Diversity Opponents Flood ASNE With Postcards
Peter Bhatia, president of the American Society of Newspaper Editors, is receiving “hundreds” of postcards, obviously as part of an organized campaign, blaming the ASNE’s diversity efforts for the Jayson Blair fiasco at the New York Times, reports the American Press Institute.
The following message is typed on the back of the postcard, API reports:
“Dear Mr. Bhatia:
“As president of the American Society of Newspaper Editors (ASNE), you and your organization, bear some of the responsibility for the Jayson Blair scandal at the New York Times. ASNE has been promoting “diversity,” even quotas, so that newspapers hire a certain number of minorities to meet “parity.” Blair was hired after going through a minority internship program of the kind that ASNE tries to foist on papers across the country. We suggest you read and recommend William McGowan’s Coloring the News, a book written before the scandal which documents how diversity has corrupted journalism. It might save some of ASNE’s member papers from the fate that has met the Times. ASNE should lead the effort to get back to the basics of journalism such as accuracy and objectivity “without regard to skin color.”
Black Columnists Weigh in on Michigan Decision
African American columnists have begun to weigh in — with considerable skepticism — on Monday’s Supreme Court decisions in the University of Michigan affirmative action cases. Here is some of the first commentary:
- George Curry, BlackPressUSA.com:
“George W. Bush is expected to appoint one and possibly two Supreme Court justices before leaving office. While campaigning for president, he declared that any appointment he makes to the court will be in the mold of Antonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas, the two most conservative members of the conservative court.
“Bush is also pushing through a group of ultra conservative judges at the lower levels. When they rise through the ranks, Monday’s victory may eventually be a fleeting one.”
- Derrick Z. Jackson, Boston Globe:
“Getting rid of a point system may sound fine to someone who refuses to open a history book. It is a time bomb for those who read the fine print. The court took away bonus points for black, brown, and red people on behalf of angry white people. But the bonus points of white privilege are still in place, unchallenged and unrelenting, no matter how angry black, brown, and red people get.”
- Eugene Kane, Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel:
“Like the Allan Bakke case that first challenged affirmative action, the Michigan cases represented the revenge of white students so oblivious to the amount of privilege their white skins provided most of their lives, they figured something was horrendously wrong the first time a black student beat them out for something.
“I think America dodged a big bullet this week in regard to finally facing up to its discriminatory past; for that, I’m thankful. But grateful?
“The only thing I’m grateful for today is Justice [Sandra Day] O’Connor’s parents.”
- Courtland Milloy, Washington Post:
“Although it may be true that the court and the nation know that race matters, the jury is still out on whether either knows that it is all that unfortunate.
“Had swing voter O’Connor swung the other way, the court would appear to know nothing. And even with O’Connor’s vote, the notion of a 25-year deadline suggests that the court still doesn’t know enough.”
- David Person, BlackAmericaWeb.com:
“There is a scene in the movie [“Mississippi Burning”] in which [Gene] Hackman‘s character, to convince the Klansmen that he was one of them, talks about how when he was a young boy his father owned a farm next door to a black family’s farm. The black family owned a mule that it depended on to survive. One day, Hackman’s character tells the Klansmen, the mule was found dead.
“Someone had killed it.
“Days later, the Hackman character says that he and his father were driving by the black family’s farm and it suddenly dawned on him that his father (who had been acting strange) was the one who had killed the mule. Hackman’s character looked up at his father and asked him why he did it. The father answered him by saying something like this: ‘Son, if you can’t be better than a nigger, who can you be better than?’
“Why do we need affirmative action?
“Because there are still a lot of mule killers in this country.”
Hispanic Journalists Expect 2,000 in New York
Close to 2,000 people are expected in New York for the 21st annual convention of the National Association of Hispanic Journalists, says communications director Joseph Torres. The event takes place Thursday through Saturday at the Marriott Marquis Hotel. About 1,500 had registered as of last week, Torres said. The student newspaper, the Latino Reporter, will be covering the convention and can be accessed from the NAHJ Web site.
Columnist: Focus on Departing Anchors Misplaced
A gathering of 50 or so Chicago black journalists and community activists vented over Channel 2’s ”disrespect” of John Davis, a veteran anchor who was told his contract would not be renewed, writes Laura Washington in the Chicago Sun-Times.
But “in the hourlong discussion, the station’s news coverage never came up.
“Why aren’t these groups rabble-rousing about TV news’ stereotypical portrayals of city life?
“Why aren’t they meeting with station managers to demand that they cover real news? Instead of deploying floats to the Bud Billiken Parade, they could sponsor bus tours that would shepherd reporters into overlooked and underreported city neighborhoods. Why not force journalists to venture into the ‘hood beyond that yellow ‘crime scene’ tape?” writes Washington, a former editor of the Chicago Reader.
“NABJ could create a ‘Yellow Pages’ source book that would direct reporters to the activists who are doing high-impact work in the trenches–not just those who are screaming the loudest.
“Let’s toss the rhetoric and deal with some hard, cold facts. How about an independent content analysis to analyze what gets covered, and what doesn’t? Davis’ defenders say that Channel 2 dismissed his decades of deep community roots and reporting in the neighborhoods. Their argument would be a lot more persuasive if they had facts to back it up.
“Television personalities wax and wane. If you really want to change news coverage, target the content–not the characters.”
Juan F. Garcia, “Beloved News Director,” Dies at 49
Juan F. Garcia, a son of migrant workers who became news director at Univision’s station in Houston, and before that at KGBT-TV, a CBS affiliate in Harligen, Texas, near the Mexican border, died Sunday at age 49 after a bout with abdominal cancer.
“Juan Garcia was hired in 1996 and came to the Univision Houston newsroom with a vision. A vision that has completely transformed the way KXLN-TV, Channel 45 delivers the news. Because of his clear vision he surrounded himself with people who shared the same vision to bring Channel 45 News to what it is today, the #1 Spanish-Language Newscast in Houston,” wrote Deanna Landron-Reyes, his assistant news director, in a message to the staff.
“Juan wore many hats before being asked to lead the Harlingen newsroom, he was a reporter’s best friend, or worst nightmare when it came to rewriting scripts,” a former colleague, Jose “JD” De Leon, wrote to the “Shop Talk” TV tipsheet. “We photogs loved him as an Assignments person. He was one of us, a true news hound. His radio never stopped. It’s still in his office, ON and Scanning. That’s just the type of newsman he was: “We don’t wait for the call, we hear and react”.
Landron-Ryes’ message to the newsroom is at the end of today’s posting.
AAJA Benefactor Suzanne Ahn Dies
Dr. Suzanne Ahn, a Dallas neurologist and community activist who presented a $100,000 endowment last year to the Asian American Journalists Association, died Sunday after battling lung cancer, the Fort Worth Star-Telegram reports. She was 51.
Her endowment is to be used to award journalists whose work covers civil rights and social justice issues for Asian Americans.
To counter the prejudices and obstacles she experienced throughout her life, Dr. Ahn dedicated much of her time to speaking and serving in civic organizations aimed at advancing Asian and women’s civil rights, her family said.
“Growing up as an Asian woman, she felt some discrimination at various times and felt it was unjust,” said her brother, Samuel Ahn, in the Star-Telegram. “Her legacy is that she was always a very outspoken activist who believed in and spoke for her cause.”
“Memorials may be made to the Asian American Journalists Association’s Dr. Suzanne Ahn Award for Civil Rights and Social Justice for Asian Americans,” the newspaper said.
Four Papers Win Black Press Awards
The Dallas Weekly, Philadelphia Tribune, Kansas City Call and Louisiana Weekly won the top awards in the National Newspaper Publishers’ Association Philip Randolph Messenger Awards, reports Artelia C. Covington for NNPA, the association of black publishers.
“The awards category was established 12 years ago by the Miller Brewing Company to honor publishers and writers in the Black Press for best overall news article in civil rights and education,” she writes.
“The winners of each award receive $1,000 to donate to a non-profit organization of their choice. Each top writer takes home a $1,500 prize.
“This year’s top honors for best civil rights news story went to the Kansas City Call, for the story, ‘Out of Focus; Troubles Lead Networks Into Federal Court Suit,’ written by Tracy Allen. The three-part series dealt with racism in broadcast journalism.
“Other winners of the Messenger Awards were the Philadelphia Tribune, which took first place in the education category with a story written by Nia Ngina Meeks titled, ‘Financial Problems Jeopardize HBCUs.’ Both the Dallas Weekly and the Louisiana Weekly picked up awards for editorial and commentary writing. The Dallas Weekly’s entry was a piece written by Cheryl Smith, titled, ‘That’s Right Oprah, I Whipped her Butt,’ and the Louisiana Weekly’s piece was titled, ‘War is Not the Answer,’ written by Edmund W. Lewis.”
“This Week’s” Michel Martin Proves Diversity’s Value
ABC-TV’s Michel Martin, named last year to permanently integrate the news roundtable on the “This Week” Sunday talk show, proved what a different perspective she brings when the show turned this week to new census figures showing Latinos to be the largest minority. Here is how the discussion went, with Martin, who is African American, the only person of color on the panel:
“CLAIRE SHIPMAN: The Census Bureau made it official, Hispanics are the largest minority group in America now. They’ve surpassed African Americans, not by much, but that group is obviously growing fast. George Will, who does this benefit politically? Democrats? Republicans?
“GEORGE WILL: America. Oh, it benefits America, for goodness sakes. It is a fluid group in play for both parties. We’ll see about that. What it does is it breaks us out of this binary black-white view of race in America and in the end will blow up the idea of race itself because when most, when half the California Hispanics are asked on the census form what to check White, Black, other color, they say other.
“SHIPMAN: Isn’t that a little premature?
“MICHEL MARTIN: George seems to imply that ethnic politics arises because people lack appropriate recreational activities or they’re somehow bored. I mean, the claims about, from African Americans against, to the American conscience have never had anything to do with numbers. It had to do with legally enforced and culturally sanctioned system of disempowerment, with, the effects of which are felt today.
“So I’m intrigued by this language that suggested there’s some sort of a foot race or competition that’s been won here. I think it’s . . . very important for the marketplace, very interesting political ramifications. I think the real political ramifications will be felt geographically not so much ethnically, because Latinos are centered in the Southwest. African Americans are centered in the Southeast. And I think, as population centers, that, to me, is going to be the interesting dynamic.
“JOE KLEIN: I think George is right. We now have the largest so-called minority group is a group of people who don’t, many of whom don’t want to be considered a minority. I think that what you’re missing, Michel, is that there has been phenomenal progress on race relations in this country in large part because it no longer is a binary question. There are all these South Asians, Asians, Latinos, Africans, African Americans and you know what, and you know what . . .
“MARTIN: No, I think (inaudible) binary question, I think it’s an enormous, there’s been enormous progress because people have fought long and hard and made claims against, you know, the ultimate claims for justice of the American people. That’s why there’s been progress, Joe. Not because people (inaudible).
“KLEIN: But I also think on the ground the reality is that people of different races are dealing with each other and they are marrying each other and I think that we are heading toward a new American race, a post-racial future. And that will be an example for the rest of the world.
“SHIPMAN: All right, Joe Klein I think we’re going to have to let you have the last word on that subject.”
Union Accepts Contract at Baltimore Sun
“Members of The Sun’s newsroom union voted late Tuesday to accept the newspaper’s final contract offer less than an hour before the previous contract expired, newspaper and union officials said,” the Associated Press reported.
“The vote was 319-102 in favor, according to the Washington-Baltimore Newspaper Guild. But the union issued a statement critical of the negotiations and the newspaper’s plans to publish in the event of a strike, including the training of temporary workers.”
People of color were assuming high-profile management roles in the dispute. Mirelle Grangenois, vice president for marketing and interactive media, was quoted in the New York Times Monday as threatening the use of strikebreakers, and today’s AP story quotes Charles Fancher as a spokesman for The Sun, saying the paper was pleased with the vote.
“Having consulted with the Sun on several projects last year, I was asked to serve as the company’s spokesman during labor negotiations just concluded with the Guild,” Fancher told Journal-isms. He is president of Fancher Associates, a consulting business based in Annapolis, Md. Fancher was vice president of public affairs at Philadelphia Newspapers, Inc. (Inquirer and Daily News) for 10 years, and prior to that an editor at the Detroit Free Press and a reporter and editor at the Philadelphia Inquirer.
Report Says Baquet Turned Down Times’ ME Job
The Daily News’ Paul D. Colford reported Friday “that a handicapper’s favorite — former national editor Dean Baquet, 45, who now has the No. 2 job of managing editor at the Los Angeles Times – turned down an offer to return to New York,” but he didn’t say which job he supposedly turned down.
Colford writes now that “sources said [New York Times Publisher Arthur] Sulzberger discussed the position of managing editor with Baquet, who’s happy in L.A.”
Jose Diaz-Balart Returns to English-Language TV
Jose Diaz-Balart returns to English-language television, reports Pareja Media Match, citing El Nuevo Herald.
“The Cuban American journalist will co-anchor daily South Florida’s NBC6 at 5.p.m. with Jennifer Valopi. He will also continue to anchor in Spanish for NBC’s Telemundo. Diaz-Balart had already worked at NBC6 in the past and then moved to CBS before working for Telemundo. Diaz-Balart will start at NBC6 July 1,” the report says.
Ed Wiley Joins BET?s Web Site as Managing Editor
Ed Wiley III has become managing editor of BET.com, said in surveys to be among the most popular Web sites for African Americans. He is working with Retha Hill, the former Washington Post reporter who is vice president of content.
Wiley has been a reporter at California’s Fresno Bee. press secretary for House Whip Tony Coelho, editor of Black Issues in Higher Education. managing editor at the Children’s Defense Fund, communications manager for National Wildlife Federation, and for the last five years, monitored the District of Columbia Department of Corrections’ compliance with a series of court orders involving treatment of inmates.
Judge Sets Date for Trial Over “Spike TV” Name
“The fight between Viacom’s TNN and director Spike Lee over the name Spike will take place in a New York court on Aug. 18, which is earlier than expected,” Media Week reports.
“After hearing further testimony from TNN executives, Supreme Court Justice Walter Tolub motioned to expedite the trial and, additionally, told Lee that he must post $2.5 million to help cover Viacom’s cost if he does indeed win the case.”
Meanwhile, TV Week reports that Spike Jones Jr., son of the late bandleader, has weighed in on Viacom’s side.
In an affidavit supporting Viacom in its fight to rename TNN “Spike TV,” Jones called the temporary injunction against the conglomerate “frightening.” “‘I do not believe that Spike Lee ‘owns’ or has any individual right to the use of the name “Spike” . . . any more than I do,’ wrote Mr. Jones. ‘If anything, I believe my right would be superior to his . . . Indeed, if Spike Lee is concerned about confusion in the marketplace, why hasn’t he sued Spike Jonze? Both are motion picture filmmakers. I have known Spike Lee as a filmmaker who has pushed the boundaries of filmmaking in the name of artistic expression, and who has championed filmmakers’ freedom of speech. This lawsuit seems to be a violation of that spirit,'” TV Week reported.
Memo to Univision Newsroom on Juan F. Garcia
Dear Colleagues,
It is with a heavy and saddened heart that I have to inform you all that our beloved News Director, Juan Garcia, passed away yesterday, Sunday, June 22nd, at 12 noon.
Juan Garcia was hired in 1996 and came to the Univision Houston newsroom with a vision. A vision that has completely transformed the way KXLN-TV, Channel 45 delivers the news. Because of his clear vision he surrounded himself with people who shared the same vision to bring Channel 45 News to what it is today, the #1 Spanish-Language Newscast in Houston.
He not only was our News Director, but a loving husband, a wise colleague, a mentor, an honest man, a caring individual, and our friend. He cared deeply and wanted so much for each and every one of us in this Newsroom. He knew just about everyone’s goals and dreams and he wanted to be the person to help and see each person in this Newsroom reach those dreams. He was not selfish, if anything he was always more than generous in more ways than one.
Juan’s spirit and vision of this Newsroom will live on. It will not be forgotten.
Juan Garcia was born July 24, 1953. He was the son of migrant workers, he too would work the fields along side his parents and after finishing high school he entered Edinburg’s PAN AM University [The University of Texas – Pan American in Edinburg, Texas] and earned a degree in Communications. He entered broadcasting as a News Photographer at the ABC affiliate KRGV in Weslaco, Texas. He had at times freelanced as a Field Producer for National Networks doing stories in the Valley and Mexico. Before accepting the position in Houston at Univision’s KXLN as News Director in 1996, he was working for KGBT, a CBS affiliated station as the News Director. Together with his wife Sherry, they have 6 children with 6 grandchildren, and 1 great grandchild.
We can each be thankful for the time we have been able to share and grow under his leadership. May he forever rest in peace. There will also be a viewing held on Thursday, June 26, 2003 at Vaughan Funeral Home in Donna, TX. This will take place all day leading up to the actual Rosary which will be held Thursday evening from 7-8 pm. The actual Mass for the Funeral will be held at 10am Friday morning at Vaughan Funeral Home located at 1701 E. Business 83, in Donna, TX, 78537. The # to the funeral home is 956-464-3661. There will also be a Graveside Mass at 11 am Friday Morning at the Donna City Cemetery.
Sincerely,
Deanna Landron-Reyes
KXLN-TV, Asst. News Director
