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“Parachute Journalism” in Durham

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Unfavorable Stories on Duke’s Accused, Accuser

“Durham leaders lashed out Thursday at the way they see the city being portrayed in the national media – a stereotypical small Southern town where conflict over race and class dominates daily life,” Michael Biesecker reported today in the Raleigh (N.C.) News & Observer.

“‘They provide no history, no context,’ said City Council member Mike Woodard, deriding what he called the ‘parachute journalists’ who have come to the city in the wake of rape accusations stemming from a March 13 party at the home of three Duke University lacrosse team captains. ‘Every day, hundreds, I dare say thousands, of people in this community are working to build bridges.’

“Before banks of video cameras and scores of scribbling reporters at a work session, some council members expressed discomfort at the lack of subtlety and balance in the media coverage.

“On several national television news programs, video of Duke’s gothic West Campus – more than a mile from the more architecturally subdued East Campus near where the party occurred – cuts straight to rows of crumbling mill houses where some of the city’s poorest residents live.

“Durham is repeatedly referred to as a ‘working-class’ or ‘blue-collar’ town, despite being home to cutting-edge pharmaceutical and technology companies and boasting among the highest median household incomes in North Carolina.”

But, the story continued, “There are some uncomfortable truths exposed in the media spotlight. Durham has the highest rate of poverty in the Triangle. It has the highest per capita murder rate among the state’s 10 largest cities, two years running.”

News & Observer columnist Barry Saunders singled out ABC-TV’s “Nightline” for a story last Friday night by John Berman:

“‘Durham,’ a reporter intoned, ‘is a gritty city that has seen its better days.’

“Why, you dirty . . . .,” Saunders wrote.

“At the same time I was whispering unsweet expletives at the screen, across town Reyn Bowman was watching the same show and, he said, ‘jumping right out of my seat.'” Bowman is president of the Durham Convention & Visitors Bureau.

Meanwhile, news organizations, sometimes accused of trying both accusers and accused in print or on the air, struggled with defining the boundaries of what they would report.

No doubt for reasons of taste, most edited the e-mail message sent by player Ryan McFadyen after the incident, released by police on Wednesday. “i plan on killing the bitches as soon as the[y] walk in and proceding to cut their skin off while cumming in my duke issue spandex,” he wrote.

“Readers had problems with a front-page story Wednesday that identified 15 lacrosse players who have run afoul of the law in their time at Duke, mostly on misdemeanor alcohol and public urination charges,” the News & Observer’s public editor, Ted Vaden, wrote on Sunday. “The problem with that story, critics said, is that it was the first to publicly name any lacrosse players and, having identified them, implicitly connected them with the sexual assault.”

However, the News & Observer and other outlets reported on Thursday, “On the same day Duke University lacrosse player Collin H. Finnerty was ordered to provide DNA samples in a rape investigation, he was in Washington to face charges that he assaulted a man last fall.”

News outlets also examined the past of the accuser. WRAL-TV in Raleigh reported Thursday that, “According to a 2002 police report, the woman, currently a 27-year-old student at North Carolina Central University, gave a taxi driver a lap dance at a Durham strip club. Subsequently, according to the report, she stole the man’s car and led deputies on a high-speed chase that ended in Wake County.”

Student journalists at two historically black campuses, Florida A&M University and North Carolina Central University, where the accuser attends school, protested that media were portraying the accuser unfairly.

“Newspaper after news show constantly categorize her as ‘a stripper’ [–] nothing more,” Tolulope Omokaiye wrote on Wednesday in the Campus Echo at North Carolina Central. “It is appalling that the focus seems to be more on the victim’s race and occupation than on the alleged rapists,” an editorial in the Famuan said today.

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Hair-Raising Times for McKinney, TV Reporter

No sooner had Rep. Cynthia McKinney, D-Ga., decided to express “sincere regret” for her altercation with a U.S. Capitol police officer than a reporter from WSB-TV in Atlanta was shoved by McKinney’s bodyguard and told “I’m going to put your ass in jail,” the reporter said on the air last night.

The station showed footage of the incident, which took place when reporter Scott MacFarlane was trying to question McKinney as she entered the Capitol to make her statement of regret, the station said.

However, the most unusual piece in the week-long saga of McKinney and the Capitol police could be from the Washington Post’s fashion reporter, Robin Givhan, who deconstructed the McKinney hairstyle that played a central role in the drama. Givhan has earned both praise and barbs for her fashion critiques of Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice; the family of then-Supreme Court nominee John G. Roberts Jr.; Vice President Dick Cheney; Sen. Trent Lott, R-Miss.; then-Florida Secretary of State Katherine Harris and tennis superstar Serena Williams.

McKinney got into a scuffle with a Capitol Police officer on March 29 as she tried to bypass a metal detector in a House office building. Members of Congress are not required to pass through such devices, but McKinney was not wearing the lapel pin identifying her as a member and had changed her trademark hairstyle. McKinney accused the Capitol Police of racial profiling.

“If security of the House of Representatives is based on how members of Congress wear their hair . . . that is ridiculous,” she told CNN’s Wolf Blitzer, saying, “my face hasn’t changed.”

On Monday, nationally syndicated talk radio show host Neal Boortz apologized after saying the hairstyle made McKinney look like a “ghetto slut.”

Givhan wrote today, “A black woman’s hair is an easy, timeworn source of racist mockery. It has become an exhausting cliche of self-loathing whether it is kinky, hot-combed, braided, locked or chemically relaxed. (Indeed, plenty of black folks see all kinds of dire race-traitor undertones in Condoleezza Rice’s smooth, controlled cap of hair.) A black woman’s hair is a bottomless source of inspiration for essays, books and documentaries.

“But for McKinney, hair is part of her politics. . . .

“In 1997, her little-girl braids were so remarkable that without them, she no longer looked like herself.

“. . . Anyone who has the smarts and the tenacity to be the first black woman elected to Congress from Georgia clearly understands the visual politics of wearing milkmaid braids and gold tennis shoes into the corridors of power. Her choices drive home the point that she is exceptional. She rolls hair, clothes and race into a tight ball. And it becomes impossible to talk about one without getting tangled up in the others.”

On the incident with the WSB reporter, the station said, “When asked if he worked for the Capitol Police the bodyguard responded, ‘I work for Ms. McKinney.’ On the tape of the incident you can hear the man say that he wasn’t a Capitol police officer but that, ‘I am a police officer.’ McKinney’s office is now saying that the man was not a police officer, but a driver for the congresswoman.

“The Capitol Police Criminal Investigative Department is investigating the incident and trying to determine who the man is.”

The station is showing video of the incident on its Web site.

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Immigration Stories Cited in Case for Diversity

“One argument for greater diversity in American newsrooms can be summed up as follows: Press types who have firsthand knowledge of minority issues are apt to produce more accurate, more meaningful reports about related topics than will those who don’t,” Michael Roberts wrote yesterday in Denver’s alternative Westword.

“Likewise, this line of reasoning suggests that even well-intentioned outsiders tend to make errors of fact and judgment when taking on such subjects. Francisco Miraval, the man behind Project Vision 21, an Aurora-based bilingual news-and-information agency, believes that the coverage of the March 25 protest in Denver against proposed federal immigration legislation bears out that theory.

“Miraval, whose work has appeared in La Voz de Colorado and more than thirty other newspapers in the U.S. and abroad, titled his commentary ‘Some New Ways of Ignoring 100,000 People’ – a headline that provokes both thematically and numerically. The majority of news organizations have used the Denver Police Department’s estimate of 50,000 participants, but Miraval, a rally attendee, argues that between 20,000 and 50,000 additional folks were unable to join those who congregated at Civic Center Park because of street closures.

“‘New Ways’ (available at Project 21’s website, www.newsandservices.com) doesn’t rip outfits that accepted the 50,000 figure, but it finds many other faults. Miraval censures one journalist who characterized the rally as ‘a march of farmers and maids’ even though the participants embodied a much broader social strata; takes another to task for focusing on ‘an anti-immigrant group of less than twenty persons, without saying anything about the march’; and denounces stations that showed only Mexican flags when thousands of American flags were in plain sight. These flaws make it even more important, he contends, ‘for us to tell our own stories, and to do it in such a powerful way that it will be increasingly difficult for the mainstream media to distort who we are, what we do and what we say.’

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Maria Elena Salinas Has Advice for Katie Couric

“Katie Couric is going to find out that being an evening-news anchor has some drawbacks, said Maria Elena Salinas, who anchors ‘Noticiero Unvision’ with Jorge Ramos each night,” Richard Huff wrote today in the New York Daily News.

“‘One of the toughest things is how rigid the schedule is when you do an evening newscast,’ Salinas said. ‘Katie Couric is going to learn quick she can’t pick her kids up from school now.’

“Salinas should know. She’s been in the anchor chair on Univison’s evening news since 1987, and just marked her 25th anniversary with the company. She’s also written a book, ‘I Am My Father’s Daughter: Living a Life Without Secrets.'”

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Tavis Smiley’s “Covenant” Sales at 200,000

“‘The Covenant With Black America,’ a volume of essays pulled together by omnimedia personality Tavis Smiley . . . is the book of the moment,” Linton Weeks wrote today in the Washington Post. It is No.1 on the Post’s paperback nonfiction best-seller list, and No. 2 on the upcoming New York Times paperback nonfiction list.

“All across the country, many black Americans are gathering, mostly in churches, to hear Smiley spread his gospel of response and responsibility and to buy a bunch of books. The publisher, Third World Press, reports that more than 200,000 copies have sold – at $12 apiece – since ‘Covenant’ was published less than two months ago,” Weeks continued.

“In downtown Washington last night, Smiley’s rousing presentation from the lectern of Shiloh Baptist Church is greeted with scores of amens and several standing ovations. Brandishing a copy, he says, ‘Make black America better, you make all America better.'”

Smiley is touring to promote the book, conducting “town hall” meetings.

He said earlier in a news release, “I am so proud to say . . . every day Black people did this. Black folks wrote the book. Black folks published it. Black folks sent donations for the project. The cover of the book is composed of hundreds of photos of Black families and the book addresses Black issues.”

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Barry Bonds Compared With Jack Johnson

Barry Bonds, with allegations of steroid use following him as he chases Hank Aaron’s and Babe Ruth’s home-run tallies, “is this generation’s Jack Johnson,” according to New York Times sports columnist William C. Rhoden.

Rhoden said he wondered whether Bonds “was familiar with the man who became a champion, then a legend.

“Both hold valuable real estate in our sports landscape. Johnson became the first black heavyweight champion, in 1908, at a time when the heavyweight championship defined manhood and for many was a metaphor for white male supremacy,” Rhoden wrote today.

“Bonds is on the verge of supplanting Babe Ruth as the second most prolific home-run hitter in baseball history.

“More important, I wondered if Bonds was familiar with Johnson’s rise and fall,” Rhoden wrote.

“Bonds said he was. He said he had watched ‘Unforgivable Blackness,’ Ken Burns’s documentary on Johnson. Bold and bodacious, Johnson enraged segments of the black and the white communities. He flaunted his power and independence. He openly traveled with, went out with and married white women – the ultimate taboo of his era. He taunted, bragged and belittled his opponents.

“Bonds simply plays by his own set of rules.”

Meanwhile, “Bonds on Bonds,” a reality show providing weekly behind-the-scenes access this season to Bonds and the San Francisco Giants, debuted on ESPN2.

“Like him or not, Bonds might be the most intriguing celebrity of our age,” Roy S. Johnson wrote of the show Wednesday on ESPN.com. “Yes, celebrity. He passed being a mere athlete about a million allegations ago. With his physical gifts, surly public persona, soap-opera private life, historic home run chase and, of course, the steroids thing, how could B on B not be engaging at the least?”

Other columnists of color on Bonds:

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D.C.’s Hayward Leaves Anchor Seat After 34 Years

“J.C. Hayward, the Washington area’s first female news anchor, tomorrow will say goodbye to viewers for the final time as the face of the 5 p.m. news on WUSA-TV (Channel 9),” Dan Caterinicchia reported yesterday in the Washington Times.

“Darryll J. Green, president and general manager of the Gannett Co. Inc. station, announced yesterday that Ms. Hayward’s new title will be vice president for media outreach programs. She will continue to anchor the noon newscast and produce her weekly ‘J.C. & Friends’ series.

“I’m extremely happy, and I’m also humbled by this promotion because it gives me the opportunity to not only be involved in the news department, but also to have an active voice in determining the direction that the station takes overall,” Hayward told Caterinicchia.

“Ms. Hayward anchored the 5 p.m. newscast for 34 years. She said she discussed leaving with station managers for the past four years, before deciding it was time,” the story said.

“Todd McDermott, who had co-anchored the 5 p.m. broadcast, will continue in that role at 6 p.m. and 11 p.m. Tracey Neale and Derek McGinty will be the co-anchors at 5 p.m., Mr. Green said.”

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Should Reporters Assist Those They Cover?

“Daily journalism involves many dilemmas. But Western reporters covering developing countries often face unique conundrums: A little humanity – just the change in their pockets – can sometimes feed 10 or 20 people. Such giving can violate a basic tenet of journalism: Observe, don’t engage. It’s a cornerstone of the effort to stay objective. But Western reporters often ask themselves: Should I help anyway?

So wrote Abraham McLaughlin yesterday in the Christian Science Monitor, examining the ethics of helping people one is covering.

“The questions have current relevance,” McLaughlin continued. “The recent Oscar-nominated documentary, ‘The Death of Kevin Carter: Casualty of the Bang Bang Club,’ details a Pulitzer Prize-winning photographer’s decline to suicide after photographing a starving African child with a vulture waiting ominously in the background. Even Mr. Carter’s mother wondered why he hadn’t helped the child.”

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Jarrett Awards Announced in Print, Broadcast

The first winners of the annual Vernon Jarrett Award for Journalistic Excellence were announced today by the Institute for Advanced Journalism Studies at North Carolina A&T State University. Winners in each category receive a Vernon Jarrett bronze medal and $5,000:

Print journalist winners are: Tammy L. Carter of the Orlando Sentinel for commentary on the Hurricane Katrina disaster; Kevin Merida of the Washington Post, for feature writing for â??A Jacket to Die For?”; and Jerry Mitchell of the Jackson (Miss.) Clarion-Ledger for investigative reporting on former Ku Klux Klansman Edward Ray Killen, mastermind of the 1964 murder of three civil rights workers. A special judges award went to the staff of the Montgomery (Ala.) Advertiser for â??Voices of the Boycott.â?? In the broadcast category, winners were Byron Pitts, Jack Renaud and Craig Crawford of the “CBS Evening News” for news reports on Rosa Parks; Marion Brooks and Gregg Schatz of WMAQ-TV in Chicago for a documentary on the Dells, and Jeff Koinange of CNN International in the newsmagazine category for reporting on disease and hunger in Malawi.

The award, named in honor of veteran columnist and television commentator Vernon Jarrett, who died in May 2004, is given to journalists for outstanding coverage of people of African descent and the issues that affect them. The institute is headed by DeWayne Wickham, USA Today and Gannett News Service columnist.

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8 Fellowships Available for Copy-Editor Training

“Eight full fellowships to attend the Robert C. Maynard Institute for Journalism Education’s program for copy editors are available to journalists from small and medium size newspapers,” the institute announced today.

“The Editing Program runs from May 21 to July 1 at the Reynolds School of Journalism at the University of Nevada, Reno. The program director is Addie Rimmer, a 1980 Editing Program graduate and a longtime newspaper editor who teaches at the Columbia Graduate School of Journalism.

“The fellowships cover tuition, room and group meals during the six-week program and include a travel stipend. The fellowships are underwritten by a grant from the Donald W. Reynolds Foundation.

“The six-week program immerses participants in everything from the basics of headline writing, grammar, page design and story organization to developing news judgment and the interpersonal skills that enable editors to work successfully with reporters and other editors.”

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