Writers Ask Whether It Isn’t Time to Give It a Rest
“Why are black leaders bullied into answering for every loud-mouthed, controversial black leader?” asked a headline on the newly launched news Web site theroot.com, over an essay by Washington writer Marjorie Valbrun.
“OBAMA ACES RUSSERT’S FARRAKHAN TEST . . .” declared a blog item by media critic Amy Alexander, editor of a book of essays on Minister Louis Farrakhan of the Nation of Islam, on the Web site of the Nation magazine.
Both were referring to the exchange during Tuesday’s Democratic presidential debate in which NBC’s Tim Russert asked Sen. Barack Obama: “One of the things in the campaign is that you have to react to unexpected developments. On Sunday, the headline in your hometown paper, Chicago Tribune, ‘Louis Farrakhan Backs Obama for President at Nation of Islam Convention in Chicago.’ Do you accept the support of Louis Farrakhan?”
“You know, I have been very clear in my denunciation of Minister Farrakhan’s anti-Semitic comments. I think they are unacceptable and reprehensible,” Obama replied.
“I did not solicit this support. He expressed pride in an African American who seems to be bringing the country together.
“I obviously can’t censor him, but it is not support that I sought. And we’re not doing anything, I assure you, formally or informally with Minister Farrakhan.”
Asked Russert: “Do you reject his support?”
Obama said, to laughter, “Well, Tim, I can’t say to somebody that he can’t say that he thinks I’m a good guy. You know, I have been very clear in my denunciations of him and his past statements. And I think that indicates to the American people what my stance is on those comments.”
Russert pressed: “The problem some voters may have is, as you know, the Reverend Farrakhan called Judaism a ‘gutter religion.'”
Obama then reiterated his commitment to the Jewish community, reminded viewers that he had denounced anti-Semitism among blacks, and said he hoped to restore the “historic” partnership between African Americans and Jews. Sen. Hillary Clinton pressed further: “There’s a difference between denouncing and rejecting.”
The Illinois senator replied, to the audience’s applause, “Tim, I have to say I don’t see a difference between denouncing and rejecting. There’s no formal offer of help from Minister Farrakhan that would involve me rejecting it. But if the word ‘reject’ Senator Clinton feels is stronger than the word ‘denounce,’ then I’m happy to concede the point, and I would reject and denounce.”
The case seemed to be closed.
To Valbrun and Alexander, the exchange said as much about Russert and the mainstream media as it did about the candidates.
For one thing, though the utterances Russert referenced are unquestionably anti-Semitic, they are 24 years old, made during the 1984 presidential campaign.
As the same Chicago Tribune story Russert mentioned said of Farrakhan, “In recent years, most significantly after his battle with prostate cancer in the 1990s, he has tried to strike a more conciliatory tone.”
The story quoted the now-74-year-old Farrakhan, who was speaking at the Nation of Islam’s annual Saviours’ Day event, anticipating that Obama’s enemies would try to use his words against the senator. “Why do you hate him so that you want to make me a stumbling block?” Farrakhan asked. “I want to see that brother successful and I don’t want them to use me or that Nation of Islam.”
Back when the controversy was sparked, in the 1980s, Farrakhan maintained he never used the words “gutter religion,” going so far as to threaten to sue any news organization that claimed he did. A tape of the event in question was murky. Farrakhan maintained he said “dirty religion,” and that phrase, it turned out, had something to do with the way Muslims view Jews theologically. Later, Farrakhan went on to praise Jews as “the world leaders, in my opinion. They are some of the most brilliant people on this planet.”
The entire demand-to-denounce seemed old and tired. Further, as journalists should know, “the Rev.” is a title used by Christians, not Muslims. But Valbrun and Alexander made larger points.
“The moment I’ve been dreading since Senator Barack Obama first announced his candidacy finally arrived: The Farrakhan Litmus Test, served up by a white male member of the establishment press, before an audience of millions,” Alexander wrote.
“How predictable.
“How ham-fisted, bone-headed, and unproductive.
“For starters, Farrakhan is not now nor has he ever been a true ‘leader’ of black Americans. He does not practice anything approaching traditional Islamic faith, but a cobbled-together amalgam of mysticism, black nationalism, mashed up with some orthodox Muslim precepts. Second, the NOI, once perceived as a shadowy sect of black militants spoiling to overthrow Whitey, now claim only several thousand members. More important, they are far from the scariest Islamic radicals out there currently.”
She continued, “Not much has changed among the ranks of big foot political journalists since the zany days of the Black Power movement, the heady turmoil of the Jackson presidential campaigns, or the fear-filled era of the Million Man March in 1995. They are still disconnected from most black and low-income Americans.”
Valbrun, a former writer for the Wall Street Journal, Baltimore Sun and Philadelphia Inquirer, wrote, “The larger question is why Farrakhan is the litmus test for black politicians’ views on race and not the politicians’ own record of comments, actions and legislative votes[.] Why is it that only after they repudiate Farrakhan are they then deemed not to be closet black militants? . . .
“Reporters did not run out in droves to ask white politicians to reject Don Imus after he made his remarks about the black female basketball players at Rutgers University. White politicians did not eagerly line up to do so. Nor did they repudiate fellow white politicians who did not. A few, and only a few, said they would no longer go on the Imus show. (Tim Russert, who appeared often on the Imus show, was not among those who said they would no longer be a guest.)
“. . . Isn’t it time the statute of limitations ran out on Farrakhan?”
Another new black Web site, thedailyvoice.com, linked to a 2005 news story in the New York Amsterdam News, in which a well-known politician praised Farrakhan’s then-planned Millions More Movement, follow-up to the 1995 Million Man March.
The politician? Former president Bill Clinton, husband of the candidate who insisted Obama “reject and denounce.”
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John Lewis Switches to Obama, Vindicating Reporter
When headlines last week trumpeted that Rep. John Lewis, D-Ga., a backer of Sen. Hillary Clinton, would switch to Sen. Barack Obama for president, Aaron Gould Sheinin wrote on the Atlanta Journal-Constitution Web site that a New York Times story to that effect “is inaccurate, a spokeswoman for the former civil rights leader told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution this morning.”
The Times reporter, Jeff Zeleny, stood by his story.
On Wednesday, Zelany was able to write on the Times Web site:
“Senator Barack Obama on Wednesday accepted the endorsement of Representative John Lewis, a Georgia Democrat and longtime African-American political leader, who switched his support from the presidential candidacy of Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton.”
He added: “Mr. Lewis, a superdelegate to the Democratic National Convention, first disclosed his intention to support Mr. Obama in an interview with The New York Times on Feb. 14. He said then that he could ‘never, ever do anything to reverse the action’ of the voters of his district, who overwhelmingly supported Mr. Obama, of Illinois.”
Clinton Says She Doesn’t Condone Sending Photo
As reported on Monday, Sen. Hillary Clinton’s response to the posting on the Drudge Report Web site of a photo of Sen. Barack Obama in African garb suggestive of Islam was to tell reporters from ABC Dallas affiliate, “I know nothing about it. This is in the public domain. But let’s just stop and ask yourself: ‘Why are you — why is anybody concerned about this?'”
But in Tuesday’s debate, Clinton took a firmer line. Asked by Brian Williams whether she could say unequivocally that the photo did not come from a source inside her campaign, she replied:
“Well, so far as I know, it did not and I certainly know nothing about it and have made clear that that’s not the kind of behavior that I condone or expect from the people working in my campaign.
“But we have no evidence where it came from. So I think that it’s clear what I would do if it were someone in my campaign, as I have in the past, asking people to leave my campaign if they do things that I disagree with.”
Obama said, “I take Senator Clinton at her word that she knew nothing about the photo. So I think that’s something that we can set aside.”
Gustavo Arellano, “Ask a Mexican!” syndicated: Why Won’t Mexicans Vote for a Black Man?
Dave Astor, Editor & Publisher: Hillary Clinton: Still a Candidate, Formerly a Columnist
BlackAmericaWeb.com and Associated Press: In Final Debate, Candidates Tussle Over Health Care, Foreign Policy — and Louis Farrakhan
Will Bunch blog, Philadelphia Daily News: Questions for Tim Russert: When will you denounce your supporter Don Imus?
Jasmyne A. Cannick, New America Media: Black Caucus Chooses Job Security Over Obama
Cary Clack, San Antonio Express-News: Shirley Chisholm paved the way
Stanley Crouch, New York Daily News: This Dem’s rivals are finding their words get in the way
Nonna Gorilovskaya, Nieman Watchdog: Key McCain, Clinton fundraisers lobby for foreign governments
Carlos Guerra, San Antonio Express-News: Focus on the Latino vote stuns this old-time ‘Hispanarian’
Melissa Harris-Lacewell, theRoot.com: Using Our Roots Against Us
Bob Herbert, New York Times: A Driving Force
Earl Ofari Hutchinson, syndicated: Obama’s Farrakhan Dilemma
Jose Lambiet blog, Palm Beach (Fla.) Post: Photo of Obama in Turban an Old Story to Boca Tab
Courtland Milloy, Washington Post: Negative Spin Hasn’t Spoiled Obama’s Yarn
Mary Mitchell, Chicago Sun-Times: How low will Hillary’s camp go?
Ruben Navarrette, San Diego Union-Tribune: Criticizing hope and optimism
Tony Norman, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette: Hillary Clinton and the politics of fear
Clarence Page, Chicago Tribune: Hats off for candidates
Leonard Pitts Jr., Miami Herald: Obama’s success tied to his eloquence
James Ragland, Dallas Morning News: Black Republicans feeling twinges of Obamamania
Eugene Robinson, Washington Post: Geraldo’s (Black) Discovery
David Roybal, Albuquerque (N.M.) Journal: Can Obama Replicate JFK’s Popularity With Latinos?
V. David Sartin, Cleveland Plain Dealer: Truth Squad
Jamal Simmons, theroot.com: The Clinton-Obama Mash-up
Sree Sreenivasan, South Asian Journalists Association: PREZ RACE: Asian American ads need to think of South Asians, too
Dawn Turner Trice, Chicago Tribune: Blacks find the audacity to hope
Tonyaa Weathersbee, Florida Times-Union: Blacks remember the past, but still proud of America
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AP Includes Diversity in Appointee’s Portfolio
“Sarah Nordgren, director of state news for The Associated Press, has been named a deputy managing editor for the news cooperative, taking on responsibility for global recruiting,” the Associated Press announced on Tuesday.
“In her new role, Nordgren will coordinate recruitment, hiring and retention efforts for AP’s global news staff to address such issues as diversity, development needs and succession planning. She will work closely with department heads and the Human Resources department.”
“Of course her appointment underscores our commitment to diversity,” Senior Managing Editor Mike Silverman told Journal-isms through a spokesman.
“Nordgren also will continue to direct state news,” the announcement continued, “leading a team that oversees the AP news staff and the news reports in all 50 states. She has been director of state news since 2003, and for three years before that served as deputy director.”
The appointment leaves unchanged the role of Robert Naylor, director of career development/news, executives at AP, the world’s largest news organization, said. It fell to Naylor to announce last year to students who had already applied that the AP was cutting back on a program designed to increase diversity among news photographers and writers, pairing college students with professionals.
AP Executive Editor Kathleen Carroll added, “Sarah’s responsibilities are being extended globally. And Robert continues to focus on leadership development — particularly with a very effective program that he has created, that he teaches worldwide and is constantly updating — and his own very important work on diversity and talent development.”
She said, “The AP is large enough to benefit from the talents of many, including both Robert and Sarah.”
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Newsday Cutting Summer Internship Program
Newsday, which did not train copy editors this year as part of its contribution to the Tribune Co.’s Metpro diversity initiative, is also cutting its summer internship program, John Koblin reported Tuesday in the New York Observer.
“The paper’s summer internship program, one of the most popular nationally with college seniors and J-school grad students since it offered up to 25 internships, a cushy $523 weekly salary and a job offer for two interns, will be cut this year. Two reporters said that word around the newsroom is that it will save the paper a little more than $100,000,” Koblin wrote.
“The paper’s spokeswoman, Deidra Parrish Williams, described the cut this way: ‘What I can tell you is that the summer internship is on a hiatus, but we will still have academic interns. With regards to your question about whether those interns will be offered jobs, that is still taking shape.'”
As reported on Monday, the Tribune Co.’s Metpro program, which has trained more than 240 reporters and copy editors of color over the last two decades, has stopped training copy editors, at least for the time being.
Given newspapers’ economic circumstances, Newsday found there was no market at the other Tribune papers for copy editors it might teach, so it did not train any this year, Gerry Kern, Tribune Co. vice president for editorial, told Journal-isms.
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Tribune’s Zell Looks to Consolidate D.C. Bureaus
“Chicago Tribune Washington Bureau Chief Michael Tackett welcomed new Tribune Company Chief Sam Zell’s challenge to reorganize the D.C. bureau and said his staff is ‘locked, loaded and ready to change,’ Joe Strupp reported Wednesday in Editor & Publisher.
“But Tackett, a veteran D.C. journalist and bureau chief since 2004, also said he would fight to keep each of his 16 bureau staffers. “I am going to defend every position that I have on their merits as productive, flexible, adaptive people who want to compete and win.”
“Tackett’s views followed Tuesday’s visit by Zell and Tribune Vice President Randy Michaels to the Tribune D.C. bureau, which houses the Washington bureaus of each Tribune newspaper. During that meeting, Zell made clear he did not like the current staffing levels or the separate coverage approach from each paper.
“Frank James, a Chicago Tribune D.C. reporter since 1995 and lead contributor to ‘The Swamp,’ the bureau’s popular blog, called Zell’s views, ‘a hard reality.’
“‘It is like learning you have cancer,’ James explained. ‘What are you going to do about it? Give up or figure out how to deal with it?’ He said most staffers are taking the approach of offering a solution. ‘They came in and gave us a dose of the new reality,’ he added. ‘The new reality is that revenues are eroding faster than anyone had forecast.’ “
Journalists of color in the Tribune bureau are James, his wife, Vickie Walton-James, who is senior Washington editor for Tribune Publishing Co., Chicago Tribune columnist Clarence Page , Los Angeles Times reporter Ricardo Alonso-Zaldivar and Ron Windham of Tribune Broadcasting.
A 2004 report from Unity: Journalists of Color found that, “Less than 10.5 percent of the reporters, correspondents, columnists, editors and bureau chiefs in the Washington daily newspaper press corps are journalists of color — 60 out of 574.” The percentage is no doubt lower now as more news organizations have trimmed their staffs.
Meanwhile, John Koblin reported in the New York Observer that, “Over the next week, Newsday reporters and editors are expecting an announcement about job cuts. Even veterans of the Vlad the Impaler year of 1995, in which Times Mirror ordered the elimination of 800 jobs from a payroll of 3,200, contemplate the coming week with dread.
“On Feb. 13 Sam Zell — who bought Newsday’s parent company for $8.2 billion in December — wrote in an e-mail that there would be job cuts at every Tribune paper. The L.A. Times made its announcement the next day —100 to 150 jobs would be lost — and the Baltimore Sun and Hartford Courant put their estimates at about 45 jobs. Newsday has yet to make its decisions on job cuts.”
Phil Rosenthal, Chicago Tribune: Zell trumpets tearing down bureau walls
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In Arizona, Native Newspaper Sued for Libel
The weekly Navajo Times in Window Rock, Ariz., which was granted independence from its tribal council in a historic 2003 vote, is being sued for libel by the superintendent of the Tuba City (Ariz.) Unified School District.
Eugene Thomas, the superintendent, said in a news release he had filed a $25 million libel suit against the Navajo Times Publishing Co. Tuesday in Window Rock District Court, a tribal court. The Arizona Daily Sun, an off-reservation daily newspaper, and other parties were also named, it said.
“Thomas is suing over libelous, hurtful statements and reporting over his leadership and qualifications as the Tuba City Unified School District Superintendent, which exposed him to ‘public hatred, contempt, and ridicule.’ The inflammatory statements, he said, caused him ‘mental anguish’ and ridicule.”
The Daily Sun reported on Sunday that accounting experts appointed to investigate what went wrong at Peach Springs Unified School District, a district of 200 students on the Hualapai nation that overspent its budget by about $1.5 million in one year under Thomas, recommended that Thomas lose his teaching and superintendent credentials for gross financial mismanagement.
[Editor Duane Beyal told Journal-isms on Thursday, “We haven’t seen anything in writing,” so “it’s just so much bluster at this point.” But he said, “We stand behind our reports, which the reporter backed up with documentation.”] [Updated Feb. 28]
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Short Takes
The parent company of the Philadelphia Inquirer and Daily News “laid off 68 Guild members today from the advertising, circulation, customer service, finance, marketing and systems departments,” the Newspaper Guild of Greater Philadelphia Local 10 told members on Wednesday. “This amounts to almost 10 percent of the union’s membership. Company officials said that a very small number of managers would be laid off. . . . The layoff is effective March 28. However, the Company has told members to leave today and plans to reassign their work to surviving staff.”
“I am surprised to learn that Tonya Harding has taken up journalism,” Miami Herald columnist Leonard Pitts Jr. wrote on Wednesday. “What else explains last week’s knee-capping of Sen. John McCain by The New York Times? Obviously, the bad girl of figure skating has been given a corner office at Times headquarters. If you missed it: The Times reported on the relationship between the senator and one Vicki Iseman, a lobbyist who, at 40, is 31 years McCain’s junior.”
Alison Bethel, former Detroit News Washington bureau chief, has been chosen for the International Center for Journalists’ Knight International Journalism Fellowships Program. Bethel is to spend a year in Johannesburg, South Africa, mentoring and consulting the staff of the Mail & Guardian newspaper on coverage of major health issues. She is in the Caribbean creating a lifestyles and community news section for the Bahama Journal, a daily.
A benefit in Detroit for automotive journalist Frank Washington, whose face was severely damaged when he was mugged near his Detroit home on Jan. 29, raised “nearly $40,000 for him, but he needs much more,” Randye Bullock, a communications specialist and former president of the Detroit chapter of the National Association of Black Journalists, told NABJ members. The fundraiser was held Tuesday at Detroit’s Seldom Blues jazz restaurant. Supporters may use this e-mail address.
“Radio One Inc. has been dealt another blow,” Erin Killian wrote Friday in the Washington Business Journal. “A day after the Lanham [Md.]-based broadcaster announced fourth quarter losses, Radio One disclosed its vice president of operations has resigned. Zemira Jones has stepped down, and no replacement has been made, the company said Friday. Radio One did not release where Jones is going and could not be immediately reached for comment. . . . Radio One has been losing money in what it has repeatedly called a challenging market.”
“Six weeks ago, 29-year-old Culver City Internet copy writer Christian Lander started a blog, stuffwhitepeoplelike.wordpress.com, on a whim, thinking he’d poke fun at himself and fellow white people. Spending roughly two hours a day writing satirical posts about ‘stuff white people like,’ Lander had no idea how much his little inside joke would catch on. In the first week, the site received about 200 hits a day. The next week it jumped to 600, and then 4,000 the next. By last week, he was averaging 300,000 daily hits,” Gregory Rodriguez wrote Monday in the Los Angeles Times.
“Some conservatives have already been upset by the changes at former President Ronald Reagan‘s favorite newspaper,” salon.com reported in its “War Room” section. “In a post on her blog, titled ‘P.C. at the Washington Times,’ Michelle Malkin wrote, ‘Soon, they’ll drop ‘illegal’ from ‘illegal immigrants.’ Then, it’ll be ‘undocumented immigrants.’ Then, they’ll just go the Harry Reid route and call them ‘undocumented Americans.’ . . . Similarly, blogger Extreme Mortman joked, ‘Bad news illegal aliens — you don’t exist anymore. So sayeth the Washington Times. Now that illegal aliens don’t exist anymore, maybe they can likewise make my parking tickets disappear.'”
“The Federal Communications Commission may have come to Cambridge yesterday to review Internet-related issues,” the Associated Press reported from Boston on Tuesday. “But a group of African-American leaders held a press conference outside Harvard Law School’s Austin Hall, where the FCC was conducting a hearing yesterday, to blast the declining number of black radio stations in Boston and across the nation.” In addition, the media-reform group Free Press, which challenges big media, accused Comcast of packing the FCC’s hearing on network neutrality, while the cable operator said it simply had lots of interested employees in the area and some line-standers to save seats for them, as John Eggerton reported for Broadcasting & Cable.
