Body Condemns French Honor for Death Row Inmate
The polarizing case of death row inmate Mumia Abu-Jamal, onetime president of the Philadelphia Association of Black Journalists, reached the House of Representatives Wednesday, with the members of Congress voting overwhelmingly to denounce a French city for naming a street in his honor.
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The measure passed 368-31, with eight members voting present. Those voting against included prominent members of the Congressional Black Caucus, though not all caucus members did so.
Abu-Jamal, a former activist radio reporter, was sentenced to death for shooting a Philadelphia police officer 25 years ago this month while working as a taxi driver. The case roiled the National Association of Black Journalists when it met in 1995 in Philadelphia, where Abu -Jamal was convicted in 1982 of killing Officer Daniel Faulkner. Supporters of Abu-Jamal, who contend Abu-Jamal did not receive a fair trial, demanded that NABJ support a new trial for Abu-Jamal, who was scheduled to be executed during the convention. Instead, after debate, members voted for a “full and fair” review of his case, insisting they were journalists, not activists.
The dreadlocked, deep-voiced Abu-Jamal has continued to be an international symbol for those who oppose the death penalty. In April, the Paris suburb of St. Denis named a street after him.
In the House on Wednesday, Rep. Mike Fitzpatrick, a Republican Philadelphia-area congressman, brought to the floor a resolution to ask the French government to step in to change the street name if St. Denis opted not to, as Kimberly Hefling reported for the Associated Press. “We must stand together as one and send a strong message to the world that cop-killers deserve to be punished, not to be celebrated,” Fitzpatrick said.
Rep. John Conyers, D-Mich., requested a roll call vote, objecting to the resolution on the grounds that it should not have been brought to the House floor without committee consideration and debate. Rep. Bobby Scott, D-Va., also spoke against it on the grounds, among other reasons, that there has been such recognition of Abu-Jamal in the United States, such as in San Francisco, and that Congress should not make such condemnations in the United States or anywhere else, said Doxie McCoy, communications director for Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton, D-D.C.
Voting no were Reps. Neil Abercrombie, D-Hawaii; William Clay Jr., D-Mo.; Emanuel Cleaver, D-Mo.; John Conyers, D-Mich.; Jim Cooper, D-Tenn.; Danny K. Davis, D-Ill.; Raul Grijalva, D-Ariz.; Maurice Hinchey, D-N.Y.; Mike Honda, D-Calif.; Jesse L. Jackson Jr., D-Ill.; Eddie Bernice Johnson, D-Texas; Carolyn Cheeks Kilpatrick, D-Mich., announced yesterday as the next Congressional Black Caucus chair; Barbara Lee, D-Calif.; Cynthia McKinney, D-Ga.; Gregory W. Meeks, D-N.Y.; Jerrold Nadler, D-N.Y.; James L. Oberstar, D-Minn.; Major Owens, D-N.Y.; Ed Pastor, D-Ariz.; Donald M. Payne, D-N.J.; Charles Rangel, D-N.Y.; Bobby Rush, D-Ill.; Bobby Scott, D-Va.; Jose Serrano, D-N.Y.; Fortney (Pete) Stark, D-Calif.; Edolphus Towns, D-N.Y.; Tom Udall, D-N.M.; Nydia M. Velazquez, D-N.Y., Maxine Waters, D-Calif.; Anthony D. Weiner, D-N.Y.; and Lynn Woolsey, D-Calif.
Voting “present” were Sam Farr, D-Calif.; Al Green, D-Texas; Luis Gutierrez, D-Ill.; Sheila Jackson-Lee, D-Texas; John Lewis, D- Ga.; George Miller, D-Calif.; Jan Schakowsky, D-Ill.; and Mel Watt, D-N.C., Congressional Black Caucus chair.
“The police union in Philadelphia sent a representative to Washington on Wednesday and watched the vote closely, especially that of Rep. Chaka Fattah, a candidate for Philadelphia mayor,” the AP story reported. “The union has promised to work against Fattah in the 2007 Democratic primary, because he supports giving Abu-Jamal a new trial.
“Fattah said in a statement that despite being unconvinced that justice was served in the case, he voted for the resolution because ‘anyone who stands convicted of so terrible an offense is an affront to those who risk their lives on a daily basis to serve.'”
In another resolution, the House on a voice vote said it “recognizes and honors the contributions of Edward R. Bradley as an award winning American journalist.” The CBS News correspondent died last month at age 65. Rep. Bob Brady, D-Pa., who is exploring a run for mayor of Philadelphia, Bradley’s hometown, introduced the resolution.
- Joseph A. Gambardello, Philadelphia Inquirer: Abu-Jamal case still stirs anger
- Dave Lindorff, Op-ed News: Abu-Jamal Case at Third Circuit, Prosecutor Admits He Had No “True Defense”
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Record Number Behind Bars — Did Anyone Notice?
“A record 7 million people or one in every 32 American adults were behind bars, on probation or on parole by the end of last year, according to the Justice Department. Of those, 2.2 million were in prison or jail, an increase of 2.7 percent over the previous year, according to a report released Wednesday,” Kasie Hunt reported for the Associated Press last week.
On Tuesday in the Columbia Journalism Review’s CJR Daily, Edward B. Colby wrote, “The AP’s story didn’t really push beyond the numbers (but it gets props for covering the story at all). . . . there has been little reporting of consequence tied to the latest numbers on the state of that population since last Wednesday. That’s unfortunate given the scope of the problem—and the easy peg.”
Hunt’s AP story continued, “Racial disparities among prisoners persist. In the 25-29 age group, 8.1 percent of black men—about one in 13—are incarcerated, compared with 2.6 percent of Hispanic men and 1.1 percent of white men. And it’s not much different among women. By the end of 2005, black women were more than twice as likely as Hispanics and over three times as likely as white women to be in prison.”
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Syler Let Go as She Prepared to Undergo Surgery
“Rene Syler, lame-duck coanchor of CBS’s The Early Show, will undergo a bilateral prophylactic mastectomy next month,” Gail Shister reports in Thursday’s Philadelphia Inquirer.
“Syler’s mother and father both had breast cancer, and she has endured several breast cancer scares and painful biopsies. She was working on a first-person piece about her forthcoming surgery when she was told that Early Show ‘was going in a different direction. It wasn’t like there was any room for debate,’ she says,” Shister wrote.
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“Her bosses knew about her medical condition, Syler says, but she doesn’t believe it was a factor in their decision.”
On Tuesday, media critic Eric Deggans wrote on his St. Petersburg Times blog, “There’s a mighty shallow bench among non-white journalists at CBS News.
“When we last saw each other, Early Show co-host Rene Syler and I talked about her upcoming book and void left by the death of 60 Minutes legend Ed Bradley, minutes before she would regale a capacity crowd at the Tampa Bay Association of Black Journalists Griot Drum Awards dinner in St. Petersburg.
“Who knew, three weeks later, that she would be leaving a void of her own, out of a job after four years on the network’s morning show?”
“Syler says she was told the show is moving in a new direction; her last day is Dec. 22. But her departure and Bradley’s painful Nov. 9 death have eliminated two of the highest-profile black journalists at CBS News.
“And there aren’t many people poised to take their place.”
Kelli E. Edwards, a CBS spokeswoman, told Journal-isms, “We want to have the best team possible at CBS News, and obviously, we want that team to reflect the diversity in the country. We recently hired two people to recruit for us.” One of them, Crystal Johns, is to focus on diversity, recruitment and retention, she said. The second, Barbara Fedida Brill, is focusing on talent recruitment, for management as well as for entry-level jobs, Edwards said.
“We’re definitely not where we want to be, but we’re moving in the right direction with the recent hires.” [Updated Dec. 7]
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CNET Editor’s Body Found in Oregon Ravine
The body of James Kim, an editor at the Web site CNET who had walked into the Oregon wilderness to summon help for his stranded family, was found Wednesday, CNN reported.
Kim, 35, was found in a steep ravine where he had left clues for searchers, the story said.
“Brian Anderson, Undersheriff of Josephine County, broke down and could not finish speaking as he announced that Kim’s body was found at 3:03 p.m. ET.
“Searchers were attempting to remove Kim’s body, and his family members have requested that their privacy be respected, officials said.
“Kim walked into the snowy Oregon mountains Saturday to find help for his wife and two young daughters. They were rescued by searchers on Monday,” the story said.
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Six of 10 Laid-Off San Jose Journalists Are White
Six of the 10 journalists laid off at the San Jose Mercury News are white, a spokesman for the California newspaper told Journal-isms Wednesday. The newspaper would not identify them, but two of the journalists of color, Veronica Villafañe, a reporter/anchor and immediate past president of the National Association of Hispanic Journalists, and copy editor Cindy Liu, confirmed on Tuesday they were laid off.
Metro reporter Luis Zaragoza’s e-mail account sent back an automatic message that he no longer worked at the paper. So did the account for Gary Hoh, a page designer and copy editor in the Sports section.
As Ryan Kim reported Wednesday in the San Francisco Chronicle, “The San Jose Mercury News completed a round of layoffs Tuesday that trimmed its workforce by 35 employees in one of the first big moves under its new owner, MediaNews Group.
“The layoffs, which began Monday night, came just after the company reached a tentative agreement on a labor contract with its largest union, the San Jose Newspaper Guild, Monday morning. The last-minute deal, which followed a 20-hour negotiating session, reduced the number of job cuts by more than half.”
Mercury News spokesman Dan Breeden said the newsroom had not conducted a diversity count since the layoffs, but would do so later this month for the annual census of the American Society of Newspaper Editors.
Last year, the company reported 32.75 percent journalists of color, but since then there have been buyouts.
Those who left Monday and Tuesday received severance packages of two weeks for every year worked, capped at 10 weeks; two months of health care, and accrued and unused vacation, Breeden said. There were no individually negotiated severance packages, he said.
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Otis Sanford Named to Lead Memphis Editorial Page
Otis Sanford, managing editor of the Memphis Commercial Appeal, Wednesday was named editor/opinion & editorials, effective Jan. 1. He becomes one of only a handful of African American men holding that position.
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“Most of you don’t need me to tell you about Otis’ many contributions to this newspaper and his respected standing in the community. The leadership our editorial board has in the community is significant, and I believe that with Otis’ many valuable assets that position will only be strengthened,” publisher Joe Pepe said in a note to the staff.
Sanford, 53, who has spent 22 years at the paper in two stints, has been managing editor since 2002. “I’ve been doing the editorial pages on a part-time basis for the past three years,” when David Kushma left and was not replaced. But wearing two hats was awkward, he said. The board consists of six people.
Under the new arrangement, Sanford will report to the publisher, not the editor, “and continue to sit on the Executive Team of The Commercial Appeal,” Pepe said in his note.
Other African Americans heading editorial boards include Joe Oglesby at the Miami Herald, Cynthia Tucker at the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Robin Washington at the Duluth (Minn.) News Tribune, Vanessa Gallman at the Lexington (Ky.) Herald-Leader, James F. Lawrence at the Democrat and Chronicle in Rochester, N.Y., Lovell Beaulieu of the Hattiesburg (Miss.) American and Allen Johnson of the Greensboro (N.C) News & Record.
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Call to Latinos Could Bolster Biggest Media Rolodex
“Help public radio better cover the Hispanic business community,” reads the Web page on the American Public Media Web site.
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“Marketplace, the leading business show on public radio with more than 9 million listeners, wants your help to provide deeper coverage of the issues affecting Hispanic businesses, employees and communities.
“Fill out this form to tell Marketplace about your experience and observations.
“What you share will help deepen Marketplace’s coverage of the Hispanic economy in the United States.”
The “Marketplace” ad is part of what could be part of a campaign to have the biggest Rolodex in the news business.
“Marketplace” is working with the Center for Innovation in Journalism, a project of Minnesota Public Radio and American Public Media that already has 23,000 people with various kinds of expertise willing to serve as sources for stories. Michael Skoler, the executive director, calls it Public Insight Journalism, as he wrote in the May issue of Current magazine, which covers public television.
“Reporters in our newsroom frequently use Public Insight Journalism to reach beyond the activists and their personal networks to find people with specific experience,” he said. “When consumer records were stolen from the credit-verifying agency ChoicePoint, reporter Dan Olson needed sources for a story on identity theft. A public insight analyst e-mailed a query to a range of people in our network, including those who worked in high tech. Within an hour, Olson started hearing from both victims of identity theft and people who had become expert in protecting their identities.”
Dan Grech, Americas desk reporter for “Marketplace,” told Journal-isms he covers both Latin American economics and Hispanic economics in the United States, and found that “no media outlets are covering Hispanic issues or the Hispanic economy well. It’s really a challenge to get the story ideas and the comprehensive looks we like to have at Marketplace.”
So he went to the Center for Innovation in Journalism, in addition to contacting the National Association of Hispanic Journalists, the Pew Hispanic Center and various academics for advice on how to cover a population that’s “a little in the shadows.”
The Web site’s call for sources is part of that effort. “It’s really exciting,” Grech said of the outreach. “We’ve gotten a nice response. People who care about Hispanic issues realize they’re undercovered. They really feel that there aren’t enough major publications that care.” The center’s method of collecting sources outside of the usual “experts,” he said, is “the future of reporting.”
- Michael Skoler, Nieman Reports: Fear, Loathing and the Promise of Public Insight Journalism (PDF)
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Time Publishes Piece Defending Use of Epithet
Producer and commentator John Ridley, who used the infamous racial epithet in the current issue of Esquire magazine to describe certain African Americans, defends his use of the word in an essay in the Dec. 3 issue of Time. Last week he persuaded the op-ed page of the Los Angeles Times to run a similar defense.
“We need this word. Relax. Take a deep breath. It’s gonna be cool. Two syllables. Six letters. It’s not the word, only the fear that needs to be put aside,” Ridley writes in Time.
In a piece circulating via e-mail, headlined, “The Negro-Cons’ Deal with the Devil: Honorary White Status in Return for Abandoning Fellow Blacks,” lawyer Lloyd Williams categorizes Ridley along with others: “More shocking than their self-hating disdain for the average African-American, is the unchecked access these Uncle Toms have to major communications outlets, provided they are prepared to condemn their own kind in a manner which [one] ordinarily associates with the Ku Klux Klan,” Williams writes.
Meanwhile, Baltimore Sun reporter Nick Madigan wrote Tuesday that, “Only two weeks after unleashing a racially offensive tirade at a West Hollywood comedy club, actor Michael Richards appeared in blackface at a celebrity roast for Whoopi Goldberg over the weekend, drawing gasps from the audience, according to WJZ-TV, Channel 13, the CBS affiliate in Baltimore.
“Except that he didn’t.” The story WJZ drew from was satire, Madigan reported.
And in the Hattiesburg (Miss.) American, editorial page editor Lovell Beaulieu wrote on Sunday:
“After someone questioned why two black men appeared on the Perspective page last Sunday and wrote about actor-comedian Michael Richards’ race-laced tirade, the one where Richards used the ‘n word’ over a 2 1/2 minute span, I decided to respond.
“I couldn’t find any white men who wrote about it. There weren’t many white women penning anti-Richards prose either. I scoured the wires. Some of the same white journalists who perpetually remind their readers of a black plagiarist couldn’t find a moral imperative to condemn a white man spewing racist venom. It wasn’t until this past Wednesday when Kathleen Parker and Ruben Navarrette Jr. wrote about it. But their columns weren’t so much about the reprehensible act as they were attacks on the recipients and reactions to Richards’ rant.
“The others all took the Fifth, and left the matter to black journalists who dared to confront it.”
- David Bauder, Associated Press: Andy Rooney is Internet hoax victim
- Maria Elena Fernandez, Los Angeles Times: Andy Dick apologizes for using racial slur
- Scott Martelle, Los Angeles Times: Use it? Or lose it?: For comedians, a word’s black-and-white jolt isn’t black and white.
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St. Louis NABJ Chapter Not Going Away
George E. Curry, editor-in-chief of the National Newspaper Publishers Association News Service, wrote this week that the St. Louis chapter of the National Association of Black Journalists had no right to disband for lack of interest.
Larry Starks, the assistant managing editor for sports of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, and president of Greater St. Louis Association of Black Journalists, told Journal-isms Wednesday the chapter is not going anywhere.
“We raised the question as to whether or not the chapter should end, but it was really a rallying cry for folks to become more involved. So . . . unless no one would have shown up at the special meeting, there was very little chance that we would have disbanded the organization. And at the special meeting, the question was how we could save the organization, not should we disband. And the chapter responded in an overwhelming positive way.”
Sylvester Brown Jr., Post-Dispatch columnist, wrote Tuesday that the Thanksgiving death of Gerald M. Boyd, the former managing editor of the New York Times who helped start the chapter, played a role in galvanizing members. His column was headlined, “Rest in Peace, Gerald Boyd; your legacy is safe with us.”
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Toledo Gets First Black Female Anchor
“Shenikwa Stratford recently became the first black female reporter to be promoted to primary news anchor in Toledo,” Philana Marie Boles wrote Wednesday in the Toledo Free Press.
“Rick Lipps, general manager for WNWO-TV, Channel 24, said race was not a factor in the decision to promote Stratford.
“‘Bottom line: Shenikwa is an honest and fair reporter who doesn’t sensationalize. She’s good, she’s qualified and she deserved the job,’ he said.
“‘But yes, the fact that Shenikwa is African-American is certainly something that I am proud of as well,’ he said.”
