Geraldo Says to Call Them Out

“Bust” Hypocrites on Immigration, NAHJ Urged

Fox News reporter Geraldo Rivera told Hispanic journalists Thursday night that vigilantes had created “hysteria along the borders” and urged them not to “let your newsroom push you around on the issue of immigration.”

“Bust them on their hypocrisy,” Rivera said at the annual awards gala of the National Association of Hispanic Journalists in Washington, speaking of those in newsrooms who deride illegal immigrants. “In vast sections of the country, there would not be a lawn mowed or a dish washed but for illegal immigrants.”

“I’m for not being embarrassed about who we are. If we make it, you can’t forget where you come from,” said Rivera, one of the presenters at the gala, which drew 275 people and raised $164,000, spokesman Joseph Torres said.

The proceeds topped last year’s, when NAHJ raised $84,000 and 245 attended, Torres said. Tickets were $250 a seat for non-members and $150 for members.

Rivera announced from the hotel stage that he was donating $80,000 to NAHJ and $20,000 to Unity: Journalists of Color, the largest gift to NAHJ by an individual, President Veronica Villafane told the group, which hopes to raise $12.6 million over five years. She also announced that “in solidarity,” NAHJ was contributing $1,000 to the hurricane relief fund of the National Association of Black Journalists.

Rivera was not the only speaker to raise the “hysteria” issue in an evening that otherwise honored journalists whose prize-winning stories largely involved violence, immigration and tragic death.

“I don’t have to remind you that according to the blowhards . . . before Hurricane Katrina, the greatest threat to the country was immigration,” Vince Gonzales of CBS News, NAHJ’s broadcast journalist of the year, told the group. “Armed vigilantes were given license.” Saying there were “too few Latinos at all levels” of the news business, Gonzales said, “We need to be in America’s newsrooms to point out that it’s a short step from demonizing people to persecuting them.”

According to a story last Saturday in Newsday, Chris Simcox of Tombstone, Ariz., leader of a vigilante group called the Minutemen, was touring the nation to rally support and collect volunteers. Simcox said the group had 7,000 members in 12 states and had established armed civilian patrols along the southern border.

On Wednesday, Cameron County, Texas, which includes Brownsville, joined governments in El Paso and Laredo in rejecting the Minutemen’s intent to set up surveillance camps on the Texas-Mexico border.

Rivera told Journal-isms that after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, Mexico went from a nation the Bush administration was cultivating to “becoming our enemy.”

An eight-part series about the killing of hundreds of women in the Mexican city of Ciudad Juárez by Yvette Cabrera and Minerva Canto of California’s Orange County Register won the organization’s Guillermo Martínez-Márquez Award for Latin American reporting.

“It’s hard to imagine places in the world where a woman’s life is not valued,” Cabrera told the group. She asked “every journalist out there to cover this story. As long as women continue to die in Juarez, our work is not done,” she said. She recalled that her father was dying of cancer when she began working on the story, and that she had to decide whether to continue or to care for him. He urged her to continue reporting, Cabrera said.

As she finished, mistress of ceremonies Teresa Rodriguez of Univision said the United States is “talking about the women in Afghanistan,” yet “here we are just crossing the border from Texas, and we forgot about them.”

Latina magazine won the print commentary award for “What’s wrong with this picture?” decrying the way women are portrayed in Spanish-language publications. As its acceptance speech, the magazine sent a video featuring some of its staffers. “We don’t all shake our bambas,” said one woman. “We don’t all wear red lipstick,” said another. “Latinas have brains,” said a male employee.

In accepting an award for investigative news, Manny Garcia and Jason Grotto of the Miami Herald urged Latino journalists to learn about computer-assisted and database reporting. Their series, “Justice Withheld,” led to a Florida law that tightened a widely used legal break that enabled hundreds of thousands to avoid felony convictions for rape, child molestation and spousal abuse, some as many as five times, the Herald reported. The reporters found that white offenders were more likely to get the legal break than blacks, as Investigative Reporters and Editors noted in honoring the series.

Others expressed admiration for the people they covered. Juliana Gontijo Barbassa of the Associated Press bureau in Fresno, Calif., winner of the Emerging Journalist Award, told of interviewing a farm worker last year who later died of heat stroke. This year she talked to his son, “who went back to the same field, picking grapes.”

Paul Heebink, general manager of KYMA-TV in Yuma, Ariz., was honored with NAHJ’s Leadership Award. Among other accomplishments, Heebink instituted simultaneous broadcasts of the 5 p.m., 6 p.m. and 10 p.m. newscasts in Spanish on the station’s second audio channel. Although the market has a Latino majority, Heebink said there were no Latinos on the air or as managers when he became general manager in 1998. Today half of the employees are Latino, including news director Luis Cruz, who was also present.

A video from CBS praising Gonzales included CBS News President Andrew Hayward as well as longtime anchor Dan Rather. Just as Gonzales is proud of his Latino roots, Rather said, so Rather is proud of his Texas origins. “He burns with a white hot flame for news,” Rather said of Gonzales, adding that if Gonzales were not a reporter, “he would go house to house to tell people about news.” In Texas, Rather continued, “The best compliment you can pay to someone is to call him a ‘hoss.’

“He’s a hoss.”

• List of winners
• Ruben Navarrette Jr., San Diego Union Tribune: A state of hysteria over immigration

MESSAGE BOARDS: Feel free to post a comment on this subject and view those from others.

Essence Hoping Festival Can Return to N.O.

Essence magazine is hoping that its annual music festival can return to New Orleans — “the most African city” in the country — next July 4 weekend, but is “clearly aware of the extent of the devastation” from Hurricane Katrina, Michelle Ebanks, president of Essence Communications Inc., said today.

According to the Baltimore Sun, the festival is “perhaps the country’s biggest celebration of black popular music.”

Ebanks was in Houston with Edward Lewis, the company’s chairman and founder; Susan L. Taylor, the magazine’s editorial director; and Angela Burt-Murray, the new editor of the best-selling black women’s magazine. They disbursed $250,000 to organizations that have taken in displaced families, working with local NAACP and Urban League chapters, Ebanks told Journal-isms.

With them were author and motivational speaker Iyanla Vanzant, scholar-author Michael Eric Dyson, who is also a minister, and Dyson’s wife, the Rev. Marcia Dyson, an Essence contributing editor. The magazine was planning an inspirational service Saturday for the evacuees.

The Essence Music Festival attracted 232,000 people and $124 million to New Orleans this year, Ebanks said, and has contributed $1 billion over 11 years to the city’s economy. “We take real pride in that,” she said. “The folks working in the hotels and driving the taxis say they get the biggest tips” when Essence comes to town.

“We want to be supportive of the city that has been supportive of us,” but Essence recognizes that the city might not be ready in time and will move to another city if necessary, she said. The organization felt it was inappropriate to discuss the issue with city and state officials this soon, and had not decided on a deadline for making a decision, Ebanks said.

• Brenda Norrell, Indian Country Today: Houma Nation aerial survey reveals total devastation
• Essence Communications Inc. Announces Initiative for Families Affected by Hurricane Katrina (News release)

MESSAGE BOARDS: Feel free to post a comment on this subject and view those from others.

BET to Air Documentary on Katrina’s Impact

BET News looks at “a compelling journey of heartbreak and hope” with “Answering the Call: A BET News S.O.S. Update,” “a stunning look at the impact of nature?s fury on the Gulf Coast region,” according to a BET news release. “The documentary, hosted by BET News reporter Andre Showell, televises on Sunday, September 18 at 1:00 p.m. ET/PT.

“BET News will share the latest information on the recovery effort; probe the role race may have played in the response by governmental authorities; and gauge reactions by African-American leadership in the affected areas, including Congressional Black Caucus members, Minister Louis Farrakhan and the Rev. Jesse Jackson. BET will also update the status of families ripped apart during evacuation but are now reunited and hoping to rebuild.”

• Sirius To Hold Radiothon For Hurricane Relief (RadioInk.com)

Media Have Complete Access, Army Says

“Members of the news media are being granted ‘complete access’ to post-hurricane rescue, evacuation and body recovery efforts in New Orleans, a spokesman for the commanding officer leading the operations said Tuesday,” Cecilia M. Vega reported Wednesday in the San Francisco Chronicle.

“Responding to a Chronicle story about a soldier threatening a reporter and photographer with the loss of their press credentials and being kicked out of the state if they reported on a body recovery mission, Army Lt. Col. John Cornelio, spokesman to Lt. Gen. Russ Honore, said no restrictions are being placed on members of the media who are working independently of the military in the hurricane disaster zone.”

Terry Neal: Bush Not Racist, But Having Said That . . .

Washingtonpost.com political columnist Terry Neal took a question today about President Bush and race in an online chat. “Terry obvious[ly] Katrina has become a big racial issue,” wrote a correspondent from Manassas, Va. “I am curious what your personal opinion is about it as an African American, do you think race was a factor in the poor federal response?”

Replied Neal: “Thanks for your question. This is something I’ve thought about a lot. You know, I covered the Bush campaign for the Post in 1999-2000. I had at least two long, off the record conversations with Bush about racial issues. We talked on the record, of course, and they led to stories that were published in the Post. But as is often the case, some of the most revealing conversations happen off the record.

“I’ll say this. I don’t think George W. Bush is in any way a racist, or really even racially insensitive. I believe he believes his conservative policies can help uplift poor people, minorities, etc. Now I’m neither endorsing, nor condemning his policies. But to me the term ‘racist’ implies hatred or animosity. And I don’t see that in Bush.

“But even still, it’s more complicated than that. I don’t think Bush or anyone in his administration sat back and said, ‘hmmm, black folks. Let ’em suffer!’

“But even having said that, I do believe the reaction would have been different had the images been of tens of thousands of white folks, starving and thirsty in the streets. I don’t think that’s racism. I think that’s reality. I just think it would have hit people differently, from an emotional standpoint, and there would have been much more screaming to get something done now. People can and will disagree, but I have a right to my opinion on this, and that’s what it is.”

Flood Victim Takes Hope From Rwanda

“Were it not for disaster in his own life, Leon Horton would not have found himself at a table of strangers Thursday at Birmingham’s Sheraton Civic Center Hotel,” John Archibald wrote Sunday in Alabama’s Birmingham News.

“Had flood waters not risen in his home and screen printing shop and forced him to flee New Orleans, he would not have listened so closely to the chilling words of Rwandan hotel manager Paul Rusesabagina.

” . . . It’s not that Horton felt any singular connection to Rusesabagina or his life. Yes, Horton fled his city as disaster approached. Yes, he fears his home and business have been destroyed. Yes, the very future of his city is in doubt. But he doesn’t pretend to understand the horror of Rwanda. Or the Sudan. Or Uganda. Horton is one of the lucky ones. His family is alive. He is staying in Birmingham with a welcoming son. And though there is red tape to unwind, he is even insured.

“The message he took from Rusesabagina, whose heroic story is recounted in the movie ‘Hotel Rwanda,’ is something more positive. It reminds him how thankful he should be now — how thankful he is — even though his life has been flooded.”

The event was sponsored by the Birmingham Association of Black Journalists.

More Commentators on Katrina Aftermath

• Ajamu Baraka, Blackcommentator.com: Hold the United States Accountable
• Bryan Burwell, St. Louis Post-Dispatch: Pro athletes are willing to step up off field, too

• Tim Chavez, Nashville Tennessean: Liberal policy left those in need without
• Michael Eric Dyson, Beliefnet.com: God’s Gonna Trouble the Water
• Jemele Hill, Orlando Sentinel: Black athletes come to aid of Katrina victims
• Michele Jacklin, Hartford Courant: Water’s Rising For Hartford’s Underclass
• Derrick Z. Jackson, Boston Globe: Bush’s hacks

• Eugene Kane, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: The unity from 9-11 is gone with the storm
• Mary Mitchell, Chicago Sun-Times: Where military goes, so do the cell phones
• Rochelle Riley, Detroit Free Press: Drop politics, let’s just fix it
• Wendi C. Thomas, Memphis Commercial Appeal: A prayer for New Orleans from the little 9/11 chapel
• Tonyaa Weathersbee, BlackAmericaWeb.com: Hey, Affirmative Action Foes ? Where’s Your Outcry Over Political Patronage?
• DeWayne Wickham, USA Today: Blacks suffering over race or class? Some of both

MESSAGE BOARDS: Feel free to post a comment on this subject and view those from others.

Journalism Losing Out to PR on Campuses

“At last month’s annual gathering of media academics, the difference in tone between journalism and PR sessions was striking,” Edward Wasserman wrote Sept. 5 in the Miami Herald, in an op-ed with the subhead, “Losing the next generation of idealists.”

“While the journalism people wondered and whined about how to recover a lost sense of purpose and direction, the PR academics were asserting an audacious and expansive view of their industry’s ethical role: Not only should PR people be telling the truth; they should be telling their clients not to do things they’d be unwilling to tell the truth about,” Wasserman, Knight professor of journalism ethics at Washington and Lee University, continued.

“As recruiting pitches go, that’s a pretty good one, and it seems to be working. While the percentage of undergraduates majoring in journalism and mass communications has remained steady for the past 15 years, the proportion who intend to be journalists — a slippery category that includes local TV anchors — is apparently falling. Numbers are elusive, but academics seem to agree the main beneficiary is PR.”

MESSAGE BOARDS: Feel free to post a comment on this subject and view those from others.

Va. Editor Crusades to Atone for School Closing

“After more than a quarter-century as a reporter and then editor of the twice-weekly, family-owned Farmville Herald (circulation: 9,000) in Virginia’s Prince Edward County, Ken Woodley has learned that ‘sometimes you write editorials, and sometimes they write you,'” Barbara Bedway wrote Thursday in Editor & Publisher.

“One of the latter came to him on a chilly February morning in 2003 as he drove to work. He was reflecting on the Virginia General Assembly’s resolution of ‘profound regret’ for an ugly chapter in the state’s history: the closing of the Prince Edward County public schools from 1959 to 1964 to avoid desegregating them, and the state’s unwillingness to get involved.

“The apology seemed a good thing to Woodley, but insufficient. His editorial proposing a scholarship program — which would benefit any state resident who was denied a proper education when the public schools shut down — appeared a few weeks later in the Herald, on March 21, 2003. Two years and many editorials later, Virginia Gov. Mark R. Warner announced the first scholarship recipients this June.”

MESSAGE BOARDS: Feel free to post a comment on this subject and view those from others.

Church Challenges Univision License in Cleveland

“Standing up for the educational needs of Hispanic children, the Office of Communication of the United Church of Christ, Inc. (OC, Inc.) today asked the Federal Communications Commission to deny the license renewal application of a Spanish-language television broadcaster in the Cleveland, Ohio, area, for failure to comply with children’s educational programming standards,” the United Church of Christ said in an Aug. 31 release.

“The UCC’s action against Univision Cleveland, Inc. (WQHS-TV) represents the first time that a Spanish-speaking station’s license renewal has been challenged for failure to comply with the Children’s Television Act of 1990 and the children’s educational guidelines, adopted by the FCC in 1996, that require local stations to air at least three hours per week of specifically educational programming.”

MESSAGE BOARDS: Feel free to post a comment on this subject and view those from others.

Short Takes

• “Bush administration moves to eliminate open government” was the No. 1 story on Project Censored’s annual list of the “10 biggest stories the mainstream media ignored over the past year.”
• “In a move akin to the White House correspondent quitting on the eve of the State of the Union, Nunyo Demasio, the Washington Post’s lead Redskins writer, announced yesterday he was leaving the paper for Sports Illustrated,” as Garrett M. Graff put it in his FishbowlDC blog. “Many credit Demasio with changing the Post?s coverage of the Washington Redskins from passive to aggressive in his three years on the beat,” Harry Jaffe reported on Washingtonian magazine’s Web site.
• Americans are suffering increasingly from information overload, while simultaneously lacking from fewer quality sources of accurate, thoughtful news, New York Daily News columnist Juan Gonzalez told media advocates and telecommunications executives on Tuesday. Gonzalez, immediate past president of the National Association of Hispanic Journalists, also said, “Too little attention is being paid to who owns Hispanic media outlets,” according to a news release.
• In England, “David Mannion, the editor-in- chief of ITV news, has criticised Britain’s television newsrooms for being too white and called for ‘positive discrimination’ to make them more multicultural,” according to Fergus Sheppard, writing Thursday in The Scotsman.
• “With the launch Friday of the magazine-style weekly Mᳬ The Bakersfield Californian becomes the second daily publishing a product for a demographic that sooner or later will reach a significant size in newspaper markets around the United States: English-speaking Hispanics,” Mark Fitzgerald wrote Thursday in Editor & Publisher.
• “Mexican President Vicente Fox said today he will ask his nation’s attorney general to appoint a special prosecutor to investigate crimes against free expression, a commitment made after a series of deadly attacks against journalists in Mexico’s northern states,” the Committee to Protect Journalists reported Thursday.
• “CNN anchor-reporter Fred Katayama has joined Reuters as U.S. anchor for its daily newscast, World Updates, and for Reuters Industry Summits, its series of interviews with various business leaders,” according to Broadcasting & Cable.

MESSAGE BOARDS: Feel free to post a comment on this subject and view those from others.