Unity Urges Broadcast Summit on Diversity
Unity: Journalists of Color, the umbrella group for the associations of black, Hispanic, Asian American and Native American journalists, is calling for a “National Broadcasting Diversity Summit” as one of four responses to last week’s report from the Radio-Television News Directors Association showing that overall numbers for people of color in broadcast management were down for the second year in a row.
The Asian American Journalists Association joined the National Association of Hispanic Journalists in calling for action, but the National Association of Black Journalists remained silent, with President Condace Pressley, who also sits on the RTNDA board, telling members that “I anticipate that NABJ and RTNDA will hold a joint news conference on the issue on August 8th in Dallas,” where NABJ begins its annual convention Wednesday.
Unity urged RTNDA to:
- “Convene a National Broadcasting Diversity Summit that calls together the top leadership in the broadcast industry and the industry’s top associations to develop, and implement, strategies that will immediately begin increasing newsroom diversity.”
- “Provide a more detailed survey that provides data station-by-station, along with specific levels of representation by different groups of people of color in each outlet.”
- “Establish an agreement in which all of broadcast networks will participate in the RTNDA survey.”
- “Press the FCC [Federal Communications Commission] to proceed with its stated plan to form a Diversity Committee.”
In the statement from the Asian American Journalists Association, Randall Yip, vice president for broadcast and a fellow at the Maynard Institute Management Program at Kellogg, Northwestern University, agreed that, “Broadcasting needs to do more to reach out to minority communities.”
Text of the Unity and AAJA statements at the end of today’s posting. The National Association of Hispanic Journalists issued its news release last week.
“Law & Order” Episode Mirrors Blair Scandal
“Watch out: Television?s current longest-running drama takes on one of the nation?s oldest, and most prestigious, papers,” reported Chris Faile Thursday on the Web site filmjerk.com. “In an episode that begins shooting today in New York City, NBC?s ‘Law & Order’ is filming an installment mirroring the Jayson Blair scandal, which engulfed The New York Times and subsequently caused the ouster of its two top editors.
“This being ‘Law & Order,’ though, the ripped-from-the-headlines episode will add a further twist, with the murder of a source by the reporter himself? all in order to keep the source from blowing the whistle to the paper?s top editors and to law enforcement.
“According to FilmJerk.com sources, the episode ? entitled ‘Bounty’ ? will focus on a black reporter named Brian Kellog, of the fictitious New York Tribune. Described as ‘likable, charismatic and intelligent,’ the reporter publishes a highly-touted story about bookstore heir and fugitive rapist Mitchell Maas, which includes quotes from the on-the-lam perp. Maas later turns up dead? as does a bounty hunter trying to track him down. With Maas? death, which has been ruled a homicide, Kellog can lay claim to having been the only reporter to have actually spoken to Maas. In the end, it turns out that the story was pure fabrication and that Kellog murdered Maas (who was on to the scam) after the rapist threatened to blow the whistle on Kellog.
“Two of the other roles in the episode are seemingly based on real-life people: Wesley Schultz, the managing editor of the Tribune (shades of Gerald Boyd, who resigned June 5) and Sybil, Kellog?s secretary, the only person Kellog could not hide his true colors from (modeled after Zuza Glowacka, a member of the Times photo department, who was also Blair?s galpal),” the Web site reported.
A spokeswoman for “Law & Order” executive producer Dick Wolf would not confirm to the New York Daily News that such a story was in the works.
“‘Law & Order’ is fiction,” she told the newspaper.
Liberia Founded “by” or “for” Freed Slaves?
The carnage in Liberia is deservedly at the top of more and more news reports, but news organizations cannot agree on whether Liberia was founded “by” freed American slaves or “for” them.
Lining up behind “by” have been stories and editorials from the Associated Press, Newsday, Inter Press Service, the Philadelphia Daily News, the National Review, National Public Radio (Robert Siegel), the Detroit Free Press and the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel, among others.
Those using “for” include Africa News, the Green Bay (Wis.) Press-Gazette, The Sydney Morning Herald, the New York Post, Minneapolis Star Tribune, Fox News, Chicago Tribune, CNN, Washington Post, Agence France-Presse, National Public Radio (Bob Edwards) and the Toronto Star.
Who’s right? Slate magazine addressed the issue online on July 3 in a piece called, “Was Liberia Founded By Freed U.S. Slaves?” by lawyer Mary Kay Ricks:
“In Tuesday’s Washington Post, an editorial urging President Bush to send peacekeepers to civil war-wracked Liberia noted that the country was ‘founded by freed U.S. slaves.’ Is that true?
“Not quite. Although some freed American slaves did settle there, Liberia was actually founded by the American Colonization Society, a group of white Americans?including some slaveholders?that had what certainly can be described as mixed motives. In 1817, in Washington, D.C., the ACS established the new colony (on a tract of land in West Africa purchased from local tribes) in hopes that slaves, once emancipated, would move there. The society preferred this option to the alternative: a growing number of free black Americans demanding rights, jobs, and resources at home,” she wrote.
Dallas, Fort Worth Papers Duel in Spanish
A newspaper war is brewing in Texas, reports the New York Times. “Or make that a newspaper guerra.”
“Knight Ridder Inc., the nation’s second-largest newspaper publisher after the Gannett Company, said today that it would expand publication of its Spanish-language paper in the Dallas-Fort Worth area, responding to demographic changes in North Texas and increased competition from the Belo Corporation, which owns The Dallas Morning News and has announced its own plan for a daily Spanish-language paper.
“Knight Ridder, which owns The Fort Worth Star-Telegram, currently publishes the paper La Estrella twice a week. It will switch to publishing it five days a week starting Sept. 2 with the new name Diario La Estrella, the paper’s publisher, Javier J. Aldape, said. Belo, which is based in Dallas, had said earlier this year that on Sept. 29 it would start publishing the Spanish-language daily newspaper, Al Día.”
Hispanic Wealth in N.Y. Area on the Rise
Spanish language TV stations are salivating as a new study to be released today predicts Hispanic spending in New York City’s tri-state area will more than triple over the next two decades, writes Phyllis Furman in the New York Daily News.
“The survey, by Hispanic media giant Univision, — owner of New York’s Ch. 41, which went on the air 35 years ago — and conducted by researcher Global Insight, says the rise in Hispanic disposable income will far exceed the spending growth of the general population.”
Bill Targets “Language Minority” Stations
Sens. Ted Kennedy, D-Mass., and Hillary Rodham Clinton, D-N.Y., have introduced legislation that would require the Federal Communications Commission to hold public hearings on applications to transfer radio and TV licenses of stations used “primarily to serve language minorities,” reports Television Week.
“In a statement, Sen. Kennedy said the measure is intended to ensure that American Indians, Asian Americans, Alaskan natives and Hispanic Americans ‘are not injured by excessive media concentration of companies that broadcast primarily in their native languages,'” Television Week said.
Leo Ramos, Chicago Telemundo GM, Quits
Leo Ramos, who guided Chicago’s WSNS-Channel 44 through its merger with WMAQ-Channel 5 and its relocation to NBC Tower, has resigned after two years as vice president and general manager of the Telemundo Spanish-language outlet, Robert Feder reports in the Chicago Sun-Times.
No successor has been named, and no reason was cited for Ramos’ abrupt departure. But insiders pointed to differences he had with Ibra Morales, president of Telemundo Television Stations Group.
Oprah Testing “O at Home” Magazine
In October, “O, the Oprah Magazine” will publish a separate 48-page publication called “O at Home,” which will be bagged with the magazine and mailed to its 1.5 million subscribers, reports David Carr in the New York Times.
“O at Home, an extension of Comfort Zone, the section in the magazine that deals with decorating, is the first editorial supplement to the magazine.
“If readers respond to the idea, executives at Hearst Magazines, which co-owns the magazine with Ms. Winfrey, could be persuaded to turn O at Home into a stand-alone publication,” Carr writes.
Vincent A. Young Dies at 37, Taught, Wrote, Did PR
Vincent Aaron Young, a journalist and co-founder of Capital Entertainment public relations, died July 19 of complications from AIDS at his home in Washington, the Washington Times reports. He was 37.
The obituary continued:
“A native of Philadelphia, Mr. Young lived in a group home as a young man where he contracted HIV after being raped by a counselor.
“Mr. Young attended Radnor High School, then earned a bachelor’s degree from Temple University. After college, he moved to Washington and briefly taught in Upward Bound at Howard University. He worked as a salesman at the Gap at Landover Mall before joining The Washington Post as an editorial aide in 1990.
“Later, Mr. Young accompanied seasoned staff journalists on investigative reporting assignments, eventually beginning to write Metro, Style and religion news stories. He wrote in depth about HIV/AIDS.
“After leaving The Post in 1996, Mr. Young co-founded Capital Entertainment, with Bill Carpenter and Robert Shanklin. The public relations company represented numerous luminaries. Mr. Young worked successful media campaigns for lawyer Johnnie Cochran; actress Vivica Fox; singer Ron Kenoly; Michael Jordan’s mother, Delores Jordan; gospel star Ann McCrary; and Bishop Carlton Pearson.
“With Mr. Young’s aggressive push, the firm brought Bishop T.D. Jakes — once described by Time magazine as the best preacher in America — his first significant national press. Mr. Young also matched Grammy winning singer CeCe Winans with literary agent Denise Stinson, and the result was Miss Winans’ best-selling memoir, ‘On a Positive Note,’ in 1999.
“But Mr. Young found the most fulfillment in bringing media attention to serious issues and community programs, such as Howard University’s organ-donation program, public health initiatives, Lynette Bell’s quest for a kidney transplant and blues singer Mable John’s efforts to feed and clothe Los Angeles’ homeless — a pro bono project Mr. Young publicized for six years, which received national attention.
“He also was a volunteer journalism teacher at Lincoln Middle School in Northeast and the Stephen Decatur Middle School in Clinton. He spoke to public school students about abuse and self-esteem, and wrote a song, ‘Tell Somebody,’ to warn young people to blow the whistle on pedophiles,” the Times obituary continued.
George Curry Site Lists Diverse News Links
George E. Curry, editor of the National Newspaper Publishers Association News Service who is to be honored this week as Journalist of the Year by the National Association of Black Journalists, has put together on his Web site, www.georgecurry.com, what he calls “the widest collection of diverse news sources and columnists . . . on the Web.” In addition to this “Newsroom” part of the site is a “Resource Center.”
“There is so much on the Web but it’s a hassle trying to harness its power. So I tried to bring everything under one roof. . . . I really wanted helpful links that would help kids with homework and scholarships and parents with educational resources and health info,” Curry told Journal-isms.
Unity Statement on Broadcast Industry Figures
Contacts:
Ernest R. Sotomayor, President, UNITY Board of Directors; Long Island Editor, Newsday.com, 631-843-3664
Anna M. Lopez, Executive Director, UNITY, 703-469-2100
UNITY Calls on Broadcast Industry to Convene Diversity Summit
Arlington, VA? UNITY: Journalists of Color, Inc., today calls on the broadcast industry to take immediate actions that will begin to reverse a continued and unconscionable slide in the representation of people of color in newsrooms across America.
The annual study released Wednesday by the Radio and Television News Directors Association shows that, for the second straight year, the percentage of people of color working in local radio and television news has taken a sharp decline.
Among the findings for all local broadcast outlets, the percentage of people of color dropped from 20.6 last year to 18.1. The results are even worse when looking just at English-language outlets, where people of color make up only 17 percent of broadcast newsroom professionals, down from 19 percent last year, and from 21.8 in 2001.
According to the survey, news directors in local TV fell from 9.2 percent to 6.6 percent. People of color make up 5 percent of the news director slots in radio, unchanged from last year.
Fortunately, there was progress overall for women, who now hold a record 26.5 percent of the TV news director jobs and 14.4 percent of the news director slots in radio.
“These findings clearly demonstrate the low value the nation’s broadcast industry places on improving newsroom diversity,” said Ernest R. Sotomayor, president of UNITY’s board of directors. “The industry pleaded for the right to consolidate without government restrictions, contending that journalism will only improve.?
“In fact, the slide in representation further degrades broadcast journalism, and perpetuates dishonesty in reporting as news media outlets continue to see only part of the picture. The failure to retain professionals of color and to increase their presence in decision-making positions over time shows that past pledges of commitment to diversity have been a bust. When all evidence, from U.S. Census data to a walk down any street in any town, points to the increasing diversity of this nation, the broadcast news profession has no credible excuse for to not being able to increase the representation of people of color among the ranks.”
The RTNDA report cited the lack of strong equal employment opportunity rules, saying the slide began with the elimination of the Federal Communications Commission rules in 2001. And, while the FCC stated that diversity in the news media was an important goal as it considered recent media ownership rule changes, the agency’s amendments did not address the issue in any substantive manner.
In light of these findings, UNITY, an alliance of the nation’s four largest organizations of journalists of color, calls on the industry to quickly take the following actions:
- Convene a National Broadcasting Diversity Summit that calls together the top leadership in the broadcast industry and the industry’s top associations to develop, and implement, strategies that will immediately begin increasing newsroom diversity. From this gathering, we challenge the leadership of both local and national broadcast media to establish programs with measurable goals with explicit target dates to raise the presence of minority news professionals in broadcast newsrooms across the nation.
- Provide a more detailed survey that provides data station-by-station, along with specific levels of representation by different groups of people of color in each outlet, so that viewers and listeners can credibly track their local station?s progress in achieving diversity goals. Without this, it is impossible to attack the problem in the locations where it is at its worst.
- Establish an agreement in which all of broadcast networks will participate in the RTNDA survey. As of now, the national television networks, which hold thousands of prime jobs in broadcasting, have refused years of requests to disclose their diversity figures. Failing to do so makes it impossible for the viewing public to credibly assess progress toward meaningful newsroom diversity.
- Press the FCC to proceed with its stated plan to form a Diversity Committee to advise the agency on policies and practices that promote and enhance opportunities for women and people of color in communications.
UNITY and its alliance partners ? Asian American Journalists Association, National Association of Black Journalists, National Association of Hispanic Journalists, and Native American Journalists Association — stand ready to work in partnership with the broadcast news industry, and station owners and managers to achieve these goals. These organizations, through on-going programs and sessions held during their annual conventions, have long sought to develop the skills of broadcast journalists and to improve retention.
UNITY 2004 ? a joint convention of the four organizations that is held every five years ? will be held August 4-8, 2004 in Washington, D.C. The first two UNITY conventions, in 1994 and 1999, were the largest journalism gatherings ever in the U.S., and the 2004 convention is expected again to set new attendance records.
AAJA Response to RTNDA Survey Results
The Asian American Journalists Association Thursday called on the broadcast news industry to reaffirm its commitment to diversity in light of recently released survey numbers that showed a disappointing continued decline in the number of Asian Americans in the newsroom.
The percentage of Asian Americans in television dropped to 2.7 percent, down from 3.1 percent last year and 4.1 percent in 2001. The Radio and Television News Directors Association & Ball State released its annual survey in the July/August edition of the Communicator.
“This backwards trend is disturbing following the high reached in 2001,” said Mae Cheng, AAJA President and reporter at Newsday. “AAJA challenges RTNDA and the broadcast industry to take a more proactive approach to increase employment of Asian Americans. The decline must stop to ensure that viewers and listeners receive fair and accurate coverage of all communities.”
Overall minority employment in both radio and television fell from 20.6 percent to 18.1 percent. The radio industry also experienced a slide with Asian Americans dropping half a percent to just 0.3 percent. In the last ten years, Asian Americans have lost ground in radio and gained only half a percent in television.
“Broadcasting needs to do more to reach out to minority communities,” said Randall Yip, AAJA Vice President for Broadcast and a fellow at the Maynard Management Program at Kellogg, Northwestern University. “Local news viewership has declined 20 percent in just ten years. We can’t expect to increase audience share in minority communities without a more diverse staff.”
AAJA works to promote the training and hiring of Asian Americans with its ongoing programs and annual convention, and is ready to partner with RTNDA and radio and television stations in future efforts to improve this situation.
AAJA’s annual convention Aug. 13-16 in San Diego will offer professional training workshops, networking sessions, and mentor programs aimed at broadcast and print professionals to improve their skills. Students get hands-on training from working journalists during AAJA’s television, radio, print and online projects. AAJA’s well-received multi-cultural J Camp works to inspire promising high school students to choose journalism over other careers. AAJA will also announce the winners of more than a dozen scholarships Aug. 15