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In Obama Era, Blacks Mistrustful of Media

richard

Updated September 15
All but One Black Reporter Vacates Wichita Eagle

President Obama takes questions from seven reporters from the black press aboard Air Force One in June. Since Obama’s election, their readers’ and viewers’ confidence in media accuracy has declined. (Credit: White House Photo Office.)

Pew Study Finds Increase in Doubts About Accuracy

African Americans’ lack of confidence in the news media has risen more than that of whites since the election of President Obama, according to a survey by the Pew Research Center that also shows "the public’s assessment of the accuracy of news stories is now at its lowest level in more than two decades of Pew Research surveys."

"We know that African Americans express more negative views of news organizations generally on a # of issues (accuracy, fairness) and that they are much more [likely] than whites to see coverage of obama as too critical," Pew Associate Director Carroll Doherty told Journal-isms via e-mail.

"We asked that question on a separate survey in august: 53% of african Americans said news orgs were being too critical of obama compared with 17% of whites. It’s reasonable to infer that at least some of the rise in negative attitudes among African Americans since 07 is related to the belief that obama has not been treated fairly. This seems to be the case among democrats generally."

In the latest survey, released Sunday, the number of non-Hispanic blacks who found stories often inaccurate rose 21 percent, from 47 percent in 2007 to 68 percent in 2009. For non-Hispanic whites, it rose 8 percent, from 54 percent in 2007 to 62 percent in 2009.

The Hispanic sampling was not large enough to measure in 2007, but it stood at 68 percent in 2009.  Pew provided Journal-isms with the racial and ethnic breakout.

The number of survey respondents who said the media tend to favor one side on political/social issues rose 15 percent among non-Hispanic blacks, from 54 percent in 2007 to 69 in 2009. Among non-Hispanic whites, it was 68 percent in 2007 and 75 percent in 2009, an increase of only 7 percent. For Hispanics, the 2009 figure was higher than for both non-Hispanic blacks and whites, at 78 percent.

Overall, "About six-in-ten Americans (62%) say that news organizations are being fair to the Obama administration, while 23% say media coverage has been unfair. Nearly three-quarters of Republicans (73%) say coverage of the administration has been fair, compared with 54% of Democrats and 67% of independents," the report said.

"The Pew Research Center for the People & the Press’ biennial media attitudes survey, conducted July 22-26 among 1,506 adults reached on landlines and cell phones, finds that even as the party gaps in several criticisms of the press have lessened over the past few years, views of many individual media sources are deeply divided along party lines.

"Democrats hold considerably more positive views than Republicans of CNN, MSNBC, The New York Times and the news operations of the broadcast networks, and their views of National Public Radio are somewhat more favorable than those of Republicans. By contrast, views of Fox News – and to a lesser extent The Wall Street Journal – are more positive among Republicans than Democrats. . . . Fox News viewers are the only audience in which a majority (51%) says news organizations are immoral rather than moral."

In 2007, the sample size consisted of 1,241 whites and 147 African Americans. In 2009, it was 1,170 whites and 124 African Americans. Asked if Pew thought these sample sizes were sufficient, Doherty said, ". . . the differences are so large that they pass significance."

There was at least this good news for journalists: "Though the public is increasingly critical of news media organizations, most people think it would be an important loss if major news sources shut down."

 

Kanye West snatched the microphone from Taylor Swift at MTV’s Video Music Awards.

Reporter Tweets Obama’s Off-the-Record "Jackass"

"President Obama called musician Kanye West a ‘jackass’ during an interview Monday with CNBC, an ABC News anchor reported to his followers on Twitter. But the tweet caused some red faces at ABC, and the network soon apologized for publicizing what had apparently been an off-the-record comment," Garance Franke-Ruta reported¬†Monday for the Washington Post.

[On Tuesday, TMZ posted the audio of the exchange, in which Obama engages in friendly banter with reporters, who laugh at the remark. "I’m assuming all this stuff — cut the president some slack, I’ve got a lot of stuff on my plate," he says.]

"Pres. Obama just called Kanye West a ‘jackass’ for his outburst at VMAs when Taylor Swift won. Now THAT’S presidential," "Nightline" co-anchor Terry Moran wrote Monday evening. Moran has more than 1 million followers on the microblogging service.

"CNBC objected to the post, which was apparently from a portion of the interview that was supposed to be off the record. Moran quickly deleted the comment (although it still can be accessed online), and an ABC spokesperson apologized for the tweet in a statement first posted on Politico.

"Moran ‘prematurely tweeted . . . before our editorial process had been completed. That was wrong. We apologize to the White House and CNBC and are taking steps to ensure that it will not happen again,’ the spokesperson said.

"The president was apparently responding to West’s interruption of Taylor Swift after she won an award at the MTV Video Music Awards on Sunday. West took the microphone from Swift to proclaim that Beyonce had a better video than she did.

"West later apologized for his actions."

What About Van Jones Should Have Been Covered?

"By the time White House environmental adviser Van Jones resigned over Labor Day weekend, the New York Times had not run a single story. Neither had USA Today, which also didn’t cover the resignation. The Washington Post had done one piece, on the day before he quit. The Los Angeles Times had carried a short article the previous week questioning Glenn Beck’s assault on the White House aide. There had been nothing on the network newscasts," media writer Howard Kurtz wrote Monday in the Washington Post.

Derek Donovan, reader representative of the Kansas City Star, and Ted Diadiun, who holds that position at the Plain Dealer in Cleveland, wrote this weekend that their papers, too, had dropped the ball.

However, Jim Naureckas of the "progressive" media watchdog group Fairness & Accuracy In Media asked whether the news media gave the same coverage to similarly situated figures in the George W. Bush administration who resigned. The conflicting opinions raise the question of whether the coverage missed Jones’ offenses ‚Äî calling Republicans "assholes" and signing a petition whose introduction accused the Bush administration of knowing in advance about 9/11 ‚Äî or the right-wing assault on Jones. Or both.

"Kurtz’s piece concluded: ‘The followup news pieces focused on the administration’s failure to vet Jones’ background. Perhaps the media bloodhounds should be just as curious why they failed to sniff out a story that ended with a White House resignation,’" Naureckas wrote.

"Well, if that’s the question they’re going to be asking themselves, they’ll have to start by figuring out why they paid so little attention to Philip Cooney. Who, you might well ask? In the Bush II administration, Cooney was chief of staff of the Council on Environmental Quality, the same rather obscure White House office to which Jones was a special adviser; in other words, he was a higher-ranking official than Jones. Cooney, a former oil industry advocate, resigned in 2005 after a New York Times expose (6/8/09) charged him with editing climate-change reports to make them more industry-friendly. That is, he was accused of actual malfeasance in office, on a matter of global consequence, rather than of holding objectionable opinions unrelated to his job. Cooney almost immediately got a job with ExxonMobil, giving the story a newsworthy whiff of corruption.

"The New York Times, which broke the story, ran a total of five news stories on it and four editorials. The Washington Post had one editorial (6/11/09) that mentioned Cooney in passing before his resignation, and one news story (6/15/09) on his new oil industry job, along with three opinion pieces that referenced the controversy; Cooney’s name also came up in a news story (8/5/09) about Exxon Mobil more than a month later. USA Today (6/15/05) mentioned him in an editorial after the resignation, but had no news coverage. The L.A. Times had a news brief (6/15/09) after the resignation, and later dropped Cooney’s name in an editorial (6/19/09) and an op-ed (6/24/09).

"CBS TV didn’t mention Cooney in all of 2005, according to Nexis transcripts; nor did ABC."

Caution: Some of the references to articles in 2009 should actually read "2005."

[video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s1Ntu7Aapys&feature=player_embedded]

Anti-Obama Protesters Get Loud During Live Report

"CNN anchor Fredricka Whitfield forewarned the audience there might be some yelling during the report," MediaBistro’s Chris Ariens wrote¬†Saturday as CNN Radio Capitol Hill correspondent Lisa Desjardins reported from the National Mall on anti-Obama demonstrators.

"There was. Including shouts of ‘go home, CNN’ and the crowd chanting the name of Fox News host Glenn Beck.

"Desjardins held it together even asking the crowd: ‘What do you think of Congressman Joe Wilson?’ Check out their reaction."

All but One Black Reporter Vacates Wichita Eagle

In the spring, Mark McCormick was in his 14th year working at his hometown Wichita (Kan.) Eagle as a local columnist, Christina M. Woods was a cultural affairs reporter there and Jeffrey H. Martin covered Kansas State U. athletics. All are African American, and by summer, all were gone from the paper.

The only black journalist left is Jonathan Long, who covers high school sports. Long, 27, has been at Kansas’ largest newspaper, owned by the McClatchy Co., for only a year, and McCormick was one of the reasons he came. Long had been in a bureau at the Nashville Tennessean.

"It was a big deal to me when I got here that there was an African American metro columnist, somebody who was a hometown guy," Long told Journal-isms.

In April, McCormick, 41, was named executive director of the Kansas African American Museum, an institution he had criticized as a columnist. The museum board approached him, and he said he gladly accepted. "I felt as though my job was going to be eliminated," he told Journal-isms. "It was cut back to half time.

"For 19 years, that was all I thought I was cut out to do," he said of his life as a journalist. "In a lot of places, newspaper managers kind of hope that’s how you feel."

Now, however, McCormick says, "I’m not a columnist, but I’m (the equivalent of) a CEO now, and what I learned as a journalist has made me effective as a CEO" ‚Äî meeting deadlines, setting goals, building relationships ‚Äî "and really served me well."

Woods, 28, acknowledges "it was hard to leave" her reporting job. Ironically, it was she who did the Eagle’s story on McCormick’s leaving.¬† She is now a parent and community relations specialist for the Wichita school system, "helping the principal and teachers to better engage students." She left the Eagle on July 31 because of the turmoil ‚Äî pay cuts, furloughs and the like. "The price of being ‘efficient’ ‚Äî that’s what they called it," she said. "I felt it just wasn’t suitable for me, and my family’s needs."

Woods said she recognizes the departure of herself and the other black journalists "leaves a gaping hole in the metro and state coverage," but says her colleagues assured her they would try to step in. But it took a lot of work to break through to "a community that wasn’t necessarily trusting" of the paper’s news coverage, she said. Wichita’s population is 11.4 percent black, and Segwick County, which contains the city, is 9.6 percent.

One saving grace is that the paper still allows her to write for it. ""People are still calling me," she says of community members.

Martin is now at the Houston Chronicle. He said that after four years, he was ready to cover something different.

[Among Latinos, religion writer Joe Rodriguez, 40, a Wichita native who went to school with McCormick, told Journal-isms Tuesday he is leaving Oct. 9 to become a communications coordinator at the University of Kansas School of Medicine in Wichita.

[He has been at the paper for 19 years. Rodriguez said this is a "challenging time for journalists" and that he wanted to "expand my skill set." Veteran columnist Suzanne Perez Tobias, who writes about family issues, and photographer Fernando Salazar remain.]

The annual survey by the American Society of News Editors reported in April that American daily newspapers shed 5,900 newsroom jobs last year, and that the loss of 5,073 white journalists represented an 11.15 percent loss of that group.

"But the number of black journalists, who now comprise 5.17% of newsroom employees, fell by 13.55%, and the number of Asian Americans, who make up 3.14% of newsrooms, fell by 13.36%, Unity said. Hispanic journalists, 4.47% of newsrooms, fell by slightly less than the overall total at 11.0%. Native American journalists, who comprise just 0.6% of newsrooms, actually increased their numbers by 3.17%," as Mark Fitzgerald reported at the time in Editor & Publisher, referring to Unity: Journalists of Color.

Sherry Chisenhall, editor of the Eagle, did not respond to a request for comment.

[On Wednesday, Chisenhall disputed McCormick’s statement about his hours, telling Journal-isms, "Columnists’ hours were reduced to 30 hours, from 40." More in Wednesday’s column.]¬†[Updated Sept. 16]

Paradigm for Freelance Photojournalism is Gone

"The problem with the catastrophic condition of the newspaper and magazine industry today is that as journalists leave the business in droves, those who are truly passionate about journalism and care to continue working at their craft are now seeking alternative ways to make a living," Cheryl Diaz Meyer told John Temple, former editor, president and publisher of the Rocky Mountain News. Diaz Meyer, a Pulitzer Prize-winning photographer, was laid off at the Dallas Morning News in June.

"Some of the most talented journalists in our industry are biding time," Diaz Meyer told Temple for Thursday’s edition of his blog, "trying to make a living doing commercial work, non-profit work, teaching ‚Äî the journalism skills they have spent years honing are squandered by an economy that cannot support them. This is a loss to our society; and in the larger sense, it‚Äôs a loss to our democracy because ultimately the press acts as our country‚Äôs watchdog.

"In photojournalism particularly, the conversations turn to ‘monetizing photographs.’ Photojournalists increasingly are creating alliances with their subjects who then finance the work. Some say this is not journalism, but public relations. The question does arise, what happens to the journalism if the subject is paying for it?

"The paradigm for freelance photojournalism doesn’t exist anymore and yet all who care deeply about the value of journalism want desperately to redefine it, fix it, make it work again."

From Web Managing Editor to Writer of Sitcoms

Robin Henry, who took a buyout in April as managing editor of ajc.com at the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, is now a staff writer for Tyler Perry’s "House of Payne" on TBS. She first wrote for Perry’s "Meet the Browns," Joe Grimm wrote¬†Monday in his "Ask the Recruiter" column for the Poynter Institute.

"I’m on a team that writes and punches scripts for the show. I managed the editorial side of the digital staff. Before that, I worked for the Philadelphia Inquirer and the Cleveland Plain Dealer."

She says she learned that, "Getting paid to do what you love is the greatest gift life can give you. For years, I watched my newspaper colleagues do what they really loved. Journalism is a vocation. And I was envious. I wanted that, too. Now I have it."

Texas Columnist Carlos Guerra Takes Retirement Offer

Carlos Guerra, a San Antonio newspaper columnist for 18 years, told readers on Sunday that they were reading his last column for the Express-News. He was taking advantage of the parent Hearst Corp.’s "generous retirement policies."

"From the beginning, I refused to be a Hispanic columnist, though like every other columnist’s my writings are shaped in no small way by my knowledge base and personal experiences," Guerra wrote. "During my tenure, I have tried mightily to address matters that weren’t getting adequate attention, and sought to find sources other than the usual ones to shed new light on issues of the day.

"I have tried to offer thoughtful analysis and insight, and struggled to simplify complex issues into writings that would fit into my space without distortion, and to prompt discussions I thought important, especially about issues and policies with long-term implications.

"But my favorite columns have always been about regular folks in unusual circumstances, and whose very lives teach lessons, and tales of people whose audacity put them into another, unusual realm."

Guerra wrote for the San Antonio Light until it closed in 1992, and then joined the Express-News.

Light Convention Attendance for Gay Journalists

Fewer than 200 people attended the National Lesbian and Gay Journalists Association’s annual conference last weekend in Montreal. Moreover, Blair Mishleau wrote¬†in the student convention project, Insight, the group is struggling with a 30 percent drop in membership.¬†

"We had a little under 200 people attend. That is down substantially from previous conferences, but not out of line with what we were expecting," David A. Steinberg, copy desk chief at the San Francisco Chronicle and national president of NLGJA, told Journal-isms on Monday. "Like our friends and colleagues in the UNITY group associations, we’re seeing the impact of the horrible economy in general and the state of the media industry in particular.

"We tried to be as proactive as possible, so earlier this year ‚Äî as we saw the economy worsen ‚Äî- we were able to renegotiate with the hotel to reduce our potential liability if attendance was very low. It looks like when all the bills are settled, we’ll come out ahead financially on the conference. One of my favorite quotes of the convention was ‘Being solvent is the new fabulous.’"

The group’s first national convention, in 1992, drew 300 people. Previous conferences have attracted almost 700, Mishleau wrote.

"NLGJA Managing Director Michael Tune said the group has about 750 members, a 30 percent drop from August 2008, when there were 1,073. In August 2007, there were 1,247." NLGJA was founded by the late Leroy Aarons, a Maynard Institute co-founder.

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