NABJ President Says McGowan’s “15 Minutes” Is Up
The National Association of Black Journalists will not participate in the National Press Club-sponsored debate Nov. 18 with William McGowan, author of “Coloring the News: How Crusading for Diversity has Corrupted American Journalism,” because “Mr. McGowan’s 15 minutes are up. There is no legitimate reason why NABJ should continue to engage in a debate over his ideas when it is clear to me that we will continue to agree to disagree,” writes Condace Pressley, NABJ president, on the NABJ Web site.
“To participate in yet another public debate with Mr. McGowan, in my opinion, will only legitimize Mr. McGowan’s argument, and help him to sell more copies of his book.”
Juan Gonzalez, president of the National Association of Hispanic Journalists proposed the debate after the press club awarded McGowan’s book its prize for press criticism. The NABJ Media Monitoring Committee asked the Press Club to reconsider the award on grounds that the book was shoddy journalism. The Press Club did not change its mind, but agreed to host the debate.
McGowan was scheduled to speak last Friday at the New England Society of Newspaper Editors meeting, and he addressed the Southern Newspaper Publishers Association Oct. 15.
Wall Street Journal Lays Off 28; 8 More Resign
Dow Jones & Co. eliminated 23 news jobs at its flagship publication, the Wall Street Journal, as part of the New York financial publisher’s ongoing efforts to cut costs in a tough business environment, the Wall Street Journal reported.
In addition, Dow Jones accepted eight voluntary resignations from Journal staffers. As part of the job eliminations, the Journal will close two reporting groups – one based in New York and devoted to coverage of legal matters, and another centered on regional economics.
Dow Jones spokesman Aaron Dedy told Journal-isms that the company would not release the names of people laid off, or disclose how many were people of color, in the interests of privacy. However, those who are union members are listed on the Web site of the Independent Association of Publishers’ Employees of The Newspaper Guild.
Crime Stories Now 25 Percent of Local Newscasts
“If it bleeds, it leads” remains the rule on local TV news, where crime stories get top billing even as issues such as terrorism, a recession and financial scandals have changed the way we live, writes Peter Johnson in USA Today.
And because of this focus on crime stories, viewers are being underserved by their local TV stations when it comes to getting news about communities, says Tom Rosenstiel of Columbia University’s Project for Excellence in Journalism.
According to survey findings from the project, stories about crime increased slightly this year to 25 percent of newscasts, while only 1 percent of stories dealt with homeland security, despite tightened airport security and the threat of bioterrorism.
Local news directors “over the last several years have been asked to do more for less,” Rosenstiel says. “They’re hamsters on the wheel and they are pushing so hard to maintain profitability amid thinner resources that it’s hard for them to look up and get out of their rut.”
The study examined 53 stations in 17 cities over two weeks, and compiled information from confidential surveys of 103 news directors. It found profit margins ranged from 40 percent to 50 percent — “double what the newspaper business makes.”
Rosenstiel says it’s that push for profits that makes news directors rely on the results of audience research, which often ask superficial or leading questions, to program their stations.
This, despite research by the group that has found that quality local TV news – offering a wide range of coverage – sells.
More Crime, Ordinary People on Spanish-Language TV
Spanish-language local TV news is more populated by ordinary people, and filled with even more crime and victims, than English-language TV, said the Project for Excellence in Journalism study. This TV news is more interested in homelands far away, if not the world in general. It believes immigration is a significant issue. And it is a more one-sided media world.
One-fifth of Spanish-language stories cited three or more sources (20 percent) compared with only 15 percent in English.
On the other hand, Spanish-language stories were five times more likely than English-language counterparts to have no sources at all, 21 percent to 4 percent.
Spanish-language TV ran more long stories — 25 percent of pieces were two minutes or longer, versus 19 percent in English – but it also tended to tell one side of a story. Three out of ten stories in Spanish presented just one opinion, compared to 20 percent in English. And only one story in ten offered a substantial mix of opinions, half as many as in English.
Nowhere were the differences more apparent than in the treatment of certain topics, especially crime, immigration, and Latin America.
Condoleezza Rice Does “Tavis Smiley Show”
National security adviser Condoleezza Rice was to appear on National Public Radio’s “Tavis Smiley Show” today to discuss the Iraq situation. Audio is available at http://www.npr.org/programs/tavis. She is scheduled to meet Wednesday in Washington with members of the William Monroe Trotter Group of African American columnists.
Who Did Colin Powell’s Daughter Marry?
In the weeks leading up to Friday’s United Nations resolution on Iraq, Secretary of State Colin Powell mentioned that he wanted a United Nations resolution on Iraq “as a wedding present to give to his daughter.” “Last Saturday he was on the phone discussing permutations of the words ‘material breach’ with the French Foreign Minister 20 minutes before walking his daughter down the aisle for her wedding,” the Guardian of London reported. It was difficult to find in any of the news reports the name of the daughter in question, (Anne-Marie, not Linda, the actress), and nearly impossible to identify the groom. Where are the society reporters?