Maynard Institute archives

“Amusing Ourselves to Death”

by richard0471

Anna Nicole Smith Story Still Hogging Airtime

“Even though John Kerry couldn’t beat George W. Bush, somebody could — Anna Nicole Smith — according to the News Interest Index from the Pew Research Center,” John Eggerton wrote Friday for Broadcasting & Cable.

 

 

“According to a telephone survey of adults 18-plus, 38% said Smith was the name they had heard the most about in the news lately, with 28% naming Bush; they were followed by Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton at 3% apiece and Britney Spears and Nancy Pelosi at 1%. . . .

“Pew developed the index in conjunction with the Project for Excellence in Journalism’s weekly news analysis of outlets in TV, radio, print and online. Anna Nicole Smith dominated cable news last week as well.

“According to the Pew interest poll, more people were interested in the Smith story (16%) than in the 2008 presidential campaign (9%), possible war with Iran (6%) or North Korea’s nuclear weapons (2%).

“Still, for the seventh week in a row, the story the survey respondents said they were most interested in was Iraq at 26%.”

The Web site TVEyes.com has been calculating the mentions of the Smith story on cable. On Thursday, MSNBC had the most extensive coverage of the Smith legal drama, with at least 330 mentions, according to a closed captioning transcript search, Brian Stelter reported on his TV Newser site. “So far on Friday, Fox News is ‘winning,’ with 139 mentions, and CNN is ‘losing’ with just 64,” he said.

As of 12:45 p.m. Friday, he reported, the number of search results for the word “Anna” in closed captioning transcripts of cable news was 139 for Fox News Channel, 64 for CNN, 88 for HLN and 116 for MSNBC.

The Smith coverage is also having its effect on entertainment news-magazine shows, Jim Benson wrote Friday on Broadcasting & Cable. “The perfect twin tabloid storms surrounding the messy fallout” from Smith’s death and Spears’ public meltdown “have pushed pre-Oscar hoopla coverage to the sidelines on a multitude of entertainment magazine shows,” Benson wrote.

On his “Daily Nightly” blog, “NBC Nightly News” anchor Brian Williams declared on Tuesday, “Viewer warning: There will be no mention of Britney Spears’ baldness or rehab in tonight’s broadcast, nor will there be any mention of Anna Nicole’s ‘body possession’ hearing.”

Politico.com called its Web site, “An Anna Nicole-Free News Zone*”

However, next to the asterisk is: “Unless the father happens to be a politician.”

Columnists and editors took note of the developments, sometimes with sadness.

“First of all, let me say that it is always a sad thing to hear of anyone dying before their time, whether that person is a 19-year-old black guy who gets gunned down by gang bullets or a 39-year-old blonde bombshell like Smith, whose excesses finally caught up with her. Sadder still is that Smith leaves behind a five-month-old daughter, Dannielynn, who will never know her mother,” Tonyaa Weathersbee wrote on BlackAmericaWeb.com.

“But when you strip away the spin and apply the morality standards to her life that black women, and especially poor black women, are lambasted for not living up to, you find someone who fell far short of those standards,” Weathersbee said.

“Yet in spite of that, she’s being iconized.”

The Rev. Barbara A. Reynolds began a syndicated column about Obama with, “Have you noticed how the vulnerable, exploited, dysfunctional Anna Nicole Smith has been elevated in death to a blond American goddess worthy of 24-hour cable worship? In life, she pursued wealth and fame at all costs and became a media darling through her promiscuous, hip shaking, bosom busting antics and accusations of being a gold-digger, yet I doubt anyone asked if she were ‘White enough,’ or ‘lewd enough’ or even screamed ‘enough already, sit down.'”

A legal analyst for the “CBS Evening News,” Andrew Cohen, wrote on Friday, “In my dream all the poor souls who were covering the Anna Nicole Smith body-disposition hearing instead had been told by their far-sighted and enlightened bosses to travel a tiny way further south along Interstate 95 to cover instead the competency hearing for Jose Padilla, the alleged terror conspirator. In my dream, the millions of people who wasted their lives this week following the saga of the former stripper were instead transfixed by the in-court drama unfolding in Miami, where government agents were finally being forced to disclose some of the ways in which they treat terror suspects — even U.S. citizens.”

US Weekly editor Janice Min acknowledged in USA Today on Monday that, “The journalistic mission has taken second place to responding to the audience.” But she said she understood. “This story is the ultimate in voyeurism: You’re getting to see the inner workings of a celebrity, her demise, her home life, what she ate, what drugs she was taking, the court papers. It’s almost like the real-time unraveling of a celebrity. And, let’s face it, this is better than any TV show that’s on right now. It’s probably better than any book you’re reading. You can’t script this sort of crazy drama.”

In the New York Times Thursday, columnist Bob Herbert recalled that, “It was Neil Postman who warned in 1985 that we were amusing ourselves to death. I’m not sure anyone knew how literally to take him,” Herbert wrote.

“More than 20 years later, the masses have nearly succeeded in drawing the curtains on anything that’s not entertaining. No one can figure out what do about Iraq or Al Qaeda. A great American cultural center like New Orleans was all but washed away, and no one knows how to put it back together. The ice caps are melting and Al Gore is traveling the land like the town crier, raising the alarm about global warming.

“But none of that has really gotten the public’s attention. None of it is amusing enough. As a nation of spectators, we seem content to sit with a pizza and a brew in front of the high-def flat-screen TV, obsessing over Anna Nicole et al., and giving no thought to the possibility that the calamitous events unfolding in the world may someday reach our doorsteps.”

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Cuba Orders Out Chicago Tribune Correspondent

“Chicago Tribune foreign correspondent Gary Marx, who has been based in Havana since 2002, was told Wednesday by Cuban officials his press credential will not be renewed and he can no longer report from there,” Phil Rosenthal reported Thursday in the Chicago Tribune.

 

Gary Marx

“‘They said I’ve been here long enough and they felt my work was negative,’ Marx said. ‘They did not cite any examples.”’

The Committee to Protect Journalists, protesting the decision, said on Friday that Cuba also told Stephen Gibbs of the BBC and César González-Calero of the Mexican daily El Universal that their press credentials would not be renewed, citing international press reports.

“Marx was one of only a handful of permanent correspondents for U.S.-based news organizations in Havana.” CNN and the Associated Press also have Cuba bureaus, Rosenthal wrote.

“A reporter for the South Florida Sun-Sentinel will continue to staff the Tribune Co. bureau.” As reported Feb. 12, Ray Sánchez joined the Sun-Sentinel’s Havana bureau in December after nearly 15 years at Newsday.

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Hampton U. J-School Closer to Re-Accreditation

A visiting site team for the Accrediting Council on Education in Journalism and Mass Communications has recommended full re-accreditation for Hampton University’s Scripps Howard School of Journalism and Communications, the school announced on Friday. It follows a protracted battle over the “provisional” accreditation the school received last year.

The Hampton announcement came after a Tuesday visit from the site team, whose recommendations are to be reviewed by an accrediting committee and then voted on by the full council in May.

“This decision to re-accredit our program reinforces our determination to continue the excellence we have achieved in a very short period of time,” Tony Brown, dean of the Scripps Howard School, said in the news release. A story on the development appeared Thursday in the local newspaper, the Daily Press of Newport News, Va.

The decision by Hampton to disclose the site team’s recommendation so soon after the visit stood in marked contrast to the stance it took last year, when President William R. Harvey and Brown angrily denounced the disclosure of that year’s recommendation to flunk the school on two of the nine standards.

“All institutions that are audited by ACEJMC are promised a process in which the visiting site team’s recommendations are just a preliminary step,” Harvey wrote then. “The school, according to the rules, is guaranteed the opportunity to respond to the team’s recommendations before they are submitted to the ACEJMC. Instead of a fair process, Hampton University got a rush to judgment. A preliminary team recommendation was announced in the media two days after the team left our school.”

The school used the disclosure, made in this column, as a basis for its successful appeal, which led to the new accreditation visit.

This time, the head of the site team, Journalism Dean Will Norton of the University of Nebraska – Lincoln, would not confirm even that Hampton had passed its muster. “I’m not going to say anything,” he said, “because I’m not supposed to. I don’t want to jeopardize anything.”

The school is a result of a $10 million commitment from the Scripps Howard Foundation to upgrade journalism education at a historically black campus.

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Study Outlines Viewing, Reading Habits by Race

The differences among African American, Hispanic, Asian American and overall reading and viewing habits have been outlined in a new study by the New York firm Monroe Mendelsohn Research.

“Among the most dramatic findings: Mendelsohn found that BET is the highest-rated cable network among African-Americans, while four of the top five magazines are Ebony, Jet, Essence and O,” Erik Sass wrote Jan. 30 in Media Daily News.

“African-Americans also placed the Lifetime Channel and Lifetime Movie Network in their top 10 cable channels — the only group to do so. However, African-Americans gave high rankings to news channels like FoxNews, CNN and the Weather Channel, and gave the No. 2 cable spot to the Discovery Channel, paralleling other groups to some degree.

“Asian-Americans also favor general news and entertainment cable channels, including CNN, Fox News, ESPN, ESPN 2 and the ubiquitous Discovery Channel. But there were some differences in cable viewing: the Food Network and Disney Channel both made the Asian-American top 10 — as opposed to other groups. Among print properties, Asian-Americans gave general news titles like USA Today, Time, and Newsweek some of the highest ratings.

“Finally, among Hispanics, general news cable channels also rank highest — with CNN and Fox News leading the way, and Animal Planet also making a strong showing. Hispanics’ favorite print publications resemble those of white consumers: People, AARP the Magazine, Better Homes and Gardens, Reader’s Digest, USA Today and National Geographic.

Lucia Moses reported Wednesday in Mediaweek that, “Differences also were found in online viewership across racial and ethnic groups.

“The top three publication sites visited by all adults were The New York Times, USA Today and People. Publication Web sites visited in the past 30 days by Hispanic adults but not all adults were those of Car & Driver and Money. For African-Americans, those sites were those of Fitness, Entertainment Weekly and ESPN the Magazine. And sites in the top 10 for Asians but not all adults included The Wall Street Journal and Forbes.”

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Case of Black Cherokees Getting National Attention

“Historically, Cherokee people were black slave owners,”

 

 

 

begins the summary for a segment Monday on “Native America Calling.”

“After the Civil War the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma was given orders by the federal government to take in their former slaves as tribal members. They became known as the Freedmen.

“The Cherokee Nation may change this in a referendum by giving the Freedmen the boot. Does a sovereign tribal government have the right to say who is a tribal member? Or is it up to the people to vote? Guests include Marilyn Vann, President of the Descendants of the Freedmen of the Five Civilized Tribes Association.”

The case is starting to get national attention. Adam Geller wrote a piece for the Associated Press on Feb. 10, and on Wednesday, Frank Morris reported on the issue for National Public Radio.

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Navajo Newspaper, Once Shut Down, Is a Survivor

“Bill Donovan laughs when he describes the four times he was fired from the Navajo Times for writing stories critical of tribal government. The joking stops when he tells of the day 20 years ago when the newspaper was shut down,” Felicia Fonseca wrote Friday for the Associated Press.

“On Feb. 19, 1987, under then-Chairman Peter MacDonald Sr., the tribe closed the only daily newspaper in Indian country at the time, citing an audit of the paper that MacDonald said revealed debts to the IRS and mismanagement.

“. . . The Navajo Times, then called the Navajo Times Today, survived the shutdown, which spurred discussion of a free press in Indian country.

“MacDonald beat out incumbent Chairman Peterson Zah in the 1986 election. Then-publisher Mark Trahant wrote an editorial endorsing Zah, and staff members suspect that the endorsement and other stories critical of MacDonald’s administration led to the paper’s demise.” Trahant, who is board chairman of the Maynard Institute, is editorial page editor of the Seattle Post-Intelligencer.

“The Navajo Nation Council has since granted the newspaper its independence — a unique feat for newspapers in Indian country, said Mike Kellogg, president of the Native American Journalists Association.”

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Citizens Drive to Pa. Hearing on Media Ownership

“The Federal Communications Commission heard two sides of the media consolidation debate in its third media ownership hearing in Harrisburg, Penn., but its hopes for limiting comments to smaller market issues got sidestepped as residents of Philadelphia, Pittsburgh and Baltimore drove to the hearing to add their concerns about bigger market issues,” Ira Teinowitz reported Friday in TV Week.

“Overall, broadcasters including Bill Baldwin, executive VP of Hall Communications, touted their public interest activities, buttressed in some cases by praise from charities. Consumers questioned further consolidation, said radio consolidation had already gone too far and suggested the little advanced reporting on the hearing by local media was indicative of the effects of consolidation.

“Several people also questioned whether media consolidation was affecting news content. ‘I am so sick of Anna Nicole Smith,’ said Harold Johnson, a Philadelphia resident.”

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Hair Issues Join Black History Month Coverage

“By wearing weaves and wigs, black women can become the type of woman society doesn’t otherwise expect them to be. But do these counter-identities lead to empowerment or self-loathing?” asked a headline over a story by Malena Amusa Wednesday on Women’s eNews.

“The January 2007 copy of Essence magazine I picked up didn’t help,” Amusa wrote. “Look Beautiful in your 20s, 30s, 40s, 50s . . . Real Women and Celebs Share Beauty and Health Secrets,” the cover read. Featured were three celebrities with flowing, bouncy weaves and another woman whose silver hair was visibly straightened to suppress the real curl underneath.

“Essence had made it clear: There was no way to be nappy-haired and beautiful at any age.”

On the Web site of the Dayton Daily News, Meghan Crosby and Chris Griffith produced a video on natural hair, stating,

“Natural hair styles were worn by blacks in the 1960s and 70s as a means to express political activism and cultural pride.

“But do natural hair styles worn by men and women today still have such meaning?”

Meanwhile, on BlackAmericaWeb.com, Patrice Gaines examined the success of mandated black history classes in Philadelphia high schools.

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Short Takes

  • “On Feb. 1, Gannett president, chairman and CEO Craig Dubow introduced the Gannett Leadership & Diversity Council to generate ideas and ‘a new fervor and sense of purpose’ around diversity,” Karen Lincoln Michel, president of Unity: Journalists of Color, wrote on Tuesday. “Twelve days later, the Associated Press Managing Editors — in partnership with UNITY: Journalists of Color — held the first of four roundtable discussions to explore why journalists of color are leaving the business and what can be done to keep them.” Both groups are looking beyond media companies for tips on best practices for diversity efforts, she said.
  • Eugene Louie, a former photographer at the San Jose Mercury News, is pursuing studies in radiology, according to a story in American Journalism Review on journalists who took buyouts. “Although Louie is less certain now than when he left the Mercury News about his second career, he has learned an important lesson about himself. ‘When I worked as a photojournalist for some sort of media outlet, it gave me an identity that I think I really needed in my younger years. I always knew that if I got to the point where I would give that up, it might be a problem for me in terms of my self-image and my self-worth,’ Louie says. ‘Surprisingly, it’s not been as difficult as I thought,'” reads the story by Evelyn Richards and Margaret Steen.
  • On Tuesday night, Wynton Marsalis played live from the Allen Room at Jazz at Lincoln Center, Marsalis’ Web site reports. “He spoke with anchor Brian Williams for ‘NBC Nightly News’ about the state of his hometown and the birthplace of jazz, New Orleans, on this, the second Mardi Gras since Hurricane Katrina. He closed the segment playing with Wycliffe Gordon on the trombone, Victor Goines on the clarinet, Carlos Henriquez on the bass, Ali Kackson on the drums.” A video is posted. Also on Tuesday, Robin Roberts reported from New Orleans for ABC’s “Good Morning America.
  • While many are applauding the departure of Chief Illiniwek from the halftimes at University of Illinois games, the Columbus (Ohio) Dispatch is mourning his removal. In an editorial on Friday, the newspaper said, “If Chief Illiniwek juggled tomahawks, performed end-zone push-ups and chased Brutus Buckeye with a giant inflatable spear, objections would be understandable. But the University of Illinois has gone out of its way to portray the chief with respect. No one should be offended by a university — named, incidentally, for a confederation of Indian tribes— trying to keep alive its heritage.” Similarly, syndicated columnist Robert Novak wrote, “The accusation that Illinois and other schools degrade Native Americans is absurd.”
  • “Walk into a McDonald’s and you’re likely to see Dana Tyler’s image on the wall, as part of the company’s 2007 Black Broadcast Legends campaign,” Richard Huff reported Friday in the New York Daily News. “The honor should come as no surprise, as Tyler (and some members of her family, for that matter) has been in the vanguard of African-Americans in journalism. When she joined WCBS/Ch. 2, she was teamed with the late Reggie Harris, forming the nation’s first all-African-American anchor team. Her great-grandfather, Ralph Waldo Tyler, was the first African-American correspondent in World War I.”
  • “Reuters is to launch a consumer-targeted African news and information portal that will include a continent-wide network of local bloggers,” Mark Sweney wrote Thursday in London’s Guardian newspaper. “Reuters Africa aims to bring together a range of financial news, breaking general news and features that the company’s diverse and extensive network of reporters file from across the continent.”
  • Yahoo! “confirmed Wednesday that it will launch a new initiative before the end of this quarter that will feature a journalist-cum-crooner who will sing the news,” Andrew Wallenstein reported Thursday in the Hollywood Reporter. “This reporter will leave you tapping your feet,” said Scott Moore, Yahoo’s head of news and information.
  • On the 65th anniversary of the creation of the Japanese internment camps, internee Bill Hosokawa, 93, a pioneer in Asian American journalism, shared memories of life in the Heart Mountain camp with Fred Miller of the Powell (Wyo.) Tribune. “Hosokawa wrote a column for the Cody Enterprise. Other internees, starting with author Mary Oyama, wrote a column for The Tribune called ‘Heart Mountain Breezes,’ the story said. “Oyama occasionally railed against ‘reactionary politicians and demagogues’ who demonized Japanese-Americans. Despite anti-Japanese sentiment, neither writer faced censorship, Hosokawa said.”
  • “Words can cut and injure and anger and incite the deepest rage — perhaps none more than the ultimate racist insult, the word that begins with ‘N.’ That was the consensus at a forum — ‘The N Word: Friend or Foe?’ — held last week by the Greater Dayton Association of Black Journalists,” the Dayton Daily News reported in an editorial on Thursday. The Daily News included a video of the forum on its Web site. The word “is being used frequently by white kids seeking to mimic rap artists and ‘gangsta’ wannabes â?? but also as a careless form of racism perpetrated behind the backs of black peers,” the editorial said.
  • CNN correspondent Rick Sanchez has been promoted to weekend anchor, Ken Lindner & Associates reported.
  • Lynne Adrine, a producer for ABC News in Washington for 16 years, is joining the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies on Monday as vice president for communications. “Most recently, she has run her own business providing media strategies and career coaching, and she has been working with Syracuse University and the Poynter Institute on delivering journalism education programs,” new president and CEO Ralph Everett announced to his staff.
  • Sridhar Pappu will join the Washington Post’s Style staff as its lead political reporter, the paper told staff members on Friday. Most recently, Pappu was a correspondent for Atlantic Monthly. “While at the New York Observer, where he covered media, he nabbed the first extensive interview with Jayson Blair and wrote lively dispatches about the New York Times under Howell Raines,” the announcement said.
  • “Radio One’s announcement that it did not properly account for grants of stock options to employees in past financial reports raises concern about the company’s fiscal health, industry analysts said yesterday,” Anita Huslin reported Friday in the Washington Post.
  • “The Committee to Protect Journalists condemns an Egyptian court’s verdict sentencing an Egyptian Internet writer to four years in prison for his online criticisms. The case represents the first time that an Egyptian blogger has stood trial and been sentenced for his work,” the organization said on Thursday. “Abdel Karim Suleiman, who goes by the online moniker Karim Amer, was today convicted of insulting Islam and Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak.”

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