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Journal-isms Fri May 16

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In Reversal, Google Pledges to Disclose Diversity Figures

“Prodded by the Rev. Jesse Jackson, Google said Wednesday that it will reverse a long-held stance and reveal publicly how many minority workers are employed by the giant Internet company, in a report next month,” Brandon Bailey reported for the San Jose Mercury news.

” ‘We’re working very hard. We’re not doing enough and we can do better,’ said David Drummond, the company’s chief legal officer, after Jackson attended Google’s annual shareholder meeting and urged top executives to provide more opportunities for blacks, Latinos and other minorities. . . .”

Bailey also wrote, “Google has three female directors, and Drummond, the company’s fourth-highest paid officer, is black. Drummond said Google is working with historically black colleges to improve their computer-science programs, but he acknowledged, “we need to do a lot more.”

“Along with other valley companies, Google has balked at divulging its minority hiring statistics, arguing that the information is a competitive secret. ‘We’ve come to the conclusion that we’re wrong about that,’ Drummond said. . . .”

Google held a “day-long summit with media industry leaders” on Thursday at the Newseum in Washington. Co-sponsors included the Online News Association, the Society of Professional Journalists, National Association of Hispanic Journalists, International Center for Journalists, National Association of Black Journalists and Asian American Journalists Association.

Next on Net Neutrality: Contentious Sitdown Expected

“Following the Federal Communications Commission’s vote to move ahead with new open Internet rules that could allow for some companies to pay for faster delivery of their content online, calls of protest have sprouted from Internet companies and activists alike,” Alex Wilhelm reported Friday for TechCrunch.

“What’s next? FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler will head to [Congress] on May 20 for a sitdown that should prove contentious. When it first became known that Wheeler would testify in front of the House Commerce Subcommittee on Communications, it was before it was clear what the proposed net neutrality rules would be and when they would be voted on. . . .”

The New York Times’ Edward Wyatt wrote of the FCC’s 3-2 decision, “While the rules are meant to prevent Internet providers from knowingly slowing data, they would allow content providers to pay for a guaranteed fast lane of service. Some opponents of the plan, those considered net neutrality purists, argue that allowing some content to be sent along a fast lane would essentially discriminate against other content. . . .”

MTV Finds Youth Lack Historical Perspective on Race

“One oft-employed generalization about The Kids These Days is that they’ve grown up free from the legalized discrimination and racial neuroses of older generations, and they will live in a more multicultural world with less racism. But do we even know if that’s true?,” Gene Demby wrote Thursday for NPR’s “Code Switch” blog.

“MTV, that reliable weather vane of popular youth culture, wanted to find out. It polled a nationally representative sample of people ages 14 to 24 about their views on bias and identity.

” ‘The first thing we wanted to just find out was how much our audience knew about bias, talked about bias and cared about bias,’ Luke Hales, the lead researcher on the survey, told me. The poll was conducted ahead of MTV’s Look Different project, which is meant to help young people deal with bias and discrimination in their daily lives.

“What the pollsters found is that many values are shared across all racial groups, like a strong sense of the importance of equality. But they also found that the respondents seemed to lack historical perspective, which might not be too surprising because of their ages. Another reason they may not have much historical perspective? Race isn’t something they talk about very much. (More on that in a minute.) . . .”

Michael Sam Panned for Agreeing to Oprah Reality Show

“Michael Sam becoming the first openly gay player to get drafted into the NFL was a big deal,” Jason Hughes wrote Thursday for the Wrap. “It became an even bigger one when he signed with Oprah Winfrey’s OWN network to film a reality show that follows him through training camp as he tries to get a spot on the St. Louis Rams team. Perhaps too big. . . .”

Hughes also wrote, “OWN cameras were already rolling at Michael Sam’s house when he received the call that he’d been selected in the seventh round by the St. Louis Rams. His agent, Cameron Weiss, admitted on ‘NFL Live’ that the Rams didn’t know about the planned documentary before they drafted Sam. . . .” Columnists were disapproving of Sam’s move.

Photo Editor Harry Walker Confirms End of His McClatchy Job

Harry E. Walker, who as photo director of the McClatchy-Tribune Photo Service is the highest ranking black journalist at the McClatchy-Tribune News Service, confirmed Friday that he will be leaving when Tribune Publishing, which owned 50 percent of the service, takes full ownership.

“As part of the acquisition, Washington, D.C.-based MCT will consolidate operations in Chicago and become part of Tribune Content Agency, a syndication and licensing business operated by Tribune Co. since 1918,” Robert Channick wrote last week for the Chicago Tribune.

But Walker told Journal-isms by email, “No, myself nor anyone from my photo staff will be going to Chicago. To go to Chicago, you must reapply for new photo positions. No relocation assistance will be offered either.

“Most of the photo staff’s last day at MCT will be July 3rd, with one editor remaining until August 1.

“One photo editor that already worked for Tribune Company in the Los Angeles bureau will remain with the company. He will be the sole remaining photo staff member once the transition takes place.”

Who is remaining in the bureau? “Who is remaining?

“Only 4 people from our innovations department. Approximately 40 others are being laid off, which is the remaining staff,” Walker wrote.

As for his own hopes, “I would like to continue in photo editing as Director of Photography at major to mid-sized daily newspaper. Second choice would be to work in public relations or as a media coordinator,” Walker wrote.

The Tribune acquisition put the jobs of five journalists of color at risk.

Secrecy Over Executions Could Be First Amendment Issue

“Clayton Lockett didn’t do what he was supposed to do: die quickly and quietly,” Jonathan Peters wrote Monday for Columbia Journalism Review.

“Lockett was the Oklahoma death-row inmate scheduled to be executed April 29. But when the execution began, something went wrong: After being declared unconscious, Lockett moved his head from side to side, lifted his head and feet off the gurney, tried to say something, groaned and mumbled while writhing, opened his eyes, and attempted to get up, all before dying of an apparent heart attack less than 30 minutes later, in the execution chamber.

“Lockett’s gruesome death occurred in the full glare of a media spotlight — in part because of concerns that Oklahoma had impeded oversight and threatened certain constitutional rights by shrouding in secrecy, like an increasing number of states, key parts of its capital punishment system.

“The spectacle prompted Oklahoma Gov. Mary Fallin to postpone a second execution scheduled for the same night, that of Charles Warner, who subsequently asked the Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals to put off his execution “until evidence can be provided … [that] Oklahoma can carry out a humane, constitutional execution.” The state agreed last week to a six-month delay. Meanwhile, the state public safety commissioner is conducting an (independent?) investigation of Lockett’s cause of death, focusing on whether the execution team complied with protocols and how to improve those protocols.

“While Oklahoma reviews its practices, I’ll offer a suggestion to the Sooner State: Be less secretive about how you kill people. The state has been unwilling to answer even basic questions about the source of the lethal-injection cocktail used in Lockett’s execution. But when the government is mum about how it exercises what the legal scholar Vincent Blasi called its ‘unique capacity to employ legitimized violence,’ it’s not only a shameful failure of government transparency — it may actually violate the First Amendment. . . .”

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