Inquirer Retaliating Against Smith, Guild Charges
NABJ Asks AP for an Accounting of Its Downsizing
AAJA Borrows From Endowment to Meet $177,000 Deficit
"Mallard Fillmore" Artist Defends "Hate Crimes" Strip
Howard W. French Says Media Misinterpreted China Trip
One Mexican Reporter Missing, Another Honored
Inquirer Retaliating Against Smith, Guild Charges
The Newspaper Guild has filed a grievance alleging that the Philadelphia Inquirer is retaliating against sports columnist Stephen A. Smith by erecting obstacles to his return to print, even though the paper reluctantly complied with an arbitrator’s decision to reinstate him.
Editor William K. Marimow and Managing Editor Mike Leary’s "vindictive behavior is unconscionable, and will be vigorously challenged by the Guild using whatever legal and political means necessary," Bill Ross, executive director of the Newspaper Guild-Communications Workers Association of America Local 38010, told Journal-isms on Friday.
Smith returned to his sports columnist job on Nov. 12, 27 months after the newspaper demoted him and subsequently resisted an arbitrator’s ruling that the paper was in the wrong.
"I am anxious and ready to be a voice in – and for – the City of Philadelphia once again," Smith said in statement that day.
But Smith’s column has not yet returned.
"As you are aware Inquirer Editor Bill Marimow has fought Arbitrator Richard Kasher’s award since he ruled in the Newspaper Guild’s favor reinstating Stephen to his general columnist position, and awarding him a six figure back pay award in July," Ross told Journal-isms.
"After Marimow stalled 60 days to comply with the award, Kasher issued a clarification and ordered the employer to return Smith within 15 days. After the 15 days, the employer complied with the award to reinstate Smith, but on his first day back, was told in order to publish his columns, Smith would have to pledge to agree to an Inquirer code of ethics, and wanted to prohibit Smith’s outside work.
"Both violate our collective bargaining agreement, and no other employee has been forced or required to this pledge. The Guild has filed a grievance over this violation.
"Marimow has pledged not to back down, and his maladroit management style and disparate treatment of Mr. Smith will not be tolerated by the Newspaper Guild. This unethical behavior is clear retaliation for losing the arbitration, and has now caused this bankrupt estate thousands of dollars in additional legal fees, and will bring no doubt unwanted bad publicity to the local owners, fighting to keep control of Philadelphia Newspapers."
The owners of the Inquirer and Daily News are in bankruptcy, trying to shed $400 million in debt.
"Marimow and Managing Editor Mike Leary’s vindictive behavior is unconscionable, and will be vigorously challenged by the Guild using whatever legal and political means necessary."
Marimow told Journal-isms,"As I think you know, I can’t discuss personnel matters," and referred questions to Scott Baker, the company’s general counsel, who was not available.
NABJ Asks AP for an Accounting of Its Downsizing
The National Association of Black Journalists Friday asked the Associated Press for an accounting of how its layoffs are affecting journalists of color.
"We know that less than 100 employees are likely to be laid off, but the absence of news about these reductions on AP’s own wire where other industry downsizing has been chronicled, leaves us with many questions. How many black journalists are being affected by the cuts? What percentage of your staff is Black, Asian and Hispanic?" NABJ President Kathy Times and Deirdre Childress, vice president/print, asked in a letter to CEO Tom Curley.
The AP laid off 90 news employees worldwide this week to reach its goal of cutting annual payroll costs by 10 percent, the news cooperative reported.
"The AP set the target in October 2008 and said it achieved most of the reductions through attrition and buyouts. To complete the effort this week, the company resorted to its largest newsroom layoffs in memory — cutting roughly 2 percent of the work force."
Among those laid off was Victor Vaughan, a former NABJ board member who as national photo editor was one of AP’s highest ranking journalists of color. Also said to be cut was photographer Chitose Suzuki, who was posted in Vietnam. AP did not confirm any names, but e-mails to Suzuki’s AP e-mail account were returned as undeliverable. Suzuki, who came to the AP from the Boston Globe, won honorable mention this year in the National Press Photographers Association’s "Best of Photojournalism" contest.
NABJ said, "We fully understand that AP announced earlier this year that it was working hard to make reductions that had the smallest impact — including a hiring freeze and a voluntary early retirement plan. But we are seeking more information on the methods of these layoffs and in particular, how they affect the small numbers of minority managers. . . .
"NABJ also has serious concerns after the recent loss of our great friend Mike McQueen in New Orleans. Can you provide us information on how bureau chiefs are being promoted from inside and pulled in from outside your news organization? How many black bureau chiefs and deputies are currently among your ranks? Do they have the ability to hire and fire other staff members?"
McQueen, who died on Oct. 25, was the AP’s only African American bureau chief, although Kia Breaux is acting bureau chief in Kansas City.
Paul D. Colford, director of media relations, told Journal-isms this week that with any staff reductions, "We are always in conformity with the News Media Guild contract with the AP."
Tony Winton, president of the News Media Guild, said that in general, the contract calls for layoffs to be implemented by seniority, although skills and qualifications can be taken into account. He said the layoffs had not yet been analyzed race, age or gender, but "We will look at every single termination."
AAJA Borrows From Endowment to Meet $177,000 Deficit
The Asian American Journalists Association expects to borrow $167,000 from its endowment and is suspending most sharing of dues with local chapters in order to meet a $177,000 deficit.
"AAJA has a long history of fiscal prudence, balanced budgets and spending only what we have," national president Sharon Chan said in a message to members posted Friday on the AAJA Web site. "We have cut $200,000 in expenses since Jan. 1, renegotiated both our 2009 and 2010 national convention contracts, and reduced our small staff by 2.5 positions through attrition. But we have reached a point at which we cannot cut more deeply and maintain our commitments to our funders, scholarships, internships, and programs that serve you.
"At the end of 2009 we expect to face a $177,000 deficit. As a result, the Governing Board has taken two emergency steps:
- "We are suspending the chapters’ share of membership dues for 2009. In 2010, chapters will receive member dues shares only if a member is new or is upgrading, such as from a Full to a Gold or Platinum membership.
- "We have passed an aggressive budget to place AAJA on strong footing in 2010. To cover our cash shortfall this year, we have borrowed from our national endowment principal. By the end of 2009, we expect to borrow $167,000. This is not how AAJA envisioned the endowment would be used. The endowment was established to be invested so AAJA could use the investment proceeds to fund programs, scholarships and internships. We have set up a fundraising plan to pay the $167,000 back in 2010."
Chan also asked members to give to its "Power of One" campaign, which has helped it raise $35,000 this year.
Demonstrators protesting "Mallard Fillmore" strip in front of the Newsday building Wednesday display Newsday articles they say showed biased coverage’ and an ‘insulting attitude’ toward the immigrant community on Long Island. (Credit: Long Island Wins)
"Mallard Fillmore" Artist Defends "Hate Crimes" Strip
Bruce Tinsley, who drew the "Mallard Fillmore" comic strip¬†on hate crimes that Newsday this week said shouldn’t have run, protested to the newspaper that the strip "takes all violent crime seriously."
The nationally syndicated cartoon was titled ‘Liberals: The Early Years.’ It depicted a larger dinosaur chasing a small one. The bigger one says, ‘I’m not chasing you because you’re a pachycephalosaurus. . . . I’m chasing you because you’re delicious.’ The smaller dinosaur responds, ‘Oh, thank goodness. I was worried that this might be a hate crime,’" as reporter Keith Herbert explained in Newsday’s story.
The Long Island, N.Y., newspaper was picketed by angry residents aggrieved over the beating death a year ago of a Latino immigrant, and said they did not view hate crimes as a joking matter. They also complained about immigration coverage in the newspaper, and demanded the resignation of Editor John Mancini.
In a letter to Newsday made available to Journal-isms Friday by King Features, Tinsley said, "Mallard Fillmore takes all violent crime seriously.
"The point my cartoon made was that the animus behind a crime matters far less (or sometimes, not at all) than does the real violence done to a real person or people, and that a "hate-crime" mindset often trivializes that very violence by subordinating it to a political agenda.
"Even the ACLU has expressed concern over some versions of the recent hate crimes legislation introduced in Congress. Most 1st Amendment advocates, especially journalists, are often concerned about punishing the thought, not the action.
"I take your newspaper’s concerns seriously, and your readers’ perceptions even more seriously. But at the same time, as a cartoonist and former reporter, I don’t steer away from controversy ‚Äî I think debate and rigorous discussion of important issues is the role of the newspaper in a community."
- Ted Hesson, Long Island Wins blog: Newsday Comic Pokes Fun at Hate Crimes (Nov. 16)
- Ted Hesson, Long Island Wins blog: Newsday: Hate Crime Cartoon Should Not Have Run (Nov. 17)
Howard W. French Says Media Misinterpreted China Trip
Howard W. French, a former Shanghai correspondent for the New York Times who now teaches at Columbia Graduate School of Journalism, told the Columbia Journalism Review Friday that the U.S. media were so obsessed with "instant punditry" and the public’s "hysterical anxiety" that they misinterpreted President Obama’s trip to China this week.
“I don’t think that [the press] have gotten it right, to put things very simply," French told Alexandra Fenwick. "I think that part of the problem is not especially China-related but strikes me as a reflection of something that’s happening in the culture, particularly in the news culture, partially in response to the habits of television coverage and the increased pressures that come from digital media. There’s a growing reflex of instant punditry and reflexive reaction that works counter to more meaningful analysis. We’re in a state where we’re very often privileging the gut or the knee, as in knee-jerk, rather than thinking more meaningfully about things.
“The piece that really relates directly to China, I think, and the signals I get from this coverage are equally distressing. The unstated element for me in all of this coverage of Obama’s visit is a kind of hysterical insecurity in the American mind about the possibility — or reality, depending on how you look at it — of American decline. China being the most obvious and immediate symbol of American vulnerability and decline. You put these two things together, the hysterical insta-pundit on the one hand and the hysterical anxiety on the other hand, you end up with this kind of coverage that says essentially that Obama goes to China and doesn’t get instant, public, overt gratification on issues A through Zed and therefore it was a failed trip, or we’re losing ground to China or we have no more standing or we have no more clout or the Chinese moment is upon us—any number of variations on this decline-related theme.
“A great irony of this, and I’m making generalizations about the coverage, but one great irony is that the fact the Chinese had to pack an audience in Shanghai with Communist party youth and people who were trained to ask very anodyne questions or to ask very obvious political questions. You can look at this on the one hand as a sign of American lack of influence with China, as many people were quick to do, or you can look at it on the other hand as a sign of, ‘Hey we’re talking about China like the next great thing and they’re so insecure they can’t even allow a Q and A with the president?’ That to me is a more interesting interpretation."
French teaches a seminar on reporting on China.
One Mexican Reporter Missing, Another Honored
"A Mexican reporter who had recently covered corruption and organized crime was reported missing this week in the western state of Michoac?°n, according to local news reports," the Committee to Protect Journalists reported¬†Friday.
In Canada, meanwhile, the writers organization PEN Canada honored Lydia Cacho, an author, journalist and women’s rights activist who PEN said was illegally arrested, detained and ill-treated before being subjected to a year-long criminal defamation lawsuit after she published a book on child pornography in Mexico.
The missing journalist, Mar??a Esther Aguilar Cansimbe, "a reporter with 10 years of experience who has worked with several regional outlets, had recently broken a series of stories on local corruption and organized crime for El Cambio de Michoac?°n, according to the paper," CPJ said.
"On October 22, she reported on a military operation near Zamora where at least three individuals, including the son of a local politician, were arrested on suspicion of participating with organized crime groups. On October 27, she published a story on local police abuse, after which a high-ranking official was forced to resign. Three days later, she reported on the arrest of an alleged boss of the Michoac?°n-based dug cartel La Familia Michoacana. According to a colleague at the daily, Aguilar did not use her byline on any of the stories for fear of reprisal."
- Interview with Lydia Cacho, "As It Happens," Canadian Broadcasting Corp. (audio) 
