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Grio Columnist Makes Plagiarism Accusation; Howard U. Radio Station Apologizes

richard

Updated August 5

WHUR-FM Removes Disputed Posting

Website Spotlights “Qualified,” Savvy Journalists of Color

. . . Consider Diversity When Deciding on Making Gifts

LaToya Valmont, Essence Veteran, Named M.E. of Glamour

Ebola Outbreak Could Dominate Visit by African Leaders

Washington Post Examines Black Gays’ High HIV Rate

Smith Comments Exemplify Erosion of Thoughtful Discourse

Redskins’ Website on Team Name Gets 3 Pinocchios

Short Takes

Stephanie Palmer, mother of Michael Palmer of Crosby, Texas, wanted reporter Keith Garvin of KPRC-TV to see the burns Michael received after playing the “fire challenge” fad. (video)

WHUR-FM Removes Disputed Posting

A controversy between the Grio, NBCUniversal’s black-oriented website, and WHUR-FM, Howard University’s commercial radio station, was brewing Monday, closely watched on social media.

On Tuesday, WHUR General Manager Jim Watkins issued an apology, telling the Grio writer that the station has “moved aggressively to address your concerns.”

“Last week, I wrote about the Fire and Fainting Challenge that is all the rave with some of the teens of America now for my column at The Grio,” wrote Luvvie Ajayi, a Grio contributor who describes herself as “a serial ranter and blogger.” “I posted my week’s writing recap here and this morning, someone commented telling me they searched for the fainting game on Google and ran across an article that sounded really close to mine.

“I click the link and end up on WHUR FM’s website and I read it with fumes coming out my ears. I was at home like this:

“WHUR is Howard University’s radio station, and their ‘writer’ named Richard Montgomery had basically copied and pasted entire paragraphs from my piece, posted it with few of his and TADA!!! Insta-post.

“So I am here to write a very deserved sternly-worded letter (it’s been a while) to the staff at WHUR and to Richard Montgomery himself.

“Dear WHUR,

“You have failed successfully at your job and you have failed at journalism. Hell, you have failed at blogging and you have failed at everything you are supposed to do: provide original content. . . .”

WHUR removed its posting. On Tuesday, Howard University released this letter from Watkins:

“I am in receipt of your complaint regarding a recent posting on our website (whur.com <http://whur.com/> ).  Please know we take such matters very seriously and have moved aggressively to address your concerns. We pride ourselves on delivering the best possible product whether on the air, web, or via our social media sites.  In the posting you referenced, we failed to achieve those standards.  We apologize for the inconvenience this may have caused you.  We have taken the appropriate steps to ensure such violations do not occur in the future. . . . .”

Watkins gave Ajayi his direct office number. The latter did not address any action toward Montgomery, and a spokeswoman did not respond to an inquiry about that.

The July 31 “Luvvie’s Lane” post began:

“A teenage boy stands in the shower wearing shorts and douses himself in acetone (nail polish remover). He lights a match and throws it on himself. When he catches fire, he runs around the house in pain until he ends up back in the shower and his friends put the flame out.

“This is called the ‘fire challenge,’ and it is the new THING that teenagers are doing across the country.

“Then there’s the two girls standing against a wall, and they wait as two boys hold their chests down. One of them passes out on the ground, and then she finally wakes up after 30 scary seconds as her friends laugh. That’s the ‘pass out challenge.’

“In the words of Cliff Huxtable, ‘Theo, that is the dumbest thing I’ve ever heard in my life. No wonder you always get Ds.’ Everyone and everything has jumped the shark. Jesus be a fence, take the wheel and hold my mule because I cannot deal with it. . . .”

Website Spotlights “Qualified,” Savvy Journalists of Color

” ‘We can’t find qualified minorities.’ Each of us has heard this time and time again: when we ask our bosses whether they interviewed any women or people of color for that opening they just hired, when we challenge conference planners who set panel after panel of monochromatic talking heads,” says the “About This Project” page of a newly revamped Journalism Diversity Project website.

Emma Carew Grovum, Sharon Chan, Robert Hernandez, Michelle Johnson, Doug Mitchell, Juana Summers and Benet Wilson are the journalists behind the site.

“In 2011, we pulled together a list of more than 130 digital journalists of color who were both qualified, awesome, and easily findable. Now, in 2014 we’re giving the project a new life and making it a more robust resource for job seekers, hiring managers and conference planners.

“Who makes the list? People of color, committing acts of journalism, and pushing the craft forward in the digital age. It’s a broad umbrella, meant to cover storytellers who truly ‘get’ digital-first and multi-platform journalism, coders and developers, data journalists, UX folks and designers, content strategists, professors who are molding the next generation and more. . . .

. . . Consider Diversity When Deciding on Making Gifts

Meanwhile, veteran journalist Farai Chideya, now teaching at New York University, made another case for diversity, particularly in public broadcasting, with a Friday posting in Huffington Post headlined, “Media Money and Power in a Post-Post-Racial Age.“

“I personally would like to see a truly integrated media, with diversity threaded throughout big and small companies, legacy news organizations and startups,” Chideya wrote. “Media entrepreneurs need to understand why integrated media is not ‘feel-good’ but essential in an America rapidly becoming majority-Latino and non-white. Race-based stories are often precursor indicators to larger societal shifts.

“For example, what if media had paid more attention to the predatory mortgage lending in communities of color, which was documented in groundbreaking work by Colorlines’ Kai Wright? We may have spotted the larger crisis sooner and given regulators information that helped stop the destruction of American wealth. On the other hand, women and diverse journalists need to understand how business works. We need to train ourselves to seek and engage in the right partnerships, get investments, and use them wisely.

“If companies like Google can publish their diversity numbers, warts and all, then every public media entity should have readily available and updated figures on its editorial staffing demographics, hiring, and retention. We individuals who support public media should demand those figures as we consider our gift making. And foundations, most of all, should take responsibility for using their fiscal leverage to demand results. The problem of diversity is systemic to media, but in public media we seem to rhetorically set ourselves a higher bar, yet fail to make the investments necessary to achieve it.”

LaToya Valmont, Essence Veteran, Named M.E. of Glamour

LaToya Valmont has been promoted to managing editor of Glamour, Chris O’Shea reported Thursday for FishbowlNY.

According to a July 18 news release from Glamour, a Conde Nast publication, “In her new role, Valmont will manage the monthly issues from lineup to closing, overseeing deadlines and layouts while supervising the production, copy, and research departments.”

Cindi Leive, editor-in-chief, said in the release, ‘LaToya is an exceptionally strong leader, and we’re thrilled to promote her to managing editor. She’s a great manager and a strong collaborator — both key qualities during this time of tremendous growth at Glamour.”

The announcement continued, “LaToya joined Glamour in April 2013 as production director. She previously worked at Essence for ten years, most recently in the role of production manager. Formerly, she worked at People and O, The Oprah Magazine.”

Ebola Outbreak Could Dominate Visit by African Leaders

“More than 40 African heads of state touched down in Washington, D.C., on Monday for the first-ever three-day U.S.-Africa Leaders Summit and White House gala, but concerns about the deadly Ebola virus loom over the event — potentially overshadowing the festivities,” Erin C.J. Robertson wrote Monday for The Root.

“As the summit kicks off, a second American infected with Ebola is expected to be brought to the U.S. on Tuesday and admitted to Emory University Hospital’s infectious-disease unit for treatment, Fox News reports.

“According to Fox News, two West African leaders — Nobel Peace Prize laureate and Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf and Sierra Leonean President Ernest Bai — have apologetically pulled out of the event amid concerns over the outbreak of the lethal virus, which is concentrated in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone. It has already killed at least 729 people, the Los Angeles Times reports, and threatens to spread. . . .”

Washington Post Examines Black Gays’ High HIV Rate

“The story of HIV in America is the story of HIV among black Americans, who are over eight times more likely than white Americans to test positive for the virus,” Jeff Guo wrote Thursday for the Washington Post.

“In the next few days, we’ll take a trip to Atlanta, the black gay mecca, to unravel the mystery of what is driving these high HIV rates in the black community.

“What has never been a mystery, though, is the magnitude of the problem:

“Black Americans make up a bigger share of people living with HIV than any other ethnic group. That gap will only continue to widen because black Americans also have the highest rates of new HIV diagnoses. Nearly half of all new cases of HIV are among black Americans. . . .”

Guo’s story was published Monday under the headline, “The black HIV epidemic: A public health mystery from Atlanta’s gay community.“

[Update: “The Washington Post’s ‘Storyline’ project has posted a bruising editor’s note on a story about black men and HIV,” the Post’s Erik Wemple reported on Tuesday:

[“Editor’s note: Several passages have been removed from this story because the source of those passages, Mickyel Bradford, has admitted to fabricating them. The passages include descriptions of a lunch in Bradford’s town and a ball that Bradford claimed he attended with a man identified as Seth. Bradford now confirms that neither of those events occurred as described. Additionally, Bradford admits the two men never discussed getting tested for HIV. All passages concerning the two men have been removed. . . .

[“A 2,000-word chunk of the story fell away with the revelations. . . .”] [Updated Aug. 5]

Redskins’ Website on Team Name Gets 3 Pinocchios

The Washington Post’s “Fact Checker” column has awarded three Pinocchios — “significant factual error and/or obvious contradictions” — to the Washington Redskins’ new website defending the team name.

Glenn Kessler wrote Thursday, “The Washington Redskins have been paying for ads promoting a new Web site, RedskinsFacts.com, which supposedly sprung up organically from frustrated former players who wanted to defend the team’s embattled name, which many find offensive. (Slate turned up evidence that the Web site is tied to image-makers Burson-Marsteller, which was later confirmed by the team.)

” ‘We believe the Redskins name deserves to stay,’ the Web site says on its ‘facts’ landing page. ‘It epitomizes all the noble qualities we admire about Native Americans — the same intangibles we expect from Washington’s gridiron heroes on game day. Honor. Loyalty. Unity. Respect. Courage. And more. On this page, you can read more about the storied history of the Redskins identity.’

“Anytime an organization sets up a ‘facts’ Web site, it calls out for fact checking. . . .”

Short Takes

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