Maynard Institute archives

6 Pulitzers at Washington Post

by richard0692

Photographer Du Cille Shares Public Service Prize

The Washington Post won six Pulitzer Prizes on Monday, including the prize for public service, “Awarded to The Washington Post for the work of Dana Priest, Anne Hull and photographer Michel du Cille in exposing mistreatment of wounded veterans at Walter Reed Hospital, evoking a national outcry and producing reforms by federal officials.”

 

In a ceremony in the Post newsroom, du Cille, the Post’s assistant managing editor for photography, recalled being asked by Priest, “make sure you get a picture of the mold. Photojournalists are not used to taking pictures of mold,” he said.

Du Cille told his colleagues, “If there is one message I have for you . . . it’s collaborate, collaborate, collaborate. Give yourself to the process.”

It was the Jamaica native’s third Pulitzer, his first at the Post, Executive Editor Leonard Downie Jr. noted to a beaming, applauding newsroom, which cheered with every Associated Press bulletin reporting another prize the paper had won.

“His first Pulitzer was shared with Carol Guzy, a [Miami] Herald staff photographer. Their work won in the Spot News category for coverage of the November, 1985 eruption of Colombia’s Nevado Del Ruiz volcano. In April, 1988 he won a second Pulitzer in feature photography for a photo essay on crack cocaine addicts in a Miami housing project,” according to a Post biography. Du Cille shot the photos; Lynne Duke, now also at the Post, wrote the essay, a Pulitzer finalist.

Priest said the award was a testament to investigative reporting. “We can’t be thrown off . . . by layoffs or early retirements,” or by changes in the way the news is delivered, she said. If we do, “the people in Building 18 who lived with the cockroaches and the mold will be unnoticed and unhelped.”

The breaking news prize was “Awarded to The Washington Post Staff for its exceptional, multi-faceted coverage of the deadly shooting rampage at Virginia Tech, telling the developing story in print and online.” Among the reporters honored was Jose Antonio Vargas, who interviewed the only eyewitness to the April 16, 2007, rampage, student Trey Perkins.

Assistant Managing Editor Robert J. McCartney also cited Vanessa Williams and Robert Pierre, both former board members of the National Association of Black Journalists, for their work in getting the story to the Post’s Web site.

The Breaking News Photography prize went to Pakistan-born and Bangkok-based photojournalist Adrees Latif of Reuters, as the South Asian Journalists Association noted on its Web site. Latif won for his photo of a Japanese videographer being attacked in Burma, also known as Myanmar.

Among the other prizes was that for editorial cartooning, to Michael Ramirez of Investor’s Business Daily.

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Carolina Garcia Named Editor of L.A. Daily News

“Carolina Garcia was named the new executive editor of the Los Angeles Daily News this morning, the newspaper’s publisher announced,” the newspaper reported on Monday.

 

 

“Garcia, 53, comes to the Daily News after five years as executive editor of The Monterey County Herald. Before that she was managing editor of the San Antonio Express-News from 1998 to 2003.

“She replaces Executive Editor Ron Kaye, who resigned Friday.”

Garcia has a long association with the Maynard Institute, as a 1982 graduate of the Summer Program for Minority Journalists, a 1997 faculty member of the Editing Program for Minority Journalists and a mentor to the Media Academy in 2005. When she was named to the Monterey County position in 2003, she became the first Latina to edit a U.S. daily.

“Garcia takes the helm as the Daily News seeks to evolve into a multimedia news source amid a nationwide decline in newspaper subscribers and the migration of readers to online news sites,” the story continued.

“Last month, the 150,000-circulation Daily News laid off reporters, photographers, editors and library and clerical staffers to trim newsroom staffing to 100.

“At the 35,000-circulation Herald, Garcia sought to diversify coverage of the Monterey area, which ranges from super-wealthy residents in Pebble Beach to migrant farm workers in Salinas.”

Both papers are owned by the MediaNews Group, where William Dean Singleton is chief executive.

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Juan Williams’ Title Changes to “Analyst” at NPR

Juan Williams, who has split his time being a senior correspondent at National Public Radio and a commentator on Fox News, is relinquishing his role as a “correspondent” at NPR so he may “pursue his many outside assignments and engagements, without any conflicts or limitations,” Ellen Weiss, NPR vice president for news, told NPR staffers and affiliates on Monday. Williams will be “one of our on-air news analysts.”

 

 

 

“I’m pretty honored that they would trust me like that,” Williams told Journal-isms. “It’s kind of unusual. Dan Schorr, Ted Koppel. That’s pretty nice company.”

Williams has offered strong opinions in his roles on Fox News and as author of a 2006 book, “Enough: The Phony Leaders, Dead-End Movements, and Culture of Failure That Are Undermining Black America — and What We Can Do About It,” in which he criticized news subjects he must interview or report on as an NPR correspondent.

In the Wall Street Journal on Friday, for example, Williams said this about Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., on the issue of his former pastor, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright: Obama “finds it easy to sit in Rev. Wright’s pews and nod along with wacky and bitterly divisive racial rhetoric . . . What would Jesus do? There is no question he would have left that church.”

Two years ago, Williams was asked how he reconciled the two roles. “Reporters have brains and opinions,” he told Journal-isms by e-mail then. “I wrote editorials and a column for the Post for years,” referring to the Washington Post. “I wrote Eyes on the Prize and a biography of Justice Marshall, both of which present strong views on American history,” referring to Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall. “At Fox News my job is to analyze politics. At NPR my job as senior correspondent is a mix of reporting and analysis. In all these roles my credibility rests on being honest about the facts and complete as well as fair in presenting all sides of the story.”

Monday’s memo from Weiss reads:

“Beginning this month, under a new contract, Juan Williams is moving from a staff position to become one of our on-air news analysts, in a role similar to Dan Schorr and Cokie Roberts. He will continue regular appearances on Morning Edition and Day to Day as well as additional appearances on other shows such as Weekend Edition Saturday and News & Notes.

“Both Juan and I have agreed that this change enables him to continue his longtime affiliation with us and also pursue his many outside assignments and engagements, without any conflicts or limitations.

“I look forward to having Juan’s presence as an important part of our news programming through this new relationship.”

Brian Williams Apologizes for Lorraine Motel Noise

“NBC Nightly News” anchor Brian Williams is apologizing to viewers for the “deafening,” “hyper-amplified” speeches that marred his live broadcast Friday from the site of the Lorraine Motel in Memphis. The network was commemorating the 40th anniversary of the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr.

 

 

Williams wrote on his “Daily Nightly” blog on Friday, “On the first feed of the broadcast tonight, a promised candlelight vigil became a series of hyper-amplified speeches, 50 yards behind us while we were on live television. From the very first plans we made to do the broadcast live from a grassy hillside across from the Lorraine Motel, we were promised (by event organizers) in no uncertain terms that it would be quiet — if anything, there were concerns expressed early on, that if we made too much noise, we risked appearing disrespectful.

“It turned out silence wasn’t the problem. Quite the opposite. Making it worse: we were interviewing Sen. John McCain on live television. The noise was deafening. . . . The McCain folks are angry, justifiably so. So are we.

“At least I can apologize now.”

Meanwhile, some media outlets turned their attention to recalling the riots that took place following King’s assassination.

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N.Y. Times Reporter Out of Zimbabwe Jail

 

“A reporter for The New York Times who was jailed for covering the elections in Zimbabwe without government permission was arraigned and released on bail on Monday, according to Harrison Nkomo, one of his lawyers,” Lydia Polgreen reported Monday in the Times.

“The reporter, Barry Bearak, was swept up during a raid on a small hotel frequented by foreign journalists in the suburbs of Harare, the capital, on Thursday afternoon. The action seemed to be part of a crackdown by government forces after an election that was turning against President Robert Mugabe and his 28-year grip on the country. That same day, at least one American democracy advocate was also detained, and security agents raided offices of the main political opposition.

“Mr. Bearak and a British citizen — who was also granted bail on Monday — had been held in custody since the raids, accused of violating the country’s strict journalism laws. Three judges have refused to hear Mr. Bearak’s case so far, Beatrice Mtetwa, another of his lawyers, told reporters outside a courthouse in Harare on Monday. But Mr. Bearak was granted a court date for Thursday, Mr. Nkomo said later.

“Under the terms of his bail, Mr. Bearak was released to a clinic; he suffered some injuries to his back as the result of a fall from the concrete bunk in his dark, crowded cell to the floor, seven feet below, Mr. Nkomo said. Mr. Bearak’s passport was confiscated, and he was required to put up 300 million Zimbabwe dollars as bail, about $10,000 at official exchange rates but only about $7 at black market rates.”

A dispatch from the CAJ News Agency, published in the Zimbabwean, identified the British freelance journalist Saturday as Stephen John Bavan.

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Black Media Said to Be Valued but Lacking Scale

“‘All things being equal, we’d have no problem supporting’ black-owned media, said the CMO,” the chief marketing officer, “but ‘a lot of the true African-American owned media companies are small and very decentralized. That doesn’t fit our strategy of needing to have a national reach. We have looked at some of the options, but the delivery is so small in relation to cost it doesn’t fit our strategy,'” Mya Frazier wrote Monday in a story for AdAge.com, “The Catch-22 of Buying Black Media.”

“. . . Some marketers argue that in an ever-more-complex media environment,” supporting black-owned media is “not that simple. In a world of scale — and the benefits of lower ad pricing that come with it — there are few independent, black-owned media outlets left to support, and those that exist don’t have the reach to offer competitive rates.”

On the other hand, Chandra R. Thomas wrote on Time magazine’s Web site that “syndicated black radio hosts like Tom Joyner, Bev Smith, Michael Baisden and Warren Ballentine and other African-American radio personalities are not only increasingly audible to a wider audience but visible and influential as well.

“Says April Ryan, White House correspondent for American Urban Radio Networks (AURN): ‘My phone has been ringing off the hook with Fox News and MSNBC wanting interviews with me. Black radio has always been here, covering the important issues from a black perspective, but it wasn’t until Barack Obama, emerged as the first black man to prove himself to be a viable presidential candidate, that the mainstream media wanted to hear what we had to say. It’s another example of how his candidacy has broken the mold.’

“The critical role of African American voters during this election cycle has compelled both the Clinton and Obama campaigns to turn to influential black syndicated radio hosts,” she wrote.

Meanwhile, at a California Capitol City Black Expo in Sacramento, author and professor Michael Eric Dyson praised black media, according to Kenya M. Yarbrough, writing on EURWeb.com.

“Black newspapers serve our communities in ways that broader newspapers don’t. We’re not surprised by Jeremiah Wright. We’re not surprised by the discourse and the speech. We’re not surprised by what we do internal to our culture,” Dyson said, speaking of the former pastor of Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago, who was Obama’s pastor for 20 years.

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Clinton, Obama to Debate Faith and Values Sunday

“CNN will televise a forum with the two Democratic presidential candidates focused on faith and values topics, the network confirmed Monday,” Paul J. Gough reported in the Hollywood Reporter.

“The Compassion Forum, which will air Sunday, April 13, on the network, won’t be a traditional debate. Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama will attend and spend about 40 minutes each answering questions but won’t be on stage at the same time.

“Moderating the forum, which is sponsored by Faith in Public Life, will be CNN anchor Campbell Brown and Newsweek editor Jon Meacham. The event will be held at Messiah College, a Christian college located near Harrisburg, Pa.” [Headline on the Chicago Tribune’s “The Swamp” blog: “Messiah: Clinton, Obama coming.”]

“The focus of the forum will be on issues such as the global AIDS crisis, poverty and human rights. Some of the questions will come from the audience, which will be made up of faith leaders from all over the country who have been invited.”

Meanwhile, Clinton and Obama “have both signed off on a Democratic debate in North Carolina. The question now is when,” as the Associated Press reported.

“Obama had previously agreed to debate his rival on April 19 in North Carolina. On Thursday, the Clinton campaign said she has agreed to a debate April 27, sponsored by CBS.”

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WCBS-TV Producer, Novelist Joins CNN International

 

 

 

“Byron Harmon has been appointed to the newly created position of senior executive producer at CNN International to coordinate the global network’s live news programming and breaking news coverage, it was announced today by Katherine Green, senior vice president for CNN International programming,” CNN said on Monday.

“Based in Atlanta, Harmon will coordinate all of CNN International’s live news programming output from the network’s main production centers in London, Hong Kong and Atlanta as well as directing breakings news coverage.”

“As executive producer at WCBS Channel 2 in New York, Harmon consistently increased program ratings as he helped move the channel from No. 6 to No. 2 in the largest market in the United States.”

Harmon is also a novelist, writing such works as “All the Women I’ve Loved,” “Mistakes Men Make” and “Crabs in a Barrel.”

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AP Hires Ex-Secret Service Exec as a VP

 

 

“The Associated Press has announced the appointment of Danny Spriggs, the former No. 2 executive in the U.S. Secret Service, as vice president of global security,” the news cooperative announced on Monday.

“‘Danny Spriggs brings to AP a wealth of experience in security-related tactical, operational and strategic planning,’ said AP President and CEO Tom Curley. ‘AP journalists cover conflicts in every corner of the world, and he will help us deal with the growing risks involved in practicing journalism.'”

“Spriggs’ immediate responsibilities include coordinating with the campaign staffs of Republican John McCain and Democrat Barack Obama for AP’s April 14 annual meeting, where the two presidential hopefuls will separately address in Washington, D.C., the newspaper and broadcast membership of the not-for-profit news cooperative.”

Two years ago, Jeffrey Hastie, who was fired as a vice president of the AP, filed a lawsuit claiming that racial discrimination led to his dismissal. The suit was settled out of court.

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Short Takes

  • Chauncey Bailey, the Oakland journalist who was assassinated last

 
  • August, “is snickering right now, with a great smile,” said his former editor, Martin Reynolds of the Oakland Tribune. “He would get a kick out of all the attention being paid to his legacy.” Reynolds was quoted in a story Monday by Tim Reiterman of the Los Angeles Times on the Chauncey Bailey Project, founded to carry on Bailey’s work. “The Bailey Project is believed to be the first broad-based effort in more than 30 years to pursue the work of a journalist killed in this country, according to the nonprofit Committee to Protect Journalists,” the story said.
  • “Western reporters in China have received harassing phone calls, e-mails and text messages, some with death threats, supposedly from ordinary Chinese complaining about alleged bias in coverage of recent anti-Chinese protests in Tibet. The harassment began two weeks ago and was largely targeted at foreign television broadcasters, CNN in particular. But the campaign broadened in recent days after the mobile phone numbers and other contact information for reporters from The Associated Press, The Wall Street Journal and USA Today were posted on several Web sites, including a military affairs chat site,” Christopher Bodeen reported Monday for the Associated Press.
  • Whether Stephen A. Smith “wanted out of radio or ESPN served the eviction notice, or the network did indeed want him to focus on TV, is not worthy of debate. What’s sad is that a strong, entertaining voice is leaving the local radio scene,” Bob Raissman wrote Sunday in the New York Daily News. Smith, former Philadelphia Inquirer columnist, told listeners on Friday he was leaving his daily radio show this Thursday to concentrate on his ESPN television work.
  • Frankie Edozien, city hall reporter at the New York Post, is leaving for New York University, where he will be director of its Reporting Africa program and an associate professor. “It’s a fantastic opportunity for me since I’ve been invested in reporting from Africa for years, starting in 2001 when I co-founded the African magazine,” Edozien told Journal-isms on Monday. “Before that I’ll be completing my work as a Kaiser Media Fellow, reporting on global health issues from East Africa. I’ll still continue to be invested in NABJ,” the National Association of Black Journalists, where he is founding co-chair of the Lesbian and Gay Task Force. He has been at the Post since 1993.

 
  • In the past two years, more than a dozen longtime television critics at major-market dailies, including the Dallas Morning News, Seattle-Post Intelligencer, Newsday, New York Daily News and Houston Chronicle, have been either let go, shunted to different beats or been forced to take the ubiquitous buyout proffered by bean-counting corporate bosses, Marisa Guthrie wrote Monday in Broadcasting & Cable. “An ever-expanding universe of television content means readers need seasoned critics, people who are equal parts fan, historian and gimlet-eyed cynic, more than ever,” Melanie McFarland, who recently left the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, is quoted as saying. “Think about where TV is going, and now imagine Metacritic.com, and the wide range of reviews and opinion available even a month or two ago, reduced to five voices. This is the direction in which we’re heading.”
  • “East West magazine — a bi-monthly geared toward Asian Americans and focused on the intersection of Eastern and Western cultures — is going on an indefinite print hiatus effective immediately,” Joanna Pettas reported Wednesday for Folio magazine. “In the meantime, East West will launch a blog to keep readers ‘updated on East West names, faces, places and events.'”
  • The judge presiding over R&B star R. Kelly‘s child pornography case will hold a closed hearing this coming Friday — one of several measures he has taken to impose secrecy on parts of the high-profile case, Eric Herman reported Wednesday in the Chicago Sun-Times. Judge Vincent Gaughan “has issued a “decorum order” barring lawyers from talking to the media about anything beyond the charges, scheduling, and basic details about Kelly.”
  • The Los Angeles Times has removed the March 17 article “An Attack on Tupac Shakur Launched a Hip-Hop War” and related materials from its Web site “because they relied heavily on information that The Times no longer believes to be credible,” the newspaper said on Monday.
  • “Michael James Rocha, features design editor at The San Diego Union-Tribune, has been promoted to the newly created position of Audience Development and Utility Content Editor,” the Asian American Journalists Association reported on Monday. “As part of a newsroom reorganization, Michael assumes project-management responsibilities for various editorial products, both in print and online, including existing magazine titles, such as SDHome and SDHealth.”

 
  • Jacqueline Hernandez, publisher of People en Español, is moving to NBC Universal-owned Telemundo Communications Group as chief operating officer, a new post, Laurel Wentz reported Monday on AdAge.com. “Ms. Hernandez will be in charge of domestic revenue, marketing, digital media and emerging platforms, and research. She will be responsible for both Telemundo, the No. 2 Spanish-language network after Univision, and Telemundo’s Hispanic youth cable channel mun2.”
  • In Boston, former WBZ-TV news anchor Liz Walker has co-founded a women-led humanitarian action group, My Sister’s Keeper, to shed light on the crisis in Darfur, Sudan, calling for action and soliciting funds to build a school for 300 girls in Southern Sudan, Danielle Ameden reported on Monday for the MetroWest Daily News in Framingham, Mass.
  • “The savage mugging that left automotive journalist Frank Washington struggling for life in Detroit on Jan. 31 could have happened anywhere, but the generosity that followed is rare. It says volumes about Frank, the metro area and the people of the industry that was born here,” columnist Mark Phelan wrote Sunday in the Detroit Free Press. “I’ve known Frank Washington since shortly after he came to Detroit. There’s barely a day in those 20 years that he didn’t work, but like 23 million other working Americans, he has no medical insurance.” Washington faces more surgery and physical therapy.
  • Native American columnist Tim Giago is commemorating 30 years of writing columns, and says he has written about 1,560 of them.

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Feedback: Juan Williams’ Exit Strategy?

Re: Juan Williams.

Yes, everyone is entitled to opinion, but coming from the old school, I believe no one has more responsibility to research and perfect the thoughts behind an opinion than those who have the privilege of a public platform.

To me, Juan Williams has been a misfit at NPR and a negative impact on a discourse reaching out for understanding, community and positive change. I don’t know the back story of Juan’s role change there but I am glad NPR made it. Hopefully, it is a short-term exit strategy that will see him fade out completely.

Allegra Bennett
Editor and publisher, Renovating Woman magazine
Baltimore
April 7, 2008

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Feedback: Putting a Beard on a Quacking Duck

Re: Juan Williams — From correspondent to analyst. Oh, NPR you disappoint. You folks allowed the charade to go on far too long and now you’re putting a beard on a quacking duck. A more apt title might be — resident shill.

J.V. Womack, “Fox-Fried”
Durham, N.C.
April 7, 2008

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