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Sex, Brazil and the Brothers

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Essence Story Is Writer’s Most “Intensely Critiqued”

A feature in Essence magazine about what one quoted expert calls “the biggest secret in Black America that I can think of” — black American men’s sex vacations in Brazil — has generated such a response that the author felt compelled to answer the criticism on his Web site.

“The Brazil piece is by far the most widely read and intensely critiqued thing I’ve ever written,” William Jelani Cobb, an author and assistant professor of history at Spelman College whose music criticism and essays have appeared in the Washington Post, Emerge, the Progressive, Washington City Paper and Alternet.org, told Journal-isms.

 

 

“We received a strong response to the Rio story from both male and female readers,” Essence editor Angela Burt-Murray told Journal-isms. “Some men questioned why we gave away their secret, while some women felt like the men in the piece were attacking African-American women and their ability to support a loving relationship.”

The nation’s leading magazine for black women counted about 100 mailed and online responses to the piece, which appears in the September issue. The online comments alone, nearly all anonymous, run to 23 pages.

Cobb’s feature began:

“They notice you the second you walk into the club. There’s a ripple effect — two dozen beautiful women competing to establish eye contact with you. Some coo compliments in their accented English. A caramel-colored sister in a short skirt sends a note saying you are the most handsome man she’s seen all night. (It was probably written 20 minutes before you ever set foot in the joint, but that’s beside the point.) You grab a table. The waiter flips open the menu to display the night’s specials. Resting under his thumb is a four-pack of Viagra, which he offers for $6 a pill. You ignore the pills and order a caipirinha. Ten minutes later your table looks like the set of a music video — six stunning women surround you, smiling at you. Welcome to Rio.”

Although the 3,356-word piece attempts a neutral tone, Cobb makes his disapproval obvious on his Web site.

In answering the first of the questions he said he had been asked most frequently, “Why did you write this article?” Cobb replied:

“The short answer is because I’m a writer and this is a story. The longer answer is because it is an issue that really needed to be discussed and one of my goals as a writer is to start important conversations. There’s an old saying that the only problem that some blacks had with slavery was the fact that we were the slaves. It was profound to me that the hard-fought gains of the past half century have empowered a certain set of black men to travel to South America and behave in ways once associated with white men alone. To me the issue raised a question of what we were and are struggling for. Was it solely to get a foot in the door so that we could replicate the worst behaviors of American society ourselves? Are we so wrapped up in our own issues with America that we are incapable of seeing the severe problems that confront other people of color in other parts of world?”

Although Cobb is quick to point out that he was not writing about the entire country, Brazil’s reputation as a sex destination is not a secret. Last Saturday, Julie McCarthy did a piece from Rio de Janiero on National Public Radio’s “Weekend Edition” about Architect Igor De Vetyemy. “As his final university graduation project, De Vetyemy designed a museum complete with sex education and a medical clinic. The proposal also envisions large capsules in which to practice Kama Sutra. The 25-year-old architect says these specially contoured walls and floors would make the difficult positions in that ancient art of lovemaking doable,” she said.

The State Department has Brazil on its watch list for human trafficking. The department said in its 2006 trafficking report: “Brazil is a source and destination country for women and children trafficked for the purpose of sexual exploitation, and for men trafficked for forced labor. Women and girls are trafficked for sexual exploitation within Brazil and to destinations in South America, the Caribbean, Western Europe, Japan, the U.S., and the Middle East.

“Approximately 70,000 Brazilians, mostly women, are engaged in prostitution in foreign countries; some are trafficking victims. Child sex tourism is a problem within the country, particularly in the resort areas and coastal cities of Brazil’s northeast.” The department put Brazil in its “Tier 2” category, meaning the country is not fully complying with minimum standards for fighting trafficking.

Essence says it plans to run a sampling of letters about the piece. Meanwhile, at Spelman College, the history department and the women’s center are planning a forum, “African American Men & Sex Tourism in Brazil,” next Thursday at 6:30 p.m. The panelists are Cobb and two women quoted in his story, Jewel Woods, New Voices fellow at the University of Michigan, and Judith Morrison, executive director of the Interagency Dialogue on Latin America.

Cobb said he is doing most of the organizing for the event.

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Sudan’s President Agrees to Release U.S. Journalist

[Added Sept. 8:] “New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson secured the release of Chicago Tribune foreign correspondent Paul Salopek and his Chadian driver and translator on humanitarian grounds during a meeting Friday with Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir,” the Chicago Tribune reported late this afternoon on its Web site.

“Richardson and his party were expected to fly Saturday to El Fasher, capital of North Darfur state, where Salopek was being held, and return with him to Khartoum before flying back to the United States.

“‘I am pleased to report that our negotiations were successful, and Paul Salopek will return home to New Mexico with me,” Richardson said. ‘The successful end to this unfortunate episode is a victory for journalism and a free press. Most important, these three men will return home safely to be with their families, friends and colleagues who were relentless in their appeals to have them freed.’

“Salopek, a two-time Pulitzer Prize winner, was on a scheduled leave of absence from the Tribune and was working on a freelance assignment for National Geographic Magazine when he was arrested Aug. 6 along with his Chadian colleagues,” the story continued.

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2 at El Nuevo Herald Out; U.S. Paid 10 Journalists

“At least 10 South Florida journalists, including three from El Nuevo Herald, received regular payments from the U.S. government for programs on Radio Martí and TV Martí, two broadcasters aimed at undermining the communist government of Fidel Castro. The payments totaled thousands of dollars over several years,” Oscar Corral reported Thursday in the Miami Herald.

“Those who were paid the most were veteran reporters and a freelance contributor for El Nuevo Herald, the Spanish-language newspaper published by the corporate parent of The Miami Herald. Pablo Alfonso, who reports on Cuba and writes an opinion column, was paid almost $175,000 since 2001 to host shows on Radio Martí and TV Martí. El Nuevo Herald freelance reporter Olga Connor, who writes about Cuban culture, received about $71,000, and staff reporter Wilfredo Cancio Isla, who covers the Cuban exile community and politics, was paid almost $15,000 in the last five years.

“Alfonso and Cancio were dismissed after The Miami Herald questioned editors at El Nuevo Herald about the payments. Connor’s freelance relationship with the newspaper also was severed.

” . . . The journalists involved are among the most popular in South Florida, and many were reporting on issues involving Radio or TV Martí for their news organizations.”

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Virgil Smith Named to Newly Created Gannett Post

[Added Sept. 8:] Virgil L. Smith, publisher of the Asheville (N.C.) Citizen-Times who is about to be honored for his diversity efforts, today was named to the new position of vice president of talent management at Gannett Co., the nation’s largest newspaper company.

He will be joining the corporate staff “to help us get better at recruiting, training and retaining people here at Gannett,” a priority given the rapidly changing nature of the newspaper business, Gannett spokeswoman Tara Connell told Journal-isms.

Smith was promoted to chairman of the Citizen-Times, where he has been president and publisher since 1996, but associates said he was expected to spend time on the road and at Gannett’s McLean, Va., headquarters and use his Citizen-Times office only once or twice a month.

He was saying goodbye in the newsroom late this afternoon. The paper has about 290 employees.

“Gannettâ??s corporate staff will be getting an experienced hand in Virgil, whose background and education are in human resources. Developing strategies for hiring and retaining talented employees is of the utmost importance to Gannett,â?? Roxanne Horning, Gannett’s senior vice president of human resources, said in a Gannett news release and in a story posted on the paper’s Web site, which was accompanied by a video of the announcement.

Smith is the 2006 recipient of the Ida B. Wells Award, presented annually by the National Conference of Editorial Writers and the National Association of Black Journalists to media executives who have demonstrated a commitment to diversifying the nationâ??s newsrooms. He is to receive the honor during the NCEW’s convention next week in Pittsburgh. Smith is also a board member of the National Association of Minority Media Executives.

“In selecting Mr. Smith, the seven members of the Wells jury noted the efforts he has made to recruit, retain and promote women and people of color at his 59,000-circulation daily. Since he became publisher of the paper in 1996, the number of employees of color at the Citizen-Times has more than tripled â?? growing from fewer than 10 to nearly 40, representing close to 19 percent of the paperâ??s editorial workforce. Women and people of color represent about more than 10 percent of paperâ??s managers,” the organizations said.

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Couric Show Gives Airtime to Immigration View

Although her historic first “CBS Evening News” broadcast debuted Tuesday without any journalists of color, Katie Couric introduced Sonia Nazario, a projects reporter for the Los Angeles Times who is Latina, to do an essay on Wednesday, and correspondent Byron Pitts, who is African American, reported from Jacksonville, N.C., on Thursday.

CBS announced at midday that Wednesday’s broadcast attracted 10.13 million viewers, finishing in first place for the second consecutive night, easily beating “NBC Nightly News” (7.04 million viewers) and ABC’s “World News” (7.11 million viewers).

“Couric’s day two performance dipped from an impressive 13.59 million viewers on Sept. 5, where heavy sampling drove CBS to its best Evening News rating since 1998,” Allison Romano wrote today in Broadcasting & Cable.

[ Added Sept. 8: At midday Friday, CBS announced, “Last nightâ??s ‘CBS Evening News With Katie Couric’ attracted 9.48 million total viewers, finishing in first place for the third consecutive night.” “However, the program slipped from 13.6 million viewers for Couric’s Sept. 5 debut and 10.1 million viewers on her second night,” Romano noted.]

From North Carolina, Pitts reported Thursday on waning support for the war in Iraq among Bush supporters.

Nazario delivered a “Free Speech” essay on immigration. She is author of “Enrique’s Journey: The Story of a Boy’s Dangerous Odyssey to Reunite with his Mother,” based on a Times series that won the Pulitzer Prize for feature writing.

“Everyone favors a more secure border. But that won’t keep desperate mothers out of our country or keep them and their children from trying to reunite. Walls will never stop them,” she said.

“What we need to do is find ways to help Central American countries create more jobs so these women never have to leave their children. That’s the only way we will slow a modern day exodus that’s destroying families and taxing America.”

Amid the unmeasurable column inches, pixels and airtime devoted to Couric’s debut, Nick Chordas of the Columbus Dispatch put together a list of women who paved the way for Couric, the first woman to be solo anchor of a weekday nightly newscast on a mainstream broadcast network.

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Rice Says She Benefited from Affirmative Action

An Essence magazine interview with Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice is making news for Rice’s comparisons of those who would pull out of Iraq with those who would have pulled out of the Civil War, but Rice said in the same interview that she benefited from affirmative action.

“I was provost of Stanford. I’m on the record. I supported affirmative action,” Rice said. “I supported affirmative action. I don’t believe in quotas. I don’t believe in lowered standards, but I don’t believe affirmative action means lowered standards. I think it means looking outside of normal networks to find people who might be equally capable.

“I’ve often said that — I told this story when I was provost at Stanford. Stanford didn’t need another Soviet specialist when they hired me. I was there on a fellowship and — a Ford Foundation fellowship to teach Soviet specialists about international security issues. And Stanford, I think, took a look at this young black woman and they liked my work and I know that they created a space to hire me because they wanted to diversify their family — their faculty. I also know that when I came on, they said, now, you know, when it comes to compete for tenure, you’ll have to compete just like everybody else. You won’t get any extra special treatment. I said, sounds just fine to me. I was tenured in less than six years, which is about a year and half shorter than normal. And I think it worked out well for Stanford and well for me. But that was an example of affirmative action.”

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Despite Critics, Gumbel Keeps NFL Network Job

“New NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell said today that Bryant Gumbel will be kept on in the announcing booth of NFL Network’s telecasts of Thursday night NFL football games beginning on Thanksgiving night, despite some harsh criticism Gumbel delivered about the NFL on his HBO Real Sports show,” John Consoli reported Wednesday for Mediaweek.

“Former Commissioner Paul Tagliabue, who left office earlier this week, publicly took Gumbel to task for his opinion that the NFL front office has too cozy a relationship with NFL Players Association head Gene Upshaw, and that the NFL should spend more of its efforts on rebuilding the New Orleans Saints organization in the wake of Hurricane Katrina before pushing for a new NFL team in Los Angeles.”

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AP, a Last Holdout, Changes to “Mumbai”

The Associated Press, one of the last holdouts in changing the name “Bombay” to “Mumbai,” has joined other news organizations in adjusting its style for identifying the Indian commercial capital, Norman Goldstein, editor of the AP Stylebook, told Journal-isms.

“It was just time,” Goldstein said. “The usage had become popular and well-known. We always thought that nobody knew where Mumbai was. Our international correspondents felt they do now.”

The name of the city was changed from Bombay, its British colonial designation, to Mumbai in 1995 after Hindus took control of its state’s legislature. But many mainstream U.S. news outlets continued to use Bombay, including AP, the world’s largest news organization.

The AP change to Mumbai was effective Aug. 28. A wire advisory said the AP “will use the name ‘Mumbai’ rather than ‘Bombay’ for India’s largest city and ‘Chennai’ rather than ‘Madras’ for the capital of India’s Tamil Nadu state. These are names used by the Indian government and they have been gaining favor internationally and in everyday speech.”

Some other news organizations, such as the Los Angeles Times and Washington Post, have also changed the spelling of “Calcutta” to “Kolkata,” but the AP believes that that is basically a spelling adjustment and will remain with the more familiar Calcutta, Goldstein said.

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Gannett Paper Produces Quarterly for South Asians

On the watch of the nation’s first Indian American mainstream newspaper publisher, the East Brunswick, N.J., Home News Tribune has launched a new quarterly magazine, DesiNJ, that reaches the South Asian community in New Jersey, the Gannett Co. reports.

“To increase our reach among Latinos — for many of whom language is an important consideration — we introduced four years ago a weekly Spanish-language tabloid, Nuestra Comunidad, which has proven popular with readers and advertisers,” Executive Editor Charles Paolino wrote in the Sept. 1 edition of the Gannett Co. newsletter, Newswatch.

“A plan to capture more readers in the South Asian population began to evolve with the arrival of Ketan N. Gandhi, president and publisher of the Home News Tribune since mid 2005. Under his leadership, the Home News Tribune staff conceived of a distinct publication to appeal to upscale South Asians.

“As this concept was evolving, we filled several editorial vacancies, as they arose, with journalists who were natives of India. We also enlisted the talents of an advertising sales representative and a member of the Asbury Park Press online staff who also have South Asian backgrounds. In addition, Home News Tribune circulation director Aamir Musharraf, a native of Pakistan, was deeply involved in the planning and execution of the new product.”

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15 Ad Agencies, Facing Hearings, Act on Diversity

“Several ad agencies under scrutiny for their lackluster diversity-hiring practices have pledged to ramp up their minority recruiting, signing agreements designed to forestall potentially embarrassing public hearings planned for later this month,” Matthew Creamer reported Wednesday in Advertising Age.

“Some New York advertising agencies are said to be negotiating with the New York Human Rights Commission in an effort to avoid having their top executives take the stand in public hearings on the industry’s minority hiring practices.

“A representative for the commission denied that any resolution has been reached. ‘I don’t know where you’re hearing it from, but you’re hearing it from me that [we’re] moving forward with the hearings on [Sept.] 25,’ said Betsy Herzog, a spokeswoman for the New York Human Rights City Commission

“. . . Each one of the 15 agencies initially subpoenaed by the commission is expected to sign on to the agreements, the executives said.”

[Added Sept. 8:]

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Minority Broadcasters, on AM Dial, Seek Slice of FM

The National Association of Black Owned Broadcasters and the Minority Media and Telecommunications Council are supporting a petition by the National Association of Broadcasters seeking approval of “FM translators” that would allow AM stations to conduct low-power broadcasts on the FM band.

The groups, which are supported by associations representing Hispanic broadcasters, told the Federal Communications Commission this week:

“Owing to societal discrimination that was facilitated by the FCC, minority broadcasters entered the business 50 years later than other broadcasters. Therefore, minority broadcasters tended not to have access to FM stations or low dial position AM stations.

“In 2001, 5.9% of AM stations were minority owned; a minority owned station was 43% more likely to be an AM station than was a non-minority owned station.

“Only 3.9% of the low-band (540 kHz to 800 kHz) stations were minority owned; minorities were 36% less likely than non-minorities to own these desirable facilities. Further, 33.9% of minority owned AM stations operated between 1410-1600 kHz, and minorities were 19% more likely than non-minorities to own these generally less desirable high band facilities.

“Examining station asset values, the FCC’s Advisory Committee on Diversity for Communications in the Digital Age concluded that ‘the typical minority owned station is worth only about 30% of the value of the typical non-minority owned station.’

“Given these inherent disadvantages facing minority broadcasters, an initiative to enable AM stations to use FM translators to expand their coverage areas could not be more welcome. Such an initiative would do much to increase AM stations’ asset values, and thereby enhance minority broadcasters’ ability to raise capital and expand their holdings.”

In reporting July 26 on the NAB’s petition, the newsletter DIYMedia.net said, “The FCC has considered and rejected this very notion twice in the last 25 years, but NAB thinks the third time is the charm because of new sources of interference to the AM band. What new sources? Computers and traffic signals are mentioned, but a footnote otherwise plugging digital radio casually drops the comment that AM broadcasters are ‘encountering ever more interference problems as a result of an increase in ambient noise.'”

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Sept. 11 Docudrama Becoming Cause CélÚbre

“ABC’s upcoming five-hour docudrama ‘The Path to 9/11’ is quickly becoming a political cause célÚbre,” Scott Collins reported today in the Los Angeles Times.

“The network has in recent days made changes to the film, set to air Sunday and Monday, after leading political figures, many of them Democrats, complained about bias and alleged inaccuracies. Meanwhile, a left-wing organization has launched a letter-writing campaign urging the network to ‘correct’ or dump the miniseries, while conservative blogs have launched a vigorous defense.”

In another development, Detroit News photographer Velvet S. McNeil is featuring “Blocks Away: a memorial to 9-11,” at the Art Exchange Gallery/Museum in Detroit for three weeks, Sept. 9 to Oct. 1, the National Association of Black Journalists reported.

McNeil “went to the site of the tragedy with her camera and began making photographs. She got within a couple of blocks of the rubble and was able to capture on film the collapse of Building No. 7 in the World Trade Center complex. Ms. McNeil, who worked in a different position at The Detroit News at the time, took the pictures for her personal collection. The photos have never been published,” a news release said.

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Rights Panel Rules for Kenyan Journalist

“In a first, a Kenyan human rights panel has ordered law enforcement officials to pay damages to journalist Peter Makori for months he spent falsely jailed,” Rick Montgomery reported Thursday in the Kansas City Star.

“The decision Wednesday sets civil penalties of 5 million Kenyan shillings â?? about $70,000 in U.S. money â?? against a prosecutor and two other officers Makori implicated in his 2003 jailing and torture.

“Makori recently completed a fellowship at The Kansas City Star as a visiting professional. Fearing for his life in Kenya, he now is seeking political asylum in the United States.

“He called the ruling of the National Commission on Human Rights ‘a landmark, in a way,’ but also disappointing. According to the fledgling panel’s judgment faxed from Nairobi, commissioners refused to hold accountable a presidential appointee whom Makori accuses of orchestrating his 10-month imprisonment on murder charges that ultimately were thrown out.

“‘The issue is not money. It is the principle of holding the correct authorities accountable. I am going to fight to the end to make that happen,’ Makori said.

Makori’s lawyer, Jonathan Willmoth of Kansas City, told Journal-isms the asylum papers were filed on Tuesday but that he did not expect a resolution for at least six to eight months. He has had cases that took 10 years to resolve, he said.

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Short Takes

“The Highway Africa Conference, one of the largest annual gatherings for African media professionals, is celebrating its 10th anniversary this year,” the New Times in Kigali, Rwanda, reported last week. “Scheduled for September 11 to 15 at Rhodes University in Grahamstown, South Africa, the conference offers training to African journalists on how to better cover issues related to technology, and also how to better use technology in their reporting.” Adam Clayton Powell III of the University of Southern California told Journal-isms he plans to speak at the opening plenary. He has attended “every year but one since Jerri Eddings and the Freedom Forum helped Guy Berger to start this back in 1996. And yes, that’s where we all were on 9/11/01.”

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