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N. Korea Gives Reporters 12 Years’ Hard Labor

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Friends, family and supporters of U.S. journalists Laura Ling and Euna Lee rally in Southern California, as Carollyn Nguyen of the Annenberg School of Journalism reports in this video.

U.S. Women Will Be Bargaining Chips, Some Believe

"North Korea’s top court convicted two American journalists and sentenced them to 12 years in labor prison Monday, intensifying the reclusive nation’s confrontation with the United States," Vijay Joshi reported Monday for the Associated Press.¬†

"The North’s Central Court tried TV reporters Laura Ling and Euna Lee during proceedings running from last Thursday to Monday and found them guilty of a ‘grave crime’ against the nation, and of illegally crossing into North Korea, the country’s state-run Korean Central News Agency said.

"The trial confirmed the grave crime they committed against the Korean nation and their illegal border crossing as they had already been indicted and sentenced each of them to 12 years of reform through labor," the official KCNA news agency said in a brief dispatch, according to Jack Kim, reporting from Seoul for Reuters. Lee is 36 and Ling, 32.

"We are deeply concerned by the reported sentencing of the two American citizen journalists by North Korean authorities and we are engaged through all possible channels to secure their release," State Department spokesman Ian Kelly said in a statement," Reuters said.

"We once again urge North Korea to grant the immediate release of the two American citizen journalists on humanitarian grounds."

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton had also appealed for the two women’s release, saying the charges against them were baseless.

"Ling and Lee – who were working for former Vice President Al Gore’s California-based Current TV – cannot appeal because they were tried in North Korea’s highest court, where decisions are final," the Associated Press story said.

"Many analysts believe there is a good chance the two woman will be freed. They say the reporters are being used by Pyongyang as bargaining chips in its standoff with South Korea and the United States, which are pushing for U.N. sanctions to punish the North for its latest nuclear test and a barrage of missile tests.

"By sentencing them to prison, North Korea has ‘paved the way for a political pardon and a diplomatic solution,’ said Yang Moo-jin, a professor at Seoul’s University of North Korean Studies.

"He noted that a pardon can only be issued after a conviction and that the regime’s courts were not about to find the reporters innocent, which would imply they were wrongly arrested.

"Kim Yong-hyun, a professor at Seoul’s Dongguk University, said the sentence – the maximum possible allowed by the North’s laws – could have been a reaction to strong statements from the U.S., including threats of sanctions and putting North Korea back on a list of state sponsors of terrorism."

"It is harsher than expected," former U.N. Ambassador Bill Richardson said in an interview Monday morning on NBC’s TODAY show, according to subsequent AP story.¬†

"But at the same time, Richardson, who was instrumental in negotiating the release of U.S. citizens from North Korea in an incident in the 1990s, said ‘the good thing is that there is no charge of espionage.’ He also said now that the legal process has been completed, he thinks negotiations for their "humanitarian release’ can begin.

"At the White House, deputy spokesman William Burton said in a statement: ‘The president is deeply concerned by the reported sentencing of the two American citizen journalists by North Korean authorities, and we are engaged through all possible channels to secure their release.’"

David A. Wilson, a director and writer, right, last year directed the documentary "Meeting David Wilson," in which he met his Southern white namesake, a descendant of his family’s former slave owner. "What was most unique about my story was that it was being told. TheGrio.com is the first video news community focused on black stories and perspectives that go underreported or unnoticed nationally," he says.

NBC Launches Site Geared Toward African Americans

"NBC Universal has launched TheGrio.com, a site focused on news and video appealing to African-Americans. The company said the site would act partly as an aggregator, gathering content from resources stretching from NBC News to its owned-and-operated stations to msnbc.com," David Goetzl wrote for the Media Daily News.

"Ford has signed on as the debut sponsor, as advertisers may be taking an increased interest in media aimed at African-Americans. Nielsen said Monday that ad dollars in the African-American TV sector increased 7.9% in the first quarter, while all other media segments showed no growth.

"Beyond video – some of which will be produced just for the site – TheGrio has lined up contributors, including activist Al Sharpton and Chicago radio personality Santita Jackson.

"NBCU said: ‘The site dives deeper into stories of black interest that mainstream news outlets currently only touch on.’

"David Wilson – the site’s managing editor and founder of Three Part Media, which is an NBC partner – said: ‘TheGrio.com is the first video-centric news community site devoted to providing African-Americans with stories and perspectives that appeal to them but are underrepresented in existing national news outlets.’"

Wilson wrote on the site, "What makes the Grio different from any other existing site is that we have the reach of a major news entity, and the focus on the sensitivities and interests of Black America. We have an unrivaled amount of video coverage as well as articles and blogs from some of the leading figures and fresh voices in our community."

JazzTimes Furloughs Most of Staff, Is Put Up for Sale

JazzTimes, which calls itself "the world’s leading jazz publication," "has furloughed the bulk of its staff while it finalizes a sale of its assets," the monthly publication announced Monday on its Web site.

Lee Mergner, the editor, told Journal-isms he was one of those furloughed.

The sparsely worded statement continued, "The brand and operation will undergo reorganization and restructuring in order to remain competitive in the current media climate. Print publishing is expected to resume as soon as a sale is closed. New information and statements will be posted at www.jazztimes.com as they become available."

Earlier, jazz writer Howard Mandel, president and co-founder of the Jazz Journalists Association, wrote on his Jazz Beyond Jazz site:

"An associate editor of JazzTimes ‘until a couple of weeks ago when I was laid off’ has confirmed that the magazine is in deep trouble.

"’There was some hope of a new buyer coming to the rescue,’ he writes, ‘but as of my last contact with the guys it wasn’t looking good.’ I’d heard previously that the proposed deal fell through.

"’Hopefully that will still happen,’ this source continues, ‘but with the loss of JVC and other advertisers it’s doubtful the magazine would be able to survive in its present format.’ Meanwhile, numerous writers and photographers have contacted me with tales of waiting on payments since last March. These are bad signs. A lot of jazz people are, like my correspondent, hopeful. We’d like Jazz Times to continue, to prosper and flower. More news when I get some. . . good or bad."

On the Web site of the Silver Spring, Md.-based magazine, Mergner, who said Monday night that did not want to comment further, writes of the magazine’s evolution:

"The history of the magazine dates back to Radio Free Jazz, a publication founded in 1970 by Ira Sabin when he was operating a record store in Washington, DC. It was originally a newsletter designed to update shoppers on the latest jazz releases and provide jazz radio programmers with a means of communicating with the industry. However, Radio Free Jazz grew substantially over the next decade, attracting readers and writers from around the world.

"In 1980, the magazine’s broader focus and appeal prompted a name change, so Radio Free became JazzTimes. In 1990, the magazine also underwent a change, receiving a bold new look that incorporated exclusive cover photography and state of the art graphic design. Since then JazzTimes has continued to evolve into what is widely regarded as the world’s leading jazz publication."

Members of the Sabin family, who own the publication, could not be reached.

‘Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor hobbled through a packed day of meetings on Capitol Hill Monday after breaking her ankle in an early morning airport stumble, then boarding a flight from New York to Washington to visit senators who will vote on her confirmation,’ the Associated Press reported. (Video) (Credit: MSNBC)

Gingrich on Sotomayor: "What She Said Was Racist"

Former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich made it clear Sunday that while he changed his mind about calling Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor a "racist," he was not backing away totally from use of the word. It was also obvious that television journalists still were not challenging the tactic of using the word "racist" outside of its traditional meaning.

On CBS-TV’s "Face the Nation," substitute host Harry Smith said, "Let’s talk about Sonia Sotomayor, and what you’ve said about her. You rescinded ‚Äî"

Gingrich replied, "Well, I reframed it. When I did a Twitter about her, having read what she said, I said that was racist. But, I applied it to her as a person. The truth is, I don’t know her as a person.

"It’s clear that what she said was racist, and it’s clear ‚Äî or, as somebody wrote recently, ‘racialist,’ if you prefer. And it’s clear that she didn’t just say it once. And I think one of the challenges for the administration is, having first chided me for language; then having said she didn’t mean it; then having said she ought to restate it; now they face the fact that she has said this, written about it four or five times.

SMITH: "So, her language is racist?

GINGRICH: "The language she used ‚Äî well, if you say ‘people of this ethnic background are superior to people of this ethnic background,’ I mean, just take out her language and put in the word ‘white.’ Put in ‘white male,’ where she had ‘Latina,’ and that person would be, frankly, be disqualified from the court, and also would be disqualified as a judge ‚Äî as a juror."

As stated in this space last week, "racism" used to be, as Webster’s New World dictionary says in its second definition, "any program or practice of racial discrimination, segregation, etc., specif., such a program or practice that upholds the political or economic domination of one race over another or others." The word since has been applied to any act of prejudice or bigotry, real or imagined.

In a column Saturday, syndicated Miami Herald columnist Leonard Pitts Jr. went where the television commentators did not:

"Having no record of their own of responding compassionately to social grievance (ask them what they did during the civil rights movement and they grow very quiet) conservatives have chosen instead to co-opt the language of that grievance.

"And if what they did to the language of women’s rights and progressivism took some gall, what they are seeking to do to the language of race suggests a testicular circumference of bovine proportions. There is something surreal about hearing those who have historically been the enemies of racial progress define racial progress as looking out for the poor white brother."

Sheryl A. Flowers, Tavis Smiley Producer, Dies at 42

Sheryl A. Flowers, longtime executive producer of "The Tavis Smiley Show" on public radio, died Monday at Cedar‚Äôs Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, after an almost two-year battle with cancer, Smiley’s organization announced. Flowers was 42.

"She was a networking QUEEN. Could get to anyone. Extremely creative, talented and high energy," a member of the Bay Area Black Journalists Association told colleagues via e-mail. "Sheryl was an anchor in BABJA during the mid-80s through early 90s."

Smiley said Flowers was director of communications at the Smiley Group. She "was the executive most responsible for the success of the radio show for its three years on NPR (2002-2004), and was personally asked by Smiley to take the helm when he moved in 2005 to have the show distributed by PRI (Public Radio International)."

Panagoulias to Retire, Helped Diversify Wall St. Journal

Cathy Panagoulias, a deputy managing editor at the Wall Street Journal who played a role in diversifying its newsroom, plans to retire from the paper in July, becoming the latest top editor to leave the business daily, Chris Roush reported last week on his Talking Biz News site.

"Panagoulias has been in charge of staffing and the internship program in recent years, among other duties.

"She served as the Journal’s national editor, running all U.S. news coverage from 1995 to 2000, and supervised technology coverage before that for five years."

Raju Narisetti, co-managing editor of the Washington Post who worked with Panagoulias at the Journal, told Journal-isms, "Cathy was acutely aware of the Journal’s need to sharply diversify its news ranks, especially at management level, not just in terms of minorities but also of women. It wasn’t always easy but over the years she was instrumental in bringing a lot of young minority hires into the Journal with the hope that in time the paper’s news management ranks would have a strong pipeline. For a long time, the Journal promoted from within so it was vital to start building that pipeline.

"Cathy was great at counseling staff at all levels on personal and career matters and I am sorry to see her move on."

Sherri Williams Knows How to Make It Sing

Sherri Williams might have been laid off from her reporter’s gig at the Columbus (Ohio) Dispatch, but that doesn’t mean she can’t plumb some of her other talents.

She is performing for the last time in the city, she says, on June 20.

The Dispatch laid off 45 people effective on April 3.

Two were African American, a third of its black editorial staff.

The second was copy editor Yolanda McDavis. "I’m looking to launch a full-time freelance career as an editor for magazines and book-publishing companies," McDavis told Journal-isms.

Williams said, "I’m exploring ways to continue to be a storyteller, particularly on the Web. I’m also working on building relationships with magazines and other media outlets to get freelance assignments."

[video:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T_bhA9_GujY&feature=player_embedded]

Why Blacks Should Take Up Business Journalism

Ayana Allen, business journalism student at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, attended the Society of American Business Editors and Writers annual conference in Denver in April. She filed this report on blacks in business journalism. In it, Christina Burton of Howard University’s student newspaper the Hilltop said she wanted to enter the field because "a lot of African Americans are not financially literate." The rest of Allen’s report was submitted in print.

Shaw Recalls a President Reacting to Images on CNN

Bernard Shaw retired as a CNN anchor in 2001, but he returned to the network on Sunday to discuss his coverage of the Tiananmen Square protests 20 years ago, when Chinese authorities demanded that CNN stop its satellite transmission and its live coverage of the massive pro-democracy demonstrations in Beijing.

"It was a moment, historic moment for the world. Also a very telling signature moment in a then still young CNN. Reflect on that," CNN’s John King said on Sunday’s "State of the Union" show.

"I think we got a Golden Ace for that coverage," Shaw said. "Our attitude was to be in Beijing for, as I say, the historic Sino-Soviet summit, and then this just exploded. These demonstrations had gone on for seven weeks. And after a while, you didn’t worry about the 18-hour days. Everybody worked 18, 19 hours at CNN. We knew that this was an utterly important story, and we were determined to cover it. That was the ‚Äî the gung-ho spirit at CNN then. It still exists now. But without that spirit, without that sacrifice ‚Äî and there were sacrifices, especially personal ones ‚Äî CNN would not have made it.

"One of the things that underscored the importance of this story was the fact that as it was happening, President George Herbert Walker Bush was at the vacation home at Kennebunkport, Maine. The Secret Service said, ‘sir, we think you ought to come down here, you will want to see this.’ The president of the United States was at the command post watching CNN coverage. And based on the pictures and what he heard and what he did not hear, President Bush issued statements on behalf of the American government, urging restraint on these government officials.

"So you had the president of the United States reacting in real time to events that were, of course, very real in China. And he, of course, was a former ambassador to China, so he really has a feeling for that part of the world and for that story."

King allowed that, "I made a switch to this network 12 years ago from a great job at a great wire service in this country, because of you, because of the work you did at this network and the promise that I could continue to do what I did then if I came here. It has been 9 1/2 years. I say this lovingly, since you abandoned me."

Shaw replied, "No. I don’t miss it. I don’t miss it. I don’t miss my favorite network. I enjoy coming back such as times like this, but I ‚Äî I don’t miss it. And besides, nobody at CNN has invited me back."

King said Shaw was welcome to come back whenever he wanted.

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