Writer Finds Room for Satire With Kelley, Blair
“My Caucasians, oh my Caucasians, what doth the future hold?” begins a satire on the Poynter Institute Web site by its columnist Dr. Ink.
“A pasty white, middle-class, middle-aged brother has been exposed by USA Today as a monumental fabricator and plagiarist, making the work of Jayson Blair look like a Sunday School picnic. The malpractice of foreign correspondent Jack Kelley, which he denies before a mountain of damning evidence, threatens to focus suspicion on the work of white, middle-aged journalists everywhere.”
The satire is headlined, “USA Today Scandal A Threat To White Privilege, Mediocrity,” and it arrives soon after a number of journalists of color were wondering, as noted Monday, why the Jayson Blair case could be turned into a racial one but not Kelley’s.
Dr. Ink says at another point: “At least Jayson Blair burned down his master’s house. Jack Kelley, you have burned down your own house. Our house. The ‘white’ house.”
The piece ends with space for readers to comment on the question, “Will Jack Kelley’s sins be visited upon other white journalists?”
Raines Piece Treated Skeptically, Race Ignored
Former New York Times Executive Editor Howell Raines’ upcoming Atlantic Monthly piece covering the Jayson Blair affair was greeted skeptically by media writers, who by and large highlighted criticism of it as self-serving score-settling and ignored what Raines had to say about the racial spin some put on the Blair case.
And, as Paul D. Colford reports in the New York Daily News:
“The New York Times greeted former executive editor Howell Raines’ scorching critique of its staff and news product with conspicuous silence — a story not worthy of coverage.
“Though The Times recently reported on disgraced ex-reporter Jayson Blair’s memoir, and also reviewed the book, Wednesday’s release of Raines’ 23-page piece in The Atlantic Monthly got no mention yesterday.
“Privately, however, staffers reacted with shock, fury and fascination that their former leader went on at such self-justifying length to paint so many of them as slackers and to hold himself up as a singular agent for desperately needed change.
“Several seconded media-watcher Jack Shafer’s comments on Slate.com: ‘There’s enough self-love in Raines’ autobiography to earn it a place in the autoerotica section,'” Colford continued.
“Mark Reiter, Raines’ literary agent, said the magazine piece is not part of a book the ex-Timesman plans to write.”
As reported Wednesday, among the points Raines made was that writers who have quoted his remark at a Times staff meeting at the height of the Blair controversy, that “race had probably played a role in my approving the suggestion . . . failed to make an important explanatory point” — that Raines thought that Blair had become a better reporter because he had undergone drug treatment.
He also said that Blair’s rate of corrections “averaged out within the normal range,” despite suggestions by some media writers last year that the rate was extraordinary and were excused because Blair is black.
In a statement, Times spokeswoman Catherine Mathis said, “We wish Mr. Raines well. In his article in The Atlantic Monthly, Mr. Raines calls The Times ‘indispensable’ and ‘irreplaceable.’ We agree. And this is due to the inspired work of Times men and women over decades.”
Don Wycliff: It’s Obvious Blair Wasn’t Ready
Don Wycliff, public editor at the Chicago Tribune, also spent eight years at the New York Times, including a stint on the editorial page. He weighed in on the Jayson Blair book today in his Tribune column, saying it “has left me even more depressed about the Blair affair than I already was. It is evident that while Blair may have been talented, he was not ready for New York and The Times emotionally. That he would crack up was at least as likely as that he would be successful.
“On the strength of this book, I would say Blair is, at best, a pedestrian writer, and a sloppy reporter.
“Jayson Blair was a kid who was completely unready for prime time. He worked in a newsroom full of adults, an organization that wasn’t really equipped to cope with his emotional immaturity. It probably was predictable that the kid would make a mess of the place. It will be intriguing to see what Jack Kelley’s story turns out to be,” Wycliff writes.
Dispute Over Naming FAMU J-School Gets Ugly
“The power in a democratic society to name something — a park, a building, a ship — is a responsibility that requires great care and deliberation. It is a power that should not be wielded recklessly or to settle a personal vendetta,” Mark Riordan, a graduate of historically black Florida A&M University, wrote last week in the Tallahassee Democrat.
“Yet, that’s exactly what’s happening at Florida A&M regarding its new $20 million Journalism and Graphic Communication building.”
The building was originally to be named after Robert Ruggles, who retired as dean this school year after having founded the journalism program in 1974.
“I was shocked to find out that FAMU President Fred Gainous, in a fit of spite that borders on colossal, leaned on state Rep. Curtis Richardson to name the building for another member of the school’s rich lineage, the late Thelma Thurston Gorham,” Riordan wrote.
Gorham was a journalism professor at FAMU who died in 1992 at age 82. She had written for Jet, Ebony and the NAACP’s Crisis magazines, and her journalism career spanned five universities, including the historically black universities of Hampton in Virginia, Lincoln of Missouri and Southern in Baton Rouge, La.
Ruggles is white and Gorham was black, one reason why the dispute has become ugly.
In e-mails among the FAMU journalism faculty, Gorham has been called unworthy of having her name on the building.
“I urge you not defend her on the basis of some abstract notion of respect,” wrote one faculty member. “Thelma’s attacks were real. They were mean-spirited, undermining, cutting, self-righteous, and sometimes racial. Many people experienced them. She gave them out on an almost equal-opportunity basis. She cut down even African-American faculty and administrators, though it seemed to me that she reserved special jabs for the white faculty,” the message continued.
“Do you realize that the same descriptions could be applied to comments made by our former dean? Is it OK to berate the woman because she is dead? If this continues, some folks are likely to compose a list of all the mean-spirited, cutting and racial statements made by Dean Ruggles,” went a rebuttal.
The Tallahassee Democrat, in an editorial last Friday, said, “a compromise is in the works that would honor both Mr. Ruggles, the college’s first dean and force behind of the new building, and Ms. Gorham. That would certainly be appropriate.”
54 News Outlets Plan “Time Out For Diversity”
So far, 54 newspapers and Associated Press bureaus plan to participate in this year’s Time-Out for Diversity and Accuracy, the Freedom Forum reports.
“Time-Out?s definition of diversity includes age, gender, race and ethnicity, sexual orientation, socioeconomic status, religious preference and physical ability.
Referring to the Associated Press Managing Editors and the American Society of Newspaper Editors, sponsors of the event, the report adds that, “For the first time, the program will be held during the month of May rather than during a single week in the Spring, APME President Stu Wilk and ASNE President Peter Bhatia said in announcing plans for Time-Out VI. They noted that activities could take place during any week in May or be stretched out during the month.
“Among newspapers planning to participate this year are the Detroit Free Press and San Francisco Chronicle. The Free Press plans a bus tour of a coverage area not typically visited by its staffers, and the Chronicle is launching a newsroom mentoring program.”
Suggestions from Keith M. Woods, Poynter Institute
Just 3 Stations Signed Up for “Progressive Talk”
“If the new liberal network, Air America, fails, the fault will not be its politics but the more mundane business matter of distribution,” writes Mike Cahill of Media Life magazine.
“It simply won’t be found on many radio dials. With its launch set for next week, it has only three stations lined up, and they are hardly biggies, even though it has that liberal darling, comic Al Franken, hosting an afternoon show opposite [Rush] Limbaugh.
“In radio, as in TV, the distribution formula is a simple one: Poor distribution equals low ratings equals less advertising and no money.”
Meanwhile, the conversion of New York’s radio station WLIB to home base for Air America has come under fire from more African Americans.
In a story sent to other black papers via the National Newspaper Publishers Association News Service, the weekly Amsterdam News reported:
“‘I don’t get it. I mean, I do not get it,’ local activist Elombe Brath said about Air America Radio’s takeover at WLIB. Reports are that WLIB’s 40th floor station has been remodeled for Air America, and that the 30th and 39th floors are also being re-built to suit the needs of the new network.
“Brath, who hosts and produces the show ‘Afrikaleidoscope’ on WBAI-FM, and who played a part in the Afrocentric reorganization of WLIB’s programming back in the early 1980s, complained that if listenership was down at WLIB, the station should have restructured from within as it did in the 1980s.
“‘All of the talk should be organic, from within the Black community,’ Brath insisted. ‘How can they think about coming into New York with a package program like this? We have people here already who know radio, who can do shows. And they want to come in with a program from other people trying to talk to Black people in New York City? (WLIB) is just a station that has been stripped of what it’s supposed to be!”
Inquirer Celebrates Acel Moore’s H.S. Program
The Philadelphia Inquirer is celebrating the 20th anniversary of its high school career development workshop tomorrow with a luncheon honoring Inquirer veteran Acel Moore.
Accompanying the luncheon will be an issue of the student newspaper, “First Take,” featuring an article on Moore, now an Inquirer associate editor, by Kristin E. Holmes, an Inquirer staff writer and former administrative assistant with the workshop.
Her story begins:
“Acel Moore was hired by The Inquirer 42 years ago because he needed a job and the newspaper needed him.
“It was 1962, and Moore had just been discharged from the Army and was looking for work. That same year, The Inquirer feared a possible boycott from a group of ministers because the newspaper had virtually no African American newsroom staff.
“For the Walter Annenberg-owned publication, hiring Moore was partially the result of pressure from an increasingly powerful civil rights movement. But soon, the newly hired copy boy would prove that he intended to be more than just a number.
“‘I realized that journalism was what I wanted to do and that telling stories was a way to make a difference,’ Moore said.
“Over the next four decades, Moore won a Pulitzer Prize, received a prestigious Nieman Fellowship, and was relentless in his efforts to make certain that the media’s stories and staffs reflected the diversity of the communities they cover.
“Part of that involved Moore’s creation of two training programs at The Inquirer. The Art Peters Memorial Fellowship Program, a summer internship program for copy editors, has launched the careers of more than 50 journalists, and the Acel Moore Career Development Workshop has provided training to more than 500 Philadelphia-area high school students.”
The Inquirer’s Sandra D. Long adds, in a letter sent to colleagues: “Each year, two deserving students receive a college scholarship at the end of the program. We’d like to increase the number of scholarships, and we’re asking for donations to the scholarship fund.
“A check made out in any amount to the fund, which is administered by the Philadelphia Foundation, is tax-deductible. You can mail it to the Philadelphia Foundation at 1234 Market St., Suite 1800, Philadelphia, Pa. 19107. Please indicate on the check that you are donating to the Acel Moore workshop.”
On Census, Trahant Says Consider the Long View
As noted last week, the Census Bureau is saying that if projections hold, “The nation?s Hispanic and Asian populations would triple over the next half century and non-Hispanic whites would represent about one-half of the total population by 2050.”
Not all welcomed the news.
Mark Trahant, editorial page editor of the Seattle Post-Intelligencer and a member of the Shoshone-Bannock Tribe of Idaho, noted this week that “The folks who now warn about the threat of the new demography of this country return to a theme of an ‘American culture’ that should be protected.”
He writes, “I don’t want to discount that account at all — we are a remarkable nation. But as it’s told in the current debate, it’s too narrow.
“When we talk about immigration changing America, we ought to talk about earlier drafts of the same story.
“California, most of the Southwest and even the Pacific Northwest were once Spanish-controlled. There’s a reason why the battle of tongues continues. Many of the Mexican people moving across the border have deep connections to this part of the world. They own part of this story, too.
“As a child growing up in Idaho, family members told me about Chinese artifacts that they found while fishing on the Salmon River. These mementos were reminders that more than a century ago — during another great wave of immigration — the Northwest’s population included large numbers of Chinese. By 1870, for example, one of every four residents of Idaho was Chinese. . . .
“Who should live here? What language should we speak? And, what kind of country are we? I think there’s room for more than one story, a greater account about this country. The premise remains the same: This country is changing. Again,” concludes Trahant, who, coincidentally, chairs the board of the Maynard Institute.
Carlos Rajo Is L.A. Hoy Opinion Editor
Carlos Rajo is the opinion editor of Hoy’s Los Angeles edition, which debuted March 1.
Rajo, who writes under the pen name of Carlos Ramos, has worked as a local reporter, foreign correspondent, television producer and photographer for Spanish-language news organizations for 20 years.
A news release from Hoy said:
“Rajo began his career in journalism covering the civil wars in Central America for Mexican and Spanish newspapers.
“From 1988 to 1992 he was the Mexico correspondent for La Opinión. He then became a reporter for Univision’s KMEX-TV (Channel 34) in Los Angeles, and went on to become a producer and host of a weekly public opinion program for the station.
“In late 1993 Rajo moved to Europe, where he served as a correspondent for Mexico City’s El Universal newspaper, based first in Germany and later in Great Britain. He has contributed to Spain’s leading newspaper El Pais, other Mexican newspapers such as La Jornada, El Financiero and Milenio, and to the opinion pages of La Opinion in Los Angeles.”
Sandra Tsing Loh Switches Stations in L.A.
“Radio commentator Sandra Tsing Loh, fired this month from Santa Monica-based KCRW-FM because of an on-air obscenity, was hired Tuesday by rival public radio station KPCC-FM in Pasadena,” Greg Braxton reports in the Los Angeles Times.
“She was fired from KCRW for a four-letter obscenity broadcast during two airings of her weekly commentary, ‘The Loh Life,’ on Feb. 29. Last week Seymour offered Loh her job back after learning that the word had been inadvertently left in by Loh’s engineer instead of being bleeped. Loh declined the offer, calling KCRW ‘toxic ground.’
As reported last Friday, National Public Radio ombudsman Jeffrey A. Dvorkin took NPR to task for not reporting on Loh’s firing.
“Chinaman” Slipped Through CBS “Diversity Net”
“Presidential candidate Wesley Clark and broadcaster Steve Kerr naively blurted out ‘Chinaman’ on different occasions. However, both apologized and explained that they thought using ‘Chinaman’ was like using ‘Frenchman’ and ‘Englishman,'” writes Samson Wong in Asian Week.
“It?s a fossil of a word that rarely comes up in public. Its obsolescence signifies society?s acceptance of the Asian Pacific American community.
“But there was a difference when CBS let slip the ‘Chinaman’ remark on March 1.
“In a Yes Dear episode, a character quipped to audience laughter, ‘Now are the Lakers the team that have that giant Chinaman?’
“This line likely was not impromptu. The line had to be scripted, rehearsed and taped with opportunities for review by CBS? diversity monitors.
“. . . In the end, there are no laughs for CBS, a broadcasting institution that allowed ‘Chinaman’ to slip through its electronic and diversity net.”
Jose Diaz-Balart Signs for National Radio Show
Jose Diaz-Balart, who anchors at WTVJ-TV and Telemundo in Miami, has signed to host a nationally syndicated, two-hour radio program for Liberty Broadcasting Co.
Diaz-Balart’s family is prominent, to say the least, among Florida’s Cuban-American community. Two brothers are Republican members of Congress: Lincoln Diaz-Balart and Mario Diaz-Balart. Another, Rafaél Diaz-Balart, is an investment banker in Miami. Their father, Rafaél, served as the majority leader in Cuba?s House of Representatives before fleeing the island, according to Mario’s official bio.
Bruce Wernick, who heads affiliate sales for Liberty Broadcasting, told Journal-isms that so far one station had signed up for Jose’s radio program, WMET-AM in Washington, D.C., starting April 19.
Broadcasters Honor Dwight M. Ellis Today
Dwight Ellis, who has headed the National Association of Broadcasters’ Career Center and Human Resource Development for more than two decades, is being honored by the trade association today on his retirement.
On his blog, longtime broadcast producer Tom Jacobs writes:
“When Ellis retires from the NAB, we fear that it will not only be the end of an era, but the end of the dialogue. Will the NAB continue the many programs and initiatives that Ellis sometimes single-handedly kept alive? Or will they follow the industry trend to place profit over people. Will the NAB sacrifice important, socially progressive initiatives designed to increase the diversity of our industry to the scrap heap?”
Black Sportswriter Confesses He Likes NASCAR
Jeffery Armstrong, an African American sports writer for Daily Herald in Henry County, Ga., is threatening to turn on its head the news media’s latest euphemism for blue-collar white guys — “NASCAR Dads.”
“Now that I am in sports journalism, I have been exposed to another interesting facet: sports I wouldn’t even have thought about when I was younger. Those two sports are golf and NASCAR racing,” he wrote in his column this week.
“For those of you who only read my columns and my stories on the Internet, I am an African-[American] male. We in the black community aren’t normally huge fans of golf or auto racing — that’s just the way that is. When I was a teen, you couldn’t pay me or my African-American buddies to watch golf or NASCAR. We watched the usual suspects — basketball, football and baseball. But since I’ve been working here at the Daily Herald, I have been to a live golf event and I have grown to like NASCAR racing.
“It would be nice if everyone — black, white or whomever — had a chance to be in my position and see a NASCAR race in person. I think even the boys in the hood would be impressed,” he concludes.
Vanderbilt U.’s “White Guys” Didn’t Read the Memo
Boston Globe columnist Bob Ryan caused a stir last week for dismissing Vanderbilt University’s basketball team because “they have too many white guys,” but as Gregg Doyel notes on SportsLine.com, Vanderbilt went on to beat Western Michigan and N.C. State to reach the Sweet 16.
Or, as Richard Roeper wrote in the Chicago Sun-Times, “This turned out to be an especially idiotic comment because: a., Vanderbilt has three black starters; b., Vandy went on to defeat Western Michigan and then North Carolina State and is in the Sweet 16; c., it’s not remotely funny.
“Ryan, who got into trouble last year for his witty observation that someone should ‘smack’ Jason Kidd’s wife, issued a classic un-apology: ‘I was making an obvious joke. I am truly sorry if anyone took offense. . . . ‘
“Yeah, right.” wrote Roeper.
Philly to Host MTV’s “Real World” After All
“The City of Brotherly Love is once again feeling the love from MTV,” as Lia Haberman reports for E!
“Producers of The Real World and Philadelphia union leaders have negotiated a truce to bring the reality series back to the city — a week after extended bickering with Teamsters pushed Bunim-Murray Productions to pull out.”
In the Philadelphia Daily News, Michael Hinkelman wrote a column called, “How the city should act the next time around,” in which he quoted “North Philadelphia-born R&B diva Jill Scott.”
?I love Philadelphia, without question,? said Scott in the piece.
?However, there?s quite a bit of improvement needed. The city is consistently dirty. Other people call our city Filthadelphia. It?s just embarrassing.?
“She also said lower taxes and cheaper liquor licenses could create more ‘hot spots,'” Hinkelman reported.
?We don?t really have a seven-day-a-week party town. That?s what we will need to get Philly really crackin?,? said the diva.
?Please stop closing everything at 2 a.m.?
Hinkelman called for readers to send him other lessons the city might learn from the dickering with MTV.
At the End of the Day, It Becomes a Cliché
“Plain English supporters around the world have voted ‘At the end of the day’ as the most irritating phrase in the language,” announces the Plain English Campaign, a British-based group that describes itself as “an independent pressure group fighting for public information to be written in plain English,” with more than 4.500 registered supporters in 70 countries.
“Second place in the vote was shared by ‘At this moment in time’ and the constant use of ‘like’ as if it were a form of punctuation. ‘With all due respect’ came fourth.
“The Campaign surveyed its 5000 supporters in more than 70 countries as part of the build-up to its 25th anniversary. The independent pressure group was launched on 26 July 1979.
“George Orwell’s advice from 1946 is still worth following: ‘Never use a metaphor, simile, or other figure of speech which you are used to seeing in print.'”
“24/7” and “awesome” are on its list of words that received multiple nominations.