Maynard Institute archives

News Media Scramble to Cover Haitian Quake

by richard0512

Wire Services on the Ground, Anchors on the Way

Marjorie Valbrun Says She Believes Dad in Haiti Is Safe

Poll: Just 30% of Blacks Read Black Press, Web Sites

Marcia Slacum Greene Succeeded in Making a Difference

Black Columnists Call Reid Controversy Overblown

Obama Gets “a Little Looser” With Black Audiences

Mitchell Leaving “Early Show” to Be Correspondent

Gerald Boyd Memoir Says He Felt Betrayed

Short Takes


  

An injured child receives medical treatment after the earthquake in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, on Wednesday. (Credit: Reuters/Eduardo Munoz)

Wire Services on the Ground, Anchors on the Way

With communications down and unimaginable devastation, the news media scrambled to cover the 7.0-magnitude earthquake that killed thousands in the Haitian capital, Port-au-Prince. 

The Associated Press and Reuters said they had journalists on the ground, while others were able to reach survivors by telephone and other technology and made plans to get reporters into the country. Social media such as Twitter feeds were again proving their worth as information sources.

The Miami Herald’s Jacqueline Charles, for example, kept up Twitter posts as she headed for Haiti, and the Herald linked to her site on its home page. CNN’s Anderson Cooper, who CNN said was the first anchor on the ground, filing shortly after 10 a.m. Wednesday, blogged on his way to the country. He planned a special from Haiti on his CNN show, which airs from 10 p.m. to midnight, Eastern time.

Black Entertainment Television was planning to send program host Jeff Johnson Jeff Johnson and Cliff Charles, the director of photography for the Spike Lee film on Hurricane Katrina, “When the Levees Broke.”¬† They also planned to tweet, Keith Brown, BET’s senior vice president of news and public affairs, told Journal-isms.

Also on Wednesday, AP announced it was activating a Facebook page and Twitter account dedicated to the disaster.

“By using Facebook and Twitter accounts to interact with our audience and learn more about what they want to know, AP will strengthen its already dynamic relationship with its member news organizations, other customers and news consumers throughout the world,” Executive Editor Kathleen Carroll said in a statement.

“Associated Press reporters toured city streets and described scenes of severe and widespread damage and casualties. It was clear that many people had died and thousands were left homeless, they said. They saw women covered in dust clawing out of debris and wailing,” the AP reported.

“Stunned people wandered the streets holding hands, they said, while many gravely injured people sat in the streets early Wednesday, pleading for doctors. Thousands of people gathered in public squares late into the night, singing hymns and weeping.”

Reuters reported, ” ‘Everything started shaking, people were screaming, houses started collapsing . . . it’s total chaos,’ Reuters reporter Joseph Guyler Delva said. ‘I saw people under the rubble, and people killed,’ he added.” Delva is a stringer for the news agency.

Asked how AP had its reporters present when the quake hit, spokesman Paul D. Colford told Journal-isms Wednesday, “Short answer for now is that AP has staffers based in Haiti and Port au Prince dateline on AP dispatches (online since late Tuesday and on front pages today/Wed.) reflects this.

“AP has historically been wired to cover breaking news, wherever it breaks around the world, and that’s what you’ll see again here.”

Television networks were able to reach survivors for their Wednesday morning shows.

“There are people who have skype accounts and have them hooked up to their independent power generators and private satellite internet connections,” CBS spokesman Jeff Ballabon told Journal-isms by e-mail Wednesday. “We communicated thru those means. Finding them is a trick but our producers now do this routinely.

“Many images came from twitter..posted by the account holders and available…again..all part of modern news gathering.

“Katie is en route,” he said, referring to anchor Katie Couric.

“Kelly Cobiella landed with a team last night and began driving from Santo Domingo to Haiti. It’s one of the most dangerous roads in our hemisphere in normal times. They got to within an hour of the border in time to do live phoners for The Early Show. They did a ftp standup for the 8:03 newsblock at the border. I believe she was the closest reporter to the scene on any network this morning.

“We also did an ftp with a someone who shot some video at night for us and ftp’d it in small clips,” he said, referring to Internet-based file sharing (file transfer protocol). “We were the only ones with those pictures this morning.

“We communicated thru those means. Finding them is a trick but our producers now do this routinely.”

The results were visible on the air.

The AP reported that, “Frank Thorp tells CBS’s ‘The Early Show’ that he drove 100 miles to Port-au-Prince once he learned of the quake, and dug for over an hour to free his wife, Jillian, and her co-worker Charles Dietsch. He says the two were trapped under about a foot of concrete.

“He says he saw his wife’s hand from under the rubble and heard her tell him to keep it together and just get her out. He describes it as terrifying.”

NBC also reached Thorp for the “Today” show. “Although a lot of phone lines are down, we were able to connect with him through his cell phone,” NBC spokeswoman Megan Kopf said.

ABC’s “Good Morning America” quoted Valerie Moliere, a 15-year-old resident of Port-au-Prince. “I couldn’t even stand up, that’s how bad it was,” she said, “reached by ABC News.” ¬† ” ‘There’s a lot of people in the street everywhere. Some are wounded.¬† I just heard that right next to my neighborhood there’s this pharmacy and this school that broke down and many people died,’ she said.”

CNN said at midday Wednesday that these reporters were on the Anderson Cooper, right, was the first anchor on the ground, CNN says. At left is Victor Diaz Rua, Dominican minister of public works. They are in a chopper en route from Santo Domingo to Port-au-Prince.
ground in Port-au-Prince: Cooper, Ivan Watson, CNN International correspondent; and national correspondents Gary Tuchman and Susan Candiotti.

En route to Port-au-Prince were Sanjay Gupta, CNN chief medical correspondent; Jonathan Mann, CNN International anchor and correspondent; Juan Carlos Lopez, CNN en Espa?±ol in Washington; Chris Lawrence, CNN Pentagon correspondent; Steve Kastenbaum, CNN Radio; Rafael Romo, CNN International’s senior Latin American affairs editor and Willie Lora of CNN en Espa?±ol

A Fox News Channel spokeswoman said White House correspondent Wendell Goler was vacationing in the Dominican Republic when the quake struck and provided a report via phone for “The Fox Report,” which airs at 7 p.m. Eastern time (See end of this video).

Orlando Salinas, Bill Harrigan and Bill Hummer are en route to Haiti, she said shortly after noon.

NBC said Brian Williams, Ann Curry and Al Roker were heading to the earthquake zone to broadcast “NBC Nightly News” and “Today” live from the region.

ABC announced Wednesday afternoon that “World News” anchor Diane Sawyer and “Good Morning America” anchor Robin Roberts were en route to the quake zone and will anchor from there on Thursday. Also traveling to the region and reporting beginning Wednesday were “Good Morning America Weekend” anchor Kate Snow, “World News Sunday” anchor Dan Harris, senior health and medical editor Richard Besser and senior foreign affairs correspondent Martha Raddatz, ABC said.¬†

CNN set up a Web page on which those searching for a family member or friend in Haiti may upload his or her photo and any relevant information. 

ABCNews.com dedicated a special subsection to the quake, as did cnn.com. Its section “will include reports from all platforms and correspondents covering the relief and recovery efforts,” ABC said.

The BET reports from Johnson and Charles will appear on “106th and Park,” in news breaks and on bet.com, Brown said, calling Haiti “very important” to black people.

Garry Pierre-Pierre, editor of the weekly Haitian Times, based in New York, announced Wednesday on his Facebook page, “Am leaving for Haiti tomorrow. I need volunteer journalists to help. Anyone interested call me.” He told Journal-isms later, “We’ve assembled a team of 7. Were on our way to the Dominican republic now.”

The New York Times ran a story Wednesday by Simon Romero and Marc Lacy datelined Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic.

“The earthquake could be felt across the border in the Dominican Republic, on the eastern part of the island of Hispaniola,” the story said. “High-rise buildings in the capital, Santo Domingo, shook and sent people streaming down stairways into the streets, fearing that the tremor could intensify.”

The tagline read, “Simon Romero reported from Santo Domingo, and Marc Lacey from Mexico City. Reporting was contributed by Elisabeth Malkin from Mexico City, Damien Cave from Miami, and Kenneth Chang and Liz Robbins from New York.”

A Times story by Robert Mackie noted the increasing use of the Internet and asked readers to contribute information. 

“Some Haitians have turned to the Web to share information . . . Any readers who are in Haiti or in touch with people there are encouraged to use the comment thread below to share first-hand accounts with us, or to point to them on other Web sites.”

One Web site would point readers to others, such as this one by Troy Livesay in Port-au-Prince, who wrote, “There is no way to even begin to share the things we’ve heard and seen since 5pm yesterday. To do so would take hours that we don’t have to give right now. Some of them feel wrong to tell. Like only God should know these personal horrible tragedies.”

On Pacifica Radio’s “Democracy, Now!” Haitian-American novelist Edwidge Danticat noted the racial elements of the county’s painful history:

“Indeed, the first black republic in this hemisphere, one of the first two republics in this hemisphere,” she said. “But soon after independence, was not recognized by its neighbors, which it nevertheless helped gain, in some cases, their independence in Latin America and helped the US fight here in Savannah, Ga. And then a series of debt, because it had to pay to France a large amount of money for its independence. And then two U.S. invasion occupations and a series of dictatorships. It’s been – you know, before and in the midst of this, you know, deforestation sponsored by outside interests, and just a series of a very painful history.”

Marjorie Valbrun Says She Believes Dad in Haiti Is Safe

Marjorie Valbrun, a Haitian-American journalist who has worked at the Wall Street Journal, Philadelphia Inquirer and Baltimore Sun, wrote friends Wednesday night thanking them for the “no less than 50 phone calls on my home, work and cell phones from friends around the country, not to mention calls from reporter friends wanting quotes for their stories.

“My father is indeed in Haiti, as are countless cousins, uncles and aunts, and friends,” she said. “My family here has not been able to contact family there. However, early this morning my father‚Äôs best friend in NJ was able to reach a young man in Haiti who watches over our house when my father is in the states. The young man told the friend in NJ that he has not been able to go to my father‚Äôs house but had spoken to people from the neighborhood who reported that the house (a well-built and sturdy two-story structure in a neighborhood that has/had decent infrastructure) was partially collapsed and that my father had gotten out safely.

“Although no one knows where he is and this info is coming to us third-hand, we‚Äôre optimistic that he is alright. Even in the best of times communication systems in Haiti are spotty, and second-hand and third-hand communication is the norm and often surprisingly reliable.

“My father is a resilient and headstrong 82-year-old who fancies himself a 50-year-old, with the constitution of a strapping 40-year-old, who is merely trapped in the body of a skinny old man. If he got out, as I believe he did, he is probably in the thick of things acting as a self-appointed coordinator of relief efforts. Two of my closest friends, one a NY Times reporter the other a CNN producer, are heading to Haiti soon and will go looking for him.”

Valbrun studied “Haitian-Americans: Their Search for Political Identity in South Florida” while on an Alicia Patterson Fellowship in 2001.

Poll: Just 30% of Blacks Read Black Press, Web Sites

“A majority of blacks say they regularly listen to black news or talk shows on the radio (62%) and a similar percentage say they regularly read black magazines such as Ebony, Essence, Black Enterprise or Jet (60%),” according to a new nationwide Pew Research Center survey on race.

“Black newspapers and black-oriented websites and blogs are far less commonly read within the black community; only about three-in-ten blacks say they regularly read a black newspaper (28%) or read black websites and blogs (30%).”

The media findings come in the same report that found that “a year after Barack Obama‚Äôs election, blacks‚Äô assessments about the state of black progress in America have improved more dramatically than at any time in the last quarter century. The poll finds an upbeat set of black views on a wide range of matters, including race relations, local community satisfaction and expectations for future black progress. But at the same time, some views on race show little change. Most blacks still have doubts about the basic racial fairness of American society.

“Despite the upbeat findings from blacks on many fronts, more than eight-in-ten blacks ‚Äî compared with just more than a third of whites ‚Äî say the country needs to make more changes to give blacks equal rights with whites. And most remain skeptical that blacks are treated fairly by the police.”

In another finding, Obama’s racial identity was viewed differently, based on the race of the respondent. “A majority of whites (53%) say Obama is mixed race; a similar majority of blacks (55%) say he is black. Most Hispanic respondents (61%) say Obama is mixed
race.”

On black-media consumption, the study said that patterns among African Americans show few demographic differences.

“Black women are more likely than black men to regularly read black magazines such as Ebony, Essence, Black Enterprise or Jet (65% of women, 54% of men). And, not surprisingly, the relatively young (ages 18-29) are the most likely to frequently read black-oriented websites and blogs (48% do so, compared with only 28% of 30-49 year olds and 22% of older African Americans). Black-oriented blogs are also more frequently read by those with at least some college education than those who have not attended college (36% vs. 26%). Virtually no differences in media consumption are seen across income groups among blacks.

“Although there is little difference in views of most of the major problems facing black families today between those who get news from black media sources and those who do not, the lack of decently-paid jobs is viewed as a big problem by a greater proportion of those who regularly read or listen to black media. More than eight-in-ten black media consumers (82%) see this as a big problem, while substantially fewer of those who do not regularly listen to or read black media sources (65%) express this level of concern.

“Black media users are also more likely to say that the country needs to continue making changes to give blacks equal rights with whites (84% do so, compared with 68% of blacks who don‚Äôt regularly read or listen to black media).”

 

Marcia Greene Succeeded in Making a Difference

Marcia Slacum Greene By the time the memorial service ended, there was no doubt that Marcia Slacum Greene deserved the standing ovation the 300 or so friends, fellow journalists and others gave her.

The girl from Victoria, Va., the only African American student on the bus to school ‚Äî who had her seat spat upon to emphasize the point ‚Äî grew into a journalist at the Washington Post who was credited by a community leader with doing her job so powerfully that she helped reduce the city’s homicide rate.

Greene, 57, died Jan. 4 of complications from pancreatic cancer. An early afternoon service Tuesday at Washington’s Peoples Congregational United Church of Christ not only honored Greene’s excellence at her craft but her commitment to people in need and her mission as a journalist.

“She would go deeper, and she loved to go deeper,” Yvonne Shinhoster Lamb, her friend and colleague both at the Post and earlier in the Tampa Bay area, told the crowd. When they would retreat after work to a restaurant near the Post, Greene would ask, “What is it that we can be doing to make a difference in this world?” Lamb said.

Arthur “Rico” Rich, president of the Alliance of Concerned Men, a Southeast Washington community group, said he called Greene “my rogue dog” because she went to the most dangerous parts of D.C. and won over the gangbangers. Greene wrote in 1997 about the former “inner-city war zone” for what became a front-page story. At the service, the alliance’s executive director, Tyrone Parker, credited Greene with helping to bring about a reduction in the city’s homicide rate 13 years later.

Others spoke of her personal qualities. Jill Nelson, the New York writer who unflatteringly chronicled her time at the Post in the 1980s in the memoir “Volunteer Slavery,” said Greene was one of the “dream team” of black women she met there. “Marcia was one of those people who made the rest of us possible,” Nelson said.

Robert McCartney, a Post columnist who supervised Greene when he was assistant managing editor for Metro, said Greene could take stories that others might view as “the pathology of the ghetto” and make them “genuine human interest” stories.

He recalled interviewing Greene for the city editor’s job, telling her she didn’t fit his image of a loud, outgoing city editor.

Her successful retort: “Still waters run deep.”

The National Association of Black Journalists has created a scholarship in her memory. 

credit: Tim Jackson

Black Columnists Call Reid Controversy Overblown

African American columnists were reaching a consensus that the attacks on Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid for his 2008 remarks about Barack Obama’s election prospects were at worst baffling, silly or overblown.

Contrarian Stanley Crouch of the New York Daily News used the re-emergence of¬† the term “Negro” to reassert his preference for the term.

Late-night comedian Steve Colbert led his mostly white audience Monday night in a chant of the word.

But black commentators found the controversy neither funny nor outrageous.

“I must tell you: I have not heard one black person say anything critical about Harry Reid on this subject,” Juan Williams said Wednesday on National Public Radio. “They say, ‘well, he was inelegant.’ But discussions of skin color and skin tone are common in the black community. I mean, this is an issue going back to days of slavery. And talking about dialects, I think every parent says to their child in the black community, ‘if you’re going to ‚Äî you’re going to have to speak the King’s English if you hope to succeed in this society.’ ”

It was disclosed over the weekend that Reid, assessing Obama‚Äôs chances, noted that the candidate was a “light-skinned” African American “with no Negro dialect, unless he wanted to have one.” The comments appeared in a new book. Reid apologized and Obama accepted the apology.

Democrats refused to denounce Reid, but Republicans said he should resign and the Sunday talk-show moderators and guests ‚Äî none of whom were journalists of color ‚Äî treated Reid’s comments as a grave affront.

Meanwhile, the editors of the Columbia Journalism Review asked on Tuesday, “did John Heilemann and Mark Halperin, the authors of Game Change, the book reporting the comments, ‘burn’ Senator Reid?”

“It‚Äôs a complicated argument‚Äîmade no clearer by missing information from all of the main participants ‚Äî stemming from confusion about the terms. While the authors have so far declined to state that their source for the quote was Reid himself, the senator‚Äôs office has said that‚Äôs the case.

“. . . While there‚Äôs evidence suggesting some of the fault lies with his staff, even at the highest levels of politics, how far should journalists go to make the terms of their conversations clear to their sources? And what would be the consequences if reporters were more explicit in this regard?”

Offering still another side to the debate. Rob Capriccioso, writing in Indian Country Today, pointed out “the sometimes divergent ways people think about Native Americans and racism, compared to African Americans and racism.

“Michelle Bernard, a political commentator for MSNBC, hit that point home when discussing Reid‚Äôs words on-air Jan. 11.

“Bernard, an African American, discussed the Reid situation, saying she didn‚Äôt think the words he used were completely ‘off the reservation.’

“Ironically, many Native Americans have a problem with the ‘off the reservation’ phrase, saying it‚Äôs disparaging and infers that Indians should be kept in line.

“No MSNBC hosts called Bernard on the irony.”

Obama Gets “A Little Looser” With Black Audiences

In a discussion on “Tell Me More” on National Public Radio on Wednesday, host Michel Martin recalled that President Obama himself had discussed what she called “code switching” ‚Äî “when one alters his or her communication style to closer identify with the audience or setting he or she is in at any given moment.”

Obama was being interviewed by NPR’s “Morning Edition” host Steve Inskeep for an interview that aired Feb. 28, 2007.

“When you talk about speeches, do you try to talk in the same way to a black audience as a white audience?” Inskeep asked.

“Yeah, I think that the themes are consistent,” the then-senator replied. “I think there is a certain black idiom that it’s hard not to slip into when you’re talking to a black audience because of the audience response. It’s the classic call-and-response. You know, anybody who has spent time in the black church knows what I mean. And so, you know, you get a [little] looser. It becomes more ‚Äî a little more like jazz and a little less like a set score.”

Mitchell Leaving “Early Show” to Be Correspondent

Russ Mitchell“Russ Mitchell will leave ‘The Early Show’ but will continue to be anchor of the Sunday edition of the ‘CBS Evening News,’ ” Brian Stelter reported Wednesday for the New York Times.

CBS made the official announcement later in the day, saying Mitchell would become a national correspondent.

“Mr. Mitchell‚Äôs move represents the first change on the show since David Friedman, a longtime NBC producer, was hired as the executive producer of ‘The Early Show’ last month, Stelter wrote.

“But the change was decided before Mr. Friedman arrived, according to two people with knowledge of the matter, who requested anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss it.

“. . . People come and people go at ‘The Early Show,’ where the average daily audience declined 11 percent last year, to 2.75 million viewers.

“For decades, the program has languished behind ‘Today’ on NBC (with 5.57 million viewers last year) and ‘Good Morning America’ on ABC (4.26 million). The ratings translate to millions of dollars in morning advertising revenue.”

Gerald Boyd Memoir Says He Felt Betrayed

'My Times in Black and White'“In two weeks, a memoir by Gerald Boyd, the former managing editor of The New York Times who was forced out of the paper along with executive editor Howell Raines in the wake of the Jayson Blair scandal, will be published by the small, Chicago-based publisher Lawrence Hill Books,” John Koblin wrote Tuesday for the New York Observer.

“Boyd died three years ago from cancer, but before his death, he had written two drafts of his book. Instead of letting them sit in a drawer, his wife, journalist Robin Stone, put the two together, did some editing and created My Times in Black and White. It will hit bookstores on Feb. 1.”

Boyd wrote “that he felt betrayed by current executive editor Bill Keller when Howell Raines informed him that Mr. Keller was trying to derail his career.

” ‘[Keller] said that no matter whom Sulzberger picked as executive editor, under no circumstances should [Gerald Boyd] become managing editor. Under no circumstances,” he said in a reference to Times Publisher Arthur Sulzberger Jr.

Boyd accuses the current culture editor, Jon Landman, “of being a bully-smug, aggressive, a master of office politics ‚Äî and one of the primary enemies that celebrated his ouster. According to Boyd, Mr. Landman was a man of no ‘decency and integrity,'” Koblin wrote.

“We reached out to both Mr. Landman and Mr. Keller for reaction.

“Mr. Landman said, ‘Nobody should forget that Gerald left a wife and son and many friends who cherish his memory, which I am not about to smudge with a posthumous quarrel. The last word is his.’

“Mr. Keller said, ‘Like a lot of things one hears second- or third-hand, this is inaccurate. I’m sorry that Gerald believed it and was hurt by it.’ ”

Boyd, the Times’ first and only black managing editor, expressed milder criticism of Landman in his 2003 address to the National Association of Black Journalists convention, and did not name him.

The book is being serialized in the St. Louis Beacon, which publishes in Boyd’s hometown.

Short Takes

  • AOL Black Voices’ Karu F. Daniels beat the Associated Press by one minute with the news that singer Teddy Pendergrass diedTeddy Pendergrass Wednesday night at age 59. “A close family friend confirmed to the BV Newswire that the ailing crooner died tonight,” Daniels wrote in a three-paragraph story. “We were close to the story. we knew this was coming. didn’t know when,” Daniels, senior programming manager of Black Voices’ entertainment division and lead entertainment producer, told Journal-isms. “Such a great loss.” Daniels’ story moved at 11:11 p.m. Eastern time. An Associated Press news alert moved from Philadelphia at 11:12 p.m., followed by AP’s first story at 11:54 p.m. Philly.com, the Web site of the Philadelphia Inquirer and Daily News, at first posted the AP story, then ran a lengthier piece by Albert Stumm of the Daily News.
  • “Art Rust Jr., a pioneering figure in New York radio sports talk shows and a sports historian whose books focused on the interplay of race and athletics, died Tuesday at a hospital in Manhattan. He was 82,” Richard Goldstein reported for the New York Times. “The cause was complications of Parkinson’s disease, said his daughter, Suzanne Rust. “His daughter said Rust considered himself a sports historian more than anything. Baseball and boxing were his favorites, and his books included autobiographies written with Joe Louis and Darryl Strawberry, along with an oral history of black baseball players that explored their struggles against racism,” the Associated Press reported.
  • Catherine Shen has been named the new vice president/strategic Catherine Shencommunications at the Points of Light Institute in Atlanta, the Asian American Journalists Association reported on Wednesday. “Points of Light Institute is a national organization based in Atlanta with a satellite office in Washington, D.C. Two years ago the D.C.-based Points of Light group merged with the Atlanta-based Hands On volunteerism network. Its mission is to inspire, facilitate, and provide resources to increase civic engagement and volunteerism to improve communities across the country. Previously, Shen has served in newspaper leadership roles at the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, the Honolulu Star-Bulletin, USA Today, and other publications.”
  • “Ofelia Castiblanco has been promoted to Director of Community Affairs for NBC Local Media New York and Telemundo 47, effective immediately,” NBC announced on Tuesday. “Castiblanco began her career at WNBC as an intern and held roles of increasing responsibility since 1989, including Manager of Stations Relations for WNBC and WNJU where she generated strong ties with both local and national community based groups.”
  • “Joseph M. Wilcots, a trailblazing African American cinematographer whose credits include the landmark 1970s TV miniseries ‘Roots’ and ‘Roots: The Next Generations,’ has died. He was 70,” Dennis McLellan reported last week in the Los Angeles Times.
  • “Twenty-four innovative ideas that will help meet America’s information needs have received $4.3 million from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation,” the foundation announced. The projects – submitted by community and place-based foundations nationwide in a Knight Foundation contest — include . . . Funding journalists and online news sites in Wyoming, Arkansas, Connecticut, New Jersey and Florida to produce news in the public interest. The projects represent the second-year winners of the Knight Community Information Challenge, a five-year, $24 million contest that helps community and place-based foundations find creative ways to use new media and technology to keep residents informed and engaged.”
  • In Cincinnati, “Kevin Robinson arrives today at WLWT-TV from the Weather Channel,” John Klesewetter wrote Monday for the Cincinnati Enquirer. “Robinson, 30, a 1997 Princeton High School graduate, replaces chief meteorologist Derek Beasley, who quit in August to become chief forecaster for a Mobile station. Robinson will debut here on the 5, 6 & 11 p.m. newscasts by the end of the week, once he’s comfortable with the technology, says GM Richard Dyer.”
  • “The Committee to Protect Journalists welcomes the release on bail of Sri Lankan journalist J.S. Tissainayagam on Monday in Colombo,” the group said on Monday, “but calls on President Mahinda Rajapaksa to use his constitutional power to extend a full pardon and erase the 20 year sentence of ‘rigorous imprisonment’ that was handed down in August.”

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