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Outing Rappers’ Given Names

richard

Should We Call Ghostface Killah “Mr. Killah?”

“The New York Times rarely refers to rock stars such as Alice Cooper, Moby, and Elton John by their birth names,” Chris Faraone writes in the May/June issue of Columbia Journalism Review.

But “At the Times, the penalty for being a rapper is twofold: you are routinely called out on your birth name (no matter how nerdy and ironic it might be), and you rarely are addressed as ‘Mr.’ This nominal double standard surfaces from time to time in hip-hop articles throughout the mainstream press, but due to the Times’s extensive urban-music coverage and its eternal struggle with honorific conformity, rap handles seem to inspire more copy dilemmas there.

“Despite having sold several million discs and served as president of Def Jam Recordings under his alias, Jay-Z still gets pegged as Shawn Carter. . . . No hip-hop artist is immune — Wu-Tang Clan ringleader RZA (Robert Diggs), Queens heavyweight 50 Cent (Curtis Jackson), and urban mogul Diddy (Sean Combs) are all routinely birth-named in the mainstream press.

 

Sam Sifton

“Sam Sifton, the Times’s culture editor, says that while such decisions are handled on a case-by-case basis, rap artists often get special treatment. ‘There’s a big difference between [Houston rapper] Bun B and Tony Bennett,’ Sifton says, referring to Bernard Freeman and Anthony Dominick Benedetto, respectively. ‘Tony Bennett took a stage name, which I think is a little different from taking an alias. Someone like Jay-Z can be Mr. Carter, certainly, or he can just be Jay-Z, but he’s never going to be Mr. Z.'”

After examining the quandaries posed by Ghostface Killah, Alicia Keys, André 3000, Big Boi and Erykah Badu, Faraone writes:

“. . . Even more confusing are articles that seem to follow no logic whatsoever: a December 3, 2006, Times profile on celebrity Sirius Radio hosts refers to rap personality Ludacris as Christopher Bridges (and as ‘Mr. Bridges’ in subsequent references), but allows Eminem (Marshall Mathers), Snoop Dogg (Calvin Broadus), and Bob Dylan (Robert Zimmerman) to use their stage names. On second reference, though, Bob Dylan is ‘Mr. Dylan,’ while Eminem remains Eminem; Snoop is only mentioned once, but judging by former Times treatments he would have been called ‘Snoop’ or ‘Snoop Dogg’ had his name come up again.

“‘If you look in our archives, which we famously refer to as our compendium of past errors, you’ll see plenty of examples of us looking ridiculous,’ Sifton says. ‘One of the difficulties that the Times has in addressing contemporary culture, and certainly hip-hop culture, is that we risk looking stupid all the time.'”

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Next Up for Cuts: Palm Beach, Hartford, Detroit

Newspapers in Detroit, Palm Beach, Fla., and Hartford, Conn., are the next ones facing staff cutbacks.

In addition, “an Indian company will take over copy editing duties for some stories published in The Orange County Register and will handle page layout for a community newspaper at the company that owns the Pulitzer Prize-winning daily, the newspaper confirmed Tuesday,” the Associated Press reported, discussing the California daily.

“Orange County Register Communications Inc. will begin a one-month trial with Mindworks Global Media at the end of June, said John Fabris, a deputy editor at the Register.”

Bill Shea reported Monday in Crain’s Detroit Business: “In an effort to cut costs, the partnership that oversees the joint business and advertising operations of the Detroit Free Press and The Detroit News is seeking 150 volunteers to accept buyouts by July 18. The 150 positions represent about 7 percent of the total staff of the two publications and the partnership.

“The Detroit Media Partnership also will halt publication of the 11 Free Press weekly community sections and Twist, the Free Press Sunday supplement aimed at women, by early August, said Susie Ellwood, the partnership’s executive vice president and general manager.

“‘The environment in which newspapers operate continues to worsen rapidly, and the Detroit Media Partnership faces unique challenges because of the state’s business and economic climate. We must take action to reduce our expenses,’ The Detroit News Editor and Publisher Jonathan Wolman wrote in an e-mail to staff on Monday.

“Layoffs are a possibility.”

In Hartford, the Courant said Wednesday “it will cut its newsroom staff and the number of pages of news by 25 percent as the newspaper struggles with an industrywide decline in advertising, the paper reported on its Web site.

“Nearly 60 jobs will be eliminated, most by July 31, as The Courant reduces its newsroom staff from 232 to about 175.

“The cuts are part of a decision by The Courant’s parent company, Chicago-based Tribune Co., to ‘right-size’ the nine newspapers in its publishing division. Tribune said its newspapers must deliver to readers and advertisers more of what they want, including, in the news pages, more maps, charts and lists.

“The number of pages devoted to news in The Courant will fall to 206 a week, from 273. . . . Newsroom employees will be offered voluntary buyouts to achieve the staff reduction, but layoffs are also possible. Four of the jobs are now vacant.”

Palm Beach Newspapers Inc., publisher of the Palm Beach (Fla.) Post, said Wednesday it will cut 300 workers from its payroll of 1,350.

Palm Beach Newspapers Inc., which owns the Post, the Palm Beach Daily News, the Florida Pennysaver and La Palma, hopes to make the cuts through voluntary buyouts offered to all employees who have worked for the company for more than five years, Palm Beach Post Publisher Doug Franklin said in the Post.

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No Agreement on Accepting Imus’ Explanation

Radio host Don Imus’ explanation of his comments about defensive back Adam Jones, formerly known as “Pacman,” met with a mixed reaction, with some pairing the remarks with the Nazi analogy made by ESPN’s Jemele Hill, for which she was suspended last week. Others speculated it was a publicity stunt by Imus. Some just didn’t buy Imus’ plea that he was simply being sarcastic and sympathetic to Jones.

On Monday on his syndicated radio show, which originates at WABC in New York, Imus was listening to a report from sports anchor Warner Wolf that Jones had dropped his “Pacman” nickname.

 

Don Imus

Wolf said of Jones, “He’s also been arrested six times since being drafted by Tennessee in 2005.”

Imus replied: “What color is he?”

Wolf said: “He’s African American.”

Imus replied: “Well, there you go. Now we know.”

On Tuesday, Imus explained on the air, “My point was there’s no reason to arrest this kid six times.” He said he was trying to make the point that blacks were arrested unfairly.

The Rev. Al Sharpton, who was in the forefront of efforts to have Imus fired last year after he called the Rutgers women’s basketball team “nappy-headed hos,” said, “If now Imus is saying he’s joined the ranks of those that are raising the question of racial disparity in the criminal justice system, then he’s taking a correct position. I don’t have any record of him saying that in the past,” according to CNN.

“Clearly, he did not [immediately] clarify what he meant. He left it out there,” Sharpton said.

Fran Wood, writing for the Newark Star-Ledger, said, “The way he phrased the punch line probably seemed more ambiguous to those unfamiliar with his style, which is to bring race into conversations rather than avoid it or tuck it away.”

Clarence Page, the Chicago Tribune columnist who once had Imus take an on-air pledge that he would stop insulting ethnic groups, wrote, “If he was looking for attention — and what entertainer isn’t? — he could hardly have dreamed up a more slippery way to do it. Even the remarks that he said he intended to say exposed some of our society’s deepest racial wounds.

“For example, just as it is offensive to imply that blacks are more criminal than whites, it is also offensive to imply that blacks are arrested ‘for no reason,’ if you don’t back up the assertion.”

A reader named Tracey insisted on thedailyvoice.com, “It is African American male athletes that feel the need to flaunt their’ so-called’ status and wealth in the worst way possible. AND THEN GET CAUGHT DOING SOMETHING STUPID!”

 

To Patrick Walters, a sports columnist who blogs for the Lansing (Mich.) State Journal, freedom of speech is at issue. Walters recalled the line in Hill’s column on the NBA finals, “Rooting for the Celtics is like saying Hitler was a victim,” for which she was suspended and those who edited the column dealt with in an undisclosed way.

“If we place a freedom of speech into any container, we marginalize our constitutional rights more forthrightly than Hill or Imus can manage to marginalize themselves and their own credibility within the scope of two sentences,” he wrote.

Bryan Burwell, sports columnist at the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, could not believe his good fortune.

“We have shock jock Don Imus sputtering out some cockamamie double talk about Adam Jones and rapper Shaquille O’Neal free-styling some vengeful lyrics about Kobe Bryant,” he wrote. “We have golfer Rocco Mediate tossing a friendly lifeline to NBC announcer Johnny Miller for some really dumb things Miller said. And lest we forget, we also had American soccer goalie Hope Solo getting a little deferred vindication for her year-old tirade about a goalkeeping switch in last year’s World Cup. And all of this was on the table before my morning coffee.”

Of Imus, he said, “It was beyond laughable to hear his alibi for his latest mistake. . . . what Imus did and said was sadly typical of the once significant, but now irrelevant shock jock: hurtful, insensitive and woefully out of touch.”

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Joyner Names 7 of 8 Finalists to Replace Smiley

Tavis Smiley named for radio listeners seven of the eight finalists to replace him as commentator on the syndicated “Tom Joyner Morning Show.” The eighth is to be chosen by fans of the program.

The seven, as enumerated by Smiley Tuesday on Joyner’s show, are: blogger Faye Anderson; Eddie Glaude, a Princeton University professor; Van Jones, founder of Green For All, “a national organization dedicated to building an inclusive green economy strong enough to lift people out of poverty”; Stephanie Robinson, president and CEO of the Jamestown Project, a national think tank that focuses on democracy; Dr. Reiland Rabaka of the University of Colorado at Boulder; Jeff Johnson of Black Entertainment Television; and Anthony Samad, columnist and community activist.

They may be “people you might not know, but you didn’t know Travis Smiley 12 years ago,” he said, emphasizing the misrendering of his name.

The finalists are to audition on-air on Tuesdays and Thursdays in July. They will be narrowed to four on Aug. 8, then to two. One will be selected around Labor Day, Smiley said.

Smiley announced in April he would leave the show in June, saying he was working on too many projects. Joyner said he believed the real reason was that “he can’t take the hate” coming Smiley’s way from listeners who objected to the hard time he was giving Sen. Barack Obama.

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Dori J. Maynard to Receive AAJA Leadership Award

 

 

Dori J. Maynard, president and CEO of the Maynard Institute for Journalism Education, has been chosen by the Asian American Journalists Association for its Leadership in Diversity Award, AAJA announced on Wednesday.

The late Dith Pran, photographer for the New York Times, is to receive its Lifetime Achievement Award, and Simon Li, former assistant managing editor of the Los Angeles Times, its Special Recognition Award.

“Dori Maynard has helped open doors for hundreds of minorities as newsroom leaders across the nation,” AAJA said. “As president and chief executive officer of The Robert C. Maynard Institute for Journalism Education, she heads an organization her father and other journalists started, that teaches journalists to recognize the ‘fault lines’ of race, class, gender, generation and geography in newsgathering and coverage. The institute also sponsors management programs such as the Media Academy, which has helped create a multicultural corps of managers and executives.”

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Obama Opposes Reimposing Fairness Doctrine

“There may be some Democrats talking about reimposing the fairness doctrine, but one very important one does not: presumptive presidential nominee Barack Obama,” John Eggerton wrote Wednesday for Broadcasting & Cable.

“‘Senator Obama does not support re-imposing the Fairness Doctrine on broadcasters,’ said press secretary Michael Ortiz in an e-mail to B&C late Wednesday.

“He considers this debate to be a distraction from the conversation we should be having about opening up the airwaves and modern communications to as many diverse viewpoints as possible,” said Ortiz. “That is why Sen. Obama supports media-ownership caps, network neutrality, public broadcasting, as well as increasing minority ownership of broadcasting and print outlets.”

“. . . The fairness doctrine required broadcasters to air both sides of controversial issues. The FCC found the doctrine unconstitutional back in 1987, and President Reagan vetoed an attempt by congressional Democrats to reinstate it.”

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Regret for Calling Obama “More White Than Black”

 

Jonathan Weisman

Washington Post reporter Jonathan Weisman found himself making headlines in the online Huffington Post on Monday: “Jonathan Weisman, Washington Post Reporter: Obama ‘Much More White Than Black,'” it “said.

“I have received less reaction than I would have thought, but to each and every critic — civil or not — I have simply apologized for a stupid comment,” Weisman told Journal-isms on Wednesday.

Weisman, who covers Congress, was participating in an online chat when an Alexandria, Va., reader wrote, “Obama’s new ad (which plays a lot in Alexandria) shows pictures of his mother and grandparents, playing up his white family. Until now he’s been ‘African American’; now suddenly he’s a white Midwesterner? During the primary Hillary was criticized for changing her image too many times. Won’t Obama be criticized for doing the same thing?”

Weisman replied, “I haven’t heard that criticism, but it is striking. Not a single picture of his father. Now, that really is consistent with his upbringing. He really did not become immersed in black American culture until he left college and went to Chicago. The great irony is that he is much more white than black, beyond skin color.”

Weisman explained to Journal-isms on Wednesday, “I was trying to say that Obama spent his entire childhood either at an elite Hawaii prep school or in Indonesia, well outside the mainstream of African American culture. From a purely chronological and cultural perspective, he was more white than black in his upbringing.

“When I went back to read what I had written, I did not have enough caveats, and I neglected to put it in past tense, confining my judgment to his childhood. But upon reflection, I realize I should never have weighed in on the balance of his ethnicity, even if I had written it more sensitively. It wasn’t my place as a journalist.”

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“G-Men and Journalists” Has a Few Omissions

The Newseum’s first major changing exhibition at its new downtown Washington location, “G-Men and Journalists: Top News Stories of the FBI’s First Century,” opened on Friday, and while a presentation about COINTELPRO, in which the FBI spied on prominent figures, and a “Mississippi Burning” section spoke directly about people of color, there were some omissions.

The Hispanic Link Weekly Report noted in its June 23 issue, “It chose to feature among models of this nation’s ten most notorious bad guys the likes of Machine Gun Kelly, John Dillinger, Bruno Hauptmann and Timothy [McVeigh]. Even Patty Hearst. Again, we were bypassed. No recognition of the machete murderer of 25 campesinos Juan Corona, of Hollywood night stalker Richard Ramírez, or of our own Robin Hood, Joaquín Murrieta.

“On second thought, thank you, Newseum people.”

More seriously, the exhibit does not mention the case of Earl Caldwell, who among other distinctions, is one of the founders of the Maynard Institute.

The Newseum exhibit does not claim to be comprehensive. But as PBS “Frontline” recalled, “Caldwell was a reporter with The New York Times in the late 1960s when he was posted in San Francisco to report on the Black Panthers. When the FBI asked him to keep them informed about the Panthers’ plans, he refused and was prosecuted. His case eventually went all the way to the Supreme Court, which ruled that reporters did not have the right to withhold information about their sources.”

The Caldwell case led to the creation of the Reporters Committee to Protect Journalists.

Additionally, there were efforts to intimidate the black press during World War II that might have been included. “An intense battle raged within the highest levels of [Franklin] Roosevelt‘s government over censorship of the black press,” according to Patrick S. Washburn‘s book, “A Question of Sedition.” “On the side of suppressing, or at least silencing, the black press was the powerful team of FDR and J. Edgar Hoover,” the FBI director.

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Short Takes

 

 
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