(1) Weatherman Pleads Guilty, Loses Job
African American men in television news seem to be catching more than their share this week.
In Cleveland, David Rogers, former weeknight weather anchor at WCBS-TV in New York, acknowledged in a Cleveland court that he hit two construction workers on Interstate 480 last summer and then drove away.
Rogers, 44, pleaded guilty to two counts of aggravated vehicular assault, drunken driving and leaving the scene of an accident, the Associated Press reports. The trial was set to begin Monday; he entered his plea Friday.
“He could be sentenced to four years in prison, fined $10,000 and lose his driver’s license. Sentencing is scheduled for April 2,” AP reported. Rogers had first pleaded not guilty after his arrest in July.
In the Philadelphia Inquirer, television columnist Gail Shister noted that WCAU-TV was alone in that city in covering in Rogers’ guilty plea, though Rogers was a Temple University graduate and a KYW-TV forecaster from 1991 to 1997. The WCAU Web site even advertises photos from the accident scene.
In New York, the story was covered by WABC-TV, but its Sunday story noted, “A WCBS spokeswoman referred questions on Rogers’ employment status to the personnel department, which was closed on Saturday.” A person on the assignment desk told Journal-isms today that Rogers was no longer employed there.
(2) Philly Station’s Pedophile Sting Irks Residents
Also in Philadelphia, Dan Gross of the Philadelphia Daily News reported that the Delaware County, Pa., district attorney’s office was weighing criminal charges against WCAU-TV “after the news station set up an undercover pedophile sting Monday in a residential neighborhood of Newtown Square.
“As we reported yesterday, neighbors were outraged to learn the station had used the Internet and a rented house at 110 Rockwood Road to attract men who hoped to have sex either with a 14-year-old girl or boy.
“The story, reported by Harry Hairston, aired on the station’s 11 p.m. newscast yesterday. The report acknowledged the concerned community members, and Hairston made a point to remind viewers that these men ‘showed up to meet a specific child and were not prowling the neighborhood.'”
Gross reported the previous day that, “Monday afternoon, we’re told, several of the suspected perverts approached the house and were greeted by reporter Harry Hairston, and a camera crew that stormed out after them as they hopped into their cars and sped away.
“According to another neighbor, when a group of residents confronted the news crew on Monday, Hairston tried to calm them down and reassured them the station was performing a public service, while still refusing to divulge the nature of the story.”
The Philadelphia Inquirer reported that township Police Chief Lee Hunter “met Tuesday night with 40 to 50 angry residents, who were considering civil legal action if investigators determined no criminal charges were warranted.”
(3) Pro-Gun Group Seizes on Cincy Reporter’s Arrest
Then there is the Cincinnati case of Stephen Hill, reporter for WCPO-TV, arrested and charged with molesting teen-agers after having served as a mentor for African American youth.
The group Ohioans for Concealed Carry seized on the development, asking on its Web site,
“Should background checks be given to reporters? Should there be a public records registry letting concerned citizens known if an Ohio reporter lives in their neighborhood? Do we have the ability to choose not to share space with the Ohio media elite?”
Jayson Blair’s Publicity Blitz Begins Today
“As Jayson Blair begins his book-selling blitz Friday with the first of a string of high-profile television appearances, newspapers are weighing how much ink to spill on the former New York Times reporter whose serial plagiarism and fabrication triggered a massive journalism scandal last year,” Liz Halloran writes in the Hartford Courant.
“Most major newspapers are planning to review the book. The Los Angeles Times will run a review Sunday. The Chicago Tribune is having its public editor, Don Wycliff, write a review. The New York Times, which has gone through some public convulsions over how to handle the book’s release, will publish its review March 14,” Halloran writes.
Editor & Publisher reported on Monday that, “The Jayson Blair public relations blitz will be far more extensive than originally believed. And, according to an NBC spokeswoman, the long-scheduled ‘Dateline’ probe of the Blair case and his new book may cover the program’s entire hour this Friday, featuring on-air comments by Ben Bradlee, former Associated Press CEO Louis Boccardi, author Alex Jones and Poynter Institute President Karen F. Dunlap.
“Besides his ‘Dateline’ appearance, the disgraced former New York Times reporter will be flogging his book on the ‘Today’ show (March 8), ‘Larry King Live’ (March 9), ‘The View’ (March 11) and ‘Hardball’ (March 11), according to the book’s publicist.”
Publishers Weekly adds “The O’Reilly Factor” on Fox, and says Blair will go on a 10-city tour. He has also read for an audio version of his book.
On Thursday, David Folkenflik of the Baltimore Sun became the latest to write from a copy of “Burning Down My Masters’ House” in advance of Saturday’s official release date. The New York Times and Daily News did so last week, with the publisher threatening legal action .
“A reporter for The Sun obtained a copy yesterday by purchasing it at a Baltimore book store,” Folkenflik wrote.
“In the book, Blair writes that some Times editors were inhospitable to reporters who were African-American, Hispanic or Asian-American. Other editors, eager to burnish the reputations of senior Times correspondents, withheld credit from less established reporters, such as Blair, who had helped colleagues on important stories. Additionally, Blair devotes several passages to the newspaper’s historical shortcomings, such as its failure to report sufficiently on the Holocaust or the deadly Stalinist purges of the Soviet Union in the 1930s,” Folkenflik wrote.
NBC’s Katie Couric, who landed the first television interview with Blair, defended giving him prime-time exposure, David Bauder wrote for the Associated Press .
“I can understand that this is a highly emotional issue, particularly for people at The New York Times,” Couric told Bauder. “I can understand why they would be upset about that. On the other hand, our job is about talking to scoundrels and saints. If we based all of our interviews on people who are doing good in this world, sadly we’d be sorely limited.”
But don’t expect to see Blair on Tavis Smiley’s public broadcasting shows.
He told Paul D. Colford in the New York Daily News today that Blair is “an embarrassment to any African-American journalist in this country.”
Howard Manley Moves to Boston Herald Op-Ed
“Howard Manly, a columnist with the Boston Herald since November 2002, was named the paper’s newest op-ed columnist by publisher Patrick J. Purcell yesterday,” The Herald reported Thursday.
“Manly started his career 20 years ago at the New Bedford Standard Times and has worked at the Philadelphia Inquirer, New York Newsday, Newsweek and The Boston Globe. He co-authored `Lift Every Voice,’ a non-fiction account of the internationally acclaimed Boys’ Choir of Harlem. And he was elected president of the Boston Association of Black Journalists.”
“As an unabashed Democrat, I’m looking forward to sparring with my conservative colleagues on the editorial pages, particularly on issues of social justice and human rights,” Manly was quoted as saying.
Manly’s column had appeared in the local news section.
Mei-Ling Hopgood, Kuni Takahashi Win Headliners
“The Dayton Daily News won top honors in the 70th annual National Headliner Awards competition for an investigative report about the hazards of Peace Corps volunteer work,” the Associated Press reports.
“In the Dayton Daily News’ seven-part series, ‘Casualties of Peace,’ reporters Russell Carollo and Mei-Ling Hopgood examined the safety of Peace Corps workers who risk life and limb to serve others.”
“In photography, Kuni Takahashi of the Boston Herald won best spot news photograph and best of show overall for his image of U.S. Marines in combat.”
The contest is sponsored by the Press Club of Atlantic City. The awards are to be presented at a May 15 banquet there. “Best of Show” winners -? in print, photography, radio and television ?- each get $1,500 prizes.
Included among the other winners:
- War and war-related Coverage, first place: Time magazine, Michael Weisskopf and Romesh Ratnesar, ?Portrait of a Platoon?
- Special or Feature Column on One Subject, first place: The Miami Herald, Leonard Pitts, Jr., ?Race in America?
Second place: Dallas Morning News, Ruben Navarrette, ?Fake Drug Scandal?
- Magazines, News Services, Syndicates — Feature Photography, first place: Associated Press, Jose Luis Roca, ?Illegal Immigrant?
- Photo Essay, first place: Associated Press, Rodrigo Abd, ?Guatemala Gangs?
- Newspapers — Sports Photography, first place: Houston Chronicle, Christobal Perez, ?Nose to Nose?
- Newspapers — Feature Photography, first place: Austin American-Statesman, Rodolfo Gonzalez, ?Little Lawman?
Reporter Gets Painful Lesson on Double-Checking
“The people at YOUR Center, a Flint agency focused on HIV prevention, are familiar with the alarming statistics regarding African Americans and AIDS, but a new stat threw even them for a loop:
“The group with the highest rate of new infections is African-American girls between the ages of 11-14,” Michigan’s Flint Journal trumpeted Sunday , citing figures from the White House.
“‘That’s just unbelievable and very scary,’ said Wanda Rowland, a mother of two pre-teen girls,” the story went on.
As it turned out, she was right — it really wasn’t to be believed. But that came out after syndicated radio host Tom Joyner talked about the story on his show Monday morning. Checking by reporters for Joyner’s Web site, blackamericaweb.com, exposed the story as false, and a correction ran in Flint today.
The reporter, Marlon Vaughn, told Journal-isms that he got his information from the YOUR Center, which said it had received the information from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Vaughn did not confirm the information with the White House or the CDC.
The lesson, he said for fellow members of the National Association of Black Journalists and others, is to “triple, quadruple and quintuple check everything.” Vaughn said he has been in the business 6 1/2 years, five of them at the Flint paper.
Chuck D Backs New Hip-Hop Network
“A new cable channel devoted to hip-hop culture has secured sponsorship from rap legend Chuck D, as well as CNN co-founder Reese Schonfeld and former Viacom executive David Houle,” according to the Hollywood Reporter.
“Aimed at the 18-34 demographic that advertisers covet, the Real Hip-Hop Network is expected to launch this year with a major cable operator through a deal signed with OlympuSat, which packages independent networks for distribution.
“RHN is the brainchild of hip-hop concert promoter Atonn Muhammad, president and CEO of SSM Media Group. He believes that MTV and BET are overlooking much of what constitutes the hip-hop world. ‘America only gets to see a fraction of what true hip-hop represents,’ he said. ‘We want to offer a grittier, more real representation,'” the publication reported on Feb. 10.
Meanwhile, Chuck D is scheduled to appear Wednesday at a three-day “Multimedia Leadership Retreat” in Newport Beach, Calif., sponsored by the Media Center of the American Press Institute.
Project director Andrew Bozek told Journal-isms that with “115 or so” places already taken at $2,100 each, the event is sold out. The former member of Public Enemy has been speaking at colleges as part of a “Rap, Race, Reality and Technology” tour.
Hispanics More Influenced by Ads, Studies Say
“Hispanics are more influenced by advertising than other US consumers, suggesting that the growth of the Spanish-speaking population could prove beneficial to big corporate sponsors, according to two new studies,” Gary Silverman reports in the Financial Times.
“A Nielsen Media Research study released on Wednesday found that Spanish-language television viewers pay more attention to commercials and are more likely to base their purchasing decisions on advertisements than other US consumers. The report was issued after Euro RSCG, the marketing communications agency, released a study that showed Hispanics are more aware of brand names than other US consumers.
“Taken together, the reports suggest that growing corporate interest in hispanic marketing might involve factors that go beyond the mere size of the Spanish-speaking population.”
Magazine Sales Fall, Newspapers Turning Corner
“Not only do fewer people read magazines, but overall newsstand sales are falling amid excess distribution, broken infrastructure and unsatisfactory subscription and renewal rates,” reports Mickey Alam Khan in DM News, a publication for for direct marketers.
But there is good news for newspapers, according to Joe Mandese, editor of Media Post.
Mandese writes, “Driven by a surge in demand from national advertisers, the U.S. newspaper industry turned the corner on its advertising recession in 2003, growing its advertising volume at a moderate rate overall, but enough to outpace the broadcast TV industry, according to a MediaDailyNews analysis of data released by the newspaper and broadcast TV industries this week.
“Final 2003 ad market share data is not yet available for all media, but the numbers released this week by the Newspaper Association of America and the Television Bureau of Advertising show newspaper ad volume expanding at about four times the rate of broadcast TV, albeit both at relatively modest rates.”
Va. Inmate Wants His Roanoke Times
“Virginia inmate number 283477 likes his Roanoke Times,” reports Jen McCaffery in that paper.
“So much so that Wakeel Abdul Sabur, also known as Willie Lee Seward, filed a lawsuit in federal court against the newspaper and two circulation department employees named as John and Jane Doe last week.
“Sabur, 31, alleged that The Roanoke Times violated his constitutional rights by instructing officials at Red Onion State prison to deny him access to the newspaper unless he pays ‘the mandatory minimum of $36.00’ for an eight-week subscription, according to documents filed in federal court.
“Sabur described himself as a ‘loyal customer’ dating back to 1998, and wrote that he had received ‘mail order subscriptions at various payment options.'”