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“Tapestry of Modern America” Praises Ted

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Jackson Death Sells Nearly $67 Million in Magazines

Take 2: How the Supremes Made Cover of TV Magazine

BMW Asked About Request to Spurn “Urban” Stations

 

Sen. Edward M. Kennedy was remembered at the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library & Museum in Dorchester, Mass., Friday night as a public servant, statesman, raconteur and family man. (Video)

An Array of Columnists Gives Iconic Senator His Due

“They came by the thousands and stood quietly and patiently in line. Young and old, every color and background and ethnic origin. And together they reflected the tapestry of modern America that Sen. Edward M. Kennedy touched during his half-century in public life,” Keith B. Richburg wrote¬†from Boston Friday for the Washington Post.

As the news organizations prepared for live coverage of Saturday’s funeral Mass, the same sentiment could be¬†about the tributes to Kennedy, who died Tuesday of brain cancer at age 77.

“Kennedy came from a family that had long championed Indian causes,” wrote¬†the Web site indianz.com. “His late brother, John, invited tribal leaders to the White House as president in 1962. His other late brother, Robert, was the first presidential candidate to campaign on a reservation in 1968.

“The tradition carried into Kennedy’s work in the Senate. He chaired the Senate Subcommittee on Indian Education, which produced Indian Education: A National Tragedy – A National Challenge in 1969, a report that is credited with spurring modern efforts to improve education for American Indian and Alaska Native children.”

“Nothing says more to me about the character of the late Sen. Edward M. Kennedy than the way he stood with the LGBT community at the outset of the AIDS epidemic,” Kerry Eleveld wrote¬†Friday for the Advocate, which covers lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender issues.

“Kennedy’s contributions were as notable for what he blocked as for what he passed.”

“Along with a health care reform bill, it would be a fitting tribute . . . if Congress could act on his other great unfinished cause: immigration reform,” Marisa Trevi?±o wrote on her Latina Lista blog. “There is no doubt that advocates for undocumented immigrants lost a great friend and champion in Sen. Kennedy, but the fight continues.”

On the Root.com, geared to African Americans,¬†Kenneth J. Cooper wrote, “Ted Kennedy was a white liberal who believed in black power, black political power, and he worked to make it happen. He was not one of those white liberals who looked down on African Americans and [saw] a people ever in need of help, not to be trusted to take charge of anything of consequence.”

And on the Web site of the Atlantic monthly, Marc Ambinder evaluated Kennedy within the Jewish context of redemption.

The Boston Globe saw huge traffic as it covered Kennedy’s death, Zachary M. Seward wrote¬†Thursday for niemanlab.org, “a sign that local news sites can still dominate national stories on their turf,” he said.

“The Globe, which had spent years preparing for Kennedy’s death, had more than 8 million page views as of 5 p.m. yesterday, when I spoke to Bennie DiNardo, deputy managing editor for multimedia. Part of the Globe’s coverage included a seven-part biographical series – with lengthy articles, videos, and other material – that first ran in February and was later published as a book.”

Television networks were planning live coverage of Kennedy’s funeral at The Basilica of Our Lady of Perpetual Help in Boston at 10 a.m. Eastern time Saturday, continuing¬†at 4 p.m., when Kennedy is to be buried at Arlington National Cemetery, near the final resting spots of his brothers Robert Kennedy and President John F. Kennedy.

In the blogosphere, praise shared pixels with a significant amount of Kennedy bashing.

“The announcement . . .¬† prompted an outpouring of grief and sympathy – along with the predictable vitriolic online comments that are now commonplace when a controversial public figure passes away,” Andrew Alexander, the Washington Post ombudsman wrote¬†on Wednesday.

“The Post anticipated them. Raju Narisetti, the managing editor who oversees the Web site, conferred with others at about 3 a.m. and decided to set the bar high in allowing critical comments.

”The decision was made that on things about Chappaquiddick and those kinds of things, because he was a polarizing figure, we’d let those be,’ Narisetti said. By mid-afternoon, about 200 had been deleted for violating The Post’s rules on inappropriate comments. Narisetti said several especially ‘offensive, ugly’ remarks were about Kennedy’s cancer diagnosis.”

Agency sought to advertise BMW’s MINI Cooper line without “combos or urban formats.”

BMW Asked About Request to Spurn “Urban” Stations

Despite a long-sought prohibition of the practice by the Federal Communications Commission¬†almost two years ago, an agency working for BMW specified that no “urban formats” be included when the automobile company sought to advertise its MINI Cooper line on radio stations in Boston, Houston, Baltimore and Washington.

The National Association of Black Owned Broadcasters and the Rev. Jesse Jackson have lodged a protest with BMW and requested a meeting.

After years of complaints, the FCC “took what is being called an historic step to address the discriminatory advertising practice that exclude black-oriented and Hispanic-oriented radio stations from receiving a fair share of advertising revenues,” as Ken Smikle reported for Target Market News in December 2007.

“The use of the ‘no urban dictate’ policy, as it’s called, occurs when advertisers and their agencies intentionally by-pass urban and Latino stations, supposedly because the advertiser client has dictated that its ads not be placed with those outlets. African-American broadcasters have long said the unspoken policy existed. The issue was first brought to the FCC by the National Association of Black Owned Broadcasters (NABOB) 23 years ago.”

On Aug. 17, Target Market News reported¬†that NABOB “requested a meeting with the chairman and CEO of BMW, Jim O’Donnell, to discuss the implications of an email from the media buying agency for the carmaker requesting information from radio stations in the Boston, Houston, Baltimore and Washington, D.C., markets. The criteria stated ‘No combos or urban formats’ should be included in the information requested.

“The email, which originated from a senior buyer at Palisades Media Group, was shared with NABOB by Sherman Kizart, Managing Partner of the rep firm, Kizart Media Partners.

“In a letter responding to Kizart’s query about the matter, Palisades chairman and CEO, Roger A. Schaffner said that the directive not to include Urban radio stations was the misguided decision of one person and not done ‘through any directive from Palisades Media personnel, or [BMW’s general market ad agency] Butler, Shine, Stern & Partners personnel or MINI personnel.’

“‘This was a single, isolated incident,’ Schaffner’s letter continued, ‘that we have taken steps to make sure does not repeat itself in the future in any department of our company.'”

Next to weigh in was Jackson’s Rainbow/PUSH Coalition, which established an Automotive Project in Detroit to monitor the automotive industry.

Asked why the “single, isolated incident” explanation did not end the matter, Glenda A. Gill, executive director of the project, told Journal-isms Friday, “Most agencies have team strategic meetings to decide the direction of the brand. In this case one person cannot make the buying-media placement decision without the customer knowing . . . Everyone is abstaining responsibility except the one unfortunate person that has been thrown under the bus in this case. Also look at BMW’s record for ethnic media buys and make your decision. Most are saying it is weak even after this incident.”

Jackson sent a letter¬†to BMW asking, “What steps have been taken to enhance supplier diversity at both marketing/sales and manufacturing operations? How are you utilizing your minority agency, Matlock Advertising & PR. Were they consulted on this part of your business?” and “Is the Diversity committee formalized and is diversity institutionalized within your corporate culture?”

BMW did not respond to requests for comment.

Ruling for Cable Owners Called Setback for Diversity

“Comcast Corp., the biggest U.S. cable-television provider, won a legal victory as a court threw out a rule limiting cable companies to 30 percent of the market,” Cary O‚ÄôReilly and Todd Shields reported Friday for Bloomberg News.

“The Federal Communications Commission failed to fully consider competition from companies such as DirecTV Group Inc. and Dish Network Corp., the U.S. Court of Appeals in Washington said. It called the FCC‚Äôs action ‘arbitrary and capricious’ and vacated the rule.”

Ben Scott, policy director of the advocacy group Free Press, called the court ruling a setback for diversity:

“It is regrettable that the court tossed out an important public interest protection against excessive media consolidation. Congressional intent in the Cable Act of 1992 is very clear ‚Äî the goals of federal policy in the cable industry are to promote competition, consumer choice, and a diversity of programming. And yet today we have a cable cartel ‚Äî the video industry is dominated by only a handful of large cable operators and studios,” he said in a statement.

“Today consumers experience perpetual price hikes by large operators that already have market dominating purchasing power to decide the fate of new channels. The promises of lower prices through competition from satellite and telecom companies in the video business have never been realized. We encourage the FCC not only to revisit cable ownership limits, but to examine a variety of policy proposals to achieve Congress‚Äôs goal to bring consumers more competition and more choice in the cable industry.”

Piece Questions Injections Given Katrina Patients

In a 13,000-word piece in the New York Times Magazine on Sunday, an investigation into what followed when the floodwaters of Hurricane Katrina marooned Memorial Medical Center in Uptown New Orleans shows that “more medical professionals were involved in the decision to inject patients ‚Äî and far more patients were injected ‚Äî than was previously understood.”

“It appears that at least 17 patients were injected with morphine or the sedative midazolam, or both, after a long-awaited rescue effort was at last emptying the hospital. A number of these patients were extremely ill and might not have survived the evacuation. Several were almost certainly not near death when they were injected, according to medical professionals who treated them at Memorial and an internist‚Äôs review of their charts and autopsies that was commissioned by investigators but never made public,” according to the report¬†by Sheri Fink.

Gerald Marzorati, editor of the magazine, explained:

“Fink is an M.D. as well as an experienced reporter, and she brings a unique perspective to the story, having aided refugees in the aftermath of wars and disasters around the world for 10 years and taught a course two years ago at Tulane University on public health issues in crisis situations. Her reporting is unusual in another way for us: it was undertaken not on direct assignment but with financing from the Kaiser Family Foundation and then while she worked as a staff reporter for ProPublica, the independent, nonprofit newsroom that produces investigative journalism and distributes it in an array of ways, including through mainstream media outlets like The Times. This is not the first collaboration between ProPublica and The Times, but it is the biggest such undertaking.”

In other commemorations of the fourth anniversary of Katrina, the New Orleans Times-Picayune ran a front-page editorial, “We’re counting on you, Mr. President.”

The paper recalled President Obama’s campaign pledge, “‘I promise you that when I’m in the White House, I will commit myself every day to keeping up Washington’s end of the bargain,’ you said then. ‘This will be a priority of my presidency. And I will make it clear to members of my administration that their responsibilities don’t end in places like the 9th Ward; they begin in places like the 9th Ward.’

“We await the fulfillment of many of these promises.”

Jackson Death Sells Nearly $67 Million in Magazines

“Michael Jackson tributes and book-a-zines have generated $55 million in additional newsstand sales for magazine publishers, providing one bright spot, however somber, amid widespread newsstand declines so far this year,” Nat Ives reported¬†Thursday for Advertising Age.

His report came a day before the Los Angeles County coroner’s office officially ruled¬†Jackson’s death a homicide and said he died of “acute propofol intoxication.”

Ives wrote, “Jackson’s death last June unleashed a flood of memorial media coverage across media. In print, everyone from Time to Us Weekly to Jet converted regular issues into Michael Jackson specials, rushed special issues to newsstands and published book-a-zine tributes. Time magazine, for example, published a 64-page special extra issue on June 29, which retailed for $5.99, with a special Pepsi ad on the back that read, ‘You will always be the king of pop.’

“Time magazine’s June 29th 64-page special extra issue retailed for $5.99. ‘Based on our estimates, we’re at about almost $67 million in Michael Jackson product,’ said Gil Brechtel, president-CEO of the Magazine Information Network, often called MagNet, which tracks data from wholesalers and retailers. ‘Some of that, of course, is People magazine and all that. But these are mostly specials, like the People tribute, an $11.99 product. The industry was able to produce probably $55 million in additional revenue from Michael Jackson magazines and book-a-zines.”

Meanwhile, syndicated columnist Leonard Pitts Jr. of the Miami Herald added an element too often missing in coverage of Jackson, which seemed either celebratory or tawdry:

“Long before he died, Jackson’s life was a cautionary tale of what can happen when you become too big for anyone to tell you no,” Pitts wrote, citing Jackson’s finances, his plastic surgeries, his questionable friendships with children and finally his drug taking.

10 More Companies Said to Join Glenn Beck Boycott

“Adding to an increasing list of companies distancing themselves from Fox News Channel‚Äôs Glenn Beck, ten new companies whose ads were recently seen during Beck‚Äôs program ‚Äî Applebee‚Äôs, Bank of America, Bell & Howell, DirecTv, General Mills, Kraft, Regions Financial Corporation, SAM (Store and Move), Travelers Insurance and Vonage ‚Äî have pledged to take steps to ensure that their ads don‚Äôt run on Beck‚Äôs show,” the group Color of Change, which is leading the boycott, said¬†on Thursday.

“Forty-six companies have now committed not to support Beck‚Äôs show since ColorOfChange.org launched its campaign three weeks ago after the Fox News Channel host called President Obama a ‘racist’ who ‘has a deep-seated hatred for white people’ during an appearance on Fox & Friends.

“Three of the latest defections ‚Äî Travelers Insurance, Bell & Howell and DirecTv ‚Äî join the list of advertisers who claim to have already placed Glenn Beck‚Äôs program on a ‘do not air’ list, but whose ads have been seen on Beck‚Äôs program, apparently against their wishes.”

Meanwhile, Julie Rothman, a spokeswoman for the Oxygen channel, denied a report¬†by Tana Ganeva of AlterNet that “Oprah Winfrey’s Oxygen channel” is among the advertisers who have “stepped in” on the Beck show. Rothman told Journal-isms that the statement likely resulted from a misunderstanding over ads in the New York area informing viewers that Oxygen was changing cable channel numbers.

[video:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9a7_iO48OTY]

Documentary Tracks Students Learning About Sex, HIV

"Why Us? Left Behind and Dying," a feature-length documentary about HIV/AIDS in the black community, premieres in Los Angeles Sept. 9-15 and in New York from Sept. 11 to 17, says its producer and director, Claudia Pryor Malis.

The film by Malis, formerly a producer at ABC News and NBC News, follows a group of high school students in the Homewood section of Pittsburgh for four years as they learn in their classes about sex from some of the country’s top AIDS researchers.

The students do much of the interviewing.

Malis told Journal-isms the research project took five years and was primarily funded by the Science Education Partnership Award program within the National Institutes of Health.

"Why Us?" is a production of Diversity Films, Inc., a 501c3 non-profit organization designed to make documentary films about people of color and the issues that affect them.


The Supremes finally made the cover of various editions of TV Magazine. (Credit: Al Abrams)

Take 2: How the Supremes Made Cover of TV Magazine

As reported¬†in this space two weeks ago, the Supremes, the Diana Ross-led trio touted as the biggest American musical act of the 1960s, faced a color barrier few today would imagine: a hometown newspaper’s Sunday magazine of TV listings whose editor said the cover was off-limits to blacks.

Motown’s founding public-relations man, who broke through the barrier on the group’s behalf, tells a different tale than the one in a new biography of the singing group.

Al Abrams‘ version might be even more offensive.

It was 1965. "I couldn‚Äôt crack the Detroit News," Abrams said in the University of Michigan’s "Living Music" archives.

"Finally . . . the Supremes are hot with three Number One hits in a row . . . It was driving me crazy that I couldn‚Äôt get them on the cover of the TV magazine that the Detroit News would put out. I went to see the features editor at the Detroit News. He called me aside and said, ‘I gotta ask you ‚Äî what‚Äôs a nice Jewish boy like you doing working for a bunch of niggers like them? Shouldn‚Äôt it be the other way round?’

"I‚Äôd been waiting for this. I said, ‘Well let me tell you the truth: You know how these black people like to play dice? Well, I really started Motown Records, and one night I got into a craps game with Berry Gordy, and I lost the whole thing. But they let me stay on and do the publicity anyway.’ He says ‘Here, that‚Äôs the saddest story I ever heard.’ He said to his staff, ‘Wait a minute, from now on, I want you to do whatever you can to help this guy.’ Then the Supremes became the first African-Americans to be on the cover of a TV magazine."

Abrams added for Journal-isms, "During the month long debut run of my ‘Memories of Motown’ musical in Berlin this winter, I told that story on stage every night and pontificated on how the Supremes (and Diana’s) breakthrough beginning with the cover of that magazine (and subsequently making the cover of Time) ‘opened the doors to African-American entertainers in television and Hollywood and made possible the miracle we saw last week in Washington, D.C., the inauguration of Barack Obama as . . .’ The rest of the sentence was always drowned out by applause ‚Äî the most applause we received from that German audience during and after the entire show."

He also disputed the biography’s claim that the Michigan Chronicle, a leading black weekly in Detroit, was unsupportive of its hometown talent. "Folks like Rita Griffin, Roy Stephens and, of course, publisher Albert J. Dunmore were always there to support us. The Detroit edition of the Pittsburgh Courier under entertainment writer Charles Henry was another loyal friend back in the days before we cracked the mainstream media. And that’s not to mention Chester Higgins at Jet magazine," he said.

Of himself, Abrams said he was one of the first members of the Northwest Ohio Black Media Association (NOBMA), in 1990.

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