Black Anchor Out After Using “N” Word

Veteran Michael Scott Had Exchange With Producer

A veteran African American television anchor who has worked in Los Angeles, Denver, Dallas, Kansas City and Charlotte, N.C., was ousted Tuesday from his latest job in Huntsville, Ala., after reportedly calling an African American producer the “N” word.

Keith Lowhorne, interim news director, confirmed on Wednesday that, “Michael Scott is no longer with WAAY-TV.” He said the action took place Tuesday, but would not elaborate, saying, “It’s a personnel issue.”

However, another newsroom employee confirmed the substance of an account on the NewsBlues subscription-only Web site on Monday.

“Tipsters at Calkins-owned WAAY-31-ABC in Huntsville (Market #83) say primary news anchor Michael Scott has been suspended after openly berating news producer Jabaree [Prewitt], who abruptly quit,” the item said.

“According to those who witnessed the incident, Scott, during a commercial break in the 10 p.m. newscast, referred to [Prewitt] as a Negro. When [Prewitt] ask him not to use that word, Scott called him a ‘nigger.’ Both men are black.”

Prewitt told Journal-isms that contrary to that report, he had not quit over the Thursday incident, that he had already given notice that he was taking a new job in Louisiana. He referred other questions to station management.

The incident is but the latest censure of the N-word’s use in a professional setting.

Michael Scott

In September, Chicago news cameraman Ken Bedford of WLS-TV used the term as he and another black photographer were vying for a shot. He received a five-day suspension and told Journal-isms the word would never pass through his lips again.

In 2006, the Chicago Defender asked on its front page, “Take a Stand: Black America, Isn’t it time we make up our minds about using the word nigger?”

In January 2007, Ebony magazine ran an editorial, “Enough! Why Blacks — and Whites — should never use the ‘N-Word’ again.”

Earl Graves Sr., founder of Black Enterprise magazine, turned off the microphone as 1,200 were gathered in September for the Black Enterprise/Pepsi Golf & Tennis Challenge when comedian Eddie Griffin used the word.

And this month, the rapper Nas finally decided against naming his ninth studio album with that word, after showing up at the Grammy awards with it emblazoned on his shirt. “The pressure on Nas to change the title of his album came from all corners: his label’s parent company, political figures, talk show pundits, other rappers and even some hip-hop aficionados,” James Braxton Peterson wrote on theRoot.com. A New York state assemblyman threatened to pull $84 million in state pension fund money out of an investment in the record firm’s parent company.

Scott, then 52, arrived in Huntsville after suddenly leaving Kansas City’s KCTV-TV, where he was co-anchor, in December 2006.

Prior to the “N word” incident, Scott was perhaps best known for “the attack of the gecko,” Chris Welch recalled Wednesday in the Huntsville Times. “He was interviewing a snake wrangler on the air in 2002 for KAXS-TV, the NBC-affiliate in Dallas-Fort Worth, when a gecko lizard jumped on him from a nearby table. He screamed, yelled an expletive and has been immortalized on YouTube.”

The development — and this column — prompted a discussion with callers on David Person’s show on Huntsville’s WEUP-AM. Much of the conversation focused on the familiar pros and cons of African Americans’ use of the word. Person is also an editorial writer and columnist at the Huntsville Times.

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Florida International U. Journalism Program Saved

The School of Journalism and Mass Communications at Florida International University, which graduates more Hispanic journalists than any in the country, has been spared the ax, according to Scott Travis, writing in the South Florida Sun-Sentinel.

“FIU officials initially labeled it as a ‘”small, expensive, niche program,’ Travis wrote on Friday. But Provost Ron Berkman “said after a further review, officials determined FIU wouldn’t save much money by closing the program, which serves 1,000 students. A television production program within the school would shut down under FIU’s latest proposal.”

One of the program’s boosters, Phil Lewis, editor of the Daily News in Naples, Fla., had told readers, “If you want a newsroom that is as diverse as the community your newspaper serves, FIU is a godsend.

“That’s why the advisory council for the J-school includes the editors of the Miami Herald, the South Florida Sun-Sentinel and the Palm Beach Post. That’s why The New York Times keeps close contact and schedules programs at FIU. That’s why the Scripps Howard Foundation just gave FIU $250,000 to build a new multimedia news lab.”

The school was originally slated to lose 12.4 percent of its budget, or about $455,422, over three years, according to Lillian Kopenhaver, its dean. “The school may be dismantled if it can’t absorb the cuts,” Miami New Times wrote in April.

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Essence’s Lewis Joins Latina, Switches to Obama

Edward Lewis, a co-founder of Essence magazine, agreed to stay on as nonexecutive chairman of Essence Communications after he sold the remaining portion of the business to Time Inc. in 2005. Now, he told Journal-isms on Wednesday, he has just signed a deal to become chairman of Latina Media Ventures, publisher of Latina magazine, an Essence spinoff, and he has switched his endorsement in the presidential campaign from Hillary Clinton to Barack Obama.

Lewis’ three-year contract with Time Warner’s Essence, in which he gave advice, went on advertising calls, and otherwise assisted, has expired, Lewis said, though he will keep an office in the Time Warner building.

He said he hopes Latina will “become the voice for Latinas the way Essence did for black women.” Latina has about half the circulation of Essence, 524,050 compared with 1,059,000, according to the Audit Bureau of Circulations.

With the end of Lewis’ active role at Essence, two of three key people at its helm when it was sold will have gone. Susan L. Taylor, the editorial director, announced in December she was leaving the magazine to build her Essence Cares mentoring movement. Essence Communications President Michelle Ebanks remains.

On the Obama endorsement, Lewis, 68, stressed that it is a personal one and that he is not speaking for the magazines, which do not endorse candidates. He said he had supported both Clinton and Obama financially and had been “a longtime supporter of the Clintons since he came on the scene in ’92,” speaking of former president Bill Clinton. Lewis said he still holds “great admiration” for Hillary Clinton and had offered advice — “I told her she should be very careful about what she says about Obama” — but now believes Obama’s election “would be in the best interests of our country” and would open up “new possibilities.”

Lewis said he had informed the Clinton forces of his decision and told the Obama campaign he would do “whatever is required to help get Senator Obama elected as president of the United States.”

Active in the Harlem Village Academy charter school, he said he had a special interest in education issues for blacks and Latinos. He said he had given the $4,600 maximum to the Clinton campaign and had donated $2,600 to Obama, but expects to give the maximum. The Obama campaign celebrated by issuing a news release about Lewis’ endorsement on Tuesday.

Black Enterprise magazine endorsed Obama in January, but a spokeswoman for Johnson Publishing Co., publishers of Ebony and Jet, said its magazines have made no endorsement.

Among media moguls, Oprah Winfrey famously endorsed Obama and Black Entertainment Television founder Robert Johnson, also famously, endorsed Clinton with statements that forced the candidate to apologize. Time Warner CEO Richard Parsons, a longtime moderate Republican, donated to the campaign of Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., last year.

Ted Kennedy Illness 2nd Biggest Story of Week

“The sudden and sobering announcement that Senator Ted Kennedy‘s seizures turned out to be caused by a malignant brain tumor was the second-biggest story last week, accounting for 8% of the newshole as measured by PEJ’s News Coverage Index. (That story got the most attention on network TV news, where it filled 15% of the newshole),” Mark Jurkowitz reported for the Project for Excellence in Journalism’s weekly coverage index.

“The Democratic candidates once again attracted the majority of campaign coverage last week — and they were an eventful seven days. . . . What did change noticeably in the media’s campaign narrative last week was the role of presumptive GOP nominee John McCain. After largely being treated as a bystander to the Democrats’ battle for weeks, he emerged to become a central newsmaker and featured player in the coverage.”

• Betty Winston Bayé, Louisville (Ky.) Courier-Journal: Passing the torch from Ted Kennedy
• Cary Clack, San Antonio Express-News: Politics adjourn for humanity
• Eric Easter, ebonyjet.com: Get Well Ted Kennedy and David Paterson
• Melissa Harris-Lacewell, theRoot.com: Senator Kennedy’s Illness [call]
• Bob Herbert, New York Times: Tears for Teddy

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“Stop Snitching” Campaign Is Hurting Reporters

“Investigative reporters in all corners of the country are increasingly encountering the Stop Snitching campaign — spread through word of mouth, DVDs and T-shirts — that makes their jobs that much more difficult. And as digital media means that testimony on the evening news can exist on the Web forever — and be distributed virally to an array of devices — many believe it won’t be getting easier to produce eyewitnesses,” Michael Malone wrote Monday for Broadcasting & Cable.

“WCAU Philadelphia investigative reporter Harry Hairston knows about such hostility firsthand. While reporting a story a few years ago about a white man who’d moved to a mostly black neighborhood in Chester, Pa., and was being harassed by neighbors who did not want him there, Hairston returned to the station van after doing his reporting to the jarring sight of a cinderblock that had been thrown through his windshield. ‘Their message was, leave us alone,’ he says. ‘They did not want the media reporting on what was going on.’

“Whether it’s called Stop Snitching, Don’t Snitch or Snitches Get Ditches, the code of silence centering on criminal activity goes back several decades, its roots in the old Mafia code of Omertà. When the organized crime families refused to take part in the narcotics trade, the street gangs stepped in, and used similar tactics of intimidating witnesses and making examples of so-called ‘rats.'”

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Bay Area’s Barbara Rodgers Retiring After 36 Years

Barbara Rodgers, who has spent 36 years in broadcasting — most of that at KPIX-TV in the San Francisco Bay Area — has announced her retirement, as Chuck Barney reported Tuesday in the Contra Costa (Calif.) Times.

“I had been thinking about when I might hang up my reporter’s notebook and microphone,” Rodgers said in a statement released by the station. “So I decided that the right time is now, while I still have the enthusiasm to pursue some of my other interests.”

Rodgers’ last day at KPIX is Friday.

“Since 1979, Rodgers has been at KPIX, where she co-anchors the noon newscast with Juliette Goodrich. Prior to this, Rodgers co-anchored Channel 5’s weekend newscasts from 1987 to 2000. In 2001, she returned as host of ‘Bay Sunday,’ a public affairs program that she helped to create in 1989,” Barney wrote. Rodgers is also a co-founder of the Bay Area Black Journalists Association.

“When asked what she’ll be doing now, Rodgers said she wasn’t sure about the long term, but she has a definite short term goal,” a news release said. “I want to clear out all the clutter in my garage and spare room at home — stuff that has been piling up for all these years when I’ve spent more time at the office than I did at home. That could take six months or more! After that, I’ll start to explore some of my other loves like travel, food and my new computer; and I’m excited about finally getting to spend more time visiting with family and friends both in and outside the Bay Area.”

“And what will she miss most about this job that has been a part of her life for so long? ‘Meeting a multitude of new and fascinating people. I am a person who still has so much curiosity about everything and this job let me indulge that and be as nosey as I wanted to be. I’ll also miss being in the middle of the action when there’s a big story and I’ll especially miss getting to be a part of this year’s Presidential election night when history might be made. But I’ll be watching from home and doing a critique.'”

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Spanish Network Lays Off 29, Moves to Mexico

“When the rumor first broke that Noticiero Azteca América was moving to Mexico City in mid-March, VP of news María Elena Jáuregui vehemently denied it,” Veronica Villafañe wrote Tuesday on her Media Moves Web site. “While she admitted there were changes coming, including some personnel cuts, she insisted that the local and national newscasts would continue to be produced in Los Angeles, with the TV Azteca news department in Mexico City ‘supplementing’ the U.S. programming.

“María Elena resigned from her position of V.P. of news last Wednesday. She is now in charge of special projects for Azteca América. Since I spoke with her in March, many of her newsroom employees jumped ship to other stations. But 29 didn’t escape the ax.

“. . . Bottom line: Azteca América will be feeding U.S. Hispanics with a regionalized news service, produced in Mexico. While a few local news crews will remain, it will be interesting to see how producers in Mexico determine what’s important to cover in L.A. on a daily basis.”

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Short Takes

• “The St. Petersburg Times announced this morning a yearlong pay freeze for its staff, along with an offer for ‘enhanced pension benefits’ for staffers over age 50 with more than five years’ service at the company. This was a long-rumored move, particularly after the slimming of the paper this month created an edition which requires fewer people to produce,” the newspaper’s Eric Deggans reported Wednesday on his blog.

• Robin Washington, editorial page editor of Minnesota’s Duluth News Tribune, is the first recipient of the Be’chol Lashon Media Award established to honor excellence in coverage of the ethnic and racial diversity of world Jewry, the award’s sponsors announced on Wednesday. “The purpose is to give recognition to journalists and others covering the wide diversity of Jewish ethnicity. The award was presented in San Francisco at the annual Be’chol Lashon International Think Tank, the largest conference of Black, Latino, and mixed-race Jewish leaders in the world. It will be given annually.” Washington is African American and Jewish.
• Time magazine’s Joe Klein sided on his blog with Media Matters for America’s criticism of CNN’s Lou Dobbs and other cable hosts on the issue of illegal immigration. “Now, I know that Dobbs brings in some serious ratings. And he is certainly entitled to his own opinion,” Klein wrote on Monday. “But he is not entitled to his own facts — especially not on a network that makes a real effort to separate truth from falsehood and represent all sides of the political debate. Shouldn’t someone be editing this swill?”
• Hao-Nhien Vu, the fired former managing editor of Nguoi Viet Daily in Orange County, Calif., the largest and oldest Vietnamese daily in the United States, has started a blog called Bolsavik — a play on the name Bolsa Avenue that runs through the heart of the bustling Vietnamese community known as Little Saigon, Kenneth Kim reported Tuesday for New America Media. “But his blog is in English, unlike Nguoi Viet, which is largely a Vietnamese language paper.” Vu was fired after protesters objected to the way an image of the South Vietnamese flag was photographed.
• Nicholas D. Kristof, New York Times op-ed columnist, agreed with Washington Post ombudsman Deborah Howell‘s criticism Sunday that her paper’s op-ed lineup was “too male and too white.” “This lack of diversity is, frankly, a broader problem with American punditry in general, from newspaper columnists to television talking heads to writers of letters to the editor,” Kristof wrote Wednesday afternoon on his blog. “American journalism is becoming much more representative of the country, in terms of race and gender, but opinion pages still tend to be preserves of white men.” His post had more than 400 responses as of Wednesday night.
• In a farewell column posted Tuesday on Black College Wire, Mychal Smith, outgoing editor of the student newspaper at Hampton University, wrote, “I’m definitely not apologizing for consistently challenging the phantom organization known as ‘the administration.’ What I must apologize for is thinking that, in the course of one year as editor in chief of the Script, I would be able to start the revolution that would somehow completely transform Hampton University. . . . Not that it wasn’t a noble cause, but I quickly realized that the problems at Hampton are so deeply-rooted and ingrained in the culture that no one person can tackle them alone.”
• The rapper T.I. “is turning his legal woes into an MTV docu series,”

• Michael Schneider reported Wednesday for Variety. MTV “will follow the hip-hop star as he performs more than 1,000 of community service before beginning to serve his one-year prison sentence next spring. Cameras already chronicled T.I.’s release from house arrest, and shooting will start in earnest this summer, leading up to his return to jail in early 2009. MTV plans to air the show some time soon after that. . . . The rapper, who had already been convicted for selling crack cocaine in the late 1990s, was charged with possession of unregistered machine guns and silencers and possession of firearms by a convicted felon.”
• “The wife and daughter of Li Changqing, the Chinese journalist awarded one of the world’s most prestigious press freedom prizes, have been prevented from flying to Sweden to accept the honor on his behalf,” Editor & Publisher said Wednesday. “The Paris-based World Association of Newspapers (WAN) reports today that Bao Dinling and Li Sidi were briefly detained and questioned at Beijing Airport by police who confiscated their passports. Li is to be awarded the Golden Pen at the opening ceremonies of the World Newspaper Congress and World Editors Forum before 1,800 newspaper publishers, chief editors, and other media execs.”
• Reporters Without Borders, writing about Zimbabwe, “condemns the continuing use of violence against the independent press after 60,000 copies of ‘The Zimbabwean On Sunday’ newspaper were intercepted and torched on the evening of 24 May 2008,” and freelance reporter Sydney Saize was “attacked and beaten in the eastern city of Mutare,” the Paris-based group said on Wednesday.
• The National Communication Council, Guinea’s media regulator, suspended La Croisade, a privately owned Conakry-based newspaper, for two months for publishing an alleged falsehood. The newspaper will be out of circulation until July 19, the Media Foundation for West Africa reported.

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Feedback: A Question for Geraldine Ferraro

Ask Geraldine Ferraro:

Why are the votes cast by black voters who are Democrats not as good and worthy now, compared to what they were when they were cast for her when she was a candidate for vice president?

B. D. Scott
Decatur, Ga.
May 27, 2008