Broadcast Veteran in Talks to Head Black Network
Broadcast veteran Johnathan Rodgers, who left the presidency of Discovery Networks U.S. last year as one of the highest-ranking African Americans in cable television, is negotiating to become CEO of the new Comcast-Radio One cable network aimed at black audiences, Rodgers told Journal-isms today.
Rodgers said he has been serving as a paid consultant with Radio One, based in Lanham, Md., and said “we’re in negotiations” on the CEO job. “Alfred Liggins and I are friends,” he said of the CEO of Radio One, the nation’s largest radio network. Rodgers has sounded out at least one former colleague about working for the new network, which was announced in February.
“That network — scheduled for launch this summer — will be 38.5 percent owned by Radio One and guided by the company’s chief executive, Alfred C. Liggins III, son of company founder Cathy Hughes. Liggins is searching for executives to lead the network and is working on deals with three investors to provide financial backing, he said,” the Washington Post reported at the time.
Rodgers’ former colleague, who said he considered Rodgers his mentor, declined to join him because he already had his “dream job,” the colleague told Journal-isms.
Rodgers became president of the Discovery Networks, U.S. in March 1996 and retired from Discovery last March. Discovery Networks includes the Discover Channel, TLC (The Learning Channel), Animal Planet, Travel Channel. In his 20 years with CBS, he was an executive producer, news director, general manager, and in 1988, became president of the CBS owned and operated stations.
Another black venture, Major Broadcasting Cable Network, also announced in February that it plans to produce a black-themed companion channel that by next year will broadcast news and public affairs programming 24 hours a day. A one-hour newscast is scheduled to start April 4.
Tonnya Kennedy Named ME in Columbia, S.C.
Tonnya M. Kennedy, deputy managing editor of The Virginian-Pilot in Norfolk, yesterday was named managing editor of The State in Columbia, S.C., a Knight Ridder paper.
She becomes the second African American woman to leave the Pilot for a managing editor’s job this year. In January, Debra Adams Simmons became managing editor of the Akron Beacon Journal in Ohio.
Kennedy, 37, said she starts at The State April 28.
“There are four things that I try to accomplish anywhere I go,” Kennedy told Journal-isms.
— “A bonding emotionally with the community.”
— “Strong community stewardship.” In the state capital, the paper needs to be a strong watchdog.
— “A local lens on national and international events,” especially with the area’s large military community.
— “Build a real culture of [writing] coaching.”
Kennedy replaces John Drescher, who was named managing editor of The News & Observer of Raleigh earlier this year, The State noted.
“Kennedy has spent her entire journalism career in the South, starting as a business writer with the Nashville Banner in 1987. She later served as assistant business editor, executive sports editor and managing editor of the Banner before moving to the Lexington (Ky.) Herald-Leader in 1998 as assistant managing editor,” its story said.
At the Pilot, management noted in a staff memo that “At various times, Tonnya has supervised the business news, features, special sections and writing teams. Most recently she added the sports team to her plate. During her tenure, Tonnya was a key player in several big stories and projects at The Pilot including the bombing of the USS Cole, the Red Horse plane crash, 9/11, the opening of the zoo and the business of death.”
Which Journalists of Color Covering the War?
Former CNN anchor Bernard Shaw, who covered the last bombing of Baghdad, told CNN’s Wolf Blitzer that he’d leave Baghdad if he were there today, according to USA Today.
”I’d be concerned about the breakdown of law and order in a city of more than 5 million people, many of them very heavily armed civilians. And of course, I’d be concerned about undisciplined acts by undisciplined soldiers,” he said.
Shaw, who left CNN in February 2001 to spend more time with his family and work on his memoirs, was the most visible journalist of color in the first Persian Gulf War.
Journalists of color have been wondering who of their number is covering this one.
These names surface so far:
Leonard Greene of the New York Post. His last column, filed Monday, is datelined Fort Hood, Texas, with the 4th Infantry Division. Melinda Liu, Beijing bureau chief for Newsweek.
Also: Byron Pitts of CBS News, who reported Tuesday with a lighter-tech helicopter squadron from Camp Pendleton, Calif., HMLA-169, nicknamed the Vipers; Chris Lawrence, CBS Newspath (which contracts with local affiliates and foreign stations), reporting from Kuwait City; Teri Okita, CBS Newspatch, reporting from Kuwait City.
Also: Fredrika Whitfeld of CNN, who reported Tuesday from Ankara, Turkey; Ron Claiborne of ABC News, who reported Friday from aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln; Tamala Edwards of ABC News, embedded at Al Jaber Air Base in Kuwait.
Also: Adaora Udoji of ABC News in Camp Doha in Kuwait; Ric Wilkinson of ABC News in Kuwait City; Julie Chen, CBS “Early Show” anchor, Kuwait; Robin Roberts, ABC “Good Morning America” news anchor, Kuwait; Keith Garvin of ABC-11 (WTVD), Raleigh, N.C., in Kuwait; Ken Smith of WRAL-TV, Raleigh, N.C., in Kuwait City.
ABC producers and off-air reporters include:
LaNeice Collins, James Blue and Robin Brown
Who else? Send an e-mail to rprince@maynardije.org.
Clear Channel Sponsoring Pro-War Rallies
“Some of the biggest rallies this month have endorsed President Bush’s strategy against Saddam Hussein, and the common thread linking most of them is Clear Channel Worldwide Inc., the nation’s largest owner of radio stations,” the Chicago Tribune reports.
“In a move that has raised eyebrows in some legal and journalistic circles, Clear Channel radio stations in Atlanta, Cleveland, San Antonio, Cincinnati and other cities have sponsored rallies attended by up to 20,000 people. The events have served as a loud rebuttal to the more numerous but generally smaller anti-war rallies.”
Real Story in Chicago TV: Behind the Scenes?
With all the attention to the departure of Diann Burns as a Chicago television anchor, let?s not forget the images television news presents and who has the power at the stations, says Chicago Sun-Times columnist Laura Washington.
“Diann Burns may be the face of the news. But it’s not our news. So before we go off launching a new crusade about the influence of minorities in the media, let’s think about fattening up more than a celebrity checkbook. Let’s beef up our own institutions, and demand jobs in the rooms where the real news decisions get made,” she writes.
“There are plenty of black and Latino faces on the air in Chicago. But the real power lies with those who make decisions–the news managers and producers who pick the stories and steer the coverage. And the numbers of minorities in their ranks are woefully thin.
“Instead, they produce violently negative and stereotypical images of communities of color. Crime victims, welfare mothers, child abusers are the stars of those shows. The public housing resident with the rag on her head, the gang-banger displaying his signs.
“We don’t demand anything else.”
Two Chicago Telemundo Anchors Exit
“Just two weeks before a controversial vote on union representation for on-air staffers at WSNS-Channel 44, the Telemundo Spanish-language station has lost its two top news anchors,” reports Robert Feder in the Chicago Sun-Times.
“Norma Garcia and Victor Javier Solano, who had been in the forefront of efforts to gain union recognition for their colleagues, resigned last week as 5 and 10 p.m. weekday anchors to accept new positions within the Telemundo Communications Group.”
White Weatherman Sub Claims Bias
Substitute weatherman Steve Rudin of Washington’s WTTG-TV, a Fox station, is s suing his bosses, claiming they unfairly passed over him for a permanent gig forecasting on the station’s new 5 p.m. newscast, the Washington Times reports.
“The lawsuit was filed March 4 in D.C. Superior Court. In the complaint, Mr. Rudin claims the station violated the D.C. Human Rights Act when it gave the 5 p.m. forecasting job to Gwen Tolbart, a black woman. Mr. Rudin is white.
“The complaint asks the court to force WTTG to make Mr. Rudin a full-time forecaster on the 5 p.m. newscast, with back pay and benefits. It also seeks unspecified ‘general and special damages’ and ‘punitive damages.’
” Mr. Rudin’s attorney, James M. Eisenmann, and WTTG managers declined comment.”
Philly Protesters Put Up Web Site
The Coalition for Fair News Coverage, which consists of more than 100 African-American churches, community, civic, civil rights, and business organizations, and which has been leading a boycott of the Philadelphia Daily News since September 2002, following charges of long-standing racially insensitive and ethnically divisive news coverage, launched new Web site (http://www.cffnc.com) designed to support the boycott and raise awareness of the issue, according to a news release from the group.
Florida Paper Reaches Out on Coverage of Blacks
Florida’s Lakeland Ledger, a New York Times Co. paper, invited 40 black residents to participate in its first “Credibility Roundtable” to gauge how it could improve coverage of the black community, managing editor Lenore Devore writes. Fourteen showed up.
“We didn’t come up with any solid answers to the questions above, but our guests provided us with many areas in which they think the newspaper should improve,” she writes. Among those:
“–Include more photos from the minority community.
“– Get the word out. Inform people how to get their news into the paper.
“– Include the black point of view in stories on important issues, not just in stories where minority representation is needed, such as affirmative action.
“– Emphasize younger people of color.
“– Highlight more black businesses and churches.
“– Follow up on stories, showing that organizations and companies that get in trouble often turn themselves around.
“– Provide outside diversity training for staff members.
“– Sponsor more minority events.”
Hispanic Broadcasting to Buy Texas Radio Station
Hispanic Broadcasting Corp., the largest Spanish-language radio group, is expanding its station portfolio to Austin with a deal to acquire KTND-FM from Simmons Media Group for $16 million, Media Week reports.
“Through a time brokerage agreement, HBC will begin operating the station, which currently programs Alternative Rock, beginning April 15.”
Congressional Black Caucus Statement on Iraq
The Congressional Black Caucus statement last night on the impending war with Iraq got little media attention. Here it is:
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
March 18, 2003
Contact: Doug Thornell 202-226-8487
Rep. Cummings Issues Statement on Possible Military Action in Iraq
Washington, D.C. – Tonight, on the floor of the U.S. House of Representatives, U.S. Rep. Elijah E. Cummings (D-MD), Chair of the Congressional Black Caucus, addressed the current crisis in Iraq. He issued the following statement:
“Mr. Speaker — I would like to insert into the record the Congressional Black Caucus’ principles on U.S. military action in Iraq. They are as follows:
1. We oppose a unilateral first-strike action by the United States without a clearly demonstrated and imminent threat of attack on the United States.
2. Only Congress has the authority to declare war.
3. Every diplomatic option must be exhausted.
4. A unilateral first-strike would undermine the moral authority of the United States, result in substantial loss of life, destabilize the Mideast region and undermine the ability of our nation to address unmet domestic priorities.
5. Further, any post-strike plan for maintaining stability in the region would be costly and would require a long-term commitment.
“Mr. Speaker — I rise at a moment when America stands at the brink of war.
“Our actions in Iraq will define our moral standing in the world — for this generation and for generations yet unborn.
“I have given my oath to do everything within my power to support our men and women in uniform.
“We have a great American tradition that when we engage in combat we support our troops.
“I will fulfill that solemn obligation.
“However, I also have pledged my commitment to ensure that their sacrifice is warranted and just.
“That obligation does not allow me to remain silent tonight.
“Mr. Speaker, the President has declared that he will allow no more time for a negotiated disarmament of Iraq.
“We all know the terrible consequences of that decision.
“The stakes are enormous.
“Many human beings will be harmed and others will be killed.
“And, the course of American foreign policy could be seriously changed.
“So, before a single shot has been fired, I must again raise what I consider to be the fundamental question about this ‘preemptive war.’
“By what authority — by what right does this nation justify the taking of life in Iraq?
“Mr. Speaker — the American people have created the strongest military force in history.
“We, in this Congress, will continue to support our troops — we will continue to assure that they are the best trained and equipped in the world.
“Yet, as a people, Americans have never subscribed to the proposition that our might makes us right.
“America has never led by military power alone — but by our devotion to principle, and the legitimacy of our mission.
“And, now, that principled foundation of our national security has been placed in jeopardy and the legitimacy of our mission and therefore the credibility of our nation is challenged by a significant part of the global community and our own citizens.
“The Administration has failed to achieve the U.N. approval and broad-based international support that are critical to achieving our objectives and protecting our men and women in uniform in the Middle East.
“We have an obligation to ask why the Administration has failed to make its case.
“If the President’s rationale for war were self-evident, a broad-based, multi-national “coalition of the willing” would indeed have materialized.
“At the heart of the Administration’s failure, I am convinced, is the absence of clear and convincing evidence that Iraq poses an imminent threat — either to the United States or to other nations of the world.
“Moreover, the Administration has yet to adequately explain the consequences of going to war to the American people.
“Have we received clear and convincing evidence that the President’s decision:
· will not destabilize the Middle East, · will not make our defense against terrorism more difficult, and · will not undermine our ability to meet the compelling domestic needs of Americans here at home?
“Where is the Administration’s comprehensive plan for the political and economic stability of Iraq once hostilities have ended?
“Where is the President’s evaluation of the cost of military conflict and reconstruction?
“Where is the President’s analysis of the impact upon our economy?
“Will both affluent and working class Americans share fairly in that sacrifice?
“The answers to these questions raise the classic conflict between whether we pursue questionable international missions or spend the resources for urgent domestic priorities.
“Mr. Speaker, that is why we have not yet received the Administration’s answers to any of these critical questions.
“Fundamentally, however, the issue of war remains one of morality.
“Following President Bush’s ultimatum last night, the Vatican offered this response:
“Whoever decides that all peaceful means that international law has put at our disposition have been exhausted assumes a serious responsibility before God, his conscience and history.”
“I submit, Mr. Speaker, that the heavy weight of this responsibility is shared by the President and every member of this House and that realization should give us pause, that we have pursued the right course and that we are doing the right thing by this military action.
“So, tonight, as I speak, tens of thousands of religious congregations throughout the world – women and men of every faith tradition – are praying that peace will prevail, for the good of our country and the enlightened progress of humanity.
“May God protect our men and women in uniform – and all of the innocents who now stand in harm’s way, and bring them home safely.
“And, may God guide America during these dangerous times.”
