Editor Going Overseas; Critic Part-Time to Harvard
When last we left Elvis Mitchell, he had quit his position as film critic for the New York Times because his boss, culture news editor Steven Erlanger, had given Mitchell’s formerly co-equal colleague, A.O. Scott, the designation of chief film critic. “That wasn’t the way I came in,” Mitchell, who was the nation’s most visible African American film reviewer, said on May 5.
With Erlanger acknowledging that “We did not want him to go. I’m very sorry,” it was obvious that the situation could have been handled better. It also demonstrated how journalists of any race sometimes are promoted in unorthodox ways.
When former executive editor Howell Raines named Erlanger in October 2002 to be cultural editor, Erlanger was a heralded foreign correspondent. His chief management expertise appeared to be having run the newspaper’s Berlin and Prague bureaus, somewhat different in scope from supervising a 60-member cultural news staff that puts out the daily Arts section, Arts & Ideas on Saturdays, Arts & Leisure on Sundays and Weekend on Fridays.
This week, executive editor Bill Keller, who succeeded Raines, announced that Erlanger would become Jerusalem bureau chief, to be replaced as culture news editor by Jonathan Landman, the one-time metro editor in the Jayson Blair saga, the one who said, “We have to stop Jayson from writing for The New York Times. Right now.”
“Most see the change as a sign that Times brass was not happy with the way Erlanger handled movie critic Elvis Mitchell,” contended Keith J. Kelly in the New York Post. ‘There is a feeling that the Elvis Mitchell thing was mishandled and that the Arts and Leisure section is in total disarray,’ said one industry source.”
In a memo to his staff, Erlanger framed it differently.
“In the last few days, Bill Keller and I had discussions on two topics:
“– the culture renovation project, and his concerns about getting it built
“– and the paper’s need for an experienced correspondent in Jerusalem.
“He said he liked very much what we’ve done here, but that he would feel easier with a more experienced manager to do the building. I felt what we are doing here is too important to him and to the paper for him to feel at all uneasy.”
Erlanger made no secret of his happiness at getting the Jerusalem posting.
“I must tell you I’ve really enjoyed driving the boat, and working with you to design the new boat,” Erlanger continued in his note. “I won’t pretend to you that building the new boat was as enjoyable for me — but we would have succeeded, and you will succeed with Jon’s guidance.”
As for Mitchell, the Harvard Crimson reported today that he has agreed to teach one course each next spring in the Visual and Environmental Studies and African and African American Studies departments.
He had been a visiting lecturer for both and “students lauded Mitchell?s accessibility and ability to bring Hollywood professionals to the class,” although some “raised concerns about how Mitchell had balanced his high-profile Times job with the demands of the ivory tower,” according to the story by Simon W. Vozick-Levinson.
In a separate development, The Times announced it would “introduce a companion publication to its Sunday magazine this summer to concentrate on fashion, designing and entertaining.”
Asked whether journalists of color are on the staff, Times spokeswoman Catherine J. Mathis told Journal-isms, “In its staffing and in its coverage, the magazine’s style pages, like the magazine itself, [are and strive] to be representative. But actual staffing is only at the beginning.”
Blair, Pundits, Hampton Chief Get Thumbs Down
Disgraced former reporter Jayson Blair, the pundits who sought to link his downfall to race and affirmative action, and JoAnn Haysbert, the acting president at Hampton University who seized the press run of the student newspaper The Hampton Script, won Thumbs Down awards from the National Association of Black Journalists, the organization announced today.
NABJ?s Board of Directors chose Hannah Allam, Knight Ridder?s new Baghdad bureau chief, as Journalist of the Year; Theola Labbe, a suburban reporter who spent three months in Iraq for The Washington Post, as Emerging Journalist of the Year; and Talia Buford, editor of the Hampton Script at Hampton University, as the association?s first Student Journalist of the Year, president Herbert Lowe said.
Clarence Page, the syndicated newspaper columnist, is this year?s recipient of the NABJ lifetime achievement award, Lowe said in a news release.
“The president also announced the winners in these other Special Honors categories:
- “Legacy -? Vernon Jarrett, retired columnist and past NABJ president.
- “Community Service ?- Mollie Finch Belt, publisher, The Dallas Examiner.
- “Percy Qoboza [international] -? Pius Njawe, editor in chief, Le Messager (Cameroon).
- “Best Practices ?- Our Texas magazine (Dallas).”
The Thumbs Down awards are the first that NABJ has bestowed under new criteria the NABJ board adopted in October: “Awarded to an individual or organization for especially insensitive, racist or stereotypical reporting, commentary, photography or a cartoon about the black community published or aired during the eligibility period, or for engaging in practices at odds with the goals of the National Association of Black Journalists.”
Pulitzer Chain Joins NAHJ’s Parity Project
Pulitzer Newspapers, Inc. is the latest media company to become a partner in the National Association of Hispanic Journalists? Parity Project, NAHJ announced today.
The Sentinel of Hanford, Calif.; the Napa Valley Register of Napa, Calif. and the Santa Maria Times of Santa Maria, Calif., “have been identified as news organizations that serve large Latino communities, but where Latinos remain underrepresented in those newsrooms.
“In each of the above California cities, NAHJ will co-sponsor community forums with the management and news staffs of these organizations and Latino civic and social leaders. The community forums will bring together people who have a stake in seeing that coverage of Latinos is done in a fair and accurate manner. These representatives will be encouraged to work with each paper on a continuous basis to offer recommendations on what each can do to improve coverage of Latinos,” a news release says.
Heart & Soul, Honey Magazines Still Up for Grabs
Honey and Heart & Soul magazines, being auctioned by Vanguarde Media as part of its bankruptcy procedings, are still up for grabs, with no formal bids entered for them at a hearing Wednesday, lawyer Joseph Samet told Journal-isms today.
“There are possibilities” as potential bidders, “but it would be premature” to mention who they are, said Samet, who is representing Vanguarde.
“We’ll take the highest and best offer that’s out there.” Another hearing was set for Wednesday.
Honey, a female hip-hop magazine refashioned as “a fashion and entertainment magazine aimed at stylish urban women,” had a circulation of 400,000; the health-oriented Heart & Soul, also 400,000. The winner of the bid gets their subscription lists as part of the deal.
On May 3, Jungle Media Group won the bidding for the assets of Savoy magazine, Vanguarde Media’s primary publication.
Simpson Deplores Lack of Stories on the Poor
Carole Simpson, eased out of her anchor chair at ABC-TV and now the network’s “news ambassador” to high schools, concedes she’s “not entirely happy with the state of network news,” Suzanne C. Ryan reports in the Boston Globe.
“It isn’t the ABC News it was when I started,” Simpson says in the story. “We’ve moved away from stories about poor people, people who are powerless,” she said. “The focus groups have indicated that the public wants medical and business news.”
“Because many networks are owned by ever-larger corporations — ABC is part of Disney Corp. — there is an ever-larger concern about expenses, she said. ‘When I first got into TV, all you had to be was good. Now, it’s a question of “Is it going to take a day to shoot this story or a day and a half?” We have to watch the bottom line,'” Ryan reports.
“Since February, Simpson has visited 19 high schools in 11 cities, speaking with 2,000 students. Her assessment of the generation she’s meeting?
“‘This is the most frightened I’ve been in my 40 years in journalism,’ she says. ‘I’m finding that current events and geography are not being offered to kids. How can we have a society that sustains itself if young people aren’t informed?'”
Leaving her anchor job last October “wasn’t easy, said the journalist who used to anchor the news in New York on Sundays and report during the week from Washington, D.C. ‘I went through a loss of my best friend,’ she said of her removal. ‘There was anger, bitterness, crying, and sadness. And eventually acceptance. . . . I’m resigned to my new job, and I’m totally into it now.'”
Sale of Chicago Sun-Times Appears Less Likely
“It looks increasingly likely that the ‘for sale’ sign on the city’s No. 2 newspaper will be coming down, according to more than one source close to the negotiations,” writes Jim Kirk in the Chicago Tribune.
“At least three potential bidders, including Rev. Jesse Jackson’s son Yusef Jackson, sat through presentations on the Chicago properties last month,” Kirk wrote.
Had Jackson won the Sun-Times, it would have become the biggest U.S. daily newspaper with significant African American ownership.
“Chicago Sun-Times owner Hollinger International Inc., which has been talking to potential buyers for all or parts of the company, is now focused mainly on striking a deal for its London Daily Telegraph, widely considered the crown jewel in Hollinger International’s publishing empire,” Kirk’s story said.
“‘It looks like there will be a deal for the Telegraph, but not for the Chicago group,’ said a source close to the negotiations, who cautioned that nothing was final.
“Blame it on a lack of significant interest in the tabloid paper from individual buyers and a substantial tax liability if the Chicago group is sold separately from the rest of the company.”
Gerald Boyd Loses Seat on ASNE Board
“One year after being forced to resign from The New York Times in the wake of the Jayson Blair scandal, former managing editor Gerald Boyd has lost another coveted post — his spot on the board of directors for the American Society of Newspaper Editors,” Joe Strupp reports in Editor & Publisher.
“Boyd had to give up the two-year position he won in April 2003 because rules require each director to hold a ‘directing editor’ position at a newspaper, said ASNE spokesman Kevin Wilcox. He added that Boyd had a year from the date he left the Times to find a similar position, which he has not. . . . Boyd, who is writing a syndicated column and serving as a consultant for the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.”
Blair’s Book Publisher to Be Liquidated
“The new millennium is ending early for Jayson Blair’s book publisher,” writes Paul D. Colford in the New York Daily News.
“New Millennium Entertainment, which published the ex-reporter’s New York Times memoir and many show-business books, will be liquidated under an order signed this week by a bankruptcy court judge in Los Angeles.
“The order, granted to the trustee representing New Millennium’s creditors, puts the company’s catalogue up for sale.”
Blair’s book, “Burning Down My Masters’ House: My Life at the New York Times,” published March 6, ranked 48,164 on amazon.com today.
Chicago Street Gang Had Own Radio Station
*A pirate radio station first reported here last December finally was shut down by authorities Thursday. FBI agents and Chicago police seized the transmitter that was illegally broadcasting at 104.7 FM,” Robert Feder reports in the Chicago Sun-Times.
“The raid came as part of a crackdown on the Black Disciples street gang, which operated the station to broadcast warnings of police activity, according to U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald.
“Listeners reported hearing the amateur broadcasters brazenly spewing obscenities and playing X-rated hip-hop music.”
Rights Movement Changed TV in Jackson
“The early years of Jackson television gave new meaning to the term “black out,” starts a story by Gary Pettus in Mississippi’s Jackson Clarion-Ledger.
“If you were black, you were out.
“On stations WJTV and, in particular, WLBT, African Americans were almost completely ignored or their concerns and conduct skewed, a condition that endured until activists challenged WLBT’s broadcast license.
“An important part of civil rights history, the saga of the struggle for Jackson’s airwaves, compelled two experts to write about it independently; their books are now being released, coincidentally, at the same time.
“University Press of Mississippi in Jackson is publishing Changing Channels: The Civil Rights Case that Transformed Television by prolific author Kay Mills, a native of the Washington, D.C., area, and a resident of Santa Monica, Calif., who has written several books on civil rights and/or women’s issues, including This Little Light of Mine: The Life of Fannie Lou Hamer.
“Steven Classen, an Oregon native and assistant professor of communications studies at California State University, Los Angeles, wrote Watching Jim Crow: The Struggles over Mississippi TV, 1955-1969, for Duke University Press in Durham, N.C.”
Malveaux, Gordon, Mathis, Williams at Dallas Forum
Pundits Julianne Malveaux, Armstrong Williams and Deborah Mathis, and former BET host Ed Gordon were panelists at a Black Enterprise/General Motors Entrepreneurs Conference in Dallas that addressed the question: “What should black America do with its vote?” according to the Dallas Morning News.
“The problem is that people are not engaged in this election,” said Malveaux, an economist and author. “We have not only low levels of voter registration, but once you register people, they still don’t get out and vote,” according to the story by Colleen McCain Nelson.
“Deborah Mathis, a nationally syndicated columnist, said some are frustrated by the dearth of diversity in politics.
“‘Every four years, you look at it, and there’s another two white men to choose between,’ she said.
“But conservative commentator Armstrong Williams questioned what Democrats had delivered to minorities. If blacks are going to throw 90 percent of their votes to Democrats, they should get something in return, he said.
“Ms. Malveaux argued that National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice and Secretary of State Colin Powell should not be held up as emblems of black achievement.
“Panelists said they are still learning about Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry. However, some had questions about whether the Massachusetts senator would spark voter interest,” Nelson wrote.
“‘Kerry has not lit a fire under any black folk I know,’ said Gordon, the panel’s moderator and former host of BET Tonight,” the story said.
Diary vs. People Meter Dispute Continues
“More than a month after announcing the creation of a task force to investigate complaints about the way it plans to gather local television ratings, Nielsen Media Research has yet to appoint a single task force member,” writes Raymond Hernandez in the New York Times.
“Nielsen, whose ratings have been used for decades to help set TV advertising rates, has been at the center of a political storm since it moved to introduce a ratings system that critics say would severely undercount black and Hispanic viewers.
Meanwhile, Frankie Edozien reports in the New York Post that the Rev. Al Sharpton, “tired of fruitless behind-the-scenes appeals to Nielsen asking for a delay in its New York launch of a controversial ratings-measuring system,” said yesterday he’ll lead a march to the firm’s Manhattan office on Monday.
Earlier this week, as Television week reported, Nielsen “released an analysis of the People Meters in the old and the new samples in New York that appeared to show just how much the use of viewing diaries can distort — and indeed under-represent — actual viewing patterns.”
“The Nielsen white paper compared meter data gathered in March from the old sample of 540 homes in and from the 800-home sample now in place for the diary-free Local People Meter service that was supposed to have started in April 8 but was delayed to June 3 in the face of protests” that it would undercount blacks and Hispanics.
Among the findings:
- “African Americas in New York spent 54.2 percent of their viewing time on cable programming in March, far more than the 39.2 percent indicated in the paper diaries that will become extinct with the switch to the new LPMs.
- “Latinos spent 43.8 percent of their time watching cable, compared with the 34.6 percent recorded in paper diaries.
- “Overall Latino viewership in March increased for 80 networks and decreased for 17 under the LPM system.
- “African American viewership increased for 90 networks and decreased for 19 in the LPM sample.
- “Among African American viewers, total-day viewing for BET is up 180 percent under LPMs.
- “African American viewing increased more than 100 percent for a number of other networks, such as ESPN, LMN, TeleFutura, Pax and Starz!
- “Latino viewership of Telemundo and TeleFutura ratings is up 22 percent and 83 percent, respectively, under LPMs, while cable access channels and the HBO Zone pay channel are up more than 100 percent.
“Shows with African American themes have a larger percentage of non-African American viewers than indicated by paper diaries.”