Black Enterprise Founder Names His Son CEO
Earl G. Graves Sr., founder of Black Enterprise magazine, yesterday named Earl “Butch” Graves Jr. as the company’s new CEO and president.
It was the younger Graves’ 44th birthday, and marked a passing of the family torch at one of the remaining black-owned publications similar to the late John H. Johnson turning over the reins in 2002 to his daughter, Linda Johnson Rice, at Johnson Publishing Co., creator of Ebony and Jet.
“Those who advance at Earl G. Graves Ltd. – whether family or not – must earn their position,” the senior Graves, who turns 71 on Monday, said of his son in a statement. “And, over the last two decades, he has had to deal with an ultracompetitive and rapidly changing publishing environment; covert and overt racism that continues to pervade our society and institutions; and, lastly, a boss – me – who can be quite an unyielding taskmaster. But not only did Butch thrive despite the challenges, he grew into a leader and change agent within our company and the industry.
“I continue to serve as chairman and publisher” of Black Enterprise, “playing the role of a rainmaker who identifies new business opportunities as well as a counselor to Butch as he faces myriad business challenges.”
An accompanying announcement said Butch Graves had “led the company into broadcast media with the launch of The Black Enterprise Report, a nationally syndicated television show, and Black Enterprise Magazine’s Keys to a Better Life report for radio, a joint venture with Clear Channel Communications.
“Additionally Graves initiated the development of blackenterprise.com, a Website that enables users to access information and make financial and business transactions. He created the concept of the company’s private equity firm, Black Enterprise/Greenwich Street Corporate Growth Partners, which primarily invests in established, minority-owned businesses, and he championed the development of BE’s signature business and lifestyle events.”
The younger Graves made news of a different kind in 1995 when he was stopped at New York’s Grand Central Terminal by two white officers of the Metro-North commuter line as he stepped off his regular morning train from Westchester County, as the Daily News reported at the time.
“He was detained for about 90 seconds while the cops patted him down and checked under his coat for a gun. They were investigating an anonymous report of a black man carrying a concealed weapon,” the News said.
The suspect was described as 5-feet-10 with a mustache. “I’m 6-foot-4 and clean-shaven,” Graves said, adding that he felt humiliated and embarrassed.
Metro-North took out a series of newspaper ads to apologize.
In Mediaweek yesterday, Stephanie D. Smith wrote that despite the magazine’s expansion over the past 35 years, “Black Enterprise’s paid circulation for the first six months of 2005 was 450,095, a 11.5 percent drop from the year prior, according to the Audit Bureau of Circulations. The magazine also missed its rate base guarantee of 500,000. Ad pages for the title have climbed 2.8 percent to 1,044 through November, according to Publishers Information Bureau.”
MESSAGE BOARDS: Feel free to post a comment on this subject and view those from others.
“America’s Black Forum” Sold to Chicago Firm
The syndicated public affairs television show “America’s Black Forum” has been sold to a Chicago-based company that has produced such fare as “Stellar Gospel Music Awards,” “Minority Business Report,” and the “Soul Train Music Awards,” two of the key players confirmed today.
Don Jackson, founder, chairman and CEO of 32-year-old Central City Productions, Inc., a national television production, sales and syndication company, confirmed to Journal-isms that his company bought the 29-year old program from the black-owned UniWorld Group advertising agency, but said he did not have time to answer questions.
But Byron Lewis Jr., who had been the show’s Washington executive producer, told Journal-isms that the sale was effective Jan. 1 and that the transfer seemed to be “a good thing for all parties,” given Jackson’s experience in sales.
Lewis’ father, Byron Lewis, is chairman of UniWorld and the show’s executive producer.
“ABF is syndicated in 70 major markets and reaches over 85% of U.S. households,” the elder Lewis’ biography says, though many of those markets air the show in the wee hours. Lewis became associated with the show in 1985, according to a 2000 Black Enterprise article.
Glen Ford and Peter Gamble, co-publishers of the Web site blackcommentator.com, wrote that they created “America’s Black Forum” in 1977 when both were radio reporters, and sold it in 1980. They called it “the first nationally syndicated Black news interview program on commercial television. Under their guidance, ABF was quoted weekly by national and international news organizations. A feat no other Black news entity has accomplished, before or since.”
By 1984, the show was owned by Sheridan Broadcasting Co. UPI Hollywood reporter Vernon Scott wrote then, “It may come as a staggering surprise to millions of white Americans, but there are only two national TV series made by blacks for blacks,” “Soul Train” and “America’s Black Forum.” Vice President George H.W. Bush was a guest on the show in 1985.
In 2002, Ford and Gamble scathingly accused the program of having betrayed its beginnings.
In an essay on their Web site, they wrote: “To step into the world of America’s Black Forum, the TV show, is to enter a carnival house-of-mirrors. African American political realities are distorted beyond recognition. The floor tilts crazily rightward as clowns in blackface jump into view to parrot George Bush and Jerry Falwell, then straighten up and hum ‘Lift Every Voice’ as they lock arms and sway with a sneering Pat Buchanan and his blond, junior conservative companion.”
Last year, the show dropped commentator Armstrong Williams after it was revealed that Williams accepted money from the Education Department to promote the “No Child Left Behind” act.
Johnathan Rodgers, CEO of the black cable network TV One, has cited “America’s Black Forum” as an example of its public affairs offerings. “We’re proud to every Sunday air ‘America’s Black Forum,’ because one of the great complaints here in the nation’s capital is that the African American leaders do not get a chance on Sunday morning television,” he said last week on National Public Radio’s “News and Notes.”
MESSAGE BOARDS: Feel free to post a comment on this subject and view those from others.
Bill Bennett in Negotiations to Appear on CNN
Only months after he was widely criticized for remarks that linked aborting black babies with a reduction in the crime rate, Bill Bennett is in negotiations to join CNN, his office confirmed today.
“It’s not a done deal. There’s not a contract,” a spokeswoman for the former education secretary and drug czar told Journal-isms.
Brian Stelter’s media blog TV Newser reported on Dec. 30 that it had learned that the conservative Bennett, who hosts a syndicated radio show called “Morning in America,” “will become a CNN political analyst early in 2006.”
“This month’s departure of Bob Novak left the network without a high-profile conservative commentator,” Stelter continued. Novak since signed with Fox.
A CNN spokeswoman told Journal-isms yesterday she could not confirm the story.
In September, Bennett said on his radio show, “you could abort every black baby in this country and your crime rate would go down.” He added immediately that such a thing would be “an impossible, ridiculous and morally reprehensible thing to do” and later said his remarks were taken out of context.
MESSAGE BOARDS: Feel free to post a comment on this subject and view those from others.
Writer Who Served as Juror Faces Contempt Charge
“Federal prosecutors in Miami are seeking criminal contempt of court charges against a Miami Herald writer because she allegedly failed to disclose her father’s past conviction during jury selection for a 2003 civil trial,” Jay Weaver reported today in the Miami Herald.
“Ana Veciana-Suarez must appear Jan. 18 before a U.S. magistrate judge for a ‘show cause’ hearing to explain why she should not be held in contempt of court.
“The petition alleges Veciana-Suarez ‘obstructed the administration of justice and disobeyed the court by willfully and contrary to her oath failing to truthfully respond to inquiries’ during jury selection before the 2003 federal trial. She served as a juror.
“. . . Veciana-Suarez’s personal attorney, William Clay, said Thursday that she plans to admit she erred in failing to disclose the information about her father, who had served time in prison for a criminal conviction.
“. . . Miami Herald Executive Editor Tom Fiedler said company officials were aware of the contempt of court petition filed against Veciana-Suarez, a veteran Herald employee.
”’Ana has kept the newspaper fully apprised about this legal proceeding, which has not yet reached its conclusion,’ Fiedler said. ‘Until then, it is premature for us to take any action affecting her assignment as a columnist and staff writer.'”
MESSAGE BOARDS: Feel free to post a comment on this subject and view those from others.
Washington Times Reins In Staffers Who Blog
The lead on the Dec. 14 story was, “Dozens of Ethiopians yesterday braved the cold to protest a forum on the democratization of their country being held at The Washington Times newspaper’s headquarters,” but the story did not appear in the Washington Times. It was on the Web site of Washington Times reporter Robert Redding Jr.
It seems just the kind of story that Redding would be barred from posting on his Redding News Review under new guidelines announced yesterday by Wesley Pruden, Times editor-in-chief.
“Employees are not to report on or publish anything concerning The Washington Times itself,” the rules say.
Redding, who covers the Washington city government, told Journal-isms he was informed that he was not the target of the memo, and Managing Editor Fran Coombs agreed that the policy was not directed at any particular staff member.
“We realized that more and more reporters were doing their own blog sites and were concerned, like many other newspapers, that this raised potential liability and fairness issues for The Washington Times. No one specific Web site was at issue for us. We were not even sure how many of our editors and reporters had created their own sites,” Coombs told Journal-isms.
“Accordingly, we developed a policy that protected the newspaper and at the same time allowed our staff members to express themselves outside the newspaper.”
“We intend to follow the letter” of the guidelines, Redding said, noting he had started his Web site before joining the paper. The site features Drudge Report-type headlines mostly linking to stories involving allegations of racism. But in November he ran an “exclusive” that screamed, “Steele included in nude video,” about Maryland Lt. Gov. Michael Steele. Redding reported that Steele, a black Republican considered a rising star, attended a magazine launch party that featured nude women in body paint. Redding formerly covered Maryland state government.
Dissecting the Mine-“Rescue” Story Snafu
“As newspapers conduct damage control after early Wednesday’s error, in which most wrongly reported that 12 trapped miners had been rescued in West Virginia, many editors are defending their mistake by saying they were misled by various sources, including the state’s governor. Yet, even after extensive follow-up coverage today, serious questions about the sourcing, and its use, remain,” Joe Strupp and Greg Mitchell reported yesterday in Editor & Publisher.
Theirs was one of many attempts to reconstruct, explain or comment on what had happened. They provided “the first step-by-step chronology.”
- Robin Abcarian and Matea Gold, Los Angeles Times: Media Take Hard Look at What Went Wrong
- Eric Deggans, St. Petersburg Times: Circumstances left many in media with inaccurate reports
- Nick Madigan, Baltimore Sun: News outlets scrambled to rectify reports
- Mark Memmott, USA Today: Media forced to explain inaccurate reports on tragedy
- Bill Mitchell, Poynter Institute: Headlines on Deadline: Going with What You’ve Got
- Jay Rosen, PressThink: “Today, we fell short.” vs. “I’m not seeing any obvious missteps.”
- Joan Vennochi, Boston Globe: In a rush to report, the truth becomes a casualty
- Don Wycliff, Chicago Tribune: Shining light on miners story
MESSAGE BOARDS: Feel free to post a comment on this subject and view those from others.
Larry Nakatsuka Dies at 85, Covered Pearl Harbor
“Lawrence ‘Larry’ Nakatsuka, who covered the Pearl Harbor attack as a young reporter and later conferred with governors and senators who shaped the history of Hawai’i, died Sunday. He was 85,” Eloise Aguiar reported Thursday in the Honolulu Advertiser.
“Nakatsuka was the first Japanese-American journalist for an English-language newspaper in Hawai’i, press secretary for territorial Gov. Samuel Wilder King and for Gov. William F. Quinn. . . .
“In 2002 he received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Asian American Journalists Association for courage and commitment to the principles of journalism.”
In 1999, Natasuka wrote a first-person account of what it was like to help cover the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor.
“The Star-Bulletin accepted me as an American without qualms,” he wrote. Later, a Japanese naval officer who had been sent from Japan to spy on Pearl Harbor observed that he had found Hawaii’s Japanese ‘so distressingly loyal to the U.S.’ that he worked alone,” Natasuka wrote.
MESSAGE BOARDS: Feel free to post a comment on this subject and view those from others.
Black-Owned Company Running Miss. TV Station
Roberts Broadcasting, a African American-owned company run by two brothers, Michael and Steve Roberts, has taken over operation of WRBJ-TV, a UPN affiliate in Jackson, Miss., according to the Jackson Clarion-Ledger.
“The St. Louis Post-Dispatch has described the two as ‘moguls’ who run a ‘roughly $500 million company with TV stations, communications towers, charter jets, strip malls, office buildings, downtown lofts, a hotel, a theater and a resort community in the Bahamas,'” Gary Pettus reported Dec. 30.
“The Roberts brothers, who are in their fifties, are attorneys and have served as city aldermen in St. Louis. Their company, which also operates TV stations in St. Louis, Colorado and South Carolina, targets minority communities.
“Roberts Broadcasting has two other UPN stations, one in Columbia, S.C., and one in St. Louis. The company will use a satellite to distribute programming to its UPN stations from St. Louis.”
The story said that WRBJ would replace WXMS as the market’s UPN affiliate and that the switch would come at midnight Jan. 5.
MESSAGE BOARDS: Feel free to post a comment on this subject and view those from others.
Series Examines Placement of Indians in Foster Care
“In 2003, Indian children accounted for 13 percent of all children in South Dakota. However, Indian children constituted 61 percent of those in foster and adoptive placements,” a lawyer says in a two-part series that concluded today in the Rapid City (S.D.) Journal.
The series, by Steve Miller, examined compliance with the Indian Child Welfare Act, passed by Congress in 1978 “to prevent the absorption of Indian children into white culture through state policy,” Miller explained.
“Some advocates for Indians say removing Indian children from their parents and tribes causes major identity problems. But state officials say children are taken from their homes only when their safety is at risk,” Miller wrote in the first part.
In the second installment, which ran today, Miller wrote, “More American Indian children taken into state custody because of unsafe situations have been placed in relatives’ homes, rather than with white families.
“That is one of several developments that state social service officials note as signs that South Dakota is improving its compliance with the federal Indian Child Welfare Act.”
MESSAGE BOARDS: Feel free to post a comment on this subject and view those from others.
Milloy Returning as Columnist, Editor Says
Courtland Milloy, who said he had told his Washington Post editors “I’m basically calling it a day” on the local column he has written for more than 20 years, is due back as a columnist at the end of the month, Robert McCartney, the Post’s assistant managing editor for Metro news, told Journal-isms today.
Milloy said last month he was “wrapping up my 30th year here” and that a decision to move the local columnists from the left hand column of the Metro section front prompted him to take stock and consider other work at the paper.
However, Executive Editor Leonard Downie Jr. told Journal-isms after the two met for lunch that day, “We want Courtland to continue as a columnist.”
“Courtland is taking off some time, partly for family reasons, but the plan is for the column to resume by the end of this month,” McCartney said.
MESSAGE BOARDS: Feel free to post a comment on this subject and view those from others.
Short Takes
- “Nightline” producer James Blue will be joining anchor Ted Koppel when, as announced Wednesday, Koppel, executive producer Tom Bettag and eight former producers at “Nightline” jump to the Discovery Networks to produce six to 10 programs a year, including documentaries, town meetings and breaking-news specials. Of the group, Blue is African American; associate producer Imtiyaz Delawala is Indian American, and Hallye Galbraith, operations producer, is part Asian, Discovery spokeswoman Elizabeth Hillman told Journal-isms today. Correspondent Michel Martin is not on the list of those joining Koppel.
- “Ten years ago, there were few places for the Spanish-speaking community to turn to get news,” Franco Ordoñez wrote Dec. 29 on the front page of the Charlotte Observer in North Carolina. “Now, it’s practically on every other street corner and a dial away on the radio. . . . Charlotte has three Spanish-language radio stations, at least five newspapers and a handful of locally produced television programs.”
- Angela Russell started Tuesday as a Monday-Friday 4 p.m. anchor at KYW-TV in Philadelphia, agent Rick Ramage told Journal-isms today. She had been a reporter and anchor at WJLA-TV in Washington.
- Four news-media managers from newspapers and four from television have been selected as McCormick Tribune Fellows who will attend Northwestern University’s Media Management Center, the National Association of Minority Media Executives and the McCormick Tribune Foundation announced last week. Selected from newspapers were Frank Burgos, Philadelphia Daily News; Bill Church, Star-Gazette, Elmira, N.Y.; Julian Posada, Hoy, Chicago; and Donna Rogers, South Bend (Ind.) Tribune. From television: Allison Hunter-Williams, WGN-TV, Chicago; Dale Lockett, KHOU-TV, Houston; Barbara Lopez-Nash, KTLA-TV, Los Angeles; and Cambra Ward, KMTR-TV, Springfield, Ore.
- Services were held Monday for Jimmy Lee Graham, lighting director for WFAA-TV in Dallas, who died Dec. 27 after a heart attack while on vacation at home, a daughter, Ashanti Graham McGrew, told Journal-isms today. Graham began his television career at WFAA in 1971 and won a Katy and two Emmys for set design and lighting.
- Public Radio International is adding BBC Mundo, 24/7 Spanish-language service, to its lineup, the network announced Thursday. One show, “BBC Enlace,” is “a new interactive broadcast that connects Spanish-speaking listeners throughout the Americas.”
- “$ingletary $ays“, a “reality” series in which Michelle Singletary, Washington Post financial-advice columnist, visits families in their homes and helps them find solutions to their money problems, debuted Wednesday at 8 p.m. Eastern on the TV One cable network.
