Copy Desk Chief Booted at Troubled Calif. Paper
A veteran copy editor has been fired by the Santa Barbara (Calif.) News-Press after words from the gag page traditionally composed for a departing employee’s send-off ended up on the paper’s Web site.
Cliff Redding, the interim chief of the paper’s copy desk, told Journal-isms: “Mine was a raw deal. But as my mother says, ‘If it doesn’t kill you, it’ll make you stronger.'”
Redding, who came to the paper in September 2006 after having worked at the Virginian-Pilot in Norfolk, the Baltimore Sun, the New York Daily News and the defunct New York Newsday, said that at News-Press, he was “the only black in the newsroom . . . and at the paper, I believe.”
Dale Rim, business editor at the Santa Barbara paper and the ranking editor on duty, referred Journal-isms on Wednesday to the human resources department, then interrupted a question and hung up. The human resources director was not available.
The Redding affair is but the latest controversy involving the locally owned paper. It has endured high-profile firings and resignations and, most recently, a sharp drop in circulation.
Redding confirmed an account posted on Friday by Craig Smith, a Santa Barbara lawyer, on his blog:
“Described as a hard and dedicated worker who spent ‘eight days a week’ working at his job on the paper, Redding’s attempt to maintain a long-time newsroom custom, giving co-workers who are leaving a mock-up of a newspaper page, has gotten him canned.
“The fake intro to the Dr. Laura column was part of a mock-page printed out and presented to Lara Milton, the departing copy editor, as a going-away memento.
“It’s a newspaper tradition; you make up a newspaper page (usually page one) with fictitious stories making fun of the departing employee.
“So for Lara Milton, someone did a fictitious ‘Dr. Lara’ column with Milton’s photo in place of Dr. Laura’s. The tone of it was meant to be a parody of Dr. Laura’s writing style.
“But what someone apparently didn’t realize is that if you then use the same text file for the real Dr. Laura column, you have to delete all the mock material; any text left in the file will end up on the website, even that part is separated from what is ‘flowed’ onto the real newspaper page. It was a total accident that it ended up on the Web.”
Redding told Journal-isms, “My firing from the Santa Barbara News-Press was an unfortunate situation, but I am looking forward. Though I like the West Coast, I would entertain the possibility of moving. I appreciate the support I have received after I was shown the door.”
Smith reported that Redding was working part-time at Noozhawk, which describes itself as “Santa Barbara’s unique new community newspaper —without the paper.” [On Thursday, Smith added, “for the record, Cliff was not the only black working at the News-Press. Director of Community Relations Graham Brown, is still there.”]
Milton told Smith via e-mail: “Personally, I think it was a mistake and that Cliff should have gotten off with a reprimand. And I feel bad about the whole situation, even though I had absolutely nothing to do with the ‘column’ or the fact that it got onto the Web: It was connected to my departure, after all. I am worried about Cliff and my other colleagues — er, former colleagues —and I just hope everything works out for the best in the long run somehow.”
Joe Strupp wrote Nov. 28 in Editor & Publisher that, “A long-running series of labor-management fights at the paper . . . began in July 2006 when several newsroom leaders, led by Editor Jerry Roberts, quit in protest of alleged meddling by owner Wendy McCaw.
“Since then, at least 46 newsroom employees have been fired or quit, according to www.savethenewspress.com, a Web site operated by union supporters.
“The turmoil prompted the formation of the newsroom bargaining unit, as well as an ongoing boycott campaign urging readers to cancel subscriptions. The paper has also seen an economic drop, revealing in the last Audit Bureau of Circulations Fas-Fax report in October that its circulation had dropped 14.1% to 33,755 for the six-month period ending September 2007.”
Union representatives could not be reached for comment.
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Larry Whiteside Wins Election to Cooperstown
Larry Whiteside, the baseball writer and columnist who died in June, was elected into what has fancifully been called the “writer’s wing” of the Baseball Hall of Fame, only the third black journalist in the history of the hall to be so designated, the Baseball Writers’ Association of America said on Wednesday.
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“We’re pretty tough critics,” Jack O’Connell, secretary-treasurer of the organization, told Journal-isms, explaining the significance of the association’s J.G. Taylor Spink Award. “We’re all newspaper guys. He was a great member of our association and one of the real pioneers in our business. It was a very satisfying election.”
J.A. Adande, senior writer at ESPN.com, wrote to colleagues in the National Association of Black Journalists’ Sports Task Force:
“The Hall of Fame is a better place today.
“In the press dining room at Angels Stadium they have pictures of all the media Hall of Famers hanging on the wall. Needless to say, it looks a lot like the wall in Sal’s pizzeria in ‘Do the Right Thing.’ I can’t wait to see Larry’s picture up there next year, not far from Sam Lacy’s.”
Lacy, sports editor of the Baltimore Afro-American newspaper and a key figure in the integration of major league baseball, was voted into the hall in 1997, six years before he died at age 99.
The first black journalist to win the award was Wendell Smith, who spent more than 10 years covering Negro league baseball for the Pittsburgh Courier and who ghostwrote books for sports legends Jackie Robinson, Roy Campanella, Joe Louis and Ernie Banks. He died in 1972 at age 58 and was voted the award in 1993.
Unlike those two, O’Connell said, Whiteside, who wrote for the Boston Globe, “was a down-and-out beat writer. He’s a guy who was down in the trenches with the rest of us.”
Whiteside will be the 59th inductee. He received 203 votes of 415 cast, edging out Nick Peters of the Sacramento Bee, who garnered 119 votes, and Dave Van Dyck of the Chicago Tribune, 89 votes. About 575 of the 1,200 members (800 active, about 400 honorary) were eligible to vote, and members of the Sports Task Force urged those who qualified to fill out their ballots for Whiteside.
“He was a constant, motivating force in the world of sports journalism and for African-Americans in particular, he was our Jackie Robinson,” said Milwaukee Journal Sentinel Sports Editor Garry Howard, who was among those to cast votes for Whiteside’s award. ‘What an honor, what a life. I’m truly ecstatic over this moment, because even though Larry would say humbly, ‘No big deal,’ it truly is, and we at NABJ can, and should, celebrate this moment loud and proudly.”
The Globe’s Nick Cafardo, who nominated Whiteside, noted of his colleague Wednesday, “He was the first African-American baseball writer to qualify for a Hall of Fame vote (at least 10 consecutive years of covering baseball). He was the first African-American beat writer at The Boston Globe, and his ‘Black List’ of African-American journalists, which he started in the early 1970s, enabled sport editors from major publications across the country to hire African-American journalists.”
In a story on the Major League Baseball Web site, Commissioner Bud Selig said, “He was one of the finest reporters and one of the finest people I ever encountered. He promoted baseball with his fine, fair and objective reporting for many years.”
Whiteside is to be honored at the yearly National Baseball Hall of Fame induction ceremonies on July 27 in Cooperstown, N.Y.
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Reginald Hudlin Says BET Can’t Catch a Break
Reginald Hudlin, president of entertainment for Black Entertainment Television, “said that he was working on improving the news department and putting more focus on topical issues,” Greg Braxton wrote Tuesday in the Los Angeles Times.
“He added: ‘People don’t pay attention to the big story: that BET has heard their complaints and frustrations, and that we’re going to fix them and transform the network. . . . I underestimated people’s willingness to give us the benefit of the doubt. They just aren’t willing to.'”
BET spokeswoman Jeanine Liburd told Journal-isms that Hudlin was referring to news shows planned for next year that will be “appointment television.”
On Nov. 25, for example, the network aired a half-hour special, “Life and Death in Darfur: Jeff Johnson Reports,” in which, it said in an advance news release, “correspondent Jeff Johnson will explore the who, how and why of the crisis and talk to Don Cheadle about his efforts to raise awareness and Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir about the government’s accountability in this war.”
Liburd denied speculation that the trip had been paid for by the government of Sudan.
Continuing his thought, Braxton wrote, “Still, many of the expectations concerning BET’s direction have been prompted by Hudlin and what he promised to bring to the network. He helped produce a live telethon in 2005 hosted by numerous African American stars for victims of Hurricane Katrina, calling the hastily organized event a touchstone in BET’s ‘new era.’
“But last September, as CNN and other media devoted extensive coverage of the disaster’s second-year anniversary and the controversy over the lack of progress in recovery efforts, BET devoted just 30 minutes to the anniversary.”
Separately, in the fall, Tiffany Cross, a producer, and Marilyn Minor left BET’s Washington headquarters, where there had been four news employees.
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Post Editor Rethinks Editing of Obama Story
Bill Hamilton, the Washington Post assistant managing editor who oversees political coverage and edited a much-criticized article last week about
Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., said that he was “a little puzzled” that readers didn’t see that the paper’s intention was to call into question rumors that Obama is secretly a Muslim (rather than a Christian), and was educated in an Indonesian madrassa, Michael Calderone wrote Tuesday night for Poltico.com
“I’m sorry it was misunderstood,” Hamilton said in the story. “It obviously makes me think about how I edited it.”
“Since Thursday, there have been angry e-mails, Hamilton said, and allegations that the Post is swift-boating the Illinois senator by discussing rumors at length, without mentioning whether they’ve been thoroughly discredited by other media,” Calderone wrote.
“In a web piece titled ‘Is Perry Bacon Serious?’, Columbia Journalism Review’s Paul McLeary wrote that the Post’s A1 story ‘may be the single worst campaign ’08 piece to appear in any American newspaper so far this election cycle.’
“McLeary contended that the Post played up rumors about Muslim ties, including one from Insight magazine about how the young Obama was educated at an Indonesian madrassa, without mentioning that a CNN reporter jetted off to Jakarta nearly 11 months ago and debunked it.
“Responding to McLeary’s piece, Hamilton said that for a ‘journalism review to adapt the language of the most extreme blogs totally discredits it.’ He also took offense at CJR’s singling out Bacon in the headline.
“Indeed, Hamilton said that the story originated in the past few weeks, following discussions with political reporters who noted how a small segment of the public—despite evidence to the contrary—believed that Obama was Muslim, or at least had a Muslim education. Executive editor Len Downie liked the finished story enough for it get front page treatment, according to Hamilton.”
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Sportswriter Sorry He Called Competitor a Skunk
Washington Times sportswriter John N. Mitchell has apologized for calling Washington Post alumnus Len Shapiro a “racist,” a “dog” and a “skunk” after Shapiro wrote after NFL player Sean Taylor’s killing, “could anyone honestly say they never saw this coming?”
“While you now appear to be dead wrong in your rush to judgment, I was certainly wrong to assail you the way I did,” Mitchell wrote on Sunday. “I should have voiced my opinion in more civil terms and we could have agreed to disagree and left it at that.”
Media coverage of Taylor’s death also came up at Taylor’s funeral on Monday.
“Florida City Mayor Otis Wallace chastised those who had jumped to the conclusion that Taylor had done something that made him a target,” Amy Shipley and Peter Whoriskey reported in the Post.
“‘For those who took the liberty of restlessly speculating that this young man’s death was caused by the way he lived, I would like to say that they should be ashamed,’ he said to a standing ovation.
“Said David Peay Sr., Taylor’s home pastor from the Seventh-Day Adventist Church in Perrine: ‘Sean was making the right decisions. He gave his life making the right decisions.'”
- Audra D.S. Burth, Erika Beras, Susan Miller Degnan and Evan S. Benn, Miami Herald: Taylor’s charmed life and senseless death
- Tonyaa Weathersbee, BlackAmericaWeb.com: Blinded by the Lure of Stolen Bling, Sean Taylor’s Killers Took His Life — and Ruined Theirs
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8 Executives Named McCormick Tribune Fellows
Eight media executives of color have been selected as 2008 McCormick Tribune Fellows, Northwestern University announced Saturday. Twenty-two applied for the one-year program.
“The McCormick Tribune Fellowship program exists to increase the number and impact of influential minority executives in the media business.
“The Fellows Braintrust provides research and insight on media management and diversity issues for the benefit of its members and the media industry,” the announcement said.
Chosen were: Rodney Brooks, USA Today; Sharon Wilmore, Detroit Free Press; Carole Carmichael, Seattle Times; Terrence Williams, New York Times Co.; Johnita Due, CNN; Orlando Rosales, WTPH 14, Azteca America in Southwest Florida; Shiree Woody, WBBH-NBC2 and WZVN-ABC7 in Fort Myers, Fla.; and Jayme Ribeiro Neto of WRMD Telemundo in Tampa, Fla.
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Short Takes
- “A year after buying out 19 of its most senior newsroom employees, The San Diego Union-Tribune is again reducing its news staff,” Rob Davis wrote on Tuesday for the Voice of San Diego. “The newspaper aims to cut 43 employees in a newsroom of approximately 360 people, a 12 percent reduction in reporters, editors and photographers. Forty employees from other departments are also being targeted in a company of 1,422.”
- Amy Goodman and Juan Gonzalez challenged CNN’s Lou Dobbs over his statements about illegal immigrants on their “Democracy, Now!” show on Pacifica Radio on Tuesday. Dobbs was a guest on the program.
- Anthony Johnson, a reporter for WABC-TV in New York, and his wife, WNBC reporter Pat Battle, have filed a lawsuit against shock jocks Opie, whose real name is Greg Hughes; and Anthony, whose full name is Anthony Cumia; along with XM Satellite Radio and prankster John D. Walton, Carolyn Salazar reported Tuesday in the Record of Hackensack, N.J. Johnson “says his ears are still ringing after a fan without provocation assaulted him with an air horn during a live shot two years ago.” The fan was carrying out an “Assault on the Media” campaign trumpeted by Opie & Anthony, Salazar wrote.
- The Politico newspaper and Web site forced La Política, an online newsletter launched last month to cover “the business of reaching Hispanic voters,” to change its name to “CandidatoUSA.” Blogger La bloguera headlined the item, “The Politico claims to own the Spanish language.”
- “Hoy, Tribune Co.’s Spanish-language daily in Chicago and Los Angeles, Monday launched its second blog, this one dedicated to immigration issues,” Mark Fitzgerald reported Monday for Editor & Publisher.
- “Don Imus is an aging white man whose critics have assailed him for a racially charged on-air remark that got him fired. On his return to the airwaves, he brought with him some young black cast members,” Samantha Gross wrote Tuesday for the Associated Press. “It remained to be seen whether his newly diversified lineup and his pledge to foster a dialogue on race relations would quiet his critics and soften any future blows dealt in a show that Imus himself said is built in part on making fun of others.”
- The Philadelphia Inquirer is running excerpts from “Murdered by Mumia: A Life Sentence of Pain, Loss and Injustice,” by Maureen Faulkner and Michael Smerconish. “The book retells the death of Faulkner’s husband, Daniel; the trial of Mumia Abu-Jamal, convicted of the murder; and the ups and downs of nearly 26 years since the crime,” the paper said.
- Some sportswriters of color are taking issue
- Sports Illustrated’s selection of Green Bay Packers quarterback Brett Favre as “Sportsman of the Year.” Roy S. Johnson wrote on his blog that he was “Incensed. But not surprised.” Other names put forward by Johnson and others in the Sports Task Force of the National Association of Black Journalists: Tony Dungy, the coach who led the Indianapolis Colts to the Super Bowl championship; home-run king Barry Bonds, “because of his notoriety,” one said; Tim Duncan of the NBA’s San Antonio Spurs; LeBron James of the NBA’s Cleveland Cavaliers and the Rutgers women’s basketball team. Salon.com columnist King Kaufman also questioned the choice of Favre.
- “A Senate committee unanimously approved bipartisan legislation that would halt for at least six months a proposal to let companies own a newspaper and broadcast station in the same city,” Jim Puzzanghera wrote Wednesday for the Los Angeles Times. “The bill is highly unlikely to pass Congress before the Federal Communications Commission’s planned Dec. 18 vote on loosening the media ownership rules. But it was a strong message from senators to FCC Chairman Kevin J. Martin that he should delay the vote.”
- The Committee to Protect Journalists asked Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to raise issues of press freedom when she visits Ethiopia. “Rice was in the Ethiopian capital, where the African Union is headquartered, to meet with African leaders Wednesday after expressing growing unease about a number of deteriorating security and faltering peace deals,” the Associated Press reported.
