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Luna Out at Ventura County Star

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Managing Editor Leaves a 3rd Paper Suddenly

Rich Luna, the managing editor of the Ventura County (Calif.) Star who was disciplined for ethical violations, has cleaned out his office and plans to submit his resignation Tuesday, Editor Joe Howry told Journal-isms today.

Luna had been disciplined after a sports reporter was pressured to obtain press credentials for Luna to attend two Final Four college basketball tournament games.

“He knows he’s wrong, and he’s acknowledged he was wrong,” Tim Gallagher, publisher and president, told Editor & Publisher on May 1.

“Gallagher said in addition to investigating other rumored ethical violations, Mary E. Minser, Scripps’ director of employee relations, will look at how top management handled the investigation and discipline of Luna,” Mark Fitzgerald wrote then.

Scripps completed its investigation on May 11 and found no further violations, Gallagher told Journal-isms today. But the publisher said, “By talking about it, we can’t settle it. We haven’t settled anything yet. We are in the process of developing a separation strategy.”

However, Gallagher did say a report by Editor & Publisher today that Luna was escorted out of the office Saturday was “not accurate. We’re trying to do this with some dignity and some grace.”

Fitzgerald reported in E&P today, “What would normally have been a deserted newsroom was filled with staff because of a computer malfunction that paralyzed newspaper production Saturday night and through much of Sunday.” A Star story elaborated: “No news or sports sections of the Ventura County Star were distributed Sunday because of a computer malfunction that prevented the pages from reaching the newspaper’s printing press.”

Luna, a former five-year board member of the National Association of Hispanic Journalists, is a 1994 graduate of the Maynard Institute’s Management Training Center. In 2004, he abruptly left the Detroit News, where he was metro editor, and the year before suddenly left his position as managing editor of the Indianapolis Star.

At a half-hour late afternoon staff meeting, attended by 80 or 90 of the 100-member newsroom staff, Howry said he spent time trying to “reestablish the trust between me and my staff. I told them where I stood, what my values of journalism were. It gave me an opportunity to lay it out to them. This whole thing of trust is a two-way street.”

In the May 1 story, Fitzgerald wrote: “Journalists and others in the newsroom . . . say they have been frustrated by what they say has been a lack of transparency in the process” involving Luna. “Nothing has been published about the ethical breaches in the paper, and Luna and top management have not detailed how the managing editor was disciplined.

“‘The editors don’t seem to get it, and we’re saying, why aren’t we looking into this?’ said staff writer Tamara Koehler. ‘They’re only doing this now because there was such upheaval from the staff – you know, the peasants were coming with pitchforks.'”

Howry told Journal-isms he had not decided who would serve as managing editor.

Gallagher noted that in the last two years, the paper had won awards from the National Press Photographers Association, the California newspaper publishers and the Associated Press sports editors. “We did better than when I was editor of the paper,” he said. “You have to give some credit to the managing editor for that kind of performance.”

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GM Charged at Michigan Public Radio Station

“The sedate, urbane world of public broadcasting was rattled Thursday as prosecutors charged three former employees of Michigan Public Media with illegally accepting golf club memberships, Persian rugs, airline tickets and massages in exchange for on-air considerations at the state’s top public radio station,” Maryanne George and John Smyntek reported Wednesday in the Detroit Free Press.

“Each of the men – current WDET-FM general manager Michael Coleman, Jeremy Nordquist and Justin Ebright – was charged by Washtenaw County prosecutors in Ann Arbor with embezzlement of under $20,000 while working at Michigan Public Media-controlled WUOM-FM (91.7). Each could face up to five years in prison if convicted.

“An internal audit also found sloppy recordkeeping, excessive bonuses and expense-account fraud that totaled more than $50,000 from July 2001 to December 2005, said Timothy Slottow, University of Michigan’s chief financial officer. U-M owns and runs Michigan Public Media.”

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Jamal Watson Makes Deal with Brooklyn DA

Jamal Watson, the former executive editor of the New York Amsterdam News who had been charged with menacing, unlawfully imprisoning and harassing his ex-girlfriend, accepted a deal today that would give the ex-girlfriend a “full order of protection” from him and drop the charges if Watson remains on good behavior for six months, prosecutor Deirdre Bialo-Padin told Journal-isms today.

That deal was worked out in a Brooklyn, N.Y., criminal court, Bialo-Padin, but Watson still faces grand larceny charges in a Manhattan court for allegedly stealing checks from Amsterdam News summer interns. That case has been continued until June 7.

The menacing charges stemmed from a breakup, Watson told Journal-isms last year. The New York Daily News reported in October that Watson, according to a complaint, “grabbed informant and threw informant on the bed and pinned informant’s legs and hands down and then the defendant [hid] informant’s cellular telephone so that the informant could not call the police and blocked the doorway so that the informant could not get out of the apartment.”

Under terms of today’s agreement, Watson is to have “no contact, directly or indirectly” with the ex-girlfriend, Bialo-Padin said. Watson now writes for the New York Sun.

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Gonzales Fills In View on Press Freedom – or Not

When Alberto Gonzales was nominated to become the first Latino attorney general, some were conflicted.

The National Association of Hispanic Publishers, which said it represented 200 publications, declared its support for the nomination, calling him “a role model for the Latino community and a beacon of hope for the future of the country.”

The Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press found that, “Gonzales’ role as White House counsel reveals a penchant for strictly regulating access to government and executive-branch information, while his term on the Texas high court indicates a recognition of the First Amendment interests in newsgathering and reporting.”

Columnist Ruben Navarrette of the San Diego Union-Tribune wrote, “I am busting with pride over the incredible odyssey of Alberto Gonzales.

“But, given everything I heard during his confirmation, I’m also concerned,” Navarrette continued. “That’s because, for me, the most important job of any government lawyer is the protection of individuals’ civil rights and civil liberties. . . . it doesn’t appear that the new attorney general agrees with me.”

Meanwhile, A.S. Medellin wrote on the Web site of the organization La Raza Unida, “as Chicanos & Latinos, we must be cautious in supporting Latinos on the basis of being, well, Latino. Skin color and ethnicity only go so far,” he wrote.

On Sunday, in an appearance on ABC-TV’s “This Week,” Gonzales said he believes journalists can be prosecuted for publishing classified information, citing an obligation to national security.

“Gonzales also said yesterday that the Bush administration would not hesitate to track telephone calls made by reporters as part of a criminal-leak investigation. He said officials would not do so routinely and randomly,” as the Associated Press reported.

At least two of those who commented as Gonzales awaited confirmation last year spoke again today.

“Lucy Dalglish, executive director of the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, told the AP, “I can’t imagine a bigger chill on free speech and the public’s right to know what its government is up to – both hallmarks of a democracy – than prosecuting reporters.”

“I saw the interview,” Navarrette told Journal-isms. “And I didn’t think it was all that extraordinary for an AG to hold open the possibility of prosecuting someone who may have committed a crime – despite the attempts by George Stephanopolous to get him to declare journalists off limits. Personally, if AG pursued that course, I think it’d be a mistake. But I also think it was unrealistic for Stephanopolous or anyone else to try to get him to close that door before all the evidence is in. What prosecutor would do that?”

Tom Oliver, executive director and CEO of the Hispanic publishers, did not return a call requesting comment.

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Discovery’s “El Norte” Documentary in Spanish Only

“By all accounts,” Marisa Trevino wrote Sunday on her Latina Lista blog, the Discovery channel documentary “El Norte” “looks like a well-made, balanced piece. . . . The only problem – it’s Discovery en Español.

“It is common knowledge, at least in the Hispanic community, that [among] the Latinos who should be discussing immigration issues because their opinions can be transferred into votes at the polls, more speak English than Spanish,” Trevino wrote.

“Though it’s admirable for Discovery Networks US Hispanic Group to create such a fine and necessary piece of programming, it doesn’t make sense not to make it available on the English-language, and we might say wider-viewed, parent Discovery Channel.”

The documentary “transports viewers into the hot Sonora desert to meet the people who risk their lives every day crossing the ‘corridor of death,'” and talks to “opponents who see the immigrants as invaders” as well as a number of stakeholders in the debate. But a Discovery spokeswoman told Journal-isms that the documentary, which airs again at 9 p.m. ET/PT on Wednesday and at 7 p.m. ET/PT on Saturday, was written in Spanish and there are no plans for an English version.

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Blacks Said to Make Statement With Vote for Nagin

The analyses of Ray Nagin’s victory in Saturday’s runoff election for mayor of New Orleans have begun, with the race issue front and center.

“In an era where the words ‘civil rights’ have little to do with the rights guaranteed in the Constitution and everything to do with race relations, Ray Nagin became a civil rights issue. Black voters may have serious reservations about some Nagin policies, but these differences were seen as intra-family issues,” Lolis Elie wrote today in the New Orleans Times-Picayune.

“Black voters weren’t going to spank Nagin in public, especially if white voters were going to join in the spanking.”

On BlackAmericaWeb.com, Deborah Mathis wrote Sunday, “There was more than forgiveness behind Nagin’s victory over Lt. Gov. Mitch Landrieu in Saturday’s election. And there was more than hope at play. There was a political statement being made too – namely, that the citizens of a majority black city were not about to relinquish what power they had to a white man.”

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Raleigh Paper Tries Alternative to Long Stories

“Alternative Story Form,” or ASF, is a new trend in journalism designed to streamline communication between newspaper and reader,” Ted Vaden, public editor of the Raleigh (N.C.) News & Observer, said Sunday in a column written in that form.

“This format strips excess verbiage from traditional journalism and boils information down to just the facts, ma’am. News articles now may turn up in question-and-answer format, ‘bulleted’ info morsels (a bullet is one of these: * ), news presented entirely in graphic or chart form, abbreviated stories that don’t leap from the front page to inside the paper, and other formats that depart from the old ‘inverted pyramid’ narrative style.

“The best deployment I’ve seen has been The N&O’s treatment of college graduations. Instead of a series of long boring narratives on the speeches and every-year ceremonial trappings – usually of interest only to the grads and their families – stories are broken into digestible info nuggets such as ‘What the speaker said,’ ‘What parents were saying’ and ‘Not mentioned’ (at Duke last week: ‘The word, “lacrosse.”‘)”

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Ombudsmen Glean Ideas from São Paulo, Classroom

“Members of the international Organization of News Ombudsmen – people who address readers’, listeners’ and viewers’ concerns – met in a modern, new conference center in São Paulo, Brazil, and heard about a very different world outside,” Manning Pynn wrote Sunday in the Orlando Sentinel.

“It was tragic, but not nearly as unthinkable as it would be in the United States, when a gang war broke out last week with rebellions at 41 prisons, hostages being taken and police being hunted down and killed on the street – and in their homes. By midweek, more than 140 people in São Paulo had died.

“Are newspapers the solution to this tragedy?

“No, but a widespread ability to read and access to accurate information could go a long way toward that goal. Those very basic tools can help overcome the wealth disparity that leads, eventually, to such lawlessness.”

In the Palm Beach (Fla.) Post, C.B. Hanif reported: “‘What role do we play as ombudsmen in Latin America?’ asked opening-session speaker German Réy, former ombudsman for El Tiempo newspaper in Bogota, Colombia. ‘I had to deal with drug dealers and corrupt politicians and misinformation from the military,’ he said in comments translated into English. ‘The reality here’ he said, ‘is a constant situation of poverty that has a quarter of Latin America living in misery and having to make choices: Go to a movie, or eat. Read a newspaper, or eat.'”

Meanwhile, in the Detroit Free Press, Public Editor John X. Miller wrote May 15 about his three-month visiting professorship in journalism last winter at Washington and Lee University.

“Newspapers are an anachronism to today’s young adults and teens,” Miller told readers. “They get news from the Web or television. Newspapers are seldom held and read, though my journalism students had a weekly quiz intended to make sure they read several newspapers during the semester. Generations X and Y are multimedia consumers, and increasingly, so is everyone.

“Until I had read textbooks and other material for the race and gender in media class, I didn’t realize the prevalence of stereotypes, conscious and subconscious, in our social construct. They are so common in entertainment and the news media that we can absorb them without thinking and knowing: the Latin lover, the brainy Asian, the over-sexed African-American and women as sexpots.”

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Short Takes

“Officially,” Nashville Tennessean columnist Tim Chavez, battling leukemia, “is in remission, but he is still getting treatment,” Tennessean Editorial Page Editor Sandra Roberts told Journal-isms today. “In fact, he is scheduled for a three-day round of chemo this week. They aren’t sure whether he’ll have the bone marrow transplant. That said, things look much better for him than they did a few months back. . . He’s been writing his column from home.”

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