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Vargas File Might Never Get to Court

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Immigration Cases Awaiting Resolution at All-Time High

Detroit Free Press Seeks to Save High School J-Program

Reporter Quits After Comments on Young Black Men, Dads

Social Media Pan S.C. Story Heavy on Police Account

“Race Beat” Seemingly on Rise at Mainstream Outlets

ABC Casts Most Diverse Season in Recent TV History

“Stunning” Lack of Diversity on Cable Talk Shows

Short Takes

Jose Antonio Vargas, appearing with other undocumented immigrants, asks Monday on CNN, “Are we a threat?” (video)

Immigration Cases Awaiting Resolution at All-Time High

Jose Antonio Vargas might have received a “Notice to Appear” before an immigration judge after his detention in McAllen, Texas, on Tuesday, but it might be years before he goes to court — if ever, an immigration lawyer told Journal-isms on Wednesday.

“The first priority is the kids,” said Dan Kowalski of Austin, editor of Bender’s Immigration Bulletin and online editor of the LexisNexis Legal Newsroom, as he listed the categories of cases that take precedence. “Then those detained with criminal records,” then the noncriminals. “It could be years from now” that Vargas’ case reaches a judge.

The Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse at Syracuse University, known as TRAC, collects such immigration court data. It reported last week, “As of the end of June 2014, the number of cases awaiting resolution before the Immigration Courts has climbed to an all time high of 375,503 — an increase of more than 50,000 since the start of FY 2013 . . . California has the largest backlog (77,400 cases), followed by Texas (62,143) and then New York (55,010). . . .”

Vargas, 33, the undocumented journalist-turned activist, spent the first day since his detention responding to charges that he had engaged in a publicity stunt.

Erik Wemple reported for the Washington Post that on the CNN program “New Day,” Vargas said, “Is it a stunt to get on a plane . . . to try to get out of south Texas?”

“Pressed by ‘New Day’ host Chris Cuomo on how he, an immigration activist, could possibly be ignorant of the interior check, Vargas responded, ‘I did not anticipate it. . . . I’d never been to the Texas border,’ said Vargas, noting that he hadn’t realized that the area was essentially a ‘militarized zone.’ Lawyers for Vargas advised him to attempt to fly out of McAllen, he told Cuomo. . . .”

Vargas posted a statement on the website of Define American, the group he founded. “As an unaccompanied child migrant myself, I came to McAllen, Texas, to shed a light on children who parts of America and many in the news media are actively turning their backs on. But what I saw was the generosity of the American people, documented and undocumented, in the Rio Grande Valley.

“I’ve been released by Border Patrol. I want to thank everyone who stands by me and the undocumented immigrants of south Texas and across the country. Our daily lives are filled with fear in simple acts such as getting on an airplane to go home to our family. With Congress failing to act on immigration reform, and President Obama weighing his options on executive action, the critical question remains: how do we define American?”

Writing for Mother Jones, Jenna McLaughlin listed eight reasons why Vargas would not be deported:

Meanwhile, the Pew Research Center reported on the impact of the border controversy on public opinion.

“As the president and Congress struggle over how to deal with the influx of thousands of unaccompanied minors from Central America across the U.S.-Mexican border, a new survey finds that the public favors a shift in U.S. policy to expedite the legal processing of the children.

“President Obama gets very low ratings for his handling of the issue. Just 28% of the public approves of the way he is handling the surge of children from Central America, while twice as many (56%) disapprove. That is one of the lowest ratings for his handling of any issue since he became president. But Obama’s overall job rating is virtually unchanged from April: 44% approve of his job performance while 49% disapprove. . . “

Asked whether the U.S. should continue its current policy on the influx of children, 35 percent of whites — but 53 percent of blacks and 49 percent of Hispanics — said yes. Fifty-six percent of whites, 42 percent of blacks and 47 percent of Hispanics said no.

Detroit Free Press Seeks to Save High School J-Program

The Detroit Free Press is trying to save its 29-year high school journalism program, Paul Anger, Free Press editor and publisher, told Journal-isms on Wednesday.

He was responding to a report in the Columbia Journalism Review that the project is “abruptly ending” within weeks.

“Need to clarify a few things,” Anger said by email. “First, we are not ending our summer apprentice program, which draws from high schools and gives students a chance to get bylines in the Free Press as they are mentored. We intend to continue with that into the future.

“Also, we have not made an announcement on the program that runs during the school year, because we’re hoping we might find a way to keep it. And if we cannot do it this fall, we are not saying it’s gone forever. No one knows more than the Free Press what the program has meant.”

Aaron Foley reported Wednesday for Columbia Journalism Review that multiple Free Press employees “learned that the program would be discontinued on Monday but declined to speak for attribution before the paper issues a formal statement.” These employees said “The Gannett-owned newspaper no longer has a financial interest in funding the program.” 

Foley’s story continued, “‘With (Detroit Public Schools) in such turmoil, this is the only newspaper outlet some of these schools had,’ says Emiliana Sandoval, copy chief at Motor Trend, who ran the program while a [copy editor] at the Freep from 1999-2006 and then full time 2006-07. ‘They (the students) can’t express themselves. Part of the program is learning about writing, communication, interviewing — all things that can be used in any job, not just journalism.’

“Alumni expressed concern that budding Detroit journalists, particularly black ones — Detroit’s population is 83 percent black — would be shut off from a rewarding career if the program shuts down. ‘We’ve already seen newspapers are losing minority staffers at a fast rate. This isn’t helping — there’s no feeder system,’ Sandoval says. The most recent American Society of News Editors census shows that about 12 percent of journalists in newsrooms are minorities, a figure that has remained stagnant for years. . . . “

Sean Bergin concludes his report on the killing of a Jersey City, N.J., police officer by saying, “The underlying cause of all of this, of course: young black men growing up without fathers. Unfortunately, no one in the news media has the courage to touch that subject.” (video)

Reporter Quits After Comments on Young Black Men, Dads

“Following his unexpected on-air comments about ‘young black men growing up without fathers,’ veteran reporter Sean Bergin says his now-former employer News 12 made him an ‘offer I had to refuse, ‘ ” Jason Howerton reported Tuesday for TheBlaze.

“The news company slapped him with the equivalent of a ‘demotion,’ significantly slashing his pay and allowing him to work just one day a week in Long Island.

” ‘They offered me one day of work a week doing only light features, and no hard news,’ Bergin told TheBlaze. ‘It was only about $300-a-week — who can survive on that?’ As a contracted employee, Bergin reportedly made $1,300-a-week working on stories in areas of New Jersey, Long Island and Westchester County.

“In a new interview, Bergin admitted that he ‘broke the rules’ by editorializing during his reaction to a story surrounding the tragic murder of Jersey City police officer Melvin Santiago, who was shot in the head as he sat in his patrol car with a fellow officer at around 4 a.m. on Sunday. However, he also explained why his emotions got the better of him after he spoke to the killer’s wife and other members of her community.

“As first reported by TheBlaze, Bergin found himself in hot water after he stunned his superiors with unexpected commentary about the ‘anti-cop mentality that has so contaminated America’s inner cities.’ He went on to say that the ‘sick, perverse line of thinking’ is seen everywhere from ‘Jersey City, to Newark and Patterson to Trenton.’

” ‘It has made the police officer’s job impossible and it has got to stop,’ he added. ‘The underlying cause of all of this, of course: young black men growing up without fathers. Unfortunately, no one in the news media has the courage to touch that subject.’

The Associated Press added, “The National Association of Black Journalists’ president, Bob Butler, challenged Bergin’s connection between young black men growing up without fathers and anti-police sentiments and said that Bergin went beyond the standards of a news reporter by inserting his views on the story.

” ‘Are there problems in the inner city with kids without fathers? Yes. But does that make kids violent? No,’ Butler said. ‘There are a lot of kids without fathers who go to college, graduate and become upstanding citizens. He’s talking about a social phenomenon where there’s lack of opportunity in communities.’ . . . “

Social Media Pan S.C. Story Heavy on Police Account

” ‘I reported the facts I was given by the police.’

“That’s what broadcast reporter Deon Guillory told me last night over email,” Corey Hutchins reported Wednesday from Charleston, S.C., for Columbia Journalism Review. “I had asked Guillory if he’d been following the pointed criticism of a two-week-old story of his that had suddenly gone viral — becoming the most popular item on the website of WJBF, the ABC affiliate that serves the region along the Georgia-South Carolina border near Augusta.

“His report was about a working mother from South Carolina named Debra Harrell, who had been thrown in jail after being charged with ‘unlawful conduct toward a child.’

“Although his broadcast had aired July 1, Guillory told me he’d only recently begun getting dozens of emails, Facebook messages, and tweets about the segment. They probably weren’t the kind he was hoping for. His story had blown up in part because it made commentators around the internet angry — angry at what happened, but also at the angle Guillory and his colleagues had taken in reporting it. . . .

“As you can see, the coverage is a prime example of the kind of quick-hit TV reporting that leans heavily on one version of events — often the official version provided by authorities — but does little in the way of offering additional perspective. There’s a mug shot. There’s a police report. There are ‘facts given by the police.’ . . .”

“Race Beat” Seemingly on Rise at Mainstream Outlets

“Mississippi Senator Thad Cochran may owe the Congressional Black Caucus for helping him beat back a tea party challenger in his state’s primary last month, but journalists have the Associated Press’ Jesse Holland to thank for breaking the news last month in the first place,” Tracie Powell wrote Tuesday for Columbia Journalism Review.

“The tale of mostly Democratic black voters helping a Republican incumbent keep his job is just the kind of story Holland was hired to uncover” as race and ethnicity reporter for the AP. “If the AP didn’t have someone specifically watching for these type of stories, then the Cochran affair might not have gotten covered, Holland said. . . .”

Powell also quoted Steve Holmes, CNN’s executive director for standards and practices who wrote and edited articles in the New York Times’ 15-part series “How Race Is Lived in America,” among others who have had the “race beat” over the years.

“Traditional race beats (or whatever name one chooses to call them) that focused on black people and black stories, may be getting overshadowed by other groups fighting for civil rights and coverage. News organizations tend not to cover more than a few oppressed groups at a time, Holmes said. First it was black communities, and then there was a move to women’s issues and later Latino issues. Now it’s gay rights, he said.

“Which may be another reason why when the black Mississippi voters story cropped up last month, it was nearly missed. That, and perhaps the decline of statehouse reporters, stretched too thin to look for or write about ethnic groups and the issues that they face in their respective states, said Holland from his perch in Washington, DC. . . .”

ABC Casts Most Diverse Season in Recent TV History

“She has won a Tony Award, been nominated for an Oscar and joined Time magazine’s list of the most influential people in the world,” Eric Deggans reported Wednesday for NPR’s “Code Switch.”

“But until she was cast as sexy, hard-nosed attorney and law professor Annalise Keating on ABC’s new drama How to Get Away with Murder, Viola Davis had never seen a dark-skinned black woman her age playing the kind of role she will inhabit this fall.

” ‘There is no way in the history of film or TV that you’ve seen a character like this played by a black woman who looks like me,’ said Davis, 48, facing a handful of journalists after a press conference on the show at the Television Critics Association’s summer press tour in Los Angeles on Tuesday. ‘This is progressive. This is a first.’

“For ABC, Tuesday was also a first: The network faced a ballroom filled with critics for the first time since unveiling a schedule of new shows for 2014-15 that was the most ethnically and culturally diverse in recent TV history. . . .”

Deggans also wrote, “ABC entertainment chief Paul Lee doesn’t offer many specifics on why this is the year the network decided to go big on diversity — for example, suggesting that producers of their social media-influenced update of Pygmalion, a comedy called Selfie, cast Korean-American actor John Cho as its Henry Higgins-style co-star.

“Lee credits a diverse team of executives and show creators for building worlds that ‘reflect America,’ noting ‘that’s about authenticity rather than diversity. We picked up the best shows to come out of development. It just so happens … we think [every] one of these programs are great shows.’

“Which is a bit of a shame. Because, even as ABC advances its most ethnically and culturally diverse slate of new shows in a long while, its top entertainment executive still doesn’t seem comfortable admitting that the network has made diversity a priority and seems to be taking specific steps to ensure its shows are more balanced. . . .”

Short Takes

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