Media Take In Voter Complaints, Report on a “Draw”
Radio’s syndicated “Tom Joyner Morning Show” monitored calls from citizens reporting voter irregularities, the weekly Afro-American newspapers continued their campaign coverage as if they had daily deadlines, and Los Angeles-based La La Opinión, the nation’s largest Spanish-language newspaper, made use of the six reporters its parent company had deployed around the country. It was Super Tuesday, the country’s closest approximation of a national primary.
A voter empowerment hotline, 1-866-MYVOTE1, received more than 1,000 calls reporting irregularities, the Joyner show’s parent Reach Media said Tuesday in a news release. “The hotline has received over 20,000 calls total since the effort was launched last month. The hotline is a partnership between The Tom Joyner Morning Show and the NAACP,” it said.
“In the first several hours of voting over 1,000 incidents of voter infractions were called into the national hotline by voters at the polls. Throughout the morning Tom and the crew urged voters to stay in line and to report any problems they are encountering to the MYVOTE1 hotline number throughout the day. Meanwhile, the NAACP mobilized efforts locally to try to resolve voter issues in troubled areas.
“Additionally, during the broadcast both Democratic candidates Senator Barack Obama and Senator Hillary Clinton called in to the show to speak to voters. The show also featured special local reports from noted news anchors, Monica Pearson in Atlanta, Art Norman in Chicago and Sherri Jackson in Birmingham,” Ala.
The main headline in La Opinión, which editorially endorsed Obama, was “Súper empate” (“Super tie”), accompanying an analysis that said Latinos had “huge power now,” Editor Pedro Rojas told Journal-isms. The Latino vote was the focus of an intense courtship from Obama in California, and the size of that vote there for Clinton was surprising, Rojas said.
Like many others, he attributed its size to familiarity with the Clinton name and to Obama being a “newcomer.” But “he’s coming from less to more,” Rojas said of his growing popularity.
La Opinión, part of the ImpreMedia chain, which includes El Diario and Hoy in New York, Rumbo in Texas and La Raza in Chicago, among other papers, ran 12 stories on the election, and its reporters did video reports (“Super Martes Videos”) for its Web site. The chain sent reporters to contests in Iowa, New Hampshire, Arizona, Illinois, New Mexico and New Jersey.
La Opinión’s competitor, Tribune Co.-owned Hoy, “expanded our coverage, including both national and local results in the Los Angeles edition, taking advantage of the time zone. Big focus on the Latino vote, since it was apparently decisive for Clinton here in CA,” Javier Aldape, general manager and editor of Hoy Los Angeles, told Journal-isms by e-mail.
“As big as the elections were and will continue to be, we’re also focused now on a two-part interview with Mexican President [Felipe] Calderón running tomorrow and Friday — it’s in anticipation of his visit to the U.S. next week,” he said.
The Afro-American, which publishes in Baltimore and Washington, published a day-after story by Monroe Anderson and an analysis by Jack White, two veteran journalists who have worked in the mainstream media. The Chicago Defender, which next week shifts from daily to weekly publication, also ran stories online.
But other black newspapers, including the New York Amsterdam News, Philadelphia Tribune and Los Angeles Sentinel, had no story on the Super Tuesday results on their Web sites, and neither did the Web site created by the National Newspaper Publishers Association, the organization of the black press. Editor Hazel Trice Edney said she covered the primaries herself and planned to post a story later.
As for the mainstream television networks, “On the biggest day of nominating contests ever, in the most exciting and closely watched election in years, television had to hold back,” Alessandra Stanley wrote in the New York Times.
“It was almost a painful sight: at times, anchors and commentators on Tuesday looked a little like children on Halloween who, after getting sick on candy one year, were forced to surrender their loot the next.”
“CNN averaged 3.64 million viewers (1.52 million in news’ key demographic of 25- to 54-year-olds) during the primetime hours of 8 p.m.-11 p.m., followed by Fox News Channel with 3.49 million viewers (1.09 million in the demo) and MSNBC with 2.11 million viewers (1.02 million in the demo),” Marisa Guthrie reported in Broadcasting & Cable.
David Zurawick said in the Baltimore Sun, “in this age of rapidly expanding media, the news operations that did best were the ones that emphasized information and technology over personality.”
Most newspaper front pages emphasized John McCain‘s victories in the Republican contests and the so-called draw between Clinton and Obama among the Democrats, as David Shedden showed in his Poynter Institute column. With close West Coast primaries, the contest continued into the wee hours, with the New Mexico Democratic primary still too close to call on Wednesday.
Monroe Anderson blog: Bush, Clinton, Bush, Clinton: Meritocracy or Aristocracy?
Monroe Anderson blog: Illinois pols did favorite son Obama no favor
Curtis Brainard, CJR Daily: Obama’s Energy Equivocations: NYT follows up on another flip-flop
William Jelani Cobb, TheRoot.com: Why Blacks Should Consider McCain
William Jelani Cobb, ebonyjet.com: The Breakdown: The Electoral College
Eric Deggans blog, St. Petersburg Times: A Few Super Tuesday Thoughts on Wednesday
Juan Gonzalez, New York Daily News: Exciting primary brings ’em out
Michele Greppi, TV Week: AP Jumps Gun on Calling Missouri Results
Errol Louis, New York Daily News: Time is on Barack Obama’s side as his momentum grows
Roberto Lovato, New America Media: Super Duper Latino Vote is No One’s Big Enchilada
Greg Mitchell, Editor & Publisher: ‘Super Tuesday’: There’s Got To Be a Morning After
Greg Mitchell, Editor & Publisher: Is Media Missing ‘Bias’ Issue in Obama-Clinton Contest?
Mary Mitchell, Chicago Sun-Times: Obama volunteers work down to the wire
New America Media: Ethnic Media Cover Super Tuesday
Clarence Page, Chicago Tribune: When the melting pot boils over
Stan Simpson, Hartford (Conn.) Courant: Obama Had To Earn It
Wendi C. Thomas, Memphis Commercial Appeal: Beyond gender, pigment, likability
DeWayne Wickham, USA Today: Jackson’s ‘change’ message cleared the way for Obama
MESSAGE BOARDS: Feel free to send an e-mail about this column.
Activist Keith Boykin Starts Black News Web Site
A week after the Washington Post Co. and celebrity scholar Henry Louis Gates launched the Web site theRoot.com, a news site on African American issues, author and activist Keith Boykin launched the beta version of the Daily Voice, which “aims to be the leading destination for African American news and opinion.”
“The site is privately financed by individual investors right now,” Boykin told Journal-isms via e-mail, “and it’s completely black-owned and operated.” TheRoot.com is owned by the Washington Post Co. “We plan to continue financing the site through advertising, sponsorship and additional investors. And at this point we do not pay contributors.
“We called this version a BETA version because we’re still tweaking it,” he said, “but we wanted to get it onto the web before Super Tuesday. Monday’s launch was actually more of a ‘soft launch.’ We just sent out emails to our friends and colleagues but didn’t announce it to the media and didn’t send out a press release. We plan to do a ‘hard launch’ and make a public announcement in the next few weeks.”
Wednesday’s site was dominated by articles about Super Tuesday, with such headlines as, “So who won more delegates?” “The Return of the White Primary?” and “After Super Tuesday: Black people must wake up before the nightmare becomes real.” Many had been published elsewhere or were originally news releases. Authors include former Essence editor Diane Weathers.
The publisher is Malcolm Harris, an entrepreneur who has started and operated several online businesses, including a partnership with careerbuilder.com. He also founded a real estate brokerage business in Philadelphia called The Hurston Group, Boykin said. Boykin attended law school with Obama and served in the White House as a special assistant to Bill Clinton. He is also a gay activist and author of “Beyond the Down Low: Sex, Lies and Denial in Black America.”
“We also want to preserve the community’s control over the project,” Boykin told Journal-isms. “We’ve reached out to people all across the political spectrum to participate, and we want to make this a welcome spot for all members of the community, whether they are young or old, Republican or Democrat, male or female, gay or straight, and in all quarters of the black community.”
Ten people work for the operation, which is based in New York. Writers may reach Boykin at this e-mail address.
MESSAGE BOARDS: Feel free to send an e-mail about this column.
Upcoming Comics Protest Attracts 11 Cartoonists
Sunday’s comics-page action to draw attention to the lack of cartoonists of color has attracted 11 such cartoonists, Teresa Wiltz reported in the Washington Post on Wednesday.
They “will be drawing essentially the same comic strip, using irony to literally illustrate that point. In each strip, the artists will portray a white reader grousing about a minority-drawn strip, complaining that it’s a ‘Boondocks’ rip-off and blaming it on ‘tokenism.’ ‘It’s the one-minority rule,’ says Lalo Alcaraz (‘La Cucaracha’). ‘We’ve got one black guy and we’ve got one Latino. There’s not room for anything else,'” Wiltz wrote.
“Plans for the protest began with Cory Thomas, a Howard University grad whose strip, ‘Watch Your Head’, deals with college life at a predominantly African American university. Thomas, Trinidad-born and D.C.-bred, says he was frustrated by the number of times his strip was turned down by newspapers that didn’t feel the need to sign him up, because, well, they already had a black comic strip. Most editors, he says, only allow for one or two minority strips, viewing them all as interchangeable. Never mind that his strip is a world away in sensibility from the scathing sociopolitical musings of Darrin Bell‘s ‘Candorville’ or the family-focused fun of Stephen Bentley‘s ‘Herb and Jamaal’.
“So Thomas drew a strip addressing that, and then enlisted the help of Bell. From there, they got others to agree to participate: Bentley, Jerry Craft (‘Mama’s Boyz’), Charlos Gary (‘Cafe con Leche’ and ‘Working It Out’), Steve Watkins (‘Housebroken’), Keith Knight (‘The K Chronicles’), Bill Murray (‘The Golden Years’), Charles Boyce (‘Compu-toon’) and editorial cartoonist Tim Jackson. Alcaraz, who says he found out too late to meet his deadline, will be chiming in on Feb. 11.
A number of white cartoonists have had positive things to say about the effort, Dave Astor reported Jan. 17 in Editor & Publisher.
” ‘I support the action 100%,’ said ‘It’s All About You’ creator Tony Murphy in a phone interview. ‘I think the issue they’re raising is clearly one of discrimination,’ ” Astor wrote.
Bell told Journal-isms last month that journalists who want to support their effort can volunteer for comic-selection committees and alert editors who make the selections to the cartoonists’ concerns.
Helena Andrews, theRoot.com: Funny Business on the Funny Pages
MESSAGE BOARDS: Feel free to send an e-mail about this column.
Trust Fund, Benefit to Aid Injured Frank Washington
A trust fund has been established and a fundraiser is being planned to aid veteran automotive journalist Frank Washington, whose face was severely damaged when he was mugged near his Detroit home last week during an early-morning walk.
Fellow automotive journalist Greg Morrison, CEO of Bumper2Bumper TV, told colleagues in the National Association of Black Journalists on Tuesday, “The doctors believe he will be in the hospital for a few more days and then at home recuperating for some time to come. In lieu of flowers and gifts a trust fund has been set up to help Frank get through and past this tragic incident, since he will be unable to work, at Colonial Bank, 10500 Miramar Parkway. Miramar, FL 33025. Att: Kerri Greaner, Vice President. Phone: 954-450-7005 FAX: 954-450-9350.
“Please help with what you can: make checks payable to Greg Sanchez Trust Account FBO (for benefit of) Frank Washington or contact the bank directly if you would like to electronically transfer funds to the Trust Account. If you have any questions also contact the bank directly.”
Meanwhile, Randye Bullock, a communications specialist and former president of NABJ’s Detroit chapter, as well as a former national board member, said a major fundraiser is being planned for Tuesday, Feb. 26, at Seldom Blues jazz restaurant, in Detroit’s Renaissance Center, from 5 to 7:30 p.m. She said she expected to release more details in the next day or so.
Police told Journal-isms on Monday that a witness who saw the assault from a distance told them the incident took place at 8:20 a.m. on Jan. 29. Washington was beaten by one man with his fists, the witness said, and then fled. There was no further description of the assailant. Police said on Wednesday there was no new information.
Questions about the trust fund may be directed to Greg Sanchez at 305-335-8132 or Greg Morrison at 404-372-3269.
MESSAGE BOARDS: Feel free to send an e-mail about this column.
Rick Rodriguez Joins Faculty at Arizona State U.
Rick Rodriguez, who resigned as executive editor of the Sacramento (Calif.) Bee in October, is joining the faculty of the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication at Arizona State University, the school announced on Wednesday.
Rodriguez, 53, will be the school’s Southwest Borderlands Initiative Professor and hold the faculty rank of professor of practice. He joins the faculty March 3.
“Rick Rodriguez is one of the leading editors of his generation, a national voice who has always championed great journalism and in-depth, investigative news reporting,” said Cronkite Dean Christopher Callahan in the release. “He has been a teacher in the newsroom for more than 30 years, and now our students will benefit enormously from his passion, values and integrity.”
Rodriguez is to develop a new cross-disciplinary specialization at the Cronkite School in the coverage of issues relating to Latinos and the U.S.-Mexico border.
A Mexican-American, in 2005 he became the first Latino president of the American Society of Newspaper Editors, and resigned at the Bee after a disagreement with the publisher over the paper’s long-term direction, the Bee reported at the time.
Rodriguez continues to serve as a consultant to the vice president for news at the McClatchy Co., which owns the Bee.
MESSAGE BOARDS: Feel free to send an e-mail about this column.
Kenya Lifts Ban on Live Political Coverage
The Kenyan government has lifted its ban on live coverage of political events, Sam Kiplagat reported Tuesday in the Nation newspaper in Nairobi.
The ban was slapped on local media houses on Dec. 30 after President Mwai Kibaki was sworn in to begin his second term in office after a disputed re-election. More than 800 people have died in the resulting violence and some 310,000 people have fled their homes, according to the Associated Press.
Bitange Ndemo, the Information and Communications ministry permanent secretary, said the ban was lifted by Internal Security minister George Saitoti after the improvement of security in the country.
David Ochami, a commissioner with the Media Council of Kenya, had told the Inter Press Service that long before the elections were held, vernacular radio stations had ignited ethnic consciousness among the listeners, “making them support leaders from their own tribe and harbour bad feelings about people from other communities.”
Editorial, The Nation, Nairobi: Lifting the Ban Fine, But Fix Media Law Too
MESSAGE BOARDS: Feel free to send an e-mail about this column.
Short Takes
Editor Nancy Barnes of the Star Tribune of Minneapolis announced that Rene Sanchez and Cory Powell have been named managing editor for news and managing editor of presentation and innovation, respectively, David Brauer reported for minnpost.com “They’re basically incumbents; both had been deputy managing editors, but there’s been no managing editor. . . Sanchez has been the avatar of the Strib’s longer-form journalism.” Sanchez had been at the Washington Post for 17 years, the last six as Los Angeles bureau chief, before joining the Star Tribune in 2004.
“In the latest kerfuffle to roil the newsroom of its flagship Chicago Sun-Times, Tom McNamee on Monday was named editorial page editor. He replaces Cheryl Reed, who resigned, saying in a note to her staff she was ‘deeply troubled’ the paper’s presidential primary endorsements of Barack Obama and John McCain were subjected to ‘wholesale rewrites’ by editorial board outsiders,” Phil Rosenthal reported Tuesday in the Chicago Tribune. “Her resignation note said the rewrite of the endorsements ‘severely damages the integrity of the board’ and ‘devalues and patronizes the editorial board writers who wrote the original endorsements: an African-American, a Latino and two white women.’ She alleged the rewritten endorsements ‘were rewritten by white men.'”
Ron Harris, who resigned in November as Washington correspondent of
the St. Louis Post-Dispatch and has been serving as executive editor of the Afro-American newspapers, based in Baltimore, has accepted a job as director of communications at Howard University, he told Journal-isms on Wednesday. Harris said he would be in charge of the school’s publications, including the quarterly magazine that goes to 60,000 alumni and those affiliated with Howard University Hospital, as well as handling media relations. In his short time at the Afro, Harris brought a new immediacy to the weekly publication, including recruiting veteran journalists to cover the Barack Obama campaign, filing daily stories that appeared on the Internet.
“Amidst Super Tuesday hoopla, it’s worth remembering that today is the five year anniversary of then-Secretary of State Colin Powell‘s presentation before the United Nations. This speech moved the U.S. closer to invading Iraq more than any other single event of the period,” Clint Hendler wrote Tuesday on the Columbia Journalism Review Web site. “All in all, the press telegraphed Powell’s claims with far too little skepticism. Of course, we now know that not only was much of what he said false, but that even Powell’s own intelligence analysts warned ahead of time that many of his central claims were weak.”
“The most anticipated NFL match-up in years gave Fox a historic ratings winner,” with more than 10.5 million viewers, “and nearly eight million black viewers stayed for the post-game show, Target Market News reported on Tuesday, speaking of Super Bowl XLII. It listed the top 25 broadcast shows in black households from Jan. 28 to Feb. 3.
Dawn Turner Trice, a Chicago Tribune columnist, is to be a recipient of the nonprofit Community Media Workshop’s Studs Terkel Award on April 9, Robert Feder reported in the Chicago Sun-Times.
By the time Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf lifted six weeks of emergency rule last December, most of the TV news channels were back on air after a period of censorship, Mazhar Zaidi reported for the BBC Urdu news service. “But leading personalities on the programmes say they are not enjoying the freedom had before emergency rule was imposed on 3 November. . . . Six out of eight of the country’s top TV presenters working for the three major news channels are currently on ‘forced leave’.”
“Reporters Without Borders today expressed its concern after Carlos Huerta Muñoz, crime correspondent on the daily Norte de Ciudad Juárez, in Chihuahua state, northern Mexico, was forced to flee the country, after getting death threats from a drug cartel,” the organization said on Tuesday. “His newspaper’s management decided the day after his departure on 30 January to drastically reduce its coverage of drug-trafficking and to stick to official information on the subject.
“I urge people to read ‘We are under attack’ in Uganda’s leading national paper, The Daily Monitor,” Richard Addis wrote Monday on shakeupmedia.com. “It tells the shocking tale of the interrogation and charging of five excellent journalists over a story reporting details of a Ugandan Ministry of Finance investigation into a government corruption scandal. . . . the five are facing trial in a few days and have been interrogated by the anti-terrorism squad and the department of serious crime — hardly the right use of Uganda’s most powerful law enforcers.”
“The Lunar New Year is the most important holiday for many Asians — not only a time to usher in a new year, but also a time for revelry, family reunions and a renewal of the spirit,” Esther Wu explained last week in her Dallas Morning News column. It begins Thursday and will mark the beginning of Lunar Year 4705, the Year of the Rat. ?