Indianapolis Star Lawsuit Pushes the Buttons
A lawsuit filed by two former editorial writers this week against the Indianapolis Star makes some familiar charges — managers pressuring employees and making them uncomfortable enough to leave, allegations of racial and age discrimination — along with the unfamiliar: claims of religious discrimination linked with questions of sensitivity to gay concerns.
The accusations come at a newspaper that has been undergoing a housecleaning of its staff and that claimed a newsroom that included 14.4 percent people of color in the latest American Society of Newspaper Editors census. One manager of color is at the assistant managing editor level, AME for features Jacqueline Thomas.
James Patterson and Lisa M. Coffey filed their suit in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Indiana on Monday. Patterson is described in the documents as “a 51-year-old African-American man with strong and sincere Christian religious beliefs” who had worked at the Star since 1989.
Coffey is “a 46-year-old Caucasian woman with strong and sincere Christian religious beliefs” who began working in 1990 on the editorial page of the old Indianapolis News, coordinated the Pulliam Journalism Fellowship program, and then switched to the Indianapolis Star, where she continued to work on the fellowship program along with her other duties.
According to their suit, both were praised for their work until shortly after Gannett Co. changed managers after buying the paper in 2000 from the Pulliam family. Barbara A. Henry became Star president and publisher and Dennis Ryerson eventually became editor.
“As a part of their animus towards Christian employees, Ms. Henry and Mr. Ryerson displayed strong disagreement with anyone who had a Biblical view of homosexuality,” the suit alleges. “Thereafter, The Star, through the actions of Ms. Henry and Mr. Ryerson, implemented a policy and practice of encouraging, favoring and printing news coverage and editorials with a positive slant on homosexuality and of disfavoring editorials with a positive slant on Christianity.”
The complaint says that “shortly after Mr. Ryerson’s hiring, he made a public statement to the members of the Editorial Department that sodomy laws should be repealed,” and that Coffey then began researching the topic. “The first test column as written highlighted the fact that ‘men who have sex with men’ are indeed a high-risk group when it comes to HIV transmission but also continually underscored the issue of anal intercourse, not homosexuality, as the subject under review. . . When he read it, Mr. Ryerson became enraged and refused to print it, stating that the Star would never run anything that was so anti-gay. The test column was not anti-gay, despite Mr. Ryerson’s interpretation of it; it was an accurate depiction of the risks associated with anal intercourse.”
Three months later, Ryerson told Coffey that the newsroom would be taking over her Pulliam Fellowship work and that she would be transferred to the copy desk.
In discussing Patterson, who also is the founding president of the Indianapolis Association of Black Journalists, the suit says “Mr. Ryerson’s first day at The Star was the day after war was commenced against Iraq. Plaintiff Patterson had written an editorial calling for the country to pray over our troops and the war effort in general. Mr. Ryerson informed the Editorial Department that he had been repulsed and offended by the prayer editorial and stated that, in the future, he would not allow any editorials with any Christian overtones to be published or which could be construed as proselytizing on the editorial pages.”
The complaint said his career went downhill, with positive performance evaluations — cited in the lawsuit — turning negative. Patterson said he made a “minor error” that was corrected and that his 2003 evaluation, “contrary to prior practice,” made “scant reference” to “two state first-place awards and a prestigious international award for his series of editorials on the HIV/AIDS pandemic.
“In 2003,” the complaint continued, “Plaintiff Patterson had won a first-place award from the Indiana Associated Press Managing Editors organization for his editorial writing. Trophies for the other award-winning reporters were distributed to them. Plaintiff Patterson did not receive his trophy. After several months, he eventually found it in a gunny sack in an empty office.”
The Star has referred questions to Ali Zoibi, its vice president for human resources and administration.
Zoibi issued this statement: “These allegations are wholly without merit. They were presented to the EEOC, which quickly dismissed each of the former employee’s cases.
“The allegations are inaccurate and misleading. Editorial positions now as in the past, often support Christian positions on public issues. Any reader of The Star can see stories, editorials, columns, letters to the editor and other items that clearly show respect for Christian views if not outright backing of those views. On June 5th, the editor of our editorial pages, in a signed comment, noted his Christian faith.
“The Star does not discriminate.
“We will vigorously defend our record against the spurious and unfounded allegations raised by this lawsuit.”
The EEOC finding is not so categorical, however.
According to a copy supplied by the plaintiffs’ lawyer, John Price, the EEOC issued a form letter in which the box next to the following words were checked:
“The EEOC issues the following determination: Based upon its investigation, the EEOC is unable to conclude that the information obtained establishes violations of the statute. This does not certify that the respondent is in compliance with the statutes. No finding is made as to any other issues that might be construed as having been raised by this charge.”
Andrea Neal, who was editorial page editor from May 2000 to August 2003, told Journal-isms tonight that she had read the complaint and that “I certainly stand behind” the performance evaluations of Patterson that were quoted. She noted that Patterson was the first African American ever on that page and that he had developed a community following, writing about prisons, AIDS and world hunger, among other issues.
But, describing herself as “real conservative,” Neal said that “when a new editor and a new publisher come in, they’re entitled to put their imprint on the editorial page. I had not thought of what was going on as religious discrimination in the sense that is mentioned in the lawsuit.”
Indianapolis is the site of next year’s National Association of Black Journalists convention.
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NAHJ Disappointed NAJA Won’t Get CNN Money
“NAHJ endorsed a letter this month that stated disappointment with CNN’s decision to leave out the Native American Journalists Association from a pool of donated money used for increasing the industry’s diversity,” Gloria Gallardo wrote today in the student-written convention newspaper at the National Association of Hispanic Journalists in Fort Worth, Texas.
In other convention developments:
- The organization also issued its annual “Network Brownout Report,” which showed that, “Stories about illegal immigration and crime continued dominating television networks’ limited news coverage of Hispanics, showing a lack of depth and balance in reporting about America’s largest and fastest-growing minority, according to a decade of annual studies,” as the Associated Press reported.
“Of the 140,000 network stories aired from 1995 to 2004, less than 1 percent ? an average of 120 a year ? were about Latinos. In those 10 years, the networks aired 218 stories about immigration and 218 stories about crime involving Hispanics, according to the Network Brownout Report 2005.”
- On Wednesday, Los Angeles’ newly elected mayor told the group that “Democrats must talk more about family values if they want to keep the support of Latino voters,” according to Anabelle Garay of the Associated Press.
“Republicans were able to gain Hispanic votes in last year’s presidential election because they focused on religion and seemed comfortable with Latino voters, Antonio Villaraigosa told reporters,” she wrote.
- Today, the NAHJ board “passed resolutions supporting minority broadcast ownership, public interest requirements for digital broadcasting and the right of state and local governments to build wireless networks,” NAHJ said in a news release.
“CNN donated $1 million for scholarships on June 1,” the story in the Latino Reporter convention newspaper continued. “The money will be split evenly between three organizations of UNITY the National Association of Hispanic Journalists (NAHJ), the National Association of Black Journalists (NABJ), and the Asian American Journalists Association (AAJA).
“But the fourth organization, NAJA received no money, a move that prompted a letter from organization president Dan Lewerenz to CNN President Jim Walton.
“Lewerenz said CNN is, for the first time, sponsoring the NAJA convention taking place August 11-14 in Lincoln, Nebraska. He’s asked for a meeting with the network president, but said Walton was not interested now, may be in the future.
“Ivan Roman, , executive director of NAHJ, said NAJA didn’t ask him to make a public statement.
“‘We do urge that NAJA get more support,’ Roman said.
CNN spokeswoman Christa Robinson’s office told Journal-isms on June 2 that, “CNN chose the three organizations with which it had the most extensive relationships.”
- Journalists urged to monitor media companies (David Lopez, Latino Reporter Digital)
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Raspberry Helps Miss. Hometown With Own Funds
“Tamika Buchanan is taking ‘baby steps’ in bolstering her parenting skills,” began a story datelined Okolona, Miss., on Sunday by Sid Salter in the Clarion-Ledger of Jackson.
“Buchanan, 27, is the mother of two small sons, but she’s been learning along with her husband, Fredric, to take Baby Steps in their parenting skills for the last 14 months ? and her pride is contagious.
“Baby Steps is the early childhood education initiative founded and funded by Okolona native and Pulitzer Prize-winning Washington Post columnist William Raspberry in his hometown.
“. . . Last month in Okolona at the Hazel Ivy Child Care Center ? the primary site of the initial Baby Steps program classes ? Raspberry met with parents, children and community leaders with a stake in the early childhood education program he’s funding.
“Buchanan said that in addition to learning valuable parenting skills, the program has had the result of helping her spend more quality time with her children and her husband. . . Prior to her involvement with Baby Steps, Buchanan didn’t know who Raspberry was and had never read his newspaper column.”
According to a companion story on Raspberry, also written by Salter, “about 60 children receive care at the center from morning to night each day.”
“I’ve been fortunate to have enjoyed a measure of success in my life,” the Okolona native is quoted as saying. “At this stage of the game, my interests lie not in journalism for the sake of it or for the remuneration it provides. I’m interested in being a cathedral builder,” a term explained in the story’s opening anecdote. Raspberry turns 70 this year.
The columnist told Journal-isms today that the cost of paying for program himself has ended up being “more than I anticipated,” with the hiring of three people. But he said that he could not ethically ask for contributions. “I work for a newspaper; I can’t beg for money,” he said. Donors might expect favorable coverage in his column in return.
Moreover, “I wanted to make the town understand my seriousness of purpose. I’m trying to change the culture of that place and make the town look at itself in a different way. [I said,] ‘If you do what I ask you to do, I’ll pay for it.'”
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2 More Stories on Disparity in Coverage of Missing
Two stories Wednesday focused on the lack of media coverage of missing people of color.
“Most of the missing adults tracked by the FBI are men. More than one-in-five of those abducted or kidnapped are black,” Erin Texeira wrote for the Associated Press.
“But you might not get that impression from the news media, and some journalism watchdogs are now taking the industry to task for what they see as a disproportionate emphasis on cases in which white girls and women ? overwhelmingly upper-middle class and attractive ? disappear.”
Her story was accompanied by a graphic illustrating the point, and a quote from Dori J. Maynard, president of the Maynard Institute: “If journalists ? consciously or unconsciously ? expect men and minorities to be crime victims, few will consider it newsworthy if that actually happens.”
In USA Today Mark Memmott noted that the media spotlight can distort, and also affect how local authorities handle a case.
Detective Dwayne Baird, spokesman for the Salt Lake City police, said, “We typically would ask for help from the FBI if they have resources that we don’t have access to. But national attention can drive that issue. You can’t stand before the public on a national story and say, ‘We’ve got three guys dedicated to this, and sooner or later, we’ll figure it out.’ “
- (White) Women We Love (Eugene Robinson, Washington Post)
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Dispatch from South Asian Journalists Conference
Vikas Bajaj, convention coordinator at the South Asian Journalists Association’s annual meeting in New York, sends this dispatch via e-mail:
“We have 500 coming to the dinner Sat. night and probably another 200-300 through the daily panels/workshops.
“Two new things at the convention this year:
“— We’re running a blog with student writers/photographers and professional editors/photo editors.
“— We’re also plugging the SAJA Reporting Fellowship — it’s an up to $10K grant to reporters/photographers/etc. to cover South Asia or the diaspora. This year the topic is limited to tsunami, but in future years it will be open to other issues. Take a look.
“We had a great Iraq discussion this morning with Michael Massing (CJR), Rajiv Chandrasekaran (W.Post), Drew Millhon (ABC), Gaiutra Bahdur (Philadelphia Inquirer) and moderated by Leela Jacinto (formerly ABCNews.com).
“The general consensus was that reporters are doing the best they can amidst tremendous security and political, from both the left and the right, pressures. Massing made the point that the media appears to have made amends for its earlier shoddy performance on the pre-war intelligence. Rajiv and Gaiutra addressed the real and perceived benefits of looking ‘more native’ than their colleagues. Rajiv said that initially he thought being South Asian was an asset in Iraq, because Indians have historically had good will in the country. But that proved not to be the case because insurgents increasingly saw Indians as collaborators with the occupying powers because military contractors were using Indians and Pakistani workers. Gaiutra said Iraqi women seemed more willing to open up to her as a fellow female than they are to Western, male reporters.”
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Laid Off, She Converts Back Room to “Peace Place”
Linda Jones, a 10-year reporter at the Dallas Morning News who was among the 60 to 70 laid off in October’s “massacre,” is freelancing and has converted the back room of her house into a writer’s retreat.
“I’ve been freelancing under the banner of my newly formed writing and media consulting biz—ManeLock Communications. so i’m writing, teaching and coaching folks on their books and other writing projects,” she wrote via e-mail. “i’m also promoting my book, conducting cultural enrichment workshops and doing public speaking under my cultural awareness organization A Nappy Hair Affair, Inc.
“since i’m working from home i’ve made my living space more ‘revenue friendly. converted back room of my house into what i call ‘the peace place.’ it’s a modest studio with use of back patio deck and back yard for those who want a place to chill for a few hours or few days. focusing more on folk who want to hide to write or just relax. it’s like a bed and breakfast, without the breakfast.”
Rates: “only $35 per hour ($20 without use of massage recliner); $120 per day (7AM to 10 PM). Without use of massage recliner, $80 per day).” Jones is at zzzspace@sbcglobal.net
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Short Takes
- “The Chicago Reporter just bowed to reality and switched to bimonthly publication,” Michael Miner reported in the publication this week. “The Community Renewal Society launched the Reporter 33 years ago to examine poverty and racial injustice.”
- “L.A. newscaster Lauren Sanchez, who has played herself in a slew of Hollywood movies, including ‘The Longest Yard’ and ‘The Day After Tomorrow,’ has been tapped to host Fox’s upcoming reality series ‘So You Think You Can Dance,'” Marisa Guthrie reported in the New York Daily News.
- “Talk show queen Oprah Winfrey reigns supreme among celebrities, according to Forbes magazine’s power rankings of the top 100 celebrities released on Thursday,” Reuters reported. “Winfrey moved up from No. 3 in 2004 to supplant ‘Passion of the Christ’ director Mel Gibson at the top of the list.”
- “Black people have been a part of the Wisconsin story since the beginning, and groups gathered this week to celebrate that story in preparation for Madison’s annual Juneteenth celebration on Saturday,” Pat Schneider wrote today in the Capital Times in Madison, Wis., a state not generally known for its Juneteenth celebrations.
- “Toyota Motor Corp. has asked at least three major magazine companies to explore product integration — that’s product placement to you and me — of its cars into magazine editorial pages. Say hello to another indicator of changing media mores,” Jon Fine wrote in Business Week today.
- “Wilma Mankiller said Native American journalists can break down barriers just as she did 20 years ago when she became the first woman in modern history to lead a major Indian tribe,” the Associated Press reported from Vermillion, S.D., where 25 students and others were attending the American Indian Journalism Institute.
- “Six months after the assassination of veteran Gambian journalist Deyda Hydara, official investigations into his murder have failed to make any significant progress in finding his killers. The Committee to Protect Journalists today called on Gambian President Yahya A.J.J. Jammeh to hand over the investigation to an independent commission, to be established in consultation with Gambian journalists, and members of the human rights and legal community,” the committee said Thursday.
- “Over the last 21 months, Tribune Moscow correspondent Alex Rodriguez has been witness to epochal news events as a tide of democratic revolution washed over the former Soviet republics of Georgia, Ukraine and Kyrgyzstan,” public editor Don Wycliff wrote Thursday in the Chicago Tribune. “None of those stories packed a greater wallop than his account on Monday of his interviews with refugees from last month’s revolution-gone-wrong in Uzbekistan, where government troops gunned down scores of men, women and children in an attempt to suppress a demonstration against the trial of 23 businessmen on charges of Islamic extremism.”
- The Society of Professional Journalists announced the first winners of its new New America Award, “designed to honor collaborative public service journalism by ethnic and mainstream news media working together to explore and expose issues of importance to immigrant or ethnic communities in the United States.
“First Place went to Mary C. Johns, editor in chief, and Beauty Turner, assistant editor, of Residents? Journal and Brian J. Rogal, associate editor of The Chicago Reporter, for ‘Deadly Moves,’ a collection of investigative stories on Chicago public housing. The series exposed unforeseen but deadly flaws in the way the city was relocating some 25,000 families from obsolete projects into new mixed-income neighborhoods.”
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