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James Brown Shown Some Love

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Originally published Dec. 27, 2006

Nearly Every Front Page Includes Entertainer’s Death

The announcement that entertainer James Brown had died at age 73 broke in the wee hours of Christmas morning, too late to make the Monday newspapers and testing the resources of the skeletal overnight staffs at Web sites and other media outlets.

But some rose to the occasion, and with a full news cycle to prepare, daily newspapers overwhelmingly reached consensus that Brown was a historic figure who deserved front-page display. Not only did his death lead some American newspapers on what for many was an otherwise slow news day, his image popped above the newspaper’s nameplate in several others, and the front pages of news organs from Brazil to Belgium to India ratified the judgment that Brown was an international phenomenon.

As Jesse Jackson said of Brown to the Associated Press, “He was dramatic to the end — dying on Christmas Day. Almost a dramatic, poetic moment. He’ll be all over the news all over the world today. He would have it no other way.”

The New York Times and Houston Chronicle Web sites appeared to be first to give Brown’s death prominence, leading their sites with it by 6:45 a.m., while others, embarrassingly, still didn’t have the news or were using automated equipment that rendered it as just another wire story.

“On weekdays, we’re staffed 24 hours a day to make sure we have the big story — and the death of Godfather of Soul certainly qualified — covered in depth,” Dean Betz, online news editor at the Chronicle, told Journal-isms.

“We were more lightly staffed than usual on Christmas, so went to Plan B. The night online editors heard about the story after returning home from work, then contacted a senior editor; in this case, me. I have full access to chron.com from home, and updated the site with a story, video, and images from the Chronicle’s files, including some historical photos of his Houston performances.

“Later in the day, we added more features, including stories by Andrew Dansby and Gregory Katz, a blog post from Kyrie O’Connor, and an online guestbook where readers could post their memories of James Brown.”

It went a little differently at the Times, said Neil Chase, the New York paper’s editor for continuous news.

“Credit for the quick response starts with a smart editor who would tell you he was just doing his job. We staff the Web newsroom 24/7, and the overnight producer, Nathan Ashby-Kuhlman, saw the story when The AP broke it at 2:49 am Monday morning,” Chase wrote in an e-mail. “(I don’t necessarily know that they were the first ones to break it, but our first reports were attributed to them).

“He posted a one-line ‘breaking news’ item atop our home page within 10 minutes and put the AP story, with a file photo, on the page a short time later. He also sent an e-mail alert to those Times readers who have signed up for quick notice of breaking stories. And he notified the editors who would be responsible for the staff coverage that followed later.

“Two other Web producers who were just finishing work stayed late to pull together the photo slide show, and a producer arriving early the next morning assembled audio links to accompany our coverage. These multimedia journalists thrive on quick coverage of breaking news. So their skills really shine on a story like this, where the pictures and the sounds are at the heart of it.”

Meanwhile, the Associated Press, which works round the clock, developed a photo story that was used on those Web sites; updated its written obituary for print AP members, found sound bites to insert into an AP radio report, and produced versions of the story that were to be published directly on the Internet through AP partnerships with the giant content providers, such as Yahoo and AOL.

Then, said AP Entertainment Editor Jesse Washington, entertainment writers Nekesa Mumbi Moody, Oscar Wells Gabriel and others, with Washington editing, produced stories or appreciations that went beyond the first day’s news. They ended up on many a front page on Tuesday under such headlines as the Akron (Ohio) Beacon Journal’s “Music Legend Redefined Art Form,” where the story led the paper.

Tuesday’s headlines, as viewed on front-page images posted on the Newseum Web site, told the story: “From Rock to Rap, Icon Left Imprint” (Contra Costa Times, Calif.); “Pioneering and Volatile — the Stage Was His World” (Los Angeles Times); “Godfather of Soul Changed Music at Frenetic Pace” (San Francisco Chronicle); “Soul Star Sung It Loud, Proud” (San Jose Mercury News); “Icon of 20th Century Pop Music Dies” (Ventura County Star, Calif.); “A ‘Feel Good’ Pioneer” (Rocky Mountain News); “”He Gave Us Some Soul and Made It Feel Good” (Miami Herald); “Soul Icon Transcended Generations” (Orlando Sentinel); “Soul Legend Shaped Culture” (St. Petersburg Times); “His Soul Will Live in Music” (Tampa Tribune); “How He Shook Up America” (Chicago Sun-Times); “More Than ‘Godfather of Soul'” (Chicago Tribune); “Godfather of Soul Is Simply Unforgettable” (Detroit Free Press); “Music’s Soul Silenced” (Fayetteville Observer, N.C.); “Soul Falls Silent” (The State, Columbia, S.C.).

Newspapers with music critics, present and former, put them to work: Robert Hilburn wrote in the Los Angeles Times; Jon Pareles in the New York Times; Richard Harrington in the Washington Post; Steve Jones in USA Today; Dan DeLuca in the Philadelphia Inquirer; Greg Kot at the Chicago Tribune; and Brian McCollum at the Detroit Free Press, among others.

Some pieces were unusual: Wil Haygood, in the Washington Post, wrote about meeting Brown while the singer was in prison in South Carolina. “We were just three men, all black, all with Southern roots (my mother hails from Selma, Ala., where I still have many relatives), who found themselves on an expanse of prison grass regaling one another with stories, with memories,” Haygood wrote, speaking of himself, Brown and Brown’s lawyer.

Others tried for the local angle: The Boston Globe related how Brown was remembered there as “the man who helped prevent the city from burning down the night after Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated.”

Residents of Poughkeepsie, N.Y., learned in the Poughkeepsie Journal that resident Barbra Baker-Baylor worked for Brown in 1991 making formal gowns for his background vocalists, and that Derek Wilson, another resident who worked for Brown as a part-time intern and was later promoted to the West Coast director of promotions for Brownstone Records, “said Brown taught him the importance of dressing well and showing respect.”

Baltimore and Knoxville, Tenn., newspapers discussed the radio stations Brown owned in those cities.

But it was in the Augusta (Ga.) Chronicle, in Brown’s adopted hometown, where readers disagreed on what the local angle was.

The Chronicle pulled out all the stops in its coverage — the main story was headlined, “Augustan who electrified music world dies at age 73” — and provided space for reader feedback. Not all of it was pretty.

“So the ‘godfather of soul’ is a legend, according to the press,” one wrote. “I have news for you, James Brown never ‘godfathered’ anything, but he certainly hurt a great number of people (especially women) in his life time. As for being a legend, I guess that if your history includes spousal abuse, illicit drug use, alcoholism, and threatening service workers with a gun, then the title is appropriate.

“I’ve noted in several news reports that he had ‘at least’ four children — look out for ‘new’ ones when the probate is begun, ” wrote another. “The man made a legacy for himself with his music but also with his ‘private’ actions. Seems though that the ending of his life has created havoc like much of the rest of his life. Don’t take away the good, but certainly he had not put all the bad behind him either . . .”

“It’s their right to harbor negative opinions. But I don’t have to agree with a couple of bad apples, and neither does much of Augusta,” editorial writer Joe Hotchkiss told Journal-isms on Tuesday. “This city loves James Brown and has paid tribute to him in many ways, just as Brown gave so much to Augusta.”

Staffers on the Chronicle editorial page came in on Christmas. “My boss, editorial page editor Michael Ryan, called me at home with the news. I made it to the office about 3 p.m., and he not long after. We ripped up our original Dec. 26 editorial page and replaced it with a 40-inch editorial that took us about three hours or more to write, a four-column photo of James Brown in concert and a roundup of Brown reminiscences that people were posting that day on our newspaper’s blog. . . . we did our editorial page from scratch,” he said. “I’m a big fan of Brown’s, which made my parts of the editorial easy and hard to write at the same time,” Hotchkiss said.

With Brown’s body set to lie at Harlem’s Apollo Theater, Sharpton leading funeral services, and Brown’s partner denied entry to their home, the Brown story is by no means over.

MESSAGE BOARDS: Feel free to post a comment on this subject and view those from others.

Broadcasters Promise More to Come on Brown

Broadcasters are promising more programming on Brown’s death, according to responses from network spokesmen asked to elaborate on their coverage of Brown.

“‘Good Morning America’s’ coverage featured an excerpt of an interview Diane Sawyer conducted with Brown last year. Part of the exchange:

“Sawyer: So tell me about the next step for you after this career. Where do you go?

“Brown: To heaven.

“Sawyer: Heaven?

“Brown: Yes.

“Sawyer: Not too fast.”

BET Networks Chairman and CEO Debra Lee issued this statement on Monday:

“We have lost the most inspirational force the music world has ever known. James Brown’s impact across all genres of music — especially funk, soul, disco and rock — is immeasurable, and will never be duplicated. He was one of the few individuals who truly merited recognition as an American legend. Without question, today’s musical artists worldwide owe a tremendous debt of gratitude to James Brown for his influence on lyrics, dance and stage presence.

“At the 3RD ANNUAL BET AWARDS in 2003, BET honored Brown with its Lifetime Achievement Award, the highest honor bestowed by the network on any individual. During that telecast, one of the most memorable moments in music television history occurred when pop star Michael Jackson surprised millions of viewers by joining Brown on stage in a spontaneous outpouring of dance and song in salute to the icon’s amazing career that spanned more than five decades.”

A two-part series finale episode of “Amen” is scheduled at 3 p.m. Thursday, in which Brown is the special guest star in the second part. At 4 p.m. is an episode of “Showtime at the Apollo,” in which Brown is the special guest host. At 5 p.m., the cable network airs an episode of “New York Undercover” that features Brown as the musical guest star. Also on Thursday, at 2:30 p.m., the episode for “Amen” has changed to one in which the Deacon Frye character impersonates Brown singing “Living In America”.

The three-hour block repeats on Friday beginning at 9 a.m.

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