Some Omit Race of Slain Museum Guard

updated June 13, June 15

White supremacist James von Brunn, 88, was in critical condition with a gunshot wound after exchanging fire at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington. (Credit: WJLA-TV)  

N.Y. Times Not Convinced Color Is "Clearly Relevant"

A known white supremacist stands accused of opening fire at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, killing an African American private security guard on Wednesday. Stories in the New York Times, Washington Post, Washington Times and other news organizations did not mention the security guard’s race. The Associated Press, Los Angeles Times, Agence France-Presse and the black press did, some more prominently than others.

"Our policy is that a person’s race should be mentioned only if it is clearly relevant, and the relevance is made clear in the article," Diane McNulty, the New York Times’ executive director of community affairs and media relations, told Journal-isms on Friday.

"Stephen [Johns] was the first person who confronted the killer while he was trying to get into the Holocaust Museum; it is unlikely that James von Brunn went to the Holocaust Museum so as to find an African-American he could shoot. At the time we wrote the story, even after we learned he had died, we didn’t know his race and it never occurred to us to ask.

"While the race of the victim is not necessarily always going to be irrelevant, given that the killer’s Web site contained expressions of hate against African-Americans as well as Jews, singling out the victim’s race would imply that he was killed because of his race, and we still don’t know that this was the case."

For others, the fact that Johns, 39, a six-year employee of the museum, was black was a matter of irony to be noted.

"A white racist killing a black man in a Jewish shrine," playwright Janet Langhart Cohen said¬†on National Public Radio’s "Tell Me More." Cohen, a former journalist who is black, has written a play in which Holocaust victim Anne Frank meets black lynching victim Emmett Till, a work that was to debut that fatal Wednesday at the Holocaust museum.

Newsday said in an editorial that Von Brunn "saw the Fed as part of some vast Jewish conspiracy. And he hated African-Americans with similar intensity. Tragically, the attack lived out both hatreds: He targeted an institution created to remind us forever of the Holocaust and to fight against all genocides, but the person he killed was a black man, Stephen Tyrone Johns, a security guard."

On CNN, anchor Rick Sanchez quoted a message sent to him on Facebook.

It was about the race of others in the drama. "It says: ‘I was thinking about the irony of the three African-American EMS personnel that helped save the life of Von Brunn. It shows the unbiased perception of EMS workers, that, although they may not – with the circumstances, they still have a job to do,’" Sanchez said.

The Washington Post admitted it made a mistake by not including [Johns’] race. "We should have mentioned it. One of those things we all knew because we had seen his photo but we never put it in the story," Local Editor Emilio Garcia-Ruiz told Journal-isms. "My bad."

The Times’ standard of relevancy, which other news organizations share, in part grew in reaction to practices in the days when the race of black criminals was routinely mentioned, and newspapers had "Negro news" sections. While the standard is also codified by the Associated Press, in this case the AP came to a different conclusion.

"AP has noted in its coverage since the day the story broke that Stephen T. Johns was black, while avoiding any implication that he was targeted for that reason," spokesman Paul D. Colford said. Still, a number of AP stories did not include the racial identification.

Booth Gunter, public affairs director at the Southern Poverty Law Center, said he thought identifying Jones’ race was the right call. In general, he said the media acquitted itself well in covering the tragedy, especially in recognizing its significance. Gunter was in the thick of it. He said his office, which tracks hate crimes, fielded 200 calls on Wednesday.

The coverage "moved from being about the specifics about the shooting to some of the broader issues . . . how the lone wolves are part of a broader hate movement," examining the role played by shock jocks and right-wing talk-show hosts, and noting that the incident came not long after the May 31 killing of Dr. George Tiller, who had repeatedly been condemned on the air by Fox News commentator Bill O’Reilly for the abortions he performed.

Many noted, as did Eugene Robinson in his Washington Post column, that "In April, a prescient Department of Homeland Security memo predicted that the election of the first African American president and the advent of economic hard times could worsen the threat from ‘right-wing extremist groups.’. . .

"For days, some conservative commentators tried mightily to paint the memo as an underhanded attempt by the Obama administration to smear its honorable critics by equating ‘right-wing’ with ‘terrorism.’ It made no difference to these loudmouths that the number of hate groups around the country has increased by more than 50 percent since 2000, according to the Southern Poverty Law Center."

"What an Unreconstructed American Racist Looks Like"

Tony Norman of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette Friday became the latest to call out, in a way most network television journalists have not, talk-show hosts and politicians who have appropriated the word "racist" and similar terms for their own purposes.

"In recent weeks, prominent conservatives have taken to the airwaves to identify racists that have flown under the radar. Talk radio hosts and politicians are particularly adept at spotting these elusive creatures," Norman wrote.

"According to these very perceptive white men, all wizened veterans of the civil rights movement, Judge Sonia Sotomayor is a racist. They insist that President Barack Obama’s nominee for the U.S. Supreme Court is a racist at best and a ‘racialist’ at the very least.

"For those momentarily distracted by the silliness of talk radio, take a close look at the face of James Wenneker von Brunn. This is what an unreconstructed American racist looks like. His is the face that has been historically hidden behind white hoods and partially obscured by Nazi salutes. Every juror who has ever voted to exonerate a good old boy for doing what good old boys did to blacks with ropes and kindling wood will recognize his face. They’ve seen his reflection in their own mirrors for decades. . . .

"Fortunately, whether they own a stockpile of weapons or not, most racists are cowards. They could never bring themselves to do what von Brunn did. . . .

"Meanwhile, they sit in their cars during rush hour or in their homes and work places every day, listening to cynical talk radio hosts telling them how oppressed they are by Latina judges and black presidents."

• Jamison Foser, Media Matters for America:¬†What Would Pat Buchanan Have To Say To Get Himself Fired From MSNBC?
• Sherrilyn A. Ifill, theRoot.com:¬†Don’t Racists Ever Get Tired?
• Derrick Z. Jackson, Boston Globe: NRA’s ill wind blows through the Windy City
• Steve Krakauer, MediaBistro:¬†FNC Has More Viewers Than CNN/MSNBC Combined During Museum Shooting
• Greg Mitchell, Editor & Publisher:¬†What the Media Missed in Museum Shooting: Far-Right Reaction
• Ruben Navarrette Jr., CNN:¬†Hate crimes terrorize all of us
• Mark Potok and Randy Blazak with Michel Martin on "Tell Me More," National Public Radio: The Tipping Point: When Hate Turns To Violence¬†
• Larry Keller, Southern Poverty Law Center:¬†Alleged Holocaust Museum Shooter Had Given Up Hate Site, Planned Other Attacks
• Cliff Redding blog, Familiar Road
• Pamela D. Reed, thedailyvoice.com:¬†The Right to Bear Arms – No Matter What?
• Marisa Trevi?±o, Latina Lista: FCC needs to do more to monitor "outrage" media that fuels hate
• Jesse Washington, Associated Press:¬†Museum Shooting Helps Rips Back Cover on White Racism

Sonya Ross, left, wrote about a special week with her mother, Mattie Ross.

First-Person Story in Ebony Brings Family Surprise

In its May issue, Ebony magazine ran a piece by Sonya Ross, a news editor for the Associated Press in Washington, about the final visit her 81-year-old mother, Mattie Ross, paid to the journalist’s suburban Maryland home.

It was a weeklong Fourth of July visit in 2007, during which Ross indulged her mom with tuna steaks and vegetables roasted on the gas grill, and a movie, "Clean House," about the messiest home in the country.

"I got many calls and e-mails (and some snail mail) from people who said they were giving new love to their own mothers because of it," Ross told Journal-isms.

"So I was expecting more of that when I got an out-of-the-blue call from a lady in Las Vegas.

"Imagine my surprise when this lady told me that my mother had essentially been her mother too."

The Las Vegas lady is Joy Carter Wilson, now 66, a part-time "brand ambassador" who demonstrates products.

She told Journal-isms that Ross’ aunt had sent her a copy of the magazine, and "I said to myself, ‘I’m connected to this story.’"

In the early 1940s, Wilson was a "baby in waiting" for adoption, placed with Ross’ grandmother in Atlanta, Mary B. Mariano, a de facto foster parent. Six months later, another baby arrived in the home, Howard Michael "Mickey" Henderson, with whom Wilson maintained a lifelong friendship until he died in September.

"My mom, then a teenager, took care of Joy from birth until six months, when Joy was adopted," Ross said.

"Joy told me she is forever grateful for the nurturing my mom gave her, never forgot it, and had remained in touch over the years with my mom and aunts, even visited them in Atlanta."

"I had always known about my grandmother’s work as a foster parent, but I never truly understood the breadth and depth of it until I confirmed Joy’s story with my aunt Grace.

"Aunt Grace said [approximately] 75 children like Joy passed through their home.

"Joy told me she would love to have a reunion of the babies-in-waiting who came through my grandmother’s home, just as a thank-you to my family."

Surprise! Journalism Graduates Are Finding Jobs

"It’s a baffling phenomenon: As the job market for journalists has gotten worse and worse, enrollment in journalism schools has gone up and up. How to explain this?" Jeff Bercovici wrote on dailyfinance.com.

"As it turns out, there’s a fairly simple, if surprising, explanation: As bad as things are in the media industry, j-school grads are, far more often than not, finding jobs. And not as subway buskers or strip-club managers, but as reporters, editors and fact-checkers. At least that’s the case for recent graduates of two New York journalism schools, one of them venerable, one young.

"Of the 306 students who earned degrees from Columbia University’s Graduate School of Journalism last month, 197, or 64 percent, already reported having jobs or other post-school plans (such as internships, fellowships or continuing education) lined up by May 28, according to Elizabeth Weinreb Fishman, the school’s associate dean for communications.

"New degree-holders from CUNY’s Graduate School of Journalism have found a similarly welcome reception in the workforce, according to Stephen B. Shepard, the school’s dean (and former editor-in-chief at BusinessWeek). The most recent class of graduates earned their diplomas in December 2008; of those 45 students, says Shepard, 60 percent have full-time jobs in journalism, while another 15 percent have quasi-full-time internships or freelance gigs."

At CUNY, there is no statistical difference between the outcomes of student graduates of color and other graduates, Shepard told Journal-isms.

[Fishman said on Monday, "anecdotally our students of color are doing very well in job placements. But because our career services office does not break down job placement results by ethnicity, I’m afraid I can’t give you any firm statistics."] [updated June 15.]

Some Journalists Could Use "Access to Capital"

With media organizations cutting back, laying off and buying out, the Minority Media and Telecommunications Council’s annual Access to Capital and Telecom Policy Conference¬†might be more attractive to journalists this year.

"Street reporting is inherently entrepreneurial ‚Äî one’s determination and follow through make or break a working journalist," David Honig, executive director of the group, told Journal-isms. "Thus many reporters make first rate entrepreneurs. And with the downsizing of print and broadcast journalism, many reporters will have to unlock their ‘inner entrepreneurs’ or find another career path entirely. MMTC’s annual conference is designed to show the way to entrepreneurship."

The promotional material says of the July 20-21 conference, scheduled for Washington:

"This is the place to be if you’re an entrepreneur or an established media, telecom or broadband firm seeking deals and financing. We expect to host over 300 entrepreneurs, senior managers, bankers, venture capitalists, brokers and attorneys.

Entrepreneurs will meet one-on-one with bankers, brokers, lawyers and procurement officers, it says.

"Our stellar array of confirmed speakers includes FCC Commissioner Jonathan Adelstein, Presidential Assistant Susan Crawford, Verizon VP David Hill, RLJ Equity VP Jerry Johnson, MasTec President Jose Mas," National Cable & Telecommunications Association "President Kyle McSlarrow, National Urban League President Marc Morial, One Economy President Rey Ramsey and Comcast SVP Joe Waz."

At least three of the journalist associations of color plan to address entrepreneurship at its summer convention. The Asian American Journalists Association has a session on preparing a business plan at its Aug. 12-15 conference in Boston, according to Janice Lee, deputy executive director.

The National Association of Black Journalists plans two full-day programs with an entreprenuerial focus at its convention in Tampa, Fla., Aug. 5-9, spokesman Ryan Williams said: "Invest in Yourself: Reinvent the Business You’re in," and "The Business of Freelancing: Having a Career You Love and Making a Good Living."

The National Association of Hispanic Journalists, meeting in San Juan, Puerto Rico, June 24-27, has the subject "threaded throughout," according to Ivan Roman, executive director.  The workshop "Journalists as Entrepreneurs: Monetizing Your Blog" is scheduled for Thursday; "Biz Models, Making Your Own Journalism," for Friday. 

At the Native American Journalists Association, Executive Director Jeff Harjo said, "That would be a good topic, but we don’t have anything scheduled that relates to that subject." [Updated June 15.]

 

Credit: Tim Jackson 

TV Stations Sign Off Analog, Leave 1 Million Unprepared

"Television stations across the U.S. began cutting their analog signals Friday, marking the final signoff for a 60-year-old technology and likely stranding more than 1 million unprepared homes without TV service," the Associated Press reported.

[On Saturday, TV Newsday reported, "The switch to digital by 971 full-power TV stations Friday prompted hundreds of thousands of consumers to call for assistance, but caused no widespread disruption of over-the-air television broadcasts, the FCC reported this morning.

["Of the 317,450 calls to the FCC’s hotline (1-888-CALL-FCC), the agency said, nearly 30 percent concerned the operation of digital converter boxes.

["The largest volume of calls per TV household among markets registering 1,000 or more calls came from Chicago, followed by the Dallas-Ft. Worth, New York, Philadelphia and Baltimore markets."]

"About 5.1 percent of black homes are not prepared to make switch, while about 4.3 Hispanic homes are ill-prepared," Joshua Molina wrote for HispanicBusiness.com.

 

"My phones were ringing constantly," columnist David Squires says. Above, Fox’s Greta Van Susteren, no Jeremiah Wright fan, presses Squires on whether he supports Wright.

David Squires Scores with Jeremiah Wright Interview

David Squires, columnist for the Daily Press in Newport News, Va., was all over the airwaves on Thursday, thanks to an interview he conducted with the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, the Chicago pastor who then-candidate Barack Obama was forced last year to repudiate.

"In an exclusive interview at the 95th annual Hampton University Ministers’ Conference, Wright told the Daily Press that he has not spoken to his former church member since Obama became president, and he implied that the White House won’t allow Obama to talk to him," Squires wrote.

"’Them Jews ain’t going to let him talk to me,’ Wright said. ‘"I told my baby daughter that he’ll talk to me in five years when he’s a lame duck, or in eight years when he’s out of office."

Squires’ audio was paired with still photos to become a video on the Daily Press Web site. "We pushed about 300,000 page views on that story, audio, etc. A really good get by David," Editor Ernie Gates told Journal-isms.

"The interview has been featured on CNN and practically every major network and Web site," Squires said. "The biggest problem early on was that my phones were ringing constantly with people wanting to get the audio or to talk to me about the story, including radio stations in Naples, Fla., and Stamford/Norwalk, Ct."

Squires was interviewed Thursday night by Fox News’ Greta Van Susteren and on Thursday afternoon by telephone by MSNBC’s Tamron Hall. "The story was also featured on Inside Edition and he was credited by name on the Rush Limbaugh show. Squires has also done three radio show radio interviews since the story ran. He was slated to do Inside Edition live but the network couldn’t book a studio. He did the MSNBC interview during a roadside stop at a Hardees restaurant in Virginia while he was in route to Myrtle Beach, S.C. He did the interview with Greta Van Susteren from a TV station in Myrtle Beach," Squires wrote to his hometown paper in New Bern, N.C.

Wright’s comments became fodder for talk shows of all persuasions, and he was designated the day’s "Worst Person" by MSNBC’s Keith Olbermann.

The Los Angeles Lakers fought back Thursday from a 12-point halftime deficit to take Game Four of the NBA Finals and grab a 3-1 series lead. over the Orlando Magic. Above, the Lakers’ Lamar Odom, left, and the Magic’s Dwight Howard. (Credit: nba.com)

Confession: "Orlando Wants What You Have, L.A."

The Orlando Magic might be trailing the Los Angeles Lakers in the NBA Finals, but fans in Orlando might want the championship more badly than Angelenos. At least that’s the view of Orlando Sentinel columnist George Diaz, who is part of a media contingent from the Florida city that is going all out in its coverage.

On Friday, Diaz wrote in his latest, now near-daily column, from L.A.:

"They are Big Fish. We are Little Pond.

"They are the Playboy Mansion. We are Hooters.

"They are the Golden Globes. We are the Golden Corral.

"They are Robin Williams. We are Pat Williams.

"Bottom line: Orlando can’t come up short in this series, unless it wants to perpetuate the ‘small-town boys can’t roll with the big boys’ theme that’s going to be splattered all over the national media today.

"Orlando wants what you have, L.A."

Mark Russell, Sentinel managing editor, told Journal-isms the paper "sent five people to Los Angeles: two columnists; two reporters; and a photographer. Also, we had a 56-page tabloid special NBA Finals preview section that published the Thursday the Finals started."

As reported previously, the Orlando television stations are also going all out, according to the Sentinel’s Hal Boedeker.

All stations except the Fox affiliate, which was relying on content from its L.A. sister station, sent reporters to the West Coast, and the Orlando stations planned to use multiple anchors and to air specials. WFTV-Channel 9, for example, was sending five staffers and hired extra help in Los Angeles.

• Kevin Blackistone, AOL Fanhouse:¬†Superman Saves the Series for Magic
• George Diaz, Orlando Sentinel:¬†Magic’s Rashard Lewis keeps family concerns to himself
• Daily Voice:¬†Can anyone stop Kobe?¬†
  
• Toni Fitzgerald, Medialifemagazine.com: Jocks rule: NBA and NHL take the night
• Melody K. Hoffman, ebonyjet.com: Bryant‚Äôs Business: Love Him Or Hate Him
• Terence Moore, AOL Fanhouse: Clearly, Lakers Possess Champion DNA
• William C. Rhoden, New York Times:¬†Gasol Could Win a Championship and Lose a Label¬†
• John Smallwood, Philadelphia Daily News: Kobe’s legacy at stake in NBA Finals
• Jason Whitlock, Kansas City Star:¬†Magic saves us all from Kobe-LeBron¬†¬†
• Michael Wilbon, Washington Post:¬†Kobe. Tiger. Federer. Their Greatest Pursuit Is the Pursuit of Greatness

Short Takes

• Why is NBC Universal’s black-oriented Web site called "theGrio.com" instead of "theGriot,com," using the more common spelling? "The founders of the site didn’t think most people would know how to pronounce ‘griot,’ NBC spokeswoman Lauren Skowronski told Journal-isms. "However, if you type www.thegriot.com, it links to thegrio.com."
• In Washington, activist and talk show host Tavis Smiley kicked off a five-city tour as spokesman for Nationwide Insurance, a trip that includes free financial literacy and retirement planning workshops, Denise Rolark Barnes reported¬†Thursday for the Washington Informer. ‚ÄúEveryone is looking to government to get us out of the mess we are in,‚Äù Smiley told the audience. ‚ÄúSome of you think [President Barack] Obama is God and that he is going to get us out of the mess that government allowed us to get into. Believe me, it is not going to happen.‚Äù
• In New York, "Jennifer Jordan and Megan Vega are the latest victims of the slumping economy and budget-slashing at WWOR/Ch. 9," Richard Huff reported¬†Friday in the New York Daily News. "Both correspondents and fill-in anchors have been told their contracts are not being renewed, and they’ll be leaving this month. . . . Elsewhere, weathercaster Melissa Magee," another African American, "is leaving sister station WNYW/Ch. 5 today, having been laid off."
• "After 125 years of empowering the Black community, the Philadelphia Tribune is nowhere near tired. Led by President and CEO Robert W. Bogle, the Tribune, which celebrated its 125th anniversary last week, has withstood social and economic trials since 1884 ‚Äî not by being a jack of everything ‚Äî but a master at serving its community," Vanessa Rozier wrote¬†for the National Newspaper Publishers Association.
• "What amazes me most about the archival materials on the family that ran the Chicago Defender newspaper ‚Äî the collection opened to the public last week at the Woodson Regional Library in Chicago ‚Äî is the sheer chutzpah of Robert Abbott and John Sengstacke," Dawn Turner Trice wrote¬†June 1 in the Chicago Tribune. "The Abbott-Sengstacke Family Papers, now permanently a part of the library’s Vivian G. Harsh Research Collection, offer an incredibly nuanced look into a story that goes beyond what we know of the Chicago Defender’s role in the Great Migration, desegregating the U.S. armed forces and starting anti-lynching campaigns."
• Al Martinez, "the longtime columnist who was squeezed out of the Los Angeles Times (again) this year now runs in the Daily News," Kevin Roderick reported Monday in LA Observed. "Martinez’s debut DN column is about his daughters, one of whom is undergoing chemotherapy. Having his column run in the Daily News is a homecoming of sorts ‚Äî for many years Martinez’s column was based in the Times’ old Valley edition." Martinez, who turned 80 in July, had been with the L.A. Times for 36 years.
• "Are the bookers of Sunday morning news and public affairs shows lazy or disinclined to expand their source lists" to include people of color? Wayne Dawkins asked, reporting on appearances by Robert M. Shrum and Tony Blankley, "a pair of Democratic/left and Republican/right bookends of the Washington establishment," before 100 media professors. "Neither Shrum nor Blankley had a good answer."
• "New York City Comptroller William Thompson Jr. has written to the heads of five New York-based agencies ‚Äî Omnicom Group, Interpublic Group, Publicis Group, WPP Group, and Havas Media to ask for meetings on ‘no Urban’ and ‘no Spanish’ dictates, and to discuss alleged discrimination in the advertising industry," RadioInk reported. "Thompson cites an FCC study from earlier this year that, he says, provided evidence that advertisers ‘often’ exclude black- and Hispanic-targeted stations from buys or pay them less than general-market stations with comparable audiences."
• In a tribute¬†to sportswriter Jerry Rutledge of the Columbus (Ga.) Ledger-Enquirer, who died June 4 at age 52, Richard Hyatt wrote Friday in the Ledger-Enquirer, "If this were a fairy tale, this would be a story of change, describing the advancements of African-Americans in our press boxes. Reality doesn‚Äôt always mean happily ever after, though. A 2007 study taken for the Associated Press Sports Editors found blacks held only 6.2 percent of the sports writing jobs. Of the more than 300 newspapers surveyed, just five had a black sports editor. Nine out of 10 sports editors were white males, as were 84 percent of sports columnists."
• Writing on their "Womenomics" blog about Newsweek’s cover of Oprah Winfrey, Katty Kay and Claire Shipman said Monday, "That photo was just in horribly bad taste. Picking a photo of Oprah to make her literally look crazy, with a banner headline about wacky cures? Was the point to make her look like a nutty witch doctor? In fact it felt not only misogynistic, but racist. I could almost hear the voodoo drumbeats in the background."
• Betty Nguyen, Atlanta-based CNN anchor, was awarded an Andrew Heiskell Community Service Award, given to Time Warner employees, the company said¬†on Tuesday. Nguyen "in 2000 established Help the Hungry, a foundation that provides humanitarian aid to impoverished areas in her birth country of Vietnam. Betty has spent several weeks each year in flood-ravaged areas of Vietnam, delivering food, clothing and medical supplies to families. She has also led fundraising efforts to provide relief to villages, schools and orphanages in Vietnam."¬†
• In Toronto, the DiverseCity project, launched earlier this year by the Maytree Foundation and the Toronto City Summit Alliance, has created an online database of experts from the Greater Toronto Area’s "many diverse communities who are willing to speak to the media about their specific areas of expertise. So far, 100 experts in areas ranging from the economy and the environment to human rights and health care, have signed on to speak out," Kathy English, public editor of the Toronto Star, wrote Saturday.
• Following the wounding of a journalist and a driver by Pakistan security forces on Tuesday, the Committee to Protect Journalists called on Pakistan’s military Thursday to institute training to prevent such incidents and to discipline troops who fire unwarrantedly, the committee said.
• The Sudanese parliament passed a press law on Monday that falls short of international standards for freedom of expression, the Committee to Protect Journalists said. "Mohamed Abdel Dayem, CPJ program coordinator for the Middle East and North Africa, said, "Under this law, journalists are severely hampered in their work by legal restrictions and censorship. It should be repealed."
• In Somalia, "Roughly 15 journalists from different news outlets announced they were suspending their work because of security concerns," Tom Rhodes, Africa program coordinator, wrote¬†for the Committee to Protect Journalists. The journalists spoke after Sunday’s fatal shooting of the former director of Shabelle Media Network.