Survey of D.C. Bureaus Also Omitted Graphics
A survey released during the Unity convention documenting the whiteness of newspapers? Washington bureaus has at least one bureau chief crying foul because it omitted photographers and graphic artists.
And although Unity?s partner in the project, the University of Maryland?s Philip Merrill College of Journalism, has only two full-time faculty members of color remaining among its 28, its dean tells Journal-isms that this is not a case of ?people in glass houses throwing stones,? saying, ?we?re keeping diversity uppermost on our minds.?
The survey, ?Diversity in the Washington Newspaper Press Corps,? found that ?less than 10.5 percent of the reporters, correspondents, columnists, editors and bureau chiefs in the Washington daily newspaper press corps are journalists of color — 60 out of 574.”
But, it said, ?excluded from the census were photographers, graphic artists, editorial assistants, foreign correspondents who report to Washington bureaus and Washington-based editors whose primary function is directing foreign coverage.?
Deborah Howell, chief of the Newhouse News Service bureau in Washington, has written the American Journalism Review, the University of Maryland-administered publication that ran a story on the study, that she was ?dismayed and chagrined to find that your Washington Bureau survey deliberately left out anyone in photography and info graphics. Toren Beasley, director of photography, and Monica Seaberry, info graphic artist, have been an integral part of the Newhouse Washington Bureau for 14 years.
?They have considerable journalistic skills and are not only in charge of the photo and graphic report, but are a key part of our everyday decisions on what we cover and how we cover it. . . .”
Beasley, she said, ?is a true editor — one who often sees holes in stories or key elements that need to be resolved.
?The American Society of Newspaper Editors does not leave photo and graphic journalists out of their annual, authoritative survey on minorities in the newspaper business. And we are long past viewing photographers, photo editors and graphic and design journalists as second-class citizens.”
Howell?s bureau was listed in the survey as having four nonwhite reporters and editors in Washington, out of 16, ranking third among the bureaus. Her letter is scheduled for publication in the October issue, due out at the end of September, AJR editor Rem Rieder told Journal-isms.
Christopher Callahan, the associate dean of the Merrill College of Journalism, who conceptualized the report along with Mei-Ling Hopgood of Cox Newspapers, defended his choice of journalists today in an e-mail, saying, “We believe those are the journalists who most define how Washington is covered.”
?First, for three of the largest news organizations surveyed, the Washington Post, USA Today and the Washington Times, it was not possible to identify photographers in ‘the Washington press corps’ vs. other staff photographers,? he said. ?Since those newspapers are based in Washington, their photographers cover all types of stories, not just stories that would be covered by a Washington bureau. Second, few of the Washington bureaus we surveyed had photographers or graphic artists of any kind. Our attempt in the UNITY-Maryland project was to provide a picture of ?the Washington press corps? and as evenly as possible compare ?apples to apples.? We defined the Washington press corps as reporters, correspondents, columnists, editors and bureau chiefs. We believe those are the journalists who most define how Washington is covered.?
Other bureau chiefs had agreed with Howell on the significance of photographers and graphic artists. ?If you talk to photographers, they consider themselves to be journalists, too,? Associated Press bureau chief Sandy Johnson told Journal-isms.
?They contribute as much as the reporters do to the output and input,? added John Walcott, bureau chief of Knight Ridder. ?When we talk about coverage decisions, they have a voice, and when you sit down and discuss graphics, different perspectives help produce better graphics.? Knight Ridder led the list of reporters and editors of color, with seven of the 24 in the bureau.
Dean Thomas Kunkel spoke to the issue of his own faculty diversity, saying that the college?s efforts to diversify its curriculum and its partnership with the National Association of Black Journalists, which has its national office on the campus, help show that it is serious. “The percentage of faculty is the single area where we need to do work,” he said.
As reported in May, Ben Holman, a professor at the college who began his career in 1952, retired with the end of the semester. His departure leaves Lee Thornton, who holds the Richard Eaton chair in Broadcast Journalism, and Alice Bonner, an assistant professor, both African American, as the two faculty members of color of 28 full-time faculty. Bonner is a 1972 graduate of the Maynard Institute’s Summer Program for Minority Journalists.
Callahan added these figures: “Tenure-track Faculty members: 3 (1 person of color); full-time contract faculty: 8 (0 people of color); part-time contract faculty: 20 (5 people of color); academic administrators: 5 (2 people of color).”
In contrast with the faculty figures, Kunkel said that whites were just 60 percent of the undergraduate student body and 51 percent of the graduate.
Kunkel said that full-time faculty have the lowest turnover rate, and thus it is where he has the least flexibility. Holman?s slot will be filled in the 2005-06 school year, he said, once it is decided what journalistic discipline should be represented in his slot and the faculty is consulted.
?We were privileged to be involved in that report,? Kunkel said of the Washington bureau study, “but universities in general, including the University of Maryland, have a lot of work to do on this front.?
J-Groups Lining Up Against Sanctions on Reporters
At least 28 journalist groups, along with individual journalists, are lining up to protest recent rulings ordering fines and possible jail sentences for reporters who refuse to reveal their confidential sources.
?In the most recent case, the judge in the Wen Ho Lee case held five reporters in contempt for refusing to identify their sources. Lee, a former nuclear weapons scientist at Los Alamos National Laboratory, is seeking the identities of confidential sources from network television reporter Pierre Thomas and four others. The judge has imposed a fine of $500 a day on each reporter. That ruling is being appealed,? as the Radio-Television News Directors Association summarized.
?In the case involving the leak of the identity of CIA officer Valerie Plame, journalists have been ordered to testify about confidential sources.?
Individual journalists may sign the statement in support of the reporters at www.rcfp.org/standup.
Among those weighing in today were the National Association of Black Journalists and RTNDA.
First Asian American TV Network Ready to Launch
?The nation’s first 24-hour Asian American television network, ImaginAsian, will premiere on Aug. 30 and reach 5 million households as a result of new distribution agreements with Equity Broadcasting Corp.,? Media Post reports.
?In addition to previously announced carriage in Las Vegas, Ventura, Calif., and Denver, ImaginAsian will also broadcast in Atlanta, Seattle, and Minneapolis.
?With 12 million Asians currently residing in the United States, the channel will no doubt pick up a heavy following right off the bat, offering series from South Korea, anime [Japanese animation] and drama from Japan, classic kung-fu, a Chinese reality dating show, as well as Vietnamese, Cambodian, and Indian programming. All will have English subtitles and hosts and announcements in between programming will be in English.?
“F” Word Costs Austin Sports Anchor His Job
?An expletive, muttered under his breath in a taped segment that mistakenly got on the air, has ended Robert Flores’ career as KEYE-TV’s sports anchor,? Diane Holloway reports in the Austin American-Statesman.
The brief blunder was broadcast before sunrise Thursday, and Flores, who was not in the station at the time, was fired that day.
?On the offending tape, Flores is seen introducing a piece on the Houston Astros when a loud noise is heard in the background, possibly something being dropped. Flores mumbles the f-word and then the tape goes black.
?Flores says he does not know how a ?bad take? from three days earlier got on the air. He says bad takes usually are taped over and thus disappear. The production staff, including a tape operator, would have handled the tape.
?Flores, 34, came to Austin in August 2000 from KWTX in Waco. The Houston native hopes to stay in Austin.?
2 Saw the “Other” D.C. Outside Unity Meeting
?Amid all the coverage of the convention that appeared on the Web and in newspapers since the confab ended Aug. 8, I wonder if I?m the only one who took notice of a particularly dire social situation that I encountered again and again during that week,? Amy Alexander writes of the Unity convention on africana.com.
?In nearly every corner, in bank building doorways along 15th Street, on park benches and at bus stops, were the sodden, filthy, mumbling figures of mentally ill homeless men.?
?I doubt whether next week’s Republican National Convention in New York, with ?compassion? as its theme, will touch this,? added Lewis Diuguid today in the Kansas City Star.
?Our troops are fighting, getting horribly injured and dying in U.S.-led wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. Many don’t know that 23 percent of those who are homeless are veterans; many don’t know that one day, that could be them,? wrote the 1984 graduate of the Maynard Institute’s Editing Program for Minority Journalsts.
Other post-Unity coverage:
- Donald Adderton, Biloxi (Miss.) Sun-Herald: This election year finds a very subdued Jesse Jackson
- Gannett Co.: Clarion-Ledger?s Don Hudson (1995 graduate of the Maynard Institute’s Management Training Center) receives NABJ President?s Award
- Dawn Garcia, San Jose (Calif.) Mercury-News: Newsroom Diversity Can Sharpen the Focus
- Clarence V. McKee, South Florida Sun-Sentinel: Minorities show their liberal slant
- Askia Muhammad, Final Call: Strong Black media voices
- Nisa Islam Muhammad, Final Call: Journalists of Color: What could real unity do?
- Robert Nott, Santa Fe New Mexican: Native Cinema Showcase talks of sovereignty
Native Columnist Wants Lacrosse Back in Olympics
?Every four years, the Iroquois people are compelled to watch the world’s athletes gather at the Olympics to compete in sporting events such as water polo, table tennis, synchronized swimming and high platform diving,? Doug George-Kanentiio, an Akwesasne Mohawk writer, says in the Toronto Star.
?While these are all demanding challenges requiring years of dedication, the most physical of all team games has once again been omitted ? for reasons based purely on race.
?The great game of lacrosse, a game we invented and in which our people excel, has for far too long been excluded as an Olympic sport.
?Not since the London Games in 1908 has lacrosse been accorded the recognition it merits alongside such team sports such as soccer, softball and basketball.
?If the Olympic organizing committee decides to include lacrosse, then the non-North American nations will surely press to have the Iroquois included as a separate team ? and that just does not sit well with the United States or Canada. Those two nations have a vested interest in actively denying, and politically oppressing, the existence of the Haudenosaunee (Six Nations Iroquois) Confederacy as a distinct cultural and legal entity with sufficient international status to march into an Olympic stadium under its own banner.?
George-Kanentiio is identified as former editor of the journal Akwesasne Notes.
Miller Brewing Apologizes for All-White R ?n? R Cans
?Miller Brewing Co. has apologized for failing to include any black artists on its series of commemorative rock ‘n’ roll cans,? reports Juliet Williams ot the Associated Press? Milwaukee bureau, who had broken the original story.
?The brewer didn’t include any black artists in its series of eight commemorative beer cans, part of a summer promotion with Rolling Stone magazine celebrating the 50th anniversary of rock ‘n’ roll. Critics had questioned how Miller could have overlooked black artists’ role in the development of rock music.
”?African Americans obviously have played a formative role in the development of rock ‘n’ roll, and despite our efforts, we did not manage this component of the promotion appropriately,?’ the company said in a statement.
On Thursday, a group called the National Millions For Reparations announced it would hold a news conference to call for a national boycott of Miller Brewing and a boycott of an upcoming Miller-sponsored concert in New York.
Miller Time: Rock ?n? Roll Lineup Missed Black Pioneers (David Person, BlackAmericaWeb.com)
Procter & Gamble Spending 6 Times More on Blacks
?Procter & Gamble Co. is spending six times as much on media targeted to African-American consumers as it did only two years ago, company officials said Monday,? Cliff Peale reported in the Cincinnati Enquirer.
However, company spokesman Terry Loftus told Journal-isms today that the company would not say exactly how much that is, considering the information proprietary.
?At a luncheon celebrating partnerships with groups ranging from Black Entertainment Television to Johnson Publishing (publisher of Ebony and Jet magazines), to the Women’s National Basketball Association, P&G said it had increased its promotional spending for those same channels by 300 percent in the same two-year period.
“?I know we’re not always an easy partner, but we want to be your best client, your best partner,? P&G global marketing officer Jim Stengel told the group.?
Loftus said that Procter & Gamble spent $4.3 billion on advertising worldwide last year and that the statement about not always being ?an easy partner? meant that each party has had high expectations of the other.
NAHJ?s ?Emerging Journalist? Loves Border Culture
?Like the anthropologist that tediously searches ancient soil for clues about the people it once sustained, Cecilia Balli sifts through the details of more than 300 lives lost in the desert sand of Ciudad Juarez, Mexico,? begins a story in the Brownsville (Texas) Herald by Gilberto Salinas and Rachel Benavidez.
?Balli, 28, a Stanford University graduate and doctoral candidate in cultural anthropology at Rice University, is living in El Paso, collecting information for her dissertation and a book about the hundreds of unsolved murders in El Paso?s sister city.?
She is also winner of the National Association of Hispanic Journalists? ?Emerging Journalist of the Year? Award.
?Through her work, she has found a connection to the Ciudad Juarez victims ? Mexican women, similar in age and family background, young and poor,? the story continues.
?Her heart, like her work, is with them.?
Spanish Newspaper Battle in Hamptons Fizzles
?What was billed as a big battle for the Hispanic market in the Hamptons this summer has largely fizzled out,? Keith J. Kelly writes in the New York Post.
?Ad man Jerry Della Femina, publisher of The Independent chain of newspapers in the Hamptons, initially made a lot of noise about launching El Independiente this summer.
?The Spanish-language paper was first envisioned as a weekly that planned to go head-to-head with the Southampton Press and its dual-language Nuestra Prensa (Our Press).
?But now as the summer winds down, Nuestra Prensa has scaled back from the weekly frequency it had in June and July to a monthly edition for August and beyond.
?And El Independiente quietly folded its tent after a few monthly test issues in the spring.?
Universal Press Plans Spanish-Language Weekly
?A weekly Spanish-language newspaper will be launched this fall by Universal Press Syndicate and Danilo Black of Monterrey, Mexico,? Dave Astor reports in Editor & Publisher.
?Fronteras de la Noticia will be available to U.S. newspapers, which can distribute it as an insert or sell the 32-page publication independently.”
?Moon Over Sudan? Documentary to Be Shown
?Two years before Sudan was awash in the current crisis, award-winning videographer Eddie Harris II was trekking across the barren country with the Rev. Al Sharpton, recording the turmoil that has escalated from ethnic cleansing to full-blown genocide.? Herb Boyd writes on The Black World Today Web site.
?For the last several months, Harris has been working diligently, weaving hours of film footage into a compelling documentary, ?Moon Over Sudan.?
“There are gripping scenes of Sudanese villages that have been ravaged by the Janjaweed, ?the devils on horseback,? who have spared neither women nor children in their merciless raids.?
The film was to be shown tonight at the Atelier International Gallery, 104 E. 126th St. in New York.
Cincy?s Stephen Hill Chooses Trial on Sex Charges
?Former television reporter and accused pedophile Stephen Hill decided Monday he didn’t want to plead guilty to charges and go to prison for eight years,? Kimball Perry reports in the Cincinnati Post.
?Hill’s attorney, Ken Lawson, confirmed that a proposed plea deal had fallen through. Hamilton County Common Pleas Court Judge David Davis reset the trial date for Oct. 12.”
Tucson Paper Rejects Elizabeth Edwards’ Request
?A top editor at the Arizona Daily Star refused to comply with a request by the Kerry-Edwards campaign for a female features reporter to cover Elizabeth Edwards’ campaign visit to Tucson on Sunday,? reported C.J. Karamargin, the Tuscon paper?s male political reporter, who said it was he who covered the event.
?Managing Editor Teri Hayt overruled other editors who on Friday agreed to the request.
?Hayt compared the request to an unsuccessful bid by the Bush-Cheney campaign for the Star to disclose the race of Mamta Popat, a photographer assigned to cover Vice President Dick Cheney at a rally last month. ?
Memorial Service Friday for Peggy Peterman
A memorial service for Peggy Peterman, pioneer columnist and editorial writer at the St. Petersburg Times, is scheduled from 4 to 8 p.m. Friday at the St. Petersburg Coliseum, 535 Fourth Ave. N., the newspaper reports.
?From 6 to 8 p.m., friends will be asked to share their memories. Family members are expected to attend the memorial service between 6 and 8 p.m., according to McRae Funeral Home officials.
?Mrs. Peterman’s funeral is 11 a.m. Saturday at Mount Zion Progressive Missionary Baptist Church, 955 20th St. S.?
Jon Wilson wrote in the paper today about ?the vehicles she used to help African-American youth understand the strength and will of their forebears.?
The Times ran an editorial tribute on Saturday that concluded:
?Months before Peterman retired, in 1996, she received a letter that also used the N-word and implored her to ‘give up, b—-.’ She would describe that letter to her newsroom colleagues, and to readers, in a pensive manner. But it was also what stoked her fires and why Peggy would insist that, upon her death, we look ahead, to the work that still remains.?