Are Journalists Worth Covering?

Updated August 4

 

At the opening ceremonies of the Native American Journalists Association conference Thursday in Albuquerque, N.M., members danced with traditional Native dancers at the Indian Pueblo Cultural Center. (credit: Val Hoeppner/Freedom Forum Diversity Institute) 

Media Ignored Native Americans’ Silver Convention

The Native American Journalists Association just held a convention in Albuquerque, N.M., celebrating its 25th anniversary. It got almost no coverage from the local or national media, mainstream or Native.

"I don’t recall ever seeing or hearing anything from them," Kent Walz, editor of the Albuquerque Journal, told Journal-isms. "As far as I know, they did nothing to seek us out or to communicate with us."

Actually, Editorial Page Editor Dan Herrera explained, someone from NAJA contacted the administrator of the joint operating agreement between the Journal and the now-defunct Albuquerque Tribune about helping to sponsor the conference.

But somehow that request, made last year, got lost amid other priorities – such as implementing significant cuts to the staff – and the paper didn’t hear back from NAJA, said Herrera, a member of the National Association of Hispanic Journalists. "It’s a tough time for stuff like that. We probably would have done some sort of sponsorship," he said.

The broadcast stations expressed no such remorse.

"That’s something that wouldn’t interest anybody other than us in the business," Melinda Dionne, assignment editor at KOAT-TV, the ABC affiliate, said. "A bunch of journalists talking about the business."

"No particular reason" it wasn’t covered, said Johnny Chandler, assignment manager at the duopoly of KRQE-TV, the CBS affiliate, and KASA-TV, the Fox affiliate. "It didn’t seem to make the agenda, that’s all."

A news executive at the NBC affiliate, KOB-TV, confirmed there was no coverage but did not wish to be quoted.

NAJA officials could not be reached for comment during or after the conference, which ended Saturday. Attendance was said to be smaller than usual, perhaps a couple of hundred.

Other journalist-of-color organizations, larger than NAJA, have received more ink and broadcast time.¬†Newspapers in Florida’s Tampa Bay area, site of this week’s convention of the National Association of Black Journalists, have already begun their coverage. Registration stands at 1,566, according to Executive Director Karen Wynn Freeman, exceeding projections of 1,495.

The St. Petersburg Times ran a piece by its film critic,¬†Steve Persall,¬†Sunday on the scheduled convention preview of the first Disney film with a black female hero, and one by Eric Deggans, its media critic and president of NABJ’s Tampa Bay chapter, on why NABJ is necessary.

"Put simply, mainstream media often struggles to cover stories centered on race difference. And as the highest level of government and society grow more diverse, those stories only increase in frequency and influence. Having a news room with a diversity of staffers increases the probability that coverage will take more viewpoints into account. And that also helps make stories fairer," he wrote.

Shannon Behnken quoted this writer in a Sunday piece for the Tampa Tribune, "Black journalists gather in Tampa as job prospects dim."

"As the media industry continues to struggle and shed jobs, journalists who are also people of color ponder their future and whether gains made in recent years will be lost," it began.

The National Association of Hispanic Journalists received generous coverage when it met in San Juan, Puerto Rico, in June, according to Executive Director Ivan Roman. Univision broadcast two of its 6 p.m. news shows from the event, for instance, and there were daily stories in the print media.

"People in Puerto Rico care a lot about journalists," said Roman, who once covered the island. In a place that loves politics, "journalists are seen as the conveyers of the big debates." There are also five all-news radio stations.

When the Asian American Journalists Association meets in Boston next week, "We’ll have an advance, and then we’ll see if there’s more to be done," editor Martin Baron told Journal-isms.

Shirley Leung, the convention co-chair who is also the Globe’s business editor, said AAJA had already received coverage on local television and radio. With Commerce Secretary Gary Locke as one of the speakers, she said she is hoping the Globe can snare him for an interview.

"It’s simple: media coverage raises awareness. Having the AAJA convention covered by the local press raises the profile of the organization and allows us to highlight important issues – from diversity in the newsroom to the release of journalists Euna Lee and Laura Ling," Americans imprisoned in North Korea. "It says to the Boston community that we have a great group of journalists in town. It’s an opportunity for the AAJA to engage with the Asian American community," and with other journalists of color who cannot make it to their own organizations’ conventions.

More than 600 have registered, she said, which is "at the high end" of projections. In more economically stable times, AAJA attracts about 1,000, she said.

What would readers have seen if the Albuquerque Tribune, at least, had covered NAJA?

"I would have hoped we would have had what they’re doing to promote Native American journalists and to get them into the industry," Herrera said, rather than another story about bleak prospects.

"Journalism is too important to be written off. . . . I feel very, very badly that we didn’t give them any coverage."

Bill Clinton in N. Korea to Negotiate for Journalists

"Former U.S. President Bill Clinton arrived in North Korea on Tuesday to try to win the release of two jailed U.S. journalists, a move some analysts said could mark the isolated state’s return to dialogue over nuclear weapons," Jack Kim reported Tuesday for Reuters.¬†

"Clinton’s surprise visit follows months of militaristic flourishes by the impoverished North which has turned its back on negotiations with regional powers, including the United States and China, to convince it to give up ambitions to build an atomic arsenal.

"North Korea’s KCNA news agency said the country’s chief nuclear
negotiator, Kim Kye-gwan, was among those greeting Clinton ‚Äî whose administration was reported to have considered bombing the North’s Yongbyon atomic plant in the early 1990s.

"’As soon as he arrives, he will be entering negotiations with the North for the release of the female journalists,’ South Korea’s Yonhap news agency quoted a source as saying.

"The two U.S. journalists ‚Äî Euna Lee and Laura Ling, of U.S. media outlet Current TV co-founded by Clinton’s vice president Al Gore ‚Äî were arrested on the North Korea-China border in March, accused of illegal entry and being "bent on slander."

"Last month, a North Korean court sentenced them each to 12 years hard labor for what it called grave crimes.

"Many analysts predicted that Pyongyang would use the journalists as leverage to drag concessions out of the U.S. administration which led pressure for U.N. sanctions on the North for its nuclear test in May." 

• Update: Clinton meets NKorea’s Kim: state media (Jun Kwanwoo, Agence France-Presse)

 

Novel Strategy: Lifetime Subscriptions at $500 a Pop

American Legacy magazine, which for 14 years partnered with Forbes magazine to produce a quarterly African American counterpart to American Heritage, has come up with a novel financial strategy to survive on its own:

It is offering lifetime subscription packages at $500 each.

The package includes:

A lifetime subscription to American Legacy magazine, 10 one-year gift subscriptions, two VIP tickets to American Legacy’s 15th anniversary celebration in 2010; a "Know Your History" board game and T-shirt; and an American Legacy Television DVD set.

"We have a circulation of over 500,000 with 2.25 million readers nationwide. Our objective is to increase our paid circulation over the next 2-3 years. We anticipate that 1,000 current subscribers will become members of American Legacy’s Know Your History Society!" R. Joshua Reynolds, a spokesman for American Legacy, told Journal-isms.

Forbes began easing out of the partnership two years ago. As MediaWeek reported¬†then, Scott Masterson, a senior vice president at Forbes Inc. and president of its American Heritage unit, explained that American Legacy founder Rodney J. Reynolds "had a different vision for American Legacy, while American Heritage had not been profitable. (The brand continues to operate online and through books while Forbes Inc. seeks a buyer.) ‘Trouble with American Heritage is, it doesn’t get national advertising,’ said Masterson. ‘There is no market for American history.’"

However, Reynolds was far from pessimistic in a June news release. It said he was "excited about the new opportunities in store for the company," citing¬† its newest product ,’The Know Your History Game,’ a family board game about African American history and culture; and the company‚Äôs ‘Black History Curriculum Guide,’ "a resource for educators seeking to integrate multicultural studies into their curriculum in the classroom."

So Many Errors She Warranted Her Own Copy Editor

At the height of the Jayson Blair scandal of 2003, involving a black New York Times reporter who fabricated stories and made numerous mistakes of fact, Washington Post columnist Richard Cohen wrote what not all of his colleagues were bold enough to say publicly.

Blair had talent, wrote Cohen, who is white, but the fact that his "sloppy work habits and erratic behavior" did not "halt Blair’s career in its tracks . . . testifies to a newsroom culture, imposed from above, that cherished diversity ‚Äî not more than accuracy, but so much so that journalistic standards were bent."

What, then, to make of the case of Alessandra Stanley, who is white?

Clark Hoyt, the Times’ public editor, wrote¬†Sunday that "For all her skills as a critic, Stanley was the cause of so many corrections in 2005 that she was assigned a single copy editor responsible for checking her facts. Her error rate dropped precipitously and stayed down after the editor was promoted and the arrangement was discontinued." Until the errors involving last month’s obituary of the late CBS anchor Walter Cronkite, "she was not even in the top 20 among reporters and editors most responsible for corrections this year. Now, she has jumped to No. 4 and will again get special editing attention."

Hoyt introduced that thought by saying,
"The Times published an especially embarrassing correction on July 22, fixing seven errors in a single article — an appraisal of . . . the CBS anchorman famed for his meticulous reporting. The newspaper had wrong dates for historic events; gave incorrect information about Cronkite’s work, his colleagues and his program’s ratings; misstated the name of a news agency, and misspelled the name of a satellite."

The extent of Stanley’s sins can in no way be compared to Blair’s. Yet it is interesting that many were quick to ascribe the Times’ indulgence of them to race in one case but so far, not in the other.

• Cary Clack, San Antonio Express-News: Columnist rues factual mistake
• Steven A. Smith blog: When does inaccuracy justify termination?
  

On Gates, "Anger Has Its Place" Strikes a Chord

Two New York Times op-ed pieces on the Henry Louis Gates Jr. incident in Cambridge, Mass., made the Times’ list of "most e-mailed" and were well-circulated over the weekend.

"Anger Has Its Place" was by Bob Herbert, who wrote:

"The president of the United States has suggested that we use this flare-up as a “teachable moment,” but so far exactly the wrong lessons are being drawn from it — especially for black people. The message that has gone out to the public is that powerful African-American leaders like Mr. Gates and President Obama will be very publicly slapped down for speaking up and speaking out about police misbehavior, and that the proper response if you think you are being unfairly targeted by the police because of your race is to chill.

"I have nothing but contempt for that message."

In the other, "Small Beer, Big Hangover," by Frank Rich, the columnist said, "If there was a teachable moment in this incident, it could be found in how some powerful white people well beyond Cambridge responded to it. That reaction is merely the latest example of how the inexorable transformation of America into a white-minority country in some 30 years — by 2042 in the latest Census Bureau estimate —is causing serious jitters, if not panic, in some white establishments."

Not as well circulated was a column by Rose Russell in the Toledo Blade. She found a passage that might explain Obama’s initial press conference remark that Cambridge, Mass., police acted "stupidly" in arresting Gates in his own home.

"He is the first president to have any real idea about what Professor Gates encountered. Here’s some insight into his empathy with the professor," she said.

"’I can recite the usual litany of petty slights that during my 45 years have been directed my way: security guards tailing me as I shop in department stores, white couples who toss me their car keys as I stand outside a restaurant waiting for the valet, police cars pulling me over for no apparent reason,’ he wrote in his 2006 book, Audacity of Hope. ‘I know what it’s like to have people tell me I can’t do something because of my color, and I know the bitter swill of swallowed-back anger.’"

• Betty Winston Bay?©, Louisville (Ky.) Courier-Journal: Obama’s unique opportunity on race
• Buzz Bissinger blog: When will cops stop acting disorderly?
• Steve Blow and James Ragland, Dallas Morning News:¬†Talking Race: Controversy around Henry Louis Gates Jr. arrest shows we have long way to go with race relations
• Donna Britt, Politics Daily:¬†Drama: Forget Assumptions, Focus on Lessons
• George Diaz, Orlando Sentinel: Race card seems to trump the truth
• Lurita Doan, Los Angeles Times:¬†On race, Harvard still must learn
• Elizabeth Hays and Christina Boyle, New York Daily News:¬†Post-beer summit, advocates hope President Obama begins real discussion on racial profiling
• Annette John-Hall, Philadelphia Inquirer: The toast of the White House should’ve been the Gates caller
• Allen Johnson, Greensboro (N.C.) News-Record: I Am Not a Criminal. I Am Taking a Walk. I Live Across the Street. Thank You for Your Interest¬†
• Colbert I. King, Washington Post:¬†Cold Beer and Cold Comfort for Rights
• Alex Koppelman, salon.com: Great moments in political race-baiting
• Jerry Large, Seattle Times: Trust: Handle with care
  
• Denise Lavoie, Associated Press: Black scholar says he’s able to joke about arrest
  
• Douglas C. Lyons, South Florida Sun-Sentinel:¬†Gun violence, racial profiling both need to be addressed
• Greg Marx, Columbia Journalism Review:¬†Coverage of Obama ‚ÄúSuds Summit‚Äù Hard to Swallow Top papers waste time covering irrelevant photo-op
• Deborah Mathis, BlackAmericaWeb.com:¬†Even Over Beer, America Can’t Stomach Race Talk
• Susan Milton and Jessica Van Sack, Boston Herald:¬†Henry Louis Gates Jr. mulls moving over death threats
• Mary Mitchell, Chicago Sun-Times:¬†Political stunt no solution to racial profiling
• Juliann Neher, Bloomberg: Obama Meeting With Gates, Crowley Was Productive, Jarrett Says
• Erica Noonan, Boston Globe: At a softball game, a surprise for Sergeant Crowley
• Clarence Page, Chicago Tribune:¬†Obama’s brew-ha-ha: Removing conflict between the police and citizens
• Les Payne blog: After Rose Garden Beer Blast, America Returns To Blissful Denial
• Rub?©n Rosario, St. Paul (Minn.) Pioneer Press: Let’s hope maturity is on agenda at suds summit
• Rose Russell, Toledo (Ohio) Blade:¬†The professor, the officer
  
• Ron Walters, National Newspaper Publishers Association:¬†Race, Power and the Gates Affair
• Jack White, theRoot.com:¬†Buckwheat Tries To Get Arrested

11 Stories Explain, Assess Bailey’s Death

"Two years after he was gunned down at 14th and Alice streets, Chauncey Bailey is still listed as editor of the Oakland Post in the newspaper’s masthead." Thomas Peele, Josh Richman, Bob Butler and Martin G. Reynolds wrote¬†for the Chauncey Bailey Project.

The newspaper’s publisher, Paul Cobb, 65, "called his knowledge of Oakland and local issues ‘encyclopedic.’ Ken Epstein, a retired teacher, knew when he accepted Cobb’s offer last year to succeed Bailey as editor that he could match neither the output nor the knowledge bank. He said he does not even try to.

"Epstein, who is white, called editing the African-American weekly ‘the best and most exciting job I’ve ever had.’ Others reiterated the importance that the Post survived.

"The newspaper ‘plays a vital role in the community’ and has retained its credibility even after losing its editor, said Marvin Tate, acting executive director of the Oakland African-American Chamber of Commerce."

On the second anniversary of Bailey’s slaying, the Chauncey Bailey Project has published a two-day series of 11 stories that try to explain the forces that led to Bailey’s death and the impact of his passing on others.

"We have also posted a poem, written for this occasion by Chauncey’s brother, that honors both Chauncey and the work of our project: The Courageous Message," the project said.

ABC’s "This Week" Legitimizes Michelle Malkin

It’s been 10 years since Michelle Malkin, then a Seattle Times editorial writer and columnist, disparaged Unity ’99 in her column, saying, "I am not a brown jelly bean. . . . For better or worse, I want readers to know me for my ideas, ideology and idiosyncrasies ‚Äî not for my Filipino heritage. This is why, after more than a half-dozen years in the newspaper business, I refuse to join race-based organizations such as the Asian-American Journalists Association."

Malkin moved to Washington and wrote such works as "In Defense of Internment: The Case for “Racial Profiling" in World War II and the War on Terror" (2004)

By and large, however, Malkin was considered a rather fringe, Ann Coulter-type character ‚Äî until Sunday, when she was invited to share the reporter’s roundtable of ABC’s "This Week" with George Stephanopoulos, with mainstream veterans Cynthia Tucker, Al Hunt and Gerald Seib.

It was her first time. "She’s a provocative conservative voice with a new book," ABC spokeswoman Emily Lenzner explained to Journal-isms.

"There’s no shortage of wingnuts out there, so why would George Stephanopoulos invite on someone too crazy for even Bill O’Reilly?" John Amato asked¬†on his Crooks and Liars blog.

"Only people with a Malkin brain would believe and push across the notion that Americans would rather collect three hundred dollars a week on unemployment insurance rather than get a job that supplies benefits and pays a salary," as Malkin did on "This Week."

"The Huffington Post adds:

"’Everybody just sort of looked at Malkin, like she was INSANE, and George Stephanopoulos very politely said, ‘Uhm . . . I don’t know if I follow that.’ To which Malkin replied: ‘BUT IT WAS A CLINTON ECONOMIST, BLARGLE!’ Stephanopoulos was still a bit dumbfounded, wondering why anyone in their right mind would take unemployment benefits ‘when a job was available.’"

In New Orleans, Willard Andreson is restrained to the seat of a van as he is transported to the hospital on an order of protective custody. (Credit: Rod Lamkey Jr./Washington Times)

Series Examines Mental Stress Wrought by Katrina

"Almost four years after the massive hurricane inundated much of New Orleans and killed about 1,800 people, millions of words have been written about the devastating physical damage to the city, and hundreds of millions of dollars have been spent on the fitful efforts at reconstruction," begins a note over a story Monday by Audrey Hudson, Amanda Carpenter and Rod Lamkey Jr., the first in a three-part series in the Washington Times.

"But almost nothing is said — and relatively little has been spent — on a more silent wreckage: the health of New Orleans residents who were pushed over the edge by the terror and turmoil of the storm and have been unable to recover, emotionally or mentally.

"The Washington Times spent more than three weeks on the streets of New Orleans this spring chronicling the crisis. Reporters and a photographer traveled with the police crisis unit and conducted scores of interviews with victims, their families and the front-line responders.

"In a city that has famously grappled with mental illness for decades, caregivers on the front lines say the problem has grown exponentially since Katrina — and that the number of sufferers still in need of help easily runs into the thousands. Despite the rising scourge, the number of available hospital beds to treat the mentally ill in New Orleans has decreased by more than half. Locals have coined their own name for the mostly silent crisis: post-Katrina stress disorder."

Ex-L.A. Times Journalists Form a Co-op

"Couple of weeks ago it was former Los Angeles Times photographers starting a service to offer their freelance expertise. Now it’s reporters and former associate editor Leo Wolinsky," Kevin Roderick wrote on LA Observed.

"We’ve got a mixed bag of folks but not particularly ethnically diverse, though I can’t really say why that is," Scott Martelle, one of the site’s founders, told Journal-isms. "I started a Yahoo group for fellow ex-LATers who got laid off or took buyouts as a means of comparing notes on COBRA, unemployment and Trib-specific issues with retirement, etc. From that emerged a desire to do some proactive stuff, and this clearinghouse emerged.

"We have it open to anyone who left the Times during this recent financial crunch, and are kicking in $50 a head to be a member ‚Äî kind of an informal co-op. That will keep us live for a year, and we’ll decide next summer how successful it’s been and whether to keep it going. So opt-in is purely self-selected. As for journalists of color, there are a few, and the best thing to do is browse the site ‚Äî www.thejournalismshop.com ‚Äî to get a sense of the makeup."

Short Takes

• The Venezuelan government "announced yesterday that it was withdrawing the licences of a total of 34 radio and TV stations, 13 of which already stopped broadcasting yesterday," Reporters Without Borders said¬†on Sunday. "When the authorities announced the withdrawal of 34 broadcast media licences, they warned that 200 other radio and TV stations could suffer the same fate."¬†
• After more than a month of detention, several journalists may face trial on charges of "sending pictures to enemy media," the Committee to Protect Journalists said¬†Thursday. "Three documentary filmmakers were arrested today, bringing the total of journalists currently held in Iranian jails to 42, the highest count in the world. The journalists are expected to be among 20 unnamed defendants tried on an array of charges, according to a government statement posted by the semi-official Fars News agency. All were arrested in the aftermath of the disputed June 12 presidential elections."
• "While knee-deep in completing the September issue, Ebony made the decision to switch gears and carve out a 20-page tribute to America‚Äôs pop icon, Michael Jackson. This special dedication takes a closer look into Michael‚Äôs life as a freedom fighter, philanthropist, friend, family man, entertainer and businessman," Ebony announced.
• In Chicago, "Reporter Harry Porterfield is returning to Ch. 2, nearly a quarter century after a demotion from weeknight anchor precipitated not only his departure for rival WLS-Ch. 7 but also a lengthy boycott of the CBS-owned station," Phil Rosenthal wrote for the Chicago Tribune. "Porterfield, 81, became available to his former station after ABC-owned Channel 7 declined to renew his contract, citing a need to cut costs in these challenging times for media outlets."
• "The Freedom Forum, in partnership with the Associated Press Managing Editors and the American Society of News Editors, is accepting nominations for the eighth annual Robert G. McGruder Awards for Diversity Leadership," the foundation announced. "Two awards are given annually: one for newspapers with a circulation up to 75,000; one for newspapers with more than 75,000 circulation."
• Dharam Shourie, Press Trust of India correspondent in New York who covered the United Nations for two decades, died in New York after a brief illness, the Indo-Asian News Service reported on Thursday. He was 72. "Shourie was editor of the Press Trust of India (PTI) before being posted to the United Nations as its correspondent in 1989. "The genial and affable Shourie had become a fixture for all India-centred events at the UN and in New York and was popular in the Indian community and the South Asian journalist fraternity." More details are offered from the South Asian Journalists Association.
• The National Association of Hispanic Journalists elected eight regional directors, a student representative and a secretary in electronic voting, the association said on Friday. Elected were Gustavo Reveles Acosta, reporter, El Paso Times, secretary; Ada Alvarez, Florida International University, student representative; as Region 1 director, Miguel Angel Rosa, WIPR-TV Canal 6 Noticias, San Juan, Puerto Rico; Region 2, Maria Burns Ortiz, freelance and ESPN.com; Region 3, Jessica Durkin, freelance, Scranton, Pa.; Region 4, Roberto Pazos, CNN en Espanol, Atlanta; Region 5, Manuel De La Rosa, KIII-TV, Corpus Christi, Texas; Region 6, Fernando Diaz, Chicago Now Project; Region 7, Angela Clemmons, Denver Post; and Elaine Aradillas, People magazine, Los Angeles.
• The Society of Professional Journalists plans to honor pioneering Tennessee journalist Robert Churchwell with the Helen Thomas Award for Lifetime Achievement on Aug. 29. Churchwell, who died Feb. 1, was the first black journalist to work as a full-time reporter for a Southern general interest newspaper, the Nashville (Tenn.) Banner, which he joined in 1950, SPJ said.
• Thanks to Alfred Tatum, who grew up in Chicago’s Ida B. Wells housing development, "for the last four weeks, 12 young men have gathered in a basement room on the campus of the University of Illinois at Chicago. They are studying the craft of writing," Dawn Turner Trice wrote¬†in the Chicago Tribune last week. "How mighty is the pen for kids who dodge bullets? Consider this excerpt from an essay by Levon Bridges, 14, who lives in Englewood: ‘You can take my life and my mind too. You don’t have to take my heart. I’m giving it to you. But the one thing you will never get is my pen because without it I’m nothing. Writing is the only thing I have left.’"
• A federal judge granted a motion by the Honolulu Advertiser to dismiss a racial discrimination lawsuit filed last year by Pati Poblete, who joined the Advertiser in September 2006 as deputy editorial page editor after working at the San Francisco Chronicle, the Advertiser reported
  on Saturday. Poblete, who is Filipino, alleged that she was transferred from her job to a lesser role and was subjected to discrimination because of her race. "We are pleased that The Advertiser and Jeanne Mariani-Belding, our editorial and opinion editor, have prevailed," Mark Platte, Advertiser editor and senior vice president, said in a statement. Mariani-Belding is immediate past national president of the Asian American Journalist Association.
• Steven Gray is leaving Chicago, where he wrote for Time.com, to open Time’s Detroit Bureau in September as national correspondent, he told colleagues on Monday.