Decision Ends Idea of Filling Smiley’s Host Job
Ed Gordon‘s new show for National Public Radio has been picked up by nearly all the stations that carried “The Tavis Smiley Show,” and the new program appears to have ended the idea of keeping the Smiley show going with a new host.
NPR and the African American Public Radio Consortium of radio station managers announced Tuesday that Gordon, former anchor of “BET News” and “BET Tonight,” and host of BET’s “Lead Story,” “will host a new public affairs show beginning in early 2005 that will focus on news, trends and topical issues of interest and importance to the African-American community.”
“News & Notes With Ed Gordon” is to begin late January, broadcasting Monday to Friday, and NPR said that 86 affiliates were committed to carrying it. The Chicago newspapers reported today that an exception is the Chicago affiliate, WBEZ-FM, which is waiting to hear a pilot for the show before committing.
The announcement about Gordon’s program came less than a week after Smiley appeared for the last time on the NPR talk show bearing his name. He had sharply criticized NPR for its lack of promotion and questioned its commitment to a multicultural audience.
On Smiley’s complaint, Gordon told Journal-isms that, “the only thing I can say is time will tell. I’ve not been in-house yet.
“I think we all feel like the industry has been slow,” not solely NPR.
Gordon said he had his first conversations with NPR close to two years ago, but that Smiley’s announcement accelerated matters.
In its Nov. 29 statement immediately after Smiley’s announcement, NPR said that, “NPR and the Consortium are committed to the continuation of this show ? and the creation of others, for which it opened the door.”
Today, NPR and the Consortium backed away from that commitment. “You can’t launch more than one show at a time,” Loretta Rucker, president of the Consortium, told Journal-isms. “We decided to put Ed’s show in that spot, and we’re going to develop another block of programs for prime time.”
Tony Cox, the fill-in host for the Smiley show, had said he planned to apply to succeed Smiley. Rucker said she believed that “Tony will be a regular contributor to that [Gordon] show” and that “the rest of that staff will be working with Ed.”
Gordon agreed that “we can’t be satisfied with just one show” on NPR. “There’s so few of us. There ought to be room for all of us,” Gordon, 44, told Journal-isms. “I would love to have somebody carry both of us, and then carry another person (of color). I wish Tavis were still there; that way we would at least have two shows,” he said. He also noted that Smiley considers himself an activist, whereas “I am a journalist in the truest sense.”
Makebra M. Anderson of the National Newspaper Publishers Association, which broke news of the new show Tuesday, quoted Rucker as saying that Gordon will have a female co-host. Gordon told Journal-isms that three women are in the running, and that he plans to interview them.
The show also intends to feature a “reporters’ roundtable,” reminiscent of the old “Lead Story.” So far, the only regular chosen is George E. Curry, editor of the NNPA News Service, who was on the “Lead Story” panel. Gordon said he was looking for a pool of about 15 journalists, giving voice to some who don’t normally get such exposure.
In 1996, after a widely watched one-on-one interview with O.J. Simpson, Gordon was named one of People magazine’s “50 most beautiful people in the world.” Asked about being in a medium where people can’t see him, Gordon said, “this is just a sign of the times. You just have to do more than one thing. I’m not abandoning television,” citing his new role as a contributing correspondent to CBS-TV’s “60 Minutes Weekday.”
In another development, Gary Dauphin, director of AOL African American programming, told Journal-isms that AOL planned to launch a “hosted, interactive video experience with an Ed Gordon-level host” who would “conduct interviews with African American notables.” It would feature streaming video, and audience members would be able to submit questions. The host has not been finally determined, Dauphin said.
Pearl Stewart Named M.E. of Chicago Defender
“Pearl Stewart, who in 1992 at The Oakland (Calif.) Tribune became the first African-American woman to be the top editor of a metro newspaper, will begin work as the managing editor of the Chicago Defender on Jan. 3,” as Editor & Publisher reports.
“‘Her vast experience fits in perfectly with the changes we have incorporated at the Chicago Defender, and puts us in position to further establish our product as the pre-eminent news and information source for African-Americans in Chicago and the United States,’ the Defender’s executive editor, Roland S. Martin, said in a statement.
“Stewart comes to the Chicago Defender from Florida A&M University’s School of Journalism and Graphic Communication, where she served as director of career-development services and a journalism instructor since 2000. Her academic experience includes stints as instructor, journalist-in-residence, or fellow at Louisiana State University, Dillard University, Xavier University, Howard University, and Harvard University.
“‘I view this as an opportunity to be a part of the renaissance of an important newspaper,’ Stewart said. ‘The Chicago Defender has a rich history and a promising future.'”
In 2002, Stewart founded Black College Wire , launched “to promote the journalistic work of students at predominantly black colleges and universities and link those young journalists to training and employment opportunities in the field.”
An E&P article last month on the attempt to revive the Defender and the black press in general said that, “In the early 1950s, the weekly Defender circulated nationwide and hit its peak sales of 230,000 copies. In 2002, the last time it filed an Audit Bureau of Circulations (ABC) Publisher’s Statement, the daily Defender sold just 14,629 copies a day in a city of 1.1 million African-Americans.”
2 Laid Off at Dallas Morning News Find Jobs
At least two young people of color who were among the 60 to 70 newsroom employees laid off in October at the Dallas Morning News have found new jobs. The layoffs affected at least 10 journalists of color, including Ira Hadnot, the president of the Dallas/Fort Worth Association of Black Communicators.
Sportswriter Rick Alonzo, who spent 5 1/2 years at the paper, told Journal-isms he started work Nov. 29 at the St. Paul Pioneer Press, covering the University of Minnesota men’s basketball team as his primary beat. “I’m excited and grateful that I was fortunate enough to find a new job so quickly,” he said.
Nicaragua-born Meyla Hooker, a sportswriter who is of African and Hispanic heritage, landed at the St. Petersburg Times. “I’m thankful for their trust in me, especially after what happened with the DMN. That can ruin a young journalist, but I don’t plan on letting that happen,” she said.
However, most others apparently have not been as successful. Linda Vaughan, a copy editor at the paper, said that her husband, Raul Reyes, who as national editor was the highest ranking Latino laid off, has not found work.
“Everything’s dead, basically,” she said, explaining that it was a bad time of year to job hunt.
Meanwhile, the News is advertising for a religion writer, on the same desk from which Hadnot was laid off.
Religion reporter Susan Hogan-Albach decided to leave, and religion editor Bruce Tomaso told Journal-isms that Hadnot was free to apply for the job. “I sent them a resume and a letter and I’ll see what they do,” Hadnot said.
Hadnot also has been allowed to serve out her term as president of the Dallas/Fort Worth Association of Black Communicators. She said at the time that she feared the layoff made her ineligible to keep the position, but she said national officers ruled that since she was fully qualified when elected, she could remain until the term ends in July.
Publisher Accused of Dumping Ink in Black Area
“An Oakland-based newspaper group with publications geared to African Americans is being criminally prosecuted for dumping hazardous printing ink in a black community in San Francisco,” Glenn Chapman reported Saturday in the Oakland Tribune.
“San Francisco District Attorney Kamala Harris characterized the alleged crime as ‘outrageous’ this week when she announced that her office filed felony charges against Alameda Publishing Corp., Victor Martinez and William Araujo for the illegal transportation and disposal of hazardous waste.
“Alameda Publishing does business as Post Newspaper Group and El Mundo and distributes free publications in Oakland, Berkeley, Richmond and San Francisco.”
Writer Praised for Work on Chinese Immigrant Case
“David Chen was the 2004 recipient of the Dr. Suzanne Ahn Award for Civil Rights and Social Justice for Asian Americans for his continuing coverage of the case of David Wong,” Steven Chin wrote on the Asian American Journalists Association Web site.
“Wong is an undocumented immigrant from China who is serving 25 years to life in prison for a jailhouse murder. Interviews with prison employees, inmates and the victim’s widow suggest Wong’s innocence. On Dec. 10, 2004, prosecutors in Plattsburgh, N.Y., announced that they had filed a motion to dismiss the charges against Wong.
“Mike Hale, assistant editor, Arts & Leisure, of The New York Times lauds, ‘He [Chen] has provided practically the only mainstream coverage of what is not only a troubling case involving an individual Asian’s rights in the American criminal justice system, but also an important example of the Asian American community’s taking action in defense of those rights.'”
In a Q&A, Chen says, “The editors have been very supportive of me covering the story over the years.
“. . . At the same time, though — and perhaps this says more about the Times than anything else — the Wong case has not generated any more attention than any number of other stories I have done over the years. (Stories about pets and Taiwan-China relations, for instance, have yielded way more responses.) I just try to remind myself that every story is important, and bound to make a deep impression on someone out there.”
A Thousand a Day Dying in Congo, Survey Finds
“One thousand people die every day in Democratic Republic of the Congo, almost all of them from entirely preventable causes such as malnutrition and treatable disease, a new survey has found ? despite the fact that the war has officially been over for 18 months,” Stephanie Nolen reported Tuesday in the Toronto Globe and Mail.
“The survey, conducted by the International Rescue Committee through exhaustive house-by-house interviews with 19,500 families in 750 communities, is one of the most comprehensive ever compiled in a conflict zone.
?’This is 3.8 million people dead above what you would normally expect [in a developing country such as Congo] and we’ve ignored it,’ said IRC doctor Richard Brennan, who co-wrote the study.
?’Put that in perspective: We know 250,000 died in Bosnia; we know 12,000 died in Kosovo. And that was on everyone’s TV screen. Congo is the deadliest war anywhere in the world since the end of World War II and no one knows about it. No politician is saying, ?This is outrageous.'”
Ex-Copy Editor’s Harassment Suit Dismissed
“The Kentucky Court of Appeals yesterday affirmed a lower court’s ruling dismissing a former Herald-Leader copy editor’s lawsuit against the newspaper. The copy editor alleged he was harassed because of his race and religion,” Brandon Ortiz reported Saturday in the Herald-Leader.
“Judge Wilfrid Schroder wrote that Amos Jones, who is black and a Baptist, ‘attempted to simultaneously and contradictorily’ claim that jokes by co-workers and his boss at the time were also factual allegations. The three-judge panel agreed with Fayette Circuit Court Judge Thomas Clark‘s written opinion that the encounter was casual office banter that, while in bad taste, did not meet the legal standards to support a lawsuit.
“Schroder also wrote that there was no evidence that Herald-Leader managers failed to follow policies prohibiting discrimination and harassment “or were negligent in handling the matter once it was brought to their attention.”
“. . . Jones left the Herald-Leader in August 2003 to attend Harvard Law School.”
Star Tribune Rejects Ad With Two Men Kissing
“The organizer of the Twin Cities’ annual Gay Pride event filed a discrimination complaint against the Star Tribune with the Minneapolis Commission on Civil Rights on Monday,” the Minneapolis newspaper reported.
“GLBT/Pride Twin Cities contends that the paper improperly refused to run an advertisement for the June event that showed two men kissing.
“. . . ‘We stand by our decision not to run the ad as submitted, and we disagree with GLBT on the appropriateness of the ad,’ Star Tribune spokesman Ben Taylor said. ‘We are disappointed that GLBT would take this action after we have partnered with them, sponsored their events and supported their core principles for many years.'”
