Sharpton Praised Though Networks Were Elsewhere
On Wednesday night, Al Sharpton gave still another oration at the Democratic National Convention that drew praise but went unseen by those watching the commercial networks (on Wednesday we discussed Barack Obama’s). But today David Westin, president of ABC News, told those who criticized the networks’ limited convention coverage to, in essence, get over it.
“The usual condemnations of ABC, CBS and NBC feel oddly out of date,” Westin said in an op-ed piece in the Washington Post. “Time and technology are passing the critics by. The days are largely gone when the three broadcast networks could decide what the American people would watch — and then get them to watch it. With the advent and expansion of cable and, more recently, the Internet — including streaming video that looks a lot like television — there are just too many alternatives available to the audience at all times of the day and night. Now you’ll attract an audience only if what you have to offer is seen to be better than hundreds, indeed thousands, of alternatives.”
But as David Bianculli wrote in the New York Daily News:
“Having the choice is one thing; using it is another.
“On the first night of this year’s Democratic National Convention, an estimated 13.5 million viewers watched the one-hour prime-time coverage on ABC, CBS and NBC. The next night, when those networks didn’t bother to broadcast from the convention, the combined prime-time audience for PBS and the cable news networks totaled approximately 9 million.
“In today’s fragmented TV universe, though, 9 million viewers is a lot — about the size of the audience for the CBS hit drama ‘Without a Trace.’ Of the two Americas, the one watching on cable or PBS Tuesday saw Obama take the spotlight and emerge a political star. How much more impact would his moment have had, though, had the Big Three networks also broadcast it?
“Perhaps, on paper, the Tuesday lineup looked weak enough to skip. But look at the difference between Al Sharpton’s prepared remarks and the much longer speech he delivered at the podium Wednesday night (another speech ignored by the commercial broadcasters). You can’t predict the most significant TV by what’s on paper.”
Added Mark Memmott in USA Today:
“Tuesday night, PBS says, an estimated 7.7 million viewers tuned in to some or all of its coverage. Its rating was up 32% from the second night of the 2000 Democratic convention. PBS says its number of viewers surpassed those watching CNN, Fox News and MSNBC combined. Those cable networks together drew 6 million viewers, according to Nielsen Media Research.
“‘A convention is a showcase for a party and its ideas. Our viewers want to hear about it, and how could we ignore it?’ asks Gwen Ifill, senior correspondent at the NewsHour.”
Meanwhile, Black Entertainment Television sent out a release saying it had interviewed vice presidential candidate John Edwards Thursday night on “BET Nightly News” and that he discussed raising the subject of race in his own acceptance speech.
?I have done it in my presidential campaign and during the Kerry/Edwards campaign,” Edwards was quoted as saying. “I think it?s a big thing for African Americans that you talk about their issues and issues that directly affect them . . . that it?s important enough to you and who you are to talk about racism and equality and civil rights in front of all audiences, including all white audiences and including in places who have very little (ethnic diversity). Take for example Iowa ? when we were campaigning in Iowa, which has a very small African-American population, it was important for me to talk about these issues and I know that John (Kerry) feels the same way.?
Excerpts of Sharpton speech (The Black World Today)
“Convergence” Reporter Unopposed for NAHJ Prez
Veronica Villafane, a “convergence journalist” working as a television anchor and producer for California’s San Jose Mercury News, is running unopposed for the presidency of the National Association of Hispanic Journalists.
So far, only four of the nine board positions have candidates, and those four are running unopposed. However, members can still run for office by collecting 25 valid signatures of voting members and presenting them at the NAHJ membership assembly, which takes place at 8:30 a.m. Thursday, Aug. 5, according to an NAHJ memo.
Voting starts at 8 a.m. Wednesday, Aug. 4, and continues until 1 p.m. Friday, Aug. 6.
NAHJ spokesman Joseph Torres told Journal-isms that members will be voting by paper ballots and can reclaim them if they change their minds after new candidates enter the race.
In a candidate statement, Villafane, who is now the Region 8 (West Coast) director for NAHJ and who splits her time between the UPN affiliate, KCOP-13 and the Mercury News, said she would focus on four things:
“1) continue the Parity Project, whose objective is to double Latino journalists in the nation’s newsrooms
2) provide more programs aimed at Spanish-language journalists, which is why I will work hard to implement a Spanish-language leadership institute
3) develop career counseling and other programs for mid-career journalists
4) increase member participation in NAHJ activities outside of the convention.
“Journalism is evolving at a fast pace. Terms like convergence, duopolies, on-line journalism did not exist a few years back. Now, it’s where our profession is headed. I have been fortunate to be part of these changes, and I can lead our association through more changes to come,” she said.
Other candidates are Manny Medrano, legal affairs correspondent for ABC News, vice president of broadcast; Rafael Olmeda, Region 4 director and a reporter for the South Florida Sun Sentinel, vice president of print; Robert Vizcon, general manager of WTMO-TV, a Telemundo station in Orlando, Fla., at-large, Spanish-language officer.
Study Cautions on Showing Black Men in Handcuffs
“A new study by a University of Missouri-Columbia researcher found that viewers of a television crime news story are quicker to judge suspects who are African-American than white when the suspect?s mug shot without a name is displayed or when the suspect is shown wearing handcuffs,” the university announces.
Glenn Leshner, associate professor of journalism, who conducted the study, said in a release, ?If one assumes that television journalists have some level of control over the content of their pictures, even whether or not to show a suspect in handcuffs and grasped by authorities, then these findings ought to be at least part of the newsgathering and editing process.?
“Leshner?s study consisted of participants viewing six violent crime news stories, three involving African-American suspects and three involving white suspects. The images in the stories were divided into two main categories: dehumanizing and non-dehumanizing. There were three types of dehumanizing images: a suspect?s mug shot without his name displayed, a suspect shown in freeze frame rather than in motion, and a suspect shown in handcuffs,” the release said.
“Leshner based the conclusions on the amount of time it took for a participant to judge the suspect on a series of positive and negative attributes. He found that people were quickest to judge white suspects and slowest to judge African-American suspects when they were depicted in a non-dehumanizing way. Most importantly, Leshner said, participants were quicker to judge an African American suspected of a serious crime in a television story when he was shown in a dehumanizing way. These results, Leshner believes, suggest that the dehumanizing depiction encouraged participants to rely more on cultural stereotypes when making evaluations than the non-dehumanizing depictions.
“Leshner?s study will be published as a book chapter in the soon-to-be-released Multidisciplinary Approaches to Communication Law Research.”
Margo Jefferson Out as N.Y. Times Theater Critic
“Margo Jefferson, who was announced at the new second string theatre critic at the New York Times in December 2003, will step down from that position after only six months in the post, Variety reported,” according to Robert Simonson in Playbill magazine.
“Earlier this summer, the Times announced that Jefferson ?- a Pulitzer Prize winner for her book reviews ?- was ‘on leave’ in order to write a book. Many in the theatre community, however, suspected she would not return to the theatre beat.
“Jefferson’s tenure was remarkable for its brevity and the ire she inspired among theatre professionals. Producers and artists widely objected to what they perceived as the patronizing, professorial tone of her reviews, which often began with lofty pronouncements on the theatre and concluded with prescriptive advice for the playwright.
“The turning point in Jefferson’s career may have been her review of the Lynn Nottage play Intimate Apparel, in which she derided the work of Daniel Sullivan, one of the most uniformly respected directors in the theatre. The review read, ‘Daniel Sullivan is a mechanical director. His blocking is efficient, never organic, and props are always used predictably.’ The notice caused enough of an outcry to inspire a mention in Variety.
“Jefferson’s new beat, cultural news editor Jon Landman told Variety, will be to ‘write about experimental art in all its forms, using all the critic’s tools: reviews, essays, even perhaps the occasional guide to the perplexed.’
“Neil Genzlinger has assumed Jefferson’s beat in the last two months.”
Jefferson became one of the first African American women to win a Pulitzer Prize in journalism in 1995 for her book reviews and other cultural criticism. She became Sunday theater critic, but that was short-lived and she switched to writing on “cultural topics.”
Latino Journalists Cite Lack of Job Training
The soon-to-be-released results of a 100-question survey of Latino journalists, to which 400 people replied, will show more complaints about the lack of job training than about discrimination and harassment, the survey director says.
Dr. Federico Subervi, media consultant, communications scholar and director of the Latinos and Media Project, who conducted the study with the National Association of Hispanic Journalists, was interviewed by the News Watch project:
“Q: What are some of the highlights of your findings?
“A: We thought we would find more cases of discrimination and harassment, but only a few people said they experienced either frequently.
“Q: Why did you expect to find cases of discrimination and harassment of Latinos in Spanish-language media?
“A: Because it exists. We have heard, in conversations, that different forms of discrimination and harassment were taking place?especially ethnic discrimination.
“Q: What were some of your other findings?
“A: The lack of job training. A majority of the journalists and managers said they have not received any job training and that the opportunities for on the job training [do] not exist. In fact, a majority of them listed the lack of job training and professional development as reasons that could compel them to change careers.”
How Readers Can Help on Darfur Genocide
“I keep getting emails from people who want to do something about the genocide in Darfur,” New York Times op-ed columnist Nicholas Kristof, who has consistently sounded the alarm about the ethnic strife in the Sudan region, writes in his online forum.
“There are two basic kinds of steps readers can take ?- first, they can contribute to an aid organization active in Darfur, and, second, they can call on elected leaders and U.N. officials to apply more political pressure on Sudan to stop the slaughter.”
He then proceeds to list other actions that can be taken.
African Fund Honors Africana.Com Founding Editor
Philippe Wamba, founding editor in chief of Africana.com, died in a road accident in Kenya in 2002 while undertaking research for a journalistic project on African youth movements.
The Harvard African Students Association Network later “partnered with Harvard’s Center for Population Studies, which was itself undertaking research into issues of road safety worldwide, and in the year the World Health Organization declared ‘road safety year,’ the group launched the Philippe E. Wamba Memorial Fund for the Improvement of Road Traffic Safety in Africa,” Kate Tuttle reports on africana.com.
“To date, the Wamba Fund has raised some $7,000 -? a good step toward the $50,000 that is its goal, but nowhere near enough to fix the continent’s second most effective killer of young adults, after HIV/AIDS,” Tuttle writes.
Road problems are “second to HIV/AIDS as a killer of economically effective adults,” says Una Okonkwo Osili, another HASAN member, in the piece.
As this column said when he died, “Wamba was the living embodiment of the term ‘African American.’ He wrote of his life and of the relationship of Africans to African Americans in the 1999 book ‘Kinship: A Family’s Journey in Africa and America.’ His father was African, Prof. Ernest Wamba dia Wama, who later became a leader of a Congolese rebel group. His mother, Elaine Brown Wamba, was from Detroit. He had lived on both continents.”
To Macarena Hernández, Still Too Much B.S.
Macarena Hernández, the reporter for Texas’ San Antonio Express-News whose work was lifted by her one-time colleague, Jayson Blair, precipitating the Blair scandal at the New York Times, says the experience highlighted what’s wrong with newspapers.
She tells Gigi Anders in the American Journalism Review:
“All the rhetoric about diversity is still a lot of bullshit. There’s an emphasis on numbers in the newsroom but not what it means for the color of the pages. I got really tired of feeling like I was filling some kind of quota. I shouldn’t have to prove anything. It’s not about giving us people of color a break. It’s about providing all readers with meaningful and comprehensive coverage. Hellooo, it’s 2004! We need to move beyond the tamale, Cinco de Mayo and immigrants using Western Union stories. Besides, you know what? My dad would have preferred me becoming a lawyer. A million times over.”
Tampa Tribune, TV Station Join Parity Project
The Tampa Tribune and WFLA-TV in Tampa, Fla., both owned by Media General, Inc., are the latest news organizations to partner with the National Association of Hispanic Journalists in its Parity Project, an effort to improve newsroom diversity and the quality of news coverage of Latinos.
“Both The Tampa Tribune and WFLA-TV are already pioneers in newsroom convergence efforts, with their staffs often working together when covering stories. Through the Parity Project, NAHJ will help each organization to find Latinos for newsroom job openings and will also help each operation to develop stronger ties with the Latino community in Tampa and surrounding Hillsborough County, Fla.,” an NAHJ release says.
“Latinos currently comprise more than 20% of the nearly 1 million people in the Tampa metropolitan area. The Tampa Tribune?s daily circulation is more than 238,000, and Tampa is the 13th largest broadcast market in the United States.”
Dow Jones to Provide Content for New “Rumbo”
“Meximerica Media, a new network of Spanish language daily newspapers based out of San Antonio, has reached an agreement with Dow Jones & Co. . . . to publish a weekly section with news content from The Wall Street Journal,” reports Texas’ San Antonio Business Journal.
“Rumbo de San Antonio, the debut newspaper produced by Meximerica, began publishing on July 26. Sister publication Rumbo de Houston will begin publishing later in August.
“The weekly section will be published every Monday, starting Aug. 2, and will include stories on personal finance and technology, careers, small business and other stories of national interest to a Hispanic audience.
“Journal editors will select, translate and paginate stories for Rumbo. Content will be drawn from The Wall Street Journal, The Asian Wall Street Journal, The Wall Street Journal Europe, The Wall Street Journal Americas and The Wall Street Journal Sunday.
“Dow Jones already provides content for a weekly section for the Tribune Co.’s Hoy, which has editions in New York, Chicago and Los Angeles and Washington D.C.”
Committee Warns of Dangerous Climate in Haiti
“Journalists in Haiti continue to work in a dangerous climate nearly five months after the ouster of President Jean-Bertrand Aristide, but the risks have become particularly severe for those sympathetic to the former leader, according to a report released today by the Committee to Protect Journalists,” the organization announced this week.
“CPJ’s investigation, titled ‘Taking Sides,’ also found the problem to be acute in Haiti’s rural northern and central regions, where former rebels have threatened, harassed, and illegally detained journalists. With little police presence in these areas, illegal armed groups and former members of the disbanded Haitian military are acting as de facto security forces.
“CPJ found that at least three pro-Aristide journalists have been illegally detained, a media outlet shuttered, and another forced to suspend news broadcasts. A number of journalists have gone into hiding.”
Chicago Defender Leaving Historic Headquarters
“The Chicago Defender — one of the country’s most storied African-American newspapers — faces further rounds of change,” writes Eric Herman in the Chicago Sun-Times.
“Having lost its top-ranking editor, the 18,000-circulation daily recently hired a consultant [ Roland S. Martin] to run the paper for three months. Meanwhile, parent company Real Times Inc. is making plans to move the paper out of its historic headquarters at 2400 S. Michigan Ave.
“The steps mark the latest changes in a protracted period of upheaval for the newspaper. They also show the new owners’ intent to reshape the 99-year-old institution, according to Real Times Chief Executive Clarence Nixon.
“This October, sources said, the Defender’s 30-odd employees will vacate 2400 S. Michigan, its home since the mid-1950s. The newspaper no longer owns the building but pays rent, according to Nixon.
“One source at the paper said the Defender had already picked a location in the West Loop. But Nixon said Real Times was ‘in the process of identifying locations,’ and had hired a broker, Ivan Boone of Frontier Commercial and Concordis Real Estate.”
Ken Herrera Exiting Chicago Radio for Milwaukee
Sherman Kaplan and Ken Herrera, two of the most familiar voices on all-news WBBM-AM (780), will be signing off next month from the Infinity Broadcasting station,” Robert Feder reports in the Chicago Sun-Times.
“Herrera, 47, who joined the station in 1998 as morning news anchor and later shifted to afternoons, is leaving to join news/talk WTMJ-AM in Milwaukee as morning host. His last day here will be Aug. 6.
“Herrera said he found the Milwaukee offer attractive because it will put him back in mornings, and allow him more freedom on the air. Before he joined ‘Newsradio 780’ as the successor to morning anchor John Hultman, he was morning-drive anchor for Associated Press Radio Network in Washington, D.C.”
Demarco Morgan, from Jackson, Miss., to Milwaukee
Demarco Morgan is joining WISN-TV Milwaukee as co-anchor of the weekend morning newscasts and reporter during the week on “12 News This Morning,” according to a notice in the TV tip sheet Shop Talk.
Morgan is a reporter and fill-in anchor at WJTV in Jackson, Miss.
