McGowan, in Debate, Urges Repeal of Diversity Incentives
Author William McGowan and Juan Gonzalez, president of the National Association of Hispanic Journalists, faced off before 70 people at the National Press Club and a national C–SPAN audience in a debate in which the author called for an end to incentives for newsroom diversity and to the numerical diversity goals set for the newspaper industry by the American Society of Newspaper Editors.
“They become quotas,” said McGowan, author of “Coloring the News: How Crusading for Diversity has Corrupted American Journalism,” of the ASNE goals. “They’ve got to get rid of this obsession with numbers. They look foolish. They really have to look at the quality of the coverage.”
ASNE’s initial survey in 1978 showed that journalists of color comprised 3.95 percent of the total newsroom workforce (1,700 out of 43,000). ASNE embarked upon the self–reporting survey to measure industry progress toward its goal of having the percentage of minorities working in newsrooms nationwide equal to the percentage of minorities in the nation’s population –– the target was initially 2000, now it’s 2025. People of color are 30 percent of the U.S. population.
Diversity incentives at individual news organizations are “incentives for corruption,” McGowan said. “It’s not the numbers of minority journalists but the impact on the coverage” that’s important.
Gonzalez replied that “we are a society obsessed with numbers –– batting averages, whether the market is up or down –– you’ve got to be able to chart your progress.”
Gonzalez, who is also a columnist for the New York Daily News, proposed the debate after the Press Club awarded McGowan’s book its prize for press criticism. The Media Monitoring Committee of the National Association of Black Journalists asked the Press Club to reconsider the award on grounds that the book was shoddy journalism, full of spin and distortions of fact. The Press Club did not change its mind, but agreed to host the debate.
In the Monday night encounter, the NAHJ president called “Coloring the News” “patently false scholarship,” and said the larger problem for American journalism was declining news quality traced to “fear of alienating advertisers,” competition from other media, and other reasons. He cited studies on the consequences of lack of newsroom diversity going back to the Hutchins Commission in 1947. He said he was outraged by McGowan’s criticisms of a “number of excellent journalists –– Frank del Olmo, Sam Fulwood. . . who have pioneered in this profession. All he [McGowan] can see is what perceived mistakes they made, and not their contributions.”
McGowan added another target to his hit list for “political correctness,” the Philadelphia Daily News, which in August apologized for running a front page that pictured 15 police mug shots of fugitives wanted for murder by Philadelphia police. All were either African American, Hispanic or Asian. The front page was representative of the latest available listing of suspected murder fugitives, which list 41 African Americans, 12 Hispanics and three Asians, the paper said.
“The front page photos . . . 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,” said the apology by managing editor Ellen Foley.
This example, which occurred after the McGowan book’s 2001 publication, is a “classic example of the kind of capitulation that goes on all the time,” McGowan said. He charged that the protest was politically inspired, because he claimed a son of Mayor John Street led the protest.
However, Philadelphia Daily News columnist Elmer Smith, who has been at the paper for 20 years, told Journal–isms, “As far as I know, the mayor’s sons have no involvement in this boycott.” In fact, Smith said, the mayor’s son Lateef, a budding journalist, took a training class at the News.
“For me, the apology was really a matter of conscience,” Foley told Journal–isms. “That’s really a hard thing to explain in a credit–or–debit mentality. At this newspaper, with 50 percent readership by people of color, it is extremely important to respond to readers’ discomfort on an issue, and enough of them told me they were feeling uncomfortable or concerned. I don’t think it [the front page] is the worst mistake or even a big mistake.”
The audience tittered after one questioner asked whether a similar book could be written called “Whitening the News,” about the effects of newsroom racism, and McGowan answered, “I don’t think you could possible come up with examples of white racism in this day and age. It would be an extremely short academic monograph.”
Gonzalez replied that “the racism is no longer as overt as it once was, but that doesn’t mean that there aren’t serious problems.” He agreed with McGowan that class is a problem in that some journalists earn more than the people they cover, and said that “our minority organizations have spent so much time on diversity and coverage that we have neglected our role in the overall industry.”
McGowan commended Gonzalez on his demeanor, which he contrasted with that of the National Association of Black Journalists, which he said had engaged in “racial McCarthyism,” quoting a member who said that McGowan wanted to turn back the clock to the days when blacks’ roles in newsrooms were limited to menial jobs.
In a column called, “Mr. McGowan, Your 15 Minutes Are UP!,” NABJ President Condace Pressley wrote on NABJ’s Web site that “NABJ declined an invitation to participate in this forum because I believe that 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.
“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.”
Philly Black Papers Capitalize on Daily News Complaints
Six black newspapers in Philadelphia have launched a joint advertising campaign to promote the region’s black press, following a boycott of the Philadelphia Daily News over allegations of racial insensitivity, the Associated Press reports.
The campaign is the latest reaction to an Aug. 22 Daily News cover story about 41 people – all black, Hispanic or Asian – wanted on murder charges. The story featured more than a dozen mug shots of minority suspects, and did not mention that there were no at–large white murder suspects being sought by Philadelphia police.
Among participants in the black press promotion is the Philadelphia Tribune, the area’s largest black newspaper and the nation’s oldest continuously published black newspaper. The others are the Philadelphia New Observer, the Philadelphia Sunday Sun, Black Suburban Journal, Scoop and Neighborhood Leader.
Daily News editor Zack Stalberg denied that the paper is racially divisive and said he believes the black newspapers are just using the controversy to promote business.
Fired Lloyd Gite “Ready to Take the Gloves Off”
Former Houston television reporter Lloyd Gite is suing Fox 26 over his termination, and if the trial is anything like the depositions, it’ll be must–viewing for anyone who wants to revel in backstage drama, reports the weekly Houston Press.
“We’ve gotten a look at Gite’s deposition, and he’s not shy about naming names as he recounts on–air talent sleeping with management, reporters appearing drunk on camera, anchors loudly hating each other’s guts, cameramen smoking dope or drinking at work, reporters stealing company money and lesser–qualified people being promoted ahead of him.
“I’m ready to take the gloves off,” says Gite, 51, who’s now doing freelance work and “looking for a job.”
Gite was fired in November 2000 after 18 years at Fox, where he ended up doing “Bayou City Beat,” a daily light–and–bright remote on the morning news.
He said at the time that management was harassing him; he has since filed a federal suit claiming racial discrimination, saying he was passed over for promotion, made less money than other reporters and was subjected to taunts all because he’s black.
In addition to dishing freely about his former colleagues, Gite said he had been on the receiving end of several racial jeers. One co–worker, he said, asked him “why it was I didn’t have a nigger ass.” A supervisor, he said, once called him a “black asshole.”
Greg Moore Makes Cover of Editor & Publisher
Greg Moore, who went from managing editor of the Boston Globe to become the first African American editor of the Denver Post, says in a cover story of Editor & Publisher that “I like the fact we’re being talked about. We don’t want to be provocative just to be provocative.
“. . . But yeah, I want us to write stories that sometimes get under people’s skin. I want us to write stories about issues that don’t normally get the light of day. And I want us to do it in an intelligent way, and maybe we provoke a few people and piss them off. That’s OK. Very true. No doubt about it. I plead guilty.”
The story talks about Moore’s stint as a Golden Gloves boxer, says he consulted the dying Detroit Free Press editor Robert McGruder before accepting the Denver job, and quotes him on his disappointment when in July 2001 Martin Baron was chosen from the Miami Herald to become the Globe’s editor: “Yeah, I deserved an interview. . . . I also learned, a long time ago, a black man being angry gets you ignored.”
It also credits Moore with the idea for the Globe’s investigations that helped expose the Catholic Church’s priest sex–abuse scandal.
And it quotes a staffer who is enthusiastic at the changes the Post is making:
“Wow,” says Post reporter Trent Siebert. “The guy has come in and filled a vacuum. He’s dominating. He’s running a meritocracy on speed here. He’s a genius in a freaky way.”
More from Trotter Group’s Annual Meeting
The William Monroe Trotter Group held its annual retreat last week, with the African American columnists interviewing national security adviser Condoleeeza Rice and Sen. Joseph Biden, D–Del., among other activities. A transcript of the Rice interview is at http://www.trottergroup.com/rice.htm.
Additional columns resulting from the meeting and a session the next day with Washington political figures:
Derrick Z. Jackson, Boston Globe: A Lesson from Condoleezza Rice
Gregory Kane, Baltimore Sun: Rice is an Old Hand at Fighting Terrorism
Dwight Lewis, Nashville Tennessean: Tough Stance, Rough Words are Aimed at Peace, Rice Says
Sheryl McCarthy, Newsday: Democrats Need to Get a (And On) Message
Steve Penn, Kansas City Star: White House Lessons Emanate from the South
David Person, Huntsville (Ala.) Times: Biden: Thank God for Powell
Ron Thomas, San Francisco Examiner: Home–Grown Lessons of Sept. 11
Tonyaa Weathersbee, Florida Times–Union, Jacksonville: Rice Embodies Promise, Challenge of Integration
DeWayne Wickham, USA Today: Speak Up on Iraq Now, Democrats, for USA’s Good
Columnist Jack White vs. Media Critic Brent Bozell
“We won. The MRC should ‘declare victory’ over liberal media bias, former Time magazine national correspondent Jack White declared on C–SPAN’s Washington Journal on Friday morning,” writes right–wing media critic L. Brent Bozell III‘s Media Research Organization.
“White claimed that he’s ‘constantly amazed’ that ‘there are still people making a living complaining about the liberal bias in the press, our good friends, Brent Bozell and company for example, who run the Media Research Center.’ White added: ‘I keep wondering ‘When are you gonna declare victory fellas?’ I mean, Fox News is about as blatant, blatantly biased as you possibly could get.’
“Even if you accept White’s premise,” it continues, “White himself is a case study in how easily liberal advocacy journalism can rebound. Last year White accepted a buyout from AOL Time Warner and he is now ‘Writer in Residence’ at Howard University which means, he explained to C–SPAN’s Brian Lamb, he mentors journalism students –– thus creating another generation of liberal reporters. But he’ll soon be back in Time magazine, he informed C–SPAN watchers, since the magazine has asked him to start writing a column for it again once or twice a month.”
Wrote White to the center: “Just a note of appreciation for putting my picture on your website along with your silly article about my comments on C–Span. My whole family got a big kick out of it! I must say that I’ve missed being bashed by you jerks since I retired.
“Now that I’m about to re–enter the fray, I look forward to being bashed in the future.
“P.S. You say you want fair and balanced reporting? When was the last time you went after somebody for being too far to the right? Give me a break, or at least an example.”
WMAQ, Telemundo Jointly Air Report on U.S. Customs
WMAQ and WSNS/Telemundo (Chicago) aired a special report on the U.S. Customs Service’s Air and Marine interdiction Unit on each station’s 10 p.m newscast, reports Shop Talk. In what is a first for Chicago viewers, this special report was seen simultaneously in English on WMAQ, and in Spanish on WSNS/Telemundo.
Africa Getting First Braille Newspaper
A Braille newspaper for the blind – believed to be the first of its kind in Africa – is to be launched in Ethiopia, reports AllAfrica.com.
The newspaper – which is likely to be called Ethionews Braille – will include news items, politics, sports and health issues.
“This is the first ever Braille newspaper for Africa,” said Emebet Zewde, who is launching the 40-page newspaper at the end of the month.
She said it offers Ethiopia’s 100,000 blind people the chance to access information that otherwise they are often excluded from.