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John and Tyrone’s Adventure

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Outrage at NBC Impersonation of Terror Suspects

John Zito, an Italian from New York, and Tyrone Edwards, who police described as an Asian-Indian from Atlanta, were part of a story that NBC planned to air last Thursday about security at small airports that charter helicopters, reports Doug Moore in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.

Zito and Edwards were carrying a duffel bag and a backpack and drove up to a Sauget, Ill., helicopter hangar in a rental car with Texas license plates.

“The signs pointed to terrorism — that’s exactly the impression the two men, an NBC News producer and cameraman, were trying to create,” Moore wrote.

But Arlene Thomas, who with her husband, Clarke, runs Fostaire Helicopters, “called police, who searched the bags and the men and found a butane lighter, box cutter, two knives, duct tape, a powdery substance and a bottle filled with a clear liquid. The men also had maps of New York, Chicago, San Francisco and St. Louis with major landmarks highlighted in yellow,” Moore reported. She described men to police as of “Middle Eastern descent.”

“The two were arrested when a rental company employee alerted authorities. After their arrest, the news crew was questioned by the FBI and released once their identities were confirmed,” Broadcasting and Cable reported last week.

“‘They put out every red flag you could possibly put out,’ said Sauget Police Chief Patrick Delaney, who handled the call with three of his officers before turning the case over to two members of the FBI’s terrorist task force. ‘We found out they worked for NBC News and were part of a group (of the network’s journalists) throughout the country doing a story to see how easy it would be to infiltrate helicopter hangars,” read Moore’s Post-Dispatch story.

“I’m absolutely outraged that NBC News is out here trying to create news rather than report news,” airport manager Bob McDaniel said in the story, after meeting with members of the Transportation Security Administration. Thomas said an apology was in order from NBC to her and everyone who was involved.

“McDaniel said he sent out a bulletin immediately to airport directors across the country, alerting them to NBC’s actions.

“NBC defended its actions in an e-mail statement to the Post-Dispatch, saying that the employees did nothing wrong in determining the security measures at helicopter charter services.

“‘Nothing they did or carried was illegal,’ said NBC spokesman Allison Gollust. ‘In Illinois, the system worked and . . . our reporting will include this part of the story, evidence that civilians like those in Illinois are making attempts to keep the skies safe.'”

Alert AP Bureau Spots All-White R’n’R Tribute

Miller Brewing is celebrating the ”50th Anniversary of Rock ‘n’ Roll” with eight commemorative beer cans that feature Rolling Stone cover shots of Elvis Presley, Blondie and others. But there are no blacks among them, and the world now knows that thanks to reporter Juliet Williams of the Associated Press’ Milwaukee Bureau and her bureau chief, T. Lee Hughes.

Williams’ story was picked up around the country today, and MTV followed with its own story this afternoon.

Williams told Journal-isms that she and Hughes, neither a person of color, had seen a photo caption about the beer cans in the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel a couple of months ago. “It’s sort of an odd list to begin with,” she said, “and then we noticed there were no black musicians, and the birth of rock ‘n’ roll is tied to a lot of them.” Her bureau chief, she explained, is a big music fan.

“Gary Armstrong, chief marketing officer for Rolling Stone publisher Wenner Media, said race wasn’t a consideration,” Williams’ story said.

”We didn’t even consciously think pro or con, the same way that the only woman on there is Blondie. We just went with the people that we thought were appropriate,” he said. ”We went through [the covers] and said these people we don’t think are appropriate, or wouldn’t appeal to Miller drinkers.”

“Miller spokesman Scott Bussen said the company started with a broad wish list, but its choices were limited to Rolling Stone covers.”

That could be part of the problem. In Rolling Stone’s heyday, it was rare to find black artists on its covers. And its debut in 1967 came after Bo Diddley, Chuck Berry, Fats Domino and Little Richard had hit their peak.

A Black Press Critic — for Now

While more journalists of color are becoming public editors, or ombudsmen who critique their own newspaper, it remains rare to have a press critic of color in the mainstream media.

But last week, amid the upheaval at the Village Voice, Ta-Nehisi Coates became one.

Coates was designated the interim “Press Clips” columnist until a permanent one is named, he told Journal-isms, and the change in emphasis was immediately apparent. His lead item was, “The irresistible pull of the down-low myth ? uh, story ? hooks reporters and their readers.” Next up was a comment on ESPN’s pairing of sportswriters Skip Bayless of the San Jose Mercury News and Stephen A. Smith of the Philadelphia Inquirer on “Pardon the Interruption.” Then came “Black on white on black: Favorite attempts by white people to convince themselves Barack Obama isn’t black.”

As the New York Times reported last week, “Press Clips” columnist Cynthia Cotts resigned amid a number of layoffs at the paper.

Jean Thompson Leaves Balto Sun After 16 Years

Jean Thompson joined the Baltimore Sun as a temporary reporter in 1988, spent four years as a recruiter and, as associate editor for two years, writing on the editorial page, was listed on the masthead. Now she has quit the paper to accompany her husband to New York, where he plans to study to become an Episcopal priest.

Her husband, M. Dion Thompson, also a reporter at the Sun, resigned as well. He took a leave of absence two years ago to write a novel, “Walk Like a Natural Man,” about black Hollywood in 1930s.

“We’ll be living in married student quarters just like we were 18 again,” Thompson told Journal-isms. “If I got between my husband and God, it wouldn’t work.”

The family, including their 9-year-old son, Tevin, plans to leave for New York next week, she said. Dion will be studying at the General Theological Seminary in Manhattan; there were no such seminaries in Maryland.

The couple met at the Hartford Courant, which Jean joined in 1983 after graduating from the Maynard Institute’s Summer Program for Minority Journalists the previous year. They were married in 1986, and both came to the Sun in 1988.

“My first goal is to get back into journalism,” and she will be job-hunting, Thompson said.

Miami Paper Pulls Section Over Racial Insinuation

“The Miami Herald pulled its daily features magazine from Tuesday’s editions because it contained what could have been perceived as racially insensitive content, the newspaper said Wednesday,” the Associated Press reports.

“The concern was over a headline that was juxtaposed over an illustration for a story on Olympic athletes and doping. The headline ‘How they will cheat’ was placed over an illustration of a bulked-up athlete with a dark complexion.”

Kim Godwin Directing FAMU J-Program

Kimberly Godwin, who in 2003 left KNBC-TV Los Angeles, where she was vice president and news director and one of the few African American women to hold such a position, has been named acting director of the division of journalism at Florida A&M University, of which she is an alumna.

Shortly after leaving KNBC, Godwin returned to FAMU as an adjunct professor.

Associate Dean James Hawkins became dean of the School of Journalism and Graphic Communication in April, creating a vacancy.

“Timing is everything,” Godwin said, jokingly.

Asked to name her biggest priority for students, she told Journal-isms, “to mirror the work environment, so they are better prepared to walk into a newsroom and be productive.” Godwin said she would continue to teach a course in media ethics and would help out in a course in advanced television news.

Godwin began her broadcast career in radio in Tallahassee. “She became a newswriter for WTNT-AM before moving into television as an executive producer at WTXL-TV (ABC) in 1984. Since then she has held a number of positions in broadcast news, including anchor, reporter and producer. From 1998 to 2001 Godwin was the vice president/news director for KXAS, the NBC-owned station in Dallas/Fort Worth,” the Los Angeles Business Journal reported when she was named to the KNBC post in 2001.

Unity Continues to Generate Commentary

Hampton U. Gets Grant for Visiting J-Ethics Prof

“The Scripps Howard School of Journalism and Communications at Hampton University has been awarded a $120,000 grant from the Ethics and Excellence in Journalism Foundation to support a visiting professor of journalism ethics,” the school announces.

?Integrity and ethical behavior are very important in today?s society,? said Hampton University President William R. Harvey in the release. ?We want to equip our students with decision making skills so that they are prepared to take on ethical issues in the newsrooms and boardrooms.?

Wal-Mart Scholarships Linked to Painful Publicity

Wal-Mart’s announcement this month of $500,000 in scholarships to students of color at journalism programs around the country, including Howard University, University of Southern California and Columbia University, came about because of recent publicity around its business practices, a Wal-Mart spokeswoman says in the New York Times today.

Wal-Mart has also underwritten the Tavis Smiley show on public television.

“Mona Williams, a spokeswoman for Wal-Mart, said the journalism scholarships were ‘a first of their kind’ for the retailer, and came about because of the recent publicity around its business practices,” Constance L. Hays reported.

“We’ve really been in the spotlight and I think that’s made us especially sensitive to the need for balanced coverage,” Williams said in the story. “It doesn’t matter if the subject is Wal-Mart or something else. You just aren’t going to have that unless different perspectives are represented.” Without diversity, she added, “the result can be narrower thinking as news events are presented to the public,” Hays quoted Williams as saying.

“Influencing that presentation may be at the heart of the effort, although Ms. Williams said there was ‘no hidden agenda here’ and added that it probably would have been done even if Wal-Mart had not come under scrutiny,” Hays continued.

“John Siegenthaler, founder of the First Amendment Center at Vanderbilt University, said, ‘Wal-Mart is doing what most corporations do: when they feel pain, they try to salve the wound.’ He predicted that ‘they may get less out of it than they expect to,’ but he added that “if it helps minority journalism, I hope they salve it with more than half a million dollars.’

“Jannette L. Dates, dean of Howard University’s John H. Johnson School of Communications, hopes that Wal-Mart’s scholarship will encourage other nonmedia companies to contribute,” Hays continued.

“I’m going to go after some of those others and say ‘See, Wal-Mart did this, why don’t you?’ ” Dates said in the story.

A Diversity Tale of Two Newspapers

“Burlington, North Carolina?s Times-News and Colorado?s Greeley Tribune have similar circulations and hometown demographics. Yet while the staff in Burlington?s newsroom is practically all white, Greeley?s is diverse. What does Greeley do that Burlington doesn?t?” asks the promo for Lori Robertson’s examination of the two papers in the American Journalism Review.

The Times-News in Burlington, N.C., narrowly avoided being listed in a Knight Foundation report among the 374 daily newspapers that lacked a single journalist of color.

Editor Lee Barnes “says his recruiting efforts have failed. His recent minority hires either walked through the door or came to him via word-of-mouth. ‘I’ve gotten tired of beating my head against the wall,’ he says of trying to attract minority candidates.”

The piece contrasts what the Times-News does not do with what the Greeley Tribune does.

“Every year, Editor Chris Cobler, who joined the Tribune in November 1995, visits area campuses and meets with students, including students of color, many of whom later come to the paper as interns. The Tribune has had as many as nine interns in one semester, each paired up with a reporter on staff who acts as a mentor. Most work part-time for credit, not for pay. It’s a strategy that Cobler suggests other papers try. ‘Have interns and make sure they have a good experience,’ he says. ‘Because students talk.'”

“Name an industry diversity directive and Cobler has most likely participated in it ? or tried to.”

Content Diversity, Mergers Seen as Compatible

Just because a big company owns all the media outlets in town doesn?t necessarily mean newspapers and broadcast stations will look and sound alike, according to a review of the research in this area published in the summer issue of the journal Contexts, writes Emily Carlson for the University of Wisconsin.

“While media consolidation does have adverse effects, as described in a literature review, the reduction in content diversity does not appear to be one of them,” Carlson writes. In fact, the research by Joshua Gamso, a University of San Francisco sociology professor, and Pearl Latteier, a graduate student in communication arts at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, suggests that media content is no less diverse than it was before the increase in consolidation of ownership.”

A Network for ‘Nice Jewish Boyz’

John Odoner, a real estate lawyer in Manhattan, is raising money to start Jewish Television, or JTV, a 24-hour digital cable channel he hopes to begin broadcasting early next year, reports Jacques Steinberg in the New York Times. “JTV’s proposed lineup both dabbles in stereotypes and subverts them. There is ‘Nice Jewish Boyz,’ which Mr. Odoner describes as ‘a Jewish ‘Man Show,’ which will smash the myth of the over-mothered Jewish male.” He envisions ‘Jewishly Incorrect,’ as ‘a borderline-edgy, comedic political commentary show.’ And ‘Genesis 9:0’ is a biblical quiz show.

“The channel will also produce reality programming, though whether it will attempt to develop knockoffs of more mainstream fare — imagine ‘Fear Factor’ as reconceived by Woody Allen — has not yet been revealed.”

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