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Are Media Ignoring Danger in Sex Acts?

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Risks in Non-Vaginal Contact Often Not Reported

A prominent African American AIDS researcher couldn’t be more blunt, as a growing number of news stories report an increase in oral sex among teenagers — and as anal sex continues in a number of segments of the population:

“There’s no getting around the fact that the vagina is the organ that was designed to be receptive of the penis, and it is not a surprise that when people participate in anal sex, there will be consequences that will be different, in some cases harmful, as compared to vaginal sex,” said Dr. James Hildreth, who began July 1 as director of Meharry Medical College’s new Center for Health Disparities Research in HIV.

“Many young people are mistakenly participating in oral or anal sex thinking that is a safer way to have intercourse.

“I do believe the media can be very instrumental in getting the word out about sexual practices that are putting them at greater risk, not less.”

Hildreth addressed the Trotter Group of African American columnists this week at the Freedom Forum Diversity Institute in Nashville, and expanded on his remarks later in an interview.

A magna cum laude graduate in chemistry from Harvard, a Rhodes scholar and the holder of a doctorate in immunology, Hildreth, 48, spent 17 years as a professor at Johns Hopkins University. He was chief of the Division of Research at the National Center on Minority Health and Health Disparities for the National Institutes of Health, the primary federal agency for conducting and supporting medical research, until he took the position with Meharry.

His comments coincide with the reporting of several trends regarding HIV:

In September, the Centers for Disease Control reported:

“If you live in Bergen County, N.J., congratulations,” William Saletan wrote then in the online magazine Slate. “You get the only newspaper in the world that mentioned heterosexual anal sex, albeit briefly, in its write-up of the survey. Two other papers buried it in lines of statistics below their articles; the rest completely ignored it. Evidently anal sex is too icky to mention in print. But not too icky to have been tried by 35 percent of young women and 40 to 44 percent of young men — or to have killed some of them.”

Hildreth is not hatin’ on non-vaginal sex, but he discussed the biological reasons why it is more risky (and he said the evidence is stronger on anal sex than oral sex). “The body has several naturally occurring defence mechanisms . . . Lactobacillus, for example, is a naturally occurring, ‘good’ bacteria that helps protect the vagina by maintaining its acidic environment,” said a handout from an organization he supports, the Global Campaign for Microbicides.

“This natural acidity helps foster an inhospitable environment for many pathogens, including HIV.”

Other orifices do not contain the vagina’s “good” bacteria; moreover, “the anus and rectum are not designed for sex. Anal sex can do considerable damage that can go unnoticed. Inflammation and tears and breaks . . . literally open the door for a virus” to enter the bloodstream, Hildreth said.

(One of the reasons for the spread of HIV in Southern Africa is a practice by sex workers in South Africa of inserting “herbal aphrodisiacs, household detergents, and antiseptics into their vaginas before sex,” removing the fluids, “to ensure they are ‘hot, tight, and dry,'” as a 1998 article in the British medical journal the Lancet put it.)

[Added Nov. 17: Also, the rise of HIV among African American women, despite presence of the fluids, can be attributed to other factors: that the HIV virus can latch on to seminal fluid, the menstrual cycle and lowered resistance when other sexually transmitted diseases are present, for example, Hildreth said; “it’s a very complicated problem to try to deal with.”]

Nevertheless, “if a condom is used appropriately and does not fail,” the body should be protected from the HIV virus — with emphasis on the “ifs,” he said.

Not everyone subscribes to Hildreth’s analysis, and the immunologist was careful say, in response to a question, that, “I’m not trying to make any philosophical or political or social comments about homosexuals. I’m just stating a medical fact.”

Phill Wilson, who is living with AIDS and directs the Black AIDS Institute, a think tank, is one who does not subscribe to Hildreth’s analysis. Such differences might be one reason why many news stories on sex research fail to discuss the danger element.

“I don’t know Dr. Hildreth, but I don’t know of any study that proves that unprotected vaginal intercourse is less risky than unprotected anal intercourse,” Wilson told Journal-isms via e-mail.

“The process of HIV transmission is pretty straight forward. HIV is a blood born[e] disease. Transmission occurs when the blood product of an infected person enters the blood stream of an uninfected person. The process of tissue rupture or tearing facilitates transmission. It doesn’t matter if the tissue is rectal or vaginal. Most women generate an organic vaginal lubrication when aroused. The rectum does not produce this kind of self lubrication. Many women either don’t produce self lubrication or don’t produce enough. In all three cases, commercial lubricants work fine. Whenever penetration occurs, condoms with waterbased lubricants should be used to reduce risk of HIV infection.”

Along with the truth-telling role the news media can play, Hildreth said, the black church can help narrow the racial disparity in HIV rates by “helping us deal with the stigma issues in HIV that are still a big issue for us.”

He said he was particularly distressed by the “dangerous feeling of false security” by many young people who believe that if they become infected, they can simply take HIV drugs such as those associated with Earvin “Magic” Johnson, the HIV-positive businessman and former NBA Hall of Famer. These drugs are “prohibitively expensive,” not safe in all cases, and “if you’re 12, you’re looking at maybe decades of having to deal with this.” He urges that adolescents practice abstinence.

Hildreth is among scientists working on a “chemical condom,” called a microbicide. “Journalists have not fully addressed new technologies in development that women can use without a man’s consent to prevent HIV transmission — namely ‘microbicides,'” says a handout from the Global Campaign for Microbicides that he distributed to the Trotter columnists.

Legislation is pending in Congress that would establish a clearly defined unit at the National Institutes of Health dedicated to microbicide research and development, and strengthen microbicide activities at the U.S. Agency for International Development and the CDC.

More from Trotter Group Meeting

[Added Nov. 12:

[Added Nov. 13:

[Added Nov. 14:

Essence Trims Some Top Jobs in “Restructuring”

Essence magazine trimmed the jobs of “a number of employees” on Wednesday, a magazine spokeswoman said, and the six offered severance packages included Jan deChabert, the magazine’s creative director; Ingrid Sturgis, editor of Essence.com; and Michaela angela Davis, executive fashion and beauty editor, Essence staffers said privately.

“Organizational changes occurred in the editorial department, as a part of a restructuring,” spokeswoman Sonya McNair told Journal-isms. Angela Burt-Murray, formerly editor of Teen People magazine, assumed the editorship of the best-selling black women’s magazine in August.

DeChabert, the creative director, is listed fourth on the magazine’s masthead. She was quoted in the October issue as saying, “The goal is for every issue of the magazine to be more visually stunning than the last. We chose bright, sophisticated colors to make the pages more exciting, and our signature will be memorable images of powerful Black women who command attention with movement, energy and joy.”

Sturgis was managing editor of Savoy magazine, and before that, of the late BET Weekend. She is a former newspaper writer and editor, and author of “The Nubian Wedding Book: Words and Rituals to Celebrate and Plan an African-American Wedding.”

Davis, a former Essence executive editor, had been editor of Honey magazine, which targeted younger black women. She was the magazine’s spokeswoman for its “Take Back the Music” campaign to raise awareness of “the degrading ways in which Black women are portrayed and spoken about in popular media, particularly in popular urban music and music videos.”

McNair would not indicate how their roles would be filled, and the affected employees, still considering their severance packages, were reluctant to discuss their situations.

Baltimore Sun Announces 75 Job Cuts Paperwide

“Denise Palmer, publisher and CEO of the troubled The Sun in Baltimore, announced to staff today the need to cut 75 [jobs], hopefully through buyouts but via layoffs, if necessary. She noted belt-tightening throughout the Tribune Co. empire, which has been hit by steep circulation cuts,” Editor & Publisher reported today.

“‘Through this voluntary program, we hope to achieve employee reductions of approximately 75 people across the company to help avoid layoffs,’ she wrote in a memo. ‘The buyout terms are similar to past offers — details will be included in packages handed to eligible employees.

“We anticipate notifying eligible employees in all departments by Tuesday, November 15th. In the case of Guild-represented employees, talks about the buyout are currently underway with the union.”

[Added Nov. 12: “It is expected that 12 to 15 of the job cuts will come from the newsroom, accounting for less than 5 percent of the paper’s staff of about 350. Most of the newsroom cuts would be in support staff rather than reporters and photographers, the company said,” the newspaper reported Saturday.]

Meanwhile, two of the 49 newsroom employees who accepted buyouts at another Tribune Co. paper, Newsday in Long Island, N.Y., have been hired by the Washington Post. Tomoeh Murakami is to cover real estate and Theresa Vargas has been assigned to Prince William County, Va.

U.S. Coverage of Bush Trip to Argentina Criticized

“Street violence at the Summit of the Americas in Mar del Plata, Argentina, last Friday was the story American media headlined,” Guillermo I. Martinez wrote Thursday in the South Florida Sun-Sentinel.

“Little was said about the much larger crowd that gathered peacefully at a soccer stadium to protest the visit by U.S. President George W. Bush and to, according to Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez, ‘bury forever’ the Free Trade Area of the Americas.

“What truly amazed me was the parochialism of the White House traveling press corps. They had an opportunity to ask questions of the president — about the street riots, about Chávez, about the failure of a free trade agenda at the Mar de Plata gathering — but they had more pressing questions. They had to ask about the Washington scandal, about Karl Rove. They asked if Rove would be fired. They inquired if the president would apologize for the indictment of ‘Scooter’ Libby, the vice president’s chief of staff.

“It is not often that a president visits Latin America. This was our hemisphere’s five minutes of fame. This was the perfect time to ask and try to understand why relations are frayed; why the continent is divided among those who believe in free trade (28 nations) and those who do not (five); why democracy and free market economies have failed in so many countries.”

Photographer Rick Corrales of L.A. Times Dies at 48

“Rick Corrales, a former Los Angeles Times photographer who helped win the 1984 Pulitzer Prize for public service with his photos of the Southern California Latino community, died Monday. He was 48,” Myrna Oliver wrote Tuesday in the Times.

“Corrales, who also invented and manufactured the 360-degree Spinshot camera and was an innovator in 3-D animation software, died of stomach cancer at Kaiser Permanente Medical Center in Bellflower.

“A Times staff photographer from 1981 to 1995, Corrales held patents on his panoramic camera and two special handles he invented to support it.

“. . . A memorial service is scheduled for 9 a.m. Saturday at Rose Hills Memorial Park, 3888 Workman Mill Road, Whittier.”

Petitioners Urge Posting of Katrina Contracts

“Proponents of open government are petitioning the Bush administration to post Hurricane Katrina relief work contracts online,” Aliya Sternstein reported Thursday in Federal Computer Week.

“The advocacy group OpenTheGovernment.org sent an e-mail urging other organizations to sign an e-mail letter asking President Bush to post all Katrina-related spending documents on the Internet and follow Freedom of Information Act guidelines.

“The bipartisan list of signatories includes the Electronic Privacy Information Center, the Federation of American Scientists, OpenTheGovernment.org, Mark Tapscott of the Heritage Foundation and several press associations.”

[Added Nov. 12: The Associated Press reported: “Despite a month-old pledge, the Federal Emergency Management Agency has yet to reopen four of its biggest no-bid contracts for Hurricane Katrina work and won’t do so until the contracts are virtually complete. A promise to hire more minority-owned firms also is largely unfulfilled.”]

AAJA Calls AP Wrong to Refer to Hunter by Race

“AAJA is upset at the Associated Press’ coverage of the sentencing of Chai Vang, the Wisconsin hunter convicted of killing six other hunters (Nov. 8),” the Asian American Journalists Association’s Media Watch Committee said Tuesday.

“The headline and the lede prominently note Mr. Vang’s ethnicity, but the story mentions the relevance only twice and merely in passing.

“. . . The failing . . . is especially troubling given that we had brought up the very same issue in September regarding the Vang coverage by the same reporter.” AP acknowledged its error then.

Courtland Milloy Faces Howard U. Students

“Courtland Milloy, author of the controversial Washington Post column that offended students, alumni and faculty of Howard University, and prompted the Howard University Student Association (HUSA) to stage a rally [in front of] the Washington Post, was on campus yesterday to hold an open forum with students in an effort to clear the air,” Joi Gilliam wrote Thursday in the campus newspaper the Hilltop.

Milloy had written, “Howard is not some hotbed of political activism. The biggest event of the year is Homecoming, which features two fashion shows, a step show and lots of hip-hop celebrities,” and followed with a second column.

“Milloy said that he has written positive stories about the University in the past and couldn’t understand why those things never conveyed such strong reactions,” Gilliam’s story continued.

“‘This particular column struck a nerve. I don’t necessarily predict the effect that anything I write will have,’ he said.

“. . . Despite the strong reactions to the column, it was evident that a number of students had no issues with Milloy’s message, since many said they agreed with Milloy’s column. However, when addressing Milloy, it was evident that the issue was in Milloy’s use of words and the medium used to address his opinion.”

EEOC Files Sex Harassment Complaint Against Fox

Broadcasting & Cable obtained the sexual harassment complaint (PDF) filed by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission against Fox News on behalf of former Fox News freelance production assistant Kim Weiler.

Filed in U.S. District Court in New York, it says, “Defendant Fox, including through its Vice President Joe Chillemi (‘Chillemi’), sexually harassed and subjected Weiler and a class of similarly situated female employees to a hostile work environment because of their sex. Chillemi routinely used gross obscenities and vulgarities when describing women or their body parts (referring, for example, to women’s breasts as ‘tits’ and declaring that something was ‘as useless as tits on a bull’).

“He routinely used obscenities and vulgarities with women employees that he did not use with male employees . . . Chillemi routinely cursed at and otherwise denigrated women employees and treated them in a demeaning way (including telling women not to be a ‘pussy’ but to ‘be a man,’ and referring to women as being a ‘bitch’).”

“The lewd language of a Fox News executive — however tasteless — does not constitute sexual harassment or discrimination, a lawyer for the network said Tuesday,” according to an abstract of the article by John M. Higgins.

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