Police Chief Agrees to Internal Investigation
Journalist organizations demanded a thorough investigation on Wednesday into “the violent treatment of journalists” by Los Angeles police during disturbances at a pro-immigration rally, one of many around the nation, on Tuesday at MacArthur Park.
|
|
|
|
Police Chief William Bratton responded to the complaints of journalists and others by pledging a two-phased internal investigation to determine if Los Angeles police violated policy by firing foam bullets and using batons to clear the protesters, KNBC-TV reported.
“There is evidence that officers knocked reporters to the ground, used batons on photographers and damaged cameras, possibly motivated by anger over journalists photographing efforts by officers to control the movements of marchers,” said a statement by the Radio and Television News Association of Southern California.
“Television footage shows a crowd, apparently prodded by police, sweeping through a live broadcast by a Telemundo reporter, injuring some employees of the Spanish-language station,” the City News Service reported.
“An officer can be seen knocking down a cameraman, then grabbing the camera and tossing it to the ground.
“A Telemundo anchor said the police action in response to the behavior of some demonstrators was disproportionate.
“One reporter who was at the scene said a police order to clear the park was boomed from a helicopter only after officers on the ground began moving against demonstrators and journalists.”
Peter Prengaman reported for the Associated Press that Bratton “said Wednesday some of the police tactics to clear immigration protesters from a park were ‘inappropriate,’ as numerous news videos showed officers striking people with batons and firing rubber bullets into crowds that included children.
“Images showed police hitting a television cameraman to the ground and shoving people who were walking away from officers at Tuesday’s demonstration. Some injured people were seen in the videos, including a Hispanic man with a bleeding welt on his stomach.”
Prengaman wrote, “None of the injuries was believed to be serious.”
The Fox station, KTTV-TV, announced on its Web site: “FOX 11’s Christina Gonzalez and her videographer, Patti, were among those that LAPD officers shoved around when they swept into crowds towards the end of May Day immigration marches in Los Angeles. The incident was caught on video by a number of television stations.”
From Washington, the Radio-Television News Directors Association issued a statement quoting RTNDA president Barbara Cochran: “Under no circumstances should police interfere with newsgathering when there is no jeopardy to reporters or demonstrators. As a national organization we fully support our colleagues in Los Angeles as they pursue a remedy to yesterday’s events,” she said.
“RTNDA endorses training for law enforcement in the role journalists play and the treatment they should receive in covering news events. The association has resources that could be made available for such training.”
In a letter to Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, leaders of the National Association of Hispanic Journalists said, “We remind you that a lawsuit filed by seven journalists after similar violence against the press covering demonstrations at the 2000 National Democratic Convention in Los Angeles should have settled this issue.
“The Los Angeles City Council settled the lawsuit for $60,000 and the police department was required to institute a policy that recognizes that the media has the right to cover public assemblies, even if they are unlawful,” said President Rafael Olmeda and Executive Director Ivan Roman.
“Looking beyond this incident,” the Society of Professional Journalists-Los Angeles said in its own statement, “we request that Chief Bratton consider convening a working group that would include representatives of the Greater Los Angeles Chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists and other leading local journalism organizations to review current LAPD protocols for dealing with media personnel in such situations for possible revisions and improvements to minimize the likelihood of similar occurrences in the future.”
The Radio and Television News Association asked “that if any journalists have information regarding this matter, including videotape of encounters between police and reporters, that they notify RTNA immediately by calling 562-987-4545.”
MESSAGE BOARDS: Feel free to post a comment on this subject and view those from others.
Ludacris Out, Kodjoe In for Post-Imus Ebony Cover
Actor Boris Kodjoe went for a photo shoot for Ebony magazine’s June issue on “the New Black Fathers,” but his publicist did not know until Wednesday that Kodjoe was now on the cover of the issue, due out next week.
|
|
|
|
The original cover — which is said to have featured the rapper and actor Ludacris — was pulled amid the controversy over fired radio show host Don Imus’ remarks about “nappy-headed ho’s’.”
“Something has changed in America in the last few weeks,” Bryan Monroe, editorial director of Ebony and Jet magazines, told Journal-isms, without disclosing the identity of the rapper. As president of the National Association of Black Journalists, Monroe led the movement to have Imus fired. “I think the media is being called to account in these areas,” Monroe said. There is an opportunity to “transfer the conversation around language, race, inclusiveness and diversity,” a sentiment he expressed in his NABJ president’s column.
Kodjoe’s publicist, Jessica Cohen, told Journal-isms that while she didn’t know her client was now on the cover, “We support Ebony and if it winds up that he’s on the cover then we’re very excited about it.”
Ludicris’ publicist, Barry L. Florence, said he would have no comment.
In the May issue of Ebony, Ludacris is featured as one of “The next generation of African-American leaders.” He has also been on the cover of Jet.
However, times change, both with Johnson Publishing and with Ludacris. “It says something about the state of hip-hop that hovering at the top of the Billboard charts right now is the heartfelt ‘Runaway Love,’ a song by Ludacris about exploited young girls,” Susan Young wrote in February for the ANG newspapers in the San Francisco Bay area.
“This would be the same Ludacris who, just about two years ago, was rappin’ about hos and area codes.”
The package in the “The New Black Father” issue, written by Adrienne Samuels, “talks about the fact that while one in three African American families is the traditional nuclear family, the other two” are still families “that need to be discussed and be embraced,” Monroe said.
“We are working on a major issue . . . where we will engage in a self-examination for the African American community on these issues. As they say, at a newsstand near you,” Monroe said.
Ebony’s pulling of the cover featuring what was described only as “a rapper” was mentioned in a sentence of an April 27 story in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution about the Rev. Jesse Jackson.
MESSAGE BOARDS: Feel free to post a comment on this subject and view those from others.
TV Photographer Disciplined for Flying Mexican Flag
A news photographer for a Houston television station has been disciplined for displaying a Mexican flag next to his camera as he covered an immigration rally over the weekend, KPRC News Director Skip Valet confirmed for Journal-isms on Wednesday.
|
|
|
|
The cameraman was captured on home video, Art Moore of WorldNetDaily reported on Wednesday, adding that the photographer drew angry shouts from counter-protesters.
“In the first of two clips posted on YouTube.com, a counter-protester with a bull horn can be heard condemning the cameraman’s flag,” Moore reported.
“‘Why does Channel 2 News have a Mexican flag on their camera?’ the man asked.”
Valet would not identify the news photographer except to say that the man is a regular employee and a U.S. citizen. Nor would be disclose the discipline he received.
The issue of Mexican flags at pro-immigration rallies became a lighting rod at last year’s May Day rallies, with some saying that in the United States, if those in the country here illegally want to become citizens, they should wave American flags. In subsequent demonstrations, they did.
Valet said the issue was that it was “highly unprofessional” as a journalist to cover a rally and “give the impression of taking sides.”
Maria Salinas: Seizing Children is Inhumane
Univision anchor Maria Elena Salinas, who said she has been covering immigration issues for 26 years, “as long as I’ve been working in this company,” said on CNN that “these marches that are going on that you see in over two dozen cities are not only to ask for immigration reform. These marches also are asking for an end to these indiscriminate raids.”
|
|
|
|
She told Don Lemon on “CNN Newsroom” Tuesday afternoon, “There are law enforcement agents going door to door, factory to factory, many times taking immigrants that have children that are born in the U.S. And I think that that’s something that is inhumane.
“It’s not only a matter of what is legal and not. It’s a matter of what is human. And that’s why so many cities are becoming sanctuaries, that’s why so many churches are becoming sanctuaries to these immigrants, because there are children that are born in the United States who have rights, yet are being separated from their parents because they are being deported as we debate these immigration issues.
“So, something definitely needs to be done. What shape or form it’s going to take at the end, who knows. But I think that everyone believes that this is the year for immigration reform.”
MESSAGE BOARDS: Feel free to post a comment on this subject and view those from others.
Source Magazine Files for Bankruptcy Protection
“Source Magazine LLC and affiliate Source Entertainment Inc. have filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy after dishonest business practices by former management caused the hip-hop media outlet’s advertisers to flee, according to court papers,” the Associated Press reported on Monday.
“The company, which publishes The Source, a monthly magazine devoted to hip-hop music and culture, also markets audio features, including cellphone ring tones and wallpaper, and produces promotional hip-hop music events, including the Source Awards.
“Jeremy Miller, president and chief executive of Source Entertainment, said the company is struggling to recover from a cloud of negative publicity brought by former managers that misused company funds several years ago. The company filed for bankruptcy Friday in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Manhattan.
“Source founder David Mays and company president Raymond ‘Benzino’ Scott were fired in 2006 after the magazine lost significant support from advertisers. Newsstand sales fell after The Source published a series of ‘unfavorable articles’ about top recording artists, including Interscope Records Inc. artists Eminem and 50 Cent.
The Source is now owned by a group affiliated with Black Enterprise magazine. In March, it fired its editor-in-chief, Fahyim Ratcliffe, and its news editor, Chloe A. Hilliard, resigned, Hilliard said then.
“They just sent out checks for writers who wrote for the July issue. I got tired of lying to my writers, knowing it was a good chance they wouldn’t get paid,” Hilliard said.
MESSAGE BOARDS: Feel free to post a comment on this subject and view those from others.
Michel Martin’s NPR Talk Show Debuts on 20 Stations
Michel Martin, who joined National Public Radio in November after a career in print journalism and as a correspondent for ABC-TV’s “Nightline,” debuted her new talk show, “Tell Me More,” this week on more than 20 NPR stations, an NPR spokeswoman told Journal-isms.
|
|
|
Michel Martin |
The largest markets are Houston, Raleigh-Durham, N.C., and Norfolk, Va., said spokeswoman Anna Christopher.
“‘Tell Me More’ lets me bring together two longtime passions: the intimacy and warmth you experience with powerful radio and the lively, sharp debate about things going on in the world that I enjoy having with friends of diverse backgrounds,” Martin said in a news release. “That can mean such diverse topics as immigration, gun control, the impact of shock jocks and international adoption. I see ‘Tell Me More’ as a gathering place for dialogue about the important issues facing the country. But we also talk about the challenges and opportunities we all face living in a fast-paced, complicated society. And we are a home for conversations with NPR News’ outstanding correspondents around the world, such as Ofeibea Quist-Arcton, Juan Forero and Gwen Tompkins.”
Contributors include syndicated columnist Ruben Navarette, blogger Jimi Izrael, East/West Magazine editor Anita Malik, media commentator Keith Boykin and Harriet Cole, lifestyle editor at Ebony.
The program and the show’s ongoing blog are online at the NPR Web site, www.NPR.org. “It is a production of NPR News in association with the African American Public Radio Consortium, representing 22 independent public radio stations that serve predominantly black communities. The Consortium is also a partner on the NPR News daily show News & Notes, with host Farai Chideya, now in its third season and produced at NPR West, Culver City, Calif.,” NPR said.
MESSAGE BOARDS: Feel free to post a comment on this subject and view those from others.
Dave Wilson, Detroit News Copy Editor, Dies at 35
“To summarize a sports event, Dave Wilson could capture all the blood, sweat and action in three words or less,” Mark Hicks wrote Wednesday in the Detroit News.
|
|
|
|
“As sports copy chief at The Detroit News, he sometimes had to produce headlines for articles before the last edition. Yet even with few minutes to spare, the editor could read entire stories, correct errors and compose witty, eye-catching headlines ‘off the top of his head,’ said Heather Burns, assistant sports editor at The News. ‘He just had a flair.’
“Mr. Wilson died Monday, April 30, 2007, at his home in Farmington. He was 35.”
Sports Editor Ruben Luna said Wilson’s father, Jimmie Wilson, told him his son had an enlarged heart, though there has been no ruling on a cause of death. Dave Wilson lived alone and usually came to work early. When he did not show up on Monday, Luna said he called Jimmie Wilson, who went to his son’s apartment, “and he was gone.”
Wilson had also worked at the Ann Arbor (Mich.) News and the Democrat and Chronicle in Rochester, N.Y.
It was the second death in the News sports department in less than a week. On Friday, Paul Scurlock, 54, an editorial assistant at the paper for six years, died after a heart attack.
Steinback Not Resuming Miami Herald Column
For 17 years, Robert Steinback wrote a column for the Miami Herald, 12 of those years full-time. When he returned from a year’s sabbatical, during which he traveled this country and Europe, he was assigned to be one of six editors in the twice-weekly community news insert called Neighbors, a job he said he did 19 years ago.
|
|
|
Robert Steinback |
“I was very much looking forward to resuming it even if I had to work it around some other full-time assignment,” Steinback told Journal-isms, speaking of his column. “After 17 years of doing commentary, I have only thought of myself as a columnist. In fact, the main reason I took the sabbatical was to expand and diversify my abilities and experiences as a commentator, all in the interest of presenting an even stronger column product, and one day, hopefully, achieving syndication. The newspaper’s decision to not allow me to resume my column took me by surprise.
“I just don’t understand the decision. That’s all I can say.”
Dave Wilson, managing editor/news, had a different perspective. “Robert hadn’t been a fulltime columnist at the Herald for several years before his sabbatical,” he told Journal-isms. “His departure from the regular column lineup was something he worked out with editors at that time. Robert’s assignments before he went on sabbatical included a stint as higher-ed reporter and just prior to leaving general assignment. There were no plans for Robert to resume column writing upon his return.”
MESSAGE BOARDS: Feel free to post a comment on this subject and view those from others.
Short Takes
- Fired radio host Don Imus had a five-year contract that began in 2006 and pays $8 million a year. “The deal stipulates the radio host must be given a warning before being fired for making off-color jokes. A source tells CNN, Imus was never warned in this case,” reporter Randi Kaye said Wednesday night on CNN’s “Anderson Cooper 360.” “What stands out in the contract is that Imus,” who has hired a lawyer, “is supposed to be controversial and irreverent,” Jeffrey Toobin said on the show. “How is CBS going to argue that what he said was so controversial and so offensive, that it isn’t what they asked for in the contract?”
- “Bill O’Reilly may proclaim at the beginning of his program that viewers are entering the ‘No Spin Zone,’ but a new study by Indiana University media researchers found that the Fox News personality consistently paints certain people and groups as villains and others as victims to present the world, as he sees it, through political rhetoric,” Indiana University announced on Wednesday.
- “Leana Wen, a medical student at Washington University in St. Louis, and Will Okun, a teacher at Westside Alternative High School in Chicago are Nicholas Kristof’s newest travel companions. The student and educator are winners of a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to accompany Pulitzer Prize winning Op-Ed columnist Nicholas D. Kristof on a reporting trip to Africa this summer,” the Times announced.
- George Ramos, former Los Angeles Times reporter and now chair of the Cal Poly San Luis Obispo Journalism Department, Cecilia Alvear, recently retired producer at NBC News and a former president of the National Association of Hispanic Journalists, and Rigo Chacon, recently retired news reporter at KGO-TV in the San Francisco Bay area are to be inducted into NAHJ’s Hall of Fame at the NAHJ convention in San Jose in June, the NAHJ board voted over the weekend.
- “Federal regulators heard an earful Monday evening from the public about just who should be allowed to own media outlets,” Richard Mullins wrote Tuesday in the Tampa Tribune. “All five commissioners of the Federal Communications Commission hosted a public hearing in Tampa to take comments about potential changes to media ownership rules. The proposals would limit how many TV stations, radio stations or newspapers one company can own in a market.”
- “The editor-in-chief of The Campus Echo — N.C. Central University’s student newspaper — has posted a column to the paper’s Web site expressing regret for publishing a column in a recent issue that appeared to promote violence,” Eric Ferreri wrote Tuesday in the Raleigh (N.C.) News & Observer. “Editor-in-Chief Rony Camille posted the note to readers today saying he regrets publishing a column by student Solomon Burnette bearing the headline ‘Death to all Rapists.'”
- Mark Whitaker, the former Newsweek editor named on Tuesday as the new No. 2 man at NBC News, told the New York Times that NBC News President Steve Capus approached him about moving into television in conversations that began about eight weeks ago. “I hadn’t thought about working in television before,” he said. “But approaching 50, it seemed like an exciting new chapter in my career.” Capus said he had no concerns about Whitaker’s lack of television experience. “That is not an issue at all,” Mr. Capus said in a telephone interview. “His journalism skills are what count here,” Bill Carter quoted Capus as saying Wednesday.
