Magazines Would Be Part of Ex-Athlete’s Company
Blacks, Hispanics Not Faring Well in Silicon Valley
N.Y. Times Paints Unflattering Portrait of Black Caucus
John Mayer Gaffes Prompt Discussion of Race, Power
Time Explores Diversity Issues in Online Dating
Chicago Public Radio Investigates Juvenile Justice
Judge’s Race Found to Affect Harassment Verdicts
N.Y. Times Ombudsman Sides With Editor Over Gov
Americans Still Closely Following Haiti Quake Aftermath
Magazines Would Be Part of Ex-Athlete’s Company
"Retired NBA star Earvin Magic Johnson is in talks to purchase Johnson Publishing Co., home to Ebony and Jet magazines and an archive of iconic photographs documenting U.S. black life for more than half a century, Brett Pulley reported over the weekend for Bloomberg News. 
" ‘There have been discussions,’ Eric Holoman, president of Los Angeles-based Magic Johnson Enterprises, said in an interview. ‘There’s no definitive agreement.’ He declined to comment further."
Holoman could not be reached for comment on Sunday. Johnson Publishing spokeswoman Wendy Parks told Journal-isms that Linda Johnson Rice, chairman and CEO, "is declining interviews at this time." She said in the Bloomberg story that Johnson Rice "has never talked to Magic Johnson with respect to his interest in buying" the company.
Pulley reported that "Johnson, 50, would fold the publisher into Magic Johnson Enterprises, said a person with knowledge of the discussions. The company he founded while a player with the Los Angeles Lakers has partnerships with Starbucks Corp., 24 Hour Fitness Worldwide Inc. and T.G.I. Friday’s Inc. Ad revenue at Ebony declined 38 percent to $35.5 million last year on a 39 percent drop in ad pages, according to Publishers Information Bureau.
"Johnson Publishing’s Chicago headquarters would be included in the sale, said the person, who declined to be identified because talks are private. A purchase may require satisfying liens placed on the building by a creditor, the person said."
As reported in October, Sidmel Estes, a longtime television executive producer and the founder and CEO of Breakthrough Inc., a media consulting company, said her Atlanta-based firm is working to assemble a group of investors ‘who want to see the next generation of Ebony." Joining Estes, a former president of the National Association of Black Journalists, are Neil Foote, who leads the National Association of Multicultural Media Executives, and Willie Chriesman, a former broadcast news manager.
Estes told Journal-isms on Monday, "When I read about Magic’s interest, I began researching to see if I could get an ‘inside source’ in Magic’s empire who could get directly to him. I wanted to offer the suggestion that we provide the editorial model and operation for his efforts and he put up the money.
"It’s at least worth exploring, I think."
Another group headed by Connecticut businessmen and brothers Kenton and Peter Clarke said in October that it, too, wanted to acquire Ebony and Jet magazines.
Kenton Clarke, CEO of DiversityBusiness, said then that he had not been able to have his phone calls returned by the company.
Blacks, Hispanics Not Faring Well in Silicon Valley
"The unique diversity of Silicon Valley is not reflected in the region’s tech workplaces ‚Äî and the disparity is only growing worse," Mike Swift wrote Sunday in the San Jose Mercury News.
"Hispanics and blacks made up a smaller share of the valley’s computer workers in 2008 than they did in 2000, a Mercury News review of federal data shows, even as their share grew across the nation. Women in computer-related occupations saw declines around the country, but they are an even smaller proportion of the work force here.
"The trend is striking in a region where Hispanics are nearly one-quarter of the working-age population — five times their percentage of the computer work force — and when dual-career couples and female MBAs are increasingly the norm.
"It is also evident in the work forces of the region’s major companies. An analysis by the Mercury News of the combined work force of 10 of the valley’s largest companies ‚Äî including Hewlett-Packard, Intel, Cisco Systems, eBay and AMD ‚Äîshows that while the collective work force of those 10 companies grew by 16 percent between 1999 and 2005, an already small population of black workers dropped by 16 percent, while the number of Hispanic workers declined by 11 percent. By 2005, only about 2,200 of the 30,000 Silicon Valley-based workers at those 10 companies were black or Hispanic."
However, the story continued, "With the number of white computer workers also dropping after 2000, Asians were the exception. They now make up a majority of workers in computer-related occupations who live in Silicon Valley, although they hold only about one in six of the nation’s computer-related jobs."
In a sidebar, Swift wrote that, "Google, the company that wants to make the world’s information accessible, says the race and gender of its work force is a trade secret that cannot be released.
"So do Apple, Yahoo, Oracle and Applied Materials. These five companies waged an 18-month Freedom of Information battle with the Mercury News, convincing federal regulators who collect the data that its release would cause ‘commercial harm’ by potentially revealing the companies’ business strategy to competitors. A sixth company, Hewlett-Packard, fought the release and lost."
N.Y. Times Paints Unflattering Portrait of Black Caucus
"From 2004 to 2008, the Congressional Black Caucus’s political and charitable wings took in at least $55 million in corporate and union contributions, according to an analysis by The New York Times, an impressive amount even by the standards of a Washington awash in cash," the New York Times reported in a front-page story on Sunday. "Only $1 million of that went to the caucus’s political action committee; the rest poured into the largely unregulated nonprofit network. (Data for 2009 is not available.)
"The caucus says its nonprofit groups are intended to help disadvantaged African-Americans by providing scholarships and internships to students, researching policy and holding seminars on topics like healthy living," continued the story, by Eric Lipton and Eric Lichtblau, with additional reporting by Ron Nixon and Griffin Palmer.
"But the bulk of the money has been spent on elaborate conventions that have become a high point of the Washington social season, as well as the headquarters building, golf outings by members of Congress and an annual visit to a Mississippi casino resort.
"In 2008, the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation spent more on the caterer for its signature legislative dinner and conference ‚Äî nearly $700,000 for an event one organizer called ‘Hollywood on the Potomac’ ‚Äî than it gave out in scholarships, federal tax records show.
" . . . And an examination by The Times shows what can happen when companies offer financial support to caucus members.
"For instance, Representative Danny K. Davis, Democrat of Illinois, once backed legislation that would have severely curtailed the rent-to-own industry, criticized in urban districts like his on the West Side of Chicago. But Mr. Davis last year co-sponsored legislation supported by the stores after they led a well-financed campaign to sway the caucus, including a promise to provide computers to a jobs program in Chicago named for him. He denies any connection between the industry’s generosity and his shift."
Dean Baquet, the Times’ Washington bureau chief and highest ranking black journalist at the paper, told Journal-isms that he had assigned the story.
"Lipton and Lichtblau are investigative reporters who have spent a lot of time over the years writing about Congress. They broke the story about Sen. Ensign’s efforts on behalf of his lover’s husband," Baquet said. "It became clear when the caucus withdrew its support from a regulatory bill a while back that they had become a powerful force in Washington and that no one had taken a good hard look at it."
The reference is to an October story reporting that Sen. John Ensign, R-Nev., sought work for a close friend and top Washington aide, Douglas Hampton. Ensign was having an afffair with Hampton’s wife, according to the story, and "The tumult that the liaison was causing both families prompted Mr. Ensign, a two-term Republican, to try to contain the damage and find a landing spot for Mr. Hampton."
In December, Lipton reported that members of the Caucus decided to buck their party and president and tried stall financial regulation reform because it wanted the administration to help minority-owned businesses.
The Congressional Black Caucus Foundation was not available for comment over the holiday weekend. The story escaped mention on the Sunday talk shows.
TV One’s "Washington Watch With Roland Martin," created in part because caucus members were rarely invited onto the mainstream networks, tapes on Friday, though it airs on Sunday.
- Tom Beyerlein and Lynn Hulsey, Dayton (Ohio) Daily News: Monitoring lax on tax money given to SCLC
- Patrick Gavin, Politico: Answer This: Roland Martin
- Jim Sleeper, tpmcafe.com: The Congressional Black Corrupticus, Yet Again
- Dr. Boyce Watkins, theGrio.com: Corruption in the Congressional Black Caucus threatens African-Americans
John Mayer tells a concert audience he descended into a "whirlpool of selfishness" in his Playboy interview and perhaps "should take a break from trying to be clever."
John Mayer Gaffes Prompt Discussion of Race, Power
Musician John Mayer has apologized for his Playboy interview remarks in which he said, among other things, that he had a "Benetton heart and a David Duke" sex organ, and that having a "’hood pass" was "sort of a contradiction in terms, because if you really had a ‘hood pass, you could call it a n—-r pass."
But amid the reaction was a lengthy exchange between Atlantic magazine blogger Ta-Nehisi Coates and his readers about the role that power dynamics play in the use of insults.
Coates, an African American writer, said he used to have a "don’t-get-drunk-around-white-people" rule, and he used his first job — as a writer at the Washington City Paper ‚Äî as an example.
"When I was there it was basically all white," Coates wrote. "As it turned out, some of my best friends came out of that gig. But when I got there, I was 21, straight out West Baltimore, with a detour to Howard, and all I saw was white folks.
"I think I came in, not so much expecting beef, but just kind of on guard. Frequently we’d have social gatherings, and I’d always skip them for A.) Fear of being the only black guy B.) Fear that someone would get smashed, say something ignorant and I’d do something that would get me fired. I feel bad about this, because I was really well liked and no one ever actually did anything to me. Indeed, race-wise, it was one of the most progressive workplaces I’ve ever been in. No P.C. bullshit, but no ‘I’m not P.C.’ ignorance either. But because of my own issues, I skipped everything from after work gatherings to Christmas parties.
"A couple years after I started my friend Neil Drumming came on, thus adding a second black guy. Neil was from New York, didn’t go to an HBCU, and thus had a lot of experience navigating the wider world. Whenever there was a party, he was down. I’d look at him with that ‘you drinking with them?’ look and he’d look back with that ‘Motherfucker, free beer’ look.
"Free beer won. And that isn’t a small thing. I dare say I gained a lot from a few free beers with white folks.
". . . I think as a black person, I am, in professional settings, a little more conscious than some of my white peers when it comes to keeping up appearances. . . . But it isn’t because I don’t like to drink, or because I secretly suspect they’re racist or some such. It’s more like a feeling, a sense, that if anything goes wrong, I have a lot more to lose."
- Eric Deggans blog, St. Petersburg (Fla.) Times: Explaining John Mayer: He’s a musician
- Adam Mansbach, theRoot.com: Forgiving John Mayer
- Tony Norman, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette: Words aren’t as clear as black and white
- Jay Smooth video: Why I’m Not Making a Video About John Mayer
- La Toya Tooles, Salon.com: John Mayer: A black woman responds
- Jeff Winbush, theDailyVoice.com: John Mayer’s David Duke problem.
- Saaret E. Yoseph, theRoot.com: John Mayer’s Stupid Mouth
Time Explores Diversity Issues in Online Dating
For its Feb. 22 issue, Time magazine ran this piece by Jen?©e Desmond-Harris on diversity in online dating. It began:
"This Valentine’s Day, more of us than ever will be looking for love online. And if recent studies are any guide, relatively few women on mainstream dating sites will bother to respond to overtures from men of Asian descent. Likewise, black women will be disproportionately snubbed by men of all races.
"Yes, even though America has been flirting intensely with a postracial label for some time, color blindness is not upheld as an ideal in the realm of online romance. On some sites, it’s not even an option. . . ."
-
Michel Martin, Jimi Izrael, Hill Harper on "Tell Me More," National Public Radio: Black Writers: Where Is The Love, Communication?
"Marcus is 14. He’s very smart and there’s no doubt he’s got what it takes to graduate from eighth grade, but he’s always getting in trouble. A pair of school suspensions were part of a downward spiral that could eventually land him in juvenile prison," according to the Chicago Public Radio series, "Inside and Out." (Credit: Carlos Javier Ortiz)
Chicago Public Radio Investigates Juvenile Justice
"After spending a year inside a Chicago high school examining why only 50 percent of students graduate, WBEZ Chicago Public Radio wanted to report on what happens to the 50 percent of students who drop out.
"One answer is that many of them end up incarcerated, including in the state’s eight juvenile prisons. So reporters were eager to interview young offenders to see what had gone wrong. . . ." Mina Dixon of the Journalism Center on Children and Families reported last week.
"Chicago Public Radio reporter Robert Wildeboer thought the story called for ongoing visits to multiple youth detention facilities. But the state put up roadblocks at the beginning."
With the support of his radio audience, Wildeboer overcame the roadblock.
"The result is ‘Inside and Out,’ a six-month series which launched Jan. 25, 2010 with a week of stories profiling young people whose lives have tangled with the Illinois juvenile justice system.
"They include: Marcus, a 14-year-old struggling to resist the lure of street life and complete grade school; Angelica, a 19-year-old who has cycled in and out of youth prison twice; and Mario, a 20-year-old college student whose childhood was pockmarked with violence and trauma. The unflinching, unwavering accounts of their troubles with the law raise the question: Can the juvenile justice system rehabilitate young offenders, rather than just detain them?"
Judge’s Race Found to Affect Harassment Verdicts
"Multiple analyses found that judges’ race significantly affects outcomes," [PDF] Pat Chew, a professor at the University of Pittsburgh School of Law, and Robert Kelley, a professor at Carnegie Mellon University Tepper School of Business, wrote in the Washington University Law Review. They were explaining a 20-year study of federal workplace racial harassment cases.
"African American judges rule differently than White judges, even when one takes into account their political affiliation or certain characteristics of the case. . . .," the two wrote in a report presented Feb. 5 at the midyear meeting of the American Bar Association.
"While we cannot predict how an individual judge might act, our empirical analysis suggests that African American judges as a group and White judges as a group perceive racial harassment differently. These findings counter the traditional myth that the race of a judge would not make a difference — a myth premised on a presumption of a formalistic and objective decision-making process.
"Given the underrepresentation of minority judges, the growing minority population in the U.S., and minority skepticism of judicial fairness, this Article offers empirical support for a more racially diverse judiciary. An increase in the number of judges of color promises to increase diverse perspectives in the judicial system and to help unveil the complex reality of racial dynamics in the workplace."
- Mike Green, Huffington Post: Report: Race Matters in Judicial Decision-Making
N.Y. Times Ombudsman Sides With Editor Over Gov
Clark Hoyt, public editor at the New York Times, rejected New York Gov. David Paterson’s demand that the paper disavow the blizzard of rumors that the paper is preparing a salacious story about him.
"I think The Times and Paterson were caught in a terrible spot, but I think the paper is right to maintain its silence until ready to speak with an article on its own pages," Hoyt wrote on Sunday, siding with Executive Editor Bill Keller. "It could have denied the Paterson rumors. But what if the next time it really was looking into a scandal involving a public figure? Silence then would speak volumes. The demands for comment on work in progress could be limitless."
Discussing the events on CNN’s "Reliable Sources," host Howard Kurtz asked Marcia Kramer of WCBS-TV, "whether or not you look back the last 10 days, whether you think the media have just gone way overboard here in New York."
Kramer replied, "Well, what I think is it’s sort of part of the blog culture. The blogs put it up and then the mainstream press put it up.
"I mean, I didn’t think it was responsible to write those stories. But once the governor talked about it, there was no choice. It was the governor of New York talking about this whole thing."
Referring to lurid headlines in the New York Post and Daily News, Kramer also said, "there was actually a more dangerous and difficult headline for Governor Paterson a few weeks before that, when the New York Post caught him having lunch, I guess, with a woman, not his wife, at a New Jersey steakhouse dressed in what some in state government have called a purple disco shirt.
"Now, his first response to that was to say, ‘She’s on my staff,’ which is not true. And the second response was to say that he was on his way to a meeting for Haitian relief, which you wouldn’t go dressed like that.
"And it was such a difficult headline for him, that the following Monday he went to a King Day celebration with his wife to show that they were still together. And in the court of public opinion, I mean, maybe it was an innocent lunch, but it was a lunch where he went to New Jersey , he met a woman, not his wife, and it looked bad for him. Whether it was or not remains to be seen. But in the court of public opinion, that was not a good story for him."
Dayle Cedars and Major King reported on their trip to Haiti for Denver’s KMGH-TV. (Video)
Americans Still Closely Following Haiti Quake Aftermath
As more reporters return from Haiti and report on their experience, the most recent survey by Pew Research Center for the People & the Press finds that "Americans continue to closely track news about the aftermath of the earthquake in Haiti."
"More than four-in-ten say they followed news last week about the U.S. economy (43%) or the earthquake (42%) very closely," Pew reported on Thursday. "Just fewer than four-in-ten (38%) say they followed news about the earthquake aftermath more closely than any other major news story, while 26% say they followed news about the condition of the economy most closely."
A delegation from the black press returned after a scheduled four-day trip. It included Hazel Trice Edney of the National Newspaper Publishers Association, New York journalist Herb Boyd, Eddie Harris of Free Speech Television; Daniel Berdiel of XM/Sirius Satellite Radio; Joe Madison, host of "Madison and Co.," XM/Sirius/WOL radio; Sharon Madison, Madison and Co.; Richard Muhammad, editor-in-chief, the Final Call; Omarosa Stallworth, Haiti Support Project, and Ron Daniels, president and CEO of the Institute of the Black World 21st Century and founder of its Haiti Support Project, according to Edney.
In Denver, "KMGH reporter Dayle Cedars and videographer Major King were embedded with the U.S. Army’s 82nd Airborne Division of Ft. Bragg, N.C., to cover relief efforts in the wake of the disaster," Joanne Ostrow reported Friday in the Denver Post. A half-hour special (in four parts online) aired Sunday.
USA Today reporter Marisol Bello "was embedded with the relief organization World Vision, which was immediately dispatched to one of Haiti’s largest hospitals," Elizabeth Wagner reported for Pavement Pieces at New York University, where Bello spoke.
- Betty Bay?©, Louisville (Ky.) Courier-Journal: Haiti’s misery: so distant and yet so near and familiar
- Herb Boyd, Our World Today: Haiti Rebounds
- Angie Chuang, theRoot.com: Haiti’s ‘Orphans’ and the Transracial Adoption Dilemma
- Jonathan M. Katz, Associated Press: After Month of Chaos, Haitians Help Themselves
- Marc Lacey, New York Times: Education Was Also Leveled by Quake in Haiti
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