Maynard Institute archives

Journal-isms March 8

by richard0353

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

Elinor Burkett interrupts director Roger Ross Williams as he accepts the award for best documentary short. (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. She is also an author, whose other work includes a book on former Israeli Prime Minister Golda Meir and one 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.’ "

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’s 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’s 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 ‚Äúreal fighters.‚Äù 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’re the people’s party, and because it’s 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 Entertainment Weekly.

Jackson Death Sold Magazines, but Not Like Obama in ’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’s 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 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 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. It 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 was discussing her late husband Gerald M. Boyd’s memoir, "My Times in Black and White: Race and Power at the New York Times."
  • Nancy LooNancy 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," television writer Robert Feder wrote Monday on his blog. "They said it to me. They said it to Phil Rosenthal. 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."
  • 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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