Carolyn Phillips, Kelly Harvey Join Hampton J-Team
Former Wall Street Journal editor Carolyn Phillips and Kelly Harvey, a local broadcaster who is the daughter of Hampton University President William R. Harvey, have joined the faculty team of Christopher Campbell, the new director of Hampton’s Scripps Howard School of Journalism and Communications, the school announced this week.
Phillips was assistant managing editor responsible for staffing and training when she was laid off from the Journal late last year after 20 years at the paper that included service as reporter and bureau chief. The economic climate was cited.
Phillips has been named the Scripps Howard Visiting Professor for the fall semester and is to teach reporting classes and organize a forum on newsroom ethics and journalistic credibility to be held on campus in October.
Kelly Harvey resigned in March as reporter and weekend anchor at WTKR-TV in Hampton Roads, Va. She and Jeffrey Prier, most recently as a meteorologist for WTKR-TV, are to teach courses in radio and television news. William Harvey is on sabbatical.
Also joining the faculty is Kim LeDuff, a doctoral candidate in journalism at Indiana University who taught in the communications department at Xavier University in New Orleans, where Campbell also worked.
?The school?s plan is to put highly qualified professionals in the classroom,? said Campbell.
“Campbell was named director of the Scripps Howard School in July. At that time, the university also named legendary journalist Earl Caldwell, a former New York Times reporter and New York Daily News columnist, as the Scripps Howard Endowed Professor. Caldwell will be continuing a major history project on civil rights-era journalists that he began as writer-in-residence at the Maynard Institute for Journalism Education.
“Six members of the school?s full-time faculty will return for 2003-04 academic year. Rosalynne Whitaker-Heck, who served as interim director during the 2002-03 academic year, has been named assistant director. Clarence Cotton, Curtis Holsopple, Sean Lyons, Francis McDonald and Jennifer Wood will continue to teach in the school,” the news release said.
Court Delays FCC Media Ownership Rules
A federal appeals court in Philadelphia late today issued an emergency stay delaying new Federal Communications Commission rules that would allow a single company to own newspapers and broadcast outlets in the same city, tbe Associated Press reports.
“The 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said the community-radio advocates who sued would suffer irreparable harm if the new rules were allowed to go into effect as scheduled Thursday.
“Blair Levin, a former FCC official who is an analyst with the Legg Mason investment firm, said the stay probably will have little immediate impact because congressional opposition to the looser ownership rules led media companies to put most of their plans on hold,” the AP story continued.
Lynda Baquero to Co-Anchor at WNBC New York
Lynda Baquero has been chosen to co-anchor WNBC-TV New York’s 6 p.m. newscast, the station announced, saying that longtime New York newswoman Michele Marsh, who held that job, is leaving the station.
Baquero will be teamed with veteran Chuck Scarborough.
Baquero is co-anchor of the weekend editions of “NewsChannel 4 at 6 and 11 p.m.” Her station bio says “Baquero has made several trips to Puerto Rico to cover Hurricane Hortense and its aftermath, and she has traveled to the island to interview the family of Yankee outfielder Bernie Williams.
“In 1997, Baquero traveled to Cuba and reported extensively on its economy and the role of religion, as Cuba prepared for the Pope’s visit. . . . For two years, Baquero also served as host of ‘Hispanics Today,’ a monthly look at Hispanic business in the United States. The program was a joint venture between the U.S. Hispanic Chamber of Commerce and WNBC. Baquero came to NewsChannel 4 from NY1 News, where she was a daily news anchor and consumer reporter for three years.”
Jayson Blair Piece to Run on What Not to Do
“Disgraced reporter Jayson Blair has completed his first journalistic piece since the plagiarism and fabrication capers that caused his downfall at the Gray Lady came to light in early May,” reports Keith J. Kelly in the New York Post.
“Blair has written a freelance piece for Jane magazine’s ‘It Happened to Me’ column: a first-person narrative about the affair that eventually forced the resignation of Blair and the paper’s two top editors.
“Blair’s article will appear in the October issue, which hits newsstands on Sept. 9.
“He mentions some of the problems that led to his downfall and advises people not to do likewise. For instance? ‘If you take the company car from New York to Maryland for a personal trip, you might not want to get a speeding ticket and then throw it in the trash — only to have the business administrator discover it when a late notice arrives.’
“He also advises people to wait a few years and build up some good will before letting their eccentricities show: ‘I guess I could have done the fur-coat-Persian-head-wrap-Kermit-the-frog stunt after a couple more years,’ ” the tabloid reported.
Rick Bragg Writing Book With Jessica Lynch
“‘I Am a Soldier, Too: The Jessica Lynch Story’ will go on sale in November at bookstores, discount warehouses, truck stops, gift shops, grocery stores, pharmacies, PXs and just about everywhere else across America,” Linton Weeks writes in the Washington Post.
“The authorized biography will be written by Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Rick Bragg,” the New York Times reporter who left the paper in the wake of the Jayson Blair scandal, over uncredited use of stringers rather than fabrications.
“Jessica Lynch has captured the hearts and minds of Americans,” Sonny Mehta, Alfred A. Knopf publishing company president, said in a press release obtained by the Post. “Her story is one the world is eager to hear, and Rick Bragg, an established chronicler of American lives, is uniquely qualified to tell it. Through Jessica Lynch, people will gain a greater understanding of American life and lives when a nation is at war.”
At last month’s National Association of Black Journalists convention, George E. Curry of the National Newspaper Publishers Association, one of the few African Americans to cover the Iraqi conflict, said Lynch was made a hero by the news media and the military because “she fit the all-America mold. They don’t do that for black women.”
“Lynch, the sweet-faced private first class from Palestine, W.Va., was taken prisoner by Iraqi soldiers on March 23 when her maintenance company was attacked near the city of Nasiriyah. She was heroically rescued nine days later from her hospital bed by a covert Special Operations unit. She spent several months at Walter Reed Army Medical Center recovering from injuries, then was moved to her home in Palestine. After receiving her honorable discharge from the Army last week, Lynch signed the book deal,” the Post wrote.
FCC to Refuse Industry-Paid Travel Offers
“Bowing to pressure from a powerful member of the House Appropriations Committee, the Federal Communications Commission says it plans to largely eliminate its longtime practice of accepting free travel and entertainment from the communication industries it regulates,” reports the Center for Public Integrity.
FCC Chairman Michael Powell acted after prodding from Rep. Frank R. Wolf, R-Va., who reacted to a May 22 report from the Center that chronicled how FCC officials had been showered with nearly $2.8 million in travel and entertainment expenses over the past eight years, most of it from the telecommunications and broadcast industries the agency regulates, the Center said.
L.A. Times Editor Suddenly a Hero of the Right
“For one sparkling moment, Los Angeles Times editor John Carroll must have felt like he was standing at the center of some giant, turning wheel. Everywhere and all at once, Carroll was up there with [California Rep.] Darrell Issa or [Secretary of Defense] Donald Rumsfeld as a hero of the Right,” writes RJ Smith in Los Angeles magazine.
“‘I don’t expect it to last, but I’ll take it,’ Carroll says with a chuckle, his hands lightly tapping a table in his third-floor office.
“Carroll’s coronation occurred May 22, almost immediately after he e-mailed a memo to Times section editors. The memo was promptly leaked to LA Observed, a Web log run by former Times staffer (and Los Angeles contributor) Kevin Roderick. Jim Romenesko, whose media news Web site is gravy for working journalists, picked up the story and made it national news.
“Carroll e-mailed his people:
“I’m concerned about the perception?and the occasional reality?that the Times is a liberal, ‘politically correct’ newspaper. Generally speaking, this is an inaccurate view, but occasionally we prove our critics right. We did so today . . .”
“‘The reason I’m sending this note to all section editors is that I want everyone to understand how serious I am about purging all political bias from our coverage. We may happen to live in a political atmosphere that is suffused with liberal values (and is unreflective of the nation as a whole), but we are not going to push a liberal agenda in the news pages of the Times.’
“To all his new friends on the right, Carroll had done the equivalent of pulling the curtain up on the machinery, or revealing the secret formula to the Colonel’s chicken. He’d acknowledged what they long perceived as the Times’s political tilt,” the piece continues.
Victoria Hong Returns to Buffalo Station
Victoria Hong — who left Buffalo’s WGRZ-TV on July 3 after the NBC affiliate declined to give her an anchor seat — has resurfaced on WIVB-TV, the first station she worked on in the Buffalo market about a decade ago, the Buffalo News reports.
“Hong started her career as a Channel 4 staffer, worked in Philadelphia and then returned to Buffalo about eight years ago to become the primary female anchor at WGRZ-TV. Hong lost that job more than two years ago to Maryalice Demler shortly after Hong took maternity leave after having her second child. Hong then was named anchor of Channel 2’s new 10 p.m. newscast on WPXJ-TV but that newscast was discontinued earlier this year. Channel 2 offered her a new deal to become a reporter, which she declined,” the News reports.
“The new job at Channel 4 gives Hong a few things she wanted but couldn’t get at Channel 2 – an anchor position and a work shift that is more conducive to seeing her husband and raising her two children,” the story said.
Wendi Thomas Named to “Groundbreaking” Post
Wendi C. Thomas, a journalist with newspaper experience in three states, has joined The Memphis Commercial Appeal as the new Metro columnist, a new position that Managing Editor Otis Sanford called “groundbreaking.”
“Thomas, 31, is a former Memphian. . . . Before joining The Commercial Appeal, Thomas was assistant features editor at The Charlotte Observer and previously worked as night editor there. She also has been an assistant metro editor and a regional reporter at The Tennessean in Nashville and a metro reporter and occasional columnist for The Indianapolis Star. She worked as an intern on the Metro desk at The Commercial Appeal during the summer of 1992,” the story said.
“Chris Peck, editor of The Commercial Appeal, said he hopes Thomas will become part of a long history of good columnists at the newspaper.
“‘Having an African-American woman writing about Memphis says something about the commitment this newspaper has to making sure we’re covering the full range and energy of Memphis,” Peck said.
NABJ Election Makes Jet Magazine
Jet magazine offered a page and a quarter to coverage of the National Association of Black Journalists elections in its Sept. 1 issue with Mary J. Blige on the cover.
Newly elected president Herbert Lowe is pictured with activist Dick Gregory and convention sponsor Eric Peterson of General Motors in a photo that takes up half a page.
Ms. Magazine Seeks to Reverse “Genteel Decline”
“Ms. Magazine, the grande dame of feminism that sparked a startling level of passion in its glory days, recently relocated to Beverly Hills, the national capital of silicone silhouettes and ladies who lunch. It may seem like a mismatch at first, but what better locale for an aging icon to reinvent itself than Los Angeles, a land of perpetual metamorphosis,” writes Anita Chabria in the Los Angeles Times Magazine.
“With the summer 2003 issue, the magazine unveiled what it hopes will be a winning triad of new editor, new publisher and new location. But after a two-year struggle to get those three basics in place, and an even longer fight to keep Ms. alive, the magazine’s biggest trial is yet to come?luring a new generation of readers to plunk down the $5.95 cover price for news that’s filtered through a feminist lens.
“Since its pinnacle of popularity more than a decade ago, the venerable magazine title has been in genteel decline, flirting with death by irrelevance as the fight for women’s rights searches for a foothold with younger generations,” Chabria writes.
Celina Rodriguez Returning to San Jose
“Celina Rodriguez is returning home,” reports Daisy Pareja in Pareja Media Match. “After three and a half years as one of CNN En Españ¯¬?s anchors, Rodriguez has accepted an offer to return as an anchor to Telemundo?s KSTS San Jose/San Francisco station.”
“Rodriguez had worked as an anchor/reporter for KSTS Channel 48 for 12 years ending in 1999. The same year she became a general assignment reporter and back-up anchor for Univision?s KDTV-14 San Francisco station. In 2000, she got an offer she couldn?t refuse: an anchor position at CNNE.
“Rodriguez said she chose to return to the Bay Area because she considers it home away from her native Mexico. She added that her professional and community ties with Northern California have never faded with time or distance. Rodriguez was awarded with the John Knight Fellowship for Professional Journalists at Stanford University and last June she has been honored with the degree of Doctor of Humane Letters Honored Causa from the National Hispanic University,” Pareja reported.
Tribes’ Success Brings “Move to Change the Rules”
Mark Trahant, a member of the Idaho Shoshone-Bannock tribe, uses the example of a Shoshone effort in 1888 to make a point in the column he writes as editorial page editor of the Seattle Post-Intelligencer:
“When tribes are successful, then there’s a move to change the rules so that success can be terminated.
“We know that when tribes are successful economically it benefits the entire region, not just tribal members.
“But none of this has satisfied critics — and more important competitors.”
Yes, You Can Bury a Human in a Pet Cemetery
Robin Washington, a columnist at the Boston Herald and former board member of the National Association of Black Journalists, has discovered that “you can bury a human in a pet cemetery.”
And a column he wrote about burying his mother in such a cemetery ran in both the July 26 Boston Herald and on the front page of the July 27 Chicago Sun-Times.
Jean Birkenstein Washington, who passed away in Chicago June 28, had “credentials as a teacher, artist, mathematician and civil rights activist,” Washington wrote, and “lived a full life beyond her 77 years, participating in endless causes for the betterment of humankind.
“There were also those for plant- and animal-kind, which, though she loved many people, she generally cared for a bit more than humans.”
Robin Washington has described himself as the 1956 product of a biracial, inter-religious marriage.
The Chicago Tribune noted in its obituary that Mrs. Washington was one of four public school teachers who appeared before the Chicago Board of Education in 1962 and contended its school system was segregated and lacked adequate educational opportunities for African-American students.
Her action “helped pave the way for the civil rights movement in Chicago,” said James Ralph, a civil rights historian at Middlebury College in Middlebury, Vt., in the story.
She was one of the few Jewish students enrolled then. In 1950, she married Atlee David Washington, a Chicago plastics factory owner. “During the 1960s, she also participated in numerous demonstrations against housing and school segregation and was active in the Chicago chapters of the Congress of Racial Equality and the NAACP, her son said. She was a member of a teachers group that supported integrated schools, founded in Chicago in the early 1960s. She also became part of the Coordinating Council of Community Organizations, an umbrella group of area civil rights organizations. Her son said Mrs. Washington also reached out to members of several West Side street gangs, allowing her apartment to become their neutral gathering place,” the Tribune continued.
