. “At first, no one is harmed, but then violence increases and journalists die.”
Toronto’s Free “Share:” Only Positive News
Arnold Auguste wants to tell the other half of the story. If mainstream newspapers focus only on the negative aspects of Toronto’s black community, Auguste is determined to provide a balance by focusing only on the positive. As founder, publisher, and executive editor of Share, the largest publication serving Toronto’s black community, Auguste is in a position to put that vision into practice, reports the Eyeopener, student newspaper at Ryerson University in Toronto.
Hispanic Caucus Looks into Telemundo Pay
NBC Station Group president Jay Ireland and representatives of the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists have met separately with representatives of Congress’ Hispanic Caucus to discuss concerns over perceived two-tier compensation, benefits and working conditions if and when NBC’s union shops merge with Telemundo Communications Group Inc. nonunion shops in Los Angeles and Chicago, reports Broadcasting & Cable.
VOA Site Helps Reporters Pronounce Foreign Names
The Voice of America offers a wonderful searchable online guide to pronouncing the names of world leaders, reports Editor & Publisher columnist Charles Bowen. Entries include phonetic spellings. But even better still, it also has audio-file pronunciations so we can simply listen and learn.