3 Gunmen Open Fire on Mother’s Day Procession
Justice Dept. Secretly Collects AP Reporters’ Phone Records
Correspondent Randall Pinkston Leaving CBS After 33 Years
Two More Black Men, Jenkins and Bennett, Leaving NPR
Newseum Reverses Itself on Honoring Palestinians
19 News Organizations Protest Beyoncé’s Photo Ban
NBC Names Ric Harris G.M. in Hartford, Conn.
Cleveland Victims Rule Out Speaking With Reporters
In New York, Waitresses for Lonely Mexicans
 Deborah Cotton attributed violence among young black men to lack of employment opportunities, a history of oppression and diverted resources. (Video) |
3 Gunmen Open Fire on Mother’s Day Procession
In a video last year, Deborah Cotton talked about violence among young black men in New Orleans. “It can be addressed. We are just not rising to the occasion,” she said. “That’s what’s heartbreaking.”
On Sunday, “The New Orleans Police Department (NOPD) estimated that as many as three gunmen opened fire on a Mother’s Day second line procession in the Seventh Ward this afternoon, injuring 19 people, according to the latest figures provided by the NOPD,” Kevin Allman wrote for Gambit, an alternative weekly.
Allman continued, “Among the injured was Gambit correspondent Deborah Cotton, who covers second line, Mardi Gras Indian and Social Aid & Pleasure Club culture for the paper under the name ‘[Big] Red’ Cotton. Cotton was hit directly by gunfire and taken to intensive care for surgery. She is in guarded but stable condition tonight, according to doctors. This morning, Cotton had tweeted, ‘A very Happy Mother’s Day to all! See U at the 2nd line today w/ @TBC_BrassBand.'”
“Second-line parades are loose processions ‘in which people dance down the street, often following behind a brass band,’ ” the Associated Press
reported. ” ‘They can be impromptu or planned and are sometimes described as moving block parties.’ “
Jennifer Hale of WVUE-TV in New Orleans wrote Monday that Cotton “remains in critical condition.“
In a blog posting, Brentin Mock described seeing Cotton in the hospital.
“Deb’s tongue seemed to push its way through her teeth as she lay, still asleep, as if she was trying to say something,” Mock wrote. “I tried to imagine what she attempted to say as bullets ripped through her back, perhaps running from the monster who opened fire on the Mother’s Day parade crowd.
“What kind of monster opens fire on a Mother’s Day parade crowd? What kind of animal? I hate myself for thinking to ask this in these exact terms, but it’s these exact terms in which I’m thinking.
“You already read the stories: Nineteen people shot; seven of them women, some of them perhaps mothers. Ten men shot. All of them have mothers. And then the kids. A 10-year-old boy and a 10-year-old girl. I thought of my own 10-year-old son, Justice, who I’m hundreds of miles away from, and how I would feel if I found out from the news that he had been shot. . . .”
Hamilton Nolan, writing for Gawker, was likewise angry.
“The shooting of nineteen innocent people, including two children, at a Mother’s Day celebration in New Orleans yesterday was an act of violence only gaudy enough to hold the nation’s attention momentarily,” Nolan wrote. “Shortly after the bodies were cleared, the FBI said they ‘have no indication the shooting was an act of terrorism. It’s strictly an act of street violence in New Orleans.’ At that, we were free to let our attention drift. In America, all villainy is not created equal.
“A couple of disaffected young men in search of meaning drift into radical Islam and become violent. A couple of disaffected young men in search of meaning drift into street crime and become violent. A crowd of innocent people attending the Boston marathon are maimed by flying shrapnel from homemade bombs. A crowd of innocent people attending a Mother’s Day celebration in New Orleans are maimed by flying bullets. Two public events. Two terrible tragedies. One act of violence becomes a huge news story, transfixing the media’s attention for months and drawing outraged proclamations from politicians and pundits. Another act of violence is dismissed as the normal way of the world and quickly forgotten. . . .”
- Jarvis DeBerry, NOLA.com | the Times Picayune: Mother’s Day shooting in New Orleans can’t put an end to our dance
- Mary Kilpatrick, NOLA.com | the Times-Picayune: Mother’s Day second-line shooting suspect is named, sought
- Lauren McGaughy, NOLA.com | the Times Picayune: Mother’s Day shootings ruined a perfect Sunday, but can’t weaken love for this city
- Brentin Mock, Colorlines: Anti-Violence Blogger Among 19 Shot on Mother’s Day in New Orleans
- WGNO-TV: New Orleans reporter is victim of Mother’s Day shooting
Justice Dept. Secretly Collects AP Reporters’ Phone Records
“The Justice Department secretly obtained two months of telephone records of reporters and editors for The Associated Press in what the news cooperative’s top executive called a ‘massive and unprecedented intrusion’ into how news organizations gather the news,” Mark Sherman reported Monday for the AP.
“The records obtained by the Justice Department listed incoming and outgoing calls, and the duration of each call, for the work and personal phone numbers of individual reporters, general AP office numbers in New York, Washington and Hartford, Conn., and the main number for AP reporters in the House of Representatives press gallery, according to attorneys for the AP. It was not clear if the records also included incoming
calls or the duration of the calls.
“In all, the government seized those records for more than 20 separate telephone lines assigned to AP and its journalists in April and May of 2012. The exact number of journalists who used the phone lines during that period is unknown but more than 100 journalists work in the offices whose phone records were targeted on a wide array of stories about government and other matters.
“In a letter of protest sent to Attorney General Eric Holder on Monday, AP President and Chief Executive Officer Gary Pruitt said the government sought and obtained information far beyond anything that could be justified by any specific investigation. He demanded the return of the phone records and destruction of all copies.”
The story continued, “The government would not say why it sought the records. U.S. officials have previously said in public testimony that the U.S. attorney in Washington is conducting a criminal investigation into who may have leaked information contained in a May 7, 2012, AP story about a foiled terror plot. The story disclosed details of a CIA operation in Yemen that stopped an al-Qaida plot in the spring of 2012 to detonate a bomb on an airplane bound for the United States.”
It added, “The May 7 story was written by reporters Matt Apuzzo and Adam Goldman with contributions from reporters Kimberly Dozier, Eileen Sullivan and Alan Fram. They and their editor, Ted Bridis, were among the journalists whose April-May 2012 phone records were seized by the government. . . .”
Apuzzo, Goldman and Sullivan were 2012 Pulitzer Prize winners for investigative reporting for stories that looked at the New York Police Department’s clandestine spying on Muslim communities.
Matt Smith and Joe Johns reported Monday for CNN, “The U.S. attorney’s office in Washington responded that federal investigators seek phone records from news outlets only after making ‘every reasonable effort to obtain information through alternative means.’ It did not disclose the subject of the probe. . . “
The AP added, “The Obama administration has aggressively investigated disclosures of classified information to the media and has brought six cases against people suspected of leaking classified information, more than under all previous presidents combined. . . .”
However, “Jay Carney, a White House spokesman, said the White House was not involved in the subpoena, Charlie Savage and Leslie Kaufman reported for the New York Times. ” ‘Other than press reports, we have no knowledge of any attempt by the Justice Department to seek phone records of the A.P.,’ he said, adding ‘we are not involved in decisions made in connection with criminal investigations.’ “
Correspondent Randall Pinkston Leaving CBS After 33 Years
Six weeks after correspondent Byron Pitts left CBS for ABC, citing ABC’s commitment to diversity, Randall Pinkston, another African American CBS journalist, told Journal-isms on Tuesday that he is leaving the network.
Pinkston messaged:
“My long distance run at CBS NEWS is about to end. I joined the company in 1980 as a correspondent for WCBS-TV. Jim Jensen, Carol Martin, Michelle Marsh, Rolland Smith, John Tesh and Vic Miles anchored the broadcasts. Chris Borgen, J.J. Gonzalez, Meredith Viera, Roseanne Colletti and Arnold Diaz were among the star reporters. I was a Mississippian — by way of Florida and Connecticut — uncertain if I could survive in the number one news market in the world. By the Grace of God, hard work and fantastic colleagues and mentors, I did more than survive, I thrived on the crazy frenetic pace of reporting on the streets of New York. What a time it was.
“Ten years after my start at WCBS-TV, Eric Ober, the president of CBS News, offered me a job in the Washington Bureau where I was assigned to the White House during the last two years of President George H. W. Bush (43).
“When his term of office ended, I became a general assignment correspondent filing stories for all of our newscasts.
“Over the next two decades, I traveled the world — covering disasters and conflicts — in Haiti, Albania, Iraq and Afghanistan.
“I was the first CBS NEWS correspondent to report from Tora Bora in November 2001 — where [Osama bin Laden] was believed to be hiding. Iraq, for some years, was a frequent stop for me, before, during and after the 2003 U.S. invasion. My last assignment there was covering the execution of Saddam Hussein in December 2005.
“Over the years I also contributed reports to SUNDAY MORNING, 48 HOURS and a documentary (‘Legacy of Shame’). My SUNDAY MORNING assignments included profiles with legendary Americans: photographers Howard Bingham, Arnold Newman and Gordon Parks; director-actor Mario Van Peebles; authors Walter Mosley and Tina McElroy Ansa; environmentalist Grace Thorpe: entertainer-activists Camille Cosby, Bill Cosby, Danny Glover; singer-songwriters Phoebe Snow, Ashford and Simpson, Curtis Mayfield and the amazing Mr. James Cameron, a man who survived a lynching in Indiana in the 1930s.
“For the past three years, I’ve been assigned to CBS NEWSPATH , the service that provides stories to our affiliates and owned an operated stations. My assignments included coverage of the final Space Shuttle launches, several of the Campaign 2012 debates, both political conventions, the second inauguration of President Obama, and the election of Pope Francis.
“No job is perfect. Every career has ups and downs and disappointments. I’ve encountered some rough spots. But with the support of my family and my colleagues around the world, I have always managed to find opportunities to tell good stories and do solid work. I’ve also tried to be a positive role models for younger colleagues, both at CBS and through NABJ, NYABJ, colleges and other venues,” referring to the National Association of Black Journalists and the New York Association of Black Journalists.
“May 21st is my official exit date — exactly thirty-three years, three months and three days since my first day on the job at WCBS TV.
“Leaving here is not the end. It is, for me, a new beginning. I am not sure what I will do next, but whatever comes, I will always cherish my experiences at CBS NEWS.” [Added May 14]
Two More Black Men, Jenkins and Bennett, Leaving NPR
Keith W. Jenkins, supervising senior producer for multimedia, and Geoffrey Bennett, an editor at “Weekend Edition,” are leaving NPR, they confirmed separately Monday, each a black man at a network where the low number of African American men has been an issue.
Jenkins, believed to be one of two African American men in newsroom management (the other is Matt Thompson, manager of digital initiatives), is joining National Geographic for the new position of director of photography digital, a National Geographic spokeswoman confirmed.
Jenkins joined NPR in 2008 after taking a buyout at the Washington Post, where he spent 13 years, most recently as multimedia director. He messaged Journal-isms Monday, “I am excited about all of this, but am going to save official comments until the formal announcement next week…thanks for understanding.”
Bennett told Journal-isms by email, “I’ve taken a new position in TV news as a political reporter for Time Warner Cable News. I’ll be based in the D.C. bureau and will file reports for NY1 and other affiliates across the country.” NY1 is based in New York.
According to a bio, “Geoffrey is a former producer and editor with NPR’’s ‘News & Notes,’ which broadcast from Los Angeles. Before heading West, he reported on the entertainment business for AOL Television in New York City. He began his journalism career at ABC News’ ‘World News Tonight with Peter Jennings‘ and later joined ABCNews.com, where he oversaw the websites of both ‘World News Tonight’ and the Brian Ross Investigative Unit. In 2003, he helped craft what would become Current, the TV network co-founded by Al Gore.”
Bennett is believed to have been the only black male editor on the radio side of NPR. Corey Dade, hired at NPR in 2010 as a Washington-based national correspondent amid concern about the paucity of on-air African American men at the network, left NPR in March.
Newseum Reverses Itself on Honoring Palestinians
“The Newseum announced Monday that it will not honor two cameramen killed while working for Hamas-run Al-Aqsa TV, reversing a Friday decision to include them on a memorial for fallen journalists following pressure from conservative media outlets and organizations supporting Israel,” Michael Calderone reported Monday for the Huffington Post.
” ‘Serious questions have been raised as to whether two of the individuals included on our initial list of journalists who died covering the news this past year were truly journalists or whether they were engaged in terrorist activities,’ a Newseum spokesman said in a statement.
” ‘We take the concerns raised about these two men seriously and have decided to re-evaluate their inclusion as journalists on our memorial wall pending further investigation,’ the spokesman said.
“On Friday, the Newseum stood by its decision to recognize Hussam Salama and Mahmoud al-Kumi, two cameramen targeted and killed by an Israeli airstrike in Gaza this past November. Their car was reportedly labeled ‘TV’ in neon letters so as not to be targeted by the Israeli military.
“During a Monday morning rededication ceremony, the Newseum honored 82 other journalists who died in 2012 while pursuing the news, adding to a memorial that includes over 2200 names.
“NBC chief foreign correspondent Richard Engel, who was captured and freed last year in Syria, gave the keynote address at the ceremony. He addressed the controversy over describing the Al-Aqsa employees as journalists and the difficulty, at times, in making distinctions between journalists and activists.
“I frankly agree there is a distinction and that several of the people on this list are not strictly journalists, but political activists who worked in the media,” Engel said. “And just because you carry a camera and a notebook doesn’t make you a journalist. A journalist has the responsibility to seek the truth no matter what it is, even if the story hurts your cause. Journalists shouldn’t have causes. They should have principles and beliefs. . . .”
- Rosie Gray, BuzzFeed: Think Tank Could Pull Event From Newseum Over Hamas Memorial (May 10)
- Sherif Mansour, Committee to Protect Journalists: Israel fails to support decision to target Gaza journalists (Feb. 13)
- Tom Scocca, Gawker: Are You a Journalist? Ask the Treasury Department and Israel
- J.K. Trotter blog, the Atlantic: Why the Newseum Changed Its Mind About Honoring These Dead Cameramen
- Voice of America: Newseum Memorial Honors VOA Reporter Killed in Pakistan (May 14)
19 News Organizations Protest Beyoncé’s Photo Ban
Nineteen news organizations have asked Beyoncé to drop her refusal to issue photo credentials for her current “Mrs. Carter Show” tour of Europe and the United States, instead urging photographers to download official photos chosen by the entertainer’s staff.
“While we understand your desire to maintain control over your client’s image as part of her ‘public relations’ we hope that you will appreciate and respect our position,” the letter said. “As representatives of the world’s preeminent journalism organizations, representing publications and broadcasters and their employees, we believe the public is best served by maintaining our independence rather than relying on hand-out photos of these events. We believe that removing the ban will help, not harm, your client’s image in the long run.
“Most recently the Manchester Evening News refused to use the ‘official pictures’ of your client’s May 7, 2013 performance in Manchester, England — instead illustrating the story with the very photo you had previously objected to. Similarly, the proliferation of cellphone cameras has not stopped the audience from photographing the performance. Your ban has resulted in the posting of intentionally created prank photographs of Beyoncé that have been far more unflattering than the original ones and which have gone viral. Ending the ban is more likely to result in publication of fair, objective and mutually beneficial photographs that serve your interests and ours. . . .”
The letter was signed by Mickey H. Osterreicher, general counsel of the National Press Photographers Association, on behalf of the Associated Press Media Editors; Radio Television Digital News Association; American Society of News Editors; News Media Coalition; California Broadcasters Association; Newspaper Association of America; North Jersey Media Group Inc.; Los Angeles Times; National Public Radio, Inc.; Association of Alternative Newsmedia; E.W. Scripps Co.; the Daily News in New York; Picture Archive Council of America; Society of Professional Journalists; American Society of Media Photographers; WNET; the First Amendment Coalition; the Online News Association and the Las Vegas Review-Journal.
NBC Names Ric Harris G.M. in Hartford, Conn.
Harris, had been vice president and general manager of WEWS, the ABC affiliate in Cleveland, from 2000 to 2005.
“He joined the station from Accenture, where he was Manager of Communications, Media and Technology for two-and-a-half years,” a news release said. “Previously, Harris was Vice President of Digital Ad Sales for BET Interactive from 2008 to 2009, where he developed and led the multi-platform sales strategy for the network’s online, mobile and video-on-demand products. He also was the Executive Vice President and General Manager of Digital Media and Strategic Marketing for NBC Owned Television Stations from 2005 to 2007. . . .”
At least 10 African Americans are television-station general managers, according to Bob Butler, vice president/broadcast of the National Association of Black Journalists.
Short Takes
- “Longtime Philadelphia abortion provider Dr. Kermit Gosnell was found guilty Monday of first-degree murder in the deaths of three babies prosecutors said were delivered alive and killed, and guilty of involuntary manslaughter in the drug-overdose death of a patient who had undergone an abortion,” the Associated Press reported. “He was acquitted in the murder of a fourth baby.” Last month, commentators began asking why the case hadn’t received national media attention, and coverage increased.
- Commentators are assessing the life of Malcolm Shabazz, grandson of activist Malcolm X, who died in Mexico City after a violent dispute in a bar, as Adriana Gomez Licon and E. Eduardo Castillo reported Saturday for the Associated Press, quoting Mexican authorities. Shabazz was 28. Among the analysts have been Jelani Cobb in the New Yorker, Dave Zirin in the Nation and Herb Boyd in the Daily Beast. Two waiters at a downtown Mexico City bar have been
arrested and identified by Mexican prosecutors as the “likely killers,” the Los Angeles Times reported. Malcolm X’s 88th birthday is to be commemorated Sunday. - Veteran San Francisco broadcaster Belva Davis will be awarded the Radio Television Digital News Association’s 2013 John F. Hogan Award, which “recognizes an individual’s contributions to the journalism profession and freedom of the press,” RTDNA announced on Monday.
- “Contrary to popular perception, not all Asian Americans are basking in financial security and working high-income jobs after years of intensive schooling,” Shan Li reported May 3 for the Los Angeles Times. “The official poverty rate of Asian Americans in 2011 actually exceeded that of whites by 2.5 percentage points, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. . . .”
- Byron Pitts of ABC News addressed 32 graduates of the 2012-13 Write Field 2.0 program sponsored by the Poynter Institute and the Tampa Bay Rays on Friday. The mentoring program for middle-school boys, directed by the Poynter Institute’s Ken Irby, drew this comment from eighth-grader Dominic Rosado: “It was the first time that I had ever worn a Tuxedo in my whole life and because of the ‘Write Field’ program, I strongly believe that I will be wearing tuxedos much more often during my life, because the Write Field inspires us to do great things. . . .”
- When Dick Maxwell was ready to retire as the NFL’s senior director of broadcasting in 2006, the league asked him to create a broadcasting boot camp, a four-day seminar that introduces current and former players to the broadcasting industry. Last year, the NFL asked Maxwell to create another program, one that focused on social media and digital media with a writing component, Rachel Lenzi reported Monday for the Blade in Toledo, Ohio. “That program comes to fruition today when Maxwell and the NFL open the three-day NFL Sports Journalism and Communications Boot Camp” at Bowling Green State University, she wrote.
- ESPN may be in negotiations with a big telecom company to exempt its streaming video services from caps that limit how much data mobile users can download, Andrew Leonard reported Monday for Salon. “Watching the NBA playoffs on your iPhone, without any free Wi-Fi to rely on, is an excellent way to chew speedily through your allotted bandwidth for the month. . . .”
- Lawyers for Duane Buck, a black man in Texas who was convicted of two murders, have uncovered evidence that his lawyers did not present to the jury that sentenced him to death, a New York Times editorial said Friday. “The racial bias in this case reflects a wide and disturbing pattern in death penalty prosecutions in Harris County, Tex., where Mr. Buck was tried,” the editorial said. Syndicated columnist Leonard Pitts Jr. wrote May 6, “If the state of Texas executes Duane Buck, it’ll be because he is black. . . .”
- “More than 60 people who hold active Mecklenburg County permits to buy handguns have been convicted of felonies, some involving guns, an Observer data analysis shows,” Gavin Off and Bruce Henderson of the Charlotte (N.C.) Observer reported Sunday, demonstrating what news organizations can uncover when gun ownership information is made public.
- For many South Africans, the coverage of Nelson Mandela’s recent hospitalization and poor health “seems like media overkill. Older South Africans stress that the African way of coping with the twilight years is culturally nuanced. It should be viewed as a final journey, and journalists should be more sensitive to these customs,” Ofeibea Quist-Arcton reported Saturday for NPR.
- “Sasha Horne, a 28-year-old Washington, D.C.-based journalist who most recently covered technology and trends for the RIA Novosti news agency, will appear on ABC’s murder mystery summer series ‘Whodunnit?’,” Betsy Rothstein reported Friday for FishbowlDC.
- “Enough Mexicans are now fleeing that they’ve become the second-largest nationality, after the Chinese, to seek U.S. asylum, according to the United Nations. Over a five-year period, their numbers have tripled in asylum petitions before the courts and federal immigration officials,” Dianne Solis and Alfredo Corchado reported for the Dallas Morning News. “Overall numbers of apprehensions of Mexicans unlawfully entering the country are at new lows. . . . ”
- A year ago in the Twin Cities, former KSTP-TV anchor Vineeta Sawkar, a five-time Emmy winner who spent 17 of her almost 23 years in TV news, was given a year to find another job, according to Star Tribune columnist C.J. “The buzz around the station is that Sawkar was told she was not bringing in viewers. If that’s the case, she is clearly being held to a different standard than just about anybody anchoring or hosting an afternoon TV show at that station. . . .”
- Arrested students at USC Annenberg “said they regretted their decision to speak to a Neon Tommy reporter who produced video profiles that accompanied posted coverage of their complaints of alleged racial profiling and misconduct by Los Angeles Police Department officers who shut down their party Friday, May 3,” according to Neon Tommy, described as “an online-only, around-the-clock, student-run, Los Angeles-based news source sponsored by the Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism through Annenberg Digital News.” “They asked Neon Tommy editors to remove the videos and to remove their names from published stories. We declined their requests. . . .”
- In Liberia, “The Ministry of Information, Cultural Affairs and Tourism has called on the leadership of the Press Union of Liberia (PUL) to reconsider and reverse its ‘news blackout’ decision on the government ,” FrontPageAfrica in Monrovia reported. The New Democrat added, “PUL President Peter Quaqua has expressed grave disappointment over President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf’s continuous silence on the disparaging threats made against journalists by the Director of her Executive Protective Service (EPS) [prompting] them to impose wide-ranging media sanctions against her, including a blackout on her activities and withdrawal of African editors’ honor from her unless she publicly responds to the threats. . . . ”
- The Committee to Protect Journalists condemned Cameroon’s closure of an independent radio station on April 22 in retaliation for its broadcast of an interview that authorities said incited secessionism, the press freedom organization said Monday.
- “Known for bringing in celebrities and smiling in photographs next to former Western leaders, a flamboyant Nigerian newspaper publisher now faces a challenge from his most vocal critics — his own employees,” Jon Gambrell reported Friday for the Associated Press. “Workers have barricaded the front of ThisDay newspapers in Lagos, hoping to force publisher Nduka Obaigbena into paying them as much as four months’ worth of back salaries due to them. . . .”
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