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Journal-isms Oct. 14th

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Rush Limbaugh Out as Potential Rams Owner

"If conservative radio commentator Rush Limbaugh ever had much of a chance to be a minority owner in a successful bid to buy the NFL’s St. Louis Rams, it is now over, two league sources have confirmed to SI.com," Don Banks reported¬†for SI.com.

¬†"In a statement released Wednesday evening by St. Louis Blues chairman Dave Checketts – who is heading the group that hopes to buy the Rams – he announced Limbaugh’s official exit from the bid. It is believed that Limbaugh’s controversial participation would have doomed the group’s effort in the eyes of NFL owners. League sources told SI.com that Limbaugh’s candidacy in any Rams bid had ‘zero chance’ of being approved by the league’s owners. In his statement, Checketts said Limbaugh’s participation had become "a complication and a distraction” to the group’s efforts.

"According to league sources, Limbaugh comes with too much troubling baggage in terms of his outspoken views that often intersect the divisive issues of politics and race in America. In a time when the NFL is hoping to have complete uniformity among its team owners in anticipation of the tough collective bargaining negotiations to come with the players union, there was little interest within the league to associate with an owner who is paid to give his highly charged opinions on the radio for hours each week."

Second Group Seeking to Acquire Ebony, Jet

A second group, this one headed by Connecticut businessmen and brothers Kenton and Peter Clarke says it wants to acquire Ebony and Jet magazines.

"Kenton Clarke, CEO of DiversityBusiness, said Ebony and Jet are strong brands that have greater potential for growth if changes are made to adjust to changes in demographic groups and markets," Denise Stewart reported  Monday for BlackAmericaWeb.com.

Clarke told Journal-isms on Wednesday, however, that he has not yet been able to have his phone calls returned by the company.

"To me, Ebony the brand is as American as baseball and apple pie," he said. "But it is underutilized, not focused." It should be reaching "everyone who is capable of reading it, from 3 or 4 years up to 99." It also has a marketing problem, he said. He said the publications have been doing good work, but "they didn’t tell anybody." Clarke also said he was surprised the company did not plan for two or three lean years.

"Maybe they’re on cruise control," he said.

Clarke started DiversityBusiness in 1980, he said. His brother, Peter Clarke, owns a number of businesses, including Advanced Cleaning Concept, a maintenance firm.

As reported last week, Sidmel Estes, a longtime television executive producer and the founder and CEO of Breakthrough Inc., a media consulting company, says her Atlanta-based firm is working to assemble a group of investors “who want to see the next generation of Ebony.” Joining Estes, a former president of the National Association of Black Journalists, are Neil Foote, who leads the National Association of Multicultural Media Executives, and Willie Chriesman, a former broadcast news manager.

Meanwhile, Lerone Bennett Jr. confirmed that he resigned as executive editor emeritus of Ebony because of the way his daughter, senior editor Joy T. Bennett, left the magazine in August. "I resigned as executive editor emeritus effective immediately because of the mishandling of the case and the lack of criteria and perspective and a sense of history in dealing with the case," he told Journal-isms on Monday.

Lerone Bennett had worked for Johnson Publishing Co. for 52 years, including as Ebony’s executive editor.

Bryan Monroe to Teach at Medill School

Bryan Monroe, the former Knight Ridder executive who resigned in April as editorial director of Ebony and Jet magazines, has joined the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University as a visiting professor, the school announced on Tuesday.

A visiting professor is "a distinguished professional who joins the school for lesser or greater amounts of time to share the experiences, lessons and perspectives of the real world. Bryan will be teaching full-time," Mary Nesbitt, Medill’s dean of curriculum, told Journal-isms. Neither Nesbitt nor Monroe would disclose the length of the contract.

Monroe was assistant vice president/News at Knight Ridder when the company folded in 2006. Since he left Johnson Publishing, he has been a contributor for CNN, commenting on the death of Michael Jackson, whom he interviewed for Ebony’s December 2007 issue. Monroe was president of the National Association of Black Journalists from 2005 to 2007.

Joanna Hernandez was named to the Unity board. (Credit: Aisha Al-Muslim)

Ciara Named Unity President as Olmeda Steps Down

Barbara Ciara, immediate past president of the National Association of Black Journalists, was elected president of Unity: Journalists of Color, Inc., to complete the term vacated by Rafael Olmeda, who resigned as Unity president this past week, Unity announced on Monday.

Joanna Hernandez, member of the Craft of Journalism faculty at the City University of New York Graduate School of Journalism and of the National Association of Hispanic Journalists, was elected Unity vice president.

"As president I will continue UNITY’s goal to save, keep and create new jobs in journalism," said Ciara. "As alliance partners we have a voice in the chorus that cannot be ignored."

Olmeda, a former president of NAHJ, said on his blog that he stepped down "for the most transparent of personal reasons: to concentrate on my job and my family." He writes a parenting column and covers breaking news at the South Florida Sun-Sentinel.

Blacks Oppose Civil Unions, Pew Study Says

Blacks are much more likely to think that homosexuality is morally wrong (64%) than whites (48%) or Hispanics (43%), according to a Pew Research Center survey. And while support for civil unions stands at an all-time high in Pew Research Center surveys, with 57% favoring them and 37% opposed to allowing gay and lesbian couples to enter into legal agreements with each other, blacks stand with conservative Republicans, white evangelicals and those who attend church weekly in opposition. Among whites, the figures was 61 percent in favor and 34 percent opposed; among blacks, 40 percent in favor and 52 percent opposed; among Hispanics, 49 percent in favor and 46 percent opposed.

"Attitudes on same-sex marriage currently stand almost exactly where they did 12 months ago, with just over half of Americans (53%) opposed and 39% in favor of allowing gays and lesbians to marry legally," the organization said.

Meanwhile, Michael R. Triplett analyzed coverage of the gay rights National Equality March in Washington last weekend for the National Lesbian and Gay Journalists Association.

He concluded that the Washington Post gave the march the best play of any newspaper in the country.

"Relying on the Newseum’s Today’s Front Page website that features the front pages of newspapers around the world, it’s clear the march got very little page-one play. A march story made the front page of the Chicago Tribune and the Denver Post, which ran the New York Times story.

"In California, neither the LA Times or San Diego Union Tribune mentioned the march at all on the front page. The Orange County Register had teaser to a page 12 story, the San Francisco Chronicle teased a lead story in the metro section. In Florida, the Sun-Sentinel had no mention of the march on the front page, while the Miami Herald teased a page 3 story at the top of the paper and the St. Pete Times had a brief to inside story."

 

"For years, Roger lived in this shack made from old locker doors. He was waiting for housing materials (paid for by the federal government) to be delivered. Only one shipment of trusses ever came, largely due to corruption, mismanagement and institutional racism. He eventually moved to a ‘better’ home where he died of exposure this January. He was 72." (Credit: Darragh Worland)

NYU Students Undertake Multimedia Project on Navajos

Yvonne Latty is back at New York University after taking seven graduate students from her "Reporting New York" and "Reporting the Nation" graduate concentrations to the Southwest to report on the Navajo Nation. They planned a multimedia reporting project on uranium contamination and the housing issues that have "hurt the Navajo people."

"it was amazing, sad, breathtaking, intense, scary…my students were moved. listening to parents who lost six kids to uranium contamination, visiting homes, that are so poor who can believe this is america…" she wrote Wednesday by e-mail.

"i want to go back…"

"I went there to interview a vet for my book ‘In Conflict’ four years ago," Latty had written Journal-isms last Thursday, "and I was so very moved by the beauty, the despair and the strength of the people. I had this overwhelming feeling of just wishing I could do something. I made a vow to myself that I would go back. Since then one of my students, Nicole Tung, won the New York Photographers Association Award and a Hearts Award for an independent study she did with me on Navajo vets.

"I am going back because I want to show my students how important it is to tell the stories of the underserved. I want to give them an experience they will never, ever forget and will mold them as journalists. This is the first of yearly reporting trips I plan to take with students in my grad program to underserved communities around the country. The results of our work will be on our grad website¬†and you can follow us as our adventure begins tomorrow on twitter. I am excited, nervous, anxious and really proud of my students and my school, NYU’s Arthur L. Carter Journalism Institute, for allowing me to do this.

"Right now Navajo Nation has a multitude of issues unfolding, many having to do with the proposed building of a new mine and well as pressing health issues of many who have exposed to uranium contamination and are sick. Housing is also a very big issue. Obama recently lifted¬†a ban on new development there, which the law’s mere [existence] is hard to grasp. Many navajo have no water or electricity…it does not feel like America there. They are in so many ways forgotten people."

"Good Hair" Debuts at No. 14 at Box Office

The Chris Rock-produced documentary "Good Hair"¬†performed well at its 10-city opening, Variety reports, taking in $1.1 million at 186 locations, averaging $6,006 per screen. "Rock went on an aggressive tour of daytime skeins including ‘Oprah’ and ‘The View,’" the publication said.

The top movie was "Couple’s Retreat," which took in $11,429 per screen; followed by "Zombieland," at $4,872 per screen. "Good Hair," about many African American women’s obsession with straight hair, was No. 14.

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