Originally published 2003
Black Reporters’ Network Presence Worst in Decade
“African-American network correspondents were less visible last year than at any point in a decade, according to a new study by the Center for Media and Public Affairs (CMPA). The study also found women and minorities overall were less visible on the network evening news in 2003 than in the previous year, though Hispanic reporters saw a record amount of story assignments,” a news release from the Center announces.
“This report examined the 11,834 news stories broadcast on the ABC, CBS and NBC evening news programs during 2003. CMPA began tracking ‘Gender and Minority Representation’ in 1990.
“African-American story assignments dropped steeply from 9.4 percent in 2002 to 7.1 in 2003, with Pierre Thomas and Byron Pitts tied at 65 stories apiece. This is the lowest assignment rate since CMPA began tracking the races of network correspondents in 1994. (Census figures state that African-Americans comprise 12.3% of the United States population.)
“Minorities reported only 10 percent of the stories on ABC?s ‘World News Tonight’ — a four percent drop from the year before. NBC was the most diverse, with 15 percent of its stories being reported on by minorities. In the middle, 12 percent of CBS? stories were assigned to minority correspondents.
“Women reporters were seen 6 percentage points less than the year before (25 percent of stories reported, down from to 31 percent)?on NBC and five percent less on ABC (25% down from 30%). While the percentage of women reporting at CBS held fast at 24 percent, ‘CBS Evening News’ still came in last among the three networks.
“Hispanic-American representation rose one-third to a new high in 2003. (3.2%, up from 2.4%) With 114 stories, NBC?s Jim Avila was responsible for the bulk of this figure but CBS? Vince Gonzalez (39 stories) and ABC?s Barbara Pinto (34 stories) also contributed to the record high. (Hispanic-Americans made up 13 percent of the American population in 2001),” the release continued.
2 N.Y. Papers Break Embargo on Blair Book
“A lawyer for New Millenium, which is publishing the Jayson Blair book, ‘Burning down My Masters’ House’ on March 6, said this morning that he had ‘problems’ with The New York Times breaking an embargo on quoting from the book in a story today by reporter Jacques [Steinberg],” Editor & Publisher reports. “The newspaper obtained a copy of the book by simply ordering it from Amazon.com which sent it out before the on-sale date. The New York Daily News also quoted from the book today.”
In the book, Blair “is at various points contemplative (he discusses the pressures he felt as a black man in a predominantly white newsroom), introspective (he writes of the psychosis he said he experienced on some assignments) and piqued (he lashes out at more than a half dozen editors and reporters who he saw as thwarting his professional ascent),” writes Steinberg in the Times.
“But Mr. Blair, 27, expresses little remorse for the pain his actions caused ?- whether for the subjects of his articles, many of them the families of American soldiers killed in Iraq, or for his former colleagues, Steinberg’s story continued.
In the New York Daily News, Paul D. Colford writes that, “Blair — at times self-pitying, at times self-righteous — goes into greater, often lurid detail about how he came unhinged and was able to slip a host of untruths past his editors into print,” adding that a copy of the book was “obtained by the Daily News before it goes on sale next week.
“He was ready to hang himself with his belt the night before he resigned his job, but stopped himself, he writes, when he realized he had been sober for more than a year and had found love with a Times colleague.
“Weekend national editor Jerry Gray, whom Blair describes as a Times mentor, said he had not had the time ‘or the persuasion’ to read a copy available to him,” the News story continues.
“I bear him no ill will,” Gray added. “As you can imagine, it’s the talk of the newsroom.”
In the Times, Steinberg said he did find news:
“Mr. Blair also writes about one fabrication — he suggests it was his first — that the newspaper did not discover during an examination last year into his reporting. In a 625-word article published a week after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, Mr. Blair wrote of a day trader named Andrew Rosstein who had fled a brokerage office in tears after experiencing substantial losses,” Steinberg reports.
“‘I improvised by creating a last name for him,’ Mr. Blair writes. ‘I had lifted quotes from other papers before, but never made something up.’
“I do not know where it came from,’ he writes, ‘or how I got the name or even what I was feeling at the moment ? other than a desperate desire to get into the newspaper.'”
Stern Baits Asian Reporter; Others Count Lost Cash
Correspondent Ti-Hua Chang of New York’s WNBC-TV got stung by Howard Stern, the New York Daily News reports, saying that Chang called Stern while the shock jock was on the air to talk about radio giant Clear Channel’s decision to drop his show.
“As Chang tried to conduct an interview, Stern baited him with stereotypical questions tied to his Asian heritage — such as whether he ever pulled a rickshaw or played Chinese checkers, or if sexual stereotypes about Asian men were true,” Stephen Battaglio wrote in the News.
Meanwhile, Chris Isidore, a CNN/Money writer, quoted analyst David Miller of Sanders Morris Harris as estimating that the decision by Clear Channel Communications to drop Stern from the six of its stations that carry him will cost the company about $12.4 million a year.
The New York Post, citing unidentified people in the industry, said Stern himself would lose almost $1 million.
But “two network TV executives told Congress Thursday that a proposed tenfold increase in fines for indecency or obscenity on the air would not deter renegade broadcasters,” USA Today reported. And members of Congress praised Clear Channel’s president for pulling Stern off the air, the Washington Times said.
Chang, by the way, “diplomatically deflected all of the jibes until Stern asked him if he liked Chinese food. Chang fired back: Do you like matzo ball soup?” the News said.
“Chang was dumped off to one of Stern’s on-air crew, Wendy the Retard, and gave up. WNBC decided not to air the exchange or Chang’s coverage of the story.”
Connie Howard, Demoted, Recovers With Better Job
Connie Howard, demoted from assistant news director last month at Dallas’ WFAA-TV, starts March 8 as news director at WMAR-TV in Baltimore, a Scripps Howard-owned ABC affiliate.
“I’ve [been] following Connie’s career for at least ten years and I am excited about finally getting an opportunity to work with her,” WMAR General Manager Drew Berry said in a memo to his staff this week.
“Connie’s experience includes news director stints at WRAL in Raleigh . . . along with news director credentials in Birmingham, Alabama at WVTM. She was Executive Producer at WCBS New York and Assistant News Director at WPXI in Pittsburgh. She’s been a reporter and producer. She’s an Edward R. Murrow winner, graduate of State University of New York and did graduate work at Iowa State University.”
Howard told Journal-isms last month that, “I don’t think I did anything that deserved a demotion, but this upper management of the company felt otherwise, and I respect that.” As assistant news director, Howard supervised the weather team, the chief photographer and the producers. Her new job there was to be nighttime executive producer, responsible for the 10 p.m. newscast.
On White Editors Articulating a Black World View
The question of whether white editors can articulate a black world view has been around about as long as there have been black publications, and those involved have offered a variety of answers. As mentioned Wednesday, when the first African American newspaper, Freedom’s Journal, launched in 1827, it noted that others “too long have spoken for us,” summarizing that “we wish to plead our own cause.”
In modern times, Ben Burns wrote a wonderful book, “Nitty Gritty: A White Editor in Black Journalism,” before he died at 86 in 2000, in which he reported that he found himself too radical for the black press. He had been a founding editor of Ebony, national editor of the Chicago Defender and an editor of the old Sepia magazine, among other jobs. When there were grumblings from African American staffers about the editorial judgment of the white editors of Vibe magazine, this columnist put the question to Keith Clinkscales, then Vibe’s CEO, who replied that because he was black, as long as he was CEO the critics should have nothing to worry about.
The question has also come up in relation to publications as varied as the Source hip hop magazine and the Journal of Blacks in Higher Education, both edited by whites.
Thus, when Africana.com twice adopted a flip, “let’s-write-with attitude” response to a racially sensitive subject — Native American complaints about the performance of OutKast in Native regalia at the Grammy awards, for which Africana apologized, Journal-isms put the question to Africana.com’s editor-in-chief, Gary Dauphin: Did he wish to comment on the wisdom of having a white person as the effective managing editor of the publication? He did not reply in time for Wednesday’s column, but did on Thursday. Response at the end of today’s posting.
Telemundo, Hoy Newspapers to Share Content
“NBC-owned Spanish-language broadcast TV unit Telemundo and Tribune’s Spanish-language major market (New York, Chicago, Los Angeles) daily Hoy Wednesday announced an exclusive content-sharing and cross-promotional partnership,” Media Post reports.
“Telemundo’s stations in the three Hoy markets will partner with the newspaper’s journalists to share news stories and produce special news features that will be jointly promoted,” the story continued.
Filmmaker Progresses on Reopening Till Case
Documentary filmmaker Keith A. Beauchamp ? who has spent nine years working on his documentary, “The Untold Story of Emmett Louis Till” ? has persuaded U.S. Attorney Jim Greenlee of Oxford, Miss., to review documents on the 1955 killing of Till and, if merited, to assign an agent to the case, Jerry Mitchell reports in the Jackson Clarion-Ledger.
“It’s a beginning process. It was never investigated in the first place,” Beauchamp said. Till was a 14-year-old from Chicago who was kidnapped and killed after he supposedly whistled at a white woman.
“Beauchamp said he’s hardly slept since he met with state and federal prosecutors Feb. 6 and is happy the case is one step closer to justice,” the story continued.
“I feel a little bittersweet,” he said, because Till’s mother, Mamie Till-Mobley, who died last year, “isn’t seeing it come to fruition.”
Violence Against Haitian Journalists Decried
“The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) is deeply concerned about an increasing number of violent attacks against journalists and radio stations in Haiti in the wake of a rebellion aimed at ousting President Jean-Bertrand Aristide.” the committee said this week.
“On Saturday, February 21, unidentified gunmen shot Pierre Elisem, director and owner of Radio Hispagnola, in the northern city of Trou du Nord, according to local press reports. A bullet hit Elisem?s neck, paralyzing him as a result, a doctor treating the journalist told CPJ.”
Working Several Media, Bill O’Reilly Is Big Business
Love him or hate him, Bill O’Reilly “has done a masterful job of using the groundswell of support for his conservative views to build himself into a multimedia brand,” writes Tom Lowry in Business Week.
“For enduring that kind of pace, O’Reilly is reaping the rewards and helping lots of other media outlets cash in on his popularity as well. Sweep in TV, radio, books, newspapers, and the Internet, and O’Reilly generates an estimated $60 million a year for his outlets through ad and books sales, syndication fees, and merchandise sales.”
General Motors Corp. and SBC Communications Inc. “are big spenders — maybe in large part because 31% of his viewers age 25 to 54 make more than $100,000 a year, says Fox.
“O’Reilly has created three separate corporations to handle his business affairs — one each for TV, radio, and his Web site, billoreilly.com.”
Overlooked Reporters of the Civil Rights Movement
Dear Editor:
I understand that little can be done at this point to influence the Syracuse University conference you mentioned in your recent posting [Feb. 23].
Nevertheless, I hope you will indulge me a “benign rant” about reporters of the activist civil rights movement who are consistently omitted from these retrospective forums.
I concede that participants listed so far deserve recognition — some more than others. But for me it is breathtaking when no mention is made of the pioneering journalism veterans who took real risks to cover protest movements challenging terrorist southern regimes of the ’50s, ’60s and ’70s. To wit:
- Clarence Hunter, formerly of The Washington Star, whose on-site reporting of dangerous confrontations in Birmingham and elsewhere had no peer in the daily press. The Pulitzer Prize that went to Haynes Johnson, partly because of his civil rights coverage, could have and should have been shared with Hunter.
- Simeon Booker of Jet magazine, whose reporting of the Emmett Till trial was near heroic and fraught with danger. The Emmett Till casket photo that shocked the world appeared first in Jet magazine, along with the reporting of Booker and others. In fact, too few reporters from the black press are acknowledged in too few forums for their seminal coverage of southern injustice in the pre-Kerner Commission era.
- Samuel Yette, whose labors for Newsweek magazine seldom attract deserved recognition. To my knowledge, Yette still lives in suburban Washington.
- Alvin Adams, also of Jet magazine, who thoroughly covered the Selma, Ala., movement, up to and including the Viola Liuzzo murder, police rioting on the bridge, and the Selma-to-Montgomery march. Adams is retired in southern Ohio these days.
I know that no budget in these times can accommodate everyone who has made a contribution in this connection. But for the Clarence Hunters and Simeon Bookers of the profession to be consistently overlooked at all such forums borders on unacceptable disrespect.
Rant over! I rest my case.
John H. Britton
formerly Associate Editor and Managing Editor, Jet Magazine (1962-1971)
Africana’s Gary Dauphin on Race and Africana Staff
1. At this point, the four pieces Africana has run on the Outkast Grammy performance speak for themselves, so I don’t have much to add except the re-extension of our sincere apologies to the Native American community and to our readers for a poorly chosen 346 words.
2. The insinuation that Africana isn’t black enough is ethically fatigued nonsense that loses its power to sting outside the contexts of the schoolyard or the email flame war.
While I’m certainly open to discussing Africana’s editorial approaches and political outlook, your item’s closing comments not only erased the fact of the overwhelmingly black Africana family, but it also unfairly and personally attacked a thoughtful editor whose tenure with the brand reaches back to its roots, and whose record includes working relationships with hundreds of our colleagues. Although you neglected to name the ominous “white person functioning in the key role” at Africana, for the record it’s Kate Tuttle and I’m as proud of her and her work as I am disappointed by your baffling decision to call her out in the context of the Outkast item.
3. I’m going to pass on your question about the racial “wisdom” of Africana’s org-chart. Although your emails couched this as something “I’m sure others are wondering,” it’s not a relevant question for me in light of the fact that out of 16 paid staffers 3 are white, with only one of those 3 working in edit. That said, though, the images of all of our senior staff, as well as those of most of our contributors, are all google-able, and I urge everyone who is so inclined to contemplate them (and their various possible implications) at their leisure.
Regards,
Gary Dauphin, Editor-in-Chief
The words in blue (on most computers) are links leading to more information.