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One in 3 TV Stations Shares News With Another Outlet

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Survey Finds “One-Man Bands” on Relentless March

Comcast Purchase of Time Warner Opposed on Racial Grounds

Angelou Service Saturday Will be Private but Streamed

Reaction to Google Figures: Asians Became White

. . . Challenging the Same Assertion About Latinos

Photographer Marilynn Yee Retires After 37 Years of N.Y.

Exposing Companies That Renege on Diversity Promises

Egyptian TV Swayed Voters From Morsi, Toward Sisi

Short Takes

Survey Finds “One-Man Bands” on Relentless March

Almost a third of television news directors — 31.2 percent — say they ran news on another local or nearby TV station, according to a survey released Monday by the Radio Television Digital News Association.

“Generally, the bigger the newsroom, the more likely to have the station supplying news to other places,” Bob Papper, professor emeritus at Hofstra University, said in his 20th annual survey for the association. “Fox affiliates were more likely to be involved with cable channels but less likely to be involved with another TV station in the local market or a radio station. Stations in the Northeast were noticeably more likely to be involved with another local TV station, a cable channel and TV in another market than stations elsewhere.

“The small number of ‘other’ included a local newspaper, company-owned affiliates elsewhere, subchannels, and one that supplies video to gas pump monitors at local service stations.

The issue of sharing services with other stations has become a contentious one before the Federal Communications Commission, which last month barred most so-called shared service agreements or joint services agreements on a 3-2 vote.

Bob Butler, president of the National Association of Black Journalists, has contended that the sharing of news between stations can cost journalists jobs. Broadcasters maintain that this is the only way some stations can stay in business.

Butler wrote in March, “When there are fewer newsrooms, jobs are cut, normally leaving fewer opportunities for all journalists to find work. Viewers for the different stations get the same news delivered by the same people, limiting the opportunity to hear different viewpoints. For those who work in these newly ‘shared’ newsrooms, there is more work and less time for in-depth or investigative reporting.

“There are also fewer management jobs, leading to less diversity among those who make decisions on news coverage and hiring. . . .”

Papper wrote in his report, “The latest RTDNA/Hofstra University Survey continues to show that the TV news business isn’t limited to TV anymore, but the numbers also show a stabilization in the outside reach of a TV newsroom. The percentage of stations involved with other media slid about two and a half points from last year to 75.9%. Still a very high number. . . .”

In another section of his report, Papper wrote, “Call them one-man-bands, multimedia (MMJ) or backpack journalists — their use has been growing over most of the last six or seven years — until last year.

“Last year, the numbers really didn’t change; this year the relentless, slow march continues. The use of one-man-bands had been going up about 3 points a year. Last year, it was unchanged, but this year the use increased by around 5. So we’re back to an average increase of close to 3 points per year overall. . . .”

Comcast Purchase of Time Warner Opposed on Racial Grounds

A 68-page petition opposing Comcast’s proposed acquisition of Time Warner Cable has been filed with the Justice Department on grounds that it “would further institutionalize business and cultural norms in this new mainstream media that would substantially diminish and ultimately silence the public voice of minority citizens.”

The petition was signed by activist Charles E. Tate, journalists Paul Delaney and Juadine Henderson and eight others, including Richard America, economist and author; Dianna Dudley, compliance officer for an international banking and financial services company; and Lucenia W. Dunn, former mayor of Tuskegee, Ala.

As Joe Flint wrote last month for the Los Angeles Times, “If approved, the more than $40-billion deal would combine the nation’s top two cable providers and create a pay-TV and Internet behemoth. The Federal Communications Commission and Justice Department are reviewing the sale to determine if it serves the public interest and doesn’t violate antitrust law. . . .”

The petition urges not only that the acquisition be denied but also “that divestiture of one-third of their major market cable assets by Time Warner and Comcast be imposed to increase competitiveness, reduce monopolistic market power and expand content diversity of the mainstream media market; and to advance and protect the long-term public interests of American citizens and consumers as well as the constitutional foundations of the American democracy. Further, that the divested assets be offered for purchase by African Americans, Hispanics, Native Americans and Asian American citizens.”

Under “The Proposed Anti-Trust Remedy,” the petition says:

“A. Require Comcast/Time Warner to set aside 33% of their mature cable system serving major population centers and major media markets for purchase by African American, Hispanic/Latinos, Asian Americans and Native Americans. These set-aside systems will be placed in a trust for the orderly purchase by the beneficiary racial minorities pursuant to the following allocation schedule:

“B. Require Comcast to include a new national black television network news service in the network program line-up for each of its cable systems on a ‘must carry’ basis.

“C. Require Comcast to contribute sustaining operating budget finds for the Maynard Institute [for Journalism Education] programs to train future generations of African American, Hispanic/Latino, Asian American and Native American journalists for positions in minority owned cable systems and mainstream media newsrooms. . . .”

CBS News producers “asked several people from around the country: from Secretary of State John Kerry, to a student from the Chicago School for the Arts; from actor and singer Billy Dee Williams, to a teacher from North Atlanta High School, to recite lines from Maya Angelou’s poem ‘Caged Bird,’ ” TVNewser reported. (video)

Angelou Service Saturday Will be Private, but Streamed

“Maya Angelou’s family has planned a private memorial service in Wake Forest University’s Wait Chapel for 10 a.m. Saturday. Wake Forest University officials made the announcement Monday morning,” Meghann Evans reported for the Winston-Salem (N.C.) Journal.

“Angelou, celebrated poet, actress and activist, died Wednesday at her home in Winston-Salem after a long illness. She was 86. . . .

“The university said the family decided to have a closed service for only family and friends, because of limited seating capacity. Wait Chapel seats 2,250 people and has hosted presidential debates and other prominent events.

“Wake Forest will stream the service online for the public at go.wfu.edu/angeloumemorial.”

Evans also wrote, “Last week [Oprah] Winfrey told Entertainment Tonight that she would be speaking at the memorial. Winfrey and Angelou were close friends.

“Winfrey tweeted Sunday that she was sitting at Angelou’s kitchen table.

“Angelou served as the Reynolds Professor of American studies at Wake Forest from 1982 until her death. . . .”

The university posted a notice for media: “Every news organization planning to attend must have credentials for every individual who will be on campus on Saturday, June 7. Credentials must be requested online only through this form by Wednesday, June 4 at 5 p.m. . . .”

Reaction to Google Figures: Asians Became White

When Google released figures last week showing the demographics of its workforce to be 61 percent white and 70 percent male, the figures were widely reported as showing a lack of diversity — despite a work population that was 30 percent Asian.

Noting that a New York Times blog post reported that Google’s figures showed “how Silicon Valley remains a white man’s world,” UCLA law professor Eugene Volokh wrote, “But wait — just a few paragraphs down, the post notes that non-Hispanic whites are 61 percent of the Google work force, slightly below the national average. (That average, according to 2006-10 numbers, is 67 percent.)

“Google is thus less white than the typical American company. White men are probably slightly overrepresented; assuming that the 30 percent number it gives for women Google employees worldwide carries over to the U.S. (the article gives no separate number for U.S. women Google employees), white men are 42 percent of the Google work force, and 35 percent of the U.S. work force — not a vast disparity.”

If the aim is to reflect the demographics of the country, Volokh added, “Google can only accomplish that by firing well over three-quarters of its Asian employees, and replacing them with blacks and Hispanics (and a few whites, to bring white numbers up from 61 percent to 67 percent).

“Of course, it would be appalling for Google to fire Asians in order to have some sort of demographic match-up with the country, or even stop hiring Asians or hire fewer Asians for that reason. I think it would be equally appalling for it to fire, stop hiring, or hire fewer whites as well. My point is simply that, if one thinks that the problem is lack of ‘reflecti[on of] the demographics of the country,’ ‘white[s]’ aren’t the problem.

“This is part of a phenomenon I have long observed, under the label of ‘how the Asians became white.’ It’s not just that Asians are being treated like whites for purposes of race preferences, with some institutions deliberately setting lower standards (or creating a ‘plus factor,’ which is the same thing) for black and Hispanic applicants than for Asian and white applicants — instead, people sometimes actually call Asians white (mostly unconsciously, I suspect) . . .”

Meanwhile, the Professional Development Network Inc. released a report [PDF] on diversity in Silicon Valley information technology jobs Tuesday that concluded:

Professional Development Network describes itself as an Internet software and services company specializing in diversity recruitment resources for corporations, government agencies and job seekers.

. . . Challenging the Same Assertion About Latinos

“When I wrote an opinion piece on May 21 basically questioning an incredibly misleading piece by Nate Cohn of The New York Times’ ‘Upshot’ blog, I never would have thought that 1) Latino Rebels would still be covering the story; 2) The Times would not yet respond to my emails about Cohn’s reporting; and 3) Cohn would write another piece defending his initial piece,” Julio Ricardo Varela wrote Monday on his Latino Rebels site.

“But that is where we are as of this morning. Cohn and his editors have forged ahead with the following post, ‘Pinpointing Another Reason That More Hispanics Are Identifying as White.’ Ironically, Cohn’s latest piece (which once again does not include any actual reporting, just citations to previous studies) used a HuffPost entry by Manuel Pastor which was actually highly critical of Cohn’s overgeneralizations. . . .”

Photographer Marilynn Yee Retires After 37 Years of N.Y.

“New York City, 1977. Fires raged through the Bronx. Son of Sam was on the loose. Murders were almost as common as street fights and Times Square was dirty, in every way possible,” David Gonzalez wrote May 22 for the New York Times Lens blog.

“Marilynn K. Yee left sunny California for this? She had come to New York, all of 27 years old, to be a staff photographer at The New York Times. Among the first women on the photography staff, as well as the first Asian, she had left behind California, where she had been raised, and where she had worked briefly at The Los Angeles Times.

“Working the night shift, she did it all, hopping on the subway with her gear at all hours. One night she dashed off to Harlem to cover a double homicide. Her parents, who were visiting, were supposed to call her at work. She told the clerk that whatever happened, please don’t tell them where she was.

” ‘I got to Harlem and was like, “Where’s everybody?” ‘ she recalled. ‘There was nobody around. I saw a couple of guys hanging out and asked them about the murder. They pointed to the sidewalk and said: “See those red dots? That’s blood.” It happened at 4. The Times wasn’t too quick on breaking news then.’

“When she returned to the paper, the clerk said her parents had called.

” ‘Of course, he told them I had gone to Harlem for a double murder,’ she said. ‘They just freaked out.’

“The paper and her parents have changed since then. So has Ms. Yee, who went on to cover both World Trade Center attacks, being part of the team that shared the Pulitzer Prize in 1994. Now, after 37 years, she is retiring. This is her last day. . . .”

Egyptian TV Swayed Voters From Morsi, Toward Sisi

“The dramatic shift in popular opinion that is expected to lift a former army chief to president of Egypt traces, in part, to an incident outside a TV station last year,”  Matt Bradley wrote last week for the Wall Street Journal.

“One night last June, long before Field Marshal Abdel Fattah Al Sisi was seen as presidential material here, the news directors of six satellite news channels huddled in an office to discuss growing protests outside by backers of Mohammed Morsi, the Muslim Brotherhood leader elected president after the Arab Spring uprising.

“The news directors say they were terrified. Islamists enraged at the stations’ criticisms of Mr. Morsi had surrounded the office park that housed their TV offices, intimidating reporters who came and went.

“The news directors made a decision: From then on, their stations would refer to Muslim Brotherhood supporters as ‘terrorists.’

“The protesters ‘were saying “We will kill you.” They started throwing Molotov cocktails at the gate. So this was terrorism,’ said Albert Shafik, news director of a channel called OnTV.

” ‘So we explained this every day on air.’

“The language in broadcasts watched by millions proved a pivot point in Egypt’s circuitous development after the Arab Spring, from nascent democracy to a new embrace of leadership by former generals.

“Mr. Morsi, elected in 2012 in the first free and fair presidential election Egypt had held in decades, now sits in prison, facing capital murder charges. . . .”

Short Takes

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