NAHJ Awards Go to Stories on Immigration, Iraq
“We’re hearing a lot of sad, sad stories,” reporter Mandelit del Barco of National Public Radio said last night in the middle of the National Association of Hispanic Journalists Awards Gala in Washington.
She took the stage to accept the radio reporting award for “Latino Casualties of the Iraqi War,” just as Steve Glauber of CBS News’ “60 Minutes II” accepted one for “The Death of Lance Corporal Gutierrez.”
Sharon Steinmann of Al Dia in Dallas covered the killing of an ice-cream vendor, an immigrant who lacked documentation. Such vendors make good robbery targets because “criminals see them as unlikely to go to the police.” Another winning story, from KXLN Univision in Houston, was about immigrants suffocating in trailers trying to enter the country.
And after accepting an award for her paper’s multimedia effort, “24 Hours on the Border,” Jane Amari, editor and publisher of Tucson’s Arizona Daily Star, said, “we’re unlucky that we’re in such a tragic place, where . . . people are willing to risk anything to change their lives.”
It was a sold-out house of 250 — with tickets at $150 for NAHJ members and $250 for supporters — at the Ritz Carlton Hotel, a night after hotel workers in Washington authorized a citywide strike that they said could be called at any time. A Mexican dance troupe and Latin jazz band provided entertainment, and fortunately, workers remained on the job.
In the awards, the emphasis was on immigration and the war in Iraq. At least one award-winner all but apologized for being honored for reporting on someone else’s heartbreak.
It was the first time NAHJ held an awards gala apart from its annual convention, and president Veronica Villafañe said the galas would be held annually in the capital from now on. The National Association of Black Journalists plans a similar awards gala in Washington on Oct. 9.
It was at an NAHJ scholarship banquet in New York last February that many members learned of the death that day of pioneering Latino journalist Frank del Olmo of the Los Angeles Times, and references to him were many.
Columnist Ernesto Portillo Jr. of the Arizona Daily Star, winner of the newly named Frank del Olmo Print Journalist of the Year Award, remembered del Olmo being photographed as part of the Maynard Institute’s old Summer Program for Minority Journalists (Portillo is a Summer Program alumnus and was a staff member for the Editing Program for Minority Journalists), and recalled how del Olmo “courageously” dissented in print from his paper’s 1994 endorsement of Gov. Pete Wilson for re-election. “These are the ideals that I will aspire to,” Portillo said. Attendees watched a video clip of del Olmo accepting an honor last year.
The emphasis was on telling the story of the sacrifices Latinos are making — and the problems they are having — in their bid to fully become part of the United States.
“Every time you go to a car wash, ask if they’re getting paid fairly — otherwise, go somewhere else,” said Maria Garci of KVEA Telemundo Los Angeles, accepting the award for television investigative reporting, for a story of “sweatshop conditions” at car washes that do not pay the minimum wage.
Christine Evans of the Palm Beach (Fla.) Post, accepting honors for a series called “Modern-Day Slavery,” described herself as an Irish-American whose ancestors came to the United States in the 1840s as migrant farmworkers. She asked that today’s Latino farmworkers receive the same respect.
Michelle Caruso-Cabrera, who covers Wall Street for CNBC, the “Broadcast Journalist of the Year,” told the group that 10 percent of Americans have no bank accounts, and that 40 percent of them were Hispanic.
“There are things that we can do that would change the state of the Hispanic,” she told the audience. One is to spread the word about “how important it is to get a bank account. Go up to 126th Street in New York on a Friday afternoon. Everybody’s at the Western Union, paying . . . to get their check cashed. If only they had a bank account, they would be safer, they would keep more of their money, and they wouldn’t get mugged.”
She explained that many come from countries where banks are not trustworthy.
Finally, Gilbert Bailon, a former NAHJ president who is now president and editor of Al Dia, the Spanish-language product of the Dallas Morning News, told the crowd that, “you don’t have to be a publisher to have impact in your newsroom.” Winner of the Leadership Award, he defined leadership as “going beyond yourself, being one of those who do for other people. Frank [del Olmo] was a great example,” he said. “We can model ourselves after Frank.”
N.Y. Times Names a 2nd Black Editorial Writer
Helene Cooper, a native of Liberia who is assistant Washington bureau chief of The Wall Street Journal, was named yesterday to the editorial board of The New York Times, marking the first time that more than one black journalist has been on the Times editorial board since Diane Camper left in 1997.
Last November, Cooper wrote a 5,313-word story for the Journal touching on her Liberian background:
“A truck full of soldiers rumbled into the yard of my family’s beachfront home here at about 10:30 on Monday morning, April 14, 1980, a week shy of my 14th birthday,” it began.
“Drunk after a bloody coup d’etat two days earlier that left Liberia’s president dead, his cabinet facing execution and his ruling class on the run, they ordered my mother, my younger sister, Marlene, and me to stand against the house.
“‘We’re going to splatter your blood against the wall like paint,’ they said, before shooting over our heads with machine guns.
“Nearby, one member of my family stood outside the line of fire. The soldiers had told Eunice, my foster sister, to stand back. We all knew why: After 150 years as second-class citizens, native Liberians were rebelling against Americo-Liberians such as my family, the lighter-skinned descendants of the freed slaves who founded the country. Eunice, then 18 years old, was a darker-skinned native Liberian, and the soldiers had no interest in terrorizing her.
“Later, when the soldiers took my mother downstairs alone, Eunice, Marlene and I huddled in a locked room upstairs. ‘Don’t cry, don’t cry,’ Eunice told us. Not long after that, my family fled to the U.S. Eunice remained behind and eventually disappeared from our lives.”
The Times story said Cooper arrives at the paper on Oct. 18.
“Ms. Cooper, 38, has been assistant Washington bureau chief of The Wall Street Journal since 2002, overseeing a group of reporters focusing on international economics and foreign policy. From 1999 to 2002, she was The Journal’s international economics reporter, and from 1997 to 1999 she worked in the newspaper’s London bureau, writing about the European Monetary Union. From 1992 to 1997, she worked in The Journal’s Washington and Atlanta bureaus, writing about trade, politics, race and foreign policy. Previously Ms. Cooper was a reporter at The Providence Journal-Bulletin.
“Born in Monrovia, Liberia, Ms. Cooper became an American citizen in 1997. Her memoir, ‘The House at Sugar Beach’ (Simon & Schuster), about growing up in Liberia, is to be published next fall. She was the editor of “At Home in the World,” a compilation of the writings of Daniel Pearl, the Wall Street Journal correspondent who was kidnapped and killed by Muslim militants in Pakistan in 2002,” it said.
She joins Brent Staples, who has been the sole black journalist on the Times board since 1995.
Reznet Gets 2 Grants to Train Native J-Students
Reznet, an online newspaper written by Native American journalism students across the country, will continue, thanks to two grants to the University of Montana to support the service, the university’s student newspaper reports. The grants total $550,000, wrote the Montana Kaimin.
?’It keeps us in business for another three years,’ said Dennis McAuliffe, the University of Montana journalism professor who started the program in 2002,” Brad Fjeldheim‘s story said.
“The John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, a journalism institute, gave Reznet $475,000 and the Ethics and Excellence in Journalism Foundation gave $75,000. The grants will pay a former copy chief of the Washington Post, William Elsen, to help Reznet staff prepare resumes, cover letters and clip portfolios, McAuliffe said.
?’My challenge for the next three years is to see if we can?t get jobs for those graduating seniors,’ he said. About 20 journalists worked for Reznet last year, and the money will allow McAuliffe to hire around 40 this year, he said.”
Reporters Given Unauthorized Background Checks
“Two Atlanta Journal-Constitution reporters were the subject of unauthorized background checks performed at DeKalb County police computer terminals, the newspaper reported,” notes the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press.
“The newspaper learned of the checks on reporters Ben Smith and Eric Stirgus after filing an open records request with the Georgia Bureau of Investigation.
“Also subject to background checks were Georgia State Rep. Teresa Greene-Johnson, Democratic candidate Ron Marshall and DeKalb County Commissioner Elaine Boyer, who the newspaper described as ‘political opponents of DeKalb County Chief Executive Officer Vernon Jones.’
Stirgus, a black journalist and a reporter at the Atlanta paper since October 2001, told Journal-isms he had stopped covering the DeKalb government at the end of 2003, yet the background checks were performed in March 2004.
Stirgus said he had no idea what was behind the background check, but he said that, “prior to my departure from DeKalb,” Jones “was unhappy with some of my coverage.”
“Vernon Jones is trying to get his groove back,” began one Stirgus story from Dec. 8, 2003.
“The DeKalb County chief executive officer, coming off a grand jury investigation of county government, is attempting to move on with a flurry of activity to persuade voters to give him a second term.
” . . . These moves come after a series of controversies that dogged Jones for much of the year. They include a grand jury report that criticized him and his administration, a trespassing complaint filed against him by a south DeKalb woman who said he yelled at her during an argument on her front lawn, and Jones’ admission that he voted outside his precinct four times since 2001.”
The Atlanta paper reported later in the week that, “TV reporter and anchor Richard Belcher is yet another journalist who has had his name checked by DeKalb County police, the GBI confirmed Wednesday,” a reference to the Georgia Bureau of Investigation.
AAJA Lists Members in Top News Management
“In response to a study showing a lack of representation of Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders in news management, AAJA has compiled a list of members in corporate and top news management positions,” AAJA announces.
The list covers corporate and top news management positions in newspaper, magazine, broadcast and online.
“A second list (to come) identifies AAJA members in supervisory and mid-level positions. With this second list, we hope to provide recruiters with a ready reference and a job pool when searching for candidates to fill supervisory and management positions in their media companies.
“These are listings of CURRENT AAJA MEMBERS ONLY, and as such it should be noted that there may be many other AAPIs (non-AAJA members) who are in management and mid-level positions,” the organization said.
Clark Hoyt, NABJ’s Allam Win Knight Ridder Awards
Knight Ridder Washington Editor Clark Hoyt, recently cited for heading the most diverse newspaper bureau in Washington, and Hannah Allam, the National Association of Black Journalists’ Journalist of the Year, are among the winners in Knight Ridder’s eighteenth annual James K. Batten Excellence Awards competition.
They will be honored at a dinner hosted by Chairman and CEO Tony Ridder on Oct. 25 in San Jose, Calif. The winners will receive stock options and a total of $45,000 in prize money, a news release said.
Hoyt won the top prize, the John S. Knight Gold Medal.
Allam, Baghdad bureau chief, “is a rare combination of energy, intelligence, compassion and coolness under fire, her nomination said. And she’s one hell of a reporter,” according to the news release.
“Allam, 27, directs the work of journalists in the most dangerous war zone in the world. She oversees Iraqi translators and drivers, she coordinates security and she goes out on assignments. She was on a bus that was bombed, she’s gone behind enemy lines, commandeered an ambulance, and saved the life of her Iraqi translator by spiriting her out of the country after family members were slain execution-style,” Knight Ridder said.
FCC Commissioner Urges Return of Red Flag
Commissioner Michael Copps of the Federal Communications Commission, who has led the fight on the FCC against further media consolidation, is calling for returning to notifying the public about acquisitions that could lead to high levels of ownership. That would prevent further consolidation in radio and TV, he said.
While industry criticism led the agency to abandon the practice, Copps warned at a conference last Friday of the National Association of Black Owned Broadcasters that unless the policy is reinstated, the floodgates might open for a wave of new station sales, according to Radio and Records.
Black Media to Benefit From Counterattack on GOP
“Democrats are going ‘toe to toe’ against a Republican campaign to pollute Black-oriented media, principally radio, with negative and voter suppression ads in key ‘battleground’ states, say officials at the Democratic National Committee,” according to the lead piece, unsigned, on blackcommentator.com.
The Web site is produced by veteran black journalists Glen Ford and Peter Gamble.
“The official Democratic counterattack has been hugely reinforced by multibillionaire George Soros?s independent ‘527’ outfit, The Media Fund, which will spend $5 million on Black-oriented media between now and election day. The Media Fund has already spent $43 million on ads with themes ranging from ‘Ohio Outsourced’ to ‘No Oil Company Left Behind,’ ‘Bush and Halliburton’ and ‘It?s About Jobs,’? the article says.
It also challenges Washington Post media writer Howard Kurtz, who in an analysis of the ad campaign called the statement, “These are the same folks that are against affirmative action, oppose civil rights,” inaccurate.
“The administration has not proposed weakening civil rights laws,” Kurtz wrote.
“Objectively, Kurtz is dead wrong,” blackcommentator replies. “Affirmative action is a civil rights issue, as is the Patriot Act. Failure to enforce civil rights laws is the same as opposing civil rights, as is nominating anti-civil rights judges to the federal courts. Kurtz sets himself up as an arbiter of the boundaries of civil rights. By his standards, Bush would have to oppose the Public Accommodations Act of 1964 to qualify as an anti-civil rights president!”
Piece Credits Roland Martin’s Ego, Inventiveness
“Who wants a boring job?” Roland Martin, new editor of the historic black paper the Chicago Defender, says in a piece by Michael Miner in the Chicago Reader.
“The hardest thing in the world is to change a culture. I would say the strength of the Chicago Defender is its rich history — and its weakness is the same. Things have been done a certain way for a long period of time. When you think of the Defender you would not think of quality stories, you would not think of top-notch photos. We could not live off of our reputation any longer.”
“What reputation?” asks Miner, author of the piece. “The Defender put together a focus group of 75 Chicagoans last May and found out the public identified the paper with shoddy quality, irrelevant content, and detachment from the community life of black Chicago. Instead of a reputation the Defender had a history — as the powerful voice of black middle America that sustained the great migration north, an era that barely anyone remembers.”
Of Martin, Miner writes, “his ego and his inventiveness are the most important things Martin has going for him at the moment. He says he’s down to one metro reporter. The entertainment editor and the sports editor — both old hands — are on leave. He gets by with freelancers, the AP — which he added — and commentators he’s allowed to pick up free from black Web sites because the visibility ‘extends their brands.’
Hiram Jackson, a Detroit businessman and Defender investor, says in the piece, “A guy like Roland, who’s so connected, brings immediate credibility and energy to the paper.”
Blair Speech to Students Lacking in Insight
“There was Jayson Blair on Wednesday,” writes Mike Kernels in North Carolina’s Greensboro News and Record. “Standing in front of a packed house at Winston-Salem State University?s R.J. Reynolds Center. Trying to explain himself. Getting nailed with tough questions about why he plagiarized and fabricated stories.
“What was going through your mind?
“He answers with a story of manic depression and drug abuse that he says contributed to his downfall.
“Do you believe it?s ethically right to receive money for this?
“Some audience members shake their heads in disapproval. Others mutter under their breath. And many plain don?t buy it. . . .
?’It?s like “disgraced journalist” has become part of my name ?- it?s my title,’ says Blair, 28, with a slight smile.
“. . . Blair?s speech, however, did little to provide insight. It focused too much on too many things: the generalities of manic depression, his beginnings and affirmative action, to name a few.
“What it lacked was the one thing students came to hear that they could learn from: The Scandal.”
Clear Channel Tunes Into Spanish-Language Market
“Clear Channel Communications Inc., the nation’s leading radio operator, on Thursday moved to strengthen its hold in Hispanic broadcasting with a plan to convert up to 25 stations to Spanish-language programming in the next 12 to 18 months,” Reuters reports.
“Clear Channel Radio currently has more than 1,200 stations in the United States but only 18 carry Spanish-language programming.”
Ex-Weatherman Getting Out of Jail Early
“Former TV weatherman David Rogers got a head start on rebuilding his booze-ruined life Wednesday when a judge knocked six months off the 10-month prison stint he was serving for a drunken-driving accident that injured two men,” Jim Nichols reports in the Plain Dealer of Cleveland.
“The former WKYC meteorologist, 45, had been in prison since May after pleading guilty to charges related to the accident on Interstate 480.”
Rogers was a forecaster at KYW-TV Philadelphia from 1991 to 1997 and most recently was weekend weatherman at WCBS-TV in New York, as reported in March.
Scripted Gay Characters at Low Point, Group Says
“In its annual analysis of the fall television season, the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD) today commended cable dramas and the reality genre for their inclusion of gays and lesbians, while sharply criticizing the broadcast networks for the lowest number of gay characters in scripted programming since GLAAD started tracking them in 1996,” the organization announces.
“GLAAD?s 2004-05 ‘Where We Are on TV’ section, detailing lesbian, gay and bisexual characters and representations on primetime television (there are no transgender characters on TV this season), is available at http://www.glaad.org/eye/ontv/index.php.”