Helped Publication Reinvent Itself as Web Property

Helped Publication Reinvent Itself as Web Property

Garry D. Howard, editor-in-chief of the Sporting News for nearly three years, has “parted ways” with the publication, Howard told Journal-isms on Tuesday.

“I’m no longer Editor in Chief of Sporting News Media,” Howard, 54, messaged.

“Very proud of leading Sporting News in its transition from print to digital over the past three years. Believe we did an excellent job.”

Juan Delgado, CEO of Sporting News Media, which owns the Sporting News, messaged Tuesday night, “As your article says, Garry was a key part of the Sporting News transition from a print to a digital publication, prior to our Joint Venture with ACBJ, and a valued part of the team,” referring to American City Business Journals, the previous owner of the publication.

“Unfortunately we’ve parted ways based on the direction of the business and his career plans, but I am sure we’ll cross paths in the future as he is a very influential and respected voice within the industry.”

Howard’s hiring from the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel in November 2010 marked the first time that an African American would lead a national general sports magazine’s editorial staff, the Sporting News said at the time. He joined as the Charlotte, N.C.-based publication was reinventing itself as a Web property.

A week after Howard took the job in January 2011, Sporting News made a deal to license the AOL FanHouse name and take editorial control of its content, as Richard Sandomir reported at the time for the New York Times. However, some columnists of color were laid off with the absorption of the FanHouse franchise, despite Howard’s commitment to diversity.

The man to whom Howard reported when he was hired, Sporting News President and Publisher Jeff Price, left the company in September. Ownership of the company changed as well.

The British-based Perform Group, which describes itself as “a leader in the commercialization of multimedia sports content across internet-enabled digital platforms,” became the majority partner in the company that owns the publication, with the previous owner, American City Business Journals, a minority partner.

Price, a veteran media and marketing executive who previously held roles with Sports Illustrated, Millsport, Trakus and MasterCard, was credited with “leading the effort to shift the 127-year-old Sporting News from a print-based company to one highly active on the Web, on mobile devices and in social media,” Eric Fisher wrote in September for Sports Business Journal.

“The new Sporting News Media now stands among the most highly trafficked entities in U.S. digital sports media, ranking seventh in the most recent reach rankings from measurement firm comScore,” Fisher wrote.

Howard became one of the first African Americans to head the sports section of a mainstream daily — the only one at the time at a major paper — when he joined the old Milwaukee Journal as executive sports editor in 1994. He became sports editor of the merged Journal Sentinel in 1995 and assistant managing editor/sports in 2000.

Howard was the first African American president of the Associated Press Sports Editors, ending his year’s term in June 2010. Active in the Sports Task Force of the National Association of Black Journalists, he was awarded the task force’s Sam Lacy Pioneer Award in 2009 for his lifetime commitment to sports journalism.

Caution Urged on Teen “Knockout” Story

December 2, 2013

Information Vacuum in “Trend” of Attacks by Young Blacks

Councilman Elected in Media Fail Held on DUI, Pot Charges

Daily Kos Rejects Obama Cartoon as Ape-Like, Racist

Would Greater Press-Box Diversity Help Kill the N-Word?

Almost 2/3 of Female Journalists Threatened in Their Work

“60 Minutes” Segment on Capitol Told Only Some of Story

Roland Martin Says Va. Digs Remind Him of Texas Home

Short Takes

Information Vacuum in “Trend” of Attacks by Young Blacks

“The woman is defenseless, strolling down the street with a pocketbook over her shoulder,” Jesse Singal wrote last week for Columbia Journalism Review. “She has no idea that she’s about to be brutally attacked. The man, who is black, runs up behind her, rears his right arm back and to the side, and strikes her viciously in the head. She falls to the ground, apparently out cold, while he runs away.

” ‘New at 11 o’clock now, an alarming new wave of attacks across the nation has arrived here in our area,’ reads Leon Harris, an anchor at WJLA in Washington, DC, as the footage plays during a broadcast earlier this month. Other grainy videos follow, all allegedly connected to a ‘game’ called ‘Knockout,’ ‘Point ’em Out, Knock ’em Out,’ or ‘One Hitter Quitter.’ The game is as simple as it is horrifying: Teenagers attack someone randomly in the hopes of knocking them out. They don’t even take anything.

“It’s a scary, eminently media-friendly story, based as it is in gruesome footage of innocent victims being attacked by out-of-control teens. But there are signs that this story is not being reported carefully and risks sparking unnecessary panic, some of it race-driven. Foremost among them is the fact that the footage of the man running up behind the woman, which is appearing just about everywhere, has nothing to do with Knockout.

“Rather, as one Reddit commenter pointed out, it’s footage of a 35-year-old man attacking a woman in East London [England]. It was a random attack, yes, but quotes from the man suggest some combination of substance abuse and mental illness may have been to blame. He was not a teenager partaking in some viral trend in the US. Given the number of stations that have replayed this unrelated footage, it’s worth asking whether those covering Knockout need to be engaging in a bit more discretion, especially to avoid contributing to an ongoing media narrative of young black men as dangerous.

“It’s important to note that there is in fact evidence to support the existence of a teen activity called Knockout — it’s not as though this is a media-manufactured hoax. Ralph Eric Santiago, a 46-year-old homeless man, was killed in a September 10 attack in Hoboken that police say was Knockout-related. A WILX segment on Knockout in Lansing, MI, included an interview with a kid who was shot by his would-be victim, and he explained that he had engaged in the activity a number of times previously.

“So yes, it exists. But is it a ‘trend’? [Is it] on the rise? How many teens actually participate? We have no idea, no hard facts, and for now this vacuum of real information is being filled in by clip after scary clip played on repeat. On careful observation, many of the clips don’t even seem to reflect the game as it’s being described. . . .”

Some media outlets are hyping the attacks more than others. James E. Causey wrote in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, “The website worldstarhiphop.com has a monthly ‘fight compilation’ that shows excerpts of hundreds of fights, from women being sucker-punched to brutal gang attacks. A majority of these acts involve people of color, and far too often there are more people recording the incidents than . . . offering assistance to the victims. These videos often earn thousands of views and ‘likes’ and ‘recommendations’ on Facebook, which turn the perpetrators into overnight sensations. . . .”

Causey also wrote, “While the knockout game has recently been the lead item for late night news and newspapers nationwide, here’s a newsflash — this is not a new game. Counselors who work with troubled youth tell me that these crimes have been occurring for years; they weren’t tagged with a headline-grabbing name like ‘knockout game.’ . . . “

There is more. A week ago, Oliver Willis of Media Matters for America reported, “Over a period of several days, Fox News hosts and contributors demanded that Rev. Al Sharpton condemn a series of ‘knockout’ attacks that have occurred in several cities. Sharpton condemned the attacks in a speech on Saturday, but Fox has so far failed to report on the condemnation. . . .”

Zerlina Maxwell of the Grio countered, “The focus on Reverend Sharpton is peculiar. Does a white representative have to put out a press release after every school shooting or random act of violence committed by young white males?. . . “

History argues that the hype is inevitable, according to Ta-Nehisi Coates, writing in his blog for the Atlantic: “Since the days of slavery, into the days of super-predators, and now the time of the Knockout Game, there has always been a strong need to believe that hordes of young black men will overrun the country in a fit of raping and pillaging. It’s how we justify ourselves. Information can’t compete with national myth.”

• Cara Buckley, the New York Times: Police Unsure if Random Attacks Are Rising Threat or Urban Myth (Nov. 22)
• Michael H. Cottman, BlackAmericaWeb.com: Why Cosby’s ‘Family Values’ Show is Just What We Need Right Now (Nov. 21)
• Michael H. Cottman, BlackAmericaWeb.com: ANALYSIS: Should Unsuspecting Citizens Defend Themselves Against ‘Knockout?’ (Nov. 26)
• Davey D, Huffington Post: Don’t Believe All the Media Hype About the ‘Knockout Game’ (Nov. 26)
• Zerlina Maxwell, the Grio: Why it’s wrong for the right to blame Sharpton for ‘knockout game’ (Nov. 26)
• Askia Muhammad, Washington Informer: Investing in the Criminal ‘Just Us’ System (Nov. 26)
• Clarence Page, Chicago Tribune: KO the ‘knockout game’ hooligans
• Rick Sanchez, Fox News Latino: Hell Yes, Knockout Game Is A Hate Crime
• Will Wright, the Grio: How ‘knockout game’ hysteria hurts black America (Nov. 25)

Councilman Elected in Media Fail Held on DUI, Pot Charges

A city councilman elected last month in the journalism fail in Flint, Mich. — the felony on his record went unreported — was arrested on Saturday, according to local news accounts, accused of drunken driving and possession of marijuana.

Flint City Attorney Peter Bade said Monday he would appoint a special prosecutor in the case involving Councilman Eric Mays, who was jailed about 2:50 a.m. Saturday after police said they found him trying to change a tire on a car with four flats on Interstate 475, Dominic Adams reported for mlive.com.

“Bade said he wants to appoint a special prosecutor in the next few days because Mays is the sitting councilman in Flint’s First Ward and Bade doesn’t want even the appearance of a conflict of interest,” Adams reported.

Mays was elected last month along with Wantwaz Davis, who served 19 years in prison for second-degree murder, and two women who filed for bankruptcy.

“It is possible that Flint voters would have elected Wantwaz Davis if they’d known he shot a man three times. Or that they’d elected Eric Mays if the paper told them he had pled guilty to felonious assault. But their newspaper never told them,” Jack Lessenberry, Michigan Radio’s political analyst, wrote last month.

Marjory Raymer, editor of the Flint Journal, apologized to readers after the election.

Adams also reported, “Mays’ days in that council seat could be coming to a close. Anita Brown, who lost to Mays by seven votes in the November general election, was granted a recount that will take place on Tuesday, Dec. 3.

“Mays referred questions on the arrest to his attorney.

” ‘This is something I worked for my whole life — my council seat,’ Mays told The Flint Journal today, Dec. 2. ‘I clearly got a vision and believe I can be used.’ “

Although the Flint Journal did not report the felonies, many voters apparently knew the candidates’ backgrounds. In the comments section under one of the news stories, a man identifying himself as Davis said, “They knew about my past at the flint public library form, they refused to give the information to the public, because they knew that I was already telling it to the public, which would not have given them the ratings that has been given them, but that is okay, because 455 voters knew about my past, and that’s what matters.”

A news director agreed. “Wantwaz Davis’ history was talked about in great detail as the reason for why he was running. It was all part of his narrative,” wrote a commenter identifying himself as Jason Cooper, news director and a show host for WFNT-AM.

Adams also reported, “This isn’t Mays’ first [run-in] with the law. The First Ward councilman pleaded guilty to felonious assault in 1987 and served a year of probation. Mays said the man had been threatening his life before Mays threatened him with a gun.

“He also was convicted of aggravated stalking in 2001 that involved a woman [whom] Mays worked with at a Delphi plant in Buena Vista Township. Mays was sentenced to five years probation following the felony conviction, according to Saginaw County Circuit Court records.”

Mays and Davis are African American.

The Journal has 14 writers and a staff photographer, including three African American and one Hispanic reporter, according to an employee who asked not to be identified.

• Eclectablog: City councilmember works overtime to make Flint a laughing stock, arrested while changing tire on car with 4 flats
• Josh Marshall, minbcnews.com: Eric Mays’ attorney speaks about Mays’ arrest
• Afi Scruggs, alldigitocracy.org: 5 Specific Ways The Flint Journal Can Do Better

Daily Kos Calls Obama Cartoon Ape-Like, Racist

Cartoonist Ted Rall posted this message on his site Wednesday:

“A message has been issued from site admin . . .

” ‘Your depiction of Barack Obama as ape-like is intolerable. Being critical of Obama, even ferociously, is not the problem. Through British and American history, blacks have been subjected to racist depictions of themselves as monkeys and apes. No excuse is acceptable for replicating that history no mater what your intent. If it happens again, your posting privileges will be suspended. ‘ “

Then he wrote:

“Daily Kos is a major liberal/Democratic Party blog. About a year ago, the blog began running cartoons. To their credit, they paid a modest fee for them. Many alternative political cartoonists were invited; I was not.

“At the time, the owner of the blog mentioned as an aside that I would be welcome, like anyone else, to post to Daily Kos. A few weeks ago, I decided to take him up on that.

“Why did I post there for free? To access readers, many of whom would enjoy my work if they saw it. It was an experiment.

“The experiment ended yesterday. When I went to log on, I received the above message. I clicked the acknowledgement.

“Which marks the end of my experiment posting to Daily Kos. I might consider altering the way I draw a political figure for a paying client. A very high-paying client. Someone who employed me full-time.

“I’m sure not going to alter my drawing style for $0.00 money. . . .”

Rall also wrote, “Anyone familiar with me and my work knows I’m not racist. My criticisms of the president are unrelated to his race, and to say otherwise in the absence of evidence is disgusting. . . .”

Despite Rall’s complaint of “censorship,” the offending cartoon remained on the Daily Kos site, with Rall’s note generating 813 comments by Tuesday afternoon. [Updated Dec. 3].

• Michelle Andrews, Kaiser Health News: Health Law May Offer Part-Time Workers Better Options (Nov. 26)
• Anna Challet, New America Media: Fewer Kids Uninsured, But Coverage for Latino Children Lags (Nov. 25)
• Lee A. Daniels, National Newspaper Publishers Association: Forcing Poor People to Go Hungry (Nov. 26)
• Hope Gillette, Voxxi: Obamacare Spanish-Language Website Expected To Work Soon
• Rachel D. Godsil, The Root: Hey, Media: White People Are Poor, Too
• Craig Harrington and Albert Kleine, Media Matters for America: How Print And Broadcast Media Are Hiding Obamacare’s Success In Controlling Costs
• Colbert I. King, Washington Post: Obamacare — a question of morality 
• Jerry Large, Seattle Times: America may be reaching its limit on economic inequality
• Trudy Lieberman, Columbia Journalism Review: What is an Obamacare consumer story, anyway?
• Clarence Page, Chicago Tribune: Law protects all faiths, not all behavior
• Rochelle Riley, Detroit Free Press: Obama has bigger problems than a broken health care website (Nov. 18)
• Noah Rothman, Mediaite: Reporter Bob Franken Blasts Obama on MSNBC: ‘Most Hostile’ to Press ‘in U.S. History’
• Mark Trahant, indianz.com: Demise of filibuster is good for Indian Country (Nov. 26)

Almost 2/3 of Female Journalists Threatened in Their Work

“Almost two-thirds of women journalists have experienced intimidation, threats or abuse in relation to their work, according to the findings of the first global survey into violence and threats against women working in the news media,” the International News Safety Institute reported Monday.

“The survey by the International News Safety Institute and the International Women’s Media Foundation was released to coincide with the UN’s Global Forum on Media and Gender.

“It found that the majority of those threats, intimidation and abuse directed towards female media workers occurred in the work place and were committed by male bosses, supervisors and co-workers.

“The survey also found that the majority of women who are harassed do not report what has happened to them, despite the fact that more than half of them confirmed that the ‘experience had a psychological impact on them.’ . . .”

“60 Minutes” Segment on Capitol Told Only Some of Story

Monday marked the 150th anniversary of the completion of the dome atop the U.S. Capitol, and CBS-TV’s “60 Minutes” Sunday took viewers into the dome, 288 feet above ground level.

The report, narrated by Scott Pelley and produced by Nicole Young, was careful to note the contribution of the enslaved Philip Reid, who cast the Statue of Freedom atop the dome, but there was much more to the participation of African Americans in building the Capitol.

“Blacks were not just brute labor at the Capitol. They also brought highly specialized expertise in carpentry, bricklaying, ironworking, and other skilled trades,” Jesse J. Holland, an Associated Press reporter, wrote in “Black Men Built the Capitol: Discovering African-American History In and Around Washington, D.C.,” published in 2007.

Holland also wrote, “More than four hundred slaves, or more than half of the documented workforce that constructed the Capitol, cleared trees from Jenkins Hill and dug up stumps for the wide avenues that radiate out into the city, according to research first publicized by NBC reporter Edward Hotaling in 2000. We now know that slaves baked the bricks used for the building’s foundation, worked the Virginia quarries where the sandstone was cut, and laid the stones that hold up the Capitol to this day. . . . “

In the “60 Minutes” segment, historian Lonnie Bunch described the statue: “Well, she is this beautiful woman who has some Native American features [and] is capped by this beautiful headdress as reminder that this is a country that was different because it was built first and foremost around the issue of freedom. . . .”

Roland Martin Says Va. Digs Remind Him of Texas Home

Roland Martin’s new home in the Washington, D.C., suburbs was the cover story of the Washington Post Real Estate section on Saturday. “A bit of Texas in Virginia,” it read. “At home with Roland Martin/ Political analyst’s 8,400-square-foot dwelling reflects his home state and need for plenty of space.”

“In June, the Martins bought an 8,400-square-foot dwelling on 4½ acres in the Beacon Hill community of Leesburg,” according to the story by Kathy Orton.

” ‘Let’s be clear: I live here, but I’m from Houston,’ Martin said. ‘This is the closest I feel to being back home in Texas.’ ” He added, “Being born and raised in Texas, I value space. I absolutely value space.”

The spacious new digs are not exactly like the Texas where Martin, host of the daily radio show “News One Now,” was raised.

As Martin wrote in his syndicated column in 2002, “I grew up in a black neighborhood and attended mostly all-black primary and secondary schools.”

Martin clarified for Journal-isms. “No, I didn’t grow up in such a house.

“I’m speaking of living out here is like living in Texas,” he said by email.

Short Takes

• “Fusion launched one month ago today, and TVNewser has obtained an internal email network CEO Isaac Lee wrote to the staff praising while urging continuing innovation,” Jordan Chariton reported Thursday for TVNewser. Chariton also wrote, “Fusion, which is not in enough homes to be publicly rated by Nielsen, is depending on Web traffic. Lee’s email highlights Fusion.net’s traffic — half of which comes from mobile devices — as well as Fusion TV’s headline-grabbing interviews. . . .”
• “LIN Media’s CBS affiliate WISH Indianapolis (DMA 26) has named Lori Wilson co-anchor of 24-Hour News 8 at 6 and 11 p.m. Wilson is currently anchoring WISH’s 5 p.m. newscast, which she will continue to co-anchor with David Barras as part of her new role,” TVNewsCheck reported on Wednesday.
• “The Oregonian’s top editor, Peter Bhatia, is a finalist to become dean of the University of Nebraska’s journalism school, Aaron Mesh reported Nov. 26 for Willamette Week. Bhatia, 60, will visit the campus in Lincoln on Dec. 16 and 17. He’s one of five finalists vying for the dean’s seat at the College of Journalism and Mass Communications. . . . “
• “Four foreign journalists were honored with Press Freedom Awards Tuesday evening recognizing their work in the face of severe reprisals, including physical threats and imprisonment,” the Associated Press reported Wednesday. “The Committee to Protect Journalists’ 2013 International Press Freedom Awards were presented to Ecuador’s Janet Hinostroza, Egypt’s Bassem Youssef, Turkey’s Nedim Sener and Vietnam’s Nguyen Van Hai in a ceremony at New York’s Waldorf Astoria hotel. . . .” Hai was unable to attend because he is serving a 12-year prison sentence under a law that bars “conducting propaganda” against the state.



• “On Oct. 29, 2013, Maria Haroon turned 31,” Brigitta Kinadi wrote Sunday for New America Media. “But her birthday, usually a joyous occasion, was different this year. This is the first year Maria celebrated her birthday without her identical twin sister. Both Maria and her twin sister Sara suffer from a heart condition in which the heart becomes so weak and enlarged that it cannot pump enough blood to the rest of the body. Sara’s heart failed too soon. She died in March in their home country of India, only a day before both sisters received medical visas to go to the United States. Maria and Sara were both practicing pediatricians in India. Now, Maria, who is kept alive by an artificial heart, is waiting for a heart transplant.” Kinadi also wrote, “ethnic media have played a unique role in Maria’s struggle for a new heart. . . .”
• “I was born in this city — I grew up on Staten Island,” Rachel L. Swarns wrote Monday in debuting her New York Times metro column, “and I will be chronicling this unsettled economic landscape, writing about work, the workplace and the economy. There will be stories of success, of reinvention and of people just getting by. But there will also be stories of options narrowing, hopes dimming. . . .”
• “This year, ABC News will have one of its own on Barbara Walters’ annual ‘Most Fascinating Person of the Year’ list: ‘Good Morning America’ anchor Robin Roberts,” Merrill Knox reported Monday for TVNewser. Knox also wrote, “Others who made the 2013 list: Kim Kardashian and Kanye West, NSA whisteblower Edward Snowden, Miley Cyrus, Jennifer Lawrence and Prince George, the first child of Duchess Kate and Prince William.” 
• In Chicago, “Robin Robinson said farewell to the anchor chair Tuesday night after 26 years at WFLD,” the station reported Wednesday. ” ‘I’m leaving the chair after nearly 30 years here at one station with the smartest, most engaged audience anywhere — and some of the best colleagues in what I consider not just a business, but a service,’ she signed off Tuesday night. . . .”
• “News of Yahoo hiring Katie Couric is about as exciting as turkey sandwiches the day after Thanksgiving,” Tracie Powell wrote Saturday for the Washington Post’s “She the People” section. Powell also said, “In this digital era, it would be more newsworthy if a black, Hispanic, Asian or Native American had gotten the job instead of Couric, especially at a time when non-whites make up nearly 40 percent of the U.S. population but only 12 percent of U.S. newsrooms, according to a report released this year by the American Society of News Editors (ASNE). . . .”
• “Conservative commentator Dinesh D’Souza tweeted his followers before Thanksgiving with what he imagined was a hilarious and irrefutable put-down of President Barack Obama: ‘I am thankful this week when I remember that America is big enough and great enough to survive Grown-Up Trayvon in the White House!’,” Tony Norman wrote Thursday for the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. “In one fell swoop, Mr. D’Souza tied Trayvon Martin, the black Florida teenager killed by neighborhood watch vigilante George Zimmerman, to Mr. Obama in a way that he hoped would discredit both. . . .” Jonathan Capehart wrote in the Washington Post, “What D’Souza wrote and its racist implications are beneath contempt. . . .”
• In Baltimore, “After 20 years at WJZ-TV anchorman Kai Jackson has informed management that he is leaving the station at the end of the year,” David Zurawik reported for the Baltimore Sun. “Jackson co-anchors one-half of the 4 p.m. and all of the 5 p.m. weekday news on WJZ. He also reports for the 11 p.m. newscast. . . .”
• “An unprecedented eleven country study has concluded that public broadcasting in Africa has a long way to go if it is to align with continental and regional frameworks, which promote open and free public spaces where all issues concerning people’s lives can be aired and debated,” Richard Lee wrote Monday for the Johannesburg-based Open Society Initiative for Southern Africa.
• Everett L. Glenn began a three-part series, “Unsportsmanlike Conduct: The Exploitation of Black Athletes,” Nov. 26 for the National Newspaper Publishers Association. “While White colleges and industry stakeholders (networks, sponsors, apparel companies, etc) are reaping huge financial rewards off Black athletic talent, the people who make it all possible are not sharing in the benefits. Blacks are undoubtedly the stars on the football field and basketball courts. But economically, African Americans remain confined to the sideline. . . .” Glenn wrote.
• “The Independent Television Service today announced grants to eight documentaries from its Diversity Development Fund,” Dru Sefton reported Nov. 22 for Current.org. Sefton added, “Selections include ‘The G-Force’ by Pamela Sherrod Anderson, about grandparents raising grandchildren; ‘Africa Town’ by Kathy Huang, on the migration of Africans into China; and ‘Metal Road’ by Sarah Del Seronde, exploring the historical links between Navajos, traders and the railroads. . . .”
• “Media Co-op journalist Miles Howe was arrested again today while covering resistance to fracking in New Brunswick. It appears he was specifically targeted,” the Media Co-op Editorial Collective reported on Nov. 26. Members of the Elsipogtog First Nation have clashed with police in the fracking dispute.

Follow Richard Prince on Twitter

Facebook users: “Like” “Richard Prince’s Journal-isms” on Facebook.