Black Recruits Plunging, Latinos Rising

Media Said to Be Part of Pentagon’s Strategy

“The number of blacks joining the military has plunged by more than one-third since the Afghanistan and Iraq wars began,” Lolita C. Baldor reported on Monday, citing data “obtained by The Associated Press.” But, she added, “The decline in black recruits overall has been offset partly by an increase in Hispanic recruits and those who classify themselves as other races or nationalities.”

Baldor said of African Americans, “Other job prospects are soaring and relatives of potential recruits increasingly are discouraging them from joining the armed services.”

Broadcasters and print outlets are playing a role in the increase in Latino recruits, according to another writer, Roberto Lovato, who often writes for the alternative, ethnic-oriented New American Media.

If one reads Latino-oriented magazines, Lovato asserted, “they’re basically cheerleaders for the Pentagon.” He said the Defense Department is spending millions in advertising to reach their readers.

Monday’s Associated Press story came about after “AP requested the data and the Pentagon provided it,” AP spokesman Jack Stokes told Journal-isms. “Recruiting has been a regular part of our military coverage for years.”

According to that data, Baldor wrote, there were nearly 51,500 new black recruits for active duty and reserves in 2001,” Baldor wrote. “That number fell to less than 32,000 in 2006, a 38 percent decline.

“The decline is particularly stark for the Army. Blacks represented about 23 percent of the active Army’s enlisted recruits in 2000, but 12.4 percent in 2006.”

“Sgt. Terry Wright, an Army recruiter in Tampa, Fla. said young people in the black community have more education and job opportunities now than when he joined the service 14 years ago.

“But he said the growing dissatisfaction with the war among black political and community leaders, as well as parents and teachers, is a major factor, too.

“The influencers of these youth have a larger effect on African-Americans,” Curt Gilroy, the Pentagon’s director of accession policy, is quoted telling the AP.

“Some have argued that, because of the makeup of African-American families and the relatively more significant roles (the families) play, moms have a greater influence on their families. And we know that moms, in general, do not support the war,” Gilroy said.

Lovato told Journal-isms, “Young black Americans are the most progressive voters in the United States. Blacks are not going to buy it anymore,” speaking of the war. “Latinos haven’t been paid as much attention to. So you go for the next poor community you can find.”

In “The War for Latinos,” published in October 2005 in the Nation magazine, Lovato quoted Larry Korb, former assistant secretary of defense for manpower, reserve affairs, installations and logistics in the Reagan administration Defense Department.

“A decrease in Latino enlistment numbers would make things very difficult for the armed forces, because they are the fastest-growing [minority] group in the country and they have a very distinguished record of service in the military,” Korb said.

“The Pentagon is spending hundreds of millions of dollars to find out whatever it can about . . . young Latinos: what they wear, where they hang out, what kinds of groups they form, what they read, what they watch on TV, their grades, their dreams,” Lovato wrote. “Members of the military’s numerous and well-funded recruiting commands use sophisticated Geographic Information Systems maps, souped-up recruiting Hummers and other resources to establish strategic positions in the minds, pocketbooks and neighborhoods of young Latinos.”

More Latinos than blacks have died in Iraq, according to Pentagon figures (PDF), but the numbers for both are dwarfed by the number of whites who have died.

• Bobbi Bowman, Maynard Institute: Immigrant Paradox

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Jeff Koinange Acknowledges “Lack of Judgment”

Jeff Koinange, who lost his job as CNN Africa correspondent in May after disclosures of an affair he conducted partly over the CNN e-mail system, has broken his silence over the events and said, “my lack of judgment . . . admittedly went beyond the bounds of my personal morality.”

In a message to Journal-isms early on Tuesday, Koinange, who is in South Africa, said Marianne Briner, who published the e-mailed correspondence between the two on her blog, “turned on me, as she had others,” when she felt he had not sufficiently publicized a book she had written. He vowed to continue in journalism and said, “my reputation as a journalist speaks for itself.”

The disclosures led one blogger to dub the Kenyan-born reporter “the date rape journalist,” a label that was picked up by others.

Koinange, a CNN correspondent since 2001 and an expectant father, also echoed a June 5 statement from CNN spokeswoman Christa Robinson that his departure from CNN “had nothing to do with his reporting from the Nigeria Delta.” The Nigerian government had charged that CNN paid for news after Nigerian rebels took Koinange to Filipino hostages and broadcast their story in February. CNN denied the Nigerian government’s allegation.

Also on Tuesday, the First Post, a British online magazine, ran an interview with Koinange by Mark Paterson in which Koinange said, “I’ve let my wife down . . . I’ve let the people who care about what I do down.” Paterson wrote that the interview was conducted last week.

Koinange’s message to Journal-isms, which he titled, “Why I Left CNN,” read:

“I have been following the discussions about my departure from CNN in silence, but believe it is now time for me to speak out. But first, let me explain my silence.

“After nine years, my wife and I have finally succeeded in conceiving a child. We are excited about that and as the stories broke, my first instincts and actions were geared to protecting my wife and unborn child from any risk. And then, second, to ensuring that my wife be assured that my lack of judgment that admittedly went beyond the bounds of my personal morality was not in any way a threat to our marriage. As a result, we are on firm ground as we go forward in anticipation of our new arrival.

“Moreover, as I followed the reactions in various publications, it seemed as if the testimony of others who had been victimized by the female blogger who released correspondence between her and myself was sufficient to show that there was a pattern to her actions that were clearly aimed at promoting her book and that she turned on me, as she had others, with vicious retribution once she did not achieve the desired result.

“The reasons I left CNN are, as usual in professional relationships, between CNN and myself. As CNN has said in statements it released to the media, it had nothing to do [with] a story I did from Nigeriaâ??s volatile Niger Delta. And I stand by the integrity and accuracy of that story, and would point out that the 24 Filipino hostages held by the rebels for more than a month were released after my story ran on CNN.

“In the meantime, my goal of bringing a true and balanced picture of Africa to the world will continue because my integrity, my commitment and my skills as a professional remain intact. My reputation as a journalist speaks for itself.” [Added June 26]

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Police Seeking Information on Rich Ramirez Death

Police urged Monday that anyone with information that could help determine whether Rich Ramirez of the San Jose Mercury News took his own life contact them.

Meanwhile, colleagues and coworkers prepared for a Thursday memorial service, and David Satterfield, managing editor of the paper, told Editor & Publisher that Ramirez was troubled by something related to the National Association of Hispanic Journalists conference the previous week, but declined to be specific.

“We are helping Rich’s wife out by coordinating this. I talked with her yesterday for about 90 minutes and she is very grateful,” newsroom coordinator Steve Yvaska wrote to Mercury News colleagues about the service.

“After a week of very trying times, she is looking forward to a celebration of Rich’s life. We all know it was filled with kindness and good will. So, we’ll give him a warm and special sendoff.”

The service is scheduled for noon Thursday at the First Unitarian Church, 160 N. Third St., San Jose.

Ramirez, 44, a veteran reporter and editor who served for the last 12 years as assistant to the executive editor, was discovered Wednesday morning in his Livermore, Calif., back yard, with a fatal injury that the Alameda County Coroner’s Office described as a knife wound in his midsection, according to a Mercury News story Friday.

In Editor & Publisher on Monday, Joe Strupp reported that Ramirez “was troubled just days before his death by personal problems and had told editors he would not be in the office on Wednesday, the day he was found dead in his backyard from a stab wound.

“Managing Editor David Satterfield, a six-year veteran of the paper, said he had several lengthy conversations with Ramirez on June 18 and 19, just days after he helped organize the National Association of Hispanic Journalists conference in San Jose. Satterfield said Ramirez, 44, was troubled by something related to the conference, but declined to be specific.”

Detective Jason Boberg of the Livermore police department told Journal-isms on Monday the case is “an open death investigation; not being labeled as a suicide or a homicide. It is an open inquiry, and ongoing.”

As for possible suicide motives, Boberg was asked about the role Ramirez played in hosting the NAHJ 25th anniversary convention in San Jose the previous week. Boberg said Ramirez mentioned after the event that “he was worried about his efforts at the convention being sabotaged. But nothing that traumatic. It’s all very vague.”

In addition, as the Mercury News reported Friday, “He had been worried about the newspaper’s plans to eliminate about 40 newsroom jobs, said his wife, Janet Dalke. Executive Editor Carole Leigh Hutton said Thursday, ‘He and I had a conversation in which I told him he was extremely unlikely to be laid off,’ and that she had talked with him about moving to a different job in the newsroom because his current position was likely to be eliminated.”

Boberg said that anyone with specific information “that would help to corroborate or exclude the potential [for] suicide would be appreciated, or anybody with firsthand knowledge.” They may contact Boberg at 925-371-4756.

Ramirez’s family has asked that scholarship donations in his name be sent to the USC Annenberg School of Journalism, in care of Josh Larsen, 3502 Watt Way, Suite 304, Los Angeles, Calif. 90089. Those interested may also call (213) 821-1660 for information.

• Brandon Bailey, San Jose Mercury News: Rich Ramirez, 44, journalist; MN Veteran Remembered for Mentoring, Kind Heart [Added June 26]
• Mark Fitzgerald, Editor & Publisher: Ramirez Was ‘Positive, Humble’ At NAHJ Convention

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Narda Zacchino Leaving S.F. Chronicle to Write

Narda Zacchino, the deputy editor of the San Francisco Chronicle whose portfolio included diversity issues, is leaving the paper as it seeks to trim its newsroom roster.

“She checks out on July 7,” Kevin Roderick wrote Monday on LA Observed.

“She had joined the Chronicle in May 2001 after thirty years at the Los Angeles Times, starting as a copy messenger then reporter, and rising to associate editor and reader’s representative. She also created the annual Festival of Books held at UCLA. Zacchino is co-authoring a book for Hyperion with Mary Tillman, mother of Pat Tillman, the former NFL player killed by other American soldiers in Afghanistan.”

In a note to the Chronicle staff, she said, “Phil Bronstein recruited me from the LA Times with a promise that I would have a lot more fun here, and there have been many wonderful moments. I have loved the spirit of this place, the energy of the staff, the friendships I have made and the good work that has made me proud to be an editor here.”

Zacchino told Journal-isms on Tuesday, “I have been a member of the diversity comittee of ASNE for 18 years,” referring to the American Society of Newspaper Editors, “am a former chair of that committee, and was an advocate for diversity at both the LA Times and The Chronicle.

“Most recently I coordinated the last round of hiring during which about 50% of new hires were people of color. Of course, that would not have happened unless other top editors at the paper were also advocates of diversity. We were proud that our numbers were better reflecting the diversity of the Bay Area, and I was looking forward to The Chronicle being a contender for one of ASNE’s new diversity awards — for greatest improvement in number of minorities hired. There are people of color among those volunteering for buyouts at The Chronicle, among others who are leaving involuntarily. Any drop in numbers of diverse staff members is a blow when the total number is proportionately low. I feel confident, though, that if the paper gets backs into the hiring business, when the financial numbers improve, diversty will be a priority.

“My commitment to diversity grew out of being one of only two female news reporters out of about 60 at The Los Angeles Times when I began my reporting career,” she continued in an e-mail. “There was only one female copy editor in news and only one African-American photographer; other than that, the entire news department was white male and the features department was not much better. In those days, female and minority journalists were banned from covering press conferences in private clubs— forget about being members of them. I always identified with my minority colleagues because together we were trying to make it in a white man’s profession. I was stunned as a young reporter at how news coverage decisions were biased against females and, especially, minorities. A murder-suicide story I was assigned and wrote was torn into pieces and tossed in the trash when the night city editor [now long dead] started reading and learned the victims were black. I’ll never forget what he said: ‘Those people don’t count.’

“We’ve all come a long way since then—white women at a much faster pace than people of color (which made me work even harder for diversity)—and coverage more accurately reflects our communities. But there remains so much more work to be done, so much room for improvement.”

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Talk Shows Influencing Immigration Debate

“Immigration has supplanted Iraq as the leading issue on television and radio talk shows, complicating the prospects of a Senate bill desperately wanted by President Bush,” Charles Babington wrote Saturday for the Associated Press.

“Conservative talk radio’s impact on the immigration debate reached new heights last week, with one host effectively writing an amendment for when the Senate returns to the imperiled bill this week.

“National talk show hosts have spent months denouncing the bill as providing amnesty for illegal immigrants. Some top Republicans who support the legislation have defied the broadcast pundits. Other GOP lawmakers have tried to placate them, even to the point of accepting their ideas for amendments.

“Sen. Jon Kyl, R-Ariz., the key conservative negotiator behind the compromise bill, told reporters Friday that California-based radio host Hugh Hewitt ‘had several ideas’ that ‘we are trying to include’ in amendments to be offered in an upcoming series of crucial votes.”

Meanwhile, the Center for American Progress and Free Press released a new study on political talk radio that found a striking imbalance between conservative and progressive programming.

It found that on the 257 news/talk stations owned by the top five commercial station owners, 91 percent of the total weekday talk-radio programming is conservative, while 9 percent is progressive.

On “Fox News Sunday,” Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif. told host Chris Wallace that talk radio was one-sided and “explosive.” She said it “pushes people, I think, to extreme views without a lot of information,” John Eggerton reported Monday in Broadcasting & Cable.

Asked if she supported a return of the fairness doctrine, an FCC rule that required broadcasters to air both sides of controversial issues, Feinstein said “I’m looking at it, as a matter of fact. I do believe in fairness. I remember when there was a fairness doctrine, and I think there was much more serious correct reporting to people,” she said, Eggerton reported.

• James Campbell blog, Houston Chronicle: My bad . . . clarifying the post on `undocumented’ vs. `illegal’
• George Diaz, Orlando Sentinel: Talk radio doesn’t need Fairness Doctrine
• Nick Jimenez, Corpus Christi (Texas) Caller-Times: We need a sane immigration policy
• Ana Menendez, Miami Herald: Undocumented often suffer in silence
• Harold Meyerson, Los Angeles Times: The delicate balance of black and brown

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Page Picks Up Lifetime Award from Columnists

Syndicated Chicago Tribune columnist Clarence Page was awarded the Ernie Pyle Lifetime Achievement Award Saturday night by the National Society of Newspaper Columnists, Dave Astor reported Sunday in Editor & Publisher.

“The 1989 Pulitzer Prize winner recalled that he was hired by the Tribune in 1969 partly because the paper was trying to diversify its almost all-white newsroom,” Astor wrote.

“‘Some were concerned I might be a little “militant” for the Tribune,’ said Page, noting that his look back then included a lot of hair, a walrus mustache, a goatee, a dashiki, and jeans. But the paper took him on, and Page compromised by buying a more traditional suit.

“Page became a Tribune columnist in the 1980s. ‘I was itching to give my opinions,’ he said, adding that columnists get an opportunity ‘to make sense out of the news’ (quoting Ellen Goodman) and ‘explain things’ (quoting the late Mike Royko).

“Also, Page welcomed the challenge of ‘reaching the coveted place every journalist wants to be — attached to the refrigerator doors of readers.’ And he loves the challenge of trying to come up with a great column when a huge story breaks, such as 9/11. Page noted that Leonard Pitts Jr. of The Miami Herald” and Tribune Media Services “wrote the best post 9/11 column (the one that memorably addressed the hijackers as ‘you bastards’).

“Page also expressed sympathy for Pitts, who, this month, received many hostile calls and letters after his home address and phone number were published on a white-supremacist Web site.”

• Dave Astor, Editor & Publisher: Quack Medicine: Columnists Group Gives Alberto Gonzales ‘Sitting Duck’ Award
• Dan Gross, Philadelphia Inquirer: Our O’Reilly factor: He came to address nation’s columnists

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20 People Become Thousands After Police Account

“Of all the journalistic sins that irk readers, most can be explained by, blamed on or attributed to either sloppy work by a journalist or incorrect or dishonest information from a news source,” public editor Bob Richter wrote Sunday in the San Antonio Express-News.

“I’ve written often about the former. Today I’d like to point out an example of the latter and, I’m happy to report, it comes from Austin, not San Antonio.

“It happened June 19 when the Austin Police Department gave journalists false information about an ugly murder on the poor side of the Capital City, not far from the site of a city-sponsored Juneteenth celebration.

“The murder of David Rivas Morales, 40, in front of between approximately 20 and 3,000 witnesses occurred after an automobile in which Morales was a passenger struck a 2-year-old child. The house painter died of head injuries delivered by some members of the crowd after he emerged from the vehicle.

“Why, you must wonder, is there a 2,980-person discrepancy in the number of witnesses? An Austin Police Department news release the next day offers a starting point:

“‘According to witnesses,’ it said, ‘several black males assaulted Morales when he stepped out of the vehicle to try and stop the crowd from assaulting the driver. It is believed there were 2,000 to 3,000 people who were in the area when the driver and Morales were attacked.’

“Media in Austin, including the Express-News/Houston Chronicle bureau, instantaneously went with the mob angle. The Associated Press led with, ‘Celebrants at an informal Juneteenth party in a crowded public housing complex parking lot turned into an angry mob that beat a man to death . . . ‘

“. . . the APD put out another release 12 hours later, downplaying the crowd size to about 20. The next day, city officials tried to regain control of the story, downplaying the race angle and any connection with the Juneteenth event.”

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Wife Completes Book on Pioneer Black Journalists

PBS Wallace Terry

An oral history of pioneering black journalists that was completed by its author’s widow is winning early praise.

“Missing Pages: Black Journalists of Modern America: An Oral History,” by Wallace Terry, was published last month. Terry, himself a pioneer black journalist whose coverage of the Vietnam War led to “Bloods,” the 1984 book of oral histories of African American soldiers, died in 2003.

“Wally spent years researching ‘Missing Pages,’ his wife, Janice Terry, writes. “He intended to write a two-volume work. But he had finished only the first volume when he died of a rare disease called Wegener’s granulomatosis, which strikes about one in a million people.

“Wally was barely 65, and I was devastated. It took me several years to muster the emotional strength to go through his files. But when I found the manuscript for ‘Missing Pages,’ I knew that it was my turn to take up the obsession.”

Included are Carl Rowan, Ethel Payne, Joel Dreyfuss, Ben Holman, John Q. Jordan, Tom Johnson, Karen DeWitt, Max Robinson, James Hicks, William Raspberry, Henry M. “Hank” Brown, Leon Dash, Barbara Reynolds, Chuck Stone, Bernard Shaw, Austin Scott, Earl Caldwell, Carole Simpson, Ed Bradley and Terry.

“Reading the book is similar to the swapping of stories in the hotel lobby of a National Association of Black Journalists’ convention,” George E. Curry wrote last week for the National Newspaper Publishers Association News Service. “The difference is that these stories are about the times when there were few African American journalists. And those journalists are brought together on the pages to fill in some of the missing pages of history.”

Writing in the May/June issue of the Columbia Journalism Review, Cynthia Tucker, editorial page editor of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution said, “these early black journalists . . . describe soul-rending inner conflicts as they tried to remain fair-minded, ethical journalists without selling out black people and black causes. Terry determined to set the record straight. He has done all of us who wish to know the history of this business better — indeed, all who wish to know the history of this country better — a great favor.”

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“What Happened to Hiring the Best Candidate?”

The e-mail list of the Sports Task Force of the National Association of Black Journalists was active on Monday discussing a piece by Angela Daidone, sports editor of the Jersey Journal in Jersey City, N.J., “What happened to hiring the best candidate?” posted on the Web site of the Associated Press Sports Editors.

“When we seek out candidates to fill our department, what exactly are we looking for? Good reporters? Quality writers? A nose for a story? Efficiency?” Daidone asked.

“Or are we simply trying to fill some diversity quota?

“Case in point: I had an intern in my department who was an excellent reporter and writer. His stories came in clean and always on time. More important, he got along well with the rest of the staff, behaved professionally on assignment and had the potential to grow with the job. He had impressive credentials and indeed lived up to them.

“I couldn’t hire him when his internship was up. He wasn’t the right candidate, I was told.

“I also had an intern who spent most of his time IM-ing his pals or on his cell phone. One summer intern called in sick every Friday and Monday (I never knew a car could break down so many times). And another young woman actually started painting her nails (she was bored, she said). I wasn’t involved in the hiring process but they each fit a certain checklist.

“My question is, have we become so focused on diversity that we are sacrificing quality journalism?”

• Jorge Rojas, APSE Diversity Committee: Diversity committee update

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Short Takes

• “The public’s right to know triumphed over government secrecy Friday when the Federal Emergency Management Agency was ordered to make public the addresses of more than 600,000 households that received $1.2 billion in aid after the 2004 hurricane season,” Melanie Payne wrote in the Fort Myers, Fla., News-Press. Three Gannett Co. papers in Florida sued FEMA for the names and addresses after their public-information request was denied by the agency.
• Are some racial slurs all right to print but not others? a reader asked Kate Parry, public editor of the Star Tribune in Minneapolis. “I am puzzled that Janet Moore felt it acceptable to write ‘Beaner. Spic. Wetback.'” In response, Parry wrote on Sunday that, “The words were crucial to show what it was like for these Hispanic girls attending Chaska High School, said Laurie Hertzel, the projects editor who worked with Moore on the story.”
• “We do not know whether the ever-growing legion of Us Weekly/InTouch/Life & Style Weekly and Star readers fully believe the never-ending pregnancies/anorexia/bulimia/obesity/marriages/separations/divorces afflicting America’s celebrities, but advertisers continue to believe in the product,” Min, an acronym for Media Industry News, reported. All of the aforementioned magazines were up significantly in ad pages through the first half of the year, with InTouch and Life & Style Weekly posting the largest increases.
• The Minority Media and Telecommunications Council’s Fifth Annual Access to Capital and Telecom Policy Conference is scheduled July 16-17 at Washington’s Westin Grand Hotel. “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 300 entrepreneurs, senior managers, bankers, venture capitalists, brokers, attorneys, legislators and regulators,” David Honig, executive director of the council, said.