Fired Vice President Claims Discrimination
A fired vice president of the Associated Press, who was the most senior African American at the world’s largest news organization, has filed a lawsuit claiming that racial discrimination led to his dismissal.
The action by Jeffrey A. Hastie, who was vice president of services and technology, comes amid apparently growing dissatisfaction with diversity progress under Tom Curley, the former president and publisher of USA Today who succeeded Louis D. Boccardi as AP’s president and CEO on June 1, 2003.
“Upon information and belief, the number of African-Americans working at AP is significantly below average compared to similar media companies such as Time Warner, the New York Times, Viacom, Knight Ridder Tribune, and the Washington Post,” Hastie’s lawsuit says. “The percentages of Hispanic and Asian employees at the company are even worse.”
The news cooperative, which has 3,700 employees around the world, denies Hastie’s allegations.
“The lawsuit filed against AP by its former employee, Jeffrey Hastie, remains in the pleading stage. Mr. Hastie’s claims of discrimination against AP and its management are without merit. AP looks forward to resolving the claims through the court system and is completely confident that Mr. Hastie’s lawsuit will ultimately be dismissed,” spokeswoman Linda M. Wagner told Journal-isms.
Wagner declined to give figures on the number of journalists of color in key positions at AP.
Newspapers report their diversity figures to the American Society of Newspaper Editors for its annual census, but the AP, as a wire service, has no similar vehicle.
However, at a May meeting of the Chips Quinn Scholars, a diversity initiative of the Freedom Forum that places college students as interns for the summer, Curley reportedly said that though the AP was very diverse internationally, it needed to do much better with its diversity goals.
As best as can be determined, the AP’s entire management committee is white, and its senior headquarters news management team — which includes the executive editor, managing editor, three deputy managing editors, director of photography, business editor, sports editor, online director, graphics director, writing coach, director of news operations, director of career development and director of the News and Information Research Center — is said to include only one person of color, Robert Naylor, director of career development.
There are apparently no black editors on the national desk, the international desk, the national sports desk or the national business desk.
The organization’s Diversity Council is said to be on its last legs.
Those who say the news cooperative is losing ground point to the loss, as one example, of 18-year-veteran Denise Cabrera, whose job as chief of bureau for Maryland and Delaware was eliminated.
Cabrera, who told Journal-isms she was the only black woman ever to be an AP bureau chief (only four African Americans have held the position) left in April to become executive editor of the Frederick (Md.) News-Post. That is said to leave only Larry Campbell in Anchorage, Alaska, as an African American bureau chief.
The two remaining bureau chiefs of color appear to be Anthony Marquez, a Latino, in Los Angeles, and John Shurr, a Cherokee who is on medical leave, in Columbia, S.C.
Earlier in the year, Jonathan Ewing, believed to be one of only three blacks in the AP’s foreign service, left AP’s bureau in San Juan, Puerto Rico. He told Journal-isms he could not discuss the reasons.
In perhaps the most high-profile AP departure among those who work for diversity in news organizations, Fred Sweets, a veteran photographer and diversity advocate who had been AP’s senior photo editor for training and development, was laid off in an October 2004 reorganization of the Washington bureau. In 1999, Sweets accepted the Pulitzer Prize for feature photography.
Journal-isms asked the news cooperative the status of the Diversity Council, what it is doing, how many journalists of color are bureau chiefs and assistant bureau chiefs, how many journalists of color are in the Washington bureau, how many are on the national desk and are foreign correspondents, how many are on the management committee and how many are in senior management ranks. In addition, Journal-isms asked whether these numbers had increased or decreased in the past two years.
AP spokeswoman Wagner replied:
“The Associated Press Management Committee reviews employee diversity statistics on a monthly basis. The AP’s diversity figures have improved over the past year, but we want to see them improve further.
“In addition, the AP has a mentor program and an internship program, both of which are focused on finding a diverse pool of participants. This year, we’ve expanded our internship program beyond the news area into the business areas, and we conduct targeted recruiting for diversity among the interns. Furthermore, the AP participates in minority journalism conferences for recruiting purposes.
“The Diversity Council, which has been in existence for five years, has recently made recommendations for a re-design of the council, which is under management review.
“Thanks for your interest in diversity at the AP.”
In his lawsuit, amended in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York on May 19, Hastie, 42, first hired at AP in 1996, says “Curley appears to be wholly unconcerned with diversity; in his two and one-half years at AP, he has only addressed the company’s Diversity Council once. Of the original fifteen members of the Diversity Council, at least five have either been fired or left the company due to lack of promotional opportunities. Moreover, Curley has never made any statement to AP employees emphasizing a commitment to increasing diversity at AP.
“Curley is noticeably uncomfortable with the idea of African-Americans in management positions. . . . Senior employees at AP who are not African-American have not had their management decisions second-guessed and ignored” as he had, Hastie claimed.
Hastie described receiving a Nov. 10 e-mail that unintentionally included previous messages in which Ken Dale, chief financial officer, called Hastie a “jerk” and Jessica Bruce, vice president of human resources, agreed and called Hastie “super passive aggressive.” Bruce called Hastie a “short-termer,” which Hastie said he did not understand, “as nothing in their prior conversations made him suspect that AP wanted him to leave.” He said Bruce apologized when Hastie informed her that he had read the entire chain of messages.
Hastie says his employment “was involuntarily terminated on or about December 30, 2005.”
AP recently named black journalists Mike McQueen, who was managing editor of the Macon (Ga.) Telegraph, as assistant bureau chief in New Orleans, and Andrew Fraser, who was Miami news editor, to be assistant bureau chief in Philadelphia.
Jesse Washington remains the entertainment editor and Delores Barclay, the arts editor. The Washington national staff includes Sonya Ross, news editor for the 16 regional reporters, and John Hall, assistant bureau chief for photos. They, too, are black journalists. Elsewhere at AP, Joy Jones, who is African American, is vice president for business operations, Global Newspaper Markets Division, and Jennifer Atsumi, who is of Japanese descent, is vice president and director of business technology.
But those positions are not enough to allay the concerns of observers such as Rod Richardson, named “AP Staffer of the Year” in 2001 by the Texas Associated Press Managing Editors. He left the AP in 2004 to become managing editor of the Shreveport (La.) Times.
“AP certainly has gone through a transition in the last couple of years,” Richardson told Journal-isms. “I hope it hasn’t lost its commitment to diversity. I’d be hard-pressed to see any real evidence that the rumors” to that effect “don’t have some merit. I’ve heard them too. A lot of minority journalists who once were there have moved on to other places.
“I don’t believe you have to fill a job with another minority, but I don’t buy into the notion that there are no — quote â?? qualified applicants. An organization as big as the AP should be able to recruit at every level they want to recruit at. We’re talking about a great company.”
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Black Journalist Required on Open-Meetings Panel
Tennessee lawmakers have agreed to create a special committee to examine the state’s open meetings law and make recommendations for the next session of the General Assembly – and mandated that a black journalist be a member of the committee.
“I think it’s only fair,” state Rep. Joe Fowlkes, who sponsored the legislation as chair of the House Judiciary Committee, told Journal-isms on Tuesday. Fowlkes, D- Cornersville, said he wanted to be sure that all the stakeholders were involved. He said that was not the case with the original open-meetings law. Gov. Phil Bredesen, a Democrat, is expected to sign the measure.
The idea to require that black journalists be on the panel originated with two African American legislators, state Sen. Thelma Harper, D-Nashville, and state Rep. Edith Taylor Langster, D-Nashville, Frank Gibson, a former reporter and editor at the Nashville Tennessean who is executive director of the Tennessee Coalition for Open Government, told Journal-isms.
“The Senate version of the bill recommends that the committee be made up of lawmakers, the governor’s office, local officials, members of news associations, open government groups and citizens, such as the League of Women Voters,” Lucas L. Johnson II reported Saturday for the Associated Press.
“The House version, which was approved today, on the last day of the session, added an amendment that increased the number of committee members to 18 and required that one of them be a black journalist. The Senate agreed to the House changes.
“Rep. Brian Kelsey, R-Germantown, voted against the bill because he believed such a requirement to be unconstitutional,” Johnson’s story continued.
“I requested an attorney general opinion that said it’s constitutionally suspect to reserve spots on certain committees based on race,” Kelsey said, according to Johnson’s story.
However, the bill passed. The committee is expected to make its first report by Dec. 1, and a final report by Feb. 1. It will be up to the governor to appoint the black journalist, Fowlkes and Gibson said. They said they had not heard from black journalists about the measure.
[Added June 2:] Language of the bill is at the end of today’s posting.
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Pinkston “Felt Safe Whenever I Worked With Paul”
The families of CBS News cameraman Paul Douglas and soundman James Brolan, both killed in a car bomb explosion in Iraq on Memorial Day, arrived in Kuwait on Wednesday to accompany the caskets – draped in the Union Jack – home to London on Thursday, CBS News said. Both were British citizens. CBS News correspondent Kimberly Dozier, who was wounded in the bombing, remained in critical but stable condition in the U.S. military hospital in Landstuhl, Germany.
Douglas apparently is the first black journalist killed in the war in Iraq. CBS correspondent Randall Pinkston offered Journal-isms this remembrance:
“One of the unwritten duties of anyone who is assigned to the CBS NEWS London Bureau is to cover foreign conflicts. Paul Douglas had covered many wars. For me, based in New York, covering wars was an infrequent duty. For him, it was a regular part of his job year in and year out,” Pinkston said by e-mail.
“I first met Paul on my very first assignment to Baghdad. It was in the mid-90’s, when UN weapons inspectors were still on the ground and we journalists chased a Marine sergeant named Scott Ritter, to learn what his searches had turned up.
“Paul kept everyone in good humor – especially the Iraqis who worked as our drivers and translators. He hung out with them, watched tv with them and, somehow, despite the language barrier, Paul seemed to connect with them.
“On later assignments, I began to understand the motive behind much of Paul’s good humor with our hosts. He was building trust, well aware that our welfare was in the hands of the drivers and translators. If they liked hm, they would be less likely to drive us into an ambush.
“The last time I worked in Baghdad, Paul was my photographer. As we traveled from our office to locations throughout the city and, sometimes, out of town, Paul would always take the front seat. Even while cracking jokes he would scan the road ahead. He was not only looking for opportunities to take pictures, he was also on the lookout for threats. I felt safe whenever I worked with Paul.
“I mourn his death and pray for his family and those of us proud to call him friend and colleague.”
- Peter Johnson, USA Today: Deaths underscore dangers facing journalists in Iraq
- Nick Madigan, Baltimore Sun: Reassessing risk to reporters in war zone What cost the news?
- Corky Siemaszko, New York Daily News: In the line of fire: A new generation of women reporters
- Marc Santora and Bill Carter, New York Times: Iraq Becomes Deadliest of Modern Wars for Journalists
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5 of Color Among Next Nieman Fellowship Class
Gina Acosta, editorial page copy editor at the Washington Post; Renee Ferguson, investigative reporter at WMAQ-TV in Chicago; Evelyn Hernández, opinion page editor of El Diario/La Prensa in New York; Claudio Sanchez, national education correspondent for National Public Radio; and Tini Tran, Vietnam bureau chief for the Associated Press, will be among the next class of 14 U.S. Nieman fellows, the Nieman Foundation announced yesterday.
It is likely the most diverse class ever for the program, in which journalists study for an academic year at Harvard University. In 2003 and 2005, this column reported two journalists of color chosen for the class; in 2004, there were no African Americans. Curator Bob Giles said then, “the lack of strong U.S. African American candidates is a continuing disappointment to us.”
As reported May 10, Acosta, a former board member of the National Association of Hispanic Journalists and graduate of Florida A&M University, said she had proposed to study “immigration reform in a post-9/11 world.”
While it is rare to have a copy editor among the fellows, Giles told Journal-isms, “Gina Acosta was selected on the basis of merit as one of the 12 journalists to be offered fellowships. We are delighted to have a copy editor in the class, but it was not by design.”
Ferguson, an investigative reporter, told Journal-isms, “I plan to take classes at the law school in an effort to sharpen my investigative skills.”
Hernández plans to examine “the role of media in preserving Hispanic institutions, communities and identity and building new ones, given the ongoing changes in the U.S. Hispanic population,” the announcement said.
Sanchez “will study educational policies and practices that have failed Mexican immigrant children – legal and illegal – to better understand why so many are growing up alienated and unskilled.”
Tran “will study the link between market reforms and democracy in China’s model of governance and its subsequent impact in shaping Asia’s future.”
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“How J-Programs Can Pass Accreditation”
“It could have been a banner academic year for journalism at the nation’s historically black colleges and universities,” Mike McQueen, assistant Associated Press bureau chief in New Orleans, wrote Monday on the Black College Wire.
But “by May, all four HBCU schools had been told: You’ll have to be provisionally accredited, and we hope during the two-year period of provisional accreditation you’ll solve your issues and gain full accreditation.”
McQueen, who taught journalism in the graduate program at the University of Miami and later at Florida International University, and then chaired the journalism program there, offers five suggestions to the leaders and faculty of the four HBCU programs:
- “Work closely with the right people. . . .
- “Invite the right people to your campus. . . .
- “Put one person in charge of all program reviews. . . .
- “Borrow best practices from other programs. . . .
- “Network with your professional sisters and brothers.”
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Language of Tennessee Open-Meetings Bill
[ Added June 2:] From Tennessee Senate Bill 2471 creating a special committee to examine the state’s open meetings law:
SECTION 2. The special joint committee shall consist of eighteen (18) members as follows:
(1) Two (2) members of the House of Representatives and two (2) members of the Senate, to be appointed by the respective speakers;
(2) Two (2) members to be appointed by the governor with at least one (1) member who is an African-American journalist;
(3) One (1) member to be appointed by the Tennessee Press Association;
(4) One (1) member to be appointed by the Tennessee Association of Broadcasters;
(5) One (1) member to be appointed by the Tennessee Coalition for Open Government;
(6) Two (2) members to be appointed by the Tennessee Municipal League; with one (1) member being an elected municipal official and at least one (1) member who is African- American;
(7) Two (2) members to be appointed by the Tennessee County Services Association; with one (1) member being an elected county official and at least one (1) member who is African-American;
(8) One (1) member to be appointed by Common Cause;
(9) One (1) member to be appointed by the Tennessee School Boards Association, who shall be an elected school board official;
(10) One (1) member to be appointed by the state association of the Tennessee League of Women Voters;
(11) One (1) member who serves on a local public utility board; and
(12) One (1) member to be designated by the Society of Professional Journalists.
Appointments shall be made to reflect the broadest possible representation of Tennessee citizens.
