Stephen A. Smith Reportedly Starting Fox Radio Show
3 of Color Among N.Y. Times Journalists Taking Buyouts
Juju Chang Picked for "Good Morning America" Spot
Last Black Reporter Leaves Wichita Eagle
Obama Delivers on Open Government Directive
Tiger Woods Scandal Tests Mainstream Sportswriters
Bay Area Service Honors "Media Martyrs" in Philippines
Paper’s Gift Guide for People of Color Is "Racist"
Stephen A. Smith Reportedly Starting Fox Radio Show
Fox Radio Sports host Steve Czaban has told listeners that his show is being canceled so that the time slot can be occupied by Stephen A. Smith, the Philadelphia Inquirer columnist whose paper refuses to publish him in a continuing dispute.
On the sports blog "The Big Lede" on Wednesday, editor Jason McIntyre quoted from Czaban’s posting, which has since been taken down:
" ‘My contract with Fox Sports Radio has not been renewed. The last day of the ‘Steve Czaban Show’ is scheduled for December 23rd.’ . . . In a blog post, Czabe gives some good behind-the-scenes details of what went on, and offers up news that may not go down easy to Fox Radio listeners – Stephen A. Smith is his replacement."
McIntyre was right. "The cancellation of the Steve Czaban show is a huge mistake! Then, to replace Czaban with Stephen A. Smith? Wow, talk about doubling down on stupidity," one reader wrote on Czaban’s site. While the original posting by Czaban has been altered, the readers’ comments remain.
The show airs weekdays from 6 a.m. to 9 a.m. Eastern time Monday through Friday, and is heard in over 110 markets, according to Czaban’s Web site. "The show is also heard on XM Channel 142, and replayed from 12-3 p.m. EST to accommodate West Coast listeners who can’t hear his show live."
If Smith starts the Fox Radio show, it could escalate the differences between Smith and the Inquirer management, which reluctantly complied with an arbitrator’s decision to reinstate him after firing him in 2007.
"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,¬†" Bill Ross, executive director of the Newspaper Guild-Communications Workers Association of America Local 38010, told Journal-isms last month.
Fox Sports Radio could not find an appropriate spokesman last night, and Smith’s lawyer, Johnine Barnes, said she would have a statement on Thursday.
3 of Color Among N.Y. Times Journalists Taking Buyouts
Jennifer 8. Lee, Nicole Collins and Jonathan D. Glater are among the New York Times journalists of color who are leaving after the paper sought 100 buyouts to avoid layoffs.
"More than 80 years of experience is leaving when we say goodbye to Ralph Blumenthal, Nicole Collins, Paul Nielsen, Tina Kelley and Jenny 8. Lee. Join us in a toast at 6 p.m. in the Page One conference room, Metro Editor Joe Sexton said in a memo Thursday published on the Gawker Web site.
He said Collins, an editor on the Metro staff, "had barely begun to taste the huge success she was so clearly destined for."
". . . Then there’s Jenny 8. Lee, who has spent the last two years as one of the creative and daring and agile brains behind City Room, and her instincts and inventiveness have helped make it the second most popular blog in our empire."
Lee, 33, is also the author of "The Fortune Cookie Chronicles: Adventures in the World of Chinese Food ." Starting as a technology reporter at the Times nine years ago, spending two years in Washington and then working on the City Room blog, Lee developed a reputation as a trend-spotter. She has also been a judge of the Knight News Challenge, "a competition offers up to $5 million for innovative ideas using digital experiments to transform community news,"
Sexton’s reference to "80 years of experience" applied only to his Metro staff. Glater worked on the Financial desk.
Juju Chang Picked for "Good Morning America" Spot
ABC correspondent Juju Chang will take Chris Cuomo’s spot as news anchor on "Good Morning America" in a shuffle that sees George Stephanopoulos co-hosting the show starting Monday, succeeding Diane Sawyer, who moves to "World News," Howard Kurtz reported¬†in the Washington Post.
Chang also writes a blog about balancing work and family, called "Juju Juggles," Kurtz noted.
"The co-host Robin Roberts and the weatherman Sam Champion are expected to keep their jobs on ‘G.M.A.’ The anchor changes ‚Äî expected to be announced on Thursday ‚Äî will restore a two-man, two-woman gender balance to the show," Brian Stelter and Bill Carter reported Wednesday in the New York Times.
"Chang, who joined ABC News in 1991, has been working on several projects for ABC News magazines, ABCNews.com and has been filling in on ‘Good Morning America Weekend, ‘ " Chris Ariens wrote Wednesday for MediaBistro.
"Insiders tell us Chang did not campaign for the job ‚Äî she and her husband, former NBC News president Neal Shapiro, have three young sons ‚Äî but rather that executives looked at a compilation of the work she’d been doing for the network, then brought her in for a test with Robin Roberts and George Stephanopoulos last week.
"’They felt that she had a certain chemistry with George and Robin,’ says an insider. ‘In the end it basically came down to chemistry.’"
Last Black Reporter Leaves Wichita Eagle
Jonathan Long, a high school sports reporter who was the last African American reporter at the Wichita (Kan.) Eagle, left Kansas’ largest newspaper on Monday, his editors told Journal-isms.
Long’s departure follows that of columnist Mark McCormick, Christina M. Woods, a cultural affairs reporter, and Jeffrey H. Martin, who covered Kansas State University athletics, as reported¬†in September.
Remaining is a African American Web producer, Eba Hamid, who started at the end of September.
"It’s tragic," Kevin Myles, Wichita Branch NAACP president and president of the Kansas State Conference of NAACP Branches, told Journal-isms.
He said he was particularly struck when the Eagle ran a wire story about an elephant out of state but failed to cover the statewide NAACP conference held in Wichita for the first time in 76 years. "I thought that was so sad," he said.
Even sadder, he said, "The only time the community seems to be afforded coverage is when they have a black reporter to cover it."
In September, Sherry Chisenhall, editor of the McClatchy-owned paper, told Journal-isms that the paper will attempt "to start over and rebuild the diversity on our news staff. No one is nonchalant about the importance of that."
She said this week, "I have nothing to add beyond the comments I sent you in September. Jonathan Long’s voluntary resignation does not change anything in what I’ve already said."
Long did not respond to requests for comment. He said in September that "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," speaking of McCormick.
Steve Kroft, shown interviewing Barack Obama in November 2008 as president-elect, has snared Obama again for a "60 Minutes" telecast Sunday. Topics are Afghanistan, Pakistan, jobs and White House security.
Obama Delivers on Open Government Directive
"Advocates for greater freedom of information are expressing approval of the Obama administration‚Äôs new ‚ÄòOpen Government Directive‚Äô¬†‚Äî but some are sounding cautionary notes that executive agencies are still hiding behind ‘national security’ to conceal government misconduct," William Fisher wrote Thursday for Inter-Press Service.
"The White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) issued its ‚ÄòOpen Government Directive‚Äô Tuesday, instructing government agencies and departments to take specific actions to increase ‘transparency, participation and collaboration’ in government, with the aim of creating ‘an unprecedented and sustained level of openness and accountability in every agency.’
"The directive is intended to make good on the pledge of transparency President Barack Obama made during his first week in office. It establishes deadlines for action and imposes guidelines for publishing government information and improving the quality of that information. It also orders each agency to establish an ‘Open Government Plan’ that details how it will incorporate transparency, opportunities for public participation, and inter- agency collaboration into its core mission objectives."
Meanwhile, CBS-TV announced that Obama had given his first extensive interview since announcing his troop build-up in Afghanistan last week to Steve Kroft, who has interviewed Obama several times now. The interview is to be broadcast on "60 Minutes" on Sunday at 7 p.m. Eastern time.
"President Obama talks about his plans for Afghanistan and Pakistan, the economy and the creation of jobs and reacts to the breach in security at last week’s White House state dinner," the network said.
- Amanda Becker, Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press: White House releases long-awaited Open Government Directive
- Clint Hendler, Columbia Journalism Review: FOIA after the Open Government Directive
Tiger Woods Scandal Tests Mainstream Sportswriters
"If superstar golfer Tiger Woods hoped time and lying low would stay the onslaught of tabloid coverage, he appears to have badly misread the green that’s associated with a big-time scandal," Eric Deggans wrote Tuesday in the St. Petersburg (Fla.) Times.
"A growing list of women purporting to have had relationships with Woods has kept media outlets such as the New York Post, TMZ.com and the National Enquirer chasing the story for nearly two weeks. It’s a frenzied battle for more readers, and the ad dollars that come with them.
"And as the possible tally grows to nine women associated with the man once known as the most disciplined athlete in sports, even mainstream sports journalists find themselves pulled into covering a personal scandal they may not want to touch at all.
". . . In the same way high profile affairs by politicians such as Bill Clinton have made infidelity stories more routine for political reporters, now mainstream sports journalists may have to spend more time dissecting rumors of catting around by the athletes on their beat. That, or risk losing audience and bragging rights to the TMZs of the media world."
Meanwhile, the Associated Press’ Jesse Washington, who said he drew a 60-40 negative reaction¬†for a piece that said reported that "little attention has been given to the race of the women linked with the world’s greatest golfer," found some support¬†in a column by the Washington Post’s Eugene Robinson.
"Woods’s self-esteem was apparently only boosted by bedding the kind of woman he thought other men lusted after ‚Äî the ‘Playmate of the Month’ type that Hugh Hefner turned into the American gold standard," Robinson wrote.
"But the world is full of beautiful women of all colors, shapes and sizes ‚Äî some with short hair or almond eyes, some with broad noses, some with yellow or brown skin. Woods appears to have bought into an ‘official’ standard of beauty that is so conventional as to be almost oppressive."
- Reed Albergotti, Wall Street Journal: The whites would like to trade their number one pick in the "Race Draft". Any takers?
- Eric Deggans blog, St. Petersburg (Fla.) Times:  TMZ honcho Harvey Levin basks in the rise of celebrity news
- Larry Dorman, New York Times:  Tiger Woods as Pitchman Slips From View
- Courtland Milloy, Washington Post: Tiger could find redemption on D.C. links
- Eugene Robinson, Washington Post: Tiger’s validation complex
- Victoria Ward, the Mirror, England: Tiger Woods urged to confess all to Oprah Winfrey as allegations of a sixth mistress emerges
- Tonyaa Weathersbee, BlackAmericaWeb.com:¬†Tale of Tiger’s Infidelity More Than Cautionary
Bay Area Service Honors "Media Martyrs" in Philippines
"When the news broke out that 31 journalists had been murdered in the Philippines, media practitioners around the world — including those in the San Francisco Bay Area — have been enraged by the heinous tragedy," Marconi Calindas of GMANews.TV wrote on Friday.
"The San Francisco Bay Area-based Philippine American Press Club immediately organized its members to honor and assist the families of the journalists that were brutally killed.
". . . The US-based Fil-Am Press Club held a memorial mass¬†for the ‘media martyrs’ on Wednesday night at the St. Patrick‚Äôs Church in downtown San Francisco. It was celebrated by Rev. Alex Pablo.
"Inquirer.Net and Philippine News columnist Emil Guillermo served as the master of ceremonies.
"Guillermo introduced other speakers including Filipinas Magazine publisher and columnist Greg Macabenta, Philippine Consul General in San Francisco Marciano Paynor, Jr., California Senator Leland Yee, Asian American Journalists Association’s Annabelle A. Udo-O’Malley and New America Media chief of staff, news anchor and producer Odette Keeley.
Guillermo wrote on his blog, "From afar, the mass. . . was a good first response.
"Phil Bronstein, the editor-at-large of the San Francisco Chronicle, the Bay Area’s premier newspaper was among the speakers. Phil’s work made him a finalist for the Pulitizer. He said Maguindanao reminded him of the danger while covering Marcos. “I had a few people threaten me so I felt briefly that discomforting sometimes scary sense of mortality and vulnerability,” Bronstein told the audience. “ But I could also leave anytime I want and come home.” It was his way of describing the difference between the American on assignment and the native journalist,whose daily work is an act of courage and freedom.
‚Äú’This many journalists killed is an estimable [loss],’ Bronstein said. ‚ÄúThe work of these slain journalist[s] is a vital part of the frabirc of any democracy.’
"Bronstein suggested that we ‘do anything to press Philippine authorities to justice in this case.’‚Äù
- Committee to Protect Journalists: CPJ joins Global Day of Solidarity with Philippine journalists
- International Federation of Journalists: IFJ Calls for Global Show of Solidarity in Demanding Justice for Philippine Massacre Victims
Paper’s Gift Guide for People of Color Is "Racist"
A Web site that monitors the New York Times has found fault with a Times gift guide that targets people of color.
"We don’t like to throw around words like ‘racist’ in the same sentence as the NYT’s name, but there’s no other word we can think of to describe this page in the NYT’s annual Holiday Gift Guide ‚Äî called ‘Of Color/Stylish Gifts’ and aimed exclusively at the paper’s non-white readers," the author of an item on the Nytpicker wrote on Tuesday.
"Or, as the NYT describes it, ‘gifts created for and by people of color.’
"Found in the ‘Style & Travel’ section of the Gift Guide, it stands alongside sections called ‘Frugal Travel,’ ‘Chic and Cheerful,’ and ‘Cosmetic Enhancements.’
"But this page is the only one aimed squarely at readers whose skin isn’t white in color ‚Äî and it’s the first time we can remember a gift guide, anywhere, openly defining its offerings by their appeal to a specific racial group.
"Can you imagine the NYT designating a section of its Holiday Gift Guide to presents made ‘for and by white people’? Or Jews? Or Chinese? Of course you can’t. . . ."
The Times did not respond to requests for comment.
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