Staffers at D.C.’s Post Tell What Different Eyes See
The headline was, “Langley Park Reeling After Slashings of 5 Victims in 5 Days; ‘Horrifying’ Attacks Not Connected, Police Say.” But it was the lead of the front-page story that drew the comments:
“On the streets of Langley Park, vendors sell $1 chunks of watermelon with your choice of salt or hot sauce. They will tell you about the drug dealing in the neighborhood, but not before their eyes dart around to see who is watching.
“In a span of five days in this neighborhood, four throats were slashed, and one man’s hand was nearly severed by the slice of a machete. The attacks, which have killed two men, took place within five blocks of one another, sending a shock of fear through this community.”
It was the kind of passage that previously might have drawn internal grumbling, or maybe a private conversation with an editor. But since July 12, staff members at the Washington Post have had a vehicle to make their concerns known to the entire newsroom: a formalized system of internal critiques in which the whole staff is invited to participate.
Their comments cover aspects of the news report from display to story length to the quality of writing — and they also have become a vehicle to make further use of the diversity among the staff.
“I’d rather not be the person who brings this up, but I think one of the larger problems with the front-page Langley Park story is its tone, which seems to undo some of the Post’s good efforts in asserting itself among the Latino community (i.e. publishing El Tiempo Latino),” wrote Vanessa de la Torre, an intern in the Style section, of the Aug. 16 story. “The watermelons-‘n-hot sauce lede does initiate the ‘those people’ effect, but when the state’s attorney’s assistant theorizes that machetes are the preferred weapon for immigrants because they hail from ‘a sugar cane cutting culture,’ I wonder if that needs to be stated in the story as if it’s a reasonable assumption, much less a fact.”
Others agreed with her larger point that there were problems with the story’s construction and its premises. “I’ve read the story more than four times now; still I keep scratching my head,” wrote Jose Antonio Vargas, another Style section writer. “The watermelon . . . The hot sauce . . The sugar canes. . .”
Keith Harriston, the deputy metropolitan editor who successfully pitched the story for the front page, told Journal-isms that he wished such concerns had been voiced before publication, but said, “It’s always helpful to get comments from people to help you understand that every word you use is important. Some things are offensive to some people and not to others.” Harriston, who is African American, said he often drives by the area and the watermelon vendors stood out to him.
Regardless, the critiques “provide a voice for people who normally don’t have a voice. Seven hundred minds are better than the 10 people sitting around that table” in the daily news meetings, Harriston said.
The idea for the critiques came in June at the Post’s annual editors retreat. Three members of the newsroom staff comment on that day’s front page, other section fronts and whatever else the reviewers decide is worthy of criticism. The signed evaluations are posted on the newspaper’s internal Web site and other staff members may weigh in with their own signed comments.
The experiment comes at a time when the printed Post is battling declining circulation, a concern that has been a topic almost from the critiques’ first day. Some staffers have shown how stories can be cut to better appeal to readers; others — especially younger staffers — have argued that the paper’s future is online and that’s where the attention should be focused.
There has also been plenty of praise, demonstrations of elegant writing and, some suspect, staffers trying to score points as they vie for promotions. Through it all, there have been demonstrations of how diversity of staff can influence diversity of coverage.
“The paper also scored BIG today with the style centerpiece, a profile of local girl taraji henson, female star of the forthcoming movie_hustle and flow_,” metro staffer Theola Labbe, who is also president of the Washington Association of Black Journalists, wrote on July 21. “Earlier this week I was reading about ms. henson in ESSENCE magazine (1 million monthly circ. african american women’s magazine: think Glamour with soul) and silently prayed that the paper wouldn’t be late to the table in writing about this howard theatre grad turned movie star . . . being late is the kind of thing that makes u[s] seem unhip, can really get on readers nerves and even makes them dream up conspiracy theories of media bias,” Labbe wrote, congratulating Style writer Teresa Wiltz.
When Book World editor Marie Arana took her turn on Aug. 3, Arana went through six paragraphs of assessing stories, then wrote, “Putting on my Hispanic hat (as hundreds of thousands of our potential readers do every day), I found little in A-1 that would interest a Hispanic reader. What’s happened to Latin America? Has it dropped off the map? Is nothing happening down there? Except for a passing mention of a diplomatic appointment in Nora Boustany’s column, there is zero on the region. This is an ongoing daily disappointment to many of our readers, who are simply being forced to find that news elsewhere.”
Metro reporter Phuong Ly commented in the same day’s critique about a Metro-page story, “When Home Is Neither Here Nor There; Advocates on Both Sides of Immigration Debate Question Rules That Leave Many in Legal Limbo.”
“I totally agree with Marie Arana that our coverage often portrays immigrants on the margins,” Ly wrote.
“The Post’s coverage is not negative per se, but it portrays brown people as the ‘OTHER,’ i.e. these stories are for white readers to find out more about ‘those people.’
“We’ve written for example, a lot about immigrants playing soccer in the outerburbs, immigrants building mosques in the outerburbs, immigrants buying their groceries in the outerburbs. They’re rather simplistic stories, and I can see our (white) readers saying, ‘Look Edna, the Post has this graphic showing where the brown people worship.’ Better options would have been to do a more narrowly focused story on a church that has turned into a Muslim place of worship (this was briefly mentioned in the Muslim story and was the most surprising factoid) or about Asian and Central American immigrants playing a sport not native to their countries — like football, rather than futbol…..Also, why wouldn’t immigrants move out to the burbs — like so many other non-immigrants?? I’m more shocked when I find out an immigrant is living INSIDE the city. Recently, I met two Vietnamese families who moved from the burbs to Northwest DC — so their kids can go to St. Albans and British school [both private] and break into the establishment. Every other Vietnamese American at the party thought they were the weirdos.”
When a front-page story from London reported July 22 on four small explosions that shut down the city?s public transit system, frightening passengers two weeks after the deadly suicide bombings, Kevin Merida, a black journalist who is associate editor, added a cautionary note about “several sketchy, generalized racial and ethnic descriptions . . that we’d be leery about including in a local crime story. . . . What I hope is that we will follow up with a story on a different kind of fear than the threat of another terrorism bombing — the fear of being a walking suspect if you are Asian, black or someone else of dark skin, under suspicion by your countrymen and your government.”
This week, a Health section story on kidney disease in the District of Columbia drew this response from Deputy Managing Editor Milton Coleman, who is African American and a D.C. resident: “Washington Post surveys of readership by race indicate that blacks more so than whites, Asians or Hispanics want to read more about health in their newspaper, and this effort seems to address that. Yet I also was struck by the complexion of the faces at the top of page two-?it is still not that common in many parts of our newspaper. And while the ‘Sexual Health’ items was specifically about race relations, the ‘Real Lives’ issue ostensibly had nothing to do with race, yet a black woman was its focus. And it was nice to see an article on violence in the schools, ‘Bully for Them,’ that did not home in on children of color or kids in poverty.”
“Is it working? Overall, I am happy with it,” Ed Thiede, the assistant managing editor for news who moderates the experiment, told Journal-isms, “because it is bringing the newsroom a little closer together. People working in a bureau or another building have an opportunity to have a voice in the discussions around here. Len and Phil and all the AMEs read them, so they work in that way,” he said, referring to Executive Editor Leonard Downie, Managing Editor Philip Bennett and the assistant managing editors. “They tend to be a little long sometimes and a little off message sometimes, but I have made changes in policy based on what has been suggested. Do I think they influence how we cover stories? It is too soon for that. But they may . . .”
Lest one think the critiques reflect only racial and ethnic diversity, Style section writer Hank Stuever, in a critique that was briefly excerpted in other media, noted that his “boyfriend/partner/monogamous sodomite” enjoyed the new Sudoku puzzle. He began his assessment of the day’s sports section with, “Editors, please ask yourself, before leaving every evening: Have I done everything possible to include a photo of a male swimmer in tomorrow’s paper? (If answer is no, please return to desk and get busy.)”
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Oprah and the Case of the Missing Note and Flowers
On Monday, a spokeswoman for Oprah Winfrey‘s company, Harpo Productions, confirmed for Journal-isms that Winfrey had issued no statement on the passing of publisher John H. Johnson and did not attend the funeral, but the spokeswoman declined to elaborate.
Yesterday, Chicago Defender Executive Editor Roland S. Martin wrote a column in the Defender noting that, “I’ve been fielding phone calls and emails from many of the folks in the Black media world over Winfrey’s apparent snub of the man who single handedly made it possible for people like Oprah to launch their own magazines and media companies.”
Then, later in the day, Martin wrote another column, saying that Winfrey had called him. “‘I am furious at the allegations because it’s just not true,’ Oprah told me. ‘It’s not true and it’s unfair,'” Martin quoted Winfrey as saying. “‘I did send flowers and I did send a note” to Johnson’s widow, Eunice, and daughter, Linda Johnson Rice, Oprah said, even offering to provide a copy of the actual note and confirmation of the flowers being received at Johnson Publishing Company headquarters.”
But late today, Rice issued this statement:
?Ms. Winfrey said she sent flowers and a note to the chapel and we have no reason to question her statement. She called me yesterday and explained that she had sent the flowers and a note. Unfortunately, they did not come to my family?s attention and we were unaware that they were delivered. No one has been able to locate her note or flowers, but I do want to thank her for her supportive expression of sympathy and kind words of tribute to my father. We thank her and look forward to the upcoming tribute to my father?s legacy on her show. We also thank the Chicago Defender and their executive editor, Roland S. Martin, for all of their truly wonderful commemorative efforts in saluting the life of my father.?
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Jet Devotes Entire Issue to Johnson
For the first time this year, Jet magazine has devoted its entire issue to a single subject — in this case, its late founder, John H. Johnson.
“Obviously, he’s the founder of the magazine, and if anyone is going to do a fitting tribute to him, it would be us,” spokeswoman LaTrina Blair told Journal-isms. Two other issues after the deaths of lawyer Johnnie Cochran and singer Luther Vandross came close to being single-subject, but other articles were included in those editions.
The Aug. 29 issue of the 954,259-circulation weekly includes tributes from celebrities who were not at the Johnson funeral in Chicago Aug. 8, along with those who were. Included are Muhammad Ali and entertainers Smokey Robinson, Nancy Wilson and Sidney Poitier, among others. Celebrities had been criticized for having benefited from the publicity given them in Johnson’s magazines, Ebony and Jet, but not attending the services.
The published tributes came in calls, telegrams and letters, Blair said. The Johnson Publishing Co. Web site has recorded more than 900 condolences. It also includes a copy of the glossy funeral program that may be downloaded.
In lieu of flowers, the family asked that donations be made to the John H. Johnson School of Communications, Howard University, 525 Bryant Street, NW, Washington, D.C. 20059, (202) 806-7690, or to the United Negro College Fund, 8260 Willow Corp. Dr., Fairfax, VA 22031-4511, , (800) 331-2244.
A spokeswoman for college fund said it had not had many responses because the family’s request had not been publicized. A space on the UNCF Web site provides for donations honoring the organization’s longest-serving board member.
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Writer Bemoans Coverage of Civil Rights in ’60s
“Bracing John H. Johnson’s conviction that a national market existed for a middle-class black press was a white press where condescension reigned. When Emmett Till was murdered in 1955 a Sun-Times editorial that began, ‘A revolting crime against humanity has been committed in Mississippi,’ ended with a pitying reflection: ‘A man cannot help it if his skin is black, but a man whose black heart leads him to lynching has only himself to blame for his crime,'” Michael Miner wrote in the Aug. 26 issue of the Chicago Reader.
“Forty-two years ago this week white papers viewed the great march on Washington with foreboding. ‘Today is a day to breathe a prayer for peace in Washington,’ wrote the Sun-Times on August 28, 1963. ‘This is the day of the march for civil rights in the nation’s capital and the dread specter of possible violence hangs over the proceeding.’ The Sun-Times, ‘of course, approves of the fundamental cause of civil rights. It does not, however, approve of the march as a method to dramatize that cause.’ The risks were too great.”
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Univision Prime Time Tops New York Ratings
“For the first time ever, the city’s top rated prime-time TV network was a Spanish-language one, Univision announced yesterday,” Betsy Schiffman reported today in the New York Sun. “The network says, in the August 2005 survey period, more adults in the most desirable demographics tuned in to watch Univision’s prime-time programming than those who tuned in to watch local English-language programming on CBS, ABC, or NBC.”
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Inmate Gets Life in Publisher’s Killing
“A man already serving a lengthy prison term for burglary and other crimes was sentenced to life without the possibility of parole yesterday for murdering the publisher of what was then San Diego’s only black newspaper,” Dana Littlefield reported Thursday in the San Diego Union Tribune.
“Stanley Ray Clayton, 39, pleaded guilty July 27 in the 1987 fatal stabbing of William H. Thompson, a local businessman. Clayton also admitted a special charge that he committed the murder during a burglary which, technically, exposed him to the death penalty.
“However, as part of a plea agreement, prosecutors agreed not to seek Clayton’s execution.”
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Quincy Jones Attempting to Repurchase Vibe
“Vibe magazine founder Quincy Jones is attempting to repurchase the hip hop publication, joining with hedge fund BayStar Capital to offer $100 million to owner Freeman Spogli & Co., according to a person familiar with the matter,” Phineas Lambert and Vipal Monga reported Thursday on TheDeal.com.
“According to a source, Jones already has a minority stake in the venture. The bid would give the bidding consortium a controlling stake in the company, allowing Jones more influence in the day-to-day operations.”
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Short Takes
- “The U.S. military rejected on Thursday concerns aired by Reuters and other media organizations in Iraq about its detention of journalists, saying it would not consider the special nature of their work in reporting conflict,” Alastair Macdonald reported for Reuters.
- The evidence is that “the press and politicians distorted and ignored the best medical and statistical evidence about the dangers of crack to induce an irrational ‘crack scare,'” Jack Shafer wrote Tuesday in Slate magazine, and should be careful not to repeat the same mistake with methamphetamine. “My advice to my colleagues in the press, don’t, don’t, don’t write a column inch on the subject before you read the Oregonian’s comprehensive methamphetamine package from head to toe.”
- Clarence O. Smith, a founder of Essence magazine who left the company in 2002, “is making a play in the music world with the formation of his newest enterprise, YOU Entertainment,” Karu F. Daniels wrote Thursday in his Ru Report. At Essence, “Smith spearheaded many efforts in expanding the brand beyond the parameters of magazine publishing — ‘The Essence Awards’ TV special, The Essence Music Festival, Essence By Mail, Essence Online, Essence Art Reproductions, Essence Books and a lucrative licensing division created to offer fashion hosiery, eyewear, and sewing fashions.”
- Kimbriell Kelly of the Chicago Reporter has been chosen for the 2005 Racial Justice Fellowship Award by members of the University of Southern California’s Annenberg’s Institute for Justice and Journalism.
- Jason Hall, an associate director at WDIV-TV in Detroit, “could go two months without wearing the same pair of shoes. He has Dunks for skateboarding, Air Jordans and Air Force Ones for basketball and Air Max Trainers, to name a few — all that he’ll wear casually, but carefully. He’s worn many only once or twice,” Jaweed Kaleem reported Thursday in a Detroit Free Press feature story.
- “Cuba has jailed a second independent journalist who covered an unprecedented opposition meeting in May,” the Committee to Protect Journalists reported Thursday. “Albert Santiago Du Bouchet Hernández, was arrested on August 6, tried three days later and handed a one-year jail term without the knowledge of his family who found out about his detention only after he smuggled a note out of prison. He joins 24 independent Cuban journalists jailed for their work.”
- The International Federation of Journalists warned Tunisian authorities against any attempt to intimidate journalists’ leaders in Tunisia as they meet next month. “The action follows news that the President of the National Syndicate of Journalists, Lotfi Haji, is being interrogated by the police,” the federation said Thursday.
- In China, “the mother of a journalist serving a 10-year prison sentence on charges of ‘illegally leaking state secrets abroad’ is seeking a review of her son’s court appeal. Gao Qinsheng, mother of imprisoned journalist Shi Tao, has alleged ‘serious procedural defects’ in the proceeding, the human rights group Human Rights in China (HRIC) reported,” the Committee to Protect Journalists said Thursday.
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