Question on AIDS in Black Women Resonates
Gwen Ifill apparently struck a chord when she asked the only question of Tuesday’s vice presidential debate that specifically dealt with African Americans: the rate of HIV among black American women.
“A new issue crept into the campaign Tuesday night -? what to do about AIDS in America -? and neither of the well-prepped candidates in the vice presidential debate had much to say,” wrote Maria L. La Ganga in the Los Angeles Times.
“Apparently citing federal figures, the moderator said that in the U.S., ‘black women between the ages of 25 and 44 are 13 times more likely to die of the disease than their [white] counterparts. What should the government’s role be in helping to end the growth of this epidemic?'” her story continued.
“Don’t talk about the global problem, Vice President Dick Cheney and Sen. John Edwards were warned; talk about black women and AIDS here at home.
“Cheney called the epidemic in America and abroad ‘a great tragedy’ and talked about how the administration pushed $15 billion through Congress to attack the problem worldwide.
“‘I had not heard those numbers with respect to African American women,’ Cheney said. ‘I was not aware that it was that severe an epidemic there, because we have made progress in terms of the overall rate.’
“Edwards didn’t do any better. Africa was the first country out of his mouth, Russia the second. Africa came up again three times, as did genocide in Sudan, before he mentioned the U.S. And the black women? He never got to them at all.”
Lesley Clark and Andrea Robinson reported today in the Miami Herald that, “At a health clinic in Liberty City, Democrats assailed Cheney’s remarks, accusing the Bush administration of being out of touch.”
”’The bottom line is we are yet invisible,’ said state Rep. Dorothy Bendross-Mindingall, a Miami Democrat.”
?I share the shock that a sitting vice president is not aware of a problem that is devastating the African-American community,? U.S. Rep. Donna M. Christensen D-Virgin Islands, who chairs the Congressional Black Caucus Health Brain Trust and is a licensed physician, told BlackAmericaWeb.com.
?Issues of race and racism have long influenced issues of policy in this country,? she said. ?Many individuals in public office have strived to rise above and put that behind them. I don?t think Dick Cheney is as far along in that process as he needs to be.?
In the Chicago Sun-Times, columnist Debra Pickett wrote that, “The Bush administration’s twin obsessions with gay sex and abortion have had profound consequences for women’s health in this country. Their supposedly compassionate conservatism is, quite literally, making us sick.
“Even as AIDS rates among African-American women have skyrocketed, the administration has moved away from the very strategies proven to reduce transmission,” she said in the piece, headlined, “White House puts politics above women’s health care “
AIDS and gay-rights groups also reacted sharply.
Cheryl Jacques, president of the Human Rights Campaign, used the exchange to plug the Kerry-Edwards ticket, saying, “Cheney was just one of 13 House members to vote against the precursor to the Ryan White CARE Act in 1988 — the AIDS Federal Policy Act. Unlike the Bush Administration, Senator Kerry and Senator Edwards are focused on solving our HIV/AIDS crisis. Both cosponsor the Early Treatment for HIV Act and support full funding for science-based HIV prevention programs and the Ryan White CARE Act.”
The National Association of People With AIDS said it wrote to both Chaney and Edwards to express their concern. “NAPWA executive Terje Anderson disputes Cheney’s claim that the United States has ‘made progress in terms of the overall rate of AIDS infection,'” reported the Advocate, “noting that annual HIV infections in the country remain at about 40,000 per year. ‘Community organizations and health departments across America are stalled for lack of funds to implement tried and true interventions to reach those most at risk of HIV infection. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s HIV prevention budget line has remained essentially flat for the last three years,’ the letter says.”
And in a column distributed by the Black AIDS Institute, Phill Wilson, the group’s founder and executive director, and Diane Weathers, editor-in-chief of Essence magazine, wrote:
“HIV/AIDS is devastating Black families all over America. But there is no substantive discourse about HIV/AIDS between the presidential candidates. Whether you favor Bush/Cheney or Kerry/Edwards, there simply are no discussions about the disproportionate impact AIDS is having on African American women, about the high percentage of drug users infected with HIV in the United States who are Black, or the relationship between the mass incarceration of African American men and HIV/AIDS.
“. . . In a few short weeks Americans will select the next ‘leader of the free world’. While the war in Iraq and the war on terror are legitimate concerns, religious extremists with weapons of mass destruction are not the only threats to our national security. There is a killer among us and it doesn’t need a passport or airplanes to attack.”
Debating the Moderator’s Role (Ken Krayeske, Poynter Institute)
Cincy’s Stephen Hill to Get 5 Years in Sex Case
Stephen Hill, the Cincinnati television reporter who mentored “at-risk” children and had served as a licensed foster parent, pleaded guilty Thursday to charges that he sexually abused four teenage boys and will spend five years in prison, according to Cincinnati media reports.
“It’s a sad day and we’re still praying for him,” Hill’s twin, New Orleans anchor Michael Hill, told Journal-isms. “I hope he gets the help he needs and obviously he deserves.”
“Stephen Hill, 45, pleaded guilty Thursday to four charges of sexual battery,” Sharon Coolidge wrote in the Cincinnati Enquirer. “In exchange for the plea, prosecutors dropped another four charges of sexual battery, four charges of unlawful sexual conduct with a minor and the possibility of a life term.
“Hamilton County Common Pleas Judge David Davis convicted Hill and set sentencing for Nov. 10. At that time, Davis will also have a sexual offender hearing that will determine how long, if at all, Hill must register his address with the sheriff’s office in the county where he lives after being released.
“Rick Gibson, an assistant Hamilton County prosecutor, said he will ask Davis to classify Hill a sexual predator. That would require Hill to register his address for the rest of his life and the community would be notified about where he is living.
“Hamilton County Prosecutor Mike Allen agreed to the plea to spare the victims from having to testify at a trial, which was scheduled for Tuesday.”
AP Lays Off Veteran Photographer Fred Sweets
Fred Sweets, a veteran photographer and diversity advocate who has directed the Associated Press’ Washington photo coverage and was most recently AP’s senior photo editor for training and development, has been laid off in a reorganization of the Washington bureau.
“I am saddened, shocked and very disheartened,” Keith Alexander, president of the Washington Association of Black Journalists, told members. Sweets “was always there as an instructor each year during our high school urban journalism workshop.” News clippings also show Sweets leading an annual “Shootout” event at the conference of the Native American Journalists Association, co-sponsored by AP, and conducting a photo auction for the Greater St. Louis Association of Black Journalists, with proceeds to benefit its scholarship fund.
According to an AP announcement when he was promoted in November 2000, Sweets’ job was to “oversee AP’s photo training efforts worldwide. Working closely with AP bureau chiefs and photo editors, he will direct a photo coaching system to guide photographers and editors,” it said.
“Sweets also will lead efforts to recruit outstanding candidates for all photo vacancies and will be the primary photo representative at colleges and with journalism organizations.
“He will continue to coordinate the Diverse Visions workshop, AP’s annual multicultural seminar for new photojournalists.”
Jack Stokes, a spokesman for the Associated Press who is himself black, would not discuss his AP colleague. “We talk about the announcements, not the departures,” he told Journal-isms.
But others said that Sweets was reorganized out of his job along with Lew Wheaton, administrative director of photos, and given a settlement.
Sweets, who was 52 when promoted in 2000, could not be reached for comment. He joined the AP in October 1995. “He started his career in photography at the St. Louis Post-Dispatch before becoming a photographer and editor at The Washington Post and senior photo editor at the Los Angeles Times,” the story said then. His father was publisher of the St. Louis American weekly newspaper.
Tai Takahashi Named News Director in Lexington
Tai Takahashi, an executive producer at KOMO-TV in Seattle, has been named news director of WTVQ-TV in Lexington, Ky., becoming one of only a handful of Asian American television news directors, the Asian American Journalists Association reports.
“This is a significant step forward,” said Randall Yip, AAJA’s vice president for broadcast, in a statement. “Takahashi’s appointment will give hope to other Asian Americans pursuing careers in management and hopefully encourage other companies to offer opportunities to other Asian Americans.”
In Seattle, Takahashi has been executive producer of special projects and executive producer of news since 2001.
“People under my watch will be respected,” the AAJA member said. “Their ideas will be appreciated and their accomplishments will be celebrated. Our news product will be bold, aggressive, fair and balanced. We will instill a number one attitude.”
L.A. Reporter Called “Uncle Tom” Gets Apology
“Dodger outfielder Milton Bradley apologized to a Los Angeles Times reporter Thursday, one day after an angry confrontation between the two, and owner Frank McCourt said the club would not discipline Bradley because of the incident,” Bill Shaikin reports in the L.A. Times.
“As a clubhouse interview escalated into a tense argument between the two black men, Bradley called Jason Reid an ‘Uncle Tom’ and ‘a sellout.’ The words provoked a heated response from Reid, and Dodger players intervened to escort him from the clubhouse.
“‘Milton and I met in the clubhouse before the game,’ Reid said in a statement. ‘He apologized for the slur he directed at me and we resolved to treat each other with respect and professionalism going forward. The matter is closed as far as I’m concerned.’
A Fox Sports Network crew recorded the run-in Wednesday, but Dodgers media relations director John Olguin quickly confronted the members of the crew — reporter Brent Stover and a free-lance photographer — telling them to erase the tape, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported. “They complied after Stover said they were intimidated and threatened with having their credentials revoked,” Dan Caesar writes.
On Thursday, however, “An FSN Midwest official said his crew was wrong in complying with demands that a tape it shot of a confrontation in the Los Angeles Dodgers clubhouse be erased,” Caesar’s story said.
“In the heat of the moment, the footage of this incident was erased,” FSN Midwest general manager Jack Donovan said Thursday in a statement. “This was an intense . . . situation, and it was a serious mistake to erase the video.”
“FSN Midwest officials have pulled Stover off its coverage of the rest of the Cardinals-Dodgers series. The officials said they weren’t punishing Stover but that they wanted to keep him from being a distraction,” Caesar’s story continued.
Judge Rules for Naming Kobe Bryant Accuser
A federal judge ruled Wednesday that the woman who accused Kobe Bryant of rape must use her real name in the lawsuit she filed against him, Karen Abbott reports in the Rocky Mountain News, but “advocacy groups urged the media Thursday to refrain from identifying the woman . . . while she pursues her civil lawsuit against the NBA star,” as the Associated Press says.
U.S. District Judge Richard Matsch ordered her lawsuit, now titled “Jane Doe vs. Kobe Bryant,” to be retitled on Oct. 20, Abbott wrote.
“‘We’re just pleased that the judge upheld the important principle of openness in public courts,’ News Editor John Temple said in the paper Thursday. He said the paper has decided not to print her name for now,” the AP story said.
“Geneva Overholser, a former Des Moines Register editor who discontinued her Web log for the Poynter Institute after editors declined to let her identify Bryant’s accuser, said she thought the ruling would prompt many news organizations to name the woman. “
“She said she believed it was common practice for the media to identify accusers in such cases when they made the step from criminal to civil court.
NABJ Produces First Draft of Stylebook
“As journalists, we are called upon to use words every day,” begins the introduction. “Correctly and appropriately. Most of us were indoctrinated in the Associated Press Stylebook somewhere early in our journalistic education and rely on it daily, and many of us work for news organizations that are ruled by stylebooks of their own that supplement or supplant other stylebooks.
“NABJ Style is offered as a stylebook for newsrooms and others on terms and language usage of special interest or relevance to our membership and our community. It is meant to be as much a resource for our own members as for anyone else in newsrooms and journalism classrooms as well as other students, educators and researchers, etc.”
The NABJ effort, three years in the making, is presented as a first draft, so readers are invited to “send suggestions for entries and issues to cover, as well as any other feedback to jerry.mccormick@uniontrib.com. Please submit proposed entries with supporting documentation [citations from reference books, examples from stories, etc.] Also, include where you can be reached by e-mail and telephone.”
BET’s Kerry Interview Fails to Generate Ink
Black Entertainment Television’s half-hour interview with Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry failed to generate much news.
An Associated Press story leads with this: “Democrat presidential candidate John Kerry says he would not send U.S. forces to stop the genocide in Sudan if they continued to be needed in Iraq and Afghanistan.”
Kerry said the same thing in last Friday’s presidential debate. The interview, conducted by Ed Gordon, was to air again tonight at 11:30 p.m.
Poynter’s Keith Woods to Focus on Beat Coverage
Keith Woods, taking over this week as dean of the faculty at the Poynter Institute, “has proposed a new emphasis on one of the basics of the business: beat coverage,” the institute reports.
“Woods said that the focus on beats had emerged from faculty brainstorming and that it would be aimed at helping journalists improve their coverage of such core areas as crime, government, and education,” a release said.
“Poynter can serve the industry in several ways right now,” Woods said in the release. “In addition to the emphasis on beats, he said the Institute will focus on ‘sharpening the skills of reporting and editing that can make the difference between average work and excellence,” the release continues.
Tributes to L.A. Times’ Stan Allison Pile Up
Tributes are piling up on the Poynter Institute’s Newscoach Web site from colleagues of Stan Allison, the longtime Los Angeles Times reporter and editor believed to have died Saturday at age 53.
“Stan’s family is making preliminary plans to hold a memorial service for Stan, likely next week, at Forest Lawn in Cypress, with a wake to follow. Details will be shared as we learn them,” wrote Julia Franco.
“Any cards or letters can be sent to Stan’s ex-wife, Claudine Allison, 5404 E. Anaheim Road, Long Beach 90815. She will forward them to Stan’s family in New York.”
An L.A. Times obituary noted that, “Since 1999, Allison had worked in The Times’ Orange County office as editor of that edition’s community news pages and, more recently, as a news and feature writer covering coastal communities.
“Previously, he worked in the paper’s editorial hiring and development office in Los Angeles, where he recruited and mentored journalists.
“Allison also played a key role with a group of editors nationwide, supported by the Freedom Forum foundation, in striving to improve the journalistic and management training offered in newsrooms large and small.”
Barbara Rodgers 25th Anniversary Bash Oct. 15
Bay area television anchor Barbara Rodgers is getting some ink in local media as her colleagues plan to honor her 25th anniversary as an anchor with a luncheon benefiting young journalists next Friday, Oct. 15.
Due to a strike at the Hilton San Francisco, the Bay Area Black Journalists Association-sponsored luncheon has been moved to the Renaissance Parc 55 Hotel.
“While the event is indeed a worthy cause that can provide assistance to aspiring journalists of color, honoring Rodgers is long overdue,” the Alameda Times-Star wrote.
“Rodgers is a pioneer who has maneuvered her career with grace and style, always maintaining a commitment to journalistic integrity. However, circuitous is perhaps the best way to describe her journey from the Jim Crow South to becoming a news anchor for 25 years.
“Growing up in Knoxville Tenn., in the heart of America’s apartheid system, Rodgers had no plans to attend college. She began her formal education with three strikes against her — she was black, a woman and poor.
“Rodgers attended a two-room school that had grades one to four in one room and grades five to eight in the other. ‘Black people of Knoxville, like the rest of the South, had little expectation that they would go on to higher education,’ Rodgers said.”
Chicago Columnist Sees a Capital Offense
“Look at the headline on this page from last Friday’s Chicago Defender,” writes columnist Neil Steinberg of the Chicago Sun-Times. “Notice anything odd about it? The newspaper prints ‘Black’ with a capital ‘B,’ but ‘white’ with a lowercase ‘w.’
“I hate to run down the Defender, a once-mighty cultural force that now has problems of its own, irrelevance being number one. But the lowercase slight has always been a pet peeve of mine because it seems a particularly petty kind of jab, unjournalistic and self-defeating.”
But, he continued, “The essence of racism is holding different standards for yourself than for the group you look down upon.”
Members of the National Association of Black Journalists, discussing this item this morning on its listserve, noted that many black publications do capitalize both “black” and “white,” but called Steinberg’s point a curious one to make, given the history of how African Americans have been covered in the mainstream media.
Reuters to Nearly Triple Staff In India
“Global business news provider Reuters Group Plc. Thursday said it plans to more than triple its staff in India by end of 2005, adding a new industry to the list of India’s rapidly-expanding outsourcing business,” reports the Dow Jones News Wire.
“Reuters plans to take on board 1,200 employees by the end of next year, up from 340 now, said Editor-in-Chief Geert Linnebank, who was in the outsourcing hub of Bangalore to inaugurate its data center.
“. . . While Bangalore was Reuters’ chosen location for the bulk of data processing jobs, executives said India’s journalistic talent would also be tapped to produce content for its newswires,” Dow Jones reported.
“We are using the editorial team in Bangalore to provide some existing . . . . and create new content for our newswire,” the company said in the statement.
