Session to Follow Flap Over Diversity Comment
The controversy over a statement to an in-flight magazine by new “NBC Nightly News” anchor Brian Williams has led to a meeting on diversity issues scheduled for Saturday between leaders of the National Association of Black Journalists and those of NBC News.
The meeting is to be held in the offices of NBC News President Neal Shapiro in New York, NABJ announced.
Both parties said the meeting was agreed upon Wednesday as the controversy over the Williams remarks escalated.
The session will “discuss matters that are so vital to our membership, particularly those black journalists looking for signs the network is a place where they can do their best work and advance into senior management,? said NABJ President Herbert Lowe, a courts reporter at Newsday in New York, in the NABJ statement.
In the November issue of United Airlines’ Hemispheres magazine, Williams was asked:
“There are few women and people of color in top jobs at news organizations. How do we address this lack of diversity?
Williams replied:
“We have bigger problems. There are no black members of the U.S. Senate. We should keep some perspective on this. Nevertheless, I am constantly interested to hear of examples in our coverage where viewers think we got it wrong in one way or another because of a skewed viewpoint.”
On Thursday, Williams issued a statement of clarification, his second.
“It is clear that my response to a question posed by an in-flight magazine back in August has been misconstrued,” he said in a statement addressed “To Herbert Lowe, Barbara Ciara and my other journalist colleagues at NABJ.”
“I believe that the lack of diversity is a serious challenge not only in newsrooms across America, but across the upper echelons of our society as well. In no way have I ever diminished the problem that exists in our newsrooms. Racial and gender-based ‘glass ceilings’ exist in virtually every corner of our society. We have an obligation to face this issue head-on in our own newsroom every day. There is an astounding amount of work before us, which is why I am pleased that Neal Shapiro will continue the dialogue with NABJ in the coming days, and I support his continued efforts to make this a priority at NBC News.”
In March 2000, NBC appointed a companywide vice president for diversity, a position first held by Paula Madison, now at KNBC-TV Los Angeles, and currently by Michael Jack, general manager at WRC-TV Washington. The position covers entertainment as well as news, and owned-and-operated stations as well as network productions from NBC and Telemundo.
It was ABC, however, that this year named a black journalist, Paul Mason, as senior vice president of news.
During the presidential debates, neither NBC nor CBS had anyone of color in the pool of instant analysts. CNN had Carlos Watson and Terry Neal, and for the vice presidential debate, at least, Robert George; ABC brought in Tavis Smiley for the third debate, and Smiley returned on election night. Juan Williams was a “political contributor” on Fox.
For the Democratic national convention, NBC reported no black journalists covering the events; a spokeswoman did not respond at the time when asked who would cover the GOP gala.
Networks improve at diversity (Associated Press)
“Down Low” Subject Still News to Many
The book “On the Down Low” by J.L. King stayed on the New York Times bestseller list for 12 weeks; the publisher says there are 174,888 copies in print; a rejoinder called “Beyond the Down Low” is scheduled for February publication, and the subject of married black men secretly having sex with men has been discussed on “Oprah,” on the front page of the New York Times and in several issues of Essence magazine.
But as Marjorie Valbrun, now at the Baltimore Sun, found after she wrote an op-ed piece Dec. 1, “Time to face up to ‘down-low’,” “Many black people, especially those who don’t live in big cities and aren’t on the down-low, have no clue that some black men actively live a double life (as opposed to just being secretly gay but only dealing with men),” as she tells Journal-isms.
“To them, it is a new issue and so is the high AIDS rate among black women” — the issue Gwen Ifill raised during the vice presidential debate, and about which the candidates seemed clueless.
“I have gotten grateful calls from black women of various ages, including a grandmother, straight men uncomfortable with the subject and worried about it hurting black men’s image, a couple of openly gay men who said it was among the most thoughtful discussion[s] of the subject they have read. They said they believe these men are hurting the community,” Valbrun continues. “One gay man said men on the down-low were ‘worse than crack’ in the black community in terms of the damage they were doing. Another said my calling for the outing and shaming of these men would only drive them further underground. One straight guy said the piece was a dedication to his young cousin who died of AIDS she got from her down-low man. A mother of an openly gay son said she felt it was a necessary piece and that she was disgusted with the level of homophobia in the black church.
“Still, the level of reaction was not overwhelming, just interesting.”
Outburst at Ex-Reporter’s Sentencing Hearing
“After Stephen Hill’s lawyer, Ken Lawson, angrily and loudly attacked the judge presiding over Hill’s sexual predator hearing today, the judge immediately removed himself from the case and told Lawson he’d deal with him later,” Kimball Perry reports in the Cincinnati Post.
“‘I recuse myself and will address this issue Monday morning,’ Hamilton County Common Pleas Court Judge David Davis said today to a stunned courtroom.
“The outburst started when Lawson’s expert witness, psychiatrist Melvin Nizny, was under a withering cross-examination by assistant prosecutor Rick Gibson.
Gibson was asking Nizny about a psychological report in which Hill indicated having as many as 175 gay sexual partners as an adult when Gibson made what Lawson called an incorrect statement about Hill forbidding the interviewer from questioning Hill’s family instead of asking a question.
“. . . Nizny Thursday said Hill was confused sexually partly because his father dressed a 5-year-old Hill in female clothes and earrings to punish the boy for acting like a girl.
“. . . In October, Hill pleaded guilty to reduced charges — the original charges carried a maximum sentence of life in prison — and agreed to a five-year prison sentence.”
The October plea deal saw prosecutors dismiss 12 counts of unlawful sex acts with a minor in exchange for Hill pleading guilty to four counts of sexual battery. The only purpose of Friday’s hearing was to determine at what level of sexual offender Hill should be classified.
Hill, 45, was an investigative reporter for WCPO-TV when police raided his home in February and found incriminating videotapes.
Nobelist Explains Her AIDS Remarks
“Just a day before she is scheduled to receive the Nobel Peace Prize, the Kenyan environmentalist Wangari Maathai tried Thursday to defuse a controversy over reports that she said ‘evil-minded scientists’ in the developed world intentionally created AIDS to decimate the African population,” Walter Gibbs wrote in the New York Times.
“Dr. Maathai, a 64-year-old biologist, whose Green Belt Movement is credited with planting millions of trees in an attempt to reforest Kenya, said that her recent statements about AIDS and H.I.V., reported in the African press, were taken out of context. She said she had meant only to pose alternative theories about the disease’s origin to counter the belief by some Kenyans that AIDS was a curse from God.”
“We in Africa don’t really understand the disease yet,” she told the Times. “We just know we’re dying from it.”
As reported in October, Robyn Dixon, filing for the Los Angeles Times from Johannesburg, was among the few reporters in the mainstream press to pick up on the original remarks.
But neoconservative David Horowitz‘s Frontpagemag.com put this headline on a piece about the comments, written by its managing editor, Ben Johnson: “Nobel Hates Whitey.”
Air America to Land in Washington
“Air America, the liberal radio network that had a rocky takeoff last spring, has struck a deal to land in Washington,” Howard Kurtz reported in the Washington Post Thursday.
“The arrangement with WRC-AM comes as the fledgling network is gaining altitude, announcing yesterday that it has re-signed star personality Al Franken to a multiyear contract, raised $13 million in new financing and named Rob Glaser, chief executive of RealNetworks, as its chairman.”
“. . . Air America is on in 40 cities, including New York, Boston, Philadelphia, Atlanta, Denver, San Francisco and Seattle, as well as on Sirius and XM satellite radio.
“. . . Many analysts wrote off Air America last spring when it hit financial turbulence and lost its stations in Chicago and Los Angeles. But it has mounted a comeback, abandoning its original strategy of buying stations and signing affiliates instead.”
Chris Lopez Moves to Editor of Contra Costa Papers
“Newly named publisher John Armstrong announced Tuesday that Chris Lopez would replace him as executive editor of Contra Costa Newspapers, which publishes the Times and 10 weekly East Bay papers,” Jessica Guynn writes in the Contra Costa Times
“Lopez, 43, has served as managing editor of Contra Costa Newspapers since May 2003. Armstrong succeeds George Riggs, who this week was named chairman and publisher of the San Jose Mercury News. Both Contra Costa Newspapers and the Mercury News are owned by San Jose-based Knight Ridder Inc.”
Sonya Ross Named AP News Editor in Washington
Sonya Ross, the Associated Press’ World Services supervisor in Washington since 2002, who reported from the White House for seven years before that, has been appointed news editor for AP regional reporters in Washington, AP announced Thursday.
Ross, 42, is vice president of the Washington Association of Black Journalists, active in the chapter since 1992 and a past director of the WABJ’s high school journalism workshop.
“My main commitment in this field has been to mentor and encourage young journalists, and I’m quite proud of that work,” she told Journal-isms. “I have served as a mentor to 18 young journalists since 1988 — even though my career began only a year earlier.”
Ross has also served on the board of the White House Correspondents Association and set up a partnership between that group and WABJ on helping college-bound students get a leg up in careers in journalism.
As He Retires, Chuck Stone Sees Progress
Chuck Stone, retiring next year as a full-time faculty member at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and founding president of the National Association of Black Journalists says he can measure the racial progress in the news business as he looks back over his career.
“I was a White House correspondent from 1960 to 1963 during the Kennedy administration,” Stone, 80, said in an interview this week with Jane Stancill of the Raleigh News & Observer. “I have a picture on my wall [of me] asking him a question. When I was White House correspondent, there were only two black correspondents. It shows you how time changes — not how time changes — but how time improves. It ennobles all of us.”
“Have times changed enough? Is there enough racial diversity in the nation’s newsrooms?” Stancill asked.
“There’s real sincerity there,” Stone replied. “There’s diversity there, in terms of columnists and publishers. . . . The important thing is intentions. When I started in 1948 there were no black newspaper editors. I’ve seen tremendous changes and they have been very good. . . look at Oprah Winfrey, look at Ed Bradley.
“You can quantify progress. When I was White House correspondent, there were five black members of Congress. Now there are 39.”
Aly Colón Promoted at Poynter Institute
Aly Colón has been appointed News Reporting, Writing, and Editing group leader at the Poynter Institute, and Kelly McBride succeeds Colón as the Ethics group leader, the St. Petersburg, Fla., journalism school announces.
“Colón?s new duties will include serving as editor of the Best Newspaper Writing book, a yearly compilation of the winners of the ASNE Writing Awards and interviews with the winners.
“Colón joined Poynter in 1998 and served as the director of school?s diversity program. In July, 2003, he was named Ethics group leader,” the announcement said.
“Prior to joining Poynter, Colón worked at The Seattle Times as diversity reporter and coach. He was also an assistant metro editor at The Times for urban affairs, health care, ethics and values, religion, and social issues. Before that, he worked at The Herald in Everett, Wash, and at The Oakland Press in Pontiac, Mich.
“As group leader in the writing area, Colón succeeds Keith Woods, who was named dean of the Poynter faculty in October.” Woods named the two to their new posts.
Boulder Paper Begins Latino Outreach
“The Daily Camera launched a long-term community project Tuesday aimed at improving its coverage of Latino communities and hiring Hispanic journalists,” Kate Larsen reported Wednesday in the Boulder, Colo., paper.
“The paper is one of 16 media organizations participating in the National Association of Hispanic Journalists’ Parity Project. The project kicked off with a town hall meeting at the University of Colorado’s Eaton Humanities Building, where local Latino leaders met with NAHJ and Daily Camera representatives.
“At times, it was a tough audience.
“You’re talking to people who’ve been to 50 meetings like this over the last 20 years,” said Bill de la Cruz, former member and president of the Boulder Valley School District Board of Education.
“About 20 members of Boulder County’s Latino community attended the meeting. From local nonprofit and education leaders to recent immigrants and government employees, they voiced their opinions about how their communities are represented in the local media.
“De la Cruz and others said local media coverage of Latino issues often lacks depth.”
Finding common ground with Vicente Carranza (Libby Averyt, Corpus Christi Caller-Times)
Suede Must “Sell the Audience,” Not Just Magazine
In a piece on the new Suede magazine targeting women of color, David Carr writes in the New York Times:
“Whether advertisers will respond to what has been a traditionally underserved market remains an open question for a magazine aimed at the growing ethnic market. The magazine has a a rate base — the number of readers promised to advertisers — of 250,000 and will publish its third issue in February.
“In the publishing circles the magazine has created a rare bit of excitement, the kind of currency that would normally have advertisers leaping into the arms of the latest, hottest thing. While cosmetics firms like Clinique and Lancôme have jumped in, many fashion advertisers are waiting to see where the magazine goes. Executives at Essence Communications and Time Inc., which is a 49 percent partner in the company, are happy to have a magazine people are talking about, but they would like to see their new project blow up huge with a lot of ads as well.
“‘There is a frustration in what we do,’ said Michelle Ebanks, group publisher at Essence Communications Group, which has been publishing Essence magazine for 34 years. ‘In a sense, there is not a road, not a path, that we go down. And because there is no pavement, we have to work a lot harder. We can’t just sell the magazine. We have to sell the audience. We have to explain that our audience buys things, that they are valuable. It’s just plain dollars and sense.'”
Philly’s Stephen A. Smith Called First of a Kind
Sports columnist Stephen A. Smith of the Philadelphia Inquirer and now ESPN is the subject of a 4,403-word spread by Richard Rys in the December issue of Philadelphia magazine.
“Smith isn’t the first newswriter to train his laser-sighted viewpoint on a TV audience, but the passion and the theater in his performance — one part sports attack dog Jim Rome, two parts Jesse Jackson, with a pinch of LL Cool J — make him a pioneer of sorts,” Rys writes.
“Columnists were once cigar-chomping shot-and-a-beer types, middle-aged white dudes who were better read than seen. The Mitch Albom types are younger, more polished and palatable, but just as removed from the sports they cover.
“Just look at the NBA and its gaping divide between stodgy white owners, the mostly white coaches, and the hip-hop generation athletes who play for them. Smith is the first writer-cum-commentator, ever, who relates to the guys who lace up their hightops for a living because he’s like them — a black former athlete who doesn’t just understand the game and the culture around it; he lives it. Think Joe Buck has a row of Air Jordans behind his couch and owns the Public Enemy back catalog?
Hoy Becoming Free Paper in Chicago, L.A.
“For Tribune Co., Hoy is turning into “Oy vey!’,” writes Eric Herman in the Chicago Sun-Times.
“The Chicago-based media giant plans to turn Hoy, its Spanish-language daily, into a free newspaper in two of the three cities where it is sold, executives said Wednesday. Making the paper free in Chicago and Los Angeles will increase readership and bring in more advertisers, they said.”
Houston Chronicle Acquires Spanish Weekly
“The Houston Chronicle has acquired the weekly Spanish-language paper La Voz,” reports Editor and Publisher.
“Jack Sweeney, the Chronicle’s publisher and president, and Olga Ordóñez, publisher of La Voz de Houston, announced the sale to their staffs Thursday.
“Ordóñez and her 13-member staff will remain at the paper, which she and her husband, Armando, began in 1979. Ordóñez will continue in her role as publisher and will report to Sweeney.”
Free Black Weekly Announced in L.A.
“A new weekly is jumping into the competition for African-American newspaper readers in Los Angeles,” Mark Fitzgerald writes in Editor & Publisher.
“Former Los Angeles Times advertising executive Natalie Cole announced Friday the Jan. 13 launch of Our Weekly, a tabloid with 50,000-copy free distribution that includes door-to-door delivery to affluent African American south L.A. neighborhoods including Ladera, Baldwin Hills, Windsor Hills, View Park, Leimert Park, LaFayette Park Square, North Inglewood, and Mid-City.”
R.I. Native Journalist on His Fourth Book
“Native Americans were gifted orators and I feel like I’m part of that tradition,” says John Christian Hopkins, subject of a profile by Paul Davis in Rhode Island’s Providence Journal.
“Hopkins worked for several newspapers, including the New London Day, the Norwich Bulletin, the Pequot Times, the Westerly Sun [all in Connecticut and Rhode Island] and the Fort Myers (Fla.) News-Press. While in Florida, he wrote about Native American issues for USA Today. At the Pequot Times he won several awards from the Native American Journalists Association.
“But Hopkins fared less well at the Charlestown Press” in Rhode Island, “launched in August by the Sun Publishing Co. Hopkins worked as both writer and editor, but after five issues he was let go.
“Hopkins is looking for a publisher for his third book, Shadow Across the Sun, a fictional account of the King Philip’s War.
“Hopkins is working on a fourth book, about an Apache uprising in the 1880s in southwestern Arizona.”
Dwight Cunningham Mobilized Ebersol Coverage
When a private jet carrying NBC Sports chairman Dick Ebersol and two of his sons crashed taking off from Denver’s Montrose airport on Nov. 28, journalism veteran Dwight Cunningham was supervising the Denver Post’s coverage
Cunningham, whose lengthy resume includes business publications, the black press and mainstream dailies, was last in this column in April 2003 , when he resigned as executive editor of the Washington Afro-American. Since then, he taught journalism at Howard University, and in February became science editor at the Denver Post.
He was hired because of “his long experience as a reporter and editor at all kind of places and challenging circumstances,” Jeff Taylor, assistant managing editor for news, told Journal-isms.
Since then he has edited stories on health care, the environment and science, as well as a series on the agricultural use of water in a state where rural areas and cities compete for a limited supply, Taylor said. He was in the rotation supervising the day’s news coverage when the Nov. 28 crash took place.
Black Cable Channel Planned in Oakland
“Oakland’s African- American community was left without a television voice when Comcast Cable pulled the plug on Soul Beat a year ago this month. KBLC-TV on Channel 78, which began airing earlier this year, has not been able to fill the gap with a mix of multicultural programs and faith-based broadcasts. Nor has TV-One, which replaced Soul Beat on Channel 29 but is not locally based,” Cecily Burt wrote Nov. 25 in California’s Oakland Tribune.
“But early next month, if all goes according to plan, a new, locally owned and operated all-black channel called OUR-TV will launch inaugural shows on cable public access Channel 26. The call letters stand for Opportunities in Urban Renaissance.”