Media Images Still a Problem

Survey of Blacks Reports Continuing Dissatisfaction

“Blacks are not satisfied with how they are portrayed by the media. Only 29 percent agree that the mainstream media portray Blacks in a positive light — compared to 50 percent who do not relate to the way Blacks are portrayed on most Black TV shows. Two-thirds believe there should be more television shows that focus on Blacks. Forty percent think Black TV is reinforcing a negative stereotype of Blacks.”

So concluded a survey of 3,400 African Americans between 13 and 74, taken by the Yankelovich consumer market research firm for Radio One Inc., the largest radio broadcasting company that primarily targets African American and urban listeners.

“Other media highlights include: 84 percent of households have cable, 81 percent of those surveyed watch Black TV channels weekly, 87 percent listen to radio in a typical week (only 16 percent listen to Satellite radio), 64 percent watch news or news magazines and 50 percent watch Court shows (compared to 41 percent for sports and 46 percent for entertainment).”

The study was not solely about attitudes toward “the media.” A news release highlighted the finding that 70 percent of African Americans already have a plan for their future, that 54 percent were optimistic about that future and 60 percent believe “things are getting better for me.”

“The study provides the most detailed snap shot of African American life in the United States today, and finds strong group identity across age and income brackets. It also discloses a comprehensive and nuanced look at how African Americans feel about many aspects of life in America, and cautions against simplistic reading of Black America as a monolithic group. In fact, it shows that Blacks are divided evenly on how they liked to be described, with 42 percent (who are more likely to be affluent) preferring to be called ‘Black’ and 44 percent preferring ‘African American.'”

Though there were wide variations across class, gender and age lines, overall, the study found that:

• “50 percent of blacks do not relate to the way blacks are portrayed on most black TV shows.
• “Only 34 percent believe Blacks are portrayed in the same way by Black media as they are by mainstream media.
• “53 percent do not believe that mainstream media has stopped reinforcing Black stereotypes.
• “40 percent believe Black radio and television reinforce negative stereotypes of Blacks.
• “46 percent believe Hip Hop has hurt the image of Blacks.
• “Blacks are more than twice as likely to trust Black media as they are to trust mainstream media.”

The study also found, “The digital divide has faded. 68 percent of those surveyed are online (compared to 71 percent of all Americans), and two-thirds of them shop online. Among Black teens, over 90 percent are online. Blacks who live in the south are least likely to be online (63 percent).”

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News Veteran Wycliff Finds “I’m Not Cut Out for PR”

Don Wycliff left the newspaper business in 2006 after being public editor of the Chicago Tribune for six years and its editorial page editor for nine years before that. He became associate vice president for news and information at his alma mater, the University of Notre Dame. But he could take that only so long, he told Journal-isms. Effective last week, he’s left that job behind.

“After two and a half years, I grew tired of trying to adjust to what essentially was a public relations job. I’m not cut out for PR. I am a journalist at heart and by vocation,” Wycliff said.

Before becoming one of first African Americans to lead a mainstream editorial page, at the Tribune, Wycliff, 61, had been a member of the editorial board at the New York Times for more than five years and served as an editor in the Times’ Week in Review section. He worked as a reporter and editor at several other newspapers, including the Chicago Daily News, the Chicago Sun-Times, the Houston Post and the Dallas Times Herald.

He was an active member of the American Society of Newspaper Editors and when he left the business, was a member of its board of directors and chairman of its Ethics and Values Committee.

“I did teach one journalism course: media criticism. That was the most enjoyable part of my work, but it was essentially a sidelight. The administrative part — news and information — was the principal part, and the least enjoyable,” Wycliff said.

“I’m hoping to find a full-time teaching position somewhere. The program here is too small — we offer only a minor — to support a fulltime faculty member in addition to the program director, who has an endowed chair. And there is no disposition to move toward a major.”

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Mixed Decision for Puerto Rico Journalists Suing FBI

A federal appeals court decision in a case involving reporters in Puerto Rico who are suing the FBI “highlights the tendency of courts to distinguish between newsgathering in public and private places. At the same time, the decision makes clear that even when newsgathering takes place where the First Amendment provides fewer protections, the law does not allow government agents to use excessive force on journalists,” according to an analysis by Gannett Co. lawyer Barbara W. Wall Friday in Gannett’s NewsWatch newsletter.

The court sent the case, in which the journalists complained that they were pepper-sprayed by FBI agents as they were covering a raid, back to trial court. The protesting journalists came to Washington in 2006 and won a airing of their case before Rep. John Conyers, D-Mich., and drew the attention of the National Association of Hispanic Journalists, the Committee to Protect Journalists and the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press.

As Wall explained the case: “In February 2006, the FBI executed a search warrant on the home of Liliana Laboy-Rodriguez, an activist associated with the Puerto Rico independence movement. A group of reporters came to cover the story as it unfolded.

“Laboy-Rodriguez lived in a private gated apartment complex. The FBI used the existing gate and fence to keep members of the media away from the residence as they searched it. In addition, armed FBI agents who landed in a helicopter allegedly pushed cameras and microphones away from them and pointed a gun in the direction of the media.

“While FBI agents were loading boxes of seized material into their cars, Laboy-Rodriguez’s daughter waved to the gathered journalists, who entered the gated area and tried to ask the agents questions.

“In response, the agents ordered the reporters to leave. While they were trying to do so through a narrow gate, FBI agents allegedly assaulted the journalists with pepper spray and metal batons. One reporter claimed that after he was lying on the ground blinded by pepper spray, an agent grabbed and kicked him.

“A group of journalists sued several FBI agents, alleging that their constitutional rights had been violated. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit ruled that claims based on the First Amendment had to be dismissed, but not those claims alleging that the agents used excessive force.

“The journalists did not have a First Amendment right to cover the raid on private property, and thus those rights could not have been violated, the court said. The journalists conceded that the apartment complex and the area where the helicopter landed were private property and did not prove they had a right to be there. The court noted: ‘The First Amendment does not grant the press a special right of access to property beyond the public domain.’

“On the other hand, the court held that the excessive force claims could not be dismissed this early in the case.”

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GM Shifts Ads Away From Two BET Shows

A watchdog group that has complained about the images proffered on Black Entertainment Television is claiming a partial victory in persuading at least one sponsor to pull its ads from two of BET’s shows.

CNN confirmed last week that General Motors shifted its ads from shows on BET after the Parents Television Council said in April it found a deluge of what it characterized as “offensive/adult content” in the three music-video shows it monitored on BET and MTV in December and March.

“What BET and MTV are offering to children on these three programs is full of offensive and vulgar content, the likes of which cannot yet be found on broadcast television,” PTC president Tim Winter said then in a statement.

Paul Porter, who until 2000 was BET’s program director and now heads the group Industry Ears, which has joined in picketing the home of BET’s CEO Debra Lee, told Journal-isms the protest has moved into holding BET’s advertisers accountable. He said Proctor & Gamble and Pepsi also pulled their ads from “Rap City” and “106 & Park” after the Parents Television Council report, although CNN reporter Kareen Wynter said Pepsi denied it had pulled out and Proctor & Gamble would not comment. GM said it had moved its ads to other BET shows, she reported.

Lee maintained that BET has cut down drastically on music videos and works with artists and record companies to maintain standards.

• Stanley Crouch, New York Daily News: Industry Ears, Parents Television Council making it hard for media execs

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Phillip Dixon Wins Award for Aiding Diversity

Phillip Dixon

Phillip Dixon, who joined Howard University as chairman of its Journalism Department in 2002 after holding editing jobs at the Philadelphia Inquirer, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times and the old Rochester (N.Y.) Times-Union, has been voted the National Conference of Editorial Writers award for the educator who has done the most to promote diversity in journalism.

NCEW members were notified on Monday that Dixon is the 2008 recipient of the Barry Bingham Fellowship, to be presented at the group’s convention in Little Rock, Ark., Sept. 17-20. The award comes with an honorarium of $1,000, to be used to “further work in progress or begin a new project.”

In nominating Dixon, his Howard colleagues Yanick Rice Lamb and Peggy A. Lewis said, “Mr. Dixon has given legions of students a solid foundation to not only enter journalism, but also to excel in the field. He pushes them outside their comfort zones and encourages them to think outside the box. He is also preparing students to enter areas in which journalists of color are under-represented, such as business reporting. He has entered into partnerships to establish two business reporting programs with Reuters and Bloomberg. As a result, our students have emerged with stronger clips, scholarships, internships and full-time employment as business reporters.”

Dixon went to Howard after quitting the Philadelphia Inquirer, where he was the first African American managing editor, after six months on the job. Then owned by Knight Ridder, the paper had begun a series of budget cuts.

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Tavis Smiley Softens on Barack Obama

“Political commentator and national talk show host Tavis Smiley seemingly has softened his position on Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama,” Bonnie V. Winston wrote in the Richmond (Va.) Free Press.

“In an exclusive interview . . . Smiley lauded the Illinois senator for his historic achievement in becoming the first African-American to run for president under a major party banner.

“He also denied that his departure from the hugely popular ‘Tom Joyner Morning Show’ was linked to his stance on Sen. Obama.

“‘I don’t allow people to run me away from anywhere,’ he said in a phone interview from his Los Angeles home. ‘I start and leave on my terms.’

“While Smiley said that Obama — and all elected officials — must be held accountable to the people who put them in office, he noted that Sen. Obama’s history-making nomination ‘releases progressive possibilities and portends for us — people of color and for women — the opportunity to do things that we heretofore have not had a chance to do.’

“But, he cautioned, the general election campaign against Republican John McCain will be a bruiser.

“‘We have to brace ourselves for the ugliest, nastiest, racist, most expensive campaign ever in this country,” he said. “I don’t think people have really grasped yet how ugly, nasty, racist and divisive this race is going to become.’ “

• Cary Clack, San Antonio Express-News: Here’s some straight talk for you, Mr. Nader
• Earl Ofari Hutchinson, syndicated: Did Obama Help Torpedo Immigration Reform?
• Earl Ofari Hutchinson, syndicated: Nader Deals from the Bottom of the Race Card Deck
• Derrick Z. Jackson, Boston Globe: Holding Muslims at arm’s length
• Dwight Lewis, Nashville Tennessean: Before, after primaries, Obama’s confidence is same

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Murder Trial Is Personal for Atlanta TV Reporter

“For 11Alive Kids and Schools reporter Donna Lowry, the trial of Chiman Rai has been especially difficult to watch and experience,” Chris Sweigart reported Friday for Atlanta’s WXIA-TV.

Sparkle Rai

“Eight years ago, Lowry’s stepdaughter, 22-year-old Sparkle Reid Rai, was mysteriously murdered with her six-month-old baby at her side.

“The baby was unhurt, and now remains in the care of Lowry and her husband.

“Thursday, Chiman Rai, Sparkle’s father-in-law, was convicted of arranging Sparkle’s murder by hiring two men to kill her for $10,000.

“The shock is still there for all of Sparkle’s surviving family but the mystery, may be over. ‘For almost six years we didn’t know who did it. We thought this would be an unsolved murder. The rest of our lives we’d be wondering what happened to her,’ Lowry said Thursday. ‘Police tried different avenues, clues. Then, out of the blue, we got word that they were indicting Sparkle’s father-in-law and two men who had been hired to kill Sparkle.'”

A Fulton County jury sentenced Rai to life in prison Friday, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported.

• Indian man on trial for paying hitman to kill his black daughter-in-law (South Asian Journalists Association)

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Short Takes

• “Reporters Without Borders today condemned the arrest of seven Zimbabwean and foreign journalists during the run-off presidential election that was a foregone conclusion on 27 June. Three of them are still being held,” the press freedom group said on Monday. “In its negotiations with Robert Mugabe, the African Union should remind the outgoing head of state that journalism is not a crime,” the group said Monday.
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Rickey Hampton

• After 18 years with Booth Newspapers in Michigan as a sportswriter, sports columnist and opinion page columnist, Rickey Hampton has taken a buyout. Sunday was his last day, Hampton, 51, told Journal-isms. “I am forming a nonprofit organization called The Hampton Group. In short, our mission is to empower the minds of young America. Our first initiative is called Project26USA. We will be addressing the epidemic dropout rates in America’s high schools. It’s been an issue regarding our young people that I have written about for years. Now I have an opportunity to act on it. I am calling it Project26USA because every 26 seconds a youngster decides to quit high school. In addition, I plan to do some freelance work as well. If any readers are interested more in The Hampton Group and our initiative, they can reach us at: Project26USA (at) yahoo.com,” he said.
• Two more columns have appeared about a recent trip by black journalists to Cuba. In Newsday on Monday, Les Payne wrote‘ of a student who took advantage of Fidel Castro’s offer of free medical training to low-income Americans who would return home and serve their medically underserved communities. In the Florida Times-Union Tonyaa Weathersbee wrote Saturday about a foreign language professor who is routinely denied a visa by the U.S. government. The journalists, from the Institute for Advanced Journalism Studies at North Carolina A&T State University, visited Cuba from June 15 to 22.
• A change in general managers at KPHO-TV in Phoenix will not affect Meredith Corp.’s partnership with Arizona State University, in which broadcast journalism students of color receive an all-expense-paid weeklong fellowship at the station, Meredith spokesman Art Slusark told Journal-isms. Participants work with instructors from the Cronkite School and KPHO reporters, producers, editors and videographers. At the week’s end, the students produce a 30-minute newscast. “We are very pleased with the program and have hired a few of its graduates at our stations; it complements what we are doing on the sales side with Howard University; the diversity issue is much more pronounced on the sales side,” Slusark said. General Manager Steve Hammel, a key figure in developing the initiative, left suddenly on Thursday. On Monday, Edward L. Munson Jr., most recently vice president of sales for LIN TV Corp., was named to the job.
• The University of California at Berkeley’s Graduate School of Journalism has received a $500,000 Ford Foundation grant to produce digital news sites for Bay Area communities, interim dean Neil Henry announced on Monday. “The sites will be produced by 60 graduate journalism students enrolled in news reporting courses and will be accessible on the Web and via mobile devices. The School’s core professors will serve as instructors and editors of the sites,” the announcement said. Calvin Sims, a program officer at the Ford Foundation who was formerly a New York Times reporter, joined in the announcement.
• The Africa Channel will make its first launch with Time Warner Cable on July 29 on Time Warner Cable’s LA Metro division, Multichannel News reported on Saturday. “The Africa Channel features 1,800 hours of programming that spans news and information, travel and lifestyle, music, soap operas, talk shows, reality, feature films and special events.” Veteran broadcaster Bob Reid, an early president of the National Association of Black Journalists, is the channel’s executive vice president and general manager.

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Feedback: Don Wycliff Would Benefit Any J-School

Any quality school of journalism would be fortunate to add Don Wycliff to its faculty. Students would greatly benefit from his experience, intellect, and high professional standards, all enhanced by a pleasant personality. He’s one of the best in the business.

Joe Boyce
Indianapolis
July 1, 2008