Raleigh Reporter Accused of Harassment
“A News & Observer reporter was arrested Sunday morning after a woman he was trying to interview for a story charged him with making harassing phone calls,” Jessica Rocha reports today in the Raleigh News & Observer.
“Ruth A. Brown, a property room technician with the Durham Police Department, filed the complaint against reporter Demorris Lee, 36, of Raleigh.
“Brown’s testimony three years ago convicted a teenager of robbing her. It led to a jail sentence of at least 10 years for the teen, Erick Daniels.
“But the case has been reopened by Durham police, and a Durham advocacy group also is reviewing it.
“Since 2001, Lee has written about Brown’s case and Daniels, who claims he is innocent of the robbery.
“Lee said he remembers leaving two voice messages on Brown’s home answering machine last month when he was working on a story about Daniels’ attempts to clear his name. Lee said the messages were respectful and were a routine part of the reporting process. If Brown didn’t want to comment, he said, she could have simply told him so.
“I think it was only fair I call and ask her to respond,” Lee said in the story. “I would have been derelict of my duties if I didn’t give her the opportunity to respond to Erick Daniels’ contention that he was not the one who robbed her.”
“Lee was released without bail Sunday morning by a Wake County magistrate on a written promise to attend a Nov. 24 court date in Durham,” the story continued.
“Arresting a reporter for making harassing phone calls is extremely rare, said Orlando Hudson Jr., Durham County senior resident Superior Court judge.
“. . . Melanie Sill, The N&O’s executive editor, said that during her tenure at the paper, a reporter has never been charged with harassing a source. Reporters routinely call people who are part of news stories to give them an opportunity to comment, she said.
“‘Leaving a telephone message doesn’t constitute harassment,’ Sill said. ‘This doesn’t do justice to serious cases of harassment. This is a waste of the justice system’s time.'”
She told Journal-isms today that “we’re completely behind Demorris, all of us here all the way up to corporate headquarters.” The paper is owned by the McClatchy Co. Sill said the company was consulting lawyers. She said she had looked up the statute and that it clearly said it was against the law to threaten or harass, which is not what Morris was doing.
It’s another lesson that “people can abuse the justice system,” she said.
Ernie Suggs of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, the regional representative on the board of the National Association of Black Journalists, told NABJ members today that, “The NABJ Board is aware of Demorris’ situation and working on a plan.”
The Triangle Association of Black Journalists issued a statement, which is at the end of today’s posting.
Kwame Jackson of “Apprentice” Recruited by CNN
“Kwame Jackson — former stockbroker, first-season runner-up on The Apprentice, and non-journalist — has been recruited by the news network for the pilot of a show that CNNers refer to as ‘Inside the Actor’s Studio for CEOs,'” reports Broadcasting & Cable magazine, a show that apparently would air once a week on the weekends.
“It will feature Jackson interviewing business leaders and pop culture figures about the arc of their careers,” the publication said.
A CNN spokeswoman told Journal-isms that CNN would have no comment on the report.
Tribune Co. Plans to Combine D.C. Bureaus
“Eager to cut costs in its struggling newspaper division, Tribune Co. plans to consolidate the Washington bureaus of its newspapers,” Eric Herman reports in the Chicago Sun-Times.
“The consolidation means the eight Tribune-owned papers with Washington bureaus will move into a single facility in January 2006, according to Tribune Publishing President Jack Fuller. It could also mean staff cuts as the company pushes to reduce duplication of news coverage by those papers.”
With two of the journalist of color organizations recently expressing concern about how newspaper layoffs and consolidations are affecting diversity, let it be noted that an August report from Unity: Journalists of Color found that Ceasar Andrews of Gannett News Service (a 1985 graduate of the Maynard Institute’s Management Training Center), Vickie Walton-James of the Chicago Tribune (a 1988 graduate of the Maynard Institute’s Editing Program for Minority Journalists) and Alison Bethel of the Detroit News, all African Americans, were the only journalists of color heading Washington bureaus.
Overall, it found, “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.”
“Tribune got control of the L.A. Times, Long Island’s Newsday, the Hartford Courant and the Baltimore Sun when it acquired Times Mirror in 2000,” Herman’s story continued.
“The L.A. Times, which won five Pulitzers this year, employs 55 people in its Washington bureau. The Chicago Tribune has about 15 correspondents and editors, and Newsday has the same amount. The Baltimore Sun has a Washington staff of 10, while the Hartford Courant has five. The Orlando Sentinel, the South Florida Sun-Sentinel, the Allentown (Pa.) Morning Call and the Newport News (Va.) Daily Press each have one or two reporters. The staffs are currently scattered in at least four different offices around Washington,” the story went on.
“Stabilized” Jayson Blair Seeks New Career
“Jayson Blair, the diminutive ex-journalist who shook up the mighty New York Times when his serial plagiarism was revealed last year, has all but evaporated from public view,” notes Keith J. Kelly in the New York Post.
“Now seeing a psychiatrist and a psychologist and working out of a basement office in his parents’ home in Centreville, Va., he says he has found God and thinks he has a calling other than journalism ? although he’s not sure what it is yet.”
“I believe there is a better purpose for me, that there is something else I’m supposed to be doing,” Kelly quoted Blair as saying. “I don’t think it is journalism. I got into it originally because I wanted to help people.”
“He still hopes his memoir will be picked up and turned into a movie ? one with a yet-to-be-written happy ending,” Kelly continued.
“. . .Blair said he is taking daily doses of prescription drugs ? 1,000 mg. of Depakote, 25 mg. of Paxil and 10 mg. of Abilify.
“The medications have finally stabilized me,” he said.
Thumbs Down in K.C. to Alternative Weekly
“The Kansas City Association of Black Journalists on Saturday recognized the best of minority affairs journalism at its 13th annual media awards ceremony,” Linda Man writes in the Kansas City Star.
“Penn Valley Community College took home the President’s Award, which recognizes the individual or organization that has done the most to further the interests of the association.
“Penn Valley provided facilities for the association’s two-week summer program for aspiring journalists in high school or college.
Scholarships were also awarded.
“. . . The Pitch this year got the Thumbs Down Award, which is given to a Kansas City area media personality or company for setting back the image of African-Americans or other minorities,” Man’s story continued.
“Association president Tracy Allen said The Pitch has depicted people of color ‘in inappropriate ways’ through articles, cartoons and pictures. An article about Precious Doe was especially insensitive, Allen said, because it said Precious Doe’s death was ‘no big deal . . . . Well to us, it’s a big deal.’?
Precious Doe was the nickname community activists gave the little African American girl, believed to be 3 or 4 years old, whose decapitated body was found on April 28, 2001. Police still do not know her identity, and the case has been cited as an example of the lack of national attention given to black crime victims.
Janice Min Not Into Making Fun of Celebs
Asked how Us magazine has changed under her leadership, Janice Min tells Lisa Granatstein of Media Week that, “There?s a real concentration primarily on the hottest stars that appeal to our demographic of 32-year-old women. We don?t do mean stories. We don?t make fun of people?s weight or people?s zits.”
Min is a second-generation Korean-American who has been at the publication since March 2002. She became editor-in-chief in July 2003 after being Bonnie Fuller’s executive editor.
Bill Strawberry — er, Raspberry — Honored in D.C.
Syndicated Washington Post columnist William Raspberry was given the National Press Club’s 2004 Fourth Estate Award Thursday night, following in the footsteps of such notables as NBC’s Tom Brokaw, C-SPAN’s Brian Lamb, and the late Washington Post cartoonist Herblock. It was the occasion for a little storytelling.
Roger Wilkins, the historian, civil rights figure and former Washington Post and New York Times editorial writer, recalled how, after leaving the federal government for the Post, he was thankful that he would no longer be anonymous. After taking a cab to the Post, where Raspberry already had a column, Wilkins said he was feeling generous and gave the cabbie a big tip. Alas, Wilkins discovered, he wasn’t yet the recognizable figure he hoped to be. “Thank you, Mr. Strawberry,” the cabbie said.
Later, in 1979, Wilkins recalled at the event, he and Raspberry together became the first African Americans on the Pulitzer Board. “As we were going out the door, one of our most famous journalists says, ‘It’s really nice to have you with us, Bill,'” Wilkins said. “I started to say, ‘that’s Mister Strawberry to you!” he recounted for Journal-isms today.
Raspberry is the third black journalist to be given the Fourth Estate award, general manager John Bloom said, since it was created in 1971. Others were columnist Carl T. Rowan in 1999 and Simeon Booker of Johnson Publishing Co. in 1982. Some 220 people attended the event, at which Post editorial writer Bob Asher, Susan Tift, co-author of “The Trust, the Private and Powerful Family Behind ‘The New York Times,'” and a Duke University journalism professor, and Dr. Roy Peter Clark of the Poynter Institute spoke.
Tift said that Raspberry, who also teaches at Duke, is treated like a rock star by the students.
Tally for Barbara Rodgers Luncheon: $5,600
Final figures are in on the Oct. 9 Bay Area Black Journalists Association luncheon honoring Bay Area television anchor Barbara Rodgers. The event raised more than $5,600 for BABJA’s scholarship fund, reports Bob Butler of KCBS radio, who was elected president last week.
“In addition, the organization adopted a new mentoring program that will match student members with BABJA professionals who work in fields the students want to pursue. The program begins when schools return to session in January,” Butler told Journal-isms.
Black Journalists in, out at Boston Globe
Latest changes among black journalists at the Boston Globe: Monica Williams, copy editor with Globe Sunday magazine, has left to become education editor at the Cincinnati Enquirer; Reggie Myers from Tacoma, Wash., becomes graphics director, and Stephanie Siek of the Associated Press in St. Louis becomes a suburban reporter.
Spanish-Speaking Janitor Does Double Duty
“Jonathan Bethely of the Chronicle-Tribune at Marion, Ind., reported on the dual responsibilities of Victoria Montemayor at the Grant County Courthouse,” the Gannett Co. noted last week in its weekly spotlight on diversity reporting:
“‘As a janitor she is responsible for the daily upkeep of the four-story building. . . . She (also) is an interpreter for the growing number of Spanish-speaking residents who find themselves in the court system but speak little or no English.’ Montemayor commented: ‘It makes me feel like I’m helping the community both ways, for the courts and for the people.'”
Montemayor earns $50 for each court appearance.
Black Radio Exec Honored by AIDS Group
Jerry Lopes, president of program operations and affiliations for American Urban Radio Networks in Pittsburgh, was one of eight people honored over the weekend as “2004 Heroes in the Struggle” by the Black AIDS Institute.
Monica L. Haynes wrote a piece anticipating the event last week in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.
Derek Ali Continues to Garner Tributes
Derek Ali, the slain Dayton Daily News reporter whose Sept. 5 killing elicited a groundswell of tributes, received another one Sunday in a column by Kevin Riordan in his hometown paper, the Courier-Post of Cherry Hill, N.J., which serves Camden.
“He was a positive individual who came out of Camden. Good people do come out of Camden.” Lorraine Bivans, a middle- and high-school classmate, said in the column.
In Search of Columbia Summer Program Grads
“There are a few dozen black journalists — 20-year pros at the top of their careers — who state with pride that they are graduates of the Michele Clark Program,” as Wayne Dawkins once wrote in the NABJ Journal. “The program was simply called the Summer Program for Minority Journalists in the late ’60s and early ’70s, 11 intense weeks in New York City that some people called ‘journalism boot camp.’
“When basic training was over, the recruits went on to excel in network and local TV news and at metropolitan newspapers.”
The Michele Clark Program was a forerunner of the Maynard Institute for Journalism Education, and Mary Alice Basconi of East Tennessee State University is trying to find more of its graduates.
“As you know, they made significant contributions to the news industry. Many of them were the first African-Americans, Hispanics, Asians and Native Americans reporting in their communities,” she writes. “While I’ve talked to many of the 225 graduates I’d like to find more to get a good sample. I’d especially like to find those who work outside of journalism, because everyone has something to say about their early years on the job.
“Would like to find:
“Print graduates
“Michael Wilson, Eve Goodwin, Robert Imbriano, Cynthia Jo Rich, Charlotte Hayes, Linda Newton Jones, K.C. (Karlynn) Carrington, Tomas Lewis, Fay Washington.
“Broadcast people
“Ricardo Castillo, Gene Hamilton, Otis James, Tony Rousseau, Hugh Wilson, Samuel Brown III, Ana Covington, David Fields, Charles Finley, Harold Freeman Jr., John Winston, John Yarborough, Gregory Roberson, Robert Spencer, Dorothy Brown, George Groce, Carol Hall, Samuel Burrage, Rich Gonzales, Gerald Harrington, Paul Hazzard, Maurice Shane, Esther McCarroll, Nicholas Ayala, Alberto Gamez, Annette Gilliam, Hilda Gourdin, Asha Turner, Harriet Brown, Stanley Coleman, James DeSautel, Ianthia Hall, Saraster Madison, Barbara Norman, Alan Peters, Ted Ransom, James Cantu, Raenelle Garris, Charlene Harris, Esther Magana, LeAndrew Naves, John Pesqueira, Kathleen Pinkard, Dean Toji, Joann Walker, Victor Wong.”
Basconi describes herself as a reporter for 26 years who writes a bilingual newspaper column on Hispanic issues and whose parents are Filipino and American. She can be reached at bascma@aol.com.
NABJ’s Triangle Chapter on Demorris Lee
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
A statement on the arrest of journalist Demorris Lee
Triangle Association of Black Journalists, a professional affiliate of the National Association of Black Journalists, P.O. Box 311, Durham, North Carolina, 27701, www.tabj.org
For more information: TABJ President Cindy George, cgeorge@newsobserver.com, 919-810-6556
November 15, 2004
“Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.“
— The First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution
Like those who ready for war, we know that we could face persecution in executing our jobs as journalists.
This weekend, Demorris Lee did.
He was arrested and spent two hours in police custody for doing his job as a reporter.
Three years ago, a woman named Ruth Brown accused a 14-year-old Durham teen of robbing her of $6,000 cash.
At the time, Lee covered the Durham County courts and began to follow the story for The News & Observer. Knowing the details, he quickly questioned whether the teen, Erick Daniels, had been wrongly convicted. Last month, Lee contacted Brown hoping to get her response to the N.C. Center on Actual Innocence taking on Erick Daniels’ case. At the time, Lee was writing another story that included his prison interview with the teen. In the story, Lee was seeking Brown’s comment about Daniels maintaining his innocence, the center intervening on the teen’s behalf and about whether she was sure about her identification of Daniels as the robber.
Lee said he left two voice messages on October 17 for Brown, and may also have contacted a relative when he reached a woman who told him that he had the wrong number for a Ruth Brown.
Three weeks ago, Brown filed a complaint with the Durham County magistrateís office alleging that Lee was harassing her with phone calls. A warrant for Leeís arrest was executed based on the complaint’s allegations.
At about 8 a.m. Sunday, Raleigh police arrived at Lee’s Raleigh home. He was frisked, handcuffed, placed in the back seat of the police cruiser and driven to the Wake County jail in downtown Raleigh. While in custody, Leeís belt, shoelaces and other items were temporarily confiscated. He was fingerprinted and later released on his own recognizance.
News & Observer Executive Editor Melanie Sill, Assistant Managing Editor Dan Barkin and the newspaper’s attorney all went to the jail to expedite Lee’s release.
“I didn”t do anything wrong,” Lee said. “I was trying to be fair and give her the opportunity to respond to a story that her name was going to be in.
“I’m disappointed she felt she had to do this instead of just saying ‘No comment.'”
The Triangle Association of Black Journalists has grave concerns that press freedoms in North Carolina are in jeopardy.
For many years, the stories of disadvantaged people remained untold by mainstream media. As journalists — and particularly journalists of color – we respect the rights of people to speak for themselves and work diligently to offer that opportunity.
In his work, Demorris Lee does just that by giving voice to all classifications of people.
Particularly upsetting is that the criminal justice system has been used against a journalist’s First Amendment right in his quest to free a teenager who may have been wrongly convicted.
We condemn the actions of the Durham County magistrate’s office and all others involved in this injustice.
We firmly believe that the charges will be dropped and that this arrest will be expunged from Lee’s record.
“The fact that I can be arrested for doing my job. . . . that could be any of us,” he said.
Demorris Lee has been a working journalist for more than a decade, including eight years at The News & Observer. He is a Region IV deputy director of the National Association of Black Journalists and a former president of the Triangle Association of Black Journalists.
