“Only One Reason” to Retain a Well-Known Litigator
Stephen A. Smith, the outspoken Philadelphia Inquirer sports columnist who was reassigned against his will to the reporters ranks, has retained high-powered Florida trial lawyer Willie E. Gary and apparently resigned from the Inquirer, where he had worked since 1994.
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Smith’s name no longer appears on the Inquirer staff list published on its Web site.
“There’s only one reason” people hire Gary, Tricia (C.K.) Hoffler, the lawyer handling Smith’s case, told Journal-isms on Monday. “What we do for a living is trial work.” Gary has secured “verdicts that most lawyers will never see in their lifetime. . . . We’re his lead litigator,” she said, speaking of Smith.
A story in the Palm Beach (Fla.) Post described Gary as “legendary” and a “multimillionaire litigator” whose firm has had 7,000 clients and 200 employees.
He has “won major civil cases against powerhouses Disney and Anheuser-Busch,” Ron Harris wrote in the September issue of Ebony magazine. In 1999, he also founded the Black Family Channel, which has since shut down TV operations and moved online, Harris noted.
The firm, Gary, Williams, Finney, Lewis, Watson & Sperando, will continue to work with Smith’s original lawyer, Johnine P. Barnes of Washington, Hoffler said.
“We’re waiting to see what the lawyer says before we do anything,” Henry J. Holcomb, an Inquirer reporter who is president of the the Newspaper Guild of Greater Philadelphia, told Journal-isms. The Guild had filed a protest on Smith’s behalf when the Inquirer stripped Smith of his column in August. Left unsaid has been what grounds Smith has for legal action.
The New York native had parlayed the column into a radio and cable television presence, locally and nationally. However, the owners who bought the Inquirer and its sister paper, the Philadelphia Daily News, last year from the now-defunct Knight Ridder Inc. put a premium on local news.
As Smith continued a vacation from the paper, he was signed last month to host a national afternoon radio show on the ESPN the sports network.
The offices of Inquirer managers said they were unavailable for comment. Smith sent word through a friend that he had been advised by his lawyers not to comment. He has maintained a public silence about the Inquirer since management’s decision to reassign him.
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Memphis Photographer Ernest Withers Dies at 85
Photographer Ernest Withers, who chronicled much of the civil rights movement as well as the blues music of Beale Street in Memphis, died Monday night in Memphis. He was 85. His death followed a Sept. 23 stroke that led to complications, said his son, Joshua â??Billyâ?? Withers of Los Angeles, Michael Lollar reported on the Web site of the Memphis Commercial Appeal.
“It was the final chapter in a career that began during World War II when Withers asked to replace an Army photographer who was being promoted. His duties included photographing engineering projects such as bridges and airfields that black soldiers helped build. Withers then began shooting photos for his camp newspaper,” Lollar wrote.
“From that humble beginning, Withers spent more than 60 years documenting history from the blues music of Beale Street to the civil rights movement, including legends B.B. King and Elvis Presley and iconic images from travels with Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. to the striking sanitation workers whose ‘I Am A Man’ signs became a symbol of Kingâ??s 1968 death in Memphis.
“In the end, he was as well known in some circles as his subjects, said Memphis Brooks Museum of Art director Kaywin Feldman. ‘Ernest Withers is internationally recognized as one of the most important American photographers of the 20th Century. Not only did Withers capture iconic images of the civil rights movement, but he also produced important photographs of the Negro Baseball League, Memphis musicians and daily life for African-Americans in Memphis. We are proud to have almost 200 of Withersâ?? photographs in our permanent collection.'”
In 2000, the National Association of Black Journalists gave Withers its Lifetime Achievement Award.
In 2005, the hour-long documentary “Freedom’s Call” told the story of veteran journalist Dorothy Gilliam and Withers, who both covered some of the key civil rights-related events of the 1950s and 1960s. Working with George Kilpatrick and Robert Short Jr., two producers from Syracuse, Richard Breyer, professor at Syracuse University’s S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications, took Gilliam and Withers on a road trip to several places that the two visited while covering historic events of the civil rights movement.
The film, which is still screened around the country, grew out of a February 2004 symposium at Syracuse University marking the 50th anniversary of the Brown vs. Board of Education school desegregation decision.
The Tri-State Defender in Memphis noted in 2000 that Withers covered the Emmett Till murder trial of the 1950s, the civil rights movement of the South, the early days of Ike and Tina Turner, Memphis soul legends Rufus Thomas and Isaac Hayes, Negro League baseball and the Church of God in Christ.
“Two of his most famous photos are of Blues and Rock & Roll legends B.B King and Elvis Presley, respectively, caught together in 1957, and, the I Am A Man sanitation workers strike in Memphis, a scene of the late Dr. Martin Luther King’s last march,” the paper said.
- WREG-TV Memphis: A Photographic Memory: [Ernest] Withers, 1922-2007
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At White House, “Our Departure Was Hastened”
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“On November 12, 1914, William Monroe Trotter, editor of the Guardian newspaper, went to the White House to confront President Woodrow Wilson,” Derrick Z. Jackson recalls on the Web site of the Trotter Group, an association of African American columnists named after the historic figure. “Trotter had supported Wilson’s election, but lynching was flaring up, and segregation was more rigid than ever. Trotter asked Wilson where he stood.
“Wilson replied: ‘Segregation is not humiliating, but a benefit. . . . Your manner offends me.’ A 45-minute argument ensued. . . .”
Last Thursday, Mark Plotkin, a veteran political commentator in the District of Columbia whose civic mission has become securing full voting rights for D.C. residents, asked first lady Laura Bush about that subject during an event to honor a local high school band. He wasn’t exactly kicked out, he said, but White House aides made their displeasure clear and “our departure was hastened,” Plotkin told Journal-isms.
Sally McDonough, Laura Bush’s press secretary, told Journal-isms, “it just wasn’t the format for that. The ground rules had been set. I would hope as a journalist there’s a respect for that.”
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Plotkin is not Trotter — he’s not even a black journalist, and as he said, “I just asked a question” — but no doubt Trotter would approve.
The District’s mayor, Adrian Fenty, and non-voting delegate to the House, Eleanor Holmes Norton, said they did.
Plotkin said he had been stewing for six years about Bush’s failure to do anything about the lack of voting rights in Congress for D.C. residents, and was waiting for the residents themselves to speak up at the White House, but, he said, Washingtonians are like victims of “Stockholm Syndrome” who, when invited to a venue like the Executive Mansion, have been content to be used as “props, bit players and extras.”
Here’s what happened, according to an account posted Friday by Plotkin’s colleague at all-news WTOP Radio, Mark Segraves.
“The First Lady gave a brief speech. That’s when Plotkin literally sprung into action. He called across the East Room, ‘Mrs. Bush, Mrs. Bush.’
“He caught her attention; she stopped, smiled and listened.
“In typical Plotkin style, he blurted out the following question:
“‘Mrs. Bush, do you agree with those who say and believe that members of the Ballou High School band should not grow up to become members of the House of Representatives?’
“About half way through the question, Mrs. Bush realized this was not a friendly softball being lobbed from the peanut gallery, but a real question with an agenda from the press gallery.
“Mrs. Bush looked down and walked to her seat without a word. The smile was gone.
“At that moment, White House staff formed a human wall between the press and the First Lady and pointed to the door.
“One White House staffer told Plotkin he was out of line because the event was ‘about the kids.’
“‘My question WAS about the kids,’ Plotkin fired back.
“As we left the East Room, Plotkin ran into White House Chief of Staff Josh Bolten. Bolten wasted no time telling Plotkin he had been disrespectful.
“As we stood in the horseshoe driveway of the White House, Sally McDonough from Mrs. Bush’s press office hurried over to us.
“‘Next time you have a question for the First Lady you can call me and request an interview.’
“‘Great,’ he said. ‘I’ll call tomorrow and we’ll set it up.’
“‘I said you could request an interview.’
“Plotkin smiled.
“Then McDonough asked Plotkin for his name and employer, which she wrote in her notebook.
“‘Thanks, I’ll walk you out.’
“She escorted Plotkin to the gate.
“In fairness, Plotkin was ready to leave, but she made sure he knew it was time to go.”
On Monday, Plotkin gave his own accounthttp://www.wtopnews.com/?nid=165, and the station posted reader reactions on Friday. “Denying 570,000 residents the right to have a member in the U.S. House of Representatives with a vote. That’s just fine,” Plotkin wrote in response to Bolten’s comment that it was Plotkin who was discourteous.
Meanwhile, members of the Trotter Group continued to write about their annual conference, which took place last week in Philadelphia:
- Monroe Anderson, ebonyjet.com: The Washington Legacy: the president’s house project unearths an ugly history
- Betty Bayé, Louisville (Ky.) Courier-Journal: Seeing Philly, talking about street cred
- Wayne Dawkins, Spot-on.com: Philadelphia Freedom
- Eugene Kane, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: This professor’s opinions have ‘street cred’
- Dwight Lewis, Nashville Tennessean: Black leaders must reassert selves to break crime cycle
- Sherman N. Miller, Inner City Conservative Journal: Legalize Some Drugs to Reduce the Killings in Inner City America
- Mary Mitchell, Chicago Sun-Times: Parents of slain man need to be honored
Tariq Muhammad to Direct AOL Black Voices
Tariq Muhammad, director of interactive media for BlackEnterprise.com, on Monday was named director of AOL Black Voices, which claims to be “the No. 1 Web site for black news, entertainment, culture and community, with 2.6 million unique visitors,” citing the measurement company comScore Media Metrix.
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“In this new role, Muhammad will be responsible for spearheading all editorial activity for the site across all content areas including News, Sports, Lifestyle, Entertainment, Finance, Education and Community. He will also lead all business strategy including product launches, partnerships and site expansion,” an announcement said.
“Muhammad will report into Mike Rich, Senior Vice President, AOL Entertainment and AOL Black Voices.”
Nick Charles, the previous editor-in-chief of AOL Black Voices, left abruptly in July and in September was named vice president of content for BET Interactive, which also claims to be the No. 1 Web destination for African Americans.
“In between his roles at Black Enterprise, Muhammad served as co-founder and Vice President, Content Development of iClique Inc., a content syndication company that served portals and other Web sites. His primary functions related to business development and strategic planning related to acquiring content feeds from various providers. During his tenure he assisted the founding team in raising over $2 million,” the AOL release said.
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How Young Reporter Got a Scoop from Satchmo
“In September 1957, Larry Lubenow, a journalism student and part-time reporter for the Grand Forks (N.D.) Herald, escorted a lobster dinner into jazz great Louis Armstrong’s hotel room and walked out with one of the biggest stories of the year,” Barbara Bedway reported on Friday for Editor & Publisher.
“In what turned out to be a historic interview, Lubenow set down how the famously good-tempered Armstrong, long considered quiescent on the subject of race relations, lacerated President Eisenhower for his handling of the Little Rock school integration crisis and set off a diplomatic firestorm by calling off a planned State Department-sponsored tour of Russia in protest.
“Precisely 50 years later, Lubenow himself was interviewed in Queens, N.Y., on Sept. 18 by Vanity Fair writer David Margolick as part of the Louis Armstrong House Museum’s program, ‘Louis Armstrong and Little Rock.’
“The story begins with that crustacean: ‘I knew the bell captain at the Dakota Hotel, and he walked me in with the lobster,” recounts Lubenow, who’d been told Armstrong would only speak to the press after the concert. Once the earnest cub reporter had won Armstrong over with his plea that he’d get fired if he didn’t get a pre-concert interview, the popular ‘Ambassador of Jazz,’ dressed in a Hawaiian shirt and Bermuda shorts, gamely began talking about his jazz favorites.
“But his tone changed abruptly when Lubenow mentioned that Grand Forks was the hometown of Judge Ronald Davies, whose ruling in support of integration of Central High School in Little Rock had just led to Gov. Orval Faubus’ deployment of the Arkansas National Guard to bar nine black students from entering. ‘He just exploded,’ Lubenow recalls. ‘He said he’d traveled all over the world for this country, and the way they were treating black men, he felt like he didn’t have any country.’
“Armstrong accused President Eisenhower of having ‘no guts’ and called Gov. Faubus ‘an uneducated plow boy.’ When he proclaimed he was canceling the State Department-sponsored tour of Russia in protest over what he called President Eisenhower’s ‘two-faced’ response to the crisis, Lubenow knew he had a scoop.
“. . . Suddenly it seemed that every black entertainer was being asked for a response about Little Rock, including Lena Horne, Harry Belafonte, and Sammy Davis Jr. (the latter criticized Armstrong for playing to segregated audiences in the past). . . .”
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Short Takes:
- After a long and tumultuous year, the Source magazine, “once dubbed the Bible of Hip-Hop Music, Culture and Politics, emerged from bankruptcy last week, despite doubts from naysayers,” Jay Casteel reported Friday on the Web site ballerstatus.com. “According to a press release, The Source essentially erases all of the sins of the previous management team, which included over $30 million of debts, more than 60 lawsuits and nearly countless other liabilities.”
- CNN plans a special one-hour investigation on Oct. 23 at 8pm ET/7pm CT, entitled “The Noose: Lynch Mobs in America,” a CNN spokeswoman said. “Anchor Kyra Phillips looks at the harsh reality of what nooses have meant through out America’s history, and the climate of fear that this chilling symbol still creates today in the wake of the Jena 6 story.”
- The run of “In Conflict,” a play based on first-person accounts by veterans of the war in Iraq, has been extended until Oct. 20, Temple University announced. The intense work is adapted from a book by Yvonne Latty, a former Philadelphia Daily News reporter who interviewed Iraq War veterans.
- Allison Hunter, executive producer of WGN-
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- TV Chicago’s morning newscast, has been named assistant news director at KTLA-TV in Los Angeles, Robert Feder reported Friday in the Chicago Sun-Times. Both stations are owned by Tribune Co. As program chair of the Student Education Enrichment and Development (SEED) Program of the National Association of Black Journalists, Hunter ran the student projects at this year’s NABJ convention.
- “Federal Communications Commission chairman Kevin Martin said Friday that he was not opposed to a media diversity task force along the lines proposed by commissioner Jonathan Adelstein, but it should not preclude “moving forward on ownership issues,” John Eggerton reported on Friday for Broadcasting & Cable. “The Rev. Jesse Jackson, standing at Martin’s side, said he was ready to serve on the task force.”
- UNITY: Journalists of Color, Inc., urged Congress to pass H.R. 2102, The Free Flow of Information Act, also known as the federal shield law, and reject any amendments or changes that would weaken protection for a free press, the coalition announced on Monday. The House of Representatives is scheduled to vote on the federal shield law on Tuesday.
- “With all the talk about the growing ‘programming choices’ for Latinos in the U.S., I decided to spend a whole two hours one morning flipping through the Spanish-language channels on my TV and watching on the Internet other channels I don’t have access to, including some local stations in Los Angeles, Houston, Dallas and South Florida,” Laura Martinez wrote Wednesday in Advertising Age. “The verdict? We now have more of nothing to watch. Or rather, there are now more Spanish-language “choices” serving me —and my people — with the same crap we are used to.”
- In Detroit, Adell Broadcasting has relaunched WADL-TV, formerly a home shopping station, with a host of vintage syndicated shows and religious fare that caters to the black community. Adell, which also owns the “urban religious” cable channel The Word, saw opportunity when the WB and UPN networks folded last year, believing Detroit’s black community had been left without a channel to call its own, Michael Malone reported Monday in Broadcasting & Cable.
- “MTV Networks is looking to unload its Caribbean music and culture network, Tempo, according to sources familiar with the matter,” Joel Topcik reported Monday in Broadcasting & Cable. “The company has been shopping it to local investors who could run the network under a license agreement or buy it outright, the sources say.”
- Susan Ali Shepherd, 53, a media pioneer who helped start the Bay Area’s largest Spanish-language radio station, was killed Friday night when an elderly motorist struck her as she walked across a San Francisco street with her husband and friends, Jaxon Van Derbeken reported Sunday in the San Francisco Chronicle. “Shepherd was a tri-athlete who formed the Latino Group, an advertising partnership, in Corte Madera in 2004 after leaving KSOL-FM, the radio station she helped start. She served for several years as its general manager, said her business partner, Diana Putterman. Putterman said Shepherd built KSOL into a success before it was sold to Univision Radio.”
- “The family of Darrian Chapman, the late star sports anchor at NBC-owned WMAQ-Channel 5, this week settled a lawsuit stemming from his death in 2002. He was 37,” Robert Feder reported Oct. 5 in the Chicago Sun-Times. “Northwestern Memorial Hospital and Dr. Stuart Greenfield settled with Chapman’s widow, Deborah, and their two children for almost $2 million. The suit alleged Greenfield failed to ensure Chapman would have a steady heart rhythm, through proper testing and other procedures. Chapman suffered from cardiac sarcoidosis.”
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- “Jackie Jones, a former Washington Post editor whose journalism experience includes leadership positions at the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel and New York Newsday, is serving as the 2007 Virginia Commonwealth University Virginius Dabney Distinguished Professor,” the university announced on Monday. “In the professorship, Jones is teaching a weekly editing course to students in VCU’s School of Mass Communications.”
- Journalist Pius Njawé, musician Youssou N’Dour, singer Angélique Kidjo, other journalists and lawyers from all over Africa, and some of Ethiopia’s former political prisoners are among the first to sign a Reporters Without Borders petition for the release of the organization’s correspondent in Niger, Moussa Kaka, the organization said. Kaka “was arrested on 20 September and charged with ‘complicity in a conspiracy against state authority’ because he had been in frequent contact with the Tuareg rebels of the Niger People’s Movement for Justice (MNJ), including one of its leaders. The maximum penalty is life imprisonment.”
- “Turkish newspaper editor Arat Dink and newspaper owner Serkis Seropyan have been found guilty of ‘insulting Turkishness’ under the country’s controversial penal code,” the AKI news service reported on Thursday. “Dink, the son of the murdered journalist Hrant Dink, is executive editor of the Armenian weekly, Agos, in Istanbul.”
- Nigerian journalist Kola Eke “escaped death by the whiskers” after gunmen suspected to be hired assassins tricked him by saying they wanted to place an advertorial in his magazine and shot him at close range, Simon Ebegbulem of the Vanguard newspaper of Lagos, Nigeria, reported on Sunday. “After shooting him in his left leg, they abandoned him in the pool of blood and celebrated their feat before making their escape through a bush path.”