First Openings Funded by Kroc Money Announced
National Public Radio has announced the first editorial positions it plans to fill with the $15 million it says it will invest over the next three years in new reporters, editors, producers, managers and domestic and international bureaus.
The expansion plan, as set forth last month, will be funded in part by interest from approximately $225 million in bequests NPR received from the late philanthropist Joan B. Kroc.
“In a world when many news organizations are laying off staff, we are in the extraordinary position of adding jobs. This represents our best opportunity ever to broaden the pool of candidates of color for jobs at NPR,” said Walt Swanston, director of diversity management.
“We expect to get candidates from print journalism with no broadcast background.”
The jobs are:
- Reporter/Correspondent, International Business, National Desk: Develops ideas/proposals for reports and programs on international business with a particular focus on developing sources, here and abroad, at the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund, the Treasury Department and the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development.
- Reporter/Correspondent, Police and Prisons, National Desk: Develops ideas/proposals for reports and programs on police and prisons, with a particular focus on breaking original stories relating to police and prisons; the beat is designed to generate enterprise and investigative stories about local policing and the changing nature of the work, including reports that dealt with street crime, homeland security, the latest police technology or people falsely convicted of a crime, as well as the issues surrounding the prison world and its population of 2.1 million.
- Reporter/Correspondent, Environment, National Desk: Develops ideas/proposals for reports and programs on the environment, with particular focus on daily and in-depth news coverage of the Environmental Protection Agency and the Department of the Interior.
- Reporter/Correspondent, Labor and Workplace, National Desk: Develops ideas/proposals for reports and programs on labor and the work place.
- Reporter/Correspondent, Science Desk: Develops ideas/proposals for reports and programs that would examine how technological breakthroughs are translated into viable commercial products and how they, in turn, change people’s lives.
- Reporter/Correspondent, Arts Information: Develops ideas/proposals for reports and programs on media issues.
- Reporter/Correspondent, General Assignment, National Desk: Develops ideas/proposals for reports and programs; gathers information and materials for reports and programs; prepares and presents reports and program segments; the job involves traveling and may involve relocation. Bachelor’s degree or equivalent combination of education and experience.
- Reporter/Correspondent, Foreign Desk: Develops ideas/proposals for reports and programs on West Africa; gathers information and materials for reports and programs; prepares, presents and transmits reports and program segments from abroad.
- Supervising Senior Editor, All Things Considered: Responsible for editing All Things Considered’s daily coverage; makes assignments and provides editorial guidance to program hosts, reporters, producers and production staff; supervises preparation of air material and is responsible for editorial integrity and quality of air product; monitors programming and provides critiques.
- Supervising Editor/Correspondent, Science Desk: This position combines the duties of an editor (90%) and a reporter (10%). Has significant responsibility for planning, coordinating and supervising coverage of science and health, and most especially the social and behavioral sciences, on the Science Desk; monitors and evaluates staff performance; recommends new hires and provides administrative and editorial support to the Supervising Senior Editor and Deputy Supervising Senior Editors as needed.
For more information, contact: Bill Marimow, managing editor, at bmarimow@npr.org, or Walt Swanston at wswanston@npr.org.
Black Conservative Group Upset by Portrayal of Rice
A black conservative group is asking Universal Press Syndicate to “terminate its relationship” with cartoonist Ted Rall over a July 5 strip that insults Condoleezza Rice, among other Bush administration figures.
The group, called Project 21, also calls on the NAACP, the National Association of Black Journalists and the Rainbow/PUSH Coalition to make similar demands “based on their past involvement in pressuring ESPN to fire radio talk show host Rush Limbaugh in 2003.”
The strip is titled, “After Bush Returns Our Sovereignty. . . Appropriate Punishments for Deposed Bushists.”
The six panels are devoted in turn to Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld, National Security Adviser Rice; Secretary of State Colin L. Powell, Limbaugh, President Bush and Vice President Cheney.
The disposition of “Condi Rice” is: “Sent to inner-city racial re-education camp.” It has Rice saying, “I was Bush’s beard! His house nigga! His –” She is interrupted by a male character saying, “Now hand over your hair straightener.” He is wearing a shirt saying, “You’re not white, stupid.”
“Is it OK for Ted Rall to use such vile language because he’s using it against a black conservative?” asked Project 21 member Michael King in a news release. “I’m beside myself with anger over this comic.”
Separately, conservative columnist Michelle Malkin, known for deriding the 1999 Unity convention, writing then, “I want readers to know me for my ideas, ideology and idiosyncrasies — not for my Filipino heritage,” joined in. However, Malkin said she wanted Rall to continue to run so that all can see “his pathetic scrawls and scribbles.”
Malkin wrote: “He gets away with this pen-and-ink-stained excrement because he reflects the closet thinking of mainstream media editors across the country and their mainstream liberal audiences. His work is reportedly carried in 140 newspapers. He and his ilk are everywhere. I grew up with his kind. I went to school with his kind. I work in the media with his kind. I have been getting contempt-filled, profanity-laced, ‘You-are-a-traitor-to-your-race/You banana/coconut/Aunt Tomasina/white wannabe diatribes from his kind in my mailbox for the past 12 years.”
Kathie Kerr, a spokeswoman for Universal Press Syndicate, said Rall was carried by about 50 newspapers, and is also picked up on Web sites. She said she had received no complaints about the strip.
In response to a query from Journal-isms, Lee Salem, editor and vice president, Universal Press Syndicate, issued this statement:
“When we distribute opinionists — writers or cartoonists — to op/ed pages, it is with the knowledge that editors of those pages edit by selection. Most newspapers print only a few releases of any one cartoonist?s or writer?s work because of space constraints, subject matter, viewpoint expressed, or other editorial considerations. We know that every client will not like every cartoon or column we distribute, but we do not prejudge the editorial diversity for subscribers that range from strongly conservative to strongly liberal. We assume the editors who buy the features we distribute know what works in their market and what [doesn’t].
“The criticism of Ted Rall’s depiction of Ms. Rice obscures the fact that it is part of a larger, hyperbolic context. In the cartoon, Rall is clearly imagining unlikely scenarios that might befall a number of key people in President Bush’s administration. That he exaggerates both the language and the events is a time-honored tool of satirists. Anyone who takes it literally is missing the point.”
2 Sides Pick Lawyers in WSJ Discrimination Suit
Dow Jones & Co. and, likely its insurance company, have chosen a specialist who “focuses on the defense of employment discrimination claims in state and federal courts” to represent the company in a $5 million racial discrimination suit filed by Carolyn Phillips, the Wall Street Journal’s first African American assistant managing editor, who charges that she was marginalized, then laid off because of her race.
Kenneth A. Margolis of the New York law firm Kauff McClain McGuire “has practiced exclusively in the field of labor and employment law for over 20 years,” his bio says. He confirmed to Journal-isms that he is representing the company, but referred all other questions to Dow Jones.
Phillips told Journal-isms that her team includes Steve Hyman, a past president of the New York Civil Liberties Union.
Phillips’ lawsuit, filed June 30 in U.S. District Court in Manhattan, alleges that “Dow Jones discriminates in the terms and conditions of employment of its African-American employees, and in particular at the upper levels of management. Of the approximately nine independent bureaus, none is headed by an African-American and there are no African-Americans at the level of Assistant Managing Editor or above, and Dow Jones has a pattern and practice of channeling its African-American senior staff to minority functions.”
She says she was excluded from important meetings that her “white male predecessor had regularly attended,” was paid less “than other assistant managing editors who were Caucasian,” and had her duties turned over to a Caucasian when she returned from medical leave in July 2001 even though she “was fully able to perform the essential functions of an Assistant Managing Editor position.”
On Nov. 11, 2002, Phillips said, she was told that she was among those laid off for economic reasons — “the first and only assistant managing editor who had or has ever been laid off at the Journal.”
But the suit says, “upon information and belief, virtually all of the Caucasian senior staff who were laid off were rehired in other positions. Although Phillips was qualified for these positions and requested consideration for these and other positions, subsequent to her termination, Dow Jones refused to consider her requests.”
At Journal-isms’ request, Phillips named the staff members who were rehired.
She listed Francine Schawdel, bureau chief of the law group, all of which was laid off; Ken Seyfert, a news editor for regional economic news; Carrie Dolan, an assistant news editor with the Weekend section; Jess Bravin, a reporter in the New York law group; and Kathryn Kranhold, one of the reporters in the New York law group.
Bravin told Journal-isms today that his job had been eliminated, but that a week or two later, new openings were posted and he applied for one. He said he was rehired for his old job, covering legal issues in the war on terrorism. But he also named four other staffers who were laid off then but are no longer at the newspaper: Milo Geylin, Jerry Markon, Davina Wright and Rick Schmitt.
[Added July 20:
[Markon told Journal-isms that he was also re-hired for his old job, covering Manhattan federal courts, but chose to leave for the Washington Post, and that Schmitt was also offered other jobs at the Journal but chose to leave for the Los Angeles Times.]
Robert Christie, a Dow Jones spokesman, issued this statement to Journal-isms:
“Dow Jones is committed to the principles of equal employment opportunity. Ms. Phillips’ claims are completely without merit and the Company will defend against them vigorously. Beyond that, we don’t comment on pending litigation.”
Wilbekin Leaves Vibe Ventures for Clothing Line
“Emil Wilbekin, the former editor of Vibe magazine who left last year to run Vibe Ventures, ditched the company altogether yesterday to join Marc Ecko as head of development for Ecko’s clothing line,” the New York Post reported Friday.
“Wilbekin will also serve on the editorial board of Complex magazine in addition to overseeing the development of television, books, entertainment and video development projects for Marc Ecko Enterprises. ‘After 12 years, it is time for a change,’ Wilbekin told us.”
AAJA Cautions on Use of “Yellow Faces” Term
The Asian American Journalists Association has applauded KTNV-TV Las Vegas on its efforts to be inclusive in covering the recent Ronald Reagan funeral from Washington, but says, “At the same time, we want to caution you on the use of the phrase, ‘yellow faces,’ in describing Asian Americans.
“It is a misnomer and an outdated one at that. Asian Americans are not yellow-skinned, after all,” AAJA President Mae Cheng said in a letter to KTNV anchor Ross Becker.
“And for a good number of older Americans, the term also evokes earlier periods in U.S. history of ‘yellow peril’ and ‘yellow scare,’ when perceptions of Asians as deceitful, disloyal or treacherous aliens led to Chinese laborers being banned from immigrating to the United States (the Chinese Exclusionary Act in 1882) and the internment of Japanese and Japanese Americans during WWII,” Cheng continued.
Air America No. 2 in New York Talk Radio
“Air America, the liberal talk-radio network that launched at the end of March on WLIB-AM, has landed in second place in the New York talk arena, its 1.7 share in the 25-to-54 demographic beating rival WOR?s 1.0 share, according to the spring Arbitron report.” Crain’s New York Business reports.
“WOR?s hosts include conservatives Bill O?Reilly and Bob Grant.
“WLIB trailed AM-radio leader WABC, whose hosts include Rush Limbaugh. It had a 2.3 share in the demographic.”
That should be good news for Pierre Sutton, chairman of Inner City Broadcasting, which became the object of protests over Sutton’s decision to replace Caribbean programming and lease most of the station’s time to Air America.
“For 30 years LIB has been geared to the black community, and not one year have we been able to make it break even,” Percy Sutton, Pierre’s father, said at the time, defending his son. “It’s been subsidized by WBLS, its sister station.”
Did Media Miss Bush’s Visit to York, Pa.?
“If you want to criticize President George W. Bush for something, pick his going to York in one week and then the next week refusing to speak at the NAACP convention in Philadelphia,” writes Baltimore Sun columnist Gregory Kane on BlackAmericaWeb.com. “That might be a valid criticism. At least it?s better than the ones NAACP president Kweisi Mfume and board chairman Julian Bond have leveled at Bush so far.
“. . . Not only did stupid white street thugs murder Allen in 1969, they had help from a York police department that was every bit as racist as the thugs, and brutal and corrupt to boot.” Kane’s reference is to Lillie Belle Allen, a black woman fatally shot in an ambush by, as he says, “well, stupid white street thugs in York.
“Here?s why the York of 2004 is pertinent to Bush?s recent visit there,” he continues, referring to William Keisling’s account of the killing in his book ?The Wrong Car.?
“At the time he published his book in 2002, many of the attitudes whites have about blacks have changed little, if at all.”
White Men Direct 86% of TV Episodes
Eighty-six percent of television episodes are directed by Caucasian males, and “women and minority directors continue to be missing from some of the best-known series line-ups.” That comes from a Directors Guild of America report on the employment of women and directors of color by the networks on the “top 40” prime-time drama and comedy series in 2003-2004.
“In the most recent 2003-2004 season, 15 of the top forty shows have not hired women directors, 10 have not hired minority directors, and 6 have excluded both women and minority directors.”
The report says that:
- Six shows hired no women and no directors of color: “Friends,” “Everybody Loves Raymond,” “Navy NCIS,” “Becker,” “Less Than Perfect” and “Malcolm in the Middle.”
- Four more hired no directors of color: “Law & Order,” “Two and a Half Men,” “Judging Amy” and “8 Simple Rules.”
- “The following shows have demonstrated a four-year pattern of zero or minimal efforts in hiring women and/or minority directors”: “Everybody Loves Raymond,” “Friends,” “JAG,” “CSI” and “Malcolm in the Middle.”
U.K.’s Most Prominent Black Anchor to Step Down
“Sir Trevor McDonald has announced he will be stepping down as the ITV news anchor when his contract ends next year,” England’s brandrepublic.com reports.
“He told The Sun newspaper, as he prepared to host the National TV Awards: ‘I will probably stop reading the news after that. I’ve been reading the news for so long it feels about 320 years.’
“McDonald, 64, went on to say that he is not giving up TV and will continue doing ‘Tonight’ and other one-on-one interviews. ‘I’m not giving up TV, it’s my passion and I love it,’ he said.
The Independent added, “The veteran presenter has had an almost unrivalled vantage point on the great world events of the late 20th century. Not only was he reading the news in the measured tones that have come to sound like those of a trusted relative, but he often interviewed the key participants as well.”
“Sir Trevor was ITV’s first black reporter when he joined in 1973 from the BBC’s World Service. He has won a string of awards during his 31 years at ITN and was most recently awarded the special recognition award at the National Television Awards last year, presented to him by Prime Minister Tony Blair,” brandrepublic said.
In Spanish, Inside “Journalist’s Kitchen”
“What’s cooking? . . . Check out ‘La Cocina del Periodismo’ (Journalist’s Kitchen), an Argentine radio program sponsored by the Universidad de Palermo (Palermo University) and independently produced by journalism students and alumni,” writes Daisy Pareja in Pareja Media Match.
“It’s a weekly one-hour program that’s been airing for the past four years on Buenos Aires’ FM Palermo 94.7. The show immerses listeners in the journalist’s laboratory, investigating in-depth the dedicated men and women – newcomers and veterans — who practice their craft. The audience can expect an analysis of national and international media coverage of the latest news of the week, as well as an examination of the methods and resources used by journalists in other parts of the world.
“The program airs every Friday from 1 p.m. to 2 p.m. (ET), and you can hear it at: www.fmpalermo.com.ar (click under ‘escuchanos online’).”
“Some Days I’d Pay $100 Not to Be Recognized”
“Television news anchors. You know how they are.
“Bumbling. Dumb as rocks. Helmet hair — that they fuss over. Because they’re vain!” wrote Andrew Guy Jr., keying off the new film, “Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy”
“The reality, local news anchors say, is that the job is a demanding round-the-clock gig that requires they be ‘on’ all the time.
“With public appearances, TV spots and billboards, the anchor’s face is everywhere.”
He quotes Gina Gaston of ABC affiliate KTRK, whose high-profile 2002 pregnancy produced triplets: “I like my job, but some days I’d pay $100 to not be recognized.”
