Maynard Institute archives

Indiana Probing Mpozi Tolbert Death

by richard0429

Agency Checking for Workplace Violations

“Indiana state officials are investigating whether The Indianapolis Star violated state workplace safety requirements, following the death of a Star photographer who collapsed in the newsroom earlier this month,” Joe Strupp reported today in Editor & Publisher.

“We became aware that there was a death at the work site and we are investigating to determine whether or not there were OSHA violations associated with the death,” said Tim Grogg, a special assistant commissioner with the Indiana Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration office. He said the agency became aware of the death within the last two weeks, but did not know if the employer had reported it as required by state law.

“‘Anytime we become aware of it, whether it is reported by the employer or another way, it is our statutory duty to do an investigation,’ Grogg added. ‘I don’t know how many people [at the Star] they have had an opportunity to interview, but they have been to the site within the last two weeks,'” Strupp wrote.

 

 

“Meanwhile, a war of words between the Star’s editor and a former columnist-turned-blogger has erupted over ongoing questions about the death of the photographer, Mpozi Tolbert, who died at a local hospital an hour after collapsing at his desk in the Star newsroom July 3.

“Former columnist Ruth Holladay, who retired after 37 years at the paper on June 30 and blogs at www.ruthholladay.com, launched the first shot July 22 with a lengthy posting that claimed co-workers were unable to properly help Tolbert because they could not call 911 from newsroom phones. The posting received more attention on Tuesday when it was linked by the Poynter.org Romenesko site.

“Star Editor Dennis Ryerson, who has not returned calls from E&P . . . responded to Holladay’s claims with a memo to staffers that Holladay posted on her site. ‘It is reprehensible, frankly I find it outrageous, that somebody would use this very sad circumstance to lambaste The Star and its owners. . . . But that noise is what passes for fact these days in too many blogs. This is why I insist, and will continue to insist, that we set ourselves apart from that noise by providing complete, credible, fair reporting, in every section every day, in print and on line.'”

Marchele Hall, office manager for the Marion County Coroner’s Office, told Journal-isms today that an autopsy was performed but results await further toxicology testing.

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Newspaper Cub Reporters Make Less than $30,000

“On average, cub reporters at daily newspapers make less than $30,000 their first year, according to the most comprehensive industry report on salaries and compensation,” Mark Fitzgerald reported today in Editor & Publisher.

“The 2006 Newspaper Industry Compensation Survey found that the average entry-level salary last year for the 521 dailies participating in the study is up 17.3% from 2001, but is still a humble $29,048, or 558.62 a week.

“They’d be better off moving to the classified department, where the average salary for an inside sales rep last year was $36,077.

“Newsroom raises are slowing down, the report suggests. While the base pay of beginning reporters increased by double digits since 2001, the raise between 2004 and 2005 was just 2.1%, well under the inflation rate of 3.4% last year.

“But that was on the higher end of newsroom raises, according to the survey, which is produced each year by the Inland Press Association.”

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Harold Reynolds Out of a Job at ESPN

“After being accused of sexual harassment and fired by ESPN, former ‘Baseball Tonight’ analyst Harold Reynolds said yesterday he doesn’t think he did anything wrong and is still hoping to regain his job,” Andrew Marchand reported today in the New York Post.

“‘This was a total misunderstanding,’ Reynolds told The Post. ‘My goal is to sit down and get back. To be honest with you, I gave a woman a hug and I felt like it was misinterpreted.’

“Reynolds declined to give any more details. The woman who accused Reynolds of the sexual harassment is an ESPN co-worker, according to sources.

“Yesterday, ESPN confirmed The Post’s report that Reynolds had been fired, but they would not comment any further.

‘He no longer works here,’ ESPN VP Josh Krulewitz said.

“Still, Reynolds is hopeful ESPN executives will change their minds. Besides being with the network for 11 years, Reynolds had just signed a new six-year contract to remain in Bristol and he recently got married,” referring to ESPN’s Bristol, Conn., headquarters.

“Reynolds limited his comments, because he didn’t want to go into too many details for fear of saying something that could hurt his chances of reversing ESPN’s decision.

“Reynolds, 45, started with ESPN after a 12-year major league career.

“ESPN has been vigilant about sexual harassment because it reportedly has been a problem in Bristol for years. In 2000, the book ‘ESPN: The Uncensored History’ reported rampant cases of harassment of women. Most prominently mentioned was Mike Tirico, who was even suspended at one point.”

The book’s author, Mike Freeman, announced in a June 16 farewell column for the Florida Times-Union in Jacksonville that he was “moving to CBS Sportsline.com to write a national column where I will be forced at gunpoint to work with friend Pete Prisco.”

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FEMA Reverses Policy Denying Access to Trailers

“FEMA announced Tuesday that it reversed a policy restricting media access to its trailer parks and received cautious praise from Louisiana congressmen and a national journalism organization,” Sandy Davis reported today in the Advocate of Baton Rouge, La.

“‘We’re responding to your criticism,’ James Stark, director of FEMA’s Louisiana Transitional Recovery Office told editors and staff members of The Advocate during a telephone conference between FEMA representatives and the newspaper.

“Over the past 10 days, The Advocate published two stories and an editorial about FEMA’s policy restricting media access to its trailer parks. The articles prompted widespread reaction and prompted the Federal Emergency Management Agency to review and change its policy.

“‘You pointed out some very good points that we shouldn’t be trying to muzzle the press,’ Stark said Tuesday of why the policy was changed.

“‘In no way will FEMA security nor FEMA public affairs stand in the way of media entering the trailer parks with valid credentials and interviewing whomever they like,’ Stark said.

“Charles N. Davis, co-chair of the Freedom of Information Committee for the Society of Professional Journalists, said Tuesday he was pleased that FEMA changed its policy.

“‘It was such a political football,’ he said. ‘The last thing FEMA needed was more adversity.'”

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Diann Burns, Marc Watts Want Lawsuit Secrecy

“As a journalist, WBBM-Channel 2 anchor Diann Burns regularly delves into the private lives of others, but she wants her own private life off limits. She’s trying to keep the public and media from full access to a lawsuit she filed against the company that she contends built her $3 million home shoddily because she is black,” Steve Patterson reported today in the Chicago Sun-Times.

“In recently filed court documents, Burns and her agent-husband, Marc Watts, ask a Cook County judge to seal much of their case, shielding it from public view or media scrutiny. They indicate they’re requesting this to protect the family’s privacy. The filing asks that all attorneys, experts and court personnel involved in the case sign a ‘secrecy agreement,’ which would last up to five years after the suit has ended, barring them from talking about aspects of the case publicly or peddling pictures of the interior of the home.

“The filing, which will be the subject of a Thursday court hearing, says that the luxury home is Burns’ and Watts’ ‘castle and refuge from the daily pressures of life,’ and that they ‘will suffer unreasonable annoyance and embarrassment if pictorial or verbal descriptions of the interior of their home’ are made public and ‘may attract curiosity seekers, depriving them of the privacy and peace of the home to which every human being is entitled.’

“Burns and Watts contend the public should be limited to knowing only about the exterior of their six-bedroom, 4 1/2-bath home. The filing specifically asks a judge to prevent information from being given ‘to the general public or the media’ about the inside of their home, while citing an April Chicago Sun-Times story that detailed the couple’s race-based claims against Metzler-Hull Development Co.

“The filing also cites subsequent news reports on the suit. WBBM-Channel 2, where Burns is the city’s highest-paid news anchor, has yet to report on the case.

“The couple’s request for secrecy comes two weeks after Metzler-Hull filed a counterclaim against them, saying allegations of racism are ‘untrue, malicious, defamatory and despicable.'”

For those curious about the home, the August 2005 issue of Ebony featured an at-home feature by Lynn Norment on the couple that included a photo of the family standing on their patio.

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El Nuevo Herald Said to Print Fake Photo

“A striking, five-column color photo was splashed across the Sunday, June 25 edition of El Nuevo Herald. It showed four spandex-clad prostitutes in Cuba hailing a foreign tourist. Just a few feet away, two policemen conversed with a little girl and a woman. The headline: ‘Hookers: The Sad Meat of the American Dollar,'” Chuck Strouse reported in the Miami New Times issue dated July 27, under the headline, “Listen Up, McClatchy: The most-honored Spanish newspaper in the United States is ethically challenged.”

McClatchy is the new owner of the Miami Herald and El Nuevo Herald, both formerly Knight Ridder papers.

“The cops obviously didn’t care about the working girls â?? a clear sign of the hypocritically wanton ways of Fidel Castro’s Cuba,” Strouse continued.

“Problem is, the picture was a fake. . . . And, perhaps worse, higherups at El Nuevo overrode the objections of veteran photographer Roberto Koltun, who snapped both pictures several years ago in Cuba (and didn’t return a call seeking comment). ‘Two things were put together,’ commented photo coordinator Orlando Mellado. “[Koltun] expressed concern about it for that reason and others. He basically didn’t want it used.'”

The photo appeared with the caption “The government has proven incapable of confronting the dramatic phenomenon of prostitution” and a story about a book on Cuba’s working girls by author Amir Valle, Strouse said.

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Online Forum Fills Void in Indian Country

“From his kitchen table in Minnesota, David Newberger plugs into news and gossip on the Coeur d’Alene Indian Reservation, a distant 1,300 miles to the west,” Becky Kramer wrote Monday in the Spokane (Wash.) Spokesman-Review.

“His laptop brings him daily posts about the tribal council’s performance, speculation over the recent firing of a Coeur d’Alene Casino executive, and a schedule for the Julyamsh Powwow.

“Call it new media intercepts the moccasin telegraph.

“Last December, Newberger started CDATimes.com, an online forum for reservation issues. Even he was surprised when the number of visitors to the site climbed to 7,500 in June.

“‘I see the CDATimes filling kind of a void,’ said Newberger, a 26-year-old member of the Coeur d’Alene Tribe. ‘The tribal newspaper comes out about once a month, but it’s a small publication, 10 to 12 pages. . . . For people like me, who live off reservation, it’s extremely difficult to get news.'”

Over time “he hopes to develop CDATimes into a respected news source and watchdog for tribal government,” Kramer continued.

“The use of online forums and blogs in Indian Country intrigues media watchers, who note that reservations receive little coverage from the mainstream media. . . .

“However, sites such as CDATimes are still fairly rare, according to the Native American Journalists Association. Newberger knows of only two others: an online newsletter produced by members of Western Washington’s Puyallup Tribe and a site he created for the Yakama Indian Nation.

“‘Blogs may be a way around restrictive tribal newspapers . . . a way to have the kinds of discussions they can’t have in tribal newspapers,’ said” Denny McAuliffe, “an associate journalism professor at the University of Montana who’s also the director of Reznet . . . run by Native student journalists.”

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N.J. Reporter Poses as Undocumented Worker

“A reporter for The Star-Ledger of Newark, N.J. sought to take the paper’s recent coverage of the heated illegal immigration issue a step further, posing recently as an undocumented worker in an effort to show how easy it is to obtain fraudulent government documentation, and a job,” Joe Strupp wrote Monday in Editor & Publisher.

“Editor Jim Willse said the story was a natural progression for coverage of the illegal immigration issue. ‘It keeps coming up and you can’t not be aware of the ease with which phony documents are available,’ the editor told E&P. ‘It kept coming up in news stories so we asked ourselves is it really that easy?’

“In little more than a few weeks, he succeeded, prompting a first-person account that ran this past Sunday. In the story,” Ralph R. Ortega, “a reporter in one of the paper’s suburban bureaus, revealed how he posed as a Spanish-speaking worker with no documentation proving legal status in the U.S. He obtained a temp job within a few hours, and a fake Social Security card and green card in a matter of a few weeks.”

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Cosby, State of Black Men Keep Writers Going

“‘Paths to Success: A Forum on Young African-American Men,’ sponsored by the Kaiser Family Foundation, The Washington Post and Harvard University, was held earlier this month in Washington. It began with a Post video in which various respondents tackled the question, ‘What Does It Mean to Be a Black Man?'” Jabari Asim noted Monday on washingtonpost.com.

“As with any survey, the responses varied greatly in thoughtfulness and eloquence. None of them appeared to satisfy Bill Cosby, the featured speaker at the forum. Among his comments — many of which were persuasive — he noted, ‘unless I missed it, I heard not one black man say anything about being a father. I heard not one black man say, “my responsibility,” not one.’

“Evidently he missed the part of the video with Demitri Kornegay, who defined a black man as ‘a man who is honest, reliable as well as self-reliant,’ and ‘assumes responsibility not only for his own actions but for the actions of those persons he is responsible for.’

“. . . There’s that word again: responsibility. Cosby is absolutely right to point out that the very notion of it has dramatically faded in communities where it is needed most. But as long as Cosby, Kornegay . . . and other men continue to invoke it, reason for hope remains.”

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Debate Continues Over Spanish Radio Content

“It was the last straw for Birgit Van Hout: a caller to the morning show on Tampa’s only FM Spanish-language radio station, La Nueva, had phoned in to express his disgust with homosexuals,” Eric Deggans wrote Tuesday in the St. Petersburg (Fla.) Times.

“She remembers the host saying ‘let’s exterminate them all’ before playing the sound of a machine gun.

“Officials at the station, CBS Radio-owned WYUU-92.5 FM, say Van Hout misunderstood the June 9 incident; the caller was insulting a friend and the sound effect was a regular part of the feature. But Van Hout wrote a letter of protest to WYUU, forwarding the missive to area media outlets when La Nueva failed to respond.

“Spanish-language stations often touted as the voice of the Hispanic community have faced complaints from some listeners about the mix of anti-gay, overtly sexual and profanity-filled material featured in some shows.

“Last year, an arbitrator ordered Univision Radio to pay $270,000 to a San Francisco man who was revealed as gay during a prank call by a DJ aired without his knowledge (the Federal Communications Commission also levied a $28,000 fine).

“Gay activists across the country have begun to protest insulting commentary by Spanish-language DJs, who they say are rarely disciplined by federal broadcasting authorities.”

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3 More Columnists Report on Pelosi Meeting

Three more members of the Trotter Group have written about their dinner meeting with Rep. Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., the House minority leader. As reported on Monday, the African American columnists met with Pelosi on July 19.

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Afghan Cameraman Dies Covering Suicide Bombing

“The Committee to Protect Journalists condemns the killing of Aryana television cameraman Abdul Qodus, who died in a double suicide bombing in the Afghan city of Kandahar on Saturday,” the organization reported on Monday.

“Qodus had arrived at the scene of a suicide car bomb when a second attacker with explosives strapped to his body blew himself up, according to the Kabul-based Committee to Protect Afghan Journalists (CPAJ), and news reports. Qodus died of head injuries at a local hospital.

“A Taliban spokesman claimed responsibility for the two explosions, which also killed two Canadian soldiers and several civilians, according to international news reports.

“Qodus, 25, had worked for the Kabul-based private television network Aryana for eight months, according to CPAJ.”

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