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Mayor “Outraged” by Police Diss of Newspaper

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Cops Gave Rivals Questions Asked by Post-Gazette

ESPN President Wants “Thoughtful” Discussion

Website Tracking Killings Expands to Chicago

Terri Cope-Walton Named News Director in Indy

Writers Knock White Male Look of Obama Nominees

Hometown Paper Says Bonds Doesn’t Belong in Hall

Columnists Assess Blame in Case of RGIII Knee Injury 

For Critics, the “Django” Gift Keeps On Giving

Hugh Grannum Dies at 72, Photog Captured Detroit

Short Takes

Cops Gave Rivals Questions Asked by Post-Gazette

The mayor of Pittsburgh called the executive editor of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette and “professed outrage” that the city’s police chief had distributed to other reporters the questions Post-Gazette journalists were asking about police conduct in the slaying of a young woman and the suicide of the man police said confessed to shooting her, the newspaper said in an editorial Friday.

“Mayor Luke Ravenstahl professed outrage in a call to the Post-Gazette’s executive editor at what his chief had done and promised that it will not happen again,” the editorial said. “We take him at his word, given that the episode made his police officials look petty and vindictive.”

The editorial said, “. . . it was outrageous and illegitimate for the bureau to circulate the Post-Gazette’s questions and a summary of the facts its reporters had gathered, in a news release last Saturday to dozens of other journalists.

“The action reveals an obnoxious defensiveness by the bureau on taking legitimate questions from reporters about the murder of a young woman and the suicide of the man police said confessed to shooting her — a tragedy that perhaps might have been prevented by better police work.

“Ka’Sandra Wade, 33, was found shot to death in her Larimer home on New Year’s Day. But nearly 24 hours earlier, she had called 911 and the call-taker heard a commotion before the line was disconnected. Two officers responded but went away after speaking only to a man who said nothing was amiss. He turned out to be the woman’s boyfriend, Anthony L. Brown, 51, who fatally shot himself Jan. 2 during a standoff with a SWAT team after admitting to the murder.

“Questions naturally arose from these events. Post-Gazette reporters Liz Navratil and Jonathan D. Silver wrote their questions and emailed them to the bureau, as they have sometimes done before, for a response. Subsequently, Diane Richard, the public information officer, issued a press release that quoted Chief Nate Harper as saying that an investigation was in its early stages and the bureau would not provide a statement or answers to anyone. The release ordered by the chief also disseminated the questions of and the information obtained to that point by the Post-Gazette’s reporters. . . . “

The editorial continued, “Post-Gazette Executive Editor David M. Shribman said that this was probably the most horrifying and unprofessional PR behavior he had seen in four decades in journalism,” and added words of support from the Newspaper Guild and the Public Relations Society of America.

“. . . Some members of the public in a media-hostile age may dismiss this as special pleading,” the editorial said. “But once a government agency arrogantly decides to punish perceived enemies, reporters from any news organization become candidates for the same treatment — the Post-Gazette one day, WPXI the next, with the ultimate victim the public’s right to know. To dismiss this as unimportant is to suggest that a young woman’s life was unimportant; it is to suggest that the people of Pittsburgh don’t deserve real answers about public safety, police performance and what their tax dollars are buying. . . .

In the Pittsburgh City Paper, Chris Potter wrote on Friday, “It’s unclear whether police could have saved Wade, who may already have been dead by the time they arrived. But while city officials, and District Attorney Steve Zappala, are reviewing the incident, Wade’s friends are already mobilizing to change how police respond to potential domestic-abuse situations.

” ‘Ka’Sandra was moving so fast toward a leadership role here. She was going to be a change-maker,’ says Maryellen Deckerd, the Western Regional Director of Action United, the community-justice group where Wade worked. ‘One reason we want to hold this vigil is to change people.’ “

Media spokesmen for the mayor’s office and the police bureau did not respond to requests for comment.

ESPN President Wants “Thoughtful” Discussion

“In the wake of Rob Parker‘s racially insensitive comments about Redskins quarterback Robert Griffin III,” ESPN President John Skipper “said he’s creating a new checks-and-balances system to prevent this type of embarrassment from happening again on ESPN’s First Take and other studio programs,” Barry Jackson wrote Friday for the Miami Herald.

“And he wants the debate [between] Stephen A. Smith and Skip Bayless to be spirited but thoughtful, not outrageous.

“ESPN announced this week that it is not renewing Parker’s contract — after initially suspending him 30 days for suggesting that Griffin is not authentically black.

” ‘I like Rob [but] what he said was clearly inappropriate,’ Skipper said. ‘The fact nobody caught it and re-aired it showed a significant lack of judgment. I met personally with the producers and told them how disappointed I was and we were going to suspend some of them and I expect them to be more careful in the future.’

“The problem with First Take is that Bayless often seems hell-bent on making outrageous comments simply to see what reaction it will evoke.

” ‘It’s a debate show and we get a lot of criticism for it,’ Skipper said. ‘I personally don’t have any problem with doing a debate. You just have to figure out where you walk the line [between] being provocative and stepping over it and saying something stupid. We’ve done that once or twice on this show. We’re going to add more checks and balances.’

“How tough is it to find that line? ‘Apparently, pretty tough.’

“But Skipper added the segment ‘shouldn’t be built on people saying outrageous things. It should be built on vigorous discussion and debate. We’ve got a very successful show, Pardon The Interruption, which is a debate show, but it works because of the judgment and the brains of Tony Kornheiser and Mike Wilbon and [producer] Eric Rydholm.’

“Skipper added that ‘Stephen, Skip and [producer] Jamie Horowitz are bright guys. They ought to be able to figure it out. The show has worked. The ratings have gone up.’ . . . “

Website Tracking Killings Expands to Chicago

As the nation debates measures to stem gun violence, Christine Haughney of the New York Times reported Thursday that “Homicide Watch, the Washington, D.C., Web site that tracks murders, has found another crime-ridden city to cover.

“The Chicago Sun-Times is partnering with Homicide Watch’s co-founders, Laura and Chris Amico, to launch a Chicago edition. The [Sun-Times] paid the Amicos for the technology to build the Web site. The paper plans to have its crime reporter, plus several general assignment reporters, cover murders and have interns track and follow up on these cases.

“The Web site (homicides.suntimes.com) is scheduled to be up and running later this month.

“Jim Kirk, The Chicago [Sun-Times’] editor in chief, said that the Web site’s launch is especially well-timed.

“’In Chicago, the murder rate is what everybody is talking about,’ said Mr. Kirk. ‘This is one of many initiatives we want to experiment with, in trying to bring our readers more closely together. What Homicide Watch shows is that people do like to discuss and relate to issues in their backyard.’. . . “

Terri Cope-Walton Named News Director in Indy

“WRTV, the Scripps affiliate in Indianapolis has a familiar face now leading the newsroom. Terri Cope-Walton has been promoted to news director at RTV6,” the E.W. Scripps Co. announced.

” ‘After a nationwide search, I found the most qualified, natural leader for RTV6 News right here inside our station,’ said Larry Blackerby, vice president and general manager of RTV6. ‘In just the past few weeks, Terri has done an outstanding job leading our team of journalists in covering two of the biggest local stories of the past year — first with extensive and exclusive coverage of the arrests in the Richmond Hill explosion on the Southside and then with wall to wall reporting of the blizzard the day after Christmas. Terri’s news judgment, passion and commitment to local coverage is outstanding.’

“Cope-Walton previously was assistant news director at RTV6 and has been interim news director since November 2012. She has served in many roles and worked with many departments since joining the RTV6 staff in 1998, including leading the station’s community affairs efforts and as the lead producer for RTV6 Good Morning, Indiana. . . .”

Writers Knock White Male Look of Obama Nominees

“Maybe Obama needs to borrow Romney’s ‘binders full of women,‘ ” Jennifer Vanasco wrote Friday for Columbia Journalism Review. “That’s what Margaret Carlson of Bloomberg News suggested in her opinion piece wondering why Obama’s new Cabinet is looking ‘more like the Augusta National Golf Club than America.’

“The Washington Post first brought this story to our attention on Monday, with a piece by David Nakamura noting that President Obama had nominated men to three big Cabinet posts: State (after Susan Rice dropped out of the running), Defense, and CIA. ‘The moves have disappointed some supporters who said they fear, with [Secretary of State] Clinton’s departure, a paucity of females among Obama’s top advisors, particularly in the traditionally male-dominated field of defense and security,’ Nakamura wrote.

“But it was The New York Times that took the story and hit it out of the park on Tuesday. First, the paper published White House photographer Pete Souza‘s damning December photo of male senior advisors circling the President (and noted that if you look closely, you can see Valerie Jarrett‘s leg just visible in front of the desk. That mostly-hidden Jarrett somehow made the whole thing even worse.) That photo made the story, ‘Obama’s Remade Inner Circle Has an All-Male Look, So Far’ hit on a visceral level.

“Second, the story itself was an outstanding example of enterprise reporting using data analysis. Annie Lowrey, an economic policy reporter, pointed out — as did Nakamura and Carlson — that there were in fact strong female possibilities for the Cabinet posts, including Michèle Flournoy, a former undersecretary of defense, and Lael Brainard, Treasury undersecretary for international affairs. Obama just didn’t choose them. . . . “

Hometown Paper Says Bonds Doesn’t Belong in Hall

“Major League Baseball is embarrassed that, in a rare turn of events, no player was elected by baseball writers to the Hall of Fame,” the San Jose Mercury News editorialized on Tuesday. “The snub of two of the biggest stars in the game’s history — Barry Bonds and Roger Clemens — is a full-blown marketing nightmare highlighting the very worst aspects of the game.

“Good,” wrote the Mercury News, which as a Bay Area publication qualifies as one of Bonds’ hometown newspapers. Bonds played from 1986 to 2007 for the Pittsburgh Pirates and San Francisco Giants.

On the other hand, Jerome Solomon wrote Wednesday in the Houston Chronicle, “. . . Today’s news that none of the eligible players, great players mind you, were deemed good enough by enough voters to have earned Hall of Fame induction tells me that I don’t belong in that group. . . .”

On ESPN.com, Howard Bryant disclosed, “I didn’t vote for any of the players on this ballot, not Bonds or Clemens, not Mike Piazza or Jeff Bagwell, because the damages to the game were real. . . .”

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