Calls Mount for Investigation of Contract
President Bush expressed disapproval Thursday of the Education Department’s decision to pay commentator Armstrong Williams to promote the No Child Left Behind Act, breaking with his education secretary, Rod Paige, who circulated a statement defending his department’s actions.
Meanwhile, Jonathan Adelstein, a Federal Communications Commission member, asked that his agency investigate whether Williams broke the law, and Sens. Arlen Specter, R-Pa., and Tom Harkin, D-Iowa, wrote Paige asking his “careful review of the contract with Ketchum and the payment made to Mr. Williams,” a reference to the Ketchum public relations agency, the Associated Press reported.
[Added Jan. 15: FCC Chairman Michael Powell ordered an FCC investigation.]
“Free Press, an anti-big media group, says it alone has sent 12,500 complaints” to the FCC about the Williams matter, according to Media Life magazine. FCC rules require people to disclose if they have been paid to broadcast information.
Williams called Adelstein’s remarks a ?witch hunt,? according to the AP, which said Williams repeated to the wire service that what he did ?was strictly advertising. . . . I know that I’ve done nothing wrong,? Williams insisted.
Amid suspicions that Williams might not be the only commentator accepting government or political money, William M. Bulkeley and James Bandler of the Wall Street Journal reported that, “Howard Dean’s presidential campaign hired two Internet political ‘bloggers’ as consultants so that they would say positive things about the former governor’s campaign in their online journals, according to a former high-profile Dean aide.”
Williams’ column will remain in the New York Amsterdam News, an African American weekly with a circulation of 40,000, owner Wilbert A. Tatum told Journal-isms. “I have no problem with his taking money from the Education Department,” Tatum said today. “If they investigate and find that it’s illegal, we’ll reconsider.”
TV One, Williams’ remaining African American television outlet, is still reviewing tapes of Williams’ “On Point” show for the cable network to see whether he mentioned “No Child Left Behind,” CEO Johnathan Rodgers said to Journal-isms today. Until the review is completed, TV One will not air any of Williams’ shows and pulled an installment of “America’s Black Forum” last week on which Williams appeared.
The National Society of Newspaper Columnists issued a statement saying Williams should not be called a journalist, saying that Williams’ actions “are obviously not those of a journalist. Therefore, we concur with Mr. Williams’ belief that he is not one. And we suggest that any linkage between Mr. Williams and journalism does a disservice to both,” Editor & Publisher reported.
Bush made his statement on Williams in an interview with USA Today, which broke the story about the $240,000 contract a week ago.
?There needs to be a clear distinction between journalism and advocacy,? Bush was quoted as saying. ?I appreciate the way Armstrong Williams has handled this, because he has made it very clear that he made a mistake. All of us, the Cabinet, needs to take a good look and make sure this kind of thing doesn’t happen again.?
However, Paige, the outgoing education secretary, issued a statement Thursday, posted on the Education Department Web site, saying that, “Hiring outside experts to help communicate a complex issue is standard practice in all sectors of our society: local, state and the federal government; the private sector; and the non-profit sector. The work for which the Graham Williams Group was paid through Ketchum was part of a larger minority outreach effort by the Department because economically disadvantaged and minority students and families are most affected by the educational achievement gap that the law seeks to eradicate.”
The USA Today story noted: “But a copy of the contract, obtained under the federal Freedom of Information Act, says that in addition to the six-month ad campaign last year, Williams was to ‘comment regularly on NCLB during the course of his broadcasts’ and ‘encourage the producers’ of a cable TV program, America’s Black Forum, to do the same.”
Paige concluded by saying, “In addition to my staff’s initial fact-finding efforts, I have also asked for an expedited Inspector General investigation in order to clear up any remaining aspects of this issue as soon as possible so that it does not burden my successor or sully the fine people and good name of this Department.”
The Black Commentator Web site, whose co-publishers, Glen Ford and Peter Gamble, had already called Williams the premier “Black political whore in America,? scolded the news media:
“Although Williams richly deserves public excoriation, self-righteous journalists of all ethnicities and persuasions are missing the big story,” they said.
“Rod Paige?s $240,000 propaganda payment to Williams is puny compared to the tons of cash the Department of Education lavishes on organizations pushing school vouchers and privatization ? more than $75 million by the end of 2003, according to a report by People for the American Way. . . . More than a year later, that figure has almost certainly passed the $100 million mark in grants and ‘contracts’ to groups whose mission is ‘to discredit the very concept of public education.’?
[Added Jan. 15: “In an op-ed posted on the Web site for the industry magazine, PRWeek, Ketchum chief executive officer Ray Kotcher said the firm agreed that Williams was wrong for not having disclosed the information,” the AP reported.
[“We agree, particularly because with government contracts, the public has a right to know about the relationship that spokespeople may have to the issues or government agency they represent,” Kotcher wrote.
[“He also said Ketchum, with help from an outside firm, has started a review of all its federal contracts in an effort that would ‘surely yield recommendations to improve transparency.'”]
There was this other commentary:
- Eric Alterman, The Nation: Pundit Limbo: How Low Can They Go?
- Betty Baye, Louisville Courier-Journal: Payoff to Armstrong Williams raises more questions about ‘new leaders’
- Paul C. Campos, Ventura County Star, Calif.: Questions arising from the Armstrong Williams matter
- Steve Chapman, Chicago Tribune: Principled punditry
- Cary Clack, San Antonio Express-News: If ‘I believe’ journalists should take money, does that make it OK?
- Editorial, Atlanta Journal-Constitution: Payoffs for pundits never OK
- Editorial, Dallas Morning News: Takes Two to Tango: Education Department, Williams share blame
- Editorial, Star Tribune, Minneapolis: Williams deal defines a new low
- Editorial, Washington Post: Apologize
- Samuel G. Freedman, New York Times: Fodder for Reform’s Cynics, and a Blot on Bipartisanship
- Gersh Kuntzman, Newsweek.com: Space For Sale
- Errol Louis, New York Daily News: Time to put an end to pay-to-play journalism
- Sheryl McCarthy, Newsday: A pundit shouldn’t sell out his values
- Ray Metoyer, Atlanta Daily World: No One Should Ever Call Williams a Journalist
- William Powers, National Journal: Make ‘Em Pay
- Frank Rich, New York Times: All the President’s Newsmen
More Cartoons Satirize Armstrong Williams (Editor & Publisher)
Bush Denies Knowledge of Williams Payola as Investigations Urged (BlackAmericaWeb.com)
Restrictions Imposed on Tsunami Reporters
“Officials announced this week that foreign journalists and aid workers must report their movements and seek military accompaniment when traveling outside of the provincial capital, Banda Aceh, or the town of Meulaboh, according to international news reports,” the Committee to Protect Journalists reported today in a statement referring to journalists covering the aftermath of the Dec. 26 tsunami in Indonesia.
“The rules mean a return, in part, to the severe restrictions that have limited coverage of the ongoing civil conflict in Aceh.
“When asked whether journalists would face expulsion if they failed to keep officials informed of their plans, Welfare Minister Alwi Shihab told The Associated Press, ‘I think that is one possibility.’
“Officials in Banda Aceh have already denied at least one journalist permission to report on relief activities outside of the major cities. Bruno Bonamigo, producer for the Canadian public broadcasting outlet, Radio Canada Information, told The Jakarta Post that officials had barred him from reporting on the relief efforts of Doctors Without Borders in the north Aceh town of Sigli,” the Committee said, expressing its concern.
Somalia: Several Thousand Permanently Displaced By Tsunami (UN Integrated Regional Information Networks)
Black Ex-N.Y. Times Reporter Trashed in New Book
Forget Jayson Blair. Another black former reporter for the New York Times is trashed in both blind and on-the-record quotes in Seth Mnookin’s new book about the New York Times under executive editor Howell Raines, “Hard News: The Scandals at the New York Times and Their Meaning for American Media.”
Kenneth Noble, who had reported from West Africa, comes under fire in a chapter about the Times’ affirmative action efforts. “‘Ken couldn’t hack it,’ says a reporter who was in the Los Angeles bureau at the time,” one passage reads. “‘There was a bizarreness to his behavior. Sometimes he’d show up, and sometimes he wouldn’t. And this went on and on and on.'”
Noble now teaches journalism at the Annenberg School for Communication of the University of Southern California.
Mnookin quotes Linda Matthews, national editor, as saying that when the Los Angeles bureau chief’s job opened up in 1994, future managing editor Gerald Boyd, who is African American, “went and visited Ken in Africa and offered him the job in L.A. without even consulting me. And when I complained, [Boyd] said the paper had a responsibility to bring along young, talented blacks.”
But, Matthews says, according to Mnookin, “he came to the office infrequently. When he did appear, he was often dressed inappropriately, in sweatpants and T-shirts. He had trouble meeting the Times’s East Coast deadlines, and instead of attending the O.J. Simpson criminal trial, he occasionally wrote his copy off of Associated Press reports.”
“. . . By the end of 1996, Noble had been recalled from Los Angeles after an investigation into the bureau revealed rampant mismanagement. The next year, he left the paper for good.”
Mnookin includes an editor’s note saying that Noble “did not respond to more than half a dozen e-mails and phone messages requesting comment.”
Colleagues told Journal-isms that Noble had been out sick for a period of time, but neither did Noble respond to an inquiry from Journal-isms this week. Nor did Boyd, who told the convention of the National Association of Black Journalists in 2003: “To suggest that I played favorites not only diminishes me as a journalist but as a manager, and diminishes all of those people that I have helped try to inspire, to teach, to mold.”
D.C. Rock Station Goes Spanish-Language
“They had heard the news and wanted to hear the music, maybe catch some uptempo salsa to start their day for a change,” Rob Hiaasen reported today in the Baltimore Sun.
“In the Baltimore office of the Mayor’s Hispanic Liaison, staff members yesterday tuned into WHFS 99.1 FM — which Wednesday had dropped an atom bomb on its alternative rock listeners by switching to a Spanish-language format. They found a station called El Zol. Siempe De Fiesta (‘always partying’) is the station’s new sunny slogan, but apparently it’s not partying quite yet.
“‘We called over there to make a request,’ said Jose Ruiz, the mayor’s Hispanic liaison. ‘But there was no one there who speaks the language!’ He says the call was transferred until apparently out of frustration, someone at the station hung up the phone. ‘Amigo, it’s insane! This is an insult. Come on!'” Ruiz was much more amused than angry, Hiaasen wrote.
Teresa Wiltz and Paul Farhi noted Thursday in the Washington Post that, “The audience of Spanish-language stations has grown 37 percent since 1998 and currently accounts for about 9 percent of all listeners. (Some radio experts believe that this understates the actual audience, as it does not take into account the large numbers of undocumented Latinos for whom the radio is a vital source of information.) In 2003, Latin album sales increased 16 percent, according to Nielsen SoundScan.
“In the Washington area, the Hispanic population has grown more than 25 percent in the last four years, Infinity says,” a reference to the Infinity Broadcasting chain.
Magazine Targets Upscale L.A. Latinos
“When Tu Ciudad Los Angeles, a bimonthly English-language magazine, launches in May, it will have a fixed goal in mind: reaching upwardly mobile Latinos living in L.A., a group that is not often sought out by the media,” Nancy Ayala reports in Media Week.
“Launching with a rate base of 110,000, Ciudad, or simply ‘City’ as it is being touted, is a joint partnership between publisher Jaime Gamboa, a veteran of Wired, associate publisher Gabriel Grimalt, the former vp of operations for Spanish Broadcasting System in Los Angeles, and Indianapolis-based Emmis Communications, publisher of regional titles that include Los Angeles and Texas Monthly.
“‘It’s a second- and third-generation Hispanic readership that’s not unlike our magazine readership,’ Deborah Paul, Emmis executive vp, editorial director, said of her company’s good fit.”
New Editor, Local Focus for Chicago’s La Raza
“La Raza in Chicago, one of the nation’s biggest Spanish-language weeklies, has a new top editor with an assignment to break more local news,” Mark Fitzgerald reports in Editor & Publisher.
“Jorge Mederos, who had been the editor of the paper’s zoned metro sections, was named managing editor, La Raza Publisher and CEO Robert J. Armband announced.”
Rochelle Riley Hosts Detroit Forum Featuring Cosby
Detroit Free Press features columnist Rochelle Riley hosted a forum with actor and comedian Bill Cosby that drew more than 1,800 people packing Wayne County Community College’s downtown campus, some standing in the rain three hours before the event began, the Free Press, which sponsored the event, reported.
“Cosby, who played America’s favorite TV dad in the 1980s, mixed humor and preaching Thursday as he urged African-American Detroiters to be more responsible for the lives and futures of their children,” read the story by Cecil Angel and Chastity Pratt.
“Although some would say that the community’s youths are out of control, Cosby suggested, ‘it’s not what they’re doing to us. It’s what we’re not doing.’
“. . . Riley set the mood by saying the conversation is not directed at all black parents but a specific group in need of help and change.
“‘If your child is walking around in thousands of dollars worth of clothes and doesn’t have a dime’s worth of sense — he’s talking to you,’ she said.”
Liz Walker Ends Anchor Role After 25 Years
“After 25 years at the anchor desk at CBS4, Liz Walker will announce today on the noon newscast that she is moving on,” Suzanne C. Ryan wrote in this morning’s Boston Globe.
“The journalist, an icon in the business who is currently attending Harvard Divinity School, is leaving the grind of daily news to host a locally produced Sunday morning community affairs show for the station.
“Walker’s departure, effective immediately, represents the end of an era in local news. Although she has maintained a fairly low profile in recent years, coanchoring at noon with Jack Williams, she and Williams were the station’s principal nighttime anchor team from 1981 to 1999.
“. . . Now 53, she made history early in her career when she became the first African-American weeknight anchor at the station. And she was the subject of scrutiny and gossip 17 years ago, when it became apparent that she was pregnant and unmarried. Since then, Walker has endured criticism for everything from her wardrobe to her hair.
“Williams, who worked alongside Walker for 19 of her 25 years at the station, said he was proud of her courage to walk away. ‘She was the first African-American woman to become a major hit in Boston. Twenty-five years ago, people didn’t expect to see a fair-haired male and an African-American female on air together. She broke down a lot of barriers with viewers.'”
After 25 Years, Still “That Black Girl on TV”
“Angela Pace will be honored by the Columbus Association of Black Journalists on Saturday ? the 76 th anniversary of the birth of Martin Luther King Jr.,” Tim Feran reported in Ohio’s Columbus Dispatch today.
“She recently stopped to reflect -? as did her peers Mike Jackson of WCMH-TV (Channel 4) and Yolanda Harris of WSYX (Channel 6) ?- on her role as a black anchorwoman in a predominantly white TV market.
“It?s unfortunate I?m still referred to sometimes as ?that black girl on TV,? ” said the WBNS-TV (Channel 10) newswoman. “That is something that still shakes me a little bit. I do look at the calendar and see that we?re in a whole nother century and wonder, after 25 years on the air: Wouldn?t I have another label?”
Black Leaders Cool Toward Boston Tab Shakeup
“Metro International,” publisher of a free Boston tabloid, “has fallen short in its response to revelations that two top executives made racist remarks at company gatherings, Boston’s black leaders said yesterday,” according to Greg Gatlin and John Strahinich of the Boston Herald.
“. . . Following revelations that they made racist remarks at company gatherings, Steve Nylund gave up oversight of U.S. operations Wednesday but kept a lofty post at the freebie’s parent company.
“Hans-Holger Albrecht stepped down as a Metro International director but retains a lucrative job at a Swedish media company that owns a big part of Metro.
“The revelations — including charges from former employees that Metro Boston was hostile to women and minorities — came as The New York Times Co., which owns The Boston Globe, sought to close a deal to buy a 49 percent stake in the local operation.
“Sarah-Ann Shaw, a retired WBZ (Ch. 4) reporter and highly regarded community activist, called on the Times Co. to investigate the situation fully before proceeding with the deal.
“I don’t know if we know the full story yet,” she said in the story.
Shaw is the recipient of a Lifetime Achievement Award from the National Association of Black Journalists. Earlier this week, the Boston Association of Black Journalists recommended a boycott of the Metro.
Why I chose not to write the Metro story (Alex Beam, Boston Globe)
Don King Suing ESPN Charging Defamation
“Instead of pontificating, the boxing promoter stood stiffly in the background as his lawyer discussed a defamation suit Don King filed Wednesday against ESPN. The attorney said King is entitled to damages of more than $2.5 billion,” the Associated Press reported.
“The lawsuit says a ‘SportsCentury’ segment aired last May accused King of being ‘a snake oil salesman, a shameless huckster and worse,’ claimed the flamboyant promoter underpaid Muhammad Ali by $1.2 million and claimed King — convicted in a 1967 beating death and acquitted in a 1954 killing — ‘killed not once, but twice.'”
Al-Jazeera Keeping Low Profile in D.C.
“No Al-Jazeera sign will hang outside the network’s new offices on K Street. Instead, staffers will enter ‘Peninsula Productions,’ the channel’s American video production company. Experience has shown them that the Al-Jazeera name tends to attract the wrong kind of attention here,” Ellen Gamerman reported from Washington for the Baltimore Sun.
“As a result, the controversial satellite network that is the dominant news source for the Arab world has learned to play a political game worthy of its Washington address: It is keeping fairly quiet about the $7 million Washington digs.”
MTV Postpones Debut of Gay Channel
“MTV Networks’ plan to start a cable channel devoted to gay and lesbian programming has been slightly delayed, the company announced yesterday, with a new start date for the channel, called Logo, pushed back five months, to June 30,” Bill Carter reported in today’s New York Times.
However, “the channel announced a wide range of programs yesterday including three original series, a slate of documentaries, news coverage from CBS News and some well-known movie titles, headed by the first broadcast of the mini-series ‘Angels in America,’ winner of multiple Emmy Awards, after its run on HBO.”
ACT-SO Students Carry on Jarrett Legacy
“On Monday, I will attend a Martin Luther King Jr. Day memorial breakfast at Colonial Williamsburg that will recognize two dozen ACT-SO students from high schools in Williamsburg, James City and York counties.” wrote Wayne Dawkins on BlackAmericaWeb.com.
“Will any on these teenagers grow up to be the next Tananarive Due (bestselling author of ?The Between,? and ?My Soul to Keep?); Roy Hargrove (jazz trumpeter and band leader); or Mike Phillips (sax man for Prince, Boyz II Men, Brian McKnight and Babyface) — all former ACT-SO national winners when they were teens?”
ACT-SO stands for Academic, Cultural, Technological and Science Olympics. It is an NAACP program for youth founded by Vernon Jarrett, the legendary Chicago journalist who died last year at age 85.
“Vernon Jarrett, who I assume is smiling down on these students from heaven, must be curious.”
Dawkins, a former editorial writer at the Daily Press in Newport News and unofficial historian of the National Association of Black Journalists, is now teaching three journalism courses at nearby Hampton University, he told Journal-isms.
