Lou Rawls Out Front

Newspapers Thought We’d Want to Know

The death of velvet-voiced crooner Lou Rawls claimed front-page space in many newspapers Saturday, and according to three editors whose papers put the story out front, it was a decision made to please readers.

“He had an impact on music and people’s lives, and those are the kinds of stories we look for – stories that matter to people,” James Fremgen, news editor of the Santa Rosa (Calif.) Press-Democrat, told Journal-isms.

“We look for stories that are grabbers – they say, ‘oh, my God, I have to read that,'” Phillip Tutor, managing editor of the Anniston (Ala.) Star, said. “He wasn’t just an entertainer, he had a humanitarian side. He was such a well-known person, whether you liked his music or not. We’re trying to keep and grow our readership. We look for stories that are not Iraq, or a Washington story or Alito,” referring to Supreme Court nominee Samuel Alito. “For people who are tired of that, it’s too easy to say, ‘I’m not going to read this.'”

Many papers featured a front-page photo of Rawls, who died of brain and lung cancer at age 72, and referred to a story inside. As usual, the headlines varied in creativity.

“‘Natural man’ takes final bow,” wrote the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. “Versatile singer known for smooth, classy style,” said the Palm Beach (Fla.) Post. “R&B Romantic Lou Rawls Dies,” wrote the St. Petersburg (Fla.) Times. “Great baritone felled,” was the San Jose Mercury News contribution. “Lou Rawls’ velvet voice is silenced,” read the Sacramento Bee. “Singer showed sense of community,” declared the Tuscaloosa (Ala.) News.

“You’ll never find another voice like his,” the Anniston Star pronounced.

Some papers, such as the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Chicago Tribune and Washington Post, ran appreciations as well as obituaries, and the Austin (Texas) American Statesman published an editorial today, “We’ve heard it all; so long, Lou Rawls.”

“Everyone could connect to him; he spanned generations,” said Gregory Enns, managing editor of the Tuscaloosa News, “and that connected to a demographic we wanted to reach,” he said, speaking of 20-to-35-year olds. Moreover, 38 percent of the city of Tuscaloosa is African American, Enns, who is 46, told Journal-isms.

Soon after Rawls died, Enns said he attended a local fund-raiser for the United Negro College Fund, for whom Rawls started the annual Lou Rawls Parade of Stars Telethon in 1980, telethons that have raised $200 million. Enns hadn’t known of the Rawls connection – and the event made him doubly glad his paper put Rawls on the front page.

• Associated Press: Jesse Jackson will lead last rites Friday for Lou Rawls
• Karen Grigsby Bates, “Day to Day,” National Public Radio (audio): Velvet-Voiced Crooner Lou Rawls Dies at 72
• Earl Calloway and Demetrius Patterson, Chicago Defender: Vocalist Lou Rawls, 72, loses bout with cancer
• Bo Emerson, Atlanta Journal-Constitution: Silky baritone’s cool was timeless
• Phil Gallo, Variety: Singer Rawls dies at 72
• David Hinckley, New York Daily News: You’ll never find . . . Another voice and talent like Lou’s
• Dave Hoekstra, Chicago Sun-Times: You’ll never find another singer like him
• Steve Jones, USA Today: Lou Rawls: 50 years of class, soul
• Dennis McLellan, Los Angeles Times: Lou Rawls, 72; Grammy-Winning Singer With a Voice Like Velvet
• Wil Haygood, Washington Post: Lou Rawls, The Voice Wrapped In Silk
• Ben Ratliff, New York Times: Lou Rawls, Singer of Pop and Gospel, Dies at 72
• Howard Reich, Chicago Tribune: Voice that embodied Chicago
• Howard Reich, Chicago Tribune: Lustrous voice and musicianship to match
• David Sprague, Rolling Stone: Singer Lou Rawls Dies
• Leslie Gray Streeter, Palm Beach (Fla.) Post blog: The Lou Rawls Story I Wanted To Tell You Anyway

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TV Reporters of Color Not Among 20 Most Visible

The Tyndall Report, a New York-based newsletter that monitors network TV news, compiled its list of the top 20 reporters, by face time, on the three broadcast networks’ evening news programs. None was a journalist of color.

In his annual review, published online, Andrew Tyndall also named the top stories of the year, most newsworthy man (FEMA’s Michael Brown) and most newsworthy woman (Terri Schiavo), all based on a tally of minutes devoted to the subject on the three news programs.

The “most heavily used” reporters were: Dan Harris of ABC, 283 minutes; David Gregory, NBC, 272 minutes; John Roberts, CBS, 246 minutes; Pete Williams, NBC, 243; and Bob Woodruff, ABC, now co-anchoring “World News Tonight,” 215 minutes.

Tyndall told Journal-isms that journalists of color did not show up until the 29th spot, where Elizabeth Vargas of ABC, who has since become a co-anchor of “World News Tonight,” tallied 131 minutes. Others were (32) Carl Quintanilla, NBC, 124 minutes; (42) Byron Pitts, CBS, 114 minutes; (44) Pierre Thomas, ABC, 111 minutes; (49) Bill Whitaker, CBS, 101 minutes; (61) Ron Allen, NBC, 84 minutes; (73) Rehema Ellis, NBC, 65 minutes; (79) Vince Gonzales, CBS, 56 minutes; (84) Kevin Corke, NBC, 53 minutes; (91) Steve Osunsami, ABC, 48 minutes; and (97) Miguel Marquez, ABC, 43 minutes.

Those who top the list were assigned to highly visible beats, such as the White House or other Washington assignments, Tyndall noted. The increase this year was not among journalists of color, he said, but among women. “CBS’ Bob Schieffer assigned 32% more airtime to female reporters (1445 min v 1093 in 2004), using women much more than his rivals (ABC 992, NBC 906),” his report said.

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Media Said to Have Ignored Mine-Safety Issue

The larger issue in news coverage of the mining disaster last week in West Virginia, where 12 miners died, “is that much of the press has abandoned reporting on health and safety regulation until disaster strikes,” Howard Kurtz wrote today in the Washington Post.

“How many reporters have dug into the Labor Department’s Mine Safety and Health Administration, which under the Bush administration was run by a former Utah mine manager until last year? About as many as did pieces, before Hurricane Katrina, on why a former Arabian horse official was running the dysfunctional bureaucracy of the Federal Emergency Management Agency. Heck of a job.

“I have tried to get the general press interested,” Ellen Smith, owner of the trade publication Mine Safety and Health News, said in the story. “I just kind of gave up.”

“The mine agency has received scant coverage, even as it has changed – critics say softened – the Clinton administration’s enforcement approach. Since 2001, according to a database search, The Post has published three staff-written stories on mine safety not related to a specific accident; the New York Times, two; Wall Street Journal, one; Chicago Tribune, one; and Los Angeles Times and USA Today, none. ’60 Minutes’ did one segment on a mine safety whistle-blower,” Kurtz wrote.

Columnist Mary Mitchell, writing Sunday in the Chicago Sun-Times, linked the three-hour delay in notifying the miners’ families that their relatives had not, in fact, been rescued with shabby treatment given low-income victims of Hurricane Katrina and other poor people.

“Because officials were dealing with poor, unsophisticated, mining families, the media failed to show these families the same level of professional treatment we would have shown middle- and upper-class victims,” she wrote.

• Cary Clack, San Antonio Express-News: Miners’ reality belongs to us all
• Dwight Lewis, Nashville Tennessean: Older, more deadly mines were the only job for some

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Escobar Quits D.C.’s Post for Pew Hispanic Center

Gabriel Escobar, the District of Columbia editor at the Washington Post who abruptly quit his job – though not the paper – in December, starts Jan. 17 as associate director/editorial of the Pew Hispanic Center in Washington, the center’s director, Roberto Suro, told Journal-isms today.

Suro, himself a former reporter at the Post and at the New York Times, said he contacted Escobar months ago about working together, and that funds recently became available to expand the staff.

The Pew Hispanic Center, founded in 2001, is a project of the Pew Research Center, which describes itself as a nonpartisan “fact tank” in Washington.

“As many of you know, immigration is something I have long been interested in,” Escobar wrote in a Dec. 27 e-mail to several Post colleagues. “The opportunity to explore it in depth is very exciting, and my ultimate goal is to become an expert on an issue of critical importance to the country.”

Escobar’s sudden departure was said at the time to stem from being turned down for one too many other jobs at the Post.

A couple of local media watchers, such as Harry Jaffe in the Washingtonian magazine, saw an ethnic issue at play. “Does the Post have a hard time holding on to talented Hispanic reporters and editors?” Jaffe wrote.

However, Post colleagues saw it otherwise. “I don’t hear that buzz from within the building,” Sam Diaz, Post assistant technology editor and financial officer of the National Association of Hispanic Journalists, told Journal-isms. “I don’t feel as if I’m being treated differently because I’m Hispanic for good or for bad.”

Some said the Colombian-born Escobar did not consider himself Hispanic. “He wanted to be seen not as Hispanic but as a very good reporter and editor, which he was,” said columnist Marcela Sanchez.

Sanchez said she thought Escobar a good fit for the Pew Center, as did Suro. “I’ve known Gabe a long time and been an admirer of his work. He’s had an unusual combination of experiences, having covered the Hispanic experience both here and in South America [where he had been Post bureau chief] and for the last five years in charge of coverage for a metro area that’s seen a lot of demographic change. He’s a respected leader, someone who’s great at directing talent and getting their best work,” Suro told Journal-isms.

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Allan Johnson, Chicago TV Writer, Dies at 46

“The words ‘likable’ and ‘generous’ do not easily attach themselves to those who labor in the dog-eat-dog arenas of journalism and show business,” Rick Kogan wrote Saturday in the Chicago Tribune.

“But as an important part of both, and of academia too, Allan Johnson embodied those adjectives with grace and style. ‘Tireless’ too, for he spent incalculable hours in dark comedy clubs, in front of flickering TV sets and in conversation with stars.

“As one of only a handful of African-Americans writing criticism for major newspapers, Mr. Johnson provided the Chicago Tribune with more than a decade’s worth of reviews, interviews and stories – on a variety of subjects in addition to his TV and comedy passions – that were thoughtful, knowing and enthusiastic.

“. . . Mr. Johnson, 46, died late Friday, Jan. 6, in University of Chicago Hospitals of complications from a brain hemorrhage, a family spokesman said. He had collapsed after attending an event with his wife and had been hospitalized for nearly three weeks.” WLS-TV reporter Evelyn Holmes and Johnson were married in 1997.

“The news of his death devastated colleagues at the Tribune, news that was intensified by the fact that Mr. Johnson recently became a father for the second time, proudly showing off photos of his new baby girl.”

Eric Deggans, media critic at the St. Petersburg Times, told his colleagues in the National Association of Black Journalists, “it feels as if African American arts critics are on some endangered species list these days. I know I left my position voluntarily, but after seeing what happened to Ken Parish Perkins and now Allan – It’s a sad day for many reasons.” Perkins resigned in November from the Fort Worth Star-Telegram after accusations of plagiarism.

Services for Johnson are scheduled for noon Thursday, Jan. 12, at Griffin Funeral Home, 3232 S. Dr. Martin Luther King Drive, Chicago, according to the Tribune, with visitation and a reception from 10 a.m. to noon.

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Nashville Columnist Tim Chavez Battles Leukemia

Editorial-page columnist Tim Chavez of the Nashville Tennessean is battling leukemia, Sandra Roberts, managing editor for opinion, said today.

“He was diagnosed with leukemia in mid-December, and is now taking an intense chemo treatment. I believe that continues for six months; then the doctors look for a bone marrow donor. In the meanwhile, Tim is hopeful that between treatments he will feel well enough to do an occasional column,” Roberts told Journal-isms. “I believe he wants to write a column soon about the kindnesses he has received from readers and from the medical team.”

The last column by Chavez, 47, ran Dec. 14.

A Christmas note to readers said, “Tennessean columnist Tim Chavez is recovering from leukemia. His treatment is going so well that he was released from the hospital last week, far earlier than originally expected. His doctors are encouraged that his overall physical condition is good.

“Tim looks forward to returning to his reporting and writing duties as soon as possible.”

Chavez came to the paper in 1996, and he writes frequently from a Latino perspective. He spoke at least once at the Minority Writers Workshop of the National Conference of Editorial Writers, Roberts said.

“His e-mail address is tchavez@tennessean.com. I’m sure he would love to hear from old friends and cohorts,” she added.

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Suede Magazine Continues on “Hiatus”

It will be a year next month since Essence magazine pulled back Suede magazine, a spinoff that aimed toward a hip, multicultural audience, putting it on “hiatus” after four issues.

Writers to the Journal-isms message boards continue to say they miss the magazine, which was pulled because it launched too quickly and needed time to regroup, Essence officials said last February.

Asked about the magazine’s status today, Essence spokeswoman Sonya McNair left the door open for an end to the hiatus in a carefully worded sentence, saying. “There are no immediate plans to resume publication at this time.”

The Toronto Globe and Mail wrote on Dec. 24 of Suede’s former editor, Suzanne Boyd, who had been editor of Canada’s highly regarded fashion magazine Flare: “She’s been largely lying low, surfacing briefly on the pages of the October Vogue with an article on models Iman and Liya.

“Friends say Boyd is happy in New York, and, career-wise, they agree that her next great leap forward has to be impressive.”

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Whites Barred From Covering Kwanzaa Event

In an action reminiscent of the late 1960s, black activists in Buffalo, N.Y., barred white journalists from covering a Kwanzaa celebration, according to columnist Rod Watson of the Buffalo News.

“It was a strange decision – not least because of the long fight lots of people have waged to get the media to cover the entirety of black life, not just the negative, regardless of the color of the reporters working a particular shift,” Watson wrote Thursday.

“It was a strange decision because of the obvious uproar that would result if some other racial or ethnic group held an event in a public facility and decreed that no black journalists should cover it. It doesn’t take much imagination to see who’ll come out on the short end once we start pigeon-holing reporters by skin color.

“And it was strange because you’d think blacks, above all others, would understand all of that.

“‘We, who have been excluded for years, should not turn around and exclude anybody,’ said School Board Member Betty Jean Grant, a Kwanzaa organizer who disagreed with the decision.

“Jerome Williams, co-chairman of the Buffalo Kwanzaa Committee, and L. Nathan Hare, who co-hosted the . . . session on cooperative economics, defended the decision to admit only those who would view the event ‘out of my spirit,’ as Hare put it.”

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Short Takes

• Betty Bayé, writing in the Louisville Courier-Journal, said she “didn’t intend to write a column about my nephew’s father being killed in Iraq on Dec. 10.” But “every day since returning home from Von’s funeral, I’ve wondered whose child, father, brother, sister, aunt, uncle, cousin or best friend will be the last to die before President Bush turns the lights out and brings the troops home from Iraq.”
• “The moment I heard about the famous father whose son committed suicide just days before Christmas, I thought of an 8-year-old boy whose father took his life many years ago during this holiday season – a tragedy I’m reminded of every year around this time,” DeWayne Wickham wrote Dec. 26 in his USA Today column. The famous father was Indianapolis Colts coach Tony Dungy, and the 8-year-old was Wickham, as he wrote in his 1995 memoir, “Woodholme: A Black Man’s Story of Growing Up Alone.”
• Members of the American Dialect Society gathered in Albuquerque, N.M., on Friday evening to select the word or phrase of the year. They chose “Truthiness,” which means the quality of stating concepts or facts one wishes or believes to be true, rather than concepts or facts known to be true, Kelly Simmons reported Sunday in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. The society also chose the most useful, most creative, most unnecessary, most outrageous, most euphemistic, and most and least likely words to succeed.
• A Los Angeles billboard promoting shock jock Howard Stern’s new satellite radio show “features a Black power fist with the headline: ‘Let Freedom Ring and Let it be Rung By a Stripper,’ ” according to the Web site Playahata.com. Local activist Najee Ali, director of Project Islamic HOPE, is quoted calling the billboard offensive.
• Syndicated columnist Ruben Navarrette of the San Diego Union Tribune, who has been writing about immigration, filed from Mexico Sunday. “Cultural purists say the country is becoming ‘Americanized’ and turning itself inside out to accommodate foreigners. They worry that, for their trouble, they have to put up with Americans behaving poorly in Mexico,” he wrote.
• Brent Staples, writing Sunday in the New York Times, and Jack Betts, writing Sunday in the Charlotte Observer, separately discussed the recent report about the white riot in Wilmington, N.C., in 1898 in which governments conspired to terrorize and disenfranchise African Americans. “We are still under the shadow of this disfranchisement back at the turn of the century,” Jeffrey Crow, deputy secretary of the North Carolina Office of Archives and History, said in Betts’ piece.