Burns Bows Further to Latino Pressure

Series to Weave In Tales of Hispanic Soldiers

Documentary filmmaker Ken Burns, who has been fending off protests from Latino groups for months over his upcoming PBS documentary series on World War II, “The War,” announced on Wednesday “that the narratives and voices of Hispanic World War II veterans will be incorporated” into his “artistic vision” for the series.

The announcement was made jointly with the American GI Forum and the Hispanic Association of Corporate Responsibility, Latino groups who met with Burns on Tuesday in New York. The National Association of Hispanic Journalists had associated itself with these groups.

The joint statement said, “The upcoming 14 1/2 hour documentary, due to air on PBS in September during Hispanic Heritage Month, tells the story of WWII from the perspective of veterans from four different American towns. ‘The role of Hispanic American veterans in WWII is one that lends itself to the universality of this film,’ said Mr. Burns ‘and merits being included in my film.’

“After listening to the concerns of the Latino community and political leaders about the lack of Hispanic stories, Mr. Burns and his team set out to find personal Latino stories and include them as supplemental material following the documentary. The proposed placement embodied in this approach was, however, universally rejected by Latino groups.”

“At the meeting, Mr. Burns said he had collected interviews with Latino veterans that he considers very powerful and agreed to include their on-camera testimony, personal archives, and combat experiences into ‘The War.’ As he did in the series, Mr. Burns will personally direct and produce the creation of this new material.”

Tejano filmmaker Hector Galan, who was named earlier to work with Burns to include Latino and some Native American material, told Journal-isms on Friday he had already filmed two Latino and one Native story last week, traveling to California and Montana.

He declined to name the veterans who were included, but said, “The series is about combat and what happens to people in combat. They’re very human stories. The Latino characters . . . complement what’s in the film.”

Since 1999, Maggie Rivas-Rodríguez, a former reporter who teaches at the University of Texas at Austin, has spearheaded the U.S. Latino and Latina World War II Oral History Project, which has collected interviews with more than 450 men and women throughout the country.

She told journalists attending a “Let’s Do It Better!” workshop on race and ethnicity last week at the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism that some of the Latino activists had met with the Congressional Hispanic Caucus over the Burns issue. They urged the caucus to ask Congress to focus on the World War II generation during the next Hispanic Heritage Month.

During the six years that the Burns project went through the funding process at PBS and Washington’s WETA-TV, “how can no one think of Latinos?” she asked. “How is it that the NEH proposal didn’t have this critical information?” referring to the National Endowment for the Humanities, one of the Burns documentary funders.

Part of the problem is a teaching of American history that does not recognize that Latinos were in the United States before the Pilgrims, Rivas-Rodríguez said. That history, she asserted, is reflected in documentaries such as Burns’.

• Juan Gonzalez, New York Daily News: Hey, Ken Burns, Why Shun Latinos?
• Carlos Guerra, San Antonio Express-News: Questions remain over how Burns will show Hispanics in WW II film

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AP to Distribute Historic Ebony, Jet Photos

The historic photographic archives of Johnson Publishing Co., closed to other news organizations for decades, will now be made available through the Associated Press, the two organizations announced this week.

“It’s fair to say that the Ebony and Jet collection is far and away the definitive pictorial history of black America for the past 60 years, without question,” Ian Cameron, AP’s Images vice president, told Journal-isms on Friday.

AP, which competed for the rights to distribute the photographs for editorial — not advertising —purposes, has about 3.5 million images online, and 15 million to 20 million when negatives and other photographs not online are included, Cameron said. He said he believes Ebony and Jet have about the same amount of photos, and that no launch date has been set for the photos’ release.

“Johnson Publishing spokeswoman Wendy Parks says their vast collection is more than just iconic photos of civil rights leaders and famous people. Pictures of everyday African-Americans working and living marked some of the first non-racist depictions of black people published during that era,” Jeff Douglas wrote for AOL Black Voices.

“‘We have just as many pictures of everyday people,’ Parks says. ‘The best part is seeing progress over time.’

“The collection is international in scope as well, with thousands of images from Africa and the Middle East.

“Parks says hundreds of thousands of the photos were never published and show a side of some historical figures that only Ebony and Jet photographers captured, including the Rev. Jesse Jackson as a young man.

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Pornographer Sees $$$ in “Nappy-Headed Ho’s”

A California pornographer is using the infamous Don Imus comment, “nappy-headed ho’s,” as the title for a new porn flick, pledging to donate $1 from the sale of each DVD to an Imus retirement fund.

The film is subtitled, “That’s some rough girls,” a line from the April 4 exchange on the Imus radio show that led to the firings of Imus and his producer, Bernard McGuirk. They were discussing the Rutgers University women’s basketball team.

Mark Kulkis, president of Kick Ass Pictures in Glendale, Calif., told Journal-isms, “We are sticking to the dictionary definition” of “nappy-headed,” and that the women in the DVD are “ho’s” because “they have sex on film.”

Since he posted the announcement on his X-rated Web site, he has been covered in a New York Daily News gossip column and on such Web sites as TMZ.com, which headlined its story, “Hardcore Fans Hump for Imus.” Kulkis also appeared this week on “The Stan and Terry Show” on Chicago’s WCKG-FM. “Terry” refers to Terry Armour, a longtime entertainment writer for the Chicago Tribune. Stan and Terry are African Americans; Kulkis is not. “They took it in the spirit in which it was intended,” Kulkis said of the radio hosts, “a humorous jab at political correctness.”

Kim Hicks Gibson, a producer of X-rated films who is African American, has started an online petition protesting Kulkis’ DVD as “completely offensive, racist and totally exploitive.”

• Associated Press: XM Shock Jocks Apologize for Sex Comment
• Hannity & Colmes, Fox News: Rev. Al Sharpton vs. Imus’ producer Bernard McGuirk (video)
• Mary Mitchell, Chicago Sun-Times: I’ll keep my nappy hair, thank you
• Leonard Pitts Jr., Miami Herald: ‘The Rules’ of free speech: No bullying
• Stan Simpson, Hartford Courant: Greater Good In Imus Exit

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Sportswriter Whitlock Takes Barbs on the Road

“Spike Lee began the panel discussion — The Black Athlete Forum at Atlanta’s historic Morehouse College, which featured Jim Brown, Vivian Stringer, William Rhoden, Stephen A. Smith, yours truly and others — by asking Alonzo Mourning and two other professional athletes to explain” whether the image presented by a USA Today sports cover story about NFL athletes and their problems with law enforcement was fair, Kansas City Star sports columnist Jason Whitlock wrote on Thursday.

“Unfortunately, the debate lost much of its importance rather quickly. The Forum turned into ‘The Jason Whitlock Roast,’ a discussion of out-of-context snippets of things I’d written about NBA All-Star weekend, Vivian Stringer and [Don] Imus.

“I was there to discuss a real crisis in the black community. I was there to debate solutions. People here know I’m quite comfortable holding ‘Jason Whitlock roasts.’ I sat on radio for years here and absorbed far worse and far more accurate insults and accusations than were hurled at me Monday night.

“I’m not going to change my column style to make a coach â?? black, white, male or female — more comfortable. I’m not going to change my column style to make the National Association of Black Journalists happy,” he continued.

During the controversy over Imus’ remarks about the Rutgers women’s basketball team, Whitlock wrote, “Thank you, Don Imus. . . . You’ve given Vivian Stringer and Rutgers the chance to hold a nationally televised recruiting celebration expertly disguised as a news conference to respond to your poor attempt at humor.” Stringer, the Rutgers coach whose news conference with her players was applauded by most observers, confronted Whitlock on Monday night.

On the Huffington Post Web site Friday, Etan Thomas, a forward for the Washington Wizards NBA team, posted “An Open Letter to Jason Whitlock.” Thomas was also on the Morehouse panel, and asked:

“Who is benefiting from your comments? What exactly is your goal in writing the articles you write? Is it to help our youth, who because of the fact that you appear to not be on their side find it difficult to receive your message, or is it for another reason? While I understand that the Duke players turned out to be innocent, do you fail to see the way you come across? I know that you don’t want to be known as the ‘Uncle Tom of journalism’ as one of the students at the panel referred to you while thanking me for standing up for them. Whether you like it or not, that perception of you is out there. And if you don’t do something about it, this label will be your legacy.”

• Stephen A. Smith, Philadelphia Inquirer: Athletes’ conduct brings negative press for others [Added May 13]
• Gene Wojciechowski, ESPN.com: Black Athlete Forum hit plenty of powerful notes

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CNN Series Turns to Asian-Pacific Americans

“Continuing its programming on the expanding diversity of the American population, CNN Worldwide for the next week will focus on Asian-Pacific Americans — what it means to be an Asian-American today and how challenges have evolved for first-generation Asian immigrants versus younger Asian-Americans,” CNN announced on Friday.

“This continuation of the network’s ‘Uncovering America’ series follows February’s focus on African-Americans.” The series began after Paula Zahn examined racial attitudes in Vidor, Texas, in December.

“Alina Cho, Veronica De La Cruz, Dr. Sanjay Gupta, Dan Lothian, Richard Lui, Betty Nguyen and Dan Simon will report for ‘Uncovering America’ for ‘American Morning,’ ‘Paula Zahn Now’ and ‘Anderson Cooper 360°, beginning today,” the announcement continued.

“Yul Kwon, winner of ‘Survivors’ controversial 13th season in which teams were divided according to race, will serve as a special guest correspondent for the network. Kwon will report on the changing portrayals and increasing influence of Asian-Americans in the media, the pressures many Asian-Americans feel to fulfill high intellectual expectations for the so-called ‘model minority’ and the ‘bamboo ceiling’ that seems to keep Asian-Americans underrepresented in corporate management.”

On “Housecall with Dr. Sanjay Gupta” Saturday and Sunday at 8:30 a.m, Gupta, CNN’s chief medical correspondent, plans to focus on cancer, particularly race and risk factors for hepatitis B, liver cancer, prostate cancer and other health issues that appear prevalent among Asians.

• L.A. Chung, San Jose Mercury News: Filipinos who fought for us deserve better
• Emil Guilliermo, AsianWeek: Conan, Cho and APA Month
• Esther Wu, Dallas Morning News: A month to mark Asians’ contributions

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Duke Case Prompts Argument Over Interracial Rape

David Mills, the reporter-turned-screenwriter who blogs as “the Undercover Black Man,” has turned his attention to David Horowitz, the liberal-turned-conservative who has crusaded against reparations for slavery in ads in college newspapers, among other activities.

After rape charges were dropped last month against Duke University lacrosse players, Horowitz ran a piece on his site called “The Truth of Interracial Rape in the United States” by Lawrence Auster, which Mills wrote has found its way around the racist and conservative blogosphere. Misreading Justice Department data, Auster’s piece claimed, “100 white women a day sexually attacked by blacks; virtually zero black women sexually attacked by whites,” Mills wrote on Thursday.

“For Auster to highlight the 100 white women a day raped or sexually assaulted by black men, without highlighting the 136 white women a day raped or sexually assaulted by men classified as white, or the 100 black women a day raped or sexually assaulted by blacks, and to then proclaim that ‘white women in this country are being targeted by black rapists’ — that flunks the smell test.

“Especially because Auster is proudly on record as arguing that black people as a class are intrinsically, inherently ill-suited for a place in white society . . . that blacks collectively lack the ‘moral will, intelligence, and organizing energy’ required to meet the white standard for civilization,” Mills wrote.

Horowitz replied with this “correction” on Thursday:

“Lawrence Auster has posted a correction to his article on the legal lynching of the Duke students, the presumption that white males are rapists and racists and the failure to hold blacks and whites to a single standard. The statistics in his article were incorrect, but the points the article makes about liberal hypocrisy and liberal racism were not. The Huffington Post leftists are in full throat denouncing Auster’s racism but are silent about the racism of the Huffington Post and every liberal media vehicle that I am aware of in going along with the Duke atrocity and failing to condemn racists like Sharpton and Jackson because they are black.”

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Short Takes

• “The caption on a photo of Chuck D that ran with the review of the music documentary ‘Rock the Bells’ in Friday’s Calendar section said the rapper was a member of the Wu-Tang Clan. He was not in that group,” read a May 5 correction in the Los Angeles Times. Blogger David Mills found the misidentification of the Public Enemy member worth noting.
• Linda Sullivan, president and general manager of KNTV-TV in San Francisco, was named president and general manager of KNBC in Los Angeles, succeeding Paula Madison, NBC announced on Friday. As reported on Thursday, Madison was to relinquish her duties managing KNBC, KVEA and KWHY to concentrate solely on her job as executive vice president, diversity for NBC Universal, NBC’s parent company. She was to “continue to serve in these roles until her replacement at the stations is named.”
• The Cherokee Freedmen went back to court this week to prevent the Cherokee Nation from ousting them from the tribe, indianz.com reported on Thursday. The tribe voted March 3 to deny citizenship to the Freedmen, descendants of African slaves.
• “Your future is going to be determined as much by Asia, as much shaped by Asia, as your grandparents’ generation was shaped by Europe,” Nicholas Kristof, Pulitzer Prize-winning New York Times op-ed columnist, told graduates of New York’s School of Visual Arts. The New York Observer’s Michael Calderone reported Thursday that Kristof closed his speech with a story from Darfur, Sudan, that involved sex slavery and the beheading of a father in front of his two daughters by the Janjaweed militia. “Party this evening!” Kristof said. “But also, after you’ve recovered from the party this evening, go on and save the world.”
• “The whole business of news organizations doing the work of law enforcement raises a lot of troubling questions for journalists,” Robert Feder wrote Friday in the Chicago Sun-Times. “But it’s hard to argue with the success WGN-Channel 9 is having with the ‘Fugitive Hunters’ segment on its 9 p.m. newscast. . . .James Jackson, 27, who was accused of stabbing the mother of his own children 15 times, saw himself profiled Tuesday by Channel 9 reporter Juan Carlos Fanjul and turned himself in the next day.”
• Joshua C. Johnson, layout and design editor of the Dallas Weekly, is becoming executive editor of the Focus Daily News, based in DeSoto, Texas.