8 Democrats Say Yes to Smiley’s Forum

Martin, Navarrette, Wickham Chosen as Questioners

Democratic presidential candidates Joe Biden, Hillary Clinton, Christopher Dodd, John Edwards, Mike Gravel, Dennis Kucinich, Barack Obama and Bill Richardson have confirmed their participation in the “All-American Presidential Forums on PBS,” moderated by Tavis Smiley, scheduled for June 28 at Howard University in Washington, PBS announced on Wednesday.

The questions will be posed by Smiley and journalists Michel Martin of National Public Radio, syndicated columnist Ruben Navarrette Jr. of the San Diego Union-Tribune and columnist DeWayne Wickham of USA Today and Gannett News Service.

Smiley chose the questioners, Laurel Lambert of KCET-TV in Los Angeles, where Smiley’s PBS show originates, told Journal-isms. Smiley is listed as the forum’s executive producer.

PBS said the event “marks the first time that a panel exclusively [comprising] journalists of color will be represented in primetime. The candidates will be asked about issues ranging from healthcare and housing to Katrina relief, the economy and the environment, among others outlined in the #1 The New York Times best-seller, ‘Covenant With Black America,'” which Smiley edited.

A second forum for Republican presidential candidates is to be held on Sept. 27 on the campus of Morgan State University in Baltimore. Participating journalists have not yet been selected, Lambert said.

“Immediate public feedback on the performance of the candidates will be conducted by noted pollster Frank Luntz, who will also appear on ‘Tavis Smiley’ on PBS the following evening to discuss his findings.

The PBS Democratic forum is to be Webcast simultaneously on PBS.org, and video of both events is to be archived for download and viewing on the Web site.

Smiley announced the forums in February during his “State of the Black Union” conference at Hampton University. He impressed at least two well-known columnists then.

“Tavis does have gifts, especially the gift of gab. If his gifts can help us to shake loose from outdated and ineffective models of leadership, more power to him. After all, ‘when you make black America better,’ as he likes to say, ‘you make America better,'” wrote Clarence Page in the Chicago Tribune.

In the New York Times, Bob Herbert wrote, “Largely out of the sight of the broader public, Mr. Smiley has quietly become one of the most effective black leaders in the nation.”

• Bruce Dixon, BlackAgendaReport.com: Fox News Rents the Congressional Black Caucus
• Chris Rock jokes with Tavis Smiley about “State of the Black Union.” (video from “Tavis Smiley Show”)

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Columnist Escorts Elizabeth Edwards’ Inspiration

“Rochelle Freeman, a breast cancer survivor, passes out hugs the way the Easter Bunny tosses candy eggs,” Sam Fulwood III wrote last week in his Cleveland Plain Dealer column.

“If you’re within arms’ grasp, Rochelle will reach out and — BAM! — you’re in her loving circle.

“And what a wide embrace Rochelle’s arms make. So wide, it earned her a private audience Monday with Elizabeth Edwards, who visited Cleveland for a speech at the City Club and a fund-raising party for her husband, presidential candidate John Edwards.

“I escorted Rochelle to the speech because she was too excited to drive. And, quite frankly, I wanted to witness that sparkling instant when Rochelle embraced Edwards in a bear hug.

“Again.

“They first met on Oct. 31, 2004, at the Inn on Coventry, when Edwards was campaigning at the Cleveland Heights restaurant for her husband, who was then the Democratic nominee for vice president.

“Somehow, Rochelle sensed something amiss when she spotted Edwards in the restaurant crowd. She and a friend, Barb Sharpe, got whisper-close to Edwards and hugged her.

“Then Rochelle asked a question: ‘Are you a survivor?’

“Edwards wrote in her campaign memoir, ‘Saving Graces,’ that the question moved and motivated her to fight the cancer growing in her right breast. But she also wrote that she wished she knew the women’s names.

“Monday was the day to correct that.”

Fulwood’s column was one of many reacting to Edwards’ March 22 disclosure that her breast cancer has reappeared.

• Desiree Cooper, Detroit Free Press: Fear can stop life, not death
• Merlene Davis, Lexington (Ky.) Herald-Leader: Elizabeth Edwards has it figured out
• Bob Herbert, New York Times: Campaign Candor
• Mary Mitchell, Chicago Sun-Times Edwardses show us how to take hopeful path on cancer journey
• Barry Saunders, Raleigh (N.C.) News & Observer: The next wave for Edwards

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Series on Asian Americans, Black Men Win Peabodys

Journalism ranging from an oral history radio series on Asian American history to the Web version of the Washington Post’s “Being a Black Man” series to a controversial episode of Aaron McGruder’s “Boondocks” television show were among 35 recipients of the 66th Annual Peabody Awards announced Wednesday by the University of Georgia`s Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication.

The awards are to be presented June 4 at a luncheon at the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel in New York.

Among the winners:

• “Crossing East: Our History, Our Stories, Our America” (Public Radio International), the first radio series to explore Asian-American history in depth. It consisted of eight 54-minute installments.
• “Crossing Borders” (Arizona Public Radio and 230 public-radio stations), a vivid audio chronicle of illegal immigrants from Mexico.
• “60 Minutes: The Duke Rape Case” (CBS), the late Ed Bradley’s final piece, in which a “60 Minutes” team “delved into the allegations of rape against Duke University lacrosse players and stopped a prosecutorial rush to judgment in its tracks,” the university said.
• “For My Country? Latinos in the Military” (mun2), which examined “the social, cultural and economic realities that lead a demographically disproportionate number of young Latinos to enlist in the military and questions whether they are being targeted by recruiters.”
• “When The Levees Broke: A Requiem in Four Acts” (Home Box Office), Spike Lee’s examination of Hurricane Katrina’s devastation and the government’s neglect of New Orleans.
• “Out of Control: AIDS in Black America” (ABC), a prime-time news hour in which ABC “explored the reasons for and consequences of a shockingly underreported fact — that blacks, who make up 13 percent of the U.S. population, now account for more than 50 percent of new cases of HIV infection.”
• “Boondocks: Return of the King” (Cartoon Network), which imagined Martin Luther King Jr. reviving from a 32-year ‘coma’ “and outraging Americans of all colors and creeds by confronting them with truths that he, at least, still holds to be self-evident.”
• “Being A Black Man” (washingtonpost.com), a “revelatory” Web site created by Washington Post staff that “defied stereotypes and went far beyond dire statistics and inspiring testimonials, allowing visitors to see, hear and respond to a huge range of history and personal experience.”

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Zell Says Focus Will Be Revenue, Not Job Cuts

Sam Zell, the Chicago billionaire who is set to take control of the Tribune Co. told Chicago Tribune reporters and editors that, “To be honest with you, I don’t know anything about job cuts,” Phil Rosenthal, David Greising and Michael Oneal reported Wednesday in the Chicago Tribune.

“My focus is not to look at this thing and see how we can eliminate one more table leg, because, frankly, eliminating a couple more of this or that isn’t going to make this work. What’s going to make this work is raising revenue.”

“Asked about the relationship between editorial excellence and profit, Zell said quality matters. But he noted: ‘I really believe you can be relevant and editorially spectacular. And I think you can be irrelevant and editorially spectacular. The name of the game is to be the former and not the latter,'” the story said.

“Zell said his favorite columnists are Charles Krauthammer, whose syndicated column runs in the Chicago Tribune, and the New York Times’ Thomas Friedman and David Brooks.” He also said he does not intend to influence the editorial policies and reporting of Tribune Co. newspapers.

Meanwhile, the Media Access Project, an activist law firm that organized public opposition to eliminating the Federal Communications Commission ban on same-market ownership of newspaper and broadcast properties, said Monday it would oppose Zell’s deal to take Tribune Co. private, Editor & Publisher reported.

Noting that Zell wants to continue owning both newspapers and broadcast properties in the same market, as Tribune does, Andrew Jay Schwartzman, MAP president and CEO, said, “Tribune must still obtain license renewals for its TV stations in Los Angeles, Hartford and New York. Media Access Project is co-counsel to citizen groups which have opposed renewal in the first two cities and expect to challenge the New York license when it comes up for renewal next month.”

• Gilbert Cranberg and Randall Bezanson, Nieman Watchdog: Memo to Sam Zell: Keep in mind that your main product is news
• Laura A. Holson and Sharon Waxman, New YorK Times: For Tribune Buyer, a Storm to the West
• Brendan McGarry and Ben Welsh, Center for Public Integrity: In Political Contributions, Zell Leans Right and Wife Leans Left
• Thomas S. Mulligan, Los Angeles Times: A Zell-led company battles with tenants
• Richard Siklos and Katharine Q. Seelye Bidders for Tribune Plan Moves
• Stan Simpson, Hartford (Conn.) Courant: A Lot Is Riding On Zell Deal

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Cindy Rodriguez Leaving Denver Columnist Job

Cindy Rodriguez, one of the few Latina columnists at a mainstream newspaper, is leaving the Denver Post to cover race relations and cultural affairs at the Detroit News, she told Journal-isms.

Rodriguez, who is also vice president-print for the National Association of Hispanic Journalists, is moving to be with her boyfriend. Her new assignment “is right up my alley and a great beat — especially for a city such as Detroit,” she said.

On Feb. 2, Macarena Hernandez announced in the Dallas Morning News that she was moving from the editorial page to the news department to work on a project involving “education and the important role it can play in the lives of immigrants.”

Inspired by the Trotter Group of African American columnists, a number of Latino opinion writers organized at last year’s NAHJ convention in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., as the Latino Voices Caucus.

Other women columnists in the group are Mary Sanchez of the Kansas City Star; Ana Menendez of the Miami Herald; Yvette Cabrera of the Orange County (Calif.) Register; Mariel Garza, Los Angeles Daily News; Tina Griego, Rocky Mountain News; Denise-Marie Santiago, Rochester (N.Y.) Democrat and Chronicle and Ana Veciana Suarez of the Miami Herald. In addition, Marcela Sanchez writes about Latin American issues for the Washington Post Writers Group.

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Soledad O’Brien Shifted From “American Morning”

“It’s official: Kiran Chetry and John Roberts, who have been at CNN one month and one year respectively, are the co-anchors of CNN’s slipping ‘American Morning’ starting April 16,” Michele Greppi reported Wednesday for TV Week.

“Soledad O’Brien and Miles O’Brien, unrelated except for having co-anchored the three-hour program CNN considers its flagship morning show nearly four years and nearly two years, respectively, are to become ‘featured special correspondents.'”

CNN announced later Wednesday that Soledad O’Brien had been named anchor and special correspondent, effective immediately.

“She will join ‘CNN: Special Investigations Unit,’ reporting in-depth on the most significant stories across the country and around the world. O’Brien will anchor and report hour-long ‘CNN: Special Investigations Unit’ specials throughout the year and will file special reports on important ongoing and breaking news stories across all major CNN programs.”

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Columnist’s Dad, a Tuskegee Airman, Gets His Due

“My dad, James B. Williams, was a first lieutenant and an engineering officer with the 477th Bombardment Group, 619th squadron. His story highlights the fight against racism at home,” columnist Brenda Payton wrote Tuesday in the Oakland Tribune. “While stationed at Freeman Field in Indiana in 1945, the men were told to sign an order establishing a whites-only officers club. He and 100 other Tuskegee Airmen refused to sign. He told his superior officer if he couldn’t enjoy the privileges of being an officer, then he shouldn’t be one.

“The group was spirited off the base. A camera hidden in a brown paper bag captured a picture of the group that ran on the front pages of African-American newspapers across the country. They were arrested for disobeying a direct order by a superior officer, an offense punishable by death in time of war.

“The charges later were dropped but a letter of reprimand, stating they were a discredit to their country and their race, stayed in their individual files until 1995.”

Payton went to the U.S. Capitol last week to see her dad and 300 other Tuskegee Airmen awarded the Congressional Gold Medal.

“That procession of elderly African-American men, parading into the Rotunda of the United States Capitol to finally get their due. Ill never forget that sight,” Payton wrote.

• Lawrence Aaron, the Record, Hackensack, N.J.: Good as gold
• Cary Clack, San Antonio Express-News: Tuskegee Airmen, while not perfect, are true American heroes
• Detroit News photo gallery
• Rochelle Riley, Detroit Free Press: At last, gold for Tuskegee Airmen

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Zimbabwe Cameraman Abducted, Found Slain

“A local journalist suspected of having links to Zimbabwe’s opposition has been found murdered following an escalation of the government’s campaign of violence and intimidation,” Daniel Howden wrote Wednesday in London’s Independent newspaper.

“Edward Chikombo, a part-time cameraman for the state broadcaster ZBC, was abducted from his home in the Glenview township outside Harare last week. His body was discovered at the weekend near the village of Darwendale, 50 miles west of the capital, The Independent has learnt.

“There are concerns in Harare that the killing may be linked to the smuggling out of the country of television pictures of the badly injured opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai after he was beaten up by police on 11 March.”

• Reporters Without Borders: Journalist Hospitalised After Beating in Detention

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Short Takes

• Isabel Ordonez of the University of Missouri School of Journalism won in the student category for the Society of American Business Editors and Writers 12th annual Best in Business contest. Her piece for Reuters, “Iraq, Afghanistan lure poor Latin American guards,” began, “Poor Latin American security guards are flocking to Iraq and Afghanistan to work for U.S. companies desperate for relatively cheap employees with the type of military know-how gleaned in a region once run by generals.”
• “Whites comprise nearly 90% of public relations specialists employed in the U.S., according to data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics,” Tannette Johnson-Elie wrote Tuesday in her Milwaukee Journal Sentinel business-page column. “The issue is so problematic in Milwaukee that two groups — the Milwaukee chapter of the Public Relations Society of America and the Black Public Relations Society — have joined forces to push for diversity among the ranks of public relations professionals and executives in Milwaukee.”
• “The story of how a Jacksonville lawyer helped free a Dallas man who had been condemned to life in prison for what essentially amounted to smoking a joint isn’t just a tale of justice,” Tonyaa Weathersbee wrote Monday in the Florida Times-Union in Jacksonville. Lawyer Charlie Douglas, who last month persuaded Texas Gov. Rick Perry to grant Tyrone Brown a conditional pardon, “was pumped up about Brown’s case after seeing it on ABC’s ’20/20.’ A news story on a penniless black man, who lived five states away, provoked Douglas to get involved. Now that ought to redeem the purpose of journalism’s traditional role,” Weathersbee wrote.

• “For the national pastime’s media members . . . the prospect of covering Barry Bonds’ record-setting 756th home run, which he’ll probably hit this year, is unsettling,” Jon Friedman wrote Monday in his MarketWatch column. “Bonds, the dominant offensive player of his generation, has notably become baseball’s poster child for alleged substance abuse. . . . Should they celebrate the San Francisco Giants slugger’s historic homer as a triumph and smother it with flowery prose worthy of Grantland Rice? Or should they sound like a version of a prosecutorial Howard Cosell, and put a strong shade of gray over what would normally seem like the sport’s singular accomplishment?”
• Bo Taylor’s radio show on Los Angeles R&B station v100-FM “has become something of a group therapy session for gang members, their worried mothers and others living in neighborhood battlegrounds,” Andrew Glazer wrote last week for the Associated Press. “It’s like listening in on a conversation that none of us would normally hear,” civil rights attorney Connie Rice said in the piece. “You’re not going to only hear from gang interventionists. You are going to hear from shot-callers in gangs calling from prisons.”
• “The contrast is stark. Cuban Americans have a powerful Washington lobby that has helped win and maintain favorable treatment for its migrants. Why can’t the Haitian diaspora do the same?” asked reporters Jacqueline Charles and Pablo Bachelet on Monday in the Miami Herald. “The Haitian community has more friends than ever in high places in Congress, and its diaspora is throwing its muscle around more. But on immigration — a burning theme for many Haitians — its voice is muted.”
• “The Public Radio Exchange, a nonprofit organization based in Cambridge, Mass., that connects independent radio producers and public radio stations looking for programming, is holding an online contest to find a new national radio star, Elizabeth Jensen wrote Monday in the New York Times. “Two-minute audio submissions in talk, entertainment and music genres will be accepted online beginning April 16 (at publicradioquest.com); winners will be chosen through four elimination rounds by a panel of radio professionals and public voting.”
• Ten new ideas for amplifying community news will receive $12,000 New Voices grants to launch news sites for under-covered communities, embed TV reporters in neighborhoods, network regional radio programs, and map the local impact of climate change, J-Lab: The Institute for Interactive Journalism announced on Wednesday. One grant went to develop bilingual news and interactive narratives for OurTahoe.org to help the Spanish-speaking residents of the Lake Tahoe Basin understand environmental threats to the area.
• “Ernesto A. Sanchez has been named editor of peopleenespanol.com, charged with overseeing the Web site’s move to bilingual later this month,” Marketing y Medios reported on Tuesday. “He most recently served as editorial director of TV Notas, a Spanish-language entertainment magazine, and also served as editor in chief of American Media Inc.’s !Mira! magazine.”
• A 60-day prison sentence imposed in Ecuador on Nelson Fueltala, the correspondent of the La Gaceta daily newspaper and Radio Latacunga, for insulting the mayor of Pujilí was disproportionate and liable to encourage self-censorship, Reporters Without Borders said on Monday.
• “According to the National Union of Somali Journalists (NUSOJ), unknown gunmen opened fire on a vehicle carrying Mohammed Sheik Nur, a stringer for Associated Press, Mohammed Ibrahim Isak, a stringer for New York Times, Abshir Ali Gabre, a journalist for Radio Jowhar and two freelance journalists” on Thursday, the International Federation of Journalists reported “The car was forced to pull over and the gunmen stole six cameras, six mobile phones and some money from the journalists. They also spanked Nur.”
• “During a ‘Pancakes and Politics’ panel discussion about the media, a radio executive asked for ideas to cover the 40th anniversary in July of Detroit’s 1967 riot,” Rochelle Riley wrote last week in the Detroit Free Press. “When it was my turn, I said my greatest hope was that there would be no coverage. . . . Detroit’s problem isn’t that it hasn’t learned the lessons. It is that it rejects the lessons. The city has been permanently stuck in July 1967 and permanently defined by the riot.”