Maynard Institute archives

Ed Gordon Returning to BET

by richard0563

“Serious Issues Will Be Covered and Covered Well”

A Sometime Journalist Pulls a “Kanye Moment”

8 Mexican Journalists Abducted; One Beaten to Death

Fleeing Devastation, Haitian Journalists Settle in U.S.

Are Health Care Pollsters Asking the Right Question?

Foreign Journalists in Iran Say It’s Worth the Risk

Jackson Death Sold Magazines, but Not Like Obama in ’08

Short Takes

“Serious Issues Will Be Covered and Covered Well”

Ed Gordon, who came to national attention as the anchor-host of news and interview shows on Black Entertainment Television two decades ago, is returning to BET. Under the arrangement, Gordon will do news specials and a regular show that Ed Gordonis “in development,” Gordon told Journal-isms on Monday.

The Detroit native, now 49, joined BET in 1988 and is perhaps best known for interviewing such celebrities as Nelson Mandela, Oprah Winfrey, then-president Bill Clinton, a chastened Sen. Trent Lott, R-Miss., the late Michael Jackson and R&B artist R. Kelly, who was then facing child pornography charges of which Kelly was later acquitted.

In 1996, the mainstream media took notice when Gordon became the first reporter to sit down with O.J. Simpson after the former football giant’s acquittal on double murder charges. After the hourlong interview, People magazine included Gordon among “The 50 Most Beautiful People in the World.”

The spotlight shifted when in 2002, BET bosses Robert L. Johnson and Debra L. Lee canceled Gordon’s long-running interview program “BET Tonight With Ed Gordon,” the reporters’ roundtable show he hosted, “Lead Story,” and the public affairs show “Teen Summit,” saying they were money losers. Gordon protested publicly about the demise of “BET Tonight.”

His post-BET career has been uneven, with stints at MSNBC and CBS-TV’s “60 Minutes II,” an acrimonious time hosting National Public Radio’s “News and Notes,” and most recently, as the host of the syndicated “Our World With Black Enterprise.”

However, times change. On Monday, Lee, who succeeded Johnson as CEO, said in a statement that, “As BET celebrates its 30th anniversary, it brings me great joy to welcome back one of America’s most prominent news personalities. Ed has always remained part of the BET family and I am sure viewers will share in our excitement to have him back.”

Gordon said that viewers still come up to him and say, “We miss you on BET” or, “I watch you on BET all the time.”

Gordon told Journal-isms that his new show would encompass “everything that’s in the headlines, from hard news to pop culture,” although “everything under the umbrella of headlines, from the New York Times to the ‘Today’ show to ’60 Minutes,’ has taken a turn toward pop culture.” But he said “serious issues will be covered and covered well.”

Since BET canceled its news and public affairs shows in 2002, replacing them at first with news briefs, the network’s executives have sought to change their image as a network primarily devoted to booty-shaking music videos.

Johnson has left the network, and at a reception last year when BET unveiled its upcoming programming, Lee, now CEO, told Journal-isms that the election of Barack Obama helped prompt a belief that it was “time to sit back with my management team and say, ‘where are we going. What do I want my legacy to be? After 30 years, what do we want to stand for?'”

The network, which received the Thumbs Down award from the National Association of Black Journalists after it declined to join other networks in broadcasting the funerals of civil rights icons Rosa Parks in 2005 and Coretta Scott King in 2006, boasted in its news release:

“Through the use of news briefs, compelling specials, expert panelists, and open dialogue between the studio and online audience, The BET news division is committed to bringing forth the issues that matter most to African Americans. The BET news department recently won two NAACP Images Awards in the categories of Outstanding News / Information Series and Outstanding Variety Series or Special for ‘The Inauguration of Barack Obama, 44th President of the United States’ and ‘The Michael Jackson Memorial: Celebrating the Life of Michael Jackson.'”

Of his most recent job, hosting “Our World With Black Enterprise,” Gordon said, “I won’t be able to continue with that. I was thrilled with what we were able to do in three seasons. I wish more people had known about that show.”

Elinor Burkett interrupts “Music by Prudence” director Roger Ross Williams as he accepts the Oscar for best documentary short in Los Angeles Sunday. (Video)

A Sometime Journalist Pulls a “Kanye Moment”

“In the midst of an Oscar ceremony Sunday night that presented little in the way of you’ll-be-talking-about-this-tomorrow spontaneity came the dustup between the filmmakers of Best Documentary Short winner ‘Music by Prudence,'” as Eric Ditzian explained on mtv.com. “Director Roger Ross Williams had just begun his acceptance speech when Elinor Burkett, a producer of the short, went and pulled a Kanye West, interrupting Williams mid-sentence.

” ‘The man never lets the woman talk,’ she said. ‘Isn’t that just the classic thing?'”

It turns out that Burkett is also a sometime journalist, described in a 2005 New York Times book review as chairwoman of the journalism department at the University of Alaska at Fairbanks. The Miami Herald wrote that she worked there from 1988 to 1993. “She was known for ardently taking up causes in print. AIDS, feminism, Cuba. Demure she wasn’t. One day, she sauntered into the office sporting bright red hair. A few days later it was white. Then hot pink. Then she wrote a story about how strangers and colleagues reacted to her antics,” Lydia Martin wrote.

Burkett is also an author, whose other work includes a book on the late Israeli Prime Minister Golda Meir and another based on her experiences teaching in Kyrgyzstan.

“So what exactly brought about this awards show wackiness?” Ditzian continued. “Salon.com spoke separately to both Burkett and Williams following the ceremony to get the inside word. Turns out that the two had a falling-out over the direction of the short, which focuses on disabled musicians in Zimbabwe. Burkett was removed as a producer almost a year ago yet still qualified as an official nominee according to Academy rules. Burkett said the disagreement resulted in a lawsuit and an out-of-court settlement. Only one person is allowed to accept the award and they did not discuss any arrangements before the ceremony.

“Williams said that he never expected Burkett to pull such a move. ‘I was the director, and she was removed from the project nearly a year ago,’ he said. ‘I own the film. She has no claim whatsoever. She has nothing to do with the movie. She just ambushed me. I was sort of in shock.’ “

Williams also told his story Monday night on CNN’s “Larry King Live.”

8 Mexican Journalists Abducted; One Beaten to Death

“In the days since a long-simmering dispute erupted into open warfare between the Gulf drug cartel and its former enforcers, the Zetas, censorship of news developments has reached unprecedented dimensions along much of Mexico’s border with Texas,” Alfredo Corchado reported from Reynosa, Mexico, Monday for the Dallas Morning News.

“A virtual news blackout has been imposed, several sources said, enforced by threats, abductions and attacks against journalists.

“In the past 14 days, at least eight Mexican journalists have been abducted in the Reynosa area, which is across the border from McAllen. One died after a severe beating, according to reports that could not be independently verified. Two were released by their captors. The rest are missing.

“Even by the vicious standards of Mexico’s drug cartels, which have made Mexico one of the most dangerous countries in the world for journalists, the intimidation campaign is more far-reaching ‚Äì and more effective ‚Äì than other attempts to squelch media coverage of cartel activities, industry and law enforcement sources say. It is virtually impossible to safely report or verify, or even ask questions.

” ‘We are under a virtual gag order,’ said Jorge Lu??s Sierra, a freelance journalist and researcher who lives in McAllen. ‘We live in silence.’ “

Fleeing Devastation, Haitian Journalists Settle in U.S.

“Thousands of Haitians, including many journalists, have fled the country since the January 12 earthquake, Jean Roland Chery reported Friday for the Committee to Protect Journalists.

“Ronald Leon, a veteran journalist who worked with Haiti‚Äôs National Television station, Radio Caraibes and Tropic FM, has now settled in Florida, leaving behind his family and his journalism training school, Ameritech, which was destroyed in the earthquake. Its last class had 15 students.

“Leon told CPJ that his school, in the north of Port-au-Prince, had been devastated and looted. The computers that were not damaged in the natural disaster were stolen by gangs of looters, he said. From his new home in the United States, Leon said he intends to continue his work as a journalist, informing the Haitian community in Florida. Leon‚Äôs home in Port-au-Prince was completely destroyed.

“Linda Jean Gilles, a presenter and reporter with Radio Lumi?®re, also decided to leave Haiti. Traumatized by the earthquake and the loss of three of her colleagues at Radio Lumi?®re, she has now settled in Boston. Gesnel Toussaint, the news director for Radio Lumi?®re, told CPJ that he understands why journalists have decided to leave the country. Everything has to be begun again from scratch, he said, adding that the working conditions of journalists are so bad that those who continue to practice are ‘real fighters.’ Toussaint, who has just returned to Haiti after spending two weeks in New York, said that he may also emigrate in the near future.”

President Obama spoke in the East Room of the White House Wednesday to a group of sympathetic medical professionals without taking questions. He called for Congress to allow an ”up or down vote” on health care overhaul. (Credit: Pete Souza/White House)

Are Health Care Pollsters Asking the Right Question?

“I wrote recently about the outrageous fraud of Republican leaders citing public opinion as a reason to oppose health care reform,” Barry Sussman, editor of the Nieman Watchdog Project, wrote on Friday. “They do this to make it appear as though they‚Äôre the people‚Äôs party, and because it‚Äôs difficult to state their real reason, which is to bring down President Obama at any cost. . . .

“Comes now (Feb. 26-28) a McClatchy/Ipsos poll of 1,076 people that on first glance offers rocks to sling at Obama. The lead question asks, ‘As of right now, do you favor or oppose the health care reform proposals presently being discussed?’ Forty-one percent said they favored them, 47 percent said they were opposed, and the rest said they were unsure. Those are numbers the Republican leaders could work with.

“But the pollsters went a step further, asking those opposed ‚Äî 509 people in all ‚Äî if they were against the proposals because they ‘don‚Äôt go far enough to reform health care’ or because they go too far. Thirty-seven percent said it was because the proposals don‚Äôt go far enough. Thus ‚Äî are you ready for this? ‚Äî the addition of an obvious, simple follow-up question completely turns the tables. The overall numbers switch to 59 percent in favor of health care reform, 30 percent against. Putting aside those with no opinion, it becomes 66 percent in favor of health care reform, 34 percent against. Some would call that a consensus, or these days, a super majority.

“. . . For many interviewed, it is clear their responses represent gut feelings, not thought out positions. Only 10 percent said they knew ‘a great deal’ about Obama‚Äôs proposed legislation and 32 percent said they knew ‘a fair amount.’ Most people, 57 percent, said they knew ‘not very much’ or ‘nothing at all.’ ‚Äù

Foreign Journalists in Iran Say It’s Worth the Risk

“This is what it’s like to be a reporter in today’s Iran: To cover the recent anniversary of the Islamic Revolution, you had to wear a bright yellow bib identifying you as a journalist and sit in a designated area where you could hear and see President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad speak, but not the thousands of protesters nearby,” Borzou Daragahi wrote from Beirut last week in the Los Angeles Times.

“But this is also what it’s like to be a reporter in today’s Iran: You see ordinary people on the bus on the way to work and shopping for groceries in the market. You see not just the angry expressions of demonstrators and police, but the creases of tension along a mother’s forehead, the frowns of worry on the face of a merchant, the glimmers of hope lighting the eyes of a grammar school student.

“. . . Iran remains one of the most restricted nations in the world for the practice of journalism, especially after the unrest and crackdown that followed the nation’s disputed June 12 election. Hundreds of local journalists have been arrested. Iranian newspapers have been explicitly warned to stay away from touchy subjects. On Monday, the nation’s media watchdog banned the main reformist daily, Etemaad, as well as the weekly Irandokht and the Hamedan-based periodical Sina.

“Much of the once lively international press corps, meanwhile, has been pressured to leave or decided to pull out.

“But a number of international news outlets continue to maintain a presence in Tehran, navigating tricky red lines to keep independent eyes on one of the world’s hottest news stories. They say they strive to deliver a balanced picture of Iran’s state of affairs without drawing the attention of authorities. . . .”

Covers on the death of Michael Jackson were the top sellers for 2009 for Newsweek, Time and People magazines.

Jackson Death Sold Magazines, but Not Like Obama ’08

“This week begins our exclusive best/worst-selling coverage for 2009 with weekly and biweekly mags,” Steve Cohn wrote Monday for minonline.

“The King of Pop‚Äôs passing on June 25, 2009, from an apparent overdose of prescription drugs fulfilled the A-list-celebrity-who-dies-unexpectedly prerequisite for newsstand immortality.

“Happened to Princess Diana in 1997 and John F. Kennedy, Jr., in 1999, and like them, [Michael] Jackson‚Äôs post-mortem will be newsstand fodder with the ‘How did he really die?’ curiosity. The involuntary manslaughter indictment of Jackson physician Dr. Conrad Murray (who pleaded not guilty) should keep the story on the front burner just as did the inquests that followed the deaths of Diana and Kennedy.”

“Yet, Jackson‚Äôs death did not have the newsstand impact of the 2008 election of Barack Obama.

“. . . Serena Williams‚Äô Body was ESPN‚Äôs 2009 best-seller, but Shakira‚Äôs body was worst for Rolling Stone, where newsstand buyers were American Idol-ized by Adam Lambert. Tiger Woods ‘girlfriend’ Rachel Uchitel was OK!‚Äôs worst, while tabloid ‘veterans’ Jennifer Aniston/Brad Pitt were Together Again! as InTouch‚Äôs best.”

Short Takes

  • Laura S. Washington Laura S. Washington, a longtime board member of the Woods Fund of Chicago, has been named the group’s president, the fund announced  on March 1. Washington, a Chicago Sun-Times columnist, is a former editor of the Chicago Reporter and has been Ida B. Wells-Barnett University Professor at DePaul University, among her other positions. The Woods Fund is a grant-making foundation whose goal is “to increase opportunities for less advantaged people and communities in the Chicago metropolitan area.” The fund said it “plans to focus on ways in which race and ethnicity shape power, access to opportunity, treatment and related outcomes in metropolitan Chicago.”
  • “I told a white senior-level editor at the New York Times, where I worked, that I wanted to switch from editing local news to editing arts and culture articles,” Robin D. Stone wrote in the Detroit Free Press. “First, the editor suggested, I should take classes. I didn‚Äôt see classes as a prerequisite for white editors.” Stone relayed the anecdote in discussing late husband Gerald M. Boyd’s memoir, “My Times in Black and White: Race and Power at the New York Times.”
  • Nancy Loo In Chicago, “When WFLD-Channel 32 announced the hiring of Dawn Hasbrouck as noon news anchor, the Fox-owned station went out of its way to tell the world that Nancy Loo, the woman who‚Äôd be losing her anchor seat, would be kept on as a general assignment reporter,” veteran television writer Robert Feder wrote Monday on his blog. “They said it to me. They said it to Phil Rosenthal” of the Chicago Tribune. “They even said it in a press release posted on their own website. They lied. Barely three weeks after Hasbrouck signed on, Channel 32 has told Loo that her days as a reporter at the station are numbered. Insiders say that her contract won‚Äôt be renewed when it expires next month. She could be gone even sooner.”
  • Davar Iran Ardalan, “Weekend Edition” senior producer, bid goodbye Friday to National Public Radio, where she began working in 1993 after attending a diversity initiative funded by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. “I leave the edit booths of NPR at a time of great transition in journalism, but I will not go far,” she wrote. “I plan to stay in citizen journalism and social media, with an emphasis on innovation and diversity.”
  • “Darcy Pohland reported on the world from her wheelchair, but it never confined or defined her,” Molly Guthrey reported Friday in the St. Paul (Minn.) Pioneer Press. ” ‘She was not confined; she would not be confined,’ said WCCO-TV news director Scott Libin. ‘She didn’t want to be known as “the quadriplegic reporter.” She was a reporter, a Gophers fan, a Vikings fan and oh, by the way, she also had a disability.’ Pohland apparently died in her sleep at her home in Minneapolis; she was found by her personal care attendant Friday morning. She was 48.”
  • The Los Angeles Times ran this correction Sunday: “Sandy Banks‘ column in Saturday’s Section A about anger over racial incidents at UC San Diego stated that President Obama’s father was Nigerian. The president’s father was from Kenya.”

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