Joyner, Smiley Clash Again Over Obama
The differences between syndicated radio host Tom Joyner and media figure Tavis Smiley, who was was a regular commentator on the Joyner show, show no signs of mending. Joyner wrote on his blog Monday, “What do many Republicans, the spokesmen, for NRA and Tavis Smiley have in common? Once they start down a road, no matter how dangerous or ridiculously wrong it is, they won’t turn back.”
He added, ““I believe that Tavis is the one fascinated with Dr. King’s legacy, but more importantly Tavis is fascinated with his own legacy, and that’s not good.”
Smiley said on CBS’ “Sunday Morning” , “I’ve heard people exclaim that President Obama is the fulfillment of Dr. King’s dream. Well, not exactly. . . . The interrelated triple threat of poverty, militarism and racism that King talked about still looms large in a yet-deeply-divided America.”
Joyner said, “. . . Dr. King knew good things would be said about him in death and he was humbled at the idea of it. Tavis is afraid of what will be said about him and it’s driving him crazy. He points out on the day of President Obama’s swearing in that the President is not the fulfillment of Dr.King’s dream, but maybe a good down payment. I wonder what that makes Tavis, and sadly, does he.”
Meanwhile, Cornel West, Smiley’s partner on the “Smiley and West” radio show, “says he is outraged that Mr. Obama would use Dr. King’s personal Bible at the inauguration without endorsing Dr. King’s ‘black freedom struggle,’” Susan Saulny reported Sunday in the New York Times.
“ ‘Martin went to jail talking about carpet bombing in Vietnam and trying to organize poor people, fighting for civil liberties,’ Mr. West said. The president, he said, ‘has a compromising kind of temperament.’ ”
- Chris Ariens, TV Newser: Al Roker Gets Parade-Side Interview with Pres. Obama and Handshake from VP Biden
- Robert Siegel with Roger Wilkins, Delegate Eleanor Holmes Norton, D-D.C., Shelby Steele and Sherrilyn Ifill, “All Things Considered,” NPR: How Large Does President Obama Stand In Black History?
- Tom Joyner, Black America Web: Who Cares About the Color of Obama’s Cabinet? (Jan. 17)
- Sandra Lilley, NBCLatino: Latinos have an agenda for the President’s first 100 days
Asian Americans Relied on Ethnic Media During Campaign
“Around half of Asian Americans relied on ethnic media for news during the last election in which the growing community voted overwhelmingly for President Barack Obama, a study said Thursday,” Shaun Tandon reported for Agence France-Press.
“Massive support by minorities played a vital role in Obama’s re-election on November 6. Asian Americans made up 3.4 percent of the electorate and could play a greater future role as they form the fastest expanding racial group.
“The Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund, releasing detailed findings from its exit polls, found that 48 percent of Asian Americans considered ethnic media, led by television, to be their prime news source.
“Asian Americans of Korean, Vietnamese and Chinese heritage are most likely to consider vernacular-language ethnic media their main news source. The figure dwindles for Indian and Filipino Americans for whom fluent English is the norm.”
Seventy-seven percent voted for Barack Obama for president,
Thirty-seven percent were limited English proficient, defined as speaking English “less than very well.”
Voters were asked if they encountered any voting problems. The organization said 249 were required to prove their U.S. citizenship; 307 said that their names were missing or had errors in the list of voters at poll sites; 215 had to vote by provisional ballot; 165 voters said that poll workers did not know what to do; 136 voters said that poll workers were rude or hostile; 183 voters said that no interpreters or translations were available when they needed their help and 105 were directed to the wrong poll site or voting machine/table within a site.
Google Drops “Make Me Asian” Smartphone App
” ‘Make Me Asian,’ a smartphone app that drew the ire of Asian-American activists for what they say are stereotypical depictions, is no longer available on the Google Play Store,” Gene Demby reported Thursday for NPR.
“The ‘Make Me Asian’ app let users alter photos to turn faces into stereotypical Asian caricatures — think Fu Manchu-style mustaches and rice paddy hats. Its creator, ‘KimberyDeiss,’ developed similar apps, like Make Me Indian, Make Me Russian, Make Me Frankenstein and Make Me Fat. Those apps are no longer available, either, and KimberyDeiss’s Google Play profile has been deleted.
“. . . In a recent conversation with NPR’s Allison Keyes, columnist Jeff Yang of The Wall Street Journal said he wasn’t surprised that the app didn’t raise the sort of objections that apps about other ethnic groups might have.
” ‘There is less inherent social and political power associated with these groups,’ he said, so the consequences often aren’t as serious ‘if you parody, satire or mock or offend these communities.’ “
Cristina Azocar Named Interim J-Chair at San Francisco State
Cristina Azocar, the director of the Center for Integration and Improvement of Journalism at San Francisco State University for more than 10 years, has resigned to become the interim chair of the Department of Journalism, the school announces on its website. Azocar is a past president of the Native American Journalists Association and serves on the board of the Women’s Media Center.
“Associate Professor Rachele Kanigel will become the acting director of CIIJ while a new direction is planned for the 23-year-old organization.”
Founded at San Francisco State University in 1990 by Betty Medsger, the Center for Integration and Improvement of Journalism “believes that accurate and responsible journalism reflects the changing demographics of the society it serves. We develop programs and conduct research aimed at recruiting, retaining and revitalizing journalists and journalism educators. We seek to make journalism more inclusive from the classroom to the newsroom,” it says.
Azocar is to serve while Chair Venise Wagner is on leave during the spring semester.
Hans Massaquoi of Ebony Dies, Grew Up Among Nazis
“Hans Massaquoi, a former managing editor of Ebony magazine who wrote a distinctive memoir about his unusual childhood growing up black in Nazi Germany, has died. He was 87,” Freida Frisaro reported Monday for the Associated Press.
“His son said Massaquoi died Saturday, on his 87th birthday, in Jacksonville. He had been hospitalized over the Christmas holidays.
” ‘He had quite a journey in life,’ said Hans J. Massaquoi, Jr. of Detroit. ‘Many have read his books and know what he endured. But most don’t know that he was a good, kind, loving, fun-loving, fair, honest, generous, hard-working and open-minded man. He respected others and commanded respect himself. He was dignified and trustworthy. We will miss him forever and try to live by his example.’
“In an interview in 2000, the elder Massaquoi told The Associated Press that he credited the late Alex Haley, author of ‘Roots,’ with convincing him to share his experience of being ‘both an insider in Nazi Germany and, paradoxically, an endangered outsider.’ His autobiography, ‘Destined to Witness: Growing Up Black in Nazi Germany,’ was published in the U.S. in 1999 and a German translation was also published.
“Massaquoi’s mother was a German nurse and his father was the son of a Liberian diplomat. He grew up in working class neighborhoods of the port city of Hamburg.
“. . . . He worked first for Jet Magazine before moving to Chicago-based Ebony, where he rose to managing editor before retiring in the late 1990s.”
Jessica Lum, Multimedia Journalist, Dies at 25
Jessica Lum, a journalist who combined multimedia skills with enthusiasm for telling stories to report news and share her personal struggle with cancer on Facebook, died June 13 of cancer, her family said. She was 25, Robert D. Dávila reported Thursday in the Sacramento Bee.
“Ms. Lum, who graduated from McClatchy High School, was a senior at UCLA when she was diagnosed in 2008 with metastatic pheochromocytoma, a rare cancer. Having documented much of her college life in comments and photos on Facebook, she instinctively turned to social media to announce that she had cancer and to seek support.
“She posted updates about her health for more than 1,000 Facebook friends. She voiced private feelings in a public forum with ‘an online style of honesty mixed with humor and sarcasm,’ according to a Bee story in 2009.
“. . . For her master’s thesis, Ms. Lum spent weeks in the Colorado Desert in Southern California interviewing, photographing and writing about residents of Slab City, a squatters haven in Imperial County. Her multimedia project, ‘Slab City Stories,’ won the 2012 Online News Association award for best feature by a student. (The project is online at slabcitystories.com.)”
Short Takes
- Condoleezza Rice, secretary of state in the Bush administration, has joined CBS News as a contributor, the network announced on Sunday. “Rice is currently a professor of Political Economy in the Graduate School of Business; the Thomas and Barbara Stephenson Senior Fellow on Public Policy at the Hoover Institution; and a professor of Political Science at Stanford University,” the announcement said. Bill Carter noted in the New York Times, “Other figures from the Bush administration have been hired as television commentators, including Karl Rove, the former deputy chief of staff, and the former United Nations ambassador, John Bolton, both at Fox News.”
- While continuing as host of “NewsNation” weekday afternoons on MSNBC, Tamron Hall has signed to host “Deadline: Crime with Tamron Hall,” a 13-part series for Investigative Discovery, Robert Feder reported Saturday for Time Out Chicago. “The 2004 murder of Hall’s sister Renate, who was a victim of domestic violence, makes Hall uniquely qualified to host the series, according to a statement by the network.”
- Tom Rosenstiel, executive director of the American Press Institute, challenged Alan Mutter‘s analysis, published last week, that roughly three-quarters of newspaper readers are now over age 45. Rosenstiel wrote for the Poynter Institute, “He based his analysis on data from the Pew Research Center that I was involved in producing from summer 2010 and summer 2012. (I left the Pew Research Center in December to take the helm of the American Press Institute). The problem is, the analysis doesn’t reflect reality.”
- Al Sharpton told NPR’s Corey Dade that the idea for his “PoliticsNation” on MSNBC “came from Paula Madison, then the executive vice president and chief diversity officer for NBCUniversal. She envisioned Sharpton hosting a weekly program similar to the CNN show hosted by civil rights leader Jesse Jackson in the 1990s. Sharpton says he pitched the idea to MSNBC President Phil Griffin, who rejected it before eventually deciding to hire him as a daily host.” Dade’s ” The Rev. Al Sharpton, In Six True-False Statements” appeared on the NPR site on Saturday.
- On Saturday, the Bronx Documentary Center in New York opened “Seis del Sur: Dispatches from Home by Six Nuyorican Photographers,” an exhibition of photographs, video, and ephemera by Joe Conzo, Jr, Ricky Flores, Ángel Franco, David Gonzalez, Edwin Pagán and Francisco Molina Reyes II, all photographers of Puerto Rican descent. Gonzalez and Franco work at the New York Times; Flores at the suburban Journal News. “The exhibition depicts the South Bronx in the 1970s, 80s and 90s as captured by those who lived through the famous devastation. This groundbreaking exhibition, a combination of street photography, portraiture, crime scene photos, and snapshots from the birth of hip hop, has been ‘thirty years in the making,’” an announcement says. The exhibition runs until March 8.
- In Hawaii, “News anchor Teri Okita will leave Hawaii News Now at the end of the February Nielsen ratings period and former anchor Grace Lee, who left the stations in November of 2010, will be returning, the Star-Advertiser has learned,” the Star-Advertiser in Honolulu reported Monday.
- In New York, “WABC reporter Marci Gonzalez is joining ABC News as a New York-based correspondent for NewsOne,” Merrill Knox reported Friday for TVSpy. “Gonzalez joined the New York City ABC O&O as a reporter in 2011. She has also worked at WPTV in West Palm Beach and News 12 The Bronx.”
