Black Journalists Urged to Be Role Models
Valerie Jarrett, senior adviser to President Obama, told black journalists on Friday that "it’s up to you" to be "leaders in the community, looking to the next generation to lift them up."
She said at the National Association of Black Journalists convention in Tampa, Fla., that its members must consider the "responsibilities we all have in addition to the professional responsibilities. We need people to participate in their communities." Jarrett told Journal-isms she was referring to such activities as mentoring.
"You guys are all role models . . . professionals have an obligation . . . to give them hope for the future," she said in a separate session at the convention with members of the Trotter Group of African American columnists.i
Jarrett’s remarks seemed an extension of Obama’s speech¬†before the NAACP last month, commemorating the group’s 100th anniversary.
He said then, "For our kids to excel . . . it means we need to be there for our neighbor’s sons and daughters. We need to go back to the time, back to the day when we parents saw somebody, saw some kid fooling around and — it wasn’t your child, but they’ll whup you anyway. Or at least they’ll tell your parents — the parents will. You know. (Laughter.) That’s the meaning of community. That’s how we can reclaim the strength and the determination and the hopefulness that helped us come so far; helped us make a way out of no way."
At a news conference, Jarrett was given a copy of NABJ’s report on the number of top managers of color making news decisions at local television stations.
She said she had not read it, but said "it is a concern just hearing you describe it," and added that she would forward it to the new chairman of the Federal Communications Commission, Julius Genachowski.
Jarrett also told the journalists, "we count on you to help on getting the message out," and in discussing Obama’s health-care proposals, that they should "report back and hold people accountable who give out misinformation." For every town hall meeting conducted by Obama surrogates that is disrupted, "I assure you there are a million town halls that are not. You haven’t seen disruptions at the town halls he’s been in," she said.
The adviser was asked the lesson of the controversy surrounding Harvard professor Henry Louis Gates Jr.’s arrest in Cambridge, Mass., later dropped, by a police officer investigating an apparent burglary in Gates’ home.
She pointed to the conversation at the White House between Gates and Sgt. James Crowley.
"Figuring out how to share those experiences in a way that leads to a more civil society is what we’re all about," she said.
- Associated Press: White House uses Web to fight misleading health care effort
3 Advertisers Dump Fox’s Glenn Beck
"Three companies who had run ads during Glenn Beck’s Fox News show have distanced themselves from Beck, including LexisNexis-owned Lawyers.com, Procter & Gamble and Progressive Insurance," Chris Ariens reported¬† Thursday for MediaBistro. We’re told a P&G spot inadvertently aired during a weekend Beck broadcast, but that the company never had a regular buy for the show.
"The group ColorofChange.org called on their members to pressure advertisers to pull ads from Beck’s show after he called Pres. Obama a ‘racist’ who ‘has a deep-seated hatred for white people.’"
"A Fox News spokesperson told TVNewser that the advertisers simply moved their spots from Beck to other programs on the network, ‘so there has been no revenue lost.’"
- David Bauder, Associated Press: Lou Dobbs challenges his own CNN network
- Lloyd Grove, Daily Beast: What Happened to the Real Lou?
- Tony Norman, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette:¬†Birther’ control: Praise the righteous right
- Leonard Pitts Jr., Miami Herald:¬†Barack Obama — born in the U.S.A.
- Elmer Smith, Philadelphia Daily News: Why does GOP let birthplace lunacy fester?
- Gary Young, the Guardian, England: To engage the birther fantasists is futile; to dismiss them, reckless
- David Zurawick blog: Glenn Beck: Let’s hope ad loss makes a difference
Hartford Columnist Simpson Leaving for H.S. Program
Stan Simpson, columnist for the Hartford (Conn.) Courant who marked his 20th year at the paper on Friday, is leaving Aug. 17 to become director of journalism and media at a Hartford high school, he told colleagues on Thursday.
Simpson wrote that he was "enamored of the challenge of playing a key leadership role in transforming a fledgling urban journalism & media academy, located in one of the poorest neighborhoods in Connecticut, into the preeminent school of its kind in America."
Weaver High School has been reconfigured into three academies — Journalism, Culinary Arts and Humanities.
Simpson, a member of the Trotter Group of African American columnists, said he would continue to host his Sunday morning TV show on WTIC-TV.
Freed Journalist Admits Touching N. Korean Soil
"Laura Ling’s sister says the two American journalists briefly touched North Korean soil before they were captured and detained for months in that communist country," the Associated Press reported¬†on Thursday.
"’She said that it was maybe 30 seconds and then everything got chaotic. It’s a very powerful story, and she does want to share it,’ Lisa Ling told CNN Thursday.
"A day after the reporters returned from Pyongyang on a private plane, Lisa Ling said her sister is still weak, exhausted and emotional. Lisa Ling described how her sister clings to her family after months of isolation. She said she even went to a doctor’s appointment with her sister, just to keep her company."
Miami Station Fires Anchor After Bias Complaint
Miami’s "WPLG-ABC 10 has fired anchor Charles Perez, days after he filed a discrimination complaint against the Post-Newsweek station," Steve Rothaus reported¬†in the Miami Herald.
‚Äú’His employment has been terminated,’ Perez‚Äôs business attorney Melanie E. Damian told The Miami Herald Thursday afternoon. ‘We filed a charge of discrimination last week. We will now amend that to include his termination as part of his claims.’
"Perez also confirmed that he is no longer employed by WPLG, but said he couldn’t discuss the case until after he speaks with his agent.
"’WPLG is disappointed that the actions of Charles Perez left us no real choice other than to terminate his employment contract,’ WPLG Vice President and General Manager Dave Boylan said in a statement to The Herald. ‘WPLG emphatically denies Perez’s claim of discrimination. The document he is circulating is filled with misstatements and untruths.’
"Late last week, Perez filed a discrimination complaint with Miami-Dade’s Equal Opportunity Board.
"Perez, 46, says in the complaint that station bosses demoted him to weekend anchor/reporter ‘because of their discomfort over the increasingly high profile of my sexual orientation.’
"On April 3, Perez went to court seeking a restraining order against his former partner, Dennis Ricardo Pe?±a, whom he accused of leaking a private e-mail concerning Perez‚Äôs ‚Äògender identity issues.‚Äô
"Later that month, Perez claims he ‘began to disappear’ from station promotional spots. He lost the weeknight anchor seat July 22.
"Station executives recently told Miami Herald columnist Joan Fleischman their decision was driven by economics."
Anchor Angele Ringo becomes Army Sgt. 1st Class Angele Ringo
San Diego Anchor Leaves for Second Tour in Iraq
"At 10News we often report on local military personnel deploying to Iraq," KGTV-TV in San Diego reported on Friday. "This time it hits a little closer to home: our friend and colleague Angele Ringo will leave Friday to prepare for her second tour of duty in Iraq,"
"Many in San Diego know Angele Ringo as a 10News anchor/reporter but not as many know her in her other role as Army Sergeant First Class Angele Ringo.
"’I am a military person,’ Ringo said. ‘My grandfather was in the Army, my dad was in the Navy. My brother was in the Navy.’
"After 10 years in the Army, Angele decided to go back. She joined the Army Reserve and spent 13 months in Baghdad in 2005 and 2006. She learned a lot about Iraq and herself.
"’I don’t think you go to a warzone without taking something away… learning a little bit about why you do it and what’s happening in the place that you’re deployed to," she said.
"Angele the soldier works in public affairs. She said there isn’t much of a difference going from being a journalist covering the news to being part of one of the biggest news events in the world. ‘Telling a soldier’s story is telling a soldier’s story,’ she said, ‘whether I’m in uniform or not.’"
