Army Presence Adds to Buzz at NAHJ Convention
The National Association of Hispanic Journalists ended its convention in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., over the weekend with a new president, Rafael Olmeda; controversial speakers such as Ricardo Alarcón, president of the Cuban National Assembly, and CNN host Lou Dobbs; and with raised eyebrows over the presence of the U.S. Army.
In the student convention newspaper, the Latino Reporter, Christine Show reported (PDF) Saturday that, “The Army arrived in full force at this year’s convention, staffing a booth, paying for pamphlets and staging a workshop on an ‘agenda for news coverage.’
“In a time of war and growing controversy over recruitment efforts — especially in the Latino community — the Army’s presence at NAHJ has raised questions about the military’s sponsorship,” the story continued.
About 1,800 people attended the convention, Executive Director Ivan Roman told Journal-isms Monday. He said it was “very profitable.”
In his acceptance speech, Olmeda, an assistant city editor at the South Florida Sun-Sentinel who ran unopposed, renewed his call for “creation of an NAHJ 100 mentoring program, a three-year commitment to making a dent in the Latino high school dropout rate.” He pledged to work with such organizations as the Freedom Forum Diversity Institute to train Hispanics from other fields to enter journalism, and vowed “strong advocacy.”
He said NAHJ “will continue to be at the forefront of the issues that shape our industry: media consolidation, access to audiences and information, and even such seemingly mundane but profoundly important issues like network neutrality and community wi-fi.” Technology Daily defines network neutrality as “the notion that Bell and cable companies should not be allowed to control Internet traffic traveling over their high-speed wires,” limiting its accessibility.
“Finally,” Olmeda said, “I pledge to continue the work that has been important to NAHJ presidents Cecilia Alvear, Juan Gonzalez and Veronica Villafañe in the area of Spanish language journalism. Our leadership institute for Spanish language journalists simply must become a reality. The need is too great to delay any longer.”
Roman said domestic Spanish-language outlets sometimes recruit journalists from Spanish-speaking countries because there are not enough Spanish-speaking Latino journalists in the United States.
Those who are bilingual can work across borders: While the convention met, Rick Gevers announced on his news-director blog that News Director Juan Carlos Aviles was leaving Univision-owned KINC-TV in Las Vegas for Televisa Network in Mexico City. There, “he will be working the staff supporting Joaquin Lopez Doriga who anchors the network’s late evening newscast.”
Roman said the best-attended convention sessions discussed covering Latin America and working in multiple media. National Public Radio’s “Talk of the Nation” did two shows from the event, and C-SPAN cameras were present.
Comments by Alcaron, transmitted electronically, drew rebuttals from editorialists and op-ed columnists, and Dobbs, who has been a consistent voice against immigration, included on his own CNN show a tape of the panel in which he participated.
On the military presence at the convention, “Army officials said they were not recruiting at NAHJ,” according to Show’s article in the Latino Reporter. “‘We’re here for relationship-building,’ said Dottie Pack, Army spokeswoman. The Army began surveying which groups to target last year, Pack said, and chose NAHJ to raise awareness among the press. The Army has had relationships with the National Association of Hispanic Publications and the National Association of Black Journalists, Pack said.”
Rene Astudillo, executive director of the Asian American Journalists Association, said the Army would have no presence at AAJA’s convention in Hawaii this week, and Barbara Ciara, vice president/broadcast of the National Association of Black Journalists, said the Army had made no arrangements with the national organization to be part of the NABJ convention Aug. 16-20 in Indianapolis.
NABJ voted in 1989 to exclude government programs from its job fair after Central Intelligence Agency recruiters had a booth. The association then asked the CIA to leave. Two years later, members expressed outrage that the FBI was allowed a booth, an action that was explained as a mistake. “The FBI doesn’t need to come here to recruit for jobs in journalism,” NABJ President Thomas Morgan III said then, according to the NABJ Monitor student convention newspaper. “The FBI is not a journalism organization. It’s inapporpriate for them to be here.”
For NAHJ’s two contested offices, Manuel De La Rosa, reporter, KRGV-TV, Brownsville, Texas, won over Luis Cruz, news director at KYMA-TV in Yuma, Ariz., for vice president-broadcast, and Christine Show won for student representative, defeating David Combs of the University of Missouri, according to the Latino Reporter.
- George Diaz, Orlando Sentinel: Empty words, heavy hearts
- Frank Moraga, Ventura County (Calif) Star: Cuban leader’s presentation shows passions high (Warning: blaring audio commercial)
- Ana Menendez, Miami Herald: Alarón’s gift for excuses reveals failures
- Ruth Morris, South Florida Sun-Sentinel: CNN’s Lou Dobbs defends immigration views
- Laura Wides-Munoz, Associated Press: Lou Dobbs, Richardson debate immigration before tough audience
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Washington Times Has Trouble With Its Browns
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“Youths wild about lobbyist Brown in race for D.C. mayor, poll shows,” ran the headline Monday in the “That’s Politics” column in the Washington Times.
The photo, however, wasn’t of mayoral hopeful Michael Brown, the son of the late Commerce secretary Ron Brown. It showed Kwame Brown, a city councilman who is not a mayoral candidate.
The paper will run a correction Tuesday, Metro editor Carlton Bryant told Journal-isms.
If it seems like deja vu, last June the paper said it “inadvertently published a photograph of D.C. City Administrator Robert C. Bobb misidentified as the late soul singer Marvin Gaye.”
Senator Takes Up for Broadcast Ownership Diversity
Advocates for greater diversity of media ownership won support from Sen. Bill Nelson, D-Fla., last week. Nelson wrote Kevin J. Martin, chairman of the Federal Communications Commission, “Before initiating a rulemaking on general media ownership, it is important that the FCC fully consider how to meet its statutory obligations to eliminate barriers for minorities, women, and small businesses in media ownership.”
Nelson noted in his June 14 letter that in 2003, the FCC had formed a Federal Advisory Committee on Diversity in the Digital Age “to enhance participation by minority groups in the communications industry.” However, its recommendations had not been acted upon.
Said one recommendation, authored by David Honig, executive director of the Minority Media and Telecommunications Council: “Based on its interviews with broadcast industry experts . . . the single best incentive for minority access to deal flow was the 1978-1995 Tax Certificate Policy. While it was in operation, the Tax Certificate Policy was responsible for about 2/3 of all minority-owned broadcast stations. The Policy was effective because it gave sellers an economic incentive to consider selling properties to minorities.”
An example of how it worked could be seen when Viacom agreed in 1995 to sell its cable television systems for approximately $2.3 billion to an investment group led by black entrepreneur Frank Washington. Viacom qualified for a minority tax certificate that allowed it to defer federal taxes on profits from the sale for 20 years if it invested in other media properties, the New York Times reported at the time. That meant Viacom could defer more than $200 million in taxes.
A December 2000 study by the National Telecommunications and Information Administration found that people of color comprised only 3.8 percent of all broadcast station owners, and that media consolidation posed a serious threat to the future of minority ownership, the National Association of Hispanic Journalists said last month in an unsuccessful call for an updated study.
- Andrew Ross Sorkin, New York Times: F.C.C. Rules on Ownership Loom in Duel for Univision
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Ad Agencies Admit Diversity Not a Priority
“The New York City Commission on Human Rights investigation into Madison Avenue’s hiring practices has stirred a maelstrom of emotional discussion around that one big question” — why so few blacks are in the ad business — “and this time around, industry leaders hope that the discussion might just last long enough to yield some solutions,” Lisa Sanders wrote Monday in Advertising Age.
“. . . While opinions vary, one thing seems clear: Were there no pressure on agencies by a government authority, agencies would be unlikely to take action. ‘There’s not a lot of desire by [general-market] agencies to become more integrated,’ admitted Don Richards, senior VP-agency diversity at the American Association of Advertising Agencies. ‘There are more pressing issues: profit margins, compensation, and an overall talent drain from the industry. I don’t believe that agencies shy away from trying to get minority employees. But it is more in the middle of things that keep agencies awake at night than a top priority.'”
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Juneteenth, “Black Power!” Commemorated . . .
Columnists remembered two anniversaries of particular significance to African Americans: The June day 40 years ago when Stokely Carmichael, later Kwame Ture, uttered the words “Black Power!” in Greenwood, Miss., and the day known as “Juneteenth,” when Union Maj. Gen. Gordon Granger arrived at Galveston Bay, Texas, in 1865 to tell Texas slaves they were free.
- Peniel E. Joseph, New York Times: Black Power’s Quiet Side
- Eugene Kane, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Loss of Cameron adds significance to this Juneteenth
- Gregory Kane, BlackAmericaWeb.com: Whites Exploring Black Power May Get it Wrong, But At Least They’re Talking About It
- Adrian Miller, Denver Post: Tracing the history of Juneteenth
- Rochelle Riley, Detroit Free Press: Let holidays unite nation [Added June 26]
- Bob Ray Saunders, Fort Worth Star-Telegram: All can celebrate the roots of freedom June 19
- Karen Thomas, Dallas Morning News: It’s time to rediscover Juneteenth
- Derrick Z. Jackson, Boston Globe: Better late than never for Juneteenth [Added June 25]
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. . . and Father’s Day Remembered
While some columnists opined on Father’s Day last week, the thoughts of others appeared on Sunday:
- Cary Clack, San Antonio Express-News: To dads, with love, perhaps forgiveness
- Dwight Lewis, Nashville Tennessean: Oh, just to talk once again with my father
- Karalee Miller, Fort Worth Star-Telegram: The Lucky One
- Mary Mitchell, Chicago Sun-Times: Fathers play a role mothers just can’t fulfill
- Marisa Trevino, Latina Lista blog: For All the Daughters Who are Their Father’s Sons
- Ruben Navarrette, San Diego Union-Tribune: It’s tough being a father
- Leonard Pitts Jr., Miami Herald: No calling is higher than father
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Chung’s Memorable “Thanks for the Memories”
“The ratings-starved Maury Povich and Connie Chung weekend show on MSNBC ended its short, six-month run with a bizarre send-off — sure to live on as a tone-deaf stunt Chung will not soon be allowed to forget,” Michael Shain wrote Monday in the New York Post.
“Perched on the edge of a white grand piano and decked out in a full-length evening gown, the former CBS and CNN anchorwoman warbled a farewell song that put down Dan Rather (with whom she co-anchored the CBS news in the early 1990s), her husband and cable TV — all at the same time.
“‘Thanks for the memories,’ she sang to the tune of the old standard.”
- Video (You Tube)
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Short Takes:
- “Could misdeeds like Jayson Blair’s happen again at The Times? It’s possible,” Public Editor Byron Calame wrote Sunday in the New York Times. “But the tightening of procedures and the revamping of newsroom culture initiated over the past three years make such an extensive journalistic fraud much less likely.”
- “The Rocky Mountain News’ penetrating examination of high school dropouts; Mother Jones’ thorough investigation of the overmedication of children in state-run institutions; the Kindling Group’s long-form portrait of a woman assisting pregnant teens; and The Commercial Appeal’s revealing stories and photographs of Memphis’ hidden crisis in infant deaths were among the winning stories in the 2006 Casey Medals for Meritorious Journalism contest,” the Casey Journalism Center on Children and Families announced. The Lincoln (Neb.) Journal Star won for a project examining the flow of beer from Whiteclay, Neb., to the nearby Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota.
- “‘The Boondocks’ cartoonist Aaron McGruder, who’s currently on hiatus from his comic strip, created a ‘State of the American Black Man’ feature for the July issue of Esquire magazine,” Editor & Publisher reported Friday. “Although Huey and Riley do appear in the magazine’s pages, their cameo is overshadowed by McGruder’s 20-point questionnaire — which comments on stereotypes and racism, and includes a section for fingerprints and an FBI number.”
- “For the first time, at least to my knowledge, the Rocky Mountain News published an entire story in Spanish in the main newspaper. And some readers really didn’t like it,” John Temple, editor, president and publisher of the paper, said in a column on Saturday. But, he added, “We decided to publish the main story of the series in Spanish because we wanted to reach out to an audience whose English might not be up to such a dense topic,” immigration.
- An assessment in Television Week of Diane Sawyer‘s role on ABC-TV’s “Good Morning America” by the Washington Post’s Tom Shales included this line Monday: “Sawyer’s current co-star, Robin Roberts, is too butch — though producers and even cosmeticians are apparently trying to warm her up as much as possible — and Sawyer works better with a male co-anchor than another female anyway.”
- The Chicago Defender announced it had launched “the Chicago Defender Inside Black America Video Podcast” on its Web site, timed for release on Juneteenth.
- David Shedden, library director at the Poynter Institute, updated his “Diversity Bibliography” on that site.
- Ted Diadiun, public editor of the Cleveland Plain Dealer, told readers on Sunday that the newspaper had already reported allegations of voter fraud in the 2004 Ohio presidential election, reported in a 16-page piece by Robert F. Kennedy Jr. in Rolling Stone magazine. In the end, the irregularities “didn’t add up to nearly enough votes to swing Ohio from Bush to Kerry,” Diadiun said, speaking of President Bush and Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass.
- “Hundreds of Pakistani tribesmen staged a protest on Sunday against the killing of a journalist, abducted last year after reporting that an al Qaeda leader had been killed by a U.S. missile,” Reuters reported on Sunday.
