What to Do If You Must Cross Picket Line
Members of the Newspaper Guild should not cross picket lines during the mechanics’ strike against Northwest Airlines, Guild President Linda K. Foley said today, but she added that members of the Asian American Journalists Association, meeting in Minneapolis when the strike was called, were in “a tough dilemma” as they tried to get home.
“I would have made other arrangements,” Foley told Journal-isms. “But I realize not everybody has my commitment. Are they damned forever to hell? No. They booked the flights before. We need to observe the picket lines, but hopefully they said something” to the strikers.
“If you’re ever stuck in such a position, it always helps if you go to the strikers and say, ‘here’s why I’m doing this, and be assured I won’t do it in the future.’ That always helps, rather than walking by with your coat over your head,” Foley continued.
Some 1,175 people took part in the AAJA convention last week in Minneapolis, and Northwest was one two “preferred airlines” the association listed for attendees.
But, as Sheryl Jean reported today in the St. Paul Pioneer Press, “Northwest’s 4,400 mechanics and cleaners who belong to the Aircraft Mechanics Fraternal Association walked off the job at 11:01 p.m. Friday after final negotiations with the airline failed. No new talks are scheduled.”
“The strike is the first major labor action against a large U.S. airline since 1998, when Northwest’s pilots walked off the job for nearly three weeks,” Keith L. Alexander wrote in the Washington Post.
“Pilots, flight attendants and other workers are on the job,” Jean reported. “Northwest is using more than 1,500 replacement workers and managers and outside vendors to do the work of striking mechanics and cleaners.”
AAJA spokesman Keith Kamisugi told Journal-isms on Sunday, “I did not hear of any incidents of convention attendees experiencing unusual flight disruptions. I flew Northwest myself with only a 20-minute delay in departure.”
“All of the attendees I spoke with had rave reviews of the convention, both on programming, organization and activities,” he added.
“The town hall, which included former Army Capt. James Yee was attended by about 170 members of the local community and attendees, and I heard that there were about 200 people at the Al Franken Q&A Saturday morning.”
MESSAGE BOARDS: Feel free to post a comment on this subject and view those from others.
Ken Bunting Moves to New Role at Seattle P-I
Kenneth Bunting, the only African American top editor at Hearst Corp. newspapers, is stepping down as executive editor of the Seattle Post-Intelligencer to assume the new position of associate publisher, the paper announced today.
“Bunting, the paper’s executive editor for seven years, will focus on strategic planning and reader and community relations. As associate publisher, Bunting will increase his community involvement and become a member of the paper’s editorial board,” the paper reported.
“Managing Editor David McCumber has been named to the top leadership role of the P-I’s newsroom.”
Bunting told Journal-isms last night, “I don’t feel I’ve been demoted or devalued. I’m going into this excited about the possibility. If I find out differently, I’ll act accordingly.”
Bunting, 56, said the changes came about after “a lot of talk about making the organization flatter and being more interactive and responsive to readers.” No managing editor was named to replace McCumber, apparently as one step toward “flattening” the management structure.
“I never viewed myself as moving out of the newsroom,” Bunting continued. “The thing that made it work,” for him, he said of the restructuring, “is that there’s still engagement” — such as working on “standards and practices. It’s something I think I’m going to enjoy.
“At the end of the day, all of this made sense” to a lot of people “for a lot of reasons.”
In the P-I story today, Bunting said one of his new assignments will be to write a weekly column. “I think it will be about the P-I and what we’re doing, and largely media issues,” he said.
MESSAGE BOARDS: Feel free to post a comment on this subject and view those from others.
Where Were the Stars That Johnson Helped Make?
A week after the funeral of John H. Johnson, the pioneering publishing giant behind Ebony and Jet magazines, commentary has turned to the absence of tributes from some of the luminaries helped by Johnson’s magazines.
“With so few celebrities having attended Johnson’s funeral on Monday — a week after he died — some are saying black celebrities have taken for granted the early support they got from Johnson,” Cheryl R. Reed wrote Sunday in the Chicago Sun-Times.
“‘There are many careers that Ebony and Jet probably made,’ said Hermene Hartman, publisher of Chicago’s N’digo weekly newspaper that features black celebrities and community members. ‘Diana Ross, Stevie Wonder, Michael Jackson and the Jackson Five — they are that today, but they were ghetto kids in Detroit singing. Where were they? Where was Gladys Knight? Where was Oprah? Are they so big that there’s no loyalty, no respect? I’m pained by that. Black Hollywood should have been there. It’s unforgivable.'” Hartman is also publisher of Savoy magazine.
Popular Sun-Times columnist Stella Foster raised the issue on Thursday:
“As a lifelong Chicagoan and longtime observer of the entertainment industry,” she wrote, “I have to ask this:
“Where the hell were all the black superstars that John so proudly showcased on the covers of his magazines for the past 60 years when white America was ignoring their careers and accomplishments? Where were their black behinds? There should have been rows of celebs, young and old, filling those pews at Rockefeller Chapel — or at least the first four rows.
“Legendary singer/actress Diahann Carroll, who is also a breast cancer survivor, was the only major star of stage, screen and television that I recognized, and I applaud her for taking the time to come to Chicago to honor this giant of a man.
“I am not going to name the singers, actors, sports figures, etc., who didn’t bother . . . but you know who you are. I refuse to believe that every one of them had more important commitments, or were ill, or on vacation and couldn’t fly in for the services.
“What a display of ingratitude! Yeah, I said it!!”
On Friday, the Sun-Times ran a column of instant messages from readers in response.
A spokeswoman for Oprah Winfrey’s company, Harpo Productions, confirmed from Chicago that Winfrey had issued no statement on Johnson and did not attend the funeral, but the spokeswoman declined to elaborate.
Meanwhile, the Wall Street Journal, which has so far devoted one line to Johnson in its print edition, pointed to an online column on Johnson today when asked why there had been nothing on its opinion pages about the first African American to make Forbes’ list of the 400 richest Americans. Dow Jones Co. spokesman Robert H. Christie had told Journal-isms last week that “as a policy, we don’t have an obituary” when someone dies, but that the Journal could write stories assessing the person’s impact or look at the future of the company.
The online “Political Diary” column by John Fund, a former Journal editorial writer, ran about 300 words on Aug. 9. Headlined, “He Proved One Picture Can Move a Nation,” it began, “John H. Johnson’s death at age 87 yesterday ended one of the most remarkable careers in American publishing,” and focused on Jet’s 1955 publication of the mutilated body of Emmett Till, the 14-year-old killed for allegedly whistling at a white woman.
Could the subscription-only column also have run in the paper itself? A spokeswoman for opinion editor Paul Gigot said, “Political Diary is set up separately from the print version.”
Monday night’s “Charlie Rose Show” included an appreciation of Johnson from BET founder Bob Johnson.
- Pam Adams, Peoria (Ill.) Journal-Star: Johnson found beautiful ways to say black
- Donald V. Adderton, former managing editor of Jet magazine, Jackson Clarion-Ledger: Jennings, Johnson left a big mark
- Milele Chikasa Anana, Capital Times, Madison, Wis.: Ebony founder blazed trail for blacks; Johnson funeral a fitting tribute
- Editorial, Democrat and Chronicle, Rochester, N.Y.: Exceptional entrepreneur
- Martin Kilson, letter to New York Times: Ebony’s Founder
- Raoul V. Mowatt, Chicago Tribune: Jet magazine finds niche, manages to stay afloat in difficult times (originally published 2001)
- Charles E. Richardson, Macon (Ga.) Telegraph: Another dreamer passed on
MESSAGE BOARDS: Feel free to post a comment on this subject and view those from others.
Women Still Slighted in Sports Coverage, Study Says
“One of the most notable trends in sports over the past thirty years is the increasing prominence of women in sports at the amateur, collegiate and professional levels,” a new study from the Project for Excellence in Journalism said today. “In 1971, the year before Title IX was passed, there were fewer than 30,000 women competing in college sports. Today, there are nearly 150,000. Professional leagues like the WNBA and WUSA have created superstars such as Diana Taurasi and Mia Hamm.
“Despite this growth, it appears individual women as well as female teams are still relatively marginal in the world of newspaper sports reporting.”
The study, “Box Scores and Bylines: A snapshot of the newspaper sports page,” looked at more than 2,000 articles in 16 newspapers of varying sizes last year and found that, “Overall, 35% of all stories on athletes were devoted to men and just 5% covered women.”
It also showed that, “While a third (33%) of the stories we looked at covered men’s teams, a mere 3% dealt with women’s teams.
However, it said, “the ratio of men to women as the primary newsmaker in all the categories we studied – including politicians, professional individuals, and citizens – was overwhelmingly in favor of men. So sports reporting is hardly an exception to a broader trend.”
MESSAGE BOARDS: Feel free to post a comment on this subject and view those from others.
Bob Reid to Head New Africa Channel
Bob Reid, a veteran broadcaster and former executive vice president and general manager of the Discovery Health Network, has been named executive vice president and network general manager of the new Africa Channel, “a 24/7 ad-supported channel that represents a milestone in U.S. television history,” the network announced today.
“For the first time, American audiences can experience the daily successes, celebrations and challenges of people living throughout Africa, all via a general entertainment network,” a news release said.
Reid said the network, based in West Hollywood, Calif., has a distribution deal with Cox cable systems and was in negotiations with all the top cable and telephone companies.
The channel “launches in the late summer of 2005 with more than 1,200 hours of English-language programming, including news and information, travel, and lifestyle, music, soaps, talk, reality, feature films and special events,” the news release said.
Reid told Journal-isms that the network would carry two Africa-based news programs, “Africa Journal,” a weekly show produced by Reuters that looks in-depth at the stories of the week, and “Carte Blanche,” a “60 Minutes”-style hour-long magazine show produced by the M-Net satellite channel in South Africa.
He said the network would be working with local broadcasters in Africa to improve their skills and to give them “a better sense of American style” in broadcasting.
“Education is one of the big parts of our agenda, to try to help demystify and educate people about Africa,” said Reid, an early president of the National Association of Black Journalists.
Initially, the network will be seen in the United States, but Reid said he expected it to branch out to Europe, Canada, the Caribbean and Africa itself, he said.
“I’m an African American who, like most of us, knows very little of where I came from beyond three generations. This gives me an opportunity to really work with and connect with my homeland, and I’ll know the continent a lot better. . . . to connect my personal life in a professional way to the continent, and to have an opportunity to do something to change the stereotypes” about Africa.
It’s also “a great opportunity to help build and program a general-interest entertainment network at a time when they don’t make those anymore,” said Reid, 58, who added that he is an owner in the company.
MESSAGE BOARDS: Feel free to post a comment on this subject and view those from others.
Columnists of Color on Cindy Sheehan Case
- Carlos Guerra, San Antonio Express News: Sheehan may have left Crawford, but she was never alone
- Earl Ofari Hutchinson, syndicated: Where Are the Black Cindy Sheehans?
- Tony Norman, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette: Whatever happens, Cindy Sheehan will not be moved
MESSAGE BOARDS: Feel free to post a comment on this subject and view those from others.
. . . and Racial Profiling Proposal
- Errol Louis, New York Daily News: Danger zone: Pols’ push for profiling would lead us back to a deadly history we can’t afford to repeat
- Clarence Page, Chicago Tribune: Any need for random profiling?
- Albor Ruiz, New York Daily News: Pols’ racial profile bid a slap at rights
MESSAGE BOARDS: Feel free to post a comment on this subject and view those from others.
Deggans to Become Media Critic in St. Pete
After a year on the editorial board, Eric Deggans is leaving that post at the St. Petersburg Times to become the paper’s first-ever media critic, one of the few of color at any mainstream news outlet.
“I am happy to be pioneering a new beat at the St. Petersburg Times which involves issues I have covered steadily for nearly 10 years. I’ve missed having regular bylines in the newspaper, and while my time on the editorial board gave me a new perspective on the newspaper and the community, I feel it’s time to get back into the flow of regular reporting and column-writing,” Deggans told Journal-isms.
Deggans is also president of the Tampa Bay Association of Black Journalists.
MESSAGE BOARDS: Feel free to post a comment on this subject and view those from others.
Eisner: Someday, “Song of the South” Will Return
Michael Eisner, who steps down as Walt Disney Co. CEO in September, predicts that the movie “Song of the South,” the 1949 film featuring the Uncle Remus character that was withdrawn from circulation as racist, will be made public again.
Eisner, addressing a forum at the Aspen Institute in Colorado last week, was asked why Disney had been reluctant to market the movie, the first to marry animated and real-life characters, on DVD or VHS.
“When Disney re-released the movie in 1988 at theaters nationwide, it set off a storm of criticism by minority groups who felt the movie promoted racism,” Andre Selvail wrote Wednesday in the Aspen Daily News. “But others see the film as a simple tale of friendship between the races, with catchy songs and likeable characters like Brer Rabbit who have become a part of American folklore.
“Disney has since maintained a self-imposed ban on the movie’s release. Eisner said he has wanted to re-release the film in recent years because of its historical significance, but the opposition is still great.
“He said America is more tolerant today and the film’s release would not generate the backlash it did in 1988.
“‘One day it will be released,’ he said.”
MESSAGE BOARDS: Feel free to post a comment on this subject and view those from others.
Short Takes
- “UNITY is facing one of its most financially difficult years. It has failed to reach its projected fiscal goals, forcing the organization to live with a tighter budget,” Laurie Au reported Friday in the AAJA Voices, student newspaper of the Asian American Journalists Association convention.
- “The Chicago Defender will be the co-host when the U.S. Postal Service unveils its series of Civil Rights Era-themed stamps in Chicago next week,” Editor & Publisher reported today. Defender Executive Editor Roland S. Martin will be the co-emcee for the unveiling of the stamps Aug. 30.
- Jerry Ceppos, vice president/news at Knight Ridder, has elected to take early retirement, effective Aug. 31, the company said today. Ceppos, 58, has been in his current job since 1999.
- Jean West, an anchor at WHAS-TV in Louisville, Ky., cleaned out her desk after Thursday night’s late news broadcast over a contract-negotiation impasse, Tom Dorsey reported in Louisville Courier-Journal. West has been at the station for 20 years.
- Monica Armenta, longtime morning and noon news anchor at KOB-TV in Albuquerque, N.M., is resigning to work for Albuquerque Public Schools. “I’m the product of APS, the proud parent of two APS students and always an advocate for public education,” she told Journal-isms today.
- The fabled “Yellow Rose of Texas” is believed to be Emily D. West, a free black woman from Connecticut who contracted to work as a housekeeper for businessman James Morgan, according to the Handbook of Texas. The San Antonio hotel that bears her name is sponsoring an essay contest (PDF) asking whether people believe the legend, Edmund Tijerina wrote Thursday in the San Antonio Express-News.
- In Venezuela, a “crisis of conscience is occurring in a media community that is among the most prosperous, best trained and equipped, and – until recently – most respected in Latin America,” John Dinges writes in the Columbia Journalism Review.
- Since J. Jesús Blancornelas started Tijuana’s weekly newspaper, Zeta, 25 years ago, “it has been challenging the nexus between drug lords, local officials, and business leaders,” Eric Umansky writes in the Columbia Journalism Review. “As a result, Blancornelas has been wounded in an assassination attempt, and two top Zeta editors have been killed, the most recent one in June of last year. The deaths have had a curious effect on Blancornelas. He evinces a determination to continue, but a regret for ever having started.”
- “The National Association of Hispanic Journalists made several new additions to its board of directors. Earlier this month, the association elected regional directors for regions two, four, five and seven. The remaining regional directorships have now been filled either by special election ballots or by appointment by the NAHJ president, Veronica Villafañe,” the association reported Friday.
- “The importance of effectively covering American Indian communities and issues — and recruiting native staffers to provide expertise and insight — was stressed by Gannett journalists attending the 21st annual convention of the Native American Journalists Association in Lincoln, Neb.,” news executive George Benge told his fellow Gannett Co. journalists. He noted that the Gannett Foundation was a co-sponsor of the conference.
MESSAGE BOARDS: Feel free to post a comment on this subject and view those from others.
