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Gwen Ifill to Host VP Debate

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3rd Person of Color in Moderator’s Role

Gwen Ifill, managing editor of PBS’ “Washington Week” and senior correspondent for PBS’ “The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer,” will moderate the vice presidential debate between incumbent Dick Cheney and Sen. John Edwards, the Commission on Presidential Debates announced today.

That debate is scheduled for 9 p.m. Eastern time Tuesday, Oct. 5, at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland.

Named to moderate the first presidential debate Sept. 30 was Jim Lehrer of PBS; Charles Gibson of ABC News is to host the second on Oct. 8, and Bob Schieffer of CBS News the third on Oct. 13.

Ifill will be the third journalist of color to moderate such a debate, according to the commission’s executive director, Janet Brown, naming Bernard Shaw, then of CNN, in 1988 and 2000, and Carole Simpson of ABC News in 1992. Robert C. Maynard was a panelist for a Jimmy Carter–Gerald Ford debate in 1976.

Ifill regularly interacts with national political figures in her PBS work and was moderator of a session with Secretary of State Colin L. Powell at last week’s Unity convention. Her office said she was out of the country on vacation and could not be reached for comment. [Added Aug. 15: On her return, Ifill said, “I’m honored and excited by the opportunity.”]

Brown told Journal-isms that the commission board uses three criteria for selecting moderators: familiarity with the issues and the campaigns; extensive experience with live news and television broadcasting, and realizing “that their job is to focus time and attention on getting information from the candidates on their positions.”

She said other journalists of color had been considered.

Unity announced last fall that it would meet every four years rather than every five, and last week Unity President Ernest Sotomayor said that in part, this was to take advantage of the presidential election years — “the idea being we wanted to influence the quality of coverage.” He said the organization has also discussed proposing Unity as a sponsor of the presidential debates.

Brown said she had not yet heard of this idea, but “we’re open to just about anything.”

Gay Journalist Prez OK With McGreevey Coverage

After cautioning journalists not to portray yesterday’s resignation of New Jersey Gov. James McGreevey solely as the result of his admission that he is gay, the president of the National Lesbian and Gay Journalists Association says that he is pleased that the terminology in news stories has become “more accurate.

“As the news unfolded, bits and pieces of information were posted on wire services and websites, and evolved to make themselves more accurate over time. For instance, one wire report initially had this headline: ‘N.J. Governor Resigns, Admits He Is Gay.’ When it was updated a few hours later, it reflected more of the story: ‘N.J. Governor Resigns, Admits Gay Affair’,” Eric Hegedus, president of the association, told Journal-isms.

“A side note: one phrase we’re seeing a lot is ‘homosexual affair’ or ‘gay affair,’ and some would raise the question of the validity of that terminology. In headlines, it is sometimes the only option because of space limitations and, as a quick read, gets specific, important information out there for the reader. But I heard a television commentator this morning say that the governor had ‘a homosexual affair with a former staffer.’ In a sense, that separates his sexuality from anyone else’s, and makes his ‘affair’ somehow different — even lurid — when it isn’t,” continued Hegedus, a page designer at the Philadelphia Inquirer.

“Yes, clearly, the fact that he is gay is important. That was quite a disclosure and one of the important pieces of news to come out of the conference. But perhaps journalists, in the stories themselves, could say he ‘had an affair with a former male staffer’? After all, if he had resigned because of an affair with a woman, the quote likely would have been that he ‘had an affair with a former female staffer,’ and not that he ‘had a heterosexual (or gay) affair with a former staffer.’ It’s a matter of playing the scenario equally, whether the subject is gay or straight,” Hegedus said via e-mail.

In an editorial today, The New York Times agreed that the gay aspect was just one part of the story.

“The announcement was reportedly driven by the threat of a sexual harassment lawsuit by a former aide, Golan Cipel. Mr. McGreevey, who has two children from his two marriages and whose wife stood next to him during his press conference, acknowledged that he had committed adultery with another man. He did not say that the man in question had worked for his administration,” the editorial said.

“Gay or straight, that kind of relationship raises troubling questions, apart from the issue of whether it was consensual.”

Gay journalists found more in the story. “As for gay-rights issues, McGreevey has had a mixed record in office,” Steve Weinstein reported in the Washington Blade, going on to elaborate.

In a Washington Post Style section essay, Hank Stuever quoted McGreevey’s statement that, “By virtue of my traditions, and my community, I worked hard to ensure that I was accepted as part of the traditional family of America.” Stuever then commented, “Yes, yes, yes. Gay men and lesbians know that story. They lived it, sweetie, and told it over and over again 20 years ago, in college, at the family Thanksgiving table, to suspicious but loyal prom dates of the opposite sex.”

Some black journalists said that the media attention to the book “On the Down Low: A Journey into the Lives of ‘Straight’ Black Men Who Sleep With Men,” by J.L. King, which soared to the best-seller lists after the author appeared on Oprah Winfrey‘s show, had made it seem as though such double lives were a characteristic only of black men.

“What I have read in other groups I belong to is how some black men feel that they have been all tarred with the same brush now,” wrote Manny Otiko, a freelancer based in Southern California who now does public relations, to the listserve of the National Association of Black Journalists.

“They also feel that hysteria about the downlow phenomenon is making black women suspicious of all black men. I think black men feel that Mr. King is exaggerating the situation to sell books, and he neglected to mention that the downlow phenomenon is not unique to black men.”

However, in a story today in the Philadelphia Daily News, Jenice M. Armstrong and Michael Hinkelman quote King as saying, “It crosses all ethnic groups. I have white friends who are bisexual who don’t share that with their wives.

“There are gay men who get married for political reasons, for their religions and for church,” King said in the story. “They want to have the perfect life.”

McGreevey Out: Impressions of the Coverage (MediaBistro.com)

N.J. Papers Have Been Chasing McGreevey Rumors for Years (Editor & Publisher)

Two Urge More Unity Interaction With Whites

The discussion over whom to include in future Unity conventions focuses not only on gay, lesbian and South Asian journalists, as reported earlier, but on other white journalists as well.

“We should urge all the major professional associations in our industry, ASNE [American Society of Newspaper Editors], NAB [National Association of Broadcasters], RTNDA [Radio-Television News Directors Association], SPJ [Society of Professional Journalists], IRE [Investigative Reporters and Editors], etc. to schedule their 2008 conventions in the same city that UNITY designates for its next convention,” Juan Gonzalez, a Unity founder and 2002-2004 president of the National Association of Hispanic Journalists, argues on the blog PressThink.

“That way all the journalists of our nation will have a chance to come together, exchange views and share some training. But to accomplish such a grandiose project, the traditional organizations in our industry will have to come to grips with demographic reality. They will have to accept that America is changing, and not just from a market standpoint. The news media are changing as well. And UNITY is a huge and growing part of our industry’s future,” Gonzalez wrote.

And in a “Centerpiece” essay on Poynter.org, Keith M. Woods of the Poynter Institute wrote, “Open the doors and let gays and lesbians in.

“And while you’re at it, pull the Society for Professional Journalists in as well. Then you’ll have true unity.” Woods is Poynter’s reporting, writing and editing group leader.

The audience response to the presidential candidates at Unity, however, seemed to continue to provoke the most commentary, with Nashville Tennessean Editor Frank Sutherland joining in the criticism, as well as Fort Worth Star-Telegram columnist Bob Ray Sanders, an NABJ member, and former NABJ board member Lynne Varner. Others, such as Amy Alexander of africana.com, defended the audience members who expressed their opinions. (see links below).

The debate played out Wednesday night on “The O’Reilly Factor” on Fox News Channel, as Gregory Clay, a sports editor at the Knight Ridder Tribune news service in Washington, faced off with Condace Pressley, Unity treasurer and immediate past NABJ president.

In the “Back of the Book” segment of the show, Clay said, “if you didn’t know better, you would have thought that the Kerry speech at the convention center here in Washington was a Democratic Convention without the confetti and the goofy hats and the balloons.”

Pressley argued that most in the audience were not working as journalists that day. “Senator Kerry‘s speech was tailored specifically for the Unity Conference. He was speaking to a group of journalists of color, many of whom were not on the clock, who were not working that day, and he spoke to issues that were relevant to us as individuals who happen to work in the media,” she said.

More on Unity, from a Letter Writer to a Publisher

White House Is Asked About “Segregated” Unity

Les Kinsolving, talk-show host at Baltimore’s WCBM-AM (the station where Alan Keyes started in 1994), asked White House Press Secretary Scott McClellan Monday why President Bush agreed to speak last week before a “racially segregated organization” — Unity.

The exchange, as quoted in Kinsolving’s World Net Daily:

Q: “The Journalists of Color organization, comprised of black, Hispanic, Asian and American Indian, would have barred such journalists as Ralph McGill of the Atlanta Constitution and Hodding Carter of the Greenville Mississippi Delta Democrat Times, who risked their lives fighting racial segregation. But it would be open to such journalists as Jayson Blair of the New York Times and Janet Cooke of the Washington Post. And my question, why did the president speak to this racially segregated organization, whose title leaves you, and most of us in this room, as colorless?

“McCLELLAN: Les, if you have questions about the organization, I think you can direct them to the organization. The president —

“WND: I tried. They don’t answer the phone. I want to know why did the president speak to this racially segregated organization?

“McCLELLAN: The president was pleased to go and speak to the UNITY Conference and talk to them about his record in office and his agenda moving forward. It is a record that is based on expanding opportunity for all Americans and improving the quality of life for all Americans. It’s a very strong record. The president has delivered, when it comes to expanding opportunity for all Americans and improving the quality of life for all Americans. And he was pleased to go there and talk about that, and talk about his agenda as we move forward and build upon that record.”

Kinsolving must not have noticed the white editors, recruiters and other journalists attending the convention.

Meanwhile, other right-wingers had their say: Rush Limbaugh took issue on his radio show with a question for Bush from Roland S. Martin; Boston Globe columnist Jeff Jacoby, who once wrote that affirmative action had killed someone, challenged the Unity report on the pervasively white nature of Washington bureaus, asking, “just how does the race of reporters and editors determine whether they produce ‘a skewed view of the news’?”

And syndicated columnist Michelle Malkin, who dissed Unity ’99 while at the Seattle Times, began her Unity 2004 column this way:

“Every five years, a herd of perpetually disgruntled minority journalists gathers together to decry the lack of ‘diversity’ in the media. This week, thousands of them will huff and puff in unison at the ‘UNITY Journalists of Color, Inc.’ convention in Washington, D.C. Both President Bush and Sen. John Kerry are scheduled to give their ‘I [heart symbol] Diversity More Than The Other Guy’ speeches at UNITY on Thursday and Friday. . . .”

A T-Shirt on Terrorism Spotted at Unity

Mentioning Unity on Pacifica Radio’s “Democracy Now!” today, co-host Juan Gonzalez, who just ended a term as president of the National Association of Hispanic Journalists, said he had spotted a T-shirt showing four armed Native people.

Accompanying the image was this line: “Homeland security: Fighting terrorism since 1492.”

Vanguarde Figures Put Out “Uptown” Magazine

“New to newsstands this week is the upscale quarterly Uptown, which will reveal the ‘heart and soul’ of Harlem, publisher Leonard Burnett Jr. promises in the premiere issue,” Paul D. Colford writes in the New York Daily News.

“It features Fonzworth P. Bentley on the cover and an interview with the gentleman style-setter inside, along with richly illustrated pieces on Harlem history, fashion spreads, shopping tips and lots of party pix.

“‘We’re trying to create a nice esthetic,’ said creative director Brett Wright, who doubles as CEO of Nu America, a Harlem-based ad and talent agency whose executives also include music producer Andre Harrell.

“Harlemwood Publishing, which is producing Uptown in a strategic partnership with the Harlem Chamber of Commerce, is led by Burnett, the CEO, and chairman Keith Clinkscales.

“They previously headed Vanguarde Media, which published the mags Savoy and Honey before going bankrupt last fall.”

Group Runs Anti-Kerry Ads on Black Radio

“A group financed by a major Republican contributor has begun running radio ads in about a dozen cities, many in battleground states, attacking Sen. John F. Kerry as ‘rich, white and wishy-washy’ and mocking his wife for boasting of her African roots,” Thomas B. Edsall reported in the Washington Post.

“The D.C.-based group, People of Color United, has substantial financial backing from J. Patrick Rooney, the former chairman of Golden Rule Insurance Co. and the founder of a new firm, Medical Savings Insurance Co. Both firms specialize in medical savings accounts, created by Republican-backed 1996 legislation, and health savings accounts, which were created by President Bush’s 2003 Medicare prescription drug legislation.”

Meanwhile, Erica Werner reports for the Associated Press that “Democratic Sen. Barbara Boxer is courting minority and Jewish voters by running advertisements in dozens of alternative and ethnic newspapers — while making almost no ad buys so far in mainstream media, federal campaign finance reports show.

“The reports show that Boxer, who is running for re-election to a third Senate term, has bought ad space from more than three dozen ethnic publications or alternative publishing groups since last fall. They range from Sacramento’s El Hispano and San Francisco’s Asian Week to The Black Voice News in Riverside and San Diego Jewish Press,” Werner wrote.

OutKast Issue Crops Up Again on Unity Panel

Tempers raged at a Unity session titled, “A New Multicultural Dynamic in Entertainment,” Bill Vaughan reports in Vol. III, Issue XVII of his Tasty Clips column.

“Native American rapper Lightfoot talked of a double standard regarding his community’s protest of the OutKast Grammy performance in which Andre 3000 and dancers were dressed as Indians on a stage adorned with teepees,” he reports.

“After the complaint, he said he was ignored by the group, lambasted on Atlanta radio, and lost the support of a former ally in the Rev. Jesse Jackson. Monique tried to console him by citing the Outkast/Rosa Parks lawsuit and how you sometimes must see the light after the dark.

“‘If one child asks, ‘Who’s Rosa Parks?’ and reads a book about her maybe something good comes out of it,’ she offered.

“‘I don’t think it made anyone want to be an Indian,’ he dryly responded, wondering if there would be the same nonchalance had he put on an afro wig and painted his lips white. Fellow panelist Doug E. Fresh blamed it on us not knowing each other in America and vowed to help bring a resolution to the conflict.

“Later, Monique took exception to a comment from a journalist questioning her choice of roles and talking about how he’d be embarrassed to show Soul Plane or play music by Young Buck at a family reunion. The actress who starred on The Parkers asked, ‘How am I a buffoon? . . .”

Media Flock to Obama’s Ancestral Home in Kenya

“Propelled by the limelight the US Senate candidate of Kenyan descent, [Barack] Obama, is enjoying, some international media organisations have been flocking to Siaya in a bid to trace the politician’s roots,” George Olwenya reports in the East African Standard of Nairobi, Kenya.

“Obama’s grandmother, Mama Sarah Onyango, has been playing host to CNN and BBC crews, all of whom have been thronging her humble homestead at the small village of Kogelo in the remote parts of Siaya District.

“This is where the politician’s father, Barrack Obama senior, was buried.”

Suspects Captured in Killing of Haitian Journalist

More than seven months after escaping from the Port-au-Prince National Penitentiary, two of the men charged in the April 2000 killing of prominent journalist Jean Lï¿œopold Dominique have been recaptured,” reports the Committee to Protect Journalists.

“Dymsley Millien was arrested August 1 in Port-au-Prince, and Jeudi-Jean Daniel was captured August 8 in the southern city of Jacmel, the Haitian press reported. Philippe Markington, who is also charged in the murder, is still on the run after escaping from the penitentiary January 1 by breaking through a wall with a group of prisoners that included his co-defendants.”

How Groups Line Up on Spending Power

“As a group, gays represent $485 billion in spending power, third behind Hispanics at $653 billion and African Americans at $750 billion but ahead of Asian Americans at $344 billion.”

The statement comes from a story by Marisa Hoheb in Medialifemagzine.com, focusing on a survey of 750 gays and lesbians was conducted by Qtopia Media and the Mariposa Group over the first three months of this year.

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