Journalism Wasn’t Producing Change Fast Enough
Tamron Hall Named Co-Host for Third Hour of “Today”
MSNBC Shuffles Chairs to Prepare for New Shows
Is Don Lemon a Possibility for the Piers Morgan Slot?
Justice Dept. Revises Rules for Seizures in Leak Probes
Paid Summer Internships Found to Be Cut Nearly by Half
NAHJ President Scores Attacks on Journalists in Venezuela
Opinion Writers Debate Bigots’ Letters, Rebel Symbols
Thomas Picou Dies, Longtime Exec at Chicago Defender
Short Takes
Journalism Wasn’t Producing Change Fast Enough
By Tony Briscoe
“Today, I have cried,” Gloria J. Early, a Detroit retiree, wrote Monday on her Facebook page. “I have yelled at my computer, I have jumped up and down and I have laughed some. I was attending the service for my brother, Rev. Angelo.” That would be Angelo B. Henderson, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist who wore many hats: newspaper reporter, radio host, minister and community activist.
“I knew when Dr. Adams got up to do that eulogy, that it would be all over with,” Early continued, referring to the Rev. Charles G. Adams of Hartford Memorial Baptist Church. Adams had ordained Henderson. “I heard Huel Perkins go there. Y’all know what I mean, if you know Huel Perkins,” the veteran anchor at Detroit’s WJBK-TV.
(Perkins “truly went ‘Black Preacher,’ ” Early explained later. He wasn’t the only one. “Chuck Stokes, also a broadcaster, seemed to lose the extreme proper language and went church today.”)
Henderson’s passion for Detroit transformed him from neutral journalist to dynamic advocate. In fact, some speakers said at his funeral service Monday, being a journalist wasn’t enough for the task at hand.
“He was not just a thinker and a writer, he was a doer,” said veteran U.S. Rep. John Conyers Jr., D-Mich. “And that’s what we need more of.”
Conyers said he would speak more about Henderson on the House floor this week.
As a popular radio personality at WCHB-AM, Henderson was known for his humor and flamboyant personality. He would dress up in the studio on Halloween and once discussed whether a rack of ribs was appropriate on a first date. But he was also highly esteemed for his reporting at several newspapers and later was commended for his advocacy in Detroit neighborhoods.
Henderson died on Feb. 15 at 51. He had hypertensive atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease and died from “basically a heart attack,” an investigator in the Oakland County Medical Examiner’s Office told Journal-isms last week. Henderson, also an associate minister at Triumph Church in Detroit, is survived by his wife, Felecia, assistant managing editor at the Detroit News, and their 20-year-old son, Grant. Speaker after speaker vowed to look after them, not the least being E.J. Mitchell, Henderson’s college roommate, former managing editor of the Detroit News, the man who introduced Angelo to Felecia, and Grant’s godfather.
Hundreds filled the pews of Greater Grace Temple. Allan Lengel, reporting for Deadline: Detroit, estimated that the 4,000-seat auditorium was about 70 percent full.
The parking lot reached capacity before the service began. Mourners lined a four-block stretch of Seven Mile Road, prompting local radio stations to advise commuters to avoid the area. Others watched the service as it was streamed online by WDIV-TV, or listened to an audio streaming by WCHB.
Greater Grace Temple was the site of Rosa Parks’ funeral in 2005. On Monday, it attracted dozens from the political, civic journalism and faith communities to the pulpit to honor a different kind of Detroit legend.
“The thing about Angelo is he had such great fun on the air,” said Bob Butler, president of the National Association of Black Journalists. “But you have to understand Angelo is a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist. This is no joke. You don’t win a Pulitzer Prize by half-stepping. You’ve got to be on your game.
“I respect him greatly for leaving that world and going into radio. There aren’t too many folks in NABJ” in that medium, said Butler, a radio journalist. “Then he did what I wished I could do, and also became an activist.
“You can’t be activist and journalist — those things don’t mix — but he did it.”
During the tributes from media figures, an emotional Kathy Stinehour, vice president and general manager of Radio One Detroit, needed help getting on and off the stage. Stinehour told the crowd she could barely keep it together.
Radio One Detroit staff members then showed a brief video montage consisting of pictures of Henderson in the studio and some of his quotable moments.
“We’re at the point where someone can rob [the] next door neighbor who you speak to every morning, who you plant flowers with,” Henderson said. “If you let people walk out of their house, their home, with their flat-screen TV and all the things they work for, then you just shut the window and sit on your couch, what kind of community is this?
“At some point, we have to provide hope, not only catching criminals, but hope to say we care and we can make a difference.”
On Thursday, police arrested 43 people in a “narcotics blitz” as authorities executed search warrants in another major crime sweep in the city. The operation was named “Operation Eye to Eye” in honor of Henderson’s Pulitzer-winning Wall Street Journal article, Detroit Police Chief James Craig said then.
In 1999, Henderson’s story “Crime Scene” earned him the award in the feature writing category. He became the first and only African American reporter to win a Pulitzer for the Journal. “Crime Scene” tells the story of a druggist driven to violence by his encounters with armed robbery.
Henderson later aimed at being a solution to Detroit’s crime problem by co-founding the community policing group Detroit 300.
Nolan Finley, editorial page editor at the Detroit News, seemed to agree with Conyers that sometimes being a journalist isn’t enough.
“(He was) a master of his craft and yet his heart told him put down the pen and pick up the sword to fight for the community,” Finley told the crowd. “He wanted better for our town and… change wasn’t coming fast enough.”
Craig noted Detroit 300’s assistance in identifying three suspects in connection with the rape of a 90-year-old woman.
The service lasted well over three hours and featured a musical performance by Detroit gospel singer Vanessa Bell-Armstrong.
“I heard some singing that had me crying that ugly cry,” Early, the retiree, told her Facebook friends. “I couldn’t be there, but I was there. Now, I just need to find someone who has a tape of the entire service.
“R.I.P my brother. You have certainly deserved your seat in heaven. Where I might be in the lower level of heaven, you certainly are sitting around the throne. I will miss you terribly, but even though it states when we get to heaven we will all be new creatures, I will certainly know you by your laugh.”
Tony Briscoe is a staff writer for the Detroit News.
- Lauren Abdel-Razzaq, Detroit News: Mourners recall journalist, radio host Angelo Henderson as community crusader
- Tammy Joyner, Talking Biz News: Why Angelo Henderson was so loved by his journalist colleagues
- Allan Lengel, Deadline Detroit: Angelo Henderson ‘Carried the Spirit of Detroit’
- Montez Miller, Triumph Church, producer: Celebration of life: Tribute to Angelo Henderson (video)
- Neal Rubin, Detroit News: Winning together: Henderson’s legacy
- Kim Russell, WXYZ-TV: Hundreds pay final respects to Angelo B. Henderson (video)
Tamron Hall Named Co-Host for Third Hour of “Today”
“Tamron Hall has officially been named a co-host of the 9 a.m. hour of the ‘Today’ Show,” Katherine Fung reported Monday for the Huffington Post.
“Hall, who is a frequent fill-in host on the show, joined the rest of the co-hosts on the ‘Today’ sofa when the news was announced on air Monday. ‘I’m so happy and thank you guys for being so kind to me and always welcoming,’ she said.
” ‘We’re really excited to officially welcome Tamron into the TODAY family,’ the show’s executive producer Don Nash said in a statement from NBC News. ‘She brings wit, enthusiasm and a keen sensibility to an all-around fantastic team, and I think Tamron, Al, Natalie and Willie will have a lot of fun together hosting the third hour.’
“On Monday, the show took a look at her journalism career, which has traversed Texas to Chicago to New York. . . . “
Hall is also anchor of MSNBC’s “NewsNation,” which launched in 2010. She joined MSNBC in 2007 and has since hosted several special reports for MSNBC and NBC News, the network said.
MSNBC Shuffles Chairs to Prepare for New Shows
“As two new MSNBC hosts take to the air today, there are some changes behind the scenes too,” Jordan Chariton reported Monday for TVNewser.
” ‘Jansing & Co.’ EP Rashida Jones — who joined MSNBC six months ago — and ‘[NewsNation] with Tamron Hall‘ EP Ilyas Kirmani have both been promoted to the new positions of Managing Editor, reporting to MSNBC VP and executive editor Yvette Miley. . . .”
Meanwhile, Jenee Desmond-Harris reported Friday for The Root that Joy Reid’s new MSNBC show, “The Reid Report” — “its name is borrowed from her blog and personal Twitter handle — will launch on Feb. 24 at 2 p.m. The program is slated to be what Reid — who’s already a regular MSNBC contributor and frequent guest host, in addition to her roles as managing editor of The Grio and Miami Herald columnist — calls a ‘table-setter for prime time’ that includes ‘a lot of policy and politics, as well as things happening in the culture right then and there.
” ‘Everyone at MSNBC has a different, unique perspective,’ she says. So, how will her personality and priority color her daily hour? One thing’s clear: The veteran journalist delights in the opportunity to weigh in on the messy places where race rears it head amid political and cultural headlines. . . .”
- Jordan Chariton, TVNewser: Joy Reid: ‘Fascinated” by Conservative POV, ‘Cable Should Be a Debate’ (Feb. 7)
- Tommy Christopher, Mediaite: Exclusive: Joy Reid Says Her New MSNBC Show Won’t Be an ‘Hour of Why Republicans Suck’ (Feb. 6)
- Katherine Fung, Huffington Post: Joy Reid Gets Words Of Wisdom From Katie Couric (Feb. 7)
- Tim Molloy, the Wrap: WGA Leans on MSNBC Hosts to ‘Lean Forward’ Against Comcast
Is Don Lemon a Possibility for the Piers Morgan Slot?
With confirmation Sunday night that Piers Morgan’s CNN prime-time interview show is coming to an end, Matt Wilstein of Mediaite put in a plug for Don Lemon as a prospective replacement:
“If there’s one anchor on CNN right now who doesn’t have the platform he deserves, it has to be Don Lemon,” Wilstein wrote on Monday. “He recently filled in for Erin Burnett at 7pm when she was on maternity leave and had his own, short-lived [tryout] at 11pm. And while neither opportunity garnered huge ratings, it’s hard to compare those start-and-stop trials to what would happen if CNN promoted Lemon properly. If anything, he has a proven track record when it comes to producing highly entertaining cable news moments. . . .”
If Lemon got the job, it would be one response to longstanding urgings from journalists of color organizations that the cable news networks offer a prime-time slot to one of their number.
Politico’s Dylan Byers, however, told readers, “Bill Weir is certainly someone to watch. The former Nightline anchor was hired away from ABC News in October. At the time, sources told POLITICO and Mediaite that Weir had been promised a show in the 9 p.m. hour, and mentioned that promise to colleagues at ABC. (CNN sources denied that claim.) . . .”
- Wayne Bennett, the Field Negro: Another Negro pisses off Ted.
Justice Dept. Revises Rules for Seizures in Leak Probes
“The Justice Department announced Friday it is revising its rules for obtaining records from the news media in leak investigations, promising that in most instances the government will notify news organizations beforehand of its intention to do so,” Pete Yost reported Saturday for the Associated Press.
“The revised procedures are designed to give news organizations an opportunity to challenge any subpoenas or search warrants in federal court.
“News organizations are to be informed of an impending document demand unless the attorney general determines that notice would pose ‘a clear and substantial threat to the integrity of the investigation, risk grave harm to national security or present an imminent risk of death or serious bodily harm,’ the new rule says. . . .”
Yost also wrote, “The regulation follows disclosures that the Justice Department secretly subpoenaed almost two months’ worth of telephone records for 21 phone lines used by reporters and editors for The Associated Press. Separately, the department secretly used a search warrant to obtain some emails of a Fox News journalist. . . .”
The National Association of Hispanic Journalists and Unity: Journalists for Diversity were among the journalist associations that met with Attorney Eric H. Holder Jr. as he weighed revising the procedures.
“AP President and CEO Gary Pruitt said that the news organization is still reviewing the new regulations but that the Justice Department appears to be following through on what Holder promised in July,” Yost wrote.
Paid Summer Internships Found to Be Cut Nearly by Half
“Sheryl Swingley has been the journalism internship coordinator at Ball State University for more than 20 years, where she also teaches journalism,” Blair Hickman wrote Feb. 18 for ProPublica. “We sat down to talk with her about paid and unpaid internships, the kind of advice she offers students and trends at Ball State — where she says students’ paid summer internships have dropped by nearly half.”
Swingley said, “I haven’t seen internships for journalism students, or even public relations or advertising students, change in terms of opportunities and what’s expected of them. Our students have always expected to be involved in producing real work.
“But what I have seen is fewer internships paying, and some internships still requiring students to work 40 hours [a week] for nothing. For the last 11 or 12 years, I’ve kept a record of the number of summer interns paid, the hourly wage, inflation dollars — the hot year was 2003, when we had 60 percent of our students paid. It’s dropped as low as 25 percent, and it was 26 percent in 2013. . . .”
Opinion Writers Debate Bigots’ Letters, Rebel Symbols
“OK, so Valentine’s Day is past, but Black History Month continues,” John McClelland, editor of The Masthead, publication of the Association of Opinion Journalists, wrote last week. “And it has enduring lessons for all of us about the persistence of bigotry, and the fact that civil rights apply to all — or should.
“Masthead has a multi-part package: this piece, and others on editorial pages’ tepid attention to the persistence of Confederate memorials in public places in the era of ’12 Years a Slave,’ and a review of past editors’ blinkers about civil rights.
“After several years in academia, I marvel at how today’s working editors, columnists and bloggers cope with the onslaught of bile that anonymous digital comment allows the trolls to spew. It’s been a topic in Masthead, at NCEW and AOJ conventions, and in the members-only online discussion list, several times in recent years,” he continued, referring to the National Conference of Editorial Writers, the former name of the organization.
“Many of us who have had bylines, columns or hot-seat jobs in journalism have had ‘secret admirers,’ in Mark E. McCormick’s words about one particularly crude and persistent middle-of-the-night caller.
“McCormick’s 2003 column in the Wichita Eagle, forwarded by Richard Prince, reminded me of a turd-bucket full of 1970s hate mail to my office. That was paper; McCormick’s was voicemail; now it is largely email or online comment. The hatefulness endures, and now it has more vituperative political, as well as racial, twists.
“The prolific McCormick wrote, ‘I have a secret admirer. Every so often, she leaves me voice mail so overflowing with passion that it would be unsuitable for me to share.’
“He said he imagined her features, dreams — and clothes: ‘From the content of her messages, I’d guess a flowing white sheet and a matching pointed dunce hat.’
“He discussed details of her racist rants, then stated that yes, bigots like this still live among us. He said, ‘We rarely encourage them by writing about them, because they don’t represent the vast majority of Americans.’
“That recalled some NCEW-AOJ discussion list debates of whether to print bigots’ letters or allow their online comments, and whether to respond. One faction said vitriol erodes credibility and drives away legitimate potential reader-contributors; the other side said we have a responsibility to let the public see what kinds of creatures slither about under the rocks and toadstools of society. The topic of screening or editing never goes away.
“Already seeing the makings of the digital cesspool 11 years ago, McCormick added: ‘They operate without names … firing fearful missives from anonymity’s grassy knoll … the unfriendly fire that journalists encounter in our efforts to connect with readers.’
“My hat is off to the working pros who get the **** while they do difficult, expanding, valuable jobs.”
- Javier E. David, the Grio: Is it time for African-Americans to surrender on the Confederate flag issue?
- Bruce Drake, Pew Research Center: More hate crimes motivated by victims’ ethnicity
- Steve Matrazzo, Dundalk (Md.) Eagle: ‘Lost Cause’ myth endures
- John McClelland, the Masthead: Do Reb symbols invite editorial attack? Mixed views of perceived media inertia on Confederate monuments
- Media Matters for America: CNN’s Brian Stelter Hits Media Failure To Call Out Hate Speech: Why Not Show “Some Backbone”?
- NewsOne staff: ’12 Years A Slave’ To Be Incorporated Into Public High School Curriculum
- Craig Schneider, Atlanta Journal-Constitution: New Confederate license plate stirs controversy in Georgia
- Where Are Monuments to Black Heroes of Reconstruction? (Feb. 3)
Thomas Picou Dies, Longtime Exec at Chicago Defender
“Memorial services were being planned this week for Thomas Maurice Sengstacke Picou, a longtime businessman and black media executive who died here last week of a heart attack following a medical procedure,” a news release datelined Los Angeles announced on Monday. “He was 76.
“Picou was former president and chairman of Real Times [Media], corporate owners of the Chicago Defender, the iconic newspaper whose attacks on racism and promotion of opportunities for blacks almost single-handedly fueled the Great Migration of southern blacks to northern cities from 1910 through the 1930s.
“Picou also was the nephew of longtime Defender publisher John H. Sengstacke, who assumed the helm of the historic newspaper at age 28 and made his mark by establishing the Negro Newspaper Publisher’s Association — a federation of black newspapers – and converting the Defender from a weekly newspaper to a daily.
“Sengstacke and his wife, Myrtle, raised Picou as their own son after Picou’s mother died in the 1950s. From that point on, Picou was a vital part of the Sengstacke and Chicago Defender families, longtime associates said.
“During his long tenure at the Defender, Picou evolved into a hard-working, community-minded executive who had his foot planted firmly in the past but his eye focused sharply on the future, said longtime friend and associate David M. Milliner. . . .”
Short Takes
- Four journalists and human rights defenders from the Morocco colony of Western Sahara were given prison terms of six and four months Thursday by a Moroccan court, the Sahara Press Service reported Friday. “They were arrested on the background of their political positions on the issue of Western Sahara, human rights activities and media coverage and documentation of various violations committed by the Moroccan State and publishing it in the media. . . .”
- “Next week [Feb. 24-27,] VH1 is set to air The Tanning of America: One Nation Under Hip Hop, a four-part documentary series based on Steve Stoute’s similarly titled book, The Tanning of America: How Hip-Hop Created a Culture That Rewrote the Rules of the New Economy,” Joycelyn A. Wilson reported Sunday for The Root. “It was a fascinating read and remix of hip-hop’s history and impact, and I turned the last page wanting to know more about how the ‘tanning’ effect — as Stoute describes it — is mapped to spaces outside the commercial industry. I’m hoping that’s where the TV version of Tanning ventures. Here are four more reasons to set your DVR, starting Monday . . .”
- “Veteran WFAA-TV anchor Gloria Campos announced her retirement Wednesday after 30 years at the Dallas/Fort Worth station,” WFAA reported on Feb. 19. “Campos, who attended Southwest Texas State University, began her career at KGBT-TV in Harlingen, Texas, which is where she grew up. She became WFAA’s first Latino anchor in 1984. In 2012, Campos was inducted into the National Association of Hispanic Journalists’ Hall of Fame. . . .”
- David Ono, 4 p.m. and 6 p.m. news anchor at KABC-TV in Los Angeles, has produced and reported award-winning specials on significant moments in Asian and Asian American history, including the Japanese-American internment in World War II. “Usually the older generation reacts with a deep sense of gratitude,” Ono told Randall Yip Feb. 17 for his AsAm News. “Their story has barely been told in their lifetime. When we do come out with a high profile piece on their experience I almost feel a sense of relief from them..almost like they are whispering ‘finally’ and ‘thank you.’ The younger generation quite often has never heard these stories. So when they do, you get a sense of disbelief that this was even possible. Especially for the stories that are based here in this country. . . .”
- Reporters Without Borders condemned the fatal shooting of young Colombian cameraman Yonni Steven Caicedo by two gunmen in Buenaventura, in the southwestern department of Valle del Cauca, on Feb. 19. “The police gave Caicedo some initial protection but the [Press Freedom Foundation] release criticized the failure to continue protecting him and the lack of cooperation between the local authorities and national authorities that are supposed to protect journalists in danger,” the press freedom organization said.
- “All this week, WUNC’s Leoneda Inge is working with a team to re-construct a slave cabin that dates back to the early 1800s,” Inge and Carol Jackson reported Friday for North Carolina Public Radio. “The cabin is on the grounds at James Madison’s Montpelier in the Piedmont region of Virginia. The remains of the original slave cabin was discovered and excavated in 2010. Leoneda and the team will be helping to rebuild the slave quarter at the actual site where it stood generations ago. . . .”
- “Despite all the money spent on hiring up, despite the spinoffs into ‘longform journalism’ (what us at the OC Weekly have called ‘reporting’ since 1995), politics and an investigative unit, the sentient world still thinks of [BuzzFeed] as an outlet for 20-some-year-old writers and readers to feel like they’ve accomplished something by investing the least amount of effort,” Gustavo Arellano reported Monday in the Orange County (Calif.) Register. “And nowhere is this more evident than in a recent [BuzzFeed] listicle called ’13 Dishes That Aren’t Actually Mexican.’ . . .”
- “Over the weekend, Bay Area TV news anchor Thuy Vu had both U.S. coasts media-covered. Deservedly,” Richard Horgan wrote Monday for FishbowlNY. “Not only is she a journalist who recently took over on KQED for a local PBS legend (Belva Davis), but the story of how her family sacrificed in order to provide Vu and her siblings with a better life is replete with American Dream detail. . . .” Horgan referred to stories about Vu in the San Francisco Chronicle and New York Times.
- In Houston, “María Corrales is doing a cross-over into the English-language market,” Veronica Villafañe reported Thursday in her Media Moves column. “She leaves KXLN-45 Univision Houston to take on a new job at KRIV. . . .”
- “Vicente Arenas is leaving local news for a network correspondent position,” Veronica Villafañe reported Sunday in her Media Moves column. “This is his last week at KHOU, the CBS affiliate in Houston. He’ll be joining CBS News as a Miami-based correspondent. He starts the new job on March 17. . . .”
- Kelley L. Carter has been named entertainment editor for Ebony magazine, effective Monday, Carter confirmed. She will be based in New York. Carter chairs the Arts & Entertainment Task Force of the National Association of Black Journalists and worked at the Detroit Free Press, Chicago Tribune and USA Today before freelancing for several publications.
- Former New York broadcaster Sheila Stainback messaged colleagues last week, “I’m leaving the New York City Housing Authority to join the Kings County District Attorney’s office (Brooklyn DA) as the chief press person; I begin this Monday, Feb. 24. The DA is Ken Thompson, newly elected after defeating the 25-year incumbent. . . . ” Thompson has taken on several media and high-profile cases, including filing discrimination charges against the New York Post.
- “A recent wave of anti-press violations, including repressive legislation, abductions, and physical attacks, threatens to set back the steps Libya has taken toward democracy since the revolution that removed the late Muammar Qaddafi from power,” the Committee to Protect Journalists said Wednesday.
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