“Teen Summit” Added to BET Hit List
“Teen Summit,” the 13-year-old brainchild of Black Entertainment Television co-founder Sheila Johnson, will be ending its run as part of the restructuring that will see two of the network’s three news shows biting the dust, spokesman Michael Lewellen confirms.
The weekly Los Angeles-based show, in which teen-agers talk frankly about such issues as drugs, AIDS, sex and social pressures, has won six NAACP Image awards. Reaction to the network’s elimination of the weekly news panel show “Lead Story” as well as “BET Tonight With Ed Gordon” has been largely negative. Those two shows end with the year, but “Teen Summit,” which has more shows already taped, will continue until the early spring, Lewellen said.
“This is not an abandonment of news and public affairs,” Lewellen insisted, speaking of the criticism. “We’re just as committed as we ever were.”
The network announced Wednesday that approximately 40 positions across a range of company departments would be eliminated, or about 12 percent of BET’s total workforce of 350 people nationwide. News and public affairs programming is now to focus on special shows such as single-topic specials and town hall meetings. The network had to “adjust its programming schedule and the staff that supports them” to make way for recent programming acquisitions that include movies and other entertainment shows, Lewellen said then. The layoffs took place Tuesday and Wednesday and 25 of them were at corporate headquarters in Washington. That leaves 310 employees companywide, he said.
Although other subsidiaries of media giant Viacom, such as MTV and book publisher Simon & Schuster, have also experienced layoffs, Lewellen said that “this is not related to that. This is an individual BET decision.” He also denied a report that BET was not reaching its profit targets — “BET is one of the few networks that has extended its revenue goals” — and said the network was “still having discussions” with Gordon about his future at the network. A spokeswoman for Gordon said he was not talking with the news media today.
Some “Lead Story” participants offered Journal-isms their reactions to the developments:
George E. Curry, editor-in-chief of the National Newspaper Publishers Association News Service, editor of the late Emerge magazine and “Lead Story” panelist for more than seven years:
“An African-American company gains a considerable amount of capital when it sells out to a powerful conglomerate. But it also loses something important. Regardless of how BET tries to spin it, the loss of these important programs represents a major setback for the Black community.”
Cheryl Martin, “Lead Story” host from 1996 to January 2002, now speaking professionally and working on a book for single women:
“I deeply regret BET is canceling ‘BET Tonight’ and ‘Lead Story.’ The highlight of my career there was the opportunity to host ‘Lead Story’ for five years and to have some of the best journalists in the business as panelists each week. I am extremely proud of the show’s reputation for excellence and its ability to inform and enlighten African Americans on the top political and social issues.”
Jack E. White, Time magazine columnist and substitute “Lead Story” panelist since 1997:
“It’s a sin and a shame that the only Sunday morning news program that showcased black newsmakers and journalists talking about major issues has fallen victim to economic pressures at BET. I doubt that the promised public affairs specials will have the same impact as ‘Lead Story,’ if they ever materialize at all. The demise of ‘Lead Story’ and ‘[BET Tonight] with Ed Gordon’ doubtless presage an even greater profusion of booty shakin’ videos and other tasteless fare. Black cable viewers, all cable viewers, deserve better than that.”
DeWayne Wickham, USA Today columnist and the longest-serving “Lead Story” panelist, serving from the show’s 1991 debut to March of this year:
” ‘Lead Story’ and ‘BET Tonight’ gave black journalists an opportunity to be heard on a broad range of issues, while news analysis shows on other networks have remained virtually lily white. I hope the cancellation of these programs isn’t television’s equivalent to the end of Reconstruction.”
N.Y. Times Expected To Run Augusta Sports Columns
The New York Times, which has been heavily criticized this week for spiking two sports columns related to the ongoing dispute over letting women into the Augusta National Golf Club in Georgia, is expected to succumb to protests and publish both columns this weekend, reports Editor & Publisher.
Dave Anderson, who wrote one of the two columns in question, said that editors had agreed to run the columns, by himself and Harvey Araton, after critics claimed the columns had been held because they questioned the paper’s editorial stance on letting women into Augusta.
“At this point, they are planning to print both columns this weekend, in the same paper, either Saturday or Sunday” Anderson said. “I think they were concerned about all the uproar on this and wanted to heal the rift.”
Managing Editor Gerald Boyd has been the Times’ point man on the issue, handling damage control after critical comments followed his memo Wednesday to the staff.
Boyd contended it was not a matter of censorship or tolerating differing opinions, but whether news columnists should directly challenge the paper’s editorials by name.
Newsday noted that Sydney H. Schanberg wrote a column for the Times’ opinion pages for several years but left in 1985 when the column was taken away after he wrote pieces critical of the paper’s coverage of the now-defunct Westway transportation project in Manhattan. “I just thought it was a very disappointing thing,” Schanberg said when asked about the killing of sports columns. “It can throw a chill over a newsroom.”
What Was GQ Thinking With Dis of Cornel West?
On the last page of the December issue of GQ, Gentlemen’s Quarterly, is “the 2002 Overrated list,” with such items as “Ryan Adams,” “the ‘blossoming’ of Chelsea Clinton” and — as no. 3 — “that punk-ass bitch Cornel West.” It’s No. 3, naming the scholar of black studies and religion, now at Princeton, that is raising eyebrows, since none of the other mentions resorts to such insult.
A spokeswoman for GQ was reported tied up in meetings today and not available for comment.
Unity Elects Newsday’s Sotomayor as President
The Unity: Journalists of Color board of directors elected Newsday.com Long Island Editor Ernest R. Sotomayor as its 2003-2004 president. Sotomayor, who begins his two-year term on Jan. 1, is the organization’s vice president and has served on the Unity board since 2001. He succeeds Jackie Greene of USA Today.
“As we move forward with the planning of the Unity 2004 convention in Washington, D.C., our message to the industry will get louder and stronger and Unity’s support of its four alliance partners will be strengthened so that they can in turn fulfill their missions to improve journalism,” Sotomayor said in a statement.
Sotomayor has been vice president of the National Association of Hispanic Journalists, a member of the program committee for the Unity ’99 convention in Seattle and a managing editor for the Unity ’94 student newspaper project in Atlanta.
Arledge Influenced Max Robinson, Carole Simpson Careers
ABC News Chairman Roone Arledge, who died Thursday at age 71, might be remembered for his news innovations, his reinvention of sports television and his introduction of the star system to network news, but he can also be recalled for appointing the first African American weekday television news anchor — Max Robinson — and for improving the role of women at the network after internal agitation from now-weekend anchor Carole Simpson.
“For management at the time, he was out in the forefront,” Claudia Pryor, an ABC producer from 1984 to 1995 who is now vice president of the Network Refugees production company, told Journal-isms. “In the Roone Arledge way, his approach to diversity was ‘Black in White America,'” a 1989 documentary. “At the time, it was astonishing. He got the very tiny black staff together to work on it and said, ‘if your point of view is so different, show me.'”
Though Robinson soon flamed out, he, Frank Reynolds and Peter Jennings were co-anchors of the first version of “World News Tonight” as it debuted on July 10, 1978.
As Barbara Matisow wrote in her 1983 book, “The Evening Stars: The Making of the Network News Anchor”:
“Robinson did not have the kind of credentials that have come to be expected of network anchors — all of his experience was in local news, most of it sitting behind an anchor desk – but he was a handsome, articulate man with great presence on the air and a huge following in Washington. . . .
“By recruiting Max Robinson and giving him such high visibility five nights a week, Arledge was clearly hoping to attract more black viewers, perhaps even creating a new audience from among that sizable number of blacks who seldom watch network newscasts. As an economically depressed group, blacks might not be a target for advertisers, but black viewers could nonetheless help lift overall ratings. Besides, ABC officials reasoned, as long as Robinson was sandwiched between two whites, he was unlikely to turn away many white viewers.”
A biography of Simpson notes:
“Soon after her arrival, ABC News president Roone Arledge became concerned with the issue of women in its organization and suggested that a panel be convened to study the situation. With Simpson serving as spokesperson, the Women’s Advisory Board was founded in 1983. After a few years, however, she became disgruntled with the network brass and its lack of commitment to the issues the board was trying to address, primarily those dealing with women and minorities.
“‘In 1985,’ Simpson told [the Chicago Tribune’s Steve] Daley, ‘ABC had no women covering a major beat, no women heading up bureaus, no women at the level of the network vice president.’ So, along with 15 ABC newswomen, she confronted Arledge and demanded some changes. ‘At that point,’ she continued, ‘the other networks were doing a better job with these issues. ABC had never been confronted, never felt the need to address the issue.’ Almost immediately, things began to change. Her efforts were acknowledged when she received an Award of Courage in 1987 from the Los Angeles chapter of the National Organization for Women (NOW) Education Fund.
“One of the first things to come about was Simpson’s promotion in 1988 to anchor of World News Saturday. In addition, the network began to focus more on major domestic issues with a series of daily World News Tonight segments entitled ‘American Agenda.’ “
Filipino Sportswriter Reports from U.S. on $250 a Month
Some of the Philippines’ voracious demand for U.S. pro basketball coverage is satisfied by Homer Sayson‘s much-read column for The Philippine Star in Cebu, the island’s second largest city, reports New City Chicago. Sayson has become a celebrity in his homeland by becoming the bilingual Tagalog and English voice for basketball and other major sports in the States.
Hoping to turn his column covering the NBA and other U.S. sporting events over the past nine years into a book, Sayson has set up camp in Chicago, a city he knows well after covering several Bulls championships. Despite enjoying a lofty status in his home country, a considerable following in the American Filipino community, and a loyal readership among sports junkies, the life Sayson lives now is that of a double agent as he struggles to survive on pauper’s wages–about $250 a month plus freelance editing and other odd jobs.
Additional Column from the Trotter Group
The William Monroe Trotter Group held its annual retreat in November, with the African American columnists interviewing national security adviser Condoleezza Rice and Sen. Joseph Biden, D-Del., among other activities. Here is an additional column:
Joe Davidson, BET.com:
Who is Condoleezza Rice? Part 2
For other columns from the annual meeting, go to http://www.maynardije.org/columns/dickprince and call up Nov. 18, Nov. 20, Nov. 25 or Nov. 27.
