Site icon journal-isms.com

Debate Spins in Journalists’ Favor

richard

Candidates Praise “Fairness” of Howard U. Session

Cornel West was looking somewhat austere, dressed all in black, wearing his Afro, his glasses and his goatee, surrounded by reporters and cameras and spinning for Barack Obama in the media room at Howard University.

His job was to talk up Obama after the Democratic presidential candidates forum Thursday night, even if it meant dissing the other front-runner, Hillary Clinton, which West was only too happy to do, saying she had an “opportunistic” and “manipulative” streak and appealed to voters who were nostalgically looking backward, not forward.

But the Princeton scholar warmed to a question about how the journalists of color — DeWayne Wickham of USA Today and Gannett News Service, Michel Martin of National Public Radio and Ruben Navarrette of the San Diego Union-Tribune— handled themselves.

“That’s a good question,” he said, stroking his beard. “A very good question. They did a good job,” he said, eyes brightening. “It’s so good to see it on display,” he said of the journalists’ talents. “Somebody ought to send a note to Tim Russert,” the host of “Meet the Press.”

West wasn’t alone in praising the Tavis Smiley-moderated “All-American Presidential Forum,” the first of the 2008 campaign season geared toward an African American audience, and one designed to address the issues raised in the Smiley-edited “Covenant with Black America.” Each of the three presidential candidates who came to the “spin room,” taking their assigned places under guideposts bearing their names, did the same.

“This was the most fair debate,” Dennis Kucinich, congressman from Ohio, told Journal-isms, counting off reasons. “Howard University showed the rest of America how to put on a debate.”

“The questions were better. It was fairer,” said Mike Gravel, the former senator from Alaska. “This was the first fair forum we had,” he said, complaining that in earlier debates, some candidates got short shrift. If others followed Howard’s lead, “they won’t be able to pull the same crap they did in other debates,” he told Journal-isms.

“Good questions. Very good. We covered a lot more ground, we were dealt with more fairly. At least I had a chance to answer every question,” said Sen. Christopher Dodd of Connecticut.

The three front-runners, Sen. Hillary Clinton of New York and Obama of Illinois, and former senator John Edwards of North Carolina, sent surrogates to the media room.

For Clinton, one was Vernon Jordan, the onetime National Urban League leader who became a Friend of Bill, the former president. He said he heard “good questions and excellent responses,” but was disappointed there was no question about Iraq.

Rep. Eddie Bernice Johnson, D-Texas, who was there to promote Edwards, said the same. “They hit some good topics, but I would have asked a little more about the war that’s costing a billion dollars a week,” she said.

Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee, D-Texas, another Clinton supporter, agreed the candidates could have expanded more on Iraq, but said the questioners tried to “salt the soil” for discussion, and succeeded. They “expressed the essence of the buzz words that African Americans can associate ourselves with. We had a full plate.”

To begin the debate, Smiley produced an “ordinary person,” Crecilla Cohen Scott of Bowie, Md., who took the forum straight to the issue of race by noting W.E.B. DuBois’ oft-quoted observation that the problem of the 20th century would be the problem of the color line. Her question about whether that was still the case in the new century provided opportunities for all the candidates to denounce Thursday’s Supreme Court decision striking down school desegregation plans in Seattle and Louisville, Ky., and to put themselves on the record about the persistence of racism.

Wickham came with statistics. Why, he asked, was the unemployment rate higher for black high school graduates than for white high school dropouts? That prompted a wide-ranging discussion of the interrelationship of education policies, economics and jobs.

Martin asked why African Americans were 17 percent of the population, but 60 percent of those diagnosed with HIV and AIDS. That led to a discussion of AIDS policy, and the biggest applause line of the night, from Clinton: “If HIV-AIDS were the leading cause of death of white women between the ages of 25 and 34 there would be an outraged outcry in this country.”

Navarrette asked about a statement by billionaire Warren Buffett that he ought to be paying more in taxes, prompting a round-robin on tax policy. He also asked about outsourcing.

Another statistics-laden question from Wickham got the candidates into criminal justice issues; and Martin asked whether the candidates would support a federal right-to-return law for victims of Hurricane Katrina. And then there was Africa.

“I’m glad people asked the question about Darfur,” Johnson, the Texas congresswoman, told Journal-isms. “What happened there can happen anywhere.”

“The question of what to do to stop the genocide in the Darfur region of Sudan produced overwhelming agreement that the U.S. should establish a no-fly zone in the region, backed by threats of force against Sudan’s government,” as Brian DeBose put it in the Washington Times.

“They made a difference,” Democratic strategist Donna Brazile said of the questioners. Rather than talk about who is better on Iraq or Darfur, as in the previous two encounters, “tonight we tried to talk about who is better on HIV/AIDS, who is better on education . . . That’s what matters in this debate. Everybody’s going to talk about the Howard debate before they talk about the other debates,” Brazile told Journal-isms.

On Friday, however, there was further dissent close to home. On “The D.C. Politics Hour with Kojo and Jonetta,” the weekly segment of “The Kojo Nnamdi Show” on local public radio station WAMU-FM, the questioners were excoriated for not raising the District of Columbia’s lack of voting rights in Congress. If the session were held in Detroit, urban decay would be on the agenda, said Nnamdi; in San Francisco, gay rights would be discussed. “It’s pathetic,” added co-host Jonetta Rose Barras. Demonstrating a “narrow perspective,” she said, they “don’t understand this is a civil rights issue.”

Also on Friday, “Organizers of a first-ever presidential forum on native issues criticized Democratic candidates for failing to address American Indians Thursday night . . . calling on the candidates to commit to attending its forum Prez on the Rez” on Aug. 23 in Cabazon, Calif., a news release from the Indigenous Democratic Network (INDN) List Education Fund said.

“At a minimum, it’s disheartening to see our candidates miss an opportunity to recognize the issues — many of which are shared with other minority communities — that face American Indians,” said Kalyn Free, president of the fund, which is sponsoring the Aug. 23 event. “At worst, this ‘All American Forum’ is yet another example of how so many Americans forget our First Americans.”

MESSAGE BOARDS: Feel free to post a comment on this subject and view those from others.

Louisville, Seattle Papers Denounce Court Decision

Editorial pages in the two cities most directly affected by Thursday’s Supreme Court decision ruling against school desegregation plans strongly denounced the 5-4 ruling in Friday’s editions.

 

 

“In an opinion replete with willful naiveté, rewriting of history and, as dissenting Justice John Paul Stevens wrote, ‘cruel irony,” the U.S. Supreme Court has effectively declared the end of using race to integrate racially segregated schools here, in Louisville, Ky., and in much of the country,” began the editorial in the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, whose opinion pages are edited by Mark Trahant, Maynard Institute board chairman.

“Since the Bush-stacked majority will likely rule the court for some time, schools, local governments and parents will have to employ the greatest creativity to continue efforts toward the civil right of good, diverse education for all.

“Lemonade must be made of lemons.”

The Louisville Courier-Journal said, “The near total racial isolation and educational despair that pervade so many American cities today are considered constitutionally just; the racial diversity and educational opportunity that Jefferson County has voluntarily and proudly attained are rejected as constitutionally unjust.

“A more bitter or unjustified blow is hard to conceive.

“The only thing worse would be for people of good will here to stagger under that blow and give up.”

The Seattle Times said, “A splintered Supreme Court ruling on school diversity leaves the Seattle School District where it has foundered the past six years â?? casting about for an acceptable way to maintain diverse and equitable schools.

Its editorial quoted Justice Anthony Kennedy saying the majority ruling was “at least open to the interpretation that the Constitution requires school districts to ignore the problem of de facto resegregation in schooling. I cannot endorse that conclusion. To the extent the plurality opinion suggests the Constitution mandates that state and local school authorities must accept the status quo of racial isolation in schools, it is, in my view, profoundly mistaken.”

“This page agrees,” the editorial said.

“The School Board will have to rise to the challenge of crafting a student-assignment plan that is fair and isn’t blind to the inequality built along racial and socioeconomic lines.”

Meanwhile, the Minority Media and Telecommunications Council, which advocates for minority media ownership, said in a statement, “Todayâ??s Supreme Court decision in the Seattle and Louisville school desegregation cases does nothing to diminish the indispensability of minority owners and managers in communications.

“. . . In the wake of the Courtâ??s decision, MMTC will ask Congress to hold oversight hearings on the FCCâ??s minority ownership and EEO policies.”

MESSAGE BOARDS: Feel free to post a comment on this subject and view those from others.

Tip Led to Disclosure About Buscaglia’s Résumé

“Orange County Register Publisher N. Christian Anderson III learned that Marti Buscaglia had misrepresented herself on her resume from a tip the paper received after announcing she would become the new publisher — not from Buscaglia herself,” Joe Strupp reported Friday in Editor & Publisher.

 

 

“He also criticized the search firm that had recruited the veteran newspaper executive, claiming they should have checked her background better.” Buscaglia’s resume listed graduation from Lima University in Peru.

“‘You really need to rely on recruiters to verify facts, handle doing the requisite background checks,’ Anderson said late Thursday, a day after announcing Buscaglia would not be taking the job. ‘In my experience with recruiters, you need to be able to count on them to have vetted the various aspects of the person’s background.’ He declined to identify the recruiter used,” the story continued.

“Anderson also said that the paper would not be in a hurry to seek another candidate for the job, hinting that it may be 2008 before a choice is made, if at all.”

MESSAGE BOARDS: Feel free to post a comment on this subject and view those from others.

Puerto Rican Journalists Lose Suit Against FBI

“A judge earlier this month disposed of a case brought by a group of journalists who sued the FBI after being attacked by agents while covering the agency’s search of an apartment in San Juan, Puerto Rico,” the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press reported on Wednesday.

“Chief U.S. District Judge Jose Antonio Fuste in San Juan granted the FBI’s motion for summary judgment, finding that the agents were protected by a qualified immunity that ‘protects state officials from the burden of standing trial or facing other onerous aspects of litigation.’

“The lawsuit stems from incidents that occurred while the journalists were covering the FBI’s execution of a search warrant on an apartment in San Juan in February 2006.

“The journalists said their First Amendment rights were violated when agents knocked aside microphones and cameras, and when one agent used his hand to block a video camera, according to Fuste’s June 12 order. They further said the agents used excessive force in violation of the Fourth Amendment when they used pepper spray, shoved journalists through a security gate, and punched, kicked and hit them with batons.

“The raid and attacks prompted a congressional hearing last year.”

William Ramirez, an attorney with the American Civil Liberties Union of Puerto Rico who represented the journalists, did not accept the judge’s reasoning, saying any “unjustified impediment to the press doing its job would be a First Amendment violation,” the story said. He said an appeal was planned.

MESSAGE BOARDS: Feel free to post a comment on this subject and view those from others.

Black Publishers Challenge Microsoft on Advertising

“The National Newspaper Publishers Association, representing more than 200 Black Newspaper publishers around the nation, gave new meaning to the so-called ‘Microsoft Media Skins Challenge’ at the corporation’s headquarters . . . last week,” the NNPA reported from Seattle on Thursday.

“Amidst a passionate — sometimes heated — exchange, Microsoft Corporation officials who represent Black and other minority business and organizational interests for the multi-billion dollar corporation conceded that Microsoft is among major companies that often think advertising in White-owned newspapers is a catchall — even in the Black community.

 

 

“‘To be very frank it’s a challenge,’ said Jose Piñero, Microsoft’s director of diversity and multicultural marketing. ‘Part of the issue is ignorance and part of the issue is they think that, “Hey if we just put out advertising in USA Today, it reaches everybody,”‘ he said.

“But, several of the approximately 150 NNPA members, who participated in the three-hour conversation on the Microsoft campus, were not in the mood for excuses.

“The publishers and advertising managers in Seattle for NNPA’s summer conference challenged the corporation, arguing that the multi-billion-dollar technology company is advertising solely in general market newspapers while neglecting the Black Press.”

Meanwhile, John B. Smith Sr., publisher of the Atlanta Inquirer, won a close election to serve as chairman of the association for two more years. Smith was challenged by former First Vice President Cloves Campbell, publisher of the Arizona Informant.

And Hazel Trice Edney was formally named editor-in-chief of the National Newspaper Publishers Association News Service, succeeding George E. Curry, who resigned in March.

Edney, a 20-year reporter for the black press, served as NNPA’s Washington correspondent for the past seven years.

MESSAGE BOARDS: Feel free to post a comment on this subject and view those from others.

More than 400 Remember Merc’s Rich Ramirez

More than 400 people came to the First Unitarian Church in downtown San Jose, Calif., to remember Rich Ramirez, the veteran reporter and editor at the San Jose Mercury News, according to Peter Delevett, an assistant city editor. Ramirez was found dead June 20 at age 44 in his Livermore, Calif., back yard, a possible suicide.

 

 

 

“The service was probably an hour or so, and then we had a big potluck at the church that lasted at least another hour,” Delevett told Journal-isms.

“Karl Kahler, our deputy graphics editor (and, like Rich, a USC alum), was the MC. Speakers included Rich’s cousin, John Boyle; his brother-in- law, George Dalke; longtime friend Steve Norvell; and former Mercury News executive editors Jerry Ceppos and David Yarnold. (Former Merc editors Larry Jinks and Bob Ingle also were there, as were former Knight Ridder honchos like Bob Ryan and Bryan Monroe. Our current publisher, George Riggs, also was there, as were executive editor Carole Leigh Hutton, managing editor David Satterfield and most of the newsroom),” Delevett wrote in an e-mail.

“Karl allowed for some open mike time, at which the speakers included former Viet Mercury publisher De Tran, and then there was a lovely rendition of “Amazing Grace” by . . . Marc Petersen. . . . Merc photographer Jim Gensheimer really brought the house down with a slide show of photographs of and by Rich; there were a lot of tears. Finally, Karl ended by playing the USC fight song (the lyrics of which were printed in the bulletin).”

“It was a moving service,” added Monroe, former deputy managing editor at the Mercury News who worked with Ramirez for more than a dozen years. â??We all remembered Richâ??s warmth and kindness and friendship.”

Ceppos provided a copy of his remarks.

“A lot has been written, and spoken, in the last week about Richâ??s quiet professionalism,” he said.

“But not enough has been said about Richâ??s quiet warmth, the ability to befriend all sorts of people and even a capacity to share personal situations despite an innate shyness.

“So, let me tell three very short stories about that warmth:

“The first: We used to publish a weekly Alameda County paper that was delivered to subscribers and sent free to non-subscribers. When Rich told us that he desperately wanted to try his hand at becoming an assigning editor, we said that editing this publication seemed like a good spot, especially because Rich lived in Alameda County.

“Well, just before Rich could assume the job, we realized that the Weekly wasnâ??t doing much for readers or for advertisers or for the Mercury News, so the decision was made to eliminate it.

“Iâ??ll never forget the day that a few of us called Rich into my office to tell him what we thought was mildly bad news. It turned out that Rich cared about the Weekly more deeply than advertisers did OR readers did. He was devastated. I actually saw tears in his eyes.

“That experience told me so much about Rich— especially that his PASSION for this newspaper and for journalism was far deeper than you might have realized if you didnâ??t know him well.

“My second anecdote: For those of you who think that Rich didnâ??t reveal much about himself, I want to tell you about the time that he came into my office, sat down and said privately that he wanted to talk to me because Karen and I had adopted a baby not very long before. (Oh, yeah, Rich: As an aside, that baby just completed his freshman orientation for college last Friday.)

“It turns out, and this is the confidence, that Rich HIMSELF was adopted as an infant. We talked, I encouraged him to do some research and Rich did. He went into the records of a San Francisco hospital. Within a fairly short time, he found his birth mom in Contra Costa County. As Rich updated me on the adventure, I learned about Richâ??s deep views on family as well as some moving stories about the reunion of a birth mom and her son and also about the importance of his adoptive mom.

“The third anecdote told me something about Richâ??s feelings about KIDS, even though he had none, as well as about family. Many years ago, Rich and Janet attended a Sharks game with our mutual friends Felix and Maria Gutierrez, who are here today. Also at the game were my son Matt, who was probably seven years old, and his great friend Jimmy, who was about nine.

“To our amazement, Rich had arranged a very special surprise for the kids. He had S.J. Sharkie, the mascot, VISIT THE KIDS!!!!.

“To this day, I donâ??t want to know how Rich pulled that off. But it was a loving and special treat. In fact, it remains one of the highlights of their lives for Matt and for Jimmy, who sort of wrestled with Sharkie even though it was an uneven match. The kids still talk about the experience, 10 or 11 years later. I still remember Rich beaming in the reflected glow of the kids.

“Incidentally, Felix didnâ??t know that I was going to mention Sharkie today. But he actually sent me an e-mail this week recalling the experience. Felix, that was a highlight for you, too, wasnâ??t it?

“So, Rich, we know that you were a professional with a quiet demeanor. But we also know that you were a warm, loving person who valued journalism, family and kids.

“I donâ??t know how to conclude except by borrowing a closing from the electronic guest book, this one from Jim Kruger, who probably was Richâ??s very first editor on the PM copy desk.

“‘So long, Rich,’ Jim wrote the other day. ‘See you soon.'”

MESSAGE BOARDS: Feel free to post a comment on this subject and view those from others.

Short Takes

 

 
Exit mobile version