Chastened FCC Approves Equal Opportunity Rules
The Federal Communications Commission has unanimously approved new equal opportunity employment regulations that don’t specifically target women and minorities, Electronic Media reports. It’s part of an FCC effort to require broadcasters, cable operators and other multichannel TV operators to open their employment doors to newcomers — without running afoul of court rulings that axed the agency’s two previous versions of the EEO regulations.
“The rules we adopt today include a broad outreach program that is squarely race and gender neutral and, thus, not constitutionally suspect,” said FCC Chairman Michael Powell. While the old rules targeted women and minorities, the new rules require stations only to publicize vacancies and participate in job fairs and the like, without any explicit obligation that those efforts focus on women and minorities.
FCC Commissioner Michael Copps made clear that he wouldn’t take kindly to an industry lawsuit against the new rules. “I would surely be immensely disappointed if anyone challenged this modest proposal,” Copps said, adding that he hopes the agency will beef up the regulations in the future.
Statements from commissioners Kathleen Q. Abernathy and Kevin J. Martin.
SPJ Fears GOP Gains Will Mean Less Access
Now that Americans have given control of the U.S. Senate back to the Republicans after 18 months of nominal Democratic control, the Society for Professional Journalists asks what open government advocates can expect.
“The GOP takeover means that Republicans will control committee chairs and, thus, be the gatekeepers for the legislative process. This will have an impact on many issues,” SPJ says, among them:
“(1) A Freedom of Information Act exemption for information on “critical infrastructure” or other issues associated with Homeland Security. A possible FOIA exemption for “sensitive but unclassified information.”
“(2) Legislation designed to punish leaks of classified information–the so-called “Official Secrets Act.” Attorney General John Ashcroft has told Congress that a new, tougher law isn’t necessary, but he also said he’d work with Congress if the issue comes up.
“(3) Cameras in federal courts. This issue got further along in the Senate process than ever before with Vermont Democrat Patrick Leahy in the Judiciary Committee chair. Under Republican control, the bill probably won’t even make it out of committee.
“(4) Restoring the Presidential Records Act. Rep. Stephen Horn (R-Calif.) has been trying valiantly to undo the damage done by President Bush to the Presidential Records Act but will run out of time to get legislation passed this year. Even if he and House Government Reform Committee chair Dan Burton (R-Calif.) succeed in getting a bill moving through the House, the Senate probably will be less friendly to a bill critical of the president.”
Colin Powell to Appear on BET’s “Lead Story”
Secretary of State Colin Powell is to appear on Black Entertainment Television’s “Lead Story” news interview show on Sunday in what is believed to be his first appearance on the show since he took office.
Guest host Beverly Kirk of WRC-TV in Washington, D.C., is to be joined by panelists Jack White of Savoy Magazine, Clarence Page of the Chicago Tribune and Robert George of the New York Post.
Powell is expected to discuss the Bush administrationï¿œs reaction to the United Nations weapons resolutions passed Friday.
Powell’s appearance demonstrates the credibility the show has with African American viewers, said BET spokesman Michael Lewellen, who noted that national security adviser Condoleezza Rice included “Lead Story” in her round of Sunday talk shows on Sept. 15.
The interview airs at 11:00 a.m. ET/PT.
Tavis Smiley Lands Kofi Annan
U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan appeared Thursday on “The Tavis Smiley Show” on National Public Radio in a one-on-one interview that included Annan’s prediction of an imminent Security Council resolution on Iraq, which came Friday.
Gilbert Bailon to Plan Spanish Paper for Dallas
Gilbert Bailon, executive editor of the Dallas Morning News, told the News staff this week that he will be leading a Morning News team “that will create a Spanish-language daily newspaper for the [Dallas-Fort Worth] area.
“My work will be dedicated entirely to this new project, which will launch in the latter part of fall 2003. I will be on leave for 18-24 months to start this newspaper before I return to my current job,” Bailon wrote.
“I will oversee the whole operation, not just the newsroom.”
He said a name for the publication and a firm launch date would be selected by the end of the year, and that his current duties would be handled by Bob Mong and Stu Wilk.
Telemundo’s NBA Coverage Starts Sunday
The premiere of “La NBA en Telemundo” is set for 4 p.m. Eastern Time Sunday with the New Orleans Hornets at the New York Knicks, reports Electronic Media. Telemundo’s sportscasters — studio host Andres Cantor, play-by-play man Jessi Losada, analyst Edgar Lopez and sideline reporter John Sutcliff — will do a total of 14 live Spanish-language telecasts in this inaugural season.
Losada and Claudia Trejos host “NBA Max,” a youth-targeted magazine launching at 1 p.m. Saturday on Telemundo.
Gary Wordlaw Named GM of Seattle Station
Gary Wordlaw has been named vice president and general manager of KSTW, the UPN station in Seattle, it was announced by Dennis Swanson, executive vice president and chief operating officer of the Viacom Television Stations Group. Wordlaw, a veteran station executive, will oversee all operations for the UPN station. He replaces Kathy Sparks, who has left to pursue other opportunities.
Wordlaw, who is an active member of the National Association of Black Journalists, was most recently president and general manager of WTVH-TV Syracuse, Granite Broadcasting’s CBS affiliate. There, he oversaw all operations for the station, including its news programming. Previously, he was vice president/news for WJLA, the ABC affiliate in Washington, D.C., where he oversaw all local news programming. Before that, Wordlaw was news director of WMAR, Scripps Broadcasting’s Baltimore ABC affiliate, where he started as an assignment manager in 1983 and worked his way up to being the station’s top news executive.
San Antonio Weatherman Quits After Plagiarism Flap
Longtime weathercaster Albert Flores is no longer an employee of KENS-TV San Antonio after more than two decades as the station’s main forecaster, the San Antonio Express-News reports.
KENS General Manager Bob McGann said Flores’ employment at the station officially ended Tuesday. It was a little more than a week after the Express-News reported that Flores’ weather columns for the newspaper would be discontinued after it was discovered he had plagiarized some of the commentary.
An “Audible Gasp” at Greg Moore’s Vivid Language
During an Oct. 28 staff meeting at the Denver Post, Denver’s Westword reports, transportation writer Jeff Lieb asked Moore about the impending departure of an assistant city editor, or ACE.
A gaggle of meeting attendees, including Moore, had trouble pinning down the precise wording of his key line, but the consensus is that Moore said, “I wasn’t hired to move manure around the barnyard.”
Several sources told Westword that the audience of Posters reacted to the bon mot with an “audible gasp,” in part because the departing ACE, who’s on the job until Nov. 8, was present. Moore didn’t go quite that far, but he allowed that “I saw some people’s eyes get bigger.” He emphasizes that the remark “had nothing to do with” the ACE, or anyone in particular. Instead, it was simply his way of stressing that “change is part of this process.”
Westword also says that Moore is the subject of an upcoming cover story in the journalism trade journal Editor & Publisher.
Fang Family’s Climb Taking a Toll
Enlisting the help of some of San Francisco’s most powerful figures, the influential Fang family has amassed more than $24 million in real estate and acquired the 135-year-old San Francisco Examiner for only $100 ï¿œ- with a $66 million subsidy to run it. But the Examiner is losing money and opponents are taking aim, reports the Richmond Review and Sunset Beacon.
Detroit’s First African American SPJ President
The Detroit Metro Chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists has elected a new slate of officers and board members for the 2002-2003 program year.
The new president is Sandra Combs “Sam” Birdiett of Rochester Hills, director of the Journalism Institute for Minorities at Wayne State University and the first African American to head the chapter.
AP Considers New Source Requirements For Stories
The revelation that a reporter for The Associated Press fabricated sources and quotations has prompted the news cooperative to consider requiring staff writers to include phone numbers of some sources with stories so they can be checked by editors, reports Editor & Publisher.
CEO and President Louis D. Boccardi said this was one of several proposals being reviewed to ensure the accuracy of sources following the firing of AP writer Christopher Newton. The African American reporter lost his job after AP editors could not confirm the existence of people in more than two dozen stories dating back more than two years.
Police Plan Lawsuit Over Toronto Star Race Series
The publisher of the Toronto Star says his newspaper wasn’t trying to cast blame or defame police officers in a series of stories on race and crime that has prompted the city’s police association to announce plans for a huge lawsuit, the Canadian Press reports.
The city’s police association served notice Monday that it plans to sue the newspaper for about $2 billion over a series of articles that suggested a pattern of treatment that could be consistent with racial profiling. The series ran in the Toronto Star between Oct. 19 and 29.
“The general conclusions of our study, which were backed up by an expert, haven’t been seriously challenged, so I’m not quite sure what the purpose of this lawsuit is,” publisher John Honderich told CFRB Radio.
“Our intent was not to slam and defame and call every police officer racist . . . . nor did the articles say that.”
Al Roker’s Weight Loss Secret: Gastric Bypass
As any NBC “Today” viewer knows, weatherman Al Roker has lost a lot of weight, says USA Today.
How he did it is an open secret around NBC, but Roker has refused to discuss the gastric bypass operation March 15 that allowed him to shed nearly 100 pounds.
Now, he’s ready.
“In this country, if you have an alcohol problem or a drug problem, you can get treatment,” says Roker, 48. “If you have a weight problem, it’s lack of willpower: ‘Just push away from the table, tubby, and you’d lose that weight.’ But you can stop drinking, you can stop sticking a needle in your arm. You cannot not eat.”
Owning up to the operation, in which the stomach is reduced from the size of a football to an egg, “is embarrassing – the ultimate admission of failure. You don’t want to talk.”
Top 20 Newspapers by Circulation
Here are the numbers for the six months ended Sept. 30, with gain/(loss) from same period last year, as reported by Editor & Publisher:
1. USA Today, McLean, Va. (M-Th)* 2,136,068 (0.6%)
2. The Wall Street Journal (M-F) 1,800,607 1.1%
3. The New York Times (M-F) 1,113,000 0.3%
4. Los Angeles Times (Th-Sa)** 1,006,130 0.5%
5. The Washington Post (M-F) 746,724 (1.8%)
6. Daily News, New York (M-F) 715,070 (2.5%)
7. Chicago Tribune (W-F)*** 679,327 0.5%
8. New York Post (M-F) 590,061 10.5%
9. Newsday, Melville, N.Y. (M-F) 578,809 0.3%
10. Houston Chronicle (M-Sa) 552,052 0.0%
11. San Francisco Chronicle (M-F) 512,129 0.0%
12. The Dallas Morning News (M-Th)? 505,724 2.2%
13. Chicago Sun-Times (M-F) 479,584 0.5%
14. The Boston Globe (M-F) 463,113 (1.7%)
15. The Arizona Republic, Phoenix (M-Sa) 448,782 (0.6%)
16. Star Tribune, Minneapolis (Th-Sat) 415,497 0.6%
17. The Star-Ledger, Newark (M-F) 408,557 0.2%
18. The Philadelphia Inquirer (M-F) 373,892 2.4%
19. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution (M-Th) 371,161
20. Detroit Free Press (M-F) 368,839 (0.7%)
The average daily paid circulation for the 807 newspapers reporting to the Audit Bureau of Circulations for the six months ending Sept. 30 fell 0.3 percent from the same period a year ago, according to an analysis of the data by the Newspaper Association of America. Sunday circulation dropped 0.4 percent.
