Fast-Growing Sports Web Sites Lag in Diversity
With the Internet one of high-profile growth areas in the news business, it’s fair to ask whether its news outlets are as responsive to the need for diversity as the admittedly lagging “old media” profess to be.
Judging by three fast-growing sports news outlets, the answer is no.
“The lack of diversity at sports websites is absolutely horrible,” Gregory Lee Jr., chairman of the Sports Task Force of the National Association of Black Journalists, told Journal-isms via e-mail.
“I never would have thought to say it is worse than the print industry. While sports website editors want to associate with groups such as the Associated Press Sports Editors and be recognized as legitimate news operations, they also need to accept the responsibility of promoting a diverse workforce” that reflects the communities they cover, he said.
A week ago, the Web site theBigLead.com set aside ESPN and Sports Illustrated — “the most powerful brands in sports media” — and counted the number of writers or experts on Yahoo Opinion and Analysis, Fox Sports Hot Opinions and CBS’ Sportsline. It asked in its headline, “How Come Sports Websites Aren’t Hiring Minority Writers?”
Here is what theBigLead.com found at those sites:
“Yahoo Opinion and Analysis — 33 writers, and 30 of them are white males. Of the three minorities, two are former professional athletes.
“[CBS] Sportsline Experts — 32 writers, and 26 of them are white males (one woman). Of the five minorities, two are former athletes/TV analysts.
“Fox Sports Hot Opinions — 42 writers, and 40 of them are white males (and six are former athletes and there’s one comic). There’s one minority and one female.
“By our tally, that’s just five minority writers at three rapidly-expanding sports websites.”
Journal-isms asked spokesmen for those three Web sites to respond this week. Their responses seemed familiar:
CBS said, “CBSSports.com, along with its parent company CBS, are committed to diversity and are always looking to improve in this important area.”
Dave Morgan, Yahoo! Sports executive editor, said, “Diversity is an important issue for sports journalism, and one that requires the ongoing attention of the entire industry. Yahoo! recognizes the importance of diversity in sports journalism and we’re committed to having a diverse environment on our sports team.”
A Fox Sports spokesman said, “FOXSports.com recognizes and values the need for diverse voices in the sports media world. We’re very cognizant of this issue, and we feel strongly that the progress we’ve made in diversifying our editorial team over the past year has been an important step forward in that regard.”
Fox told Journal-isms the theBigLead.com was off on its numbers, saying the correct figure is 49 writers, including five contributors who are African American or Hispanic, and four women, all of whom have been brought on in the last 12 months.
CBSSports.com is the home of columnist Mike Freeman, a black journalist. At Fox, the highest profile journalists of color are senior NFL writer Alex Marvez and NASCAR writer Jorge Mondaca, who are Hispanic, and Jason Whitlock of the Kansas City Star, a black columnist.
At Yahoo, athletes Greg Anthony and Kenny Smith, both African Americans, were brought in late last year as analysts. James C. Black is editor of the NFL desk, and Al Toby is sports coverage editor. Both are black journalists. They amount to a handful among all employees.
The Web sites’ counterparts, newspaper sports departments, are not very diverse either. The “2006 Racial and Gender Report Card” of the Associated Press Sports Editors, the first of its kind, found that 94.7 percent of newspaper sports editors, 86.7 percent of assistant sports editors, 89.9 percent of columnists, 87.4 percent of reporters and 89.7 percent of copy editors/designers were white, and those same positions were 95, 87, 93, 90 and 87 percent male.
With newspapers undergoing layoffs and buyouts, access to jobs at the Web sites becomes even more critical — for those who want to stay employed in journalism, and for those who want lucrative salaries. ESPN, with its television and radio networks, its Web site and its magazine, has snapped up a number of journalists of color. But the same can’t be said of other sites, even though they intend to be players in the Web world as well.
In the New York Times last month, Richard Perez-Peña wrote, “ESPN and Yahoo Sports are on a furious hiring binge, offering reporters and columnists more than they ever imagined they could make in journalism. And ESPN, in particular, has gone after the biggest stars at newspapers and magazines, signing them for double and triple what they were earning — $150,000 to $350,000 a year for several writers, and far more for a select handful.
“Many staff members at Yahoo Sports are less prominent — and less well compensated — than the people signed by ESPN, and many of them cover niche topics like mixed martial arts and fantasy football. But Yahoo Sports has shown it intends to play in the big leagues, hiring David Morgan, former deputy sports editor of The Los Angeles Times, as its executive editor. It is also making lucrative offers to some of the journalists hired by ESPN and Sports Illustrated and signing a few sought-after people like Mike Silver, a football writer who was lured away from Sports Illustrated.”
Not mentioned in these reports is AOL, where Neal Scarbrough, a black journalist, was general manager and editor of AOL Sports until he was laid off last year (he became senior vice president and editor-in-chief of Sportnet, which calls itself “the internet’s most comprehensive sports network.”) Sean Jensen, Kevin Blackistone and Marc Spears are AOL columnists of color, and G.E. Branch is an editor. Nor was BET.com mentioned. It plans to start a sports channel and blog, editor Nicholas Charles told Journal-isms on Friday. He said Marcus Vanderberg, who came from AOL Black Voices, will be the producer.
However, it is the mainstream sports sites that will likely offer the highest salaries and most visibility.
NABJ’s Sports Task Force, Lee said, “is ready to speak to these online sports operations about the need for the diversity. They, like newspaper editors, can no longer use the excuse that they can’t find talented, diverse voices. We are here and waiting for the opportunity to show off our talents.”
Mike Shields, MediaWeek: Major Layoffs Expected at Yahoo
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Randy Lovely, Gay Native American, Named Editor
Randy Lovely was promoted Friday to vice president-news and editor of the Arizona Republic, making him one of the rare Native Americans to lead the newsroom of a mainstream newspaper, and one of the very few openly gay ones.
Lovely, 43, who joined the Gannett newspaper in 2002 as managing editor and was promoted to executive editor in 2005, succeeds Ward Bushee, who left to become editor of the San Francisco Chronicle. In turn, Bushee replaces Phil Bronstein, who took another position with the Hearst Corp.
“I don’t want to overstate or understate my Native American heritage. Both my parents are of Cherokee origins and my family comes from East Tennessee,” Lovely said. “I am not a member of the tribe. That said, I have great admiration and respect for diversity — it has been a career passion for me. I believe it is essential that we reflect the diversity of our communities in both our coverage and our staffing, and I have worked diligently to help minority journalists along the way.”
He said he had been a member of the Native American Journalists Association “on and off through the years, but am not a member currently.”
Joe Strupp wrote in Editor & Publisher, “The move makes Lovely the only openly gay top editor of a major U.S. newspaper. He has been a member of the National Lesbian and Gay Journalists Association since 1999.
“Lovely says he has never hidden his sexual preference, but is not among the most outspoken gay rights activists. ‘There are many others who are much more involved. I support them, but I am not on the leadership,’ he says of his NLGJA membership. ‘I have not had to be anything other than what I am. I can’t be the one to tell anyone they have to be out. But it is not something I am afraid of.’ “
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Editor Wonders What Predecessors Were Thinking
“What a sad historic front page,” was the headline on the blog item Wednesday from the editor of the Spokane (Wash.) Spokesman-Review, Steven A. Smith.
“It’s the paper that reported Martin Luther King‘s death,” he said, referring readers to the historic front page reproduced on page A2 in commemoration of the paper’s 125h anniversary year.
“The dominant photo on the page is a color shot of the local rodeo queen with her horse. King’s murder is given three columns on the right side and the story about the violence that followed his death is buried low on the page.
“No context. Nothing local that I could see. No effort to explain King’s profound impact on society and the immediate, volatile political climate of the country.
“What were the editors thinking? My high school paper provided better coverage.
“Was there a political or racial agenda?
“Hard to say what was going on from here, 40 years later. If there are surviving senior editors from that time, I don’t know of them.
“But if I ever wonder about the progress our community has made (and maybe the paper, too) all I have to do is look at that page.”
Lawrence Aaron, the Record, Hackensack, N.J.: Volunteering as a way to honor Dr. King
Merlene Davis, Lexington (Ky.) Herald-Leader: Black history told by us all
Jerry Large, Seattle Times: Praise be done, work goes on
Leonard Pitts Jr., Miami Herald: Activism may be reborn ‘when people get tired’
Wendi C. Thomas, Memphis Commercial Appeal: ’08 cry: ‘I want to be a man’
Angela Tuck, Atlanta Journal-Constitution: King Day highlights need to shine light on injustice [Added Jan. 26]
Rod Watson, Buffalo News: Surrendering ever more of our privacy
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In Poll, Single Black Mothers Less Likely for Obama
Obama wins; exit poll data (CBS News) [Added Jan. 26]
Jon Cohen and Jennifer Agiesta, Washington Post: Black Vote Was Vital, But Not the Whole Story [Added Jan. 27]
Single mothers were the weakest African American supporters of Sen. Barack Obama’s presidential candidacy in a poll taken for Ebony and Jet magazines in advance of Saturday’s South Carolina Democratic primary.
The poll of 600 black and white likely South Carolina voters, taken over four days, Jan. 19-22, found that Obama led Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton and former senator John Edwards by at least 10 points, with Obama at 37 percent, Clinton 27 percent, Edwards 15 percent and don’t know or not sure, 22 percent. The results were released on Friday.
Among black voters, Obama led by more than 20 points, 53 percent to 21 percent for Clinton, 3 percent for Edwards and 24 percent saying they didn’t know or were not sure.
However, among single black mothers, the gap was much more narrow: Obama, 35 percent, 32 percent and zero percent for Edwards, with 32 percent saying they did not know or were not sure. The margin of error is 2.9 percentage points.
“Clinton polled well with the health care issue . . . and that could be one reason why she resonates stronger with single mothers,” editorial director Bryan Monroe told Journal-isms.
Amy Alexander, the Nation: Black Women Talk Barack
Monroe Anderson blog: Obama’s Philosophy of Hope
Betty Bayé, Louisville Courier-Journal: Waiting to put the knock on Barack, for whatever he does
Sylvester Brown Jr., St. Louis Post-Dispatch: ‘The Closer’ helps win another vote for Obama
Cary Clack, San Antonio Express-News: Questioning candidate’s mortality is irrational
Mary C. Curtis, Charlotte (N.C.) Observer: Obama sticks to message of unity while he’s fighting political fires
Mary C. Curtis, Charlotte (N.C.) Observer: After hymns come the handshakes
Mary Curtis, “All Things Considered,” National Public Radio: Passionate Politics Prompt a Warning to Democrats
Merlene Davis, Lexington (Ky.) Herald-Leader: Debate’s acrimony makes me uneasy
Darryl Fears, Washington Post: Black America Feels the Sting of Ex-President’s Comments
Juan Gonzalez, New York Daily News: I smell Barack Obama baloney
Ketaki Gokhale, New America Media: Indian Country Could Back Obama on Super Tuesday
Emil Guillermo, AsianWeek: The Race-Neutral Race
Bob Herbert, New York Times: The Blight That Is Still With Us
Earl Ofari Hutchinson, syndicated: The ‘Nevada Phenomenon’ a Bigger Peril to Barack Obama than the Bradley Effect
Jackie Jones, BlackAmericaWeb.com: Is All Fair in Political Campaigning? The Testy Climate in South Carolina Begs the Question
Eugene Kane, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Don’t count on votes by race or gender
Dwight Lewis, Nashville Tennessean: For Clinton or Obama, rally attendees optimistic
Roland S. Martin, Creators Syndicate: Ignoring White Dems in S.C. Isn’t Smart
Mary Mitchell, Chicago Sun-Times: Why do civil rights heroes cheer ‘Rezko card’?
Ruben Navarrette, San Diego Union-Tribune: Governor’s wise words on immigration
Tony Norman, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette: From presidential blackness to presidential lies
Leonard Pitts Jr., Miami Herald: Why many blacks vote Democrat
Clarence Page, Chicago Tribune: Arguing themselves to death
Eugene Robinson, Washington Post: Message From Third Place
Mary Sanchez, Kansas City Star: Two for the price of one — all inventory must go!
Bob Ray Sanders, Fort Worth Star-Telegram: It’s the stupid Economy
Elmer Smith, Philadelphia Daily News: In a campaign that pits black vs. white, nothing about it is very black and white
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Comcast Pulls Plug on AZN Asian Network
“Comcast Corp., the nation’s largest cable operator, said Friday it is pulling the plug on AZN Television, its Asian American channel,” the Associated Press reported.
“The Philadelphia-based company said the channel will go off the air after April 9. However, AZN’s popular Asian Excellence Awards show will move to Comcast’s E! Entertainment Television network. . . . Comcast said it had difficulty attracting advertisers for the channel. AZN’s reach was also a lower-than-expected 13.9 million viewers and wasn’t growing.”
In a statement on Saturday, the Asian American Journalists Association said:
“In many ways, ‘AZN is to the Asian American community just like Univision is to the Latino and BET is to the African American communities, respectively,’ said Rene Astudillo, AAJA executive director. He added that AAJA ‘has partnered with AZN in many ways to ensure that more Asian Americans are given the opportunity to use their journalism and new media skills to enhance the delivery of news and information to the American public.’ AAJA’s most recent partnership with AZN involved internship opportunities for students to post journalism-style news and editorial commentary on the network’s Web site.
“Astudillo said that AAJA is happy and ready to offer its resources to Comcast and other broadcast networks to develop major programming specifically addressing issues and stories of Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders.” [Updated Jan. 26]
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Debate Continues Over Use of “Tribe” for Africans
Two weeks ago, we reported that the use of the word “tribe” to describe groups of people in Africa is being discouraged at some major news organizations.
On Tuesday, the editors of Pambazuka, a “weekly forum for social justice in Africa,” published an impassioned editorial against Western usage of the word. It said that some had succeeded in persuading a New York Times correspondent to “tone down” his use of “tribe” in favor of “ethnic group,” but that a professor received an “insulting response” from Times Executive Editor Bill Keller, a former Times correspondent in Johannesburg, on the subject.
Peter Alegi of Michigan State University wrote, “Mr. Keller’s insulting response included the following statement:
“‘I get it. Anyone who uses the word “tribe” is a racist. [. . .] It’s a tediously familiar mantra in the Western community of Africa scholars. In my experience, most Africans who live outside the comforts of academia (and who use the word “tribe” with shameless disregard for the political sensitivities of American academics) have more important concerns.'”
The editorial said, “The idea of tribe particularly shapes Western views of ethnicity and ethnic conflict in Africa, which has been highly visible in recent years. Over and over again, conflicts are interpreted as ‘ancient tribal rivalries,’ atavistic eruptions of irrational violence which have always characterized Africa. In fact they are nothing of the sort. The vast majority of such conflicts could not have happened a century ago in the ways that they do now. Pick almost any place where ethnic conflict occurs in modern Africa. Investigate carefully the issues over which it occurs, the forms it takes, and the means by which it is organized and carried out. Recent economic developments and political rivalries will loom much larger than allegedly ancient and traditional hostilities.”
The Times did not respond to a request for comment, but Greg Winter, an assistant foreign editor at the paper, told Journal-isms two weeks ago, “After consulting with a number of historians and scholars on Africa, we have determined that ‘ethnic group’ is a more accurate term for most of the large groups we write about on the continent.”
Pambazuka is published by the human rights group Fahamu, which is based in Oxford, England; Cape Town, South Africa; and Nairobi, Kenya.
Vincent Bartoo, East African Standard, Nairobi: Envoy Defies Broadcast Ban
Bill Fletcher, Blackcommunicator.com: Flames in Kenya
Samwel Kumba and Oliver Mathenge, The Nation, Nairobi: Kenya: State Ignores Media Demands
Sisule F. Musungu, Inter Press Service: Media’s Role in the Election Fallout
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Short Takes
The Summer Olympics in Beijing, the presidential election and Asian American voters, health care access, immigration reform, Asian American-Pacific Islander youth, and nuclear proliferation in Asia are the top Asian American-Pacific Islander stories to watch in 2008, according to the Asian American Journalists Association. “AAJA interviewed and surveyed community leaders and members to get a sense of AAPI issues or events to watch in 2008,” the organization said.
“Sixteen students of color have been named Chips Quinn Scholars for spring 2008 by the Freedom Forum Diversity Institute and participating newspapers,” the Freedom Forum announced on Friday. “Scholars are employed at or will work in paid internships across the country in 14 newsrooms beginning in early February.” The 16 are: Maria Chercoles, Ashlee Clark, Matthew Cooper, Ana Cubias, Sergio Delgado, Astrid Galvan, Shawntaye Hopkins, Jacqueline Lee, Martha Ramirez, Rickeena Richards, Carlos Silva, Argenis Villa, Andrew Villegas, Chris Vongsarath, Devin Wagner and Sharon Yep.
In Dallas, “CBS11 freelance reporter Stella Payne is no longer attached to the station,” television critic Ed Bark reported Wednesday on his blog. “She had been a regular contributor since 2005 and most recently reported on Monday’s Martin Luther King holiday parade in D-FW.”
“Being on HBO means ‘Real Sports’ doesn’t grovel for ratings, or bow to sponsors, or fear losing tie-ins with sports leagues,” Doug Elfman wrote Sunday in the Chicago Sun-Times. He quoted host Bryant Gumbel: “We’re pretty much free to pursue a story wherever it may lead. And the networks are not free to do that. If Budweiser is paying the tab for the show, it’s hard to say, ‘Part of the problem with drinking in the NFL is Budweiser has sponsorship with 30 of the 32 teams.’ They take a dim view of that.” In fact, Elfman continued, for an upcoming segment, Gumbel examines alcohol abuse in the stands and in stadium parking lots.
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Feedback: Anyone Can Claim to Be Indian
Whether Lovely is gay or not is not the question.
The fact that he is not an enrolled member of a tribe is the question.
Anyone can claim Indian blood but every tribe in America has a method for determining membership and if Lovely is not enrolled with any tribe he cannot claim legitimacy as a Native American.
We (Native Americans) have lost too many important job positions to those people claiming to be Indian. Ward Churchill is one example.
The original criteria for NAJA was that you had to be an enrolled member of an Indian tribe.
Tim Giago National Native American Columnist?Rapid City, S.D.?Jan. 26, 2008
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Feedback: Sports Sites Should Keep Women in Mind
As president of the Association for Women in Sports Media, I would like to weigh in on your column, which put the spotlight on a distressing trend.
Those who do the hiring for sports web sites should keep in mind that the communities they cover and the readers they covet include an increasing number of women. If they don’t include women in high-profile and powerful positions on their staffs, they are alienating and disenfranchising those groups.
Your column was absolutely correct: This situation right now is worse than the print industry. AWSM stands ready to help turn that around. I’m certain that among our membership of more than 500 are women who would be highly qualified to work for sports web sites.
Vicki Michaelis USA Today ?Denver?Jan. 28, 2008
