900 at Services for L.A. Times’ Frank Del Olmo
Nearly 900 mourners Tuesday celebrated the life of Frank del Olmo, a Los Angeles Times associate editor and columnist who championed Latinos in and outside the newsroom, the Los Angeles Times reports.
The National Association of Hispanic Journalists, meanwhile, announced that it had established “the Frank del Olmo Award for Outstanding Print Journalist of the year,” to “be given out this September in Washington, D.C., during Hispanic Heritage Month as part of NAHJ’s revamped Noche de Triunfos Awards Dinner.”
And other Latino newspaper writers wrote in their own papers about del Olmo’s influence.
“Del Olmo died at age 55 of an apparent heart attack Thursday after collapsing in his office at The Times,” as Kristina Sauerwein recalled in reporting on funeral services at All Saints Episcopal Church in Pasadena.
“Lt. Gov. Cruz Bustamante, Los Angeles Mayor James K. Hahn, Los Angeles City Council President Alex Padilla, Cardinal Roger M. Mahony and actor Edward James Olmos were among those attending.
“Times Editor John Carroll said the newspaper had received an outpouring of tributes from people ranging from Mexican President Vicente Fox to an unknown admirer who had left at the newspaper a tall votive candle decorated with the image of Saint Anthony of Padua, the patron saint of the poor and others in need.
“With the candle was a note, scrawled in blue Magic Marker. It read, in Spanish: ‘We will remember you always, Mr. Frank del Olmo.'”
“He may have been the first Latino to ascend to the height of American journalism, but he will not be last,” said Felix Gutierrez, a visiting professor of journalism at USC and a longtime friend, the story continued.
“During the funeral service, which lasted nearly two hours, Veto Ruiz Trio, a small mariachi group, played the sweet Mexican ballads that Del Olmo loved, including ‘Usted,’ a song he often dedicated to his wife, Magdalena,” Sauerwein wrote.
Also:
- The Committee to Protect Journalists, where del Olmo was a board member, issued a statement of condolence. “Frank was an outstanding journalist and a strong advocate for everything he believed in, including press freedom and the Committee to Protect Journalists,” said Chairman David Laventhol.
- Michael A. Chihak, editor and publisher of The Tucson Citizen, wrote Saturday that, “His death is a tremendous loss to the newspaper business and to two generations of journalists whom he inspired and helped get going in the business.”
- Dan Herrera, assistant managing editor of the Albuquerque Journal, wrote Monday in his paper, “Minority journalists will remember del Olmo as one who continued to hold doors open for others no matter where his personal abilities led him.”
- Ricardo Pimentel, columnist for the Arizona Republic in Phoenix, wrote Tuesday:
“You see, I wanted to be Frank del Olmo.
“I don’t come even close. He was a journalist whose influence was immense both inside and outside the newsroom. His was a soft-spoken voice that newswriters and newsmakers couldn’t help but listen to and trust.
“Frank knew there is no contradiction in being a Latino journalist, that it’s never been a matter of the adjective drowning out the noun. We are who we are and our inclusion in newsrooms simply helps bring a modicum of understanding as we try to cover our increasingly diverse communities.
“The obituary in the Times said Frank was ‘a major voice for Latinos in California.’ This is almost right. He was actually a major voice for Latinos everywhere in this country, including in our newsrooms. More than that, he was a major voice for journalism excellence.”
Africana Apologizes for Flip Response on OutKast
The Africana.com Web site has apologized to readers for a flip response in its Feb. 13 “A-List” feature to Native American complaints that the performance of the group OutKast at the Grammy awards, in Native regalia, was offensive.
“In retrospect we realize that we shouldn’t have mocked the legitimate criticism that Andre’s performance sparked. In the days since we published the item, we have received dozens of emails criticizing the article, many of which have ended by asking whether we’d be so quick to defend an artist, however admired, who plied his trade in blackface,” the apology, posted at the top of the Web site today, said.
The Web site also ran a piece called, “It’s a Double Standard, Kemosabe” by Kandia Crazy Horse, who is described as “a proud ‘black indian’ & rock critic who resides in Manhattan.”
The writer invited OutKast to the Gathering of Nations powwow at Albuquerque in April.
“We want perpetual sympathy from persecuting whites (and other groups) for all we have suffered at their hands and yet here, in the case of OutKast, the implication is that stereotyping native American culture -? in a haphazardly and irrationally compressed form, I might add -? is okay as a wage of André 3000’s valiant assertion of his highly individualistic spirit,” she wrote.
This is Africana’s second try at apologizing. It ran another apology using the same flip, “let’s-write-with-attitude” tone at the end of its A-List on Feb. 20.
Meanwhile, Sabrina Miller, former Chicago Tribune reporter, offered Africana a serious piece asking that African Americans consider the Native point of view, but was rebuffed, she told the National Association of Black Journalists e-mail list.
When the first African American newspaper, Freedom’s Journal, launched in 1827, it noted that others “too long have spoken for us,” often “to the discredit to any person of colour,” summarizing that “we wish to plead our own cause.”
Africana.com, originated by African American professors at Harvard, is now corporately owned, by Time Warner, and has a white person functioning in the key role as the effective managing editor of the publication, which purports to have a black perspective.
Gary Dauphin, the editor in chief, did not respond to a question today about the wisdom of that decision.
Why Brother Elk Is Angry at Uncle Mel (Media Life)
Clear Channel Suspends Howard Stern Show
“Clear Channel Radio has suspended the broadcast of Viacom’s Howard Stern show, consistent with its Responsible Broadcasting Initiative announced earlier today,” Clear Channel announced in a news release late today. “After assessing the content of yesterday’s Howard Stern show, Clear Channel worked with local market managers to take swift and decisive action.”
“Clear Channel drew a line in the sand today with regard to protecting our listeners from indecent content and Howard Stern’s show blew right through it,” said John Hogan, president and CEO of Clear Channel Radio, in the release. “It was vulgar, offensive, and insulting, not just to women and African Americans but to anyone with a sense of common decency. We will not air Howard Stern on Clear Channel stations until we are assured that his show will conform to acceptable standards of responsible broadcasting,” Hogan said.
On Tuesday, Clear Channel, the nation’s largest U.S. radio station operator, said it fired “Bubba the Love Sponge,” formerly known as Todd Clem, whom federal regulators accused of airing sexual material on Tampa’s WXTB-FM and three other Florida stations, Reuters reported.
The company said Wednesday it had adopted new “decency” standards to make sure that material its radio stations air conform to local standards, Reuters added.
Ombudsman Counts Racial Images on Section Fronts
Prompted by an African American reader who has lived in the Bay Area since 1944, Dick Rogers, reader representative at the San Francisco Chronicle, had an assistant count every face that appeared in every photo on the front of Chronicle sections for a month and pronounced the results “eye-opening.”
“By race the front page and Bay Area came closest to the regional population; other sections were far off the mark,” Rogers wrote:
- “Front page: African American, 17 percent; Asian/Pacific Islander, 18 percent; Latino, 8 percent; white, 57 percent.
- “Bay Area: African American, 13 percent; Asian/Pacific Islander, 19 percent; Latino, 9 percent; white, 59 percent.
- “Business: African American, 2 percent, Asian/Pacific Islander, 11 percent; Latino, 5 percent; white, 83 percent.
- “Datebook: African American, 5 percent; Asian/Pacific Islander, 4 percent; Latino, 1 percent; white, 52 percent.
- “Sports: African American, 46 percent; Asian/Pacific Islander, 0 percent; Latino, 1 percent; white, 52 percent.
“At first glance, it looks as if The Chronicle exists in a different world from the Bay Area, where roughly half the population is female and 7 percent is African American, 21 percent Asian/Pacific Islander, 21 percent Latino and 49 percent white. (Native Americans represent 0.3 percent.)
“Hold on, though. Some of it adds up,” he continued. Among other reasons, ” A one-month count is a snapshot, not a long view.”
But, he said, “The affirmation that comes from seeing oneself on the pages of the newspaper is important. But consider the flip side: The highest and best purpose of a paper is to tell us what we don’t already know. If people see themselves but rarely see others, they’re being denied the best of what newspapers can do . . . ‘bridging the gaps between people.’
“Deputy Editor Narda Zacchino says the paper soon will undertake a yearlong look at what goes into every section, attempting to measure coverage in terms of race, gender, economic status, geography and age.”
N.Y. Times of Two Minds on Jayson Blair Book
“Try this one on: Jayson Blair, the very person whose book [New York] Times management is worried will smear them, is also the very person the newspaper may have to make sure to cover. It’s a choice built for old Hobson: To cover is to validate, but not to cover is to risk proving Blair–and his charges of politics and covertness–correct, at least in the minds of some,” writes Steven Zeitchik for Publishers Weekly’s PW Daily.
“Tricky? The Times apparently thinks so. Despite a memo now circulating which has the newspaper saying that Jayson Blair’s book “does not merit much attention” and ‘we don’t intend to respond to Jayson or his book,’ sources say that the newspaper’s review department has shown strong interest in the title and will likely run a review in the NYTBR [New York Times Book Review]. The piece would not land before the issue published March 14, the earliest date at which it would not violate the March 6 embargo.
“While he declined to comment on a possible Times review, Blair publisher Michael Viner did say that if the newspaper does run something he ‘expects they will review the book fairly and appropriately.'”
Now Blair Wants to Donate Money to Mental Health
“Former university student and New York Times reporter Jayson Blair plans to donate money from his book advance to mental health organizations, quashing rumors the disgraced journalist wanted to set up a scholarship fund at the university’s journalism college, officials at his publishing company said,” reports Adam Lewis in the Diamondback at the University of Maryland, Blair’s old school.
“‘Jayson would like a portion of his advance to go to a charity, and he is looking at mental health issues,’ said Suzanne Wickham, spokeswoman for New Millennium Audio & Press.”
The comment reminds us that some remarked at the time that Blair’s substance abuse and mental health problems did not receive appropriate attention from those covering his case, who preferred to focus on his race.
Sulzberger Nixes Latino, Youth Papers for N.Y. Times
“Don’t look for The New York Times Co. to join the industry’s rush into Spanish-language, youth or commuter newspapers, Chairman Arthur O. Sulzberger Jr. told an audience at Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism Monday,” Mark Fitzgerald reports in Editor & Publisher.
“I think (youth papers) are condescending, I think they degrade the readership, I think they’re talking down to the reader,” Sulzberger was quoted as saying. “They’re saying, ‘You don’t (understand) what we offer . . . so we’re going to give you this thing that you can get.’ And you know something — bullshit. We don’t want to become less than we are to reach an audience whose needs we wouldn’t do a good job of meeting.”
“Similarly, Sulzberger said the Times is not going to go after its audience with a Spanish-language product, though he noted the paper has reached arrangements with native-language dailies in New York City that, for instance, offer discounted combined buys of the Times and a Chinese-language daily.”
English-Language Latino Network Launches
Si Tv, “an English-language, Latino network featuring hip and irreverent culturally relevant programming targeting the growing young Latino and multi-cultural TV audience,” launched today from Los Angeles, a spokeswoman said.
On Fox, Paper Says Howard U. Needs the Money
As we reported last week, a $100,000 check to the Howard University School of Communications presented by Fox News Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Roger Ailes had some wondering whether the right-wing network’s gift was appropriate.
On Tuesday, the student newspaper, The Hilltop, weighed in, saying:
“Anyone who takes a look around the University can see that we could benefit from any money. Hence, it would be unwise to refuse a donation. People can debate and argue, but until they write our school a check, it is a little hard to take the criticism.
“On the other hand, we cannot ignore that Fox has not had the best track record in being diverse and balanced in their programming.
“Ultimately, we cannot refuse the assistance, but we do wonder if there were any conditions that came along with Fox’s gesture. Nothing in life is free. Everyone has an agenda. So if it is true that Fox gave our school money to help boost their reputation, we wonder what kind of deal we have made. Do we now owe Fox?”
US Weekly’s Janice Min Called “The Undiva”
Janice Min, editor in chief of US Weekly, “it seems, is the undiva,” Lynda Richardson tells us today in the New York Times.
“She is relaxed, down to earth, her petite frame outfitted in a tight black shirt, Juicy Couture black corduroys and slingback Manolos. She is also six months pregnant.
“Ms. Min says she is frequently asked career advice, especially by Asian-American journalists. She is second-generation Korean-American. ‘Everything is so unplanned, and you end up doing things that suit you,’ she says. ‘Everything has been about making the most of the opportunities that present themselves.'”
N.J. Writer, Maine Station Win for Race Coverage
Elizabeth Llorente of The Record in Hackensack, N.J. , won a Career Achievement Award for print reporters; WMTW, an ABC television affiliate in Auburn, Maine, won the top broadcast Leadership Award; and ABC-TV’s Carole Simpson won a Career Achievement Award in broadcast leadership as Columbia University honored 19 journalists and news organizations for their coverage of race and ethnicity.
Judges of “Let’s Do It Better!” cited Simpson’s “lifelong commitment to diversifying the broadcast industry through her stories, hiring initiatives as the anchor of ABC’s The World News Tonight Weekend broadcast, and mentoring of dozens of young journalists.”
Llorente was recognized for “her more than 10 years of coverage of race and demographics.” A series she wrote, “Diverse and Divided,” documented the racial tension and political struggles between African Americans and Hispanic immigrants in Paterson, N.J.
In the broadcast category, WMTW, an ABC television affiliate in Auburn, Maine, won the top broadcast Leadership Award for an exhaustive series on the impact of Somali immigration on the community, a news release said.
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