Rosa Parks Gets Whole Front Page

Detroit Free Press “Pushed Everything Off”

When Rosa Parks died tonight at age 92, the Detroit Free Press appeared to be the first news organization with a staff-written obituary available on the Internet. And for Tuesday, starting with its third edition, it plans to devote its entire front page to the woman often called “the mother of the civil rights movement,” Laura Varon Brown, the paper’s metro editor, told Journal-isms.

[Added Oct. 25: Other papers that devoted all or nearly all of their front pages to Mrs. Parks included the New York Daily News, Newsday, the Detroit News (PDF) the Montgomery (Ala.) Advertiser, and the free Dallas Morning News product, Quick (PDF), according to a survey of front pages posted on the Newseum’s Web site. Her passing was on the front page of nearly all, and especially prominent on many, with some using photos of Parks on the bus where she famously refused to change seats, and the New York Daily News featuring a photo of Parks being booked. It was accompanied by a column by Juan Gonzalez. The Free Press coverage included a column by Desiree Cooper.]

“For years, we wanted to make sure we paid tribute, no matter where or when we found out,” Brown said. “We pushed everything off 1A.

“Rosa Parks clearly is a national figure. She’s been here for years in the Detroit family.”

Brown said different lengths of obituaries were prepared, depending on how much space was available in the paper when the publication found out about her passing.

The 3,485-word version on the Internet, written by staff writer Cassandra Spratling, is one of the shorter versions, she said.

The competing Detroit News had a 215-word story by Oralandar Brand-Williams on its site, though the afternoon paper had prepared a longer obituary, Kristina Justin, assistant metro editor, said. She said Mrs. Parks would be on the front page, with reaction stories and a timeline, but the exact amount of coverage was still being determined.

The New York Times, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times and Chicago Tribune all had Associated Press stories on their Web sites. In the Tribune, the AP story was credited to Bree Fowler.

Meanwhile, the Montgomery Advertiser, published in the Alabama capital where Parks’ refusal to move to the back of the bus helped spark the modern civil rights movement, “has a full-page Rosa Parks photo and story (except for the left rail with a news digest) on page 1A (PDF) in Tuesday’s paper. Plus, we are publishing an eight-page special section with a comprehensive obit on Parks, a timeline of her life, photo pages and stories about some of the key events during the bus boycott,” Executive Editor Wanda Lloyd told Journal-isms.

“In addition, last week we launched a new Web site, www.montgomeryboycott.com. This site includes archives of all of the stories that appeared in the Montgomery Advertiser and the now-defunct Alabama Journal in 1955-56 related to the boycott. We hired a researcher and typists for much of 2005 to gather this information. The site also includes images of some of the historic pages as well as video from some of the key players form the boycott who are still alive. The site will be expanded Dec. 1 to include a lot more information on the 50th anniversary of the Montgomery Bus Boycott, including video clips from most of the dozens of interviews we conducted.”

She continued: “In November, we are publishing a book, ‘They Walked to Freedom,’ a comprehensive look at Parks and the boycott. The book is the result of dozens of interviews with key players, photos from our archives and images from people in Montgomery and beyond who shared their scrapbooks, photos and memories of the boycott. Pre-sales for the book are available on the new Web site.

“We are very proud of our staff and the outstanding efforts to document this seminal event in Montgomery’s history,” Lloyd said. “Almost everyone in the newsroom has contributed in one way or another in our Parks/bus boycott efforts this year.

“One of our proudest efforts was a series of stories about Rosa Parks Avenue,” Lloyd said. “We wanted readers to know that the former Cleveland Avenue — later renamed to honor Parks — was once a grand avenue of African American life and commerce.”

Added Oct. 25: A sampling of other notable front-page display, in PDF format:

• Chicago Sun-Times
• Chicago Tribune
• Denver Post
• Atlanta Journal-Constitution
• Savannah Morning News
• Kalamazoo (Mich.) Gazette
• Charlotte (N.C.) Observer
• Philadelphia Inquirer
• Bakersfield Californian
• Daily Breeze, Torrence, Calif.
• Orange County Register, Calif.
• Fort Worth Star-Telegram
• San Diego Union-Tribune
• Omaha (Neb.) World-Herald
• Biloxi (Miss.) Sun-Herald
• Kansas City Star
• The State, Columbia, S.C.
• USA Today
• Tuscaloosa (Ala.) News
• Seattle Times
• San Francisco Chronicle

The New York Times front page featured an obituary by E.R. Shipp, who left the paper more than a decade ago and now writes a column for the competing New York Daily News. Shipp told Journal-isms she wrote the obit while she was still at the Times and the editors updated it.

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Hurricane Wilma Leaves Papers Without Power

“Hurricane Wilma left a wide, messy swath of damage as it sped across South Florida on Monday with winds of more than 100 mph, killing at least six in Broward and Palm Beach and two other counties, shattering skyscraper windows, toppling trees and signage, ripping off roofs and knocking out power to at least 3.2 million customers from Key West to Daytona Beach,” the South Florida Sun-Sentinel reported today on its Web site.

Miami Herald Executive Editor Tom Fiedler reported this afternoon that three newspapers in the area were without power:

“The building is fine and the city has little more than a bloody nose compared with Biloxi,” Fiedler wrote colleagues. “But we’re still without power — as are the Sun Sentinel and the PB Post — and we’re all scrambling to publish mini-editions of the paper. These storms are turning us into Web publishers sooner than we’d planned.”

Broadcasters also were affected. In the late morning, “We were off the air for about an hour,” Lily Pardo, spokeswoman for WSVN-TV in Miami, the Fox affiliate, told Journal-isms. The station was able to broadcast from a satellite truck, and anchors Craig Stevens and Belkys Nerey shared one hand-held microphone inside the newsroom, passing it back and forth.

The journalists were not caught in the storm, she said, because “most were already sleeping there” in the building, “or got there before the conditions got worse.”

The Associated Press reported today that “Hurricane Wilma prompted at least five Florida newspapers to deliver Monday’s editions hours ahead of schedule.

“The News-Press of Fort Myers and Naples Daily News — both located on the southwest coast — went to press at 6 p.m. Sunday, and each delivered newspapers later that evening.

“On the east side of the state, the Fort Lauderdale-based South Florida Sun-Sentinel, The Miami Herald and The Palm Beach Post all had their Monday papers printed and distributed early, with each saying regular delivery would resume Tuesday morning.”

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Black Sports Columnists Side With Commissioner

With a new season of the National Basketball Association set to begin Nov. 1, Commissioner David Stern announced a dress code this month that requires players to wear “business casual” attire whenever they are engaged in team or league business, as Mike Wise summarized it Sunday in the Washington Post.

“It specifically bans shorts, T-shirts, jerseys, sneakers, flip-flops, headgear such as ‘do-rags, and chains, pendants and medallions worn outside clothing,” Wise wrote.

“Stern’s image-overhaul decision sparked a contentious debate over fashion and race and called attention to a generational chasm between modern professional athletes, many of whom are black, and their mostly white paying customers.”

African American sports columnists, by and large, are not agreeing with those who call the new code “racist.” The principle for most seems to be “business is business”:

• J.A. Adande, Los Angeles Times: “The best tip I learned from the college internship I did with a Chicago TV reporter named Art Norman came in a phone conversation before I started.

“‘Wear a tie,’ Norman told me. ‘As a black man, that’s your badge of respect.'”

• David Aldridge, Philadelphia Inquirer: “There’s no ‘black’ point of view here, any more than there’s a ‘white’ one. If you believe that, you don’t know who’s downloading Fat Joe, Bow Wow and Twista onto their iPods, or who’s watching them at 106th and Park. . . . This is about ‘Easy Dave,’ as he occasionally calls himself, making it clear that anybody doing business in his league is going to fall in line.”
• Kevin Blackistone, Dallas Morning News: “What’s next? No cornrows? No dreads? No tattoos? (The league’s magazine once airbrushed out Allen Iverson’s tattoos in a picture.)

“This is cultural imperialism, micromanaged.”

• Rickey Hampton, Flint (Mich.) Journal: “Until the business sector accepts sagging pants, baseball caps worn backwards and bling-bling jewelry, it would be wise to fall in line with what gets you paid.”
• Roy S. Johnson, Sports Illustrated: “It’s not about how much money the players are earning. It’s not even about race, as some have theorized, noting the code as ‘code’ for an anti-hip hop movement and designed to revive red-state support for a decidedly blue-state league. (Besides, have you seen 50 Cent, Diddy, Eminem, Dr. Dre, Jay Z and other rap and hip-hop icons lately? They’re all wearing suits!)

“It’s about being aware that it isn’t always about you — period.”

• Stephen A. Smith, Philadelphia Inquirer: “Conformity, sometimes, is a necessary evil regardless of stereotypes or whatever else anyone thinks.

“The crime of it all is not Stern’s willingness to remind his players of that. It’s the fact that he had to in the first place just a few years after stars like Julius Erving, Larry Bird and Michael Jordan worked so hard showing players the way while benefiting themselves and so many others who followed.”

• Deron Snyder, Fort Myers (Fla.) News-Press: “Presumptions based on dress are dangerous. Just ask billionaire Mavericks owner Mark Cuban, who attended a recent league meeting in jeans and a rugby shirt.

“Clearly a fashion no-no, but OK if you’re the boss.”

• Michael Wilbon, Washington Post: “The perception of the NBA . . . comes from Madison Square Garden and the Palace of Auburn Hills and Staples Center and MCI Center. And right now the league’s image isn’t good. I’m not talking about the perception of NBA players in a hip-hop universe, which the league married itself to 10 years ago; I’m talking about their image among the people who pay for their lavish professional existence, meaning primarily network partners and corporate sponsors. Hip-hop may be the image of the league; by and large it doesn’t fund the league.”

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4 St. Louis Newsroom Veterans Taking Buyouts

Four veteran African American journalists at the St. Louis Post-Dispatch — with a combined 137 years’ experience at the paper — are taking buyouts, part of an effort to reduce staffing and cut costs: Bob Joiner left Oct. 14; and Carolyn Kingcade, Cleora Hughes and Tommy Robertson, leave this week.

• “Bob Joiner remembers when he arrived in a very different Post-Dispatch newsroom 35 years ago in a ‘too loud blue suit from Saks,’ and ‘armed with the confidence he could change the world.’ He’s lost the suit but maintains that confidence as he walks out of the newsroom today to begin an active retirement providing closed-captioned products for government and industry. In the intervening years, Bob has worked in the Washington Bureau, provided distinguished reporting from Africa, worked on the copy and wire desks and has written hundreds of editorials and columns,” the editors wrote in a joint memo.

Other staffers wrote about Kingcade, Hughes and Robertson:

• “Carolyn Kingcade joined the Post-Dispatch in 1979 after spending eight years as a reporter at the Metro East Journal. She joined the news desk and in 1986 she became senior news editor. In 1991, she became assistant managing editor. During that time, Carolyn oversaw A1 and was responsible for the content and design of each day’s paper. In 1999, Carolyn took on one of the most challenging jobs at the paper — readers’ advocate. It was a natural progression — as news editor, she always sought to make decisions with the readers’ best interests in mind. Two years later, Carolyn became responsible for the editing and production of our zones sections. She kept a steady hand as our production demands increased. The last two months, Carolyn has overseen news and metro production at night. Her experience has been valuable as we’ve worked out communication issues and implementation of a complex zoning plan. (Bob Rose)”
• “Cleora Hughes came to the Post-Dispatch in September 1964. How she got here is a story worth sharing:

‘Though I was born on a sharecroppers farm in Arkansas, I knew how to dress,’ said Cleora. ‘The Urban League here at that time was responsible for gathering suitable African-Americans to work as something other than cleaning personnel. During the interview at the Urban League, we were directed to study a photo of a woman who was properly attired for a corporate office: hat, white gloves, suit and sensible pumps. Over the next few years, I lost the hat, but I did wear gloves, sheaths with matching jackets or coats and pumps. Eventually, I came to my senses and dressed for comfort.’

“Cleora started out in in the statistical department ‘surrounded by colorful characters until I learned that reporters made more money.’ After that she returned to school and for the next few years worked nights and went to Harris Teachers’ College, Forest Park community college and St. Louis University during the day. She moved from the statistical department to the reference library to suburban news, Calendar, Travel and eventually food. Cleora was one of our two food writers when the Let’s Eat section won the prestigious James Beard award. Looking back on her 36 years, Cleora says, ‘It has been some ride.’ (Susan Hegger)”

• “Tommy Robertson planned to study political science and history at college after graduating from high school in 1966. The Post-Dispatch offered him a scholarship to study journalism at the University of Missouri. At first, he turned them down. But one of the editors, during the interview process, told him that journalism was simply the writing of daily history.

“‘I never forgot that and, for 35 years, that’s pretty much what I’ve been doing — writing a lot of local daily history,’ Tommy said.

“Tommy was the Post’s first African-American scholarship winner and joined the staff in 1970 as a zones reporter. Through the years, Tommy worked as a nightside reporter and courts reporter and as a reporter in Belleville and West County. In 1990 he went further west, to the St. Charles bureau.

“For the past 15 years, he’s covered just about everything in St. Charles County. . . . Not a bad career for a guy who wasn’t interested in newspapers. (Adam Goodman)”

The paper announced early retirement packages on Aug. 22, saying candidates must be 50 and have at least five years at the paper. “Incentives include lump-sum payments equal to one week of pay for every six months of continuous service,” it said. Overall, about 260 employees throughout the paper were eligible for retirement buyouts, the newspaper reported Sept. 28.

The same story, by Tim McLaughlin, reported that the paper’s new owner, Lee Enterprises, had an operating profit margin of 22 percent for the nine months that ended June 30. “General Electric Co.’s consolidated operating profit margin at midyear was 13.5 percent. Boeing Co.’s St. Louis-based defense business is thrilled to get anything above 10 percent.”

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Different Mind-sets, Different Outcomes in San Jose?

“I would suggest that the economics are not the biggest reason why the Mercury News has given up on Viet Mercury and Nuevo Mundo,” Lou Alexander, who spent 20-plus years at the Mercury News and was ad division project leader for the Mercury’s Vietnamese language offshoot, wrote today on the Web site GradetheNews.org.

“I think the differences between Jay T. Harris, publisher when we started both these newspapers, and George Riggs, publisher now, are the biggest reasons for the change.

“Simply put, Jay was determined to improve the Mercury News and to use the Mercury News to change the community,” partly because of his experience as a black man. “George understands the need to serve the community but has a ferocious drive to make sure the Mercury News meets the profit demands of Knight Ridder, the parent company.”

“The fate of Viet Mercury and Nuevo Mundo was probably sealed that sad and confusing day in 2001 when Jay T. Harris walked out of the Mercury News, resigning without notice.”

However, Larry Olmstead, Knight Ridder’s vice president/staff development and diversity, said the decision announced Friday, that the paper would sell its weekly Vietnamese-language newspaper and close its weekly Spanish-language publication did not lend itself to comparing Harris and Riggs.

“They are two people operating under two different situations,” he told Journal-isms. “It’s not a matter of race or ethnicity or anything else. They were not successful business entities at a time when the business is severely challenged,” he said of the offshoot publications.

Olmstead added that “everybody in San Jose is very aware that we live in a multicultural community that needs to be served.” The Mercury News “does as good a job as any newspaper in the country” in reflecting the ethnic communities of its circulation area, he said, and would continue to do so.

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Short Takes

• Students from hurricane-damaged Southern University-New Orleans held a ‘town hall’-style meeting to protest an editorial in the Baton Rouge Advocate that declared, “New Orleans and Louisiana would be better off if the state does not rebuild Southern University in New Orleans, John Guillory reported today for the Black College Wire. Executive Editor Linda Lightfoot told Journal-isms she was “delighted that the students are keeping up with this debate.” Prompting discussion is “one thing editorials are supposed to do.”
• “You have to wonder when the Times is going to dump” Judith Miller, the New York Times reporter freed from jail after revealing her source, only to face challenges to her credibility, Deborah Mathis wrote Sunday on BlackAmericaWeb.com. “Do you doubt that if her name were Lashonda Miller she would have been long gone?”
• The death of the great D.C.-based Shirley Horn,”smoky-voiced jazz balladeer and pianist,” received front-page display Saturday in the Washington Post, with a three-column-wide obituary by Adam Bernstein accompanied by an appreciation inside by Richard Harrington.
• “When I took this job two months ago — the first Latina to write a regular editorial column at The Dallas Morning News — I imagined that it might be hard for some readers to get used to my voice and perspective,” Macarena Hernï¿œndez wrote Friday in her newspaper. “But until Bill O’Reilly denounced me on his radio and television shows Tuesday, no reader had called me a ‘wetback,’ ‘beaner,’ ‘spic’ or ‘stupid Mexican.’ . . . Thousands of e-mails and phone calls poured in.”
• Alexandra Vilchez, an editor for Quï¿œ Pasa, a Spanish-language newspaper in North Carolina, spent two weeks in Jordan and came home with more than 500 pictures, now on display. “Some Hispanics whom I interviewed expressed that they felt powerless in not feeling accepted in this country, even though they had family members who were of Arabic descent,” Vilchez said in a Charlotte Observer story Sunday. “I was reminded that the theory that Latino immigrants are living worldwide is once again proven by the fact that in a small country like Jordan, there are a lot of Latinos.”
• Mal Johnson, a founder of the National Association of Black Journalists, is to be honored Nov. 3 in Washington by the Communications Consortium Media Center and Women’s eMedia Network, the Feminist Majority Foundation, Ms. Magazine, the National Council of Women?s Organizations, the National Organization for Women, the White House Project and the Women’s Media Center as they celebrate the 20th anniversary of the Women’s International Newsgathering Service, known as WINGS. For more information, contact wings@ccmc.org.
• Henry Wofford is leaving WZZM-TV in Grand Rapids, Mich., after nearly three years as its sports director, and has accepted a full-time position as a weekend sports anchor and a sports reporter at WTHR-TV, an NBC affiliate in Indianapolis, Brian Vanochten reported Saturday in the Grand Rapids Press.
• “The world’s most celebrated performers of yesterday and today will gather at Los Angeles’ Shrine Auditorium to celebrate a quarter century of ground-breaking, African-American programming from BET” when the network hosts “25 Strong: The BET Silver Anniversary Special” on Wednesday at 8 p.m. PT, BET announced today. As part of the commemoration, the network will air “Made You Look: Top 25 Moments of BET History,” a five-part series airing today through Friday at 10 p.m. Eastern and Pacific time, and “All Shades of Fine: 25 Hottest Men of the Past 25 Years,” Sunday at 2:30 p.m. Eastern and Pacific.
• Ptech, the new blog launched by Michelle Johnson after her “Personal Tech” column ended in the Boston Globe, debuted today at: http://personaltechgizmos.blogspot.com
• “Debra Juarez, Chicago’s longest-tenured TV news director, is out” at Fox’s WFLD-TV, Phil Rosenthal reported in the Chicago Tribune. “The Fox-owned stations are under greater scrutiny since Fox News Channel boss Roger Ailes became chairman of the group for Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp., replacing Lachlan Murdoch, Rupert’s son, earlier this year.”
• KITV anchor and reporter Tasha Kobashigawa is leaving the station and the TV news business,” Erika Engle reported Thursday in the Honolulu Star-Bulletin. “Kobashigawa has a commercial pilot’s license and said she is going to pursue a flying career.”
• Friends of Hugh Pearson, the author and former Wall Street Journal and Village Voice writer who died in August, are gathering in New York Friday at a Bubby’s Restaurant, location to be determined. In lieu of flowers, they request that donations in his name be made to American Foundation for Suicide Prevention. For more information, e-mail Robert Brenner at RABnyc@hotmail.com.
• When the magazine industry named the Rolling Stone cover of a nude John Lennon curled up with his clothed wife, Yoko Ono, as the top cover of the past 40 years, the Modesto (Calif.) Bee “put a thumbnail version at the top of the front-page ‘rail’ filled with short items directing readers inside the paper. Managing Editor Dan Day wrote in the paper Sunday, “We received several calls from people outraged that The Bee would print such filth in a family newspaper. One caller accused us of selling pornography. A few canceled their subscriptions.”