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Editor Out at AOL Black Voices

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Nick Charles Is Third Leader to Go Since March

Less than four months after the general manager and publisher of the Web site AOL Black Voices stepped

 

Nick Charles

down, Nick Charles, the Web site’s editor-in-chief, left abruptly this week, Charles confirmed on Friday.

“I’m weighing a couple of things,” Charles told Journal-isms, saying he could not discuss the circumstances of his departure.

Staffers are reporting to Mike Rich, a white AOL executive who is vice president and general manager of entertainment for AOL Music, AOL Radio, AOL Television and Moviefone.com, a Black Voices staff member said.

“I’m taking a little break,” Charles said. “It’s been a wonderful two years. The staff was excellent. My team will continue to keep Black Voices the No. 1 site.”

Charles has called AOL Black Voices the top Web destination for black viewers, but BET.com also claims that distinction.

 

 

Charles, who began his journalism career in 1985, came to AOL Black Voices in 2005 after leaving a job as press secretary for the New York mayoral campaign of Manhattan Borough President C. Virginia Fields, a Democrat.

When Charles was named, Janet Rollé, the vice president and general manager, said in a news release: â??We are excited to have Nicholas join AOL Black Voices and are confident that through his far-reaching editorial experience — having covered news, culture, lifestyle, business, sports, politics and entertainment for diverse publications — he will significantly contribute to the growth of the AOL Black Voices brand.

“Most recently, Charles was the Founding Editor In Chief of the Toyota & Jungle Media Group culture/lifestyle magazine, Forward, responsible for the conceptualization and design of the 60-page title.

 

 

“Before that, he was a Staff Writer for the New York Daily News writing feature articles and cultural criticism, plus a weekly column on pop culture. In addition, he served as a human interest and features writer for People magazine.”

As reported in March, Rollé and Alvin Bowles, its publisher, left for BET Networks, following the departure of a number of journalists at the popular Web site.

In April, Rollé became BET’s executive vice president and chief marketing officer and Bowles, senior vice president, integrated marketing.

AOL BlackVoices was created in 2004, combining three former Web sites: Black Voices, AOL Black Focus and Africana.com.

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N.Y. Times Interpreter-Reporter Killed in Iraq

“Khalid W. Hassan, 23, an interpreter and reporter in the Baghdad bureau of The New York Times, was shot and killed today, the bureau chief, John F. Burns, reported. He was the second Iraqi employee of the Times to be killed during the current conflict,” John Holusha reported Friday in the Times.

“Bill Keller, the executive editor of the Times, issued this statement: ‘Khalid was part of a large, sometimes unsung, community of Iraqi news-gatherers, translators and support staff, who take enormous risks every day to help us comprehend their countryâ??s struggle and torment.

“‘Without them, Americansâ?? understanding of what is happening on the ground in Iraq would be much, much poorer. To The Times, Khalid was family, and his death is heartbreaking.’

“Mr. Hassan was one of the longest-serving local members of the bureau, having joined in the fall of 2003. He was of Palestinian descent; his family had fled to Iraq after the conflict with Israel in 1948. He lived with his mother and four sisters, all under the age of 18,” Holusha wrote.

Hillary Clinton to Speak at NABJ Convention

Sen. Hillary Clinton of New York, the front-running Democratic presidential candidate, will address members of the National Association of Black Journalists at their Aug. 8-12 convention in Las Vegas, the association and her campaign jointly announced on Friday.

The forum, â??A Conversation with Americaâ??s Candidates,â?? is scheduled during the annual newsmaker plenary on Aug. 9.

NABJ said it has invited the other major Democratic and Republican presidential candidates to participate. CNN White House correspondent Suzanne Malveaux is to moderate the forum.

“I care passionately about the big issues we face in this country,” Clinton said in a statement. “After 35 years of working on issues like education, health care, and racial equality I am ready to lead and look forward to the opportunity to speak with the 3,000-plus members of the NABJ about my vision and plan for improving the lives of the American people.”

“We are excited to have Sen. Clinton join us for the convention,” said NABJ President Bryan Monroe, vice president and editorial director of Ebony and Jet magazines in Chicago. “Our members have a lot to ask her about the state of our nation, her views on Black America and the role of a free and unfettered press.”

Former president Bill Clinton, Sen. John Kerry, former secretary of state Colin Powell and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice have addressed NABJ conventions, and George W. Bush spoke at the Unity: Journalists of Color convention in 2004.

Meanwhile, the need for more transparency and communication with members were among the topics raised by candidates for NABJ offices at a forum in New York on June 23, according to a story by Régine LabossiÚre posted Wednesday on the NABJ Web site.

“Several candidates said the organization’s leaders should have more proactively let members know that NABJ spent two years with a deficit, with last year ending in a shortfall of $647,000,” LabossiÚre wrote.

Candidates “also spoke about enhancing what the organization offers its members, and working harder to diversify newsrooms and providing job opportunities in a time when the industry is full of news of the latest layoffs.”

Ken Burns Adds 29 Minutes to World War II Series

“Ken Burns is adding about 29 minutes of new material to his seven-part documentary

 

 

 

about soldiers who fought in World War II, a response to pressure from a consortium of Hispanic organizations that demanded soldiers of their ethnic background be given prominent roles in the project,” Lisa de Moraes reported Thursday in the Washington Post.

“Interviews with two Hispanic soldiers have been added to the first and sixth episodes of ‘The War,’ and the story of a Native American soldier has been added to the fifth episode, Burns told reporters here Wednesday at Summer TV Press Tour 2007,” she wrote from Beverly Hills, Calif.

“The additional footage, which will be at the end of the episodes but before the end credits roll, may, or may not, end the war Latino groups have waged with Burns over ‘The War,’ which is set to debut Sept. 23 on PBS.

“Burns said the new material, which pushes the documentary’s total length to around 15 hours, is ‘more than we were asked and expected to’ add, calling it ‘our way of kind of honoring our own interest in doing this right.'”

In the July 16 edition of Hispanic Link Weekly Report, Maira García writes that “Maggie Rivas-Rodríguez, director of the U.S. Latino and Latina WWII Oral History Project at the University of Texas-Austin, responded that she has not seen a preview,” but that “based on statements Burns has made, she is still not convinced he understands why the inclusion of Hispanics is so important.”

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Doug Woo, Honolulu TV Reporter, Dies at 57

“Doug Woo, a former Advertiser and KGMB-TV reporter who later served as spokesman for Honolulu Prosecutor Keith Kaneshiro, died Monday night. He was 57,” Will Hoover reported Wednesday in the Honolulu Advertiser.

“Woo became ill suddenly about 8 p.m. Monday and was rushed to the Kuakini Medical Center, where he died, said his brother, Art Woo. Doctors suspect it may have been a heart attack, Art Woo said. An autopsy will determine the cause of death.

“‘It was a total surprise,’ Art Woo said. “He was in very good shape. What makes it such a surprise, there weren’t any warning symptoms. He had a doctor’s checkup a month or so back, and I think he even had an EKG. And it was normal.’

“Woo was born Nov. 20, 1949. He was an Advertiser reporter from 1970 to 1980, then spent eight years as a reporter at Channel 9. He was spokesman during Kaneshiro’s two terms in office, from 1988 to 1996. Later he worked for the city Department of Customer Services.”

“Doug was always a reporter first,” said Kaneshiro, the friend and former prosecutor who tapped Woo to be his spokesman, Crystal Kua wrote Wednesday in the Honolulu Star-Bulletin.

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Carole Simpson: Eddie Pinder Was Unforgettable

When Eddie Pinder, 36, a producer at ABC News, died Thursday after complications from heart bypass surgery, Carole Simpson, former ABC News weekend anchor and senior correspondent, was moved to write this tribute for Journal-isms:

 

 

Why do the good die young? Itâ??s not fair. As we know, life is often not fair. Why did Eddie Pinder have to go? Heâ??s the ABC producer who died Thursday of complications from bypass surgery. Heart attacks at 36?

I knew he would survive because at age 25, when he was a young production assistant in the New York bureau, he developed a brain tumor. He came back from that, bigger and better than ever. To everyone who talked to him about his remarkable recovery, he gave credit to God and prayer for his survival.

In no time, his hard work and winning personality helped him move up the production ranks at ABC. I canâ??t remember anyone saying anything bad about Eddie. He would enter a room and literally take over. He and I worked together, doing a story that was so important to him, “Shopping While Black.” The problem of black shoppers being followed in stores and having trouble getting clerks to acknowledge them. It was Eddieâ??s kind of story: using video and sound to illustrate the racial ills America still suffers.

His untimely death removes from network television a black male producer who might have reached the top. He was a journalist in the truest sense of the word. Like 19th-century newspaper publisher Finley Peter Dunne said over 100 years ago of the best journalists, Eddie wanted to “afflict the comfortable and comfort the afflicted.”

The last time I saw Eddie was at the 2005 NABJ convention in Atlanta, where I was inducted into the Hall of Fame. ABC held a dinner in my honor with fellow employees. I asked Eddie to sing to me. He knelt before my table and in his beautiful baritone voice, he belted out a song I had never heard before. But the way he sang it, I felt that I was wonderful, graceful, beautiful, great and unforgettable. He made tears come to my eyes. Heâ??s done it again. But now the tears flow freely. It wonâ??t be the same without Eddie Pinder. He touched us all. Too soon, too young, too talented, to be gone.

Young men and women, Ed Bradley was Eddieâ??s role model. You might consider making Eddie yours.

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Michael Richards Gives Up Stand-Up Comedy

“Actor Michael Richards, whose career nosedived after he shouted racial slurs at hecklers in a West Hollywood comedy club, has been seeking some spiritual healing here with his fiancée,” Charles McDermid wrote from Siem Reap, Cambodia, Friday in the Los Angeles Times.

“Richards, best known for his portrayal of the eccentric Cosmo Kramer on the popular television series ‘Seinfeld,’ said he has quit stand-up comedy.

“‘That night, when I was insulted and disrupted, I lost my heart; I lost my sense of humor. I’ve retired from that. I’m taking time off to feel myself out, get to know myself and appreciate other people,’ Richards said in an interview here.”

Richards launched into a tirade last November at the Laugh Factory in Hollywood during a stand-up performance, telling an African American, “Fifty years ago they’d have you hanging upside down with a [expletive] fork up your [expletive]. Throw his [expletive] out!” He then repeatedly used the “N word” to label the man. Richards apologized, and the episode helped to launch a renewed examination of the word’s use.

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Telemundo Host Fired for Not Knowing Cuban Slang

“A cherna by any other name is still a cherna. Unless you’re Cuban, in which case a cherna is a fish, sure, but also a pejorative term (in a culture rich with such lamentable uses of imagination) for a gay man,” Ana Menendez

 

 

explained to readers Wednesday in the Miami Herald.

“Luisa Fernanda, host for six years of a popular talk show on Telemundo, joked with co-host Mauricio Zeilic that if they were ever attacked by the Mara Salvatrucha, a Central American gang whose name is a play on the word for ‘trout,’ they could appeal to the ‘Grouper of Hialeah,'” Menendez explained.

Fernanda used the Cuban word for grouper, cherna, which for Cubans has another meaning: a pejorative term for a gay man, as Casey Woods wrote earlier in the Herald.

Menendez continued: “Born and raised in Mexico City, Fernanda didn’t know that she had inadvertently invoked a slur. But Telemundo, citing a zero-tolerance policy, immediately fired her, proving that good intentions pave the road to dumb personnel moves.

“. . . The only thing that bothered her a bit was the suggestion that she should have been up on homophobic Cuban slang. ‘It’s part of the responsibility of talent to the community to know these things,’ Telemundo’s spokesman told The Miami Herald’s Casey Woods.

”’How am I going to do that? Maybe if I swallowed a dictionary,’ said Fernanda. `If I could be up on all the various slang in Latin America, I wouldn’t be hosting a show, I’d be a doctor of letters.'”

2 German Anchors Who Don’t Fit the Stereotype

“Dunya Hayali is the new face of German television and, remarkably, she

 

 

is neither blue-eyed nor blonde,” Roger Boyes wrote from Berlin on Friday for the Times of London.

“The co-anchorwoman for Germany’s flagship news programme, ‘heute-journal,’ has Iraqi parents and her appearance on screen marks a small revolution in one of the most racially homogenous societies in Europe. She has become the first person of colour to present a prime-time news programme on German television.” Her name is also spelled Dunja Hayali.

 

 

“The dearth of immigrant role models, in the media, politics and business, was a key issue in the so-called ‘integration summit’ chaired in the Berlin chancellery yesterday by Angela Merkel,” Germany’s chancellor, Boyes’ story said.

“The most high-profile black journalist in television — virtually the only one in front of a camera — is Cherno Jobatey, a half-Ghanian presenter of the ZDF breakfast programme. For years he wore white trainers under his suit so that viewers could refer to him as the ‘reporter in gym shoes’ rather than the ‘black reporter.’ Now he has taken to wearing leather shoes— a sign of growing social acceptance.”

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Africa Coverage Heavy on Celebrity Angles

“A disproportionate percentage of already-scant network news coverage of Africa revolves around celebrities like Bono and Angelina Jolie, a new FAIR study finds. Such celebrity-driven coverage imparts remarkably little information about the continent and the people who live there, study author Julie Hollar reports,” according to a news relase issued Wednesday by the activist media watch group Fairness & Accuracy in Reporting.

“Among the study’s findings:

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Scholarship Honors Publisher Charles Tisdale

“The Charles Tisdale Memorial Scholarship is being established by the Jackson Association of Black Journalists, the president of the organization announced Friday,” the Associated Press reported from Mississippi.

“‘We talked with his wife Alice and we just felt as African American journalists that the black press is the genesis of where we started. We want to foster that legacy as Mississippi’s oldest- African American newspaper,” said Kevin Richardson, president of JABJ and business editor at The Clarion-Ledger newspaper.”

“Tisdale, owner and publisher of the Jackson Advocate, died July 7. He was 80.”

Tisdale’s funeral is scheduled for 5 p.m. Saturday at the Rose Embly McCoy Auditorium at Jackson State University.

Short Takes

 

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