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Ex-NAHJ Board Member Slain

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Martín Barreto, 48, in Grisly N.Y. Apartment Killing

In an incident that grabbed lurid tabloid headlines, Martín Barreto, a former board member of the National Association of Hispanic Journalists and press aide to former New York Mayor Rudolph Giuliani, was found strangled this week in his Greenwich Village apartment.

 

 

“He moved easily from bustling newsrooms to the halls of power, from a war’s front lines to glitzy PR offices, from celebrity parties to adoption programs for poor Latino youths,” the New York Daily News wrote in a sidebar Thursday by Jeanne DeQuine, Jordan Lite, Celeste Katz and Jonathan Lemire.

“Martí­n Barreto’s rich life, violently cut short in a sordid Greenwich Village slaying, took him into the inner circles of public figures as varied as Rudy Giuliani and Bianca Jagger.”

The News’ main story was classically tabloid sex-and-violence fodder:

“A former press aide to Mayor Rudy Giuliani was found naked and strangled in a bed inside a cousin’s million-dollar Greenwich Village apartment, law enforcement sources said yesterday,” the News wrote Thursday in a story by Alison Gendar, Lite, Rich Schapiro and Robert F. Moore.

“Martí­n Barreto – a respected public relations guru who lived a luxurious lifestyle with high-powered clients in New York and Miami – was discovered Monday lying near a condom wrapper and safe-sex aids, a law enforcement source said.

“Police investigators believe Barreto, 48, a childhood friend of Bianca Jagger, was killed by someone he knew – possibly an enraged ex-lover or a man he met while cruising the Internet for gay sex, sources said.”

In the New York Post, Murray Weiss wrote today: “Police checked hours of surveillance video and pored over phone records yesterday as they tried to figure out who killed a gay former Giuliani aide. . . . Cops were also checking a used condom for DNA evidence.”

According to Barreto’s bio, “Prior to establishing the Barreto & Brightwell Associates with Roxanna Brightwell, Martin directed all strategic public relations and media efforts for the IBM Corporation in Latin America. Before joining IBM, Mr. Barreto was assistant press secretary for the Office of Rudolph Giuliani, Mayor of the City of New York, where he organized a coalition of prominent Hispanics to support the Mayor’s Hispanic initiatives in New York City.

“Mr. Barreto began his career in television at CBS News in the U.S. and Latin America and later served as director of public affairs and editorials at WCBS Newsradio 88, CBS Radio’s flagship station. While at CBS, Martin was honored with more than ten first-place awards for his corporate communications and journalism work.

Some stories quoted his NAHJ colleagues.

“While still a reporter in New York, Barreto served as a regional director for the National Association of Hispanic Journalists from 1993 to 1996,” Luis Perez and Rocco Parascandola wrote Thursday in Newsday.

“It’s very surprising,” Dino Chiecchi, a past NAHJ president and currently editor of Hispanic Publications at the San Antonio Express-News, said of Barreto’s death in a Newsday story by Rocco Parascandola with contributions from Liseth Perez-Almeida of Hoy. “This is someone you know, someone you cared for.

“Chiecchi said Barreto’s persuasive personality served him well,” they wrote.

“‘He was very energetic and he did a wonderful job in helping coordinate and organize the New York members of NAHJ,’ Chiecchi said.

“He cared very deeply about Hispanics in the newsroom. His position was there simply weren’t enough of them in the newsroom.”

In the New York Sun, Russell Berman Thursday quoted Carol Casteneda, who served on the board with Barreto: “It seems so out of character for him to get into that kind of situation. . . . He’s a bit of a prude in some ways, so this is very shocking,” she said, describing him as “a conservative kind of guy.”

“Another former colleague at the association, Zita Arocha, said Barreto was ‘a very passionate man’ but that he had ‘an explosive personality at times.’ Ms. Arocha, now a journalism professor at the University of Texas at El Paso, served as the executive director of the Hispanic journalist association from 1994 to 1997. She described an incident in which she says Barreto began screaming at her in front of a group as they were planning an annual scholarship banquet at the Plaza Hotel. Ms. Arocha said they later made amends. While Barreto could be a ‘very nice and charming man,’ she said he was not the easiest person to get along with.”

NAHJ issued a statement mourning his death.

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Death Stuns, Angers Columbus Reporter’s Family

Family members are angry over what they say was the inadequate medical care given Lauren Crowner, a Columbus, Ohio, television reporter and substitute anchor who died Thursday, Jennifer Christos reported in the Journal and Courier of Lafayette, Ind.

 

Crowner became ill after a vehicle crash and died a day after her 25th birthday, Christos reported.

“‘We’re angry no one took her pain seriously,’ said stepfather Larry Coleman.

“He said Crowner went to an urgent care facility after the crash and was told to take Tylenol for her headache and flu-like symptoms.

“Coleman said he was told Crowner’s death from brain swelling and infection might have been prevented if caught sooner.

“‘She went to five different doctors,’ he said, ‘but none of them did an MRI of her brain. She kept calling us and crying, so her mother and I drove from Indianapolis to Columbus to take her to the emergency room,” he said.

“‘Within 24 hours, she was gone. All we could do was watch her slip away. We couldn’t believe it. It felt surreal,'” Christos’ story continued.

“Family members wanted to donate Crowner’s organs, and a potential heart recipient had been located. But the organs were considered unusable.”

“An Indianapolis native and journalism graduate from Indiana University, Crowner became the first black Indianapolis 500 Festival queen in 2002,” the story continued. Crowner was a member of the Columbus Association of Black Journalists and participated in the association’s high school journalism workshop.

“She was accessible to the kids and shared her professional insight and personal experiences with open honesty,” Sherri Williams of the Columbus Dispatch, first vice president of the Columbus Association of Black Journalists, told colleagues in the National Association of Black Journalists.

It was the second loss for the Columbus association in the last three months. Dispatch features writer Julie R. Bailey, a co-founder of the chapter, died in May after collapsing in the newsroom.

The station said Crowner’s family was planning a funeral Sunday in her hometown of Indianapolis, that more than 20,000 people had viewed the public condolence board set up on nbc4i.com, and that a Lauren Crowner 500 Minority Journalism scholarship had been created.

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Dallas Morning News Staffers Consider Buyouts

Lists of staffers considering taking buyouts at the Dallas Morning News have begun to circulate, but although some lists contain as many as 76 names, staffers caution that they submitted their names only as “place-holders,” and noted they have until Wednesday to decide whether to remain on the list.

“I reserved myself a spot. I’ll take some time over the weekend to make a last decision,” Vernon Smith, deputy international editor, told Journal-isms today. Lists that are circulating are “kind of gossip.”

The News reported Aug. 11 that, “The News expects at least 85 employees to accept the severance offer. If fewer employees accept, it will begin involuntary layoffs by the end of the year, officials said.

“About 580 employees received the offers Thursday.

“The move is part of The News’ continuing efforts to cut costs and move toward increased digital publication of the newspaper. Major daily newspapers, including The News, face growing pressure to cut costs as Internet sites draw more readers and advertisers.

“The buyout offer consists of two weeks of base pay per year of employment up to 15 years, plus three weeks pay for each year of service that exceeds 15.

“The cash offer is capped at one year’s pay.”

Carolyn Barta, writing today on DallasBlog.com, listed several high-profile staffers and said, “Lists of first takers on the DMN buyouts circulating among current and former newsies confirm earlier reports that the DMN will be reducing its bureaus and revamping arts and entertainment coverage. The biggest surprise was the high number of takers in the Washington Bureau.”

Esther Wu, national president of the Asian American Journalists Association and a News columnist, told Journal-isms, “We can’t afford to lose any minority members to begin with. I’m very concerned about losing any person of color.”

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Some in Akron Resign to Spare Others’ Layoffs

Some staffers at the Akron (Ohio) Beacon Journal are resigning voluntarily to spare some of their colleagues from being laid off, editor Debra Adams Simmons confirmed today, making obsolete the list of 39 laid-off staffers, including six African Americans, compiled this week.

Among those no longer on the list is George Thomas, who told Journal-isms he is only one of a handful of African American film critics at a major daily.

However, Simmons told Journal-isms, additional black journalists are among those who have decided to leave voluntarily. But she declined to name them, saying the situation is changing rapidly. Guild members have up to 60 days to decide whether to leave voluntarily and receive the same severance as the others, she said. As a result, she said, the paper will not know until the end of 60 days the full complement of employees who will be laid off.

New publisher Edward R. Moss, whose Canadian company bought the former Knight Ridder paper, announced the 39 layoffs on Tuesday, saying they were necessary to align costs with revenue, as Gloria Irwin reported in Wednesday’s Beacon Journal.

The moves are part of a companywide restructuring that will result in additional job reductions, Moss said.

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NPR, Black Programmers Display Katrina Stories

Listeners of “Talk of the Nation” on Monday will hear the candid stories of Katrina survivors who have yet to return home. Video profiles of two of these guests will also be available on www.NPR.org at 2 p.m. Eastern time on that day, thanks to a first-ever collaboration between National Public Radio and the National Black Programming Consortium, NPR announced today.

“The ‘Talk of the Nation’ page on the NPR website (www.npr.org/programs/totn) will feature the video features and will also have a link to NBPC’s ‘The Katrina Project,’ a multi-media site with video profiles of more evacuees, features, reporting, films and interactive elements. It was launched in November 2005 and is updated on a regular basis. The anniversary update will include a ‘user generated content’ area, where NPR listeners and others can post their own Katrina-related videos on the site.

“. . . NBPC’s mission is to move African-American content forward in all mediums. A non-profit media arts organization founded in 1979 and funded by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, it commissions, acquires and funds film and video projects. The videos that appear on the Katrina page were produced for NBPC by Linda Goode Bryant, the award-winning director of ‘Flag Wars.'”

Meanwhile, New Orleans Mayor C. Ray Nagin continued to receive criticism over the pace of recovery in his city, much of it sparked by Nagin’s remarks last week at the National Association of Black Journalists convention in Indianapolis:

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Promise Unkept on Covering Poor People

On the Sept. 18, 2005, edition of CNN’s “Reliable Sources,” Newsweek contributing editor Ellis Cose was asked how much longer “the underclass” would remain in the news after Katrina. He replied: “I think it’s going to be a story for a long time, and a long time meaning at least six months or more. And I think these issues are going to be finally examined,” Neil deMause reports in the July/August issue of Extra!, published by Fairness & Accuracy in Reporting.

“Contrary to Cose’s predictions, ‘a long time’ turned out to be a matter of weeks. An Extra! analysis of media coverage since Katrina – of the hurricane’s aftermath along the Gulf Coast and of poverty issues in general – found that with few exceptions, the media’s rediscovery of impoverished Americans lasted barely a month. While occasional individual journalists did follow up on how New Orleans’ poorest residents were faring in the months after the hurricane . . . these seldom went beyond tales of individual tragedy, examining neither the systemic causes of their destitution, nor what could be done to alleviate their woes.

“The irony is that coverage of poverty has dropped even as poverty itself has been on the rise. ‘Not only are more people poor, people are living in deeper poverty than they have in decades,’ notes Avis Jones-DeWeever of the Institute for Women’s Policy Research, who has studied Katrina and its aftermath.”

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Non-Broadcast Television Said to Be Blacks’ Bet

“The state of television for black folks is filled with opportunities, but also full of challenges as black entrepreneurs, writers and producers work to control more of the images of black Americans on our TV screens,” Jackie Jones and Patrice Gaines reported Thursday on BlackAmericaWeb.com.

“The one area, arguably, where there’s real evidence of progress is in cable TV,” said Bob Reid, executive vice president and network general manager for The Africa Channel, which provides news, entertainment and lifestyle programming from Africa.

“Reid, a veteran broadcaster and former executive vice president and general manager of the Discovery Health Network, said opportunities for black writers, producers and entrepreneurs are diminishing in network television.

“‘If you look at the demise of the WB and UPN or the merger of the WB and UPN, you’d have to say we have a net loss in television, in terms of opportunities for blacks,’ Reid told BlackAmericaWeb.com.

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Captors Release Two Kidnapped Fox Journalists

[ Added Aug. 27:] “Two FOX News journalists were released by their kidnappers Sunday, nearly two weeks after they were taken hostage in the Gaza Strip,” Fox News reported on Sunday.

“Steve Centanni, 60, and Olaf Wiig, 36, left Gaza and have since crossed into Israel after their release. The men left Gaza through the Erez border crossing.

“The freeing of Centanni, a correspondent, and Wiig, a cameraman, ends the longest-running drama involving foreign hostages in Gaza.

“The two journalists were dropped off at Gaza City’s Beach Hotel by Palestinian security officials and appeared to be in good health. A tearful Centanni embraced a Palestinian journalist briefly as he entered, then rushed upstairs as Wiig followed.

“Centanni, in a phone interview shortly after his release, said ‘I’m fine. I’m just so happy to be free.’

“He said he was so emotional because he was out and alive.

“‘There were times when I thought “I’m dead,” and I’m not,’ Centanni said. ‘I’m fine. I’m so very happy.'”

“Both of the men were forced to convert to Islam at gunpoint, Centanni said. . . .

“‘My biggest concern really is that as a result of what happened to us foreign journalists will be discouraged from coming to tell the story and that would be a great tragedy for the people of Palestine,’ Wiig said. ‘You guys need us on the streets, and you need people to be aware of the story.'”

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Sudan Charges Chicago Tribune Reporter as Spy

[Added Aug. 26:] “Paul Salopek, a two-time Pulitzer Prize-winning foreign correspondent for the Chicago Tribune, was charged with espionage and two other criminal counts in a Sudanese court Saturday, three weeks after he was detained by pro-government forces in the war-torn province of Darfur,” Tim Jones reported on the Tribune Web site Saturday.

“Salopek, 44, who was on a freelance assignment for National Geographic magazine, was arrested with two Chadian nationals, his interpreter and driver. If convicted, they could be imprisoned for years.

“Chicago Tribune Editor and Senior Vice President Ann Marie Lipinski called Salopek ‘one of the most accomplished and admired journalists of our time. He is not a spy.'”

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