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The Non-Wacko Jacko

richard

Updated July 8
Paris-Michael Katherine Jackson, 11, says at Michael Jackson's memorial service, 'I just wanted to say ever since I was born, Daddy has been the best father you could ever imagine.' She then collapsed crying into the arms of family members.' (Credit: Pool photo)

Farewell Seeks to Counteract Jackson’s Media Image

When the Rev. Al Sharpton peered out at Los Angeles’ Staples Center to Michael Jackson’s children, and told them, "there was nothing strange about your daddy. It was strange what your daddy had to deal with," he articulated one of the themes of the well-executed, star-studded farewell to Jackson on Tuesday:

We’ll define Michael Jackson, thank you, not the media.

Marlon Jackson, the singer’s brother and one of the Jackson 5, said in an emotional farewell, "How much pain and ridicule can one man take? Maybe now, Michael, they will leave you alone."

Commentator Roland Martin said it again after the two-hour, 15-minute service on CNN. Speaking of Sharpton and another speaker, Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee, D-Texas, Martin said, "They made it clear if you want to criticize Michael Jackson, we’re going to come back at you." Lee took with her a framed copy of a resolution in which the House of Representatives would honor the musical trailblazer who marched to his own drummer.

Some paid heed.

"On CNN, Anderson Cooper and Soledad O’Brien smartly took themselves out of the conversation early and let the event speak for itself. It quickly became clear that if Parker House rolls, fried chicken, greens and a drunk uncle are not part of your funeral tradition, it was best not to speak," noted ebonyjet.com, one of several black Web sites that promptly posted pieces on today’s events.

As Jake Coyle wrote for the Associated Press, "The media-saturated event was expected to rival the online audience of even President Barack Obama’s January inauguration – which similarly was a daytime event witnessed by many on their computers at work.

"Aside from the wall-to-wall coverage by the TV networks and cable news channels, the memorial service was streamed online by many news outlets and Web sites, including Hulu.com, MySpace.com and The New York Times’ Web site. The Associated Press’ online video network also offered a live broadcast.

"Several outlets rolled out interactive features previously used for Obama’s inauguration. CNN.com integrated its live video with chatter from Facebook."

In the Los Angeles Times, Geoff Boucher and Cara Mia DiMassa reported that, "Event producer Ken Ehrlich said that the service was showing all of the many facets of Jackson’s influence. All the colors of his life are coming out, everyone is saying something different and authentic,’ he said as the show was under way.

"Mariah Carey and Trey Lorenz sang Jackson’s ‘I’ll Be There.’ Jennifer Hudson sang his hit ‘Will You Be There.’ And John Mayer performed ‘Human Nature’ on his guitar.

"Lakers star Kobe Bryant called the singer a ‘true humanitarian, who gave as much off stage as he did onstage.’

"Queen Latifah read a poem from Maya Angelou that praised the singer’s global influence, from Japan to Ghana. ‘We are missing Michael Jackson," the poem read. "But we do know we had him, and we are the world.’" Two of Martin Luther King Jr.’s children, Martin III and Bernice, offered tributes. An ensemble sang, "We Are the World."

It was a long way from the tabloid world of "Wacko Jacko," autopsy reports, custody battles and questions about Jackson’s racial self-image.

Instead, Tour?© said in the post-event commentary on MSNBC, it was like "a black Baptist church service."

"A lot of myths were dispelled," said a commentator on BET.

And like a good Baptist church service, people – even television commentators – felt free to express their emotions.

On CNN, Democratic strategist Donna Brazile admitted she wept. Jackson’s daughter, Paris-Michael Katherine Jackson, who has rarely been seen in the media, delivered an emotional wallop when she said, "I just wanted to say ever since I was born, Daddy has been the best father you could ever imagine. And I just want to say I love him so much." She then collapsed crying into the arms of family members.

Brazile said she thought, "Here’s a child that’s going to grow up without a father."

"The genuine emotion of a little girl sent the media into a moment of self-reflection," Marisa Guthrie wrote for Broadcasting & Cable. She quoted Fox News’ Greta Van Susteren: ‘It does send a little bit of a message to some of us in the media that maybe we
ought to tone it down, or dial it back a little bit when we criticize people.’¬†

On TV One, anchor Arthur Fennell sought to give Jackson his due as a barrier-breaker. Mentioning Tiger Woods and Obama, who broke color lines, he said, "These things are not unusual now because people who watch television now grew up in the Michael Jackson era."

It was the humanitarian work and the music that the organizers and the Jackson fans wanted remembered. And Jeffrey Toobin, another CNN commentator, said they accomplished their goal. "The service did a wonderful job of covering his work over the years," he said. When the scandals are forgotten, "Michael Jackson’s music is going to live on."

"I’m not at all surprised by this (because this is what funerals and memorials are about)," Paul Farhi said in a Washington Post online chat, "but the last 20 very bad years of Jackson’s life have been utterly scrubbed from this spectacle. It’s as if all the tabloid-y stuff of his life – the surgeries, custody fights, trials, financial problems, etc. – never existed. Of course you don’t bring up bad stuff when memorializing the dead, but it almost seems like they’re celebrating the pre-1993 Michael Jackson only."

Not everyone was going along with the idea of not speaking ill of the dead. Fox News’ Bill O’Reilly said on his "O’Reilly Factor," "Black Americans are much more engaged in watching this stuff than white Americans, even though Michael Jackson has white children – and he chose to have white children – and the face deal, don’t even want to get into . . . So what’s that racial thing all about? . . . What does it say about the U.S. media, making him into a hero? If you entertain, that trumps everything else that you do?"

And on gawker.com, Richard Lawson pronounced the service "both horrifying and depressing" and said, "we feel like we’ve been underwater for hours."

On CNN’s "Reliable Sources" on Sunday, host Howard Kurtz said to CNN anchor Don Lemon, "You’ve also been doing endless live shots and devoted most of your Saturday and Sunday evening program to this.

"Don’t you feel deep down that this is overdoing it?"

"No, I don’t feel it’s overdoing it. And I don’t – and when I hear people say that, I have to be very honest with you, Howie, I think it’s elitist," Lemon,¬† a black journalist, replied. "I don’t remember – I’m sure there was some criticism when there was the coverage of Princess Diana’s death, but I don’t think that there was this sort of criticism that we’re having with Michael Jackson.

"Michael Jackson is an accidental civil rights leader, an accidental pioneer. He broke ground and barriers in so many different realms in artistry, in pictures, in movies, in music, you name it. So, no, I don’t think it’s overkill."

In the midst of his trip to Russia, Obama seemed to understand the media’s attention to the Jackson service.

In an interview there, ABC’s Jake Tapper said to the president, "We were just joking about how the media seems to be a little bit more focused on – on funeral in California right now. Is it – in all seriousness – is it annoying at all that you’re doing this very serious summit here and many of my colleagues are more consumed with celebrity death?

Obama replied, "You know, this is part of American culture. Michael Jackson – like Elvis, like Sinatra – when somebody whose captivated the imagination of the country for that long passes away, people pay attention. And I assume at some point people will start focusing again on things like nuclear weapons."

Ebony to Issue MJ Book; Monroe Consults on Jackson

Ebony magazine and its former editorial director, Bryan Monroe, are each taking advantage of their Michael Jackson connection.

Johnson Publishing Tuesday announced it was publishing a 100-page book "of never-before-seen photos, celebrity tributes and 5,000 words from the KING of POP! Quincy Jones, Berry Gordy, Ne-Yo, Rev. Al Sharpton, Smokey Robinson, Rev. Jesse Jackson, Suzanne de Passe and many others shared their inner-most thoughts on the late King of Pop in EBONY magazine’s MICHAEL: IN HIS OWN WORDS."

The book is scheduled for release the week of July 13 and will sell for $10.99.

Monroe, who resigned in April as editorial director at Ebony and Jet magazines, "will join CNN providing commentary and analysis, focusing on the coverage of the life and death of Michael Jackson," the Chicago-based Signature Media Group announced on Tuesday.

Monroe conducted the last major sit-down interview with Jackson in September 2007 for Ebony’s December 2007 issue and has been commenting on Jackson since his June 25 death.

“I feel honored to have had the chance to spend time with Michael and bring his story to the world,” said Monroe, immediate past president of the National Association of Black Journalists. “Now, to be able to contribute to CNN’s report is an incredible responsibility.”

Signature, headed by former CNN correspondent Marc Watts, also represents CNN’s Roland Martin and Watts’ wife, former Chicago anchor Diann Burns.

July 6, 2009

Boston’s Bay State Banner Stops Presses

Howard Manly, executive editor of the Bay State Banner, appears on NECN’s "News Day Live" for "Bay State Banner Moments," discussing news in Boston’s black community. (VIDEO)

Recession’s First Major Casualty Among Black Papers

The Bay State Banner, the only black newspaper in Boston, laid off its 12 employees on Monday and went on hiatus, becoming the first major black-newspaper casualty of the recession.

"We just stopped printing it," Melvin B. Miller, the editor and publisher, told Journal-isms. "Every time we print it, we lose money in this economy, and I’m not going to continue to do it."

Miller said the volume of advertising "isn’t sufficient to meet our needs." He said the paper had survived through economic downturns before, "but a recession of a year and a half is pretty long."

"I’m still in the process of finding investors" that can provide the money to continue, Miller said.

Black-owned weekly newspapers have been spared some of the layoffs and filings for bankruptcy protection that have plagued the mainstream press, whose corporate owners have carried large debt burdens. By and large, community newspapers such as the Banner instead are family-owned.

For example, five newspaper companies that filed for bankruptcy protection from December through March all had debt burdens in the hundreds of millions of dollars, according to Editor & Publisher: Tribune Co., Star Tribune Holdings Corp., Journal Register Co., Philadelphia Newspapers LLC and Sun-Times Media Group Inc. They publish such papers as the Chicago Tribune, Philadelphia Inquirer, Minneapolis Star Tribune, Chicago Sun-Times and New Haven (Conn.) Register.

Miller, a Boston native, founded the Banner in 1965 and said he considers it a successor to the Boston Guardian, published in the early 20th century by the legendary activist William Monroe Trotter, a co-founder of the Niagara Movement, precursor of the NAACP.

Miller has been an assistant U.S. attorney for the District of Massachusetts, a founding partner in the law firm of Fitche, Miller and Tourse, and was vice president and general counsel of WHDH-TV, Boston’s CBS affiliate, from 1982 to 1993.

He can take unpredictable positions. In an upcoming editorial that will be published online, he said he will scold for not studying sufficiently would-be black firefighters in New Haven, Conn., who failed to score high enough on a city test. White firefighters claimed discrimination and successfully took the case to the U.S. Supreme Court after the city scrapped the test.

Robin Washington, news director of the Duluth (Minn.) News Tribune, worked at the Banner from 1993 to 1996. The paper "keeps them honest," he said of the city’s dailies, the Boston Globe and Boston Herald, and he listed a number of former Banner employees, such as PBS’ Gwen Ifill and Columbia University journalism professor June Cross. "If we asked each of the esteemed alumni to write a piece for the Web site, we could keep it going for 20 years," Washington told Journal-isms.

The shutdown of the Banner is another media blow for the black community, following Radio One’s 2006 sale of WILD-FM, which was considered a strong African American voice.

"Boston is not a very big place," Miller said. "It’s only 21st in size and there’s business inside the community, but it’s not black-owned business." Much of the weekly’s advertising came from outside Boston, he said.

The Banner had a free circulation of 34,000, he said, which was far too low. "We have to make people understand. I don’t think we appreciate the importance of the media . . . in our fight for equality. Wait until somebody gets in trouble, the first place they call is the Banner," he said. Asked whether the black community could have done more to help the publication, he replied, "They could have been willing to buy the paper." Was the Banner producing what readers wanted? He told of how he used to buy a black paper that had little else to recommend it. When asked why he did so, Miller said he would reply, "It’s never going to get better if we don’t buy it."

Miller soon turns 75, and "reading the death notices started making me nervous," he said. "I’m not sure I can run the Banner from the grave. And then the recession hit. I’m not going to degrade the quality. That’s not going to be my epitaph."

Bobbi Bowman of ASNE Wins Ida B. Wells Award

Bobbi Bowman, diversity director of the American Society of News Editors, has been named the 2009 recipient of the Ida B. Wells Award, presented to a media executive who has demonstrated a commitment to diversifying newsrooms and improving the coverage of people and communities of color.

The National Association of Black Journalists and the National Conference of Editorial Writers made the announcement on Monday.

"During her decade-long stint at ASNE, Ms. Bowman, an expert in census and demographic trends, has organized, analyzed and distributed the organization’s annual employment survey, an industry headcount that charts how well (or poorly) ASNE’s member publications are doing on the diversity front," a statement said.

"Though the results of the survey are often less than encouraging, Ms. Bowman has used those findings to spur the organization and its members to stay the course on diversity. In addition, she has organized ASNE’s regional job fairs in an effort to promote greater diversity.

"Her involvement with students and other young journalists, as well as her leadership in developing workshops and mentoring programs, have made her an invaluable resource to countless budding journalists and the industry as a whole.

"The Wells jury felt quite strongly that Ms. Bowman’s record of distinguished service to a cause that too often gets short shrift during the current media maelstrom deserves this long-overdue recognition."

Bowman is to receive the award at the NABJ’s convention in Tampa, Fla., Aug. 5-9. She stepped down on June 30 from the full-time diversity director’s position, but retains the title as a consultant to the organization. She also writes for the Maynard Institute for Journalism Education.

Journalists Accompany Ousted Honduran President

"As the ousted Honduran president, Manuel Zelaya, headed by plane toward Honduras Sunday evening, huge crowds of supporters thronged the airport here awaiting his return, soldiers and riot police fired tear gas to try to disperse them, and the interim government vowed to prevent him from landing," Marc Lacey and Ginger Thompson reported Sunday for the New York Times, in a story datelined Tegucigalpa, the Honduran capital.

"Adding to the drama, Mr. Zelaya was giving interviews from the air as he approached Central America. ‘No one can obligate me to turn around,’ he told Telesur, a Venezuelan network that had reporters on the plane. ‘The constitution prohibits expelling Hondurans from the country. I am returning with all of my constitutional guarantees.’‚Äù

The episode shone a spotlight on the leftist Venezuelan network.

"Scenes from the coup in Honduras have been broadcast around the world, an editor wrote on Friday, promoting a story by Dan Grech for American Public Radio’s "Marketplace." "But increasingly the story out of the Central American nation is censorship. The military government has detained reporters, stormed TV stations and taken broadcasts off the air. Still, one news outlet has distinguished itself with its coverage: Telesur, a network financed by Venezuela’s Hugo Chavez and his allies."

Marcelo Ballve, an editor at the New America Media news service in California, said of Telesur, "its newscasts can still be seen across Latin America. And Telesur videos have become the buzz on social media sites like Twitter and You Tube. Before Telesur, you had CNN in Spanish, BBC in Spanish, but you didn’t have a home-grown regional cable news channel."

As it turned out, Zelaya did not land in Honduras. "After several failed attempts to touch down at Tegucigalpa airport, where military vehicles were placed on the runway, the plane eventually flew to Nicaragua, where Mr Zelaya met President Daniel Ortega," as the BBC reported.

"The deposed Honduran leader went on to El Salvador where he was due to meet the presidents of Argentina, Ecuador and Paraguay and the head of the Organization of American States (OAS)."

Yelena Khanga became one of the few black faces regularly seen on Russian television.

For Russian Blacks, Obama Visit Stirs Special Interest

"The visit to Russia by Barack Obama, the first black man to be elected president of the United States, is significant for many Russians.

"But for Russians of African descent, in particular, the new U.S. leader is a potent symbol of triumph over the same challenges they themselves face in a country where dark-skinned people remain rare and often unwelcome," Kevin O’Flynn reported Monday from Moscow for Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty.

"Yelena Khanga is one of Russia’s best-known black citizens. The popular host of a top-rated 1990s chat show about sex ‚Äî ‘Pro Eto,’ (About That) ‚Äî she became one of the few black faces regularly seen on Russian television.

"Khanga’s grandparents came to the Soviet Union in the 1920s to escape the racism they had endured in the United States as a mixed-race couple.

"Today, Khanga says Obama’s election to the American presidency, and his current visit to Moscow, have special meaning for her.

"”He did what my grandmother and grandfather dreamed about in their day,’ Khanga says. ‘They couldn’t even have dreamed that, one day, America would have a black president. The only dreams that they had ‚Äî my grandmother was white, and my grandfather was black ‚Äî was that Americans would someday allow mixed couples to live in peace, have children, and let the children have decent lives. That is what they dreamed about.’"

Khanga visited the U.S. in 1987 as a staff writer for the Moscow News and spent three months as a reporter for the Christian Science Monitor. She returned in 1991 as a Warren Weaver Fellow at the Rockefeller Foundation in Manhattan, and was a guest of the National Association of Black Journalists at its annual convention.

"Latino Equivalent of the Pulitzer Prize" Announced

"Two $10,000 awards will be presented by the Philadelphia-based AL DIA Foundation to recognize the best Print and Digital Journalism in America about Latino issues," the group announced Jan. 23 at the National Association of Hispanic Journalists convedntion in San Juan, Puerto Rico.

"The ‘F?©lix Varela Awards’ for excellence in journalism on Latino issues have gone mainstream. In addition to the prestigious national prize for Spanish-language print journalism, this year‚Äôs competition includes a new category for Spanish and English-language digital journalists writing news stories or blogs about Latino issues for any news website."

The award program is hosted by the AL DIA Foundation at Temple University’s Department of Journalism.

‚Äú’These awards are the Latino equivalent of the Pulitzer Prize,’ said Zita Arocha, professor of multi-media Journalism at the University of Texas at El Paso and director of the multimedia, bilingual website for College journalists, borderzine.com. ‘They honor and recognize the value of solid journalism about Latino issues that are radically transforming the landscape of our country.’‚Äù

"Hern?°n Guaracao, publisher and founder of Al Dia News in Philadelphia, and Chairman of the AL DIA Foundation, said: ‘Journalism in America is not in crisis; it is in a vital transition. The many untold stories of America‚Äôs largest ethnic group must be part of this new era of great journalism in the 21st Century in the US.’‚Äù

Activist Ex-Broadcaster to Become Memphis Mayor

Memphis City Council chairman Myron Lowery, a 1971 graduate of Columbia School of Journalism’s summer program for minority journalists, a predecessor of the Maynard Institute of Journalism Education, is in line to become interim mayor, as Willie Herenton steps down," Marc Perrusquia reported Sunday for the Memphis Commercial Appeal.

Political future aside, Lowery has already secured his place in journalism history. After the Columbia program, Lowery returned to Memphis as WMC’s first full-time African-American reporter.

"Two years later he became weekend anchor and in 1976 began producing ‘Minority Report,’ an urban issues program on which he interviewed celebrities such as author Alex Haley, entertainers Eartha Kitt, Prince, Rick James and the Jackson 5, as well as numbers of local newsmakers," the Commercial Appeal wrote.

"Despite his success, Lowery sued the station in 1981 alleging he was paid less than white employees and that he was bypassed for promotions.

"In 1987, U.S. District Judge Odell Horton called WMC’s actions ‘reprehensible,’ and awarded Lowery $274,120. WMC planned to appeal but then settled to terms that included improved affirmative action programs at Channel 5 and 13 other radio and TV stations owned by then-parent company Scripps Howard Broadcasting.

"The six-year case included a public trial in which colleagues testified that Lowery didn’t measure up and tended to stray from news department rules. Still, Lowery has no regrets.

"’That settlement was beneficial to this entire community,’ Lowery said, holding a law book that cites the case as a legal precedent. ‘They’re reading about me in law schools all over the country. It’s a classic case about how not to discriminate in broadcast journalism.’

"After WMC, Lowery went into private business and worked for a time as press secretary for then-Congressman Harold Ford Sr. before landing at FedEx Corp., where he rose to manager of corporate relations and eventually filed another discrimination suit."

Michelle Obama, center, with President Obama Monday at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier outside the Kremlin. (Credit: Chuck Kennedy/White House)

NABJ Leader Blasts Piece on Black Women, First Lady

Barbara Ciara, president of the National Association of Black Journalists, has added her voice to those critical of a Washington Post piece last week by Howard Kurtz on black female reporters covering first lady Michelle Obama.

“In his column, Howard Kurtz embellishes comments from black journalists and misguidedly argues that the First Lady is receiving special treatment," she said. "He intentionally blurs the line between what the journalists expressed as personal opinions, and what they write in stories as professionals.

“Kurtz gives example after example of good journalism — reporters who capture the mood and opinion of the public — and insinuates they are treating Michelle Obama with kid gloves.”

“The fact is that the First Lady has not made a blatant misstep in her short time in the White House that would call for critical coverage. But, Kurtz cannot allow that simple fact to pass, he has to invent a story where one does not exist and it is shameful that the Washington Post would allow this to pass.

“Kurtz’s column is woefully lacking in good, hard evidence of subjective journalism and his sample set is skewed to beef up his weak argument.”

“Nobody said that it was subjective for white journalists to cover George W. Bush or for women to cover Hillary Clinton as a candidate. It is unfair to raise a false issue about the coverage of Michelle Obama. If this is a content issue, where are the specific examples to support his claim?”

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