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Firming Up Jarrett’s Legacy

richard

New Institute, Grist for Book, a Last Laugh

Vernon Jarrett, the legendary Chicago journalist who died Sunday, would joke privately about how many different ages had been attributed to him, his caregiver-housekeeper said. To most people, he wasn’t telling. “It was a little joke. He said he wanted to continue to work, so at times he would lie about his age,” she said.

Sure enough, when he died, some obituaries listed his age as 82, most 84, and a very few at 85.

Angela Williams, the housekeeper, told Journal-isms today that Jarrett was 85 — that he was born on June 19, 1918. She said she had seen his driver’s license and that he used the date of birth as a household password. Marsha Eaglin, regional director of the National Association of Black Journalists, said WBBM-TV reporter Dorothy Tucker also had seen the driver’s license and had the same year, 1918.

Perhaps the age discrepancies will be explained in the introduction to a collection of Jarrett’s columns — or at a new institute to be named after Jarrett.

Dr. Barbara R. Hatton, president of Knoxville College, announced today that a new writing institute will be created next year for high school students and named in honor of Jarrett, a 1941 graduate of the college.

Hatton is scheduled to speak at the funeral. ?When we return from Chicago,? Hatton said in a news release, ?we will immediately begin the organization of the Vernon Jarrett Writing Institute, an annual summer writing institute for young people that Mr. Jarrett had envisioned.?

On his legacy of columns, WLS-TV reporter Charles Thomas said today that Jarrett’s son, Thomas, would like them compiled, though no editor or writer has been selected.

Jarrett was trying to write a book in his last weeks, Thomas said, but his son told him, “Daddy, you’ve already written a book — 50 years of columns.”

Thomas said he also found on Jarrett’s computer some research on European democracies. Jarrett was planning a column on the United States’ efforts to instill democracy in Iraq, though since electors are used here to select a president, “we don’t even have a model democracy in this country,” Thomas recalled. Jarrett also left behind a six-page biographical sketch for the use of obituary writers, Thomas told Journal-isms.

Services are scheduled for 1:30 p.m. Saturday at Rainbow PUSH Headquarters at 930 E. 50th St. in Chicago, with viewing from noon to 9 p.m. Friday and a special memorial service from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m.

The family is asking that in lieu of flowers that donations be sent to: NAACP ACT-SO, Vernon Jarrett Fund, 4805 Mt. Hope Dr., Baltimore, MD 21215

NABJ-Chicago, of which Jarrett was president, is planning a special tribute reception on Wednesday, June 16, at 6 p.m. at NBC Tower, 454 N. Columbus Dr., Eaglin said. Ebony Magazine executive editor and historian Lerone Bennett Jr. is to be the featured speaker.

Tucker is producing a video segment. “Journalism pioneers, those who credit Vernon with having a hand in their success as a journalists, and students are among the special invited guests,” Eaglin told NABJ members.

Williams, who said she had been working for Jarrett since June, said his admirers “have been calling from all over the world. I didn’t know who I was taking care of — the vastness of it.” She started out caring for Fernetta, Jarrett’s wife, who she said has dementia, and ended up caring for both. “I was the last friend that he met. I was his friend, his nurse, his housekeeper, I was with him 24 hours. Mr. Jarrett was not afraid to die. He was never depressed. He wasn’t scared at all. I don’t think I’ve seen anything like it. It was awesome,” she said.

Among other remembrances:

“She said that it will be named in Vernon Jarrett?s honor and knowing Vernon, that would bring a smile to his face. He always preferred deeds over words.”

“At the end of our talk, he made an impassioned plea for coverage of ACT-SO, the high school ‘intellectual Olympics’ he founded for African American high school students back in 1977. Now, E&P tackles wide-ranging subjects, but Jarrett surely knew that there was no chance we would pursue a story about a student competition with no connection to newspapers at all except the involvement of a local journalism legend.

“Just as surely, the astronomical odds of the story pitch’s succeeding did not faze Jarrett. What seemed to stir Jarrett most was not the career ambitions of himself or his colleagues, but instead doing all he could to ensure the future of black children in whatever career they chose.”

“Jarrett fumed at the way our media and society hold up big-bucks, semi-literate athletes for godlike worship, while public schools for low-income kids are falling apart. He dreamed of a day when Super Bowls would gather to cheer on black academic achievers the way we now cheer on black athletes. Fat chance, right? But Vern was nothing if not a dreamer–and a hardheaded son-of-a-gun about turning his dreams into reality.”

Cards or messages of condolences may be sent to the Jarrett home, 6901 S. Oglesby, Chicago, Ill. 60649.

Columnist Jarrett can’t be replaced (Chicago Sun-Times).

NPR’s “Tavis Smiley Show”

Barbara Johnson Exits as WNBC-TV News Director

Barbara Johnson, news director at NBC’s New York flagship WNBC-TV, resigned Monday “for personal reasons” and left the station, NBC spokeswoman Liz Fischer confirmed today.

Johnson was a longtime executive producer at rival ABC-owned WABC-TV when she moved to WNBC in September 2002.

“I am embarking on something new and I’m taking the summer off,” she told Journal-isms.

Johnson and her husband, Roy S. Johnson, assistant managing editor at Sports Illustrated, have two young children.

On Feb. 2, Valerie Block wrote in Crain’s New York Business: “Insiders speculate that news director Barbara Johnson could take the fall for the station’s dismal November sweeps showing — WNBC lost every race to rival WABC. ‘There are definitely rumblings,’ says an insider.”

“Johnson’s day-to-day news role will be picked up by Dan Forman, currently senior vice president of news and station manager,” as the New York Daily News reported.

“Forman, who has worked at WABC/Ch. 7 and WWOR/Ch. 9, will retain his current workload while also running the Ch. 4 newsroom.”

Writer Who Broke Cosby Story: Don’t Leave Early

For a news item that started out as five paragraphs in a gossip column under the headline, “Cosby, Saying the Darndest Things,” the report by Hamil R. Harris in the Washington Post about Bill Cosby’s comments on “the lower economic people” not parenting properly has generated more buzz than stories 10 times its size.

Harris says the only reason he had the virtually exclusive comments is that nearly all of the rest of the news media covering Cosby’s May 17 remarks at Washington’s Constitution Hall had left.

“One thing I always learned in journalism: I always stay till the end. Always stay till the benediction,” Harris told Journal-isms. “You never know what’s going to happen.”

Harris’ item ended up in Richard Leiby’s “Reliable Source” column in the Post’s Style section. All was quiet for a day, Harris recalled, then the comments began making the rounds on the conservative grapevine. Soon other columnists and reporters started writing about them. While Cosby’s remarks were spiced with humor, the laughs were lost in the retelling.

Harris then contributed a follow-up.

“In fiery remarks last week in Washington, Bill Cosby took the black community to task for parental failures that he says have led to high dropout rates, crime and other social ills,” Leiby wrote in his Sunday column. “After we published brief excerpts of his cultural critique — delivered at a gala marking the 50th anniversary of the Brown v. Board of Education desegregation ruling — several readers called for more. Conservative broadcasters seized upon Cosby’s remarks, but he was unrepentant in an interview yesterday with The Post’s Hamil Harris: ‘Do I not make a move to speak to the people that I love?’ he said.

Harris had taped the original speech and gave it to washingtonpost.com, where the audio is posted. He had called Cosby’s publicist for comment, and “to Mr. Cosby’s credit, he called me at home. He said his intention was not to disparage poor people, but to ring the bell to the middle class. I think there’s a little bit of spin control going on,” Harris said.

As conservatives such as Cal Thomas, and a number of columnists of color continued to comment, Harris returned to the story today with one written from his Prince George’s County, Md., beat, “Some Blacks Find Nuggets Of Truth in Cosby’s Speech.”

Other thoughts by columnists of color:

Times Runs Mea Culpa on Iraqi Weapons Stories

For all the attention the news media gave to the Jayson Blair scandal last year at the New York Times, criticism of Judith Miller’s reporting that left the impression that there were weapons of mass destruction remained mere background noise.

But as Greg Mitchell reports in Editor & Publisher today:

“After months of criticism of The New York Times’ coverage of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq — mainly directed at star reporter Judith Miller — the paper’s editors, in an extraordinary note to readers this morning, finally tackled the subject, acknowledging it was ‘past time’ they do so. Following the sudden fall last week of Ahmad Chalabi, Miller’s most famous source, they probably had no choice.

“While it does not, in some ways, go nearly far enough, and is buried on Page A10, this low-key but scathing self-rebuke is nothing less than a primer on how not to do journalism, particularly if you are an enormously influential newspaper with a costly invasion of another nation at stake.

“Today’s critique is, in its own way, as devastating as last year’s front-page corrective on Jayson Blair, though not nearly as long.

In a follow-up also written today, Joe Strupp writes that:

“Many newspapers that have carried some or all of The New York Times’ stories on Iraq that were cited for flaws in a critical editor’s note Wednesday are scrambling to explain the paper’s mea culpa to readers.

“Since more than 300 newspapers nationwide subscribe to The New York Times News Service, the paper’s revelation that at least six stories on weapons of mass destruction in Iraq were problematic is being felt across the country.

“Some editors appear miffed that they ran the Times’ correction today in a prominent position while the Times itself stuck it in the lower left hand corner of Page A10, without even a front-page teaser.”

Report Cites Racism in Iraqi Prison Abuse

“Physical abuses by U.S. military police of Iraqi prison detainees stemmed from a mixture of soldiers’ anger and frustration over poor working conditions, their racism and the absence of any meaningful supervision, according to the report of an Air Force psychiatrist who studied the episode for the Army,” R. Jeffrey Smith wrote Monday in the Washington Post.

“The unclassified report, by Col. Henry Nelson, provides the military’s principal, internal explanation for why the soldiers participated in the abusive actions.

“In highlighting psychological and cultural factors underlying the abuses, Nelson noted that soldiers sent to Iraq were immersed in Islamic culture for the first time and said ‘there is an association of Muslims with terrorism’ that contributed to misperceptions, fear and ‘a devaluation of a people.’ He reported that one military police platoon leader was openly hostile to Iraqis, and that a police dog handler was ‘disrespectful and racist’ — attributing to his dog a dislike of Iraqi “culture, smell, sound, skin tone [and] hair color.'”

Meanwhile, Heather Wecsler reports in the Monroe (La.) News-Star that, “Gene Murray, a professor at Grambling State University’s mass communication department, has a new book . . . “Covering Sex, Race and Gender in the American Military Services” (Edwin Mellen Press, $99.95), [that] couldn’t arrive at a more opportune time.

“Murray’s book doesn’t take readers up to the current situation. However, it does deal with press coverage of sensitive equal opportunity issues in the U.S. military, starting in the late 20th century. Specifically, the book examines media coverage of sexual harassment, race relations and gender-integrated military training.”

Reuters Releases Transcripts on Abuse of Reporters

“Reuters has released details of the full extent of the brutal treatment it claims was meted out to three of its journalists by US soldiers in Iraq,” Patrick Barrett reports in England’s Guardian newspaper.

“The respected news agency made available a transcript of interviews it had conducted with three of its employees who accused US forces of subjecting them to prolonged beatings and degrading sexual abuse, after the Pentagon rejected claims it had failed to conduct an adequate investigation in the incident and declared the case ‘closed.’

“The account of what happened to the Reuters journalist and a fellow NBC cameraman at the military camp near Fallujah makes for shocking reading and paints a picture of widespread and systematic abuse of prisoners taken by US forces in Iraq.”

In Miami, Hurricane News You Can Use

“The New York State Society of Certified Public Accountants (NYSSCPA) has announced winners for its Excellence in Financial Journalism Awards, which recognize local and national reporters who contribute to a better understanding of business topics,” Daisy Pareja reports in her Pareja Media Match.

“In the Television category, the first-ever award on a Spanish-language piece went to Fernando Diego Orfila, Univision 23 Miami, for the segment on how to prepare financially for a hurricane.”

Damon Andrews Leaving Chicago for L.A.

The Fox Sports Net cable station in Chicago, “which is losing its Cubs, White Sox, Bulls and Blackhawks programming to a new Chicago sports station in the fall, now is losing a high-profile anchor,” reports Jim Kirk in the Chicago Tribune.

“Damon Andrews, the station’s pre- and post-game host of Bulls and White Sox programming for four years, is heading west to Tribune Co.-owned KTLA-TV. He’ll be the station’s lead sports anchor and sports director.”

Michael Scott “Not a Good Fit” in Charlotte

“With the departure of 5 p.m. anchor Michael Scott, WBTV (Channel 3) says it will team Shannon Bream with Paul Cameron at 5 p.m. and Tonia Bendickson at 5:30 p.m.,” Mark Washburn writes in the Charlotte Observer.

“‘We had hoped that Michael’s style, which was well-accepted in Dallas, would be a hit with Charlotte viewers, but it became evident that it was not a good fit for the marketplace,’ Dennis Milligan, WBTV news director, said in a joint statement with Scott.

“Such candor is unusual in a business where questions about the abrupt departure of personalities are usually met with silence.

“Having been in this business for almost 30 years, I certainly understand how these things happen,” Scott said. “I look forward to my next endeavor in broadcasting.”

Yusef Jackson Back in Sun-Times Bidding

“Two companies expected to bid for the Chicago Sun-Times last week failed to do so, leaving it and a network of suburban newspapers with just two potential buyers, sources with knowledge of the bidding said,” Eric Herman writes in the Sun-Times.

“Two bidders — or pairings of bidders — came through with offers for Hollinger International’s ‘Chicago Group,’ which includes the Daily Southtown and the Naperville Sun as well as the Sun-Times. Yusef Jackson, son of the Rev. Jesse Jackson, made a bid with financier and supermarket mogul Ron Burkle. The other bid came from a joint venture between the Ontario Teacher’s Pension Plan and a venture capital arm of Citigroup.”

SPJ Suspends Its Listserve

The Society of Professional Journalists, whose unmoderated listserve, open to the public, sometimes resembled an ideological food fight, has shut down the 799-member e-mail exchange until it can be moderated.

SPJ President Mac McKerral sent a note to the list Monday saying, “It is now the sentiment of the SPJ Board of directors that all lists bearing the name of SPJ be housed by SPJ and moderated. This is a time consuming endeavor.

“So, until such a time as SPJ can reconstitute the list and ensure it is properly moderated, SPJ-L will be eliminated until a yet-to-be undetermined date.”

At a May 15 SPJ board meeting, the concern was that “there were discussions going on that really had little to do with improving and protecting journalism,” executive director Terry Harper told Journal-isms.

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