Staffers Relieved “News & Notes” Will Stay on Air
Ed Gordon, who had criticized National Public Radio for what he said was its failure to take responsibility for problems with its “News & Notes With Ed Gordon” show, was replaced today by substitute host Farai Chideya.
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The changes are effective immediately, NPR spokeswoman Andi Sporkin told Journal-isms. Today was Gordon’s last day and “he’s leaving NPR,” she said.
Gordon did not respond to requests for comment, but Tony Cox, who has reported for the show and served as occasional host, said of NPR, “It came down to making a decision about how to keep the show, and that’s what they did.”
Cox will be hosting the program Thursday, Friday and next week, he said. “I have an expanded role and I’m happy about that.”
Staff members appeared happy as well. “I’m excited for the show,” New York-based “News & Notes” editor La Neice Collins told Journal-isms tonight. “It ends a period of uncertainty. It’s kind of a relief for everyone. People will have their jobs,” and the decision shows that NPR has “a commitment to program for the African American community,” she said.
NPR said in its news release this afternoon, “NPR is initiating a series of changes to the daily news and information program News & Notes aimed at incorporating the online experience into the radio show, adding audience participation in shaping the program and creating a community uniting the radio listeners and Internet users.
“As part of these plans, News & Notes host/correspondent Farai Chideya has been named host, replacing Ed Gordon. Chideya is a well-known broadcast and digital media journalist, longtime public radio show host and founder of www.PopandPolitics.com an online journal for young Americans which attracts more than 50,000 visitors monthly.
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Ed Gordon |
“Additionally, Nicole Childers has been named Executive Producer of the program. Childers joined News & Notes in July 2005 as Senior Supervising Producer and, most recently, has served as Acting Executive Producer. The Emmy- winning journalist came to NPR from ABC News, where she had been a producer.
“The new elements of News & Notes will reflect the mounting importance of the Internet in how the public seeks news and information, Chideyaâ??s proven experience in unifying traditional and new media and NPRâ??s current efforts to extend its presence in digital platforms.
“The show will feature significant contributions from its online community to identify issues of interest, spot trends, share discoveries, participate in shaping the program and join in News & Notesâ?? dialogue with newsmakers. The showâ??s existing roster of respected experts will contribute regular segments on a wide range of issues relevant to the African American audience. The audience will also be invited to post personal essays on the www.NPR.org website, with some essayists featured on the broadcast.”
After it was reported last month that the show had lost 17 percent of its original audience, as NPR affiliates canceled or moved the show, Gordon questioned NPR’s ability to connect with African Americans and told Journal-isms last month:
“There are a lot of smoke-and-mirror things that are being said. You know it’s never just about talent. Let’s say I’m a fourth” of the problem. “Where are the other three-fourths? I’ve never heard anybody” step up and take that responsibility, Gordon said. “I want people to be honest about what’s going on.”
He formally announced on Aug. 18, at the National Association of Black Journalists convention in Indianapolis, that he would host “Our World With Black Enterprise,” a weekly, half-hour syndicated television show that begins Sept. 30, replacing “America’s Black Forum,” a syndicated public affairs show created in 1977. He said then that his contract with NPR was not exclusive.
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Tavis Smiley |
As stated in this space last month, Gordon’s show was rushed on the air in January 2005 after activist and media personality Tavis Smiley suddenly left “The Tavis Smiley Show,” criticizing NPR for its lack of promotion and questioning its commitment to a multicultural audience.
NPR did not want to lose the 90 affiliates carrying Smiley, and nearly all of them put Gordon’s show in the slot.
However, Gordon said, he inherited Smiley’s staff, and had to work with co-workers based in Los Angeles, with its time difference and “certain mentality. I don’t want to sound like the biggest issue is the staff, but it is a big hindrance,” said Gordon, who remained based in New York. “Communication is not easy,” he said. There are “people on the staff who are frustrated and felt duped, too.”
But Gordon’s detractors privately painted a portrait of a host who was overly critical of and distant from the show’s staff, doing his part of the show from his home.
Gordon subsequently told Journal-isms that “This, again, is that smoke and mirrors.” Only three staffers are in New York, and he would have to communicate with the primarily West Coast staff by telephone anyway, Gordon said. Having the ability to broadcast from home was NPR’s idea in case of inclement weather, he said. In addition, “the computers are breaking down” in the NPR office.
The sniping, he said, is an example of “so much internal strife in the show.”
Staffers at NPR’s Los Angeles offices, including those on “News & Notes,” were relieved that the saga “ended in a way that mostly everybody can feel good about,” Karen Grigsby Bates, a correspondent for NPR’s “Day to Day,” told Journal-isms tonight.
Collins said, “It’ll help tremendously that the staff will be in one place” — NPR’s building in Los Angeles — ending the cross-country communications problems. Collins told Journal-isms she had not decided yet whether she, one of the three New York staffers, will also move to the West Coast.
Chideya immediately sent out a note to NPR employees, Bates said. “It made a lot of people say ‘it’s definitely a new day,’ and it is clear the show isn’t all about her. She’s establishing community and making sure that ‘News & Notes’ is fully a part of the NPR family.”
NPR seems “really happy with the decision that’s been made. They’ve given the show a new lease on life. We were hoping the show would be kept. It could have gone another way.”
The African American Public Radio Consortium, public radio stations serving predominantly African American audiences, produced both Smiley’s program and “News & Notes.” It has another, with former ABC News correspondent Michel Martin hosting, in the pipeline.