Connie Chung Show Dumped by CNN
CNN has told Connie Chung, one of its most prominent anchors, that it has dropped her prime-time program, effective immediately, the New York Times reports. “Although CNN asked her to stay in some other capacity, she declined and will leave the network, an associate of Ms. Chung said last night,” reported Bill Carter in the New York Times.
The Los Angeles Times added that, “new CNN President Jim Walton made clear in just a couple of months on the job that he believed CNN needed to return to a more hard-news format. In one of the first moves under his leadership, CNN canceled its afternoon ?TalkBack Live,? a show with a studio audience and panels of shouting talk radio hosts as frequent guests. Graphics also have been toned down.”
From the New York Times story:
“Chung, a longtime news anchor who has worked for all three major broadcast network news departments, joined CNN last summer. She has a contract, worth about $2 million a year, that has more than a year left. It promised her a prime-time program, Ms. Chung’s associate said.
“The ratings for Ms. Chung’s program were among the strongest on CNN and would not seem to mark it as a target for cancellation.
“She was watched by about a million viewers nightly, second only to Larry King’s program on CNN, and her audience had grown in recent months, sometimes beating Mr. King’s program.”
Polls Show Blacks Oppose War, Latinos in Favor
Few news organizations are mentioning this black-white divide, but a Washington Post-ABC News poll taken Sunday confirms that unlike whites, African Americans oppose the war in Iraq, though the sample size in the poll was small. It follows a Gallup survey Jan. 30 that showed African Americans opposing the war, but whites and Hispanics favoring it.
“Sixty-one percent of African Americans who responded to questions on the poll said they opposed ‘the United States having gone to war with Iraq,’ compared with 20 percent of white Americans who answered the poll,” Darryl Fears wrote of the Washington Post-ABC poll. “Overall, 72 percent of Americans said they support military action. The nationwide poll is based on interviews with 580 randomly selected adults and includes an oversample of 69 black Americans.”
The Gallup organization combined a number of surveys to get a total of 4,482 respondents, Frank Newport, editor-in-chief of the Gallup Poll, told Journal-isms. It showed 56 percent of blacks opposing the war and 37 percent in favor. Whites were 58 percent in favor and 37 percent opposed, with Hispanics 60 percent in favor and 33 percent opposed. The survey covered December and January, and included 352 blacks and 266 Hispanics.
“It has to do with the tradition of African American opposition to war,’ University of Maryland political science professor Ron Walters told the Post. “We take part in war, but are often opposed for moral reasons.”
” ‘Black Americans are routinely told that there’s not enough money for housing, medicine, education and rebuilding the inner city, but . . . considerable sums can be raised for war and rebuilding Iraq,’ Walters said. ‘We’re sensitive to that. It’s a trust factor. We have less trust in government than white people,'” the Post reported.
The Gallup poll also showed a majority of self-described liberals (59 percent) and Democrats (55 percent) opposing an invasion.
Unity, NABJ Urge FCC to Delay New Rules
Unity: Journalists of Color and the National Association of Black Journalists have followed the National Association of Hispanic Journalists in urging the Federal Communications Commission to delay action on six media ownership rules under review.
Unity, which represents the four largest U.S. journalism organizations of color, is asking FCC Chairman Michael Powell to schedule and publicize a series of public hearings nationwide to allow the public, at a local level, to comment on and more fully understand the ramifications of the rule changes under consideration.
Only one official public hearing has been held this year ? in Richmond, Va., on Feb. 27 ? to allow the public to appear before the commission.
In a letter to Powell, NABJ President Condace L. Pressley writes, ?action to change rules as currently written will have a resounding negative impact on the quality of news content, the diversity of voices and viewpoints, and most importantly on media competition.”
?The issue of media ownership and consolidation is one that trumps all other issues key to the mission and success of NABJ,? said Pressley in a news release on the NABJ Web site. ?While we desire to see the review process delayed, we recognize it is as important to participate early on in what change may come.?
On Feb. 25, NAHJ said it had appealed to the FCC to postpone issuing new broadcast ownership regulations until the commission had held a series of public hearings nationwide that allow for the maximum possible public input into its deliberations.
Richburg, Chandrasekaran, Clemetson Covering War
Add Lynette Clemetson of the New York Times, and Keith B. Richburg and Rajiv Chandrasekaran of the Washington Post to the list of journalists of color covering the war with Iraq.
Clemetson, who is African American, is a former Newsweek reporter who has been in the Times’ Washington bureau and speaks Mandarin Chinese. She is aboard the U.S.S. Lincoln.
Born in the San Francisco Bay area but of Indian descent, Chandrasekaran was kicked out of Pakistan last year in an action believed to be based on his Indian genealogy. He has been in Iraq.
Richburg, who is African American, had been been in Europe, and before that Asia and Africa. He has filed from Iraq and Kuwait.
Julie Chen Called Flustered on Camera
“Julie Chen, an anchor for ‘The Early Show’ on CBS, who was reporting from a Marine base in Kuwait near the Iraqi border, has little field experience,” reported Alessandra Stanley in the New York Times. “Even though the sirens that sent her to the bunker in a chemical suit several times were all false alarms, Ms. Chen appeared flustered on camera, reading notes and waving her hands (her long fingernails painted white, as if to signal surrender) as she described how the marines in the bunker had helped ‘keep me calm.’
“Ms. Chen did not talk to marines on the segment, which mostly showed a tape of her walking across the base in tight white pants and a turquoise T-shirt as if preparing for an invasion of St. Tropez.”
Telemundo Getting Boost from War Coverage
The Spanish-language Telemundo network says viewership nationwide jumped 27 percent in the first two days after the war began, thanks to its quick-off-the-mark coverage of the war, reports the Los Angeles Times. The paper says that Telemundo’s ?surprising surge has put its dominant rival, Univision Communications Inc., in the unusual position of playing catch-up.
“Telemundo became the first Spanish-language television network to announce that war had begun. It already had five journalists posted in the Middle East, including one in Baghdad. By comparison, Univision had one small news crew in Kuwait when the war broke out.
“Four years ago, Telemundo didn’t even have a news division.
“Now, viewers are tuning in each day to see more hours of war coverage than on Univision, tailored to the interests and concerns of its viewers. Among other things, Telemundo’s two Los Angeles stations have aired special reports on the war’s effect on Latinos in Southern California, including job forecasts and immigration issues, and a special on security concerns at the U.S.-Mexican border,” the Times reported.
6 Indicted in Haitian Journalist’s Killing
Six men have been indicted in the death of Haiti’s most prominent journalist, a move that cleared four supporters of President Jean-Bertrand Aristide, sources told the Associated Press.
Jean Dominique, 69, was shot seven times on April 3, 2000, minutes before he was to give his newscast on Radio Haiti Inter, the station he owned.
Press freedom groups claimed that the indictment does not name the mastermind of the crime.
“Only the executioners were indicted. We want to know who ordered and paid for the crime,” said Guy Delva, president of the Association of Haitian Journalists.
Journalists in Americas Face More Threats
Journalists in the Americas are under increasing threat of violence, including murder, the Inter-American Press Association said, the Associated Press reports.
At its midyear meeting in El Salvador, the IAPA also criticized restrictions on the media — including U.S. measures that limit access to news in connection with the war against terrorism.
Colombia and Cuba present special dangers for journalists, IAPA said.
In Colombia, it said, violence by irregular groups caused the deaths of five journalists. Nine were kidnapped, 65 were threatened, and three left the country because they feared for their lives.
Cuba Arrests 26 Online Journalists
Cuba has arrested more than 70 dissidents, accusing the detainees ?- who include 26 online journalists -? of being traitors and paid operatives of the United States government, Wired News reports.
“The Cuban authorities are clearly taking advantage of the war in Iraq to crack down while the world looks elsewhere,” Robert Ménard, the director of the media watchdog group Reporters Without Borders, said in a statement.
Wired News quoted Ménard as calling the arrests “one of the first cases of collateral damage in the second Gulf war.”
“The arrested journalists principally publish their articles on the Miami-based news sites Nueva Prensa Cubana and Cubanet,” the story said.
It is believed that nearly all journalists in Cuba are heavily influenced by either the U.S or Cuban governments.
