Maynard Institute archives

Journal-Isms October 22

Autopsy Indicates Michael Brown Reached for Cop’s Gun

Poynter to Host African Journalists University Turned Away

NAHJ Says Free Regional Conferences Worth It In the Long Run

“A Limited View of Boys From the Bronx”

Short Takes

Autopsy Indicates Michael Brown Reached for Cop’s Gun

“The official autopsy on Michael Brown shows that he was shot in the hand at close range, according to an analysis of the findings by two experts not involved directly in the case,” Christine Byers and Blythe Bernhard reported Wednesday for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.

“The accompanying toxicology report shows he had been using marijuana.

“Those documents, prepared by the St. Louis County medical examiner and obtained by the Post-Dispatch, provide the most detailed description to date of the wounds Brown sustained in a confrontation Aug. 9 with Ferguson police Officer Darren Wilson.

“A source with knowledge of Wilson’s statements said the officer had told investigators that Brown had struggled for Wilson’s pistol inside a police SUV and that Wilson had fired the gun twice, hitting Brown once in the hand. Later, Wilson fired additional shots that killed Brown and ignited a national controversy.

“The St. Louis medical examiner, Dr. Michael Graham, who is not part of the official investigation, reviewed the autopsy report for the newspaper. He said Tuesday that it ‘does support that there was a significant altercation at the car.’

“Graham said the examination indicated a shot traveled from the tip of Brown’s right thumb toward his wrist. The official report notes an absence of stippling, powder burns around a wound that indicate a shot fired at relatively short range.

“But Graham said, ‘Sometimes when it’s really close, such as within an inch or so, there is no stipple, just smoke.’

“The report on a supplemental microscopic exam of tissue from the thumb wound showed foreign matter ‘consistent with products that are discharged from the barrel of a firearm.’

Dr. Judy Melinek, a forensic pathologist in San Francisco, said the autopsy ‘supports the fact that this guy is reaching for the gun, if he has gunpowder particulate material in the wound.’ She added, ‘If he has his hand near the gun when it goes off, he’s going for the officer’s gun.’

“Sources told the Post-Dispatch that Brown’s blood had been found on Wilson’s gun.

“Melinek also said the autopsy did not support witnesses who have claimed Brown was shot while running away from Wilson, or with his hands up. . . .”

Poynter to Host African Journalists University Turned Away

“The Poynter Institute will host a group of Edward R. Murrow journalists from African countries whose visit to the University of South Florida at St. Petersburg was canceled because of concerns about spread of the Ebola virus, Poynter president Tim Franklin announced today,” Benjamin Mullin reported Tuesday for the Poynter Institute.

“In an impromptu meeting, Franklin told Poynter staff that the decision to host the journalists — who are not from Ebola-affected countries — is rooted in the best traditions of the institute.

  • Damaris Colhoun, Columbia Journalism Review: How xenophobia is driving the Ebola narrative
  • the Times-Picayune Looking for non-hysterical reporting of the Ebola virus’s spread:
  • Alexis Sobel Fitts, Columbia Journalism Review: Why media probably shouldn’t name Ebola victims
  • Michelle D. Holmes, Boston Globe: US should look to West Africa for Ebola practices
  • Kenneth Irby, Poynter Institute: Hysteria or proper precaution — a conversation with Michel du Cille
  • Robin Marty, care2com: When it Comes to Ebola, the Problem Isn’t Travel, it’s Lack of Insurance
  • Phillip Morris, Plain Dealer, Cleveland: Ebola in Cleveland seems to have us all under quarantine:
  • Tony Norman, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette: Media and pols use Ebola for ill purposes
  • Clarence Page, Chicago Tribune: When Ebola turns to ‘fearbola’
  • Barry Saunders, News & Observer, Raleigh, N.C.: Ebola ignorance is spreading much faster than the facts
  • DeWayne Wickham, USA Today: Obama critics off-base on Ebola
  • NAHJ Says Free Regional Conferences Worth It In the Long Run

    After a successful regional conference in Mexico City over the weekend, Mekahlo Medina, president of the National Association of Hispanic Journalists, announced that henceforth, members could attend regional conferences without charge. Former board member Manuel De La Rosa objected in a message to Journal-isms.

    Regional conferences were supposed to be “a way to get more revenue into NAHJ, but if members aren’t paying…how are those events going to make money,” De La Rosa asked. “We also at NAHJ in the past had discussed going away from a national conference due to the lack of attendees or hosting conferences with other groups that limits the amount of money we can make. The recommendations were to go to four super regional conferences. I would imagine they are doing this….they must believe in the national conferences again. I understand the they say it’s part of our benefits, but having a conference for free means you value it at $0.

    “Nothing should be free, especially a conference. A lot of hard work is put into those events and it’s worth something. This NAHJ administration is going to drive the group into big problem financially with this type of decision making. We worked hard as a NAHJ Board to get us out of the red, but these last two administrations are doing everything to put us back there. It’s disappointing.”

    Asked to comment, Medina messaged Journal-isms:

    “NAHJ looked at a four things before making the decision to offer regionals free to members.

    “First, we looked at the what we wanted to achieve with regionals: to provide training and development for more members.

    “Second, we looked at the profit of the last four regionals and conducted a profit projection for future regionals. We concluded regionals brought less than .8% of yearly budget.

    “Third, we looked at the time and effort on the national office on preparing and executing regionals.

    “Fourth, we tested it out at our last regional in Mexico City. We had a record registration of nearly 400 attendees.

    “In the end, we concluded Regionals, which are sponsored, should be first and foremost a benefit of membership to NAHJ. We are [focusing] regionals to be stronger training and development opportunities for members.

    “As a result, we are using regionals to attract new members as well.

    “Growing our membership will help us better attract sponsorship and that will cancel out or [supersede] any minor monetary gain we achieved with charging for regionals.

    “Bottom-line, Regionals are part of what you get for being a member of NAHJ. We are committed to your growth and development as a journalist. Regionals gives us an opportunity to provide that training and attract new members in the process.”

     

    “A Limited View of Boys From the Bronx”

    “In 1936, Aaron Siskind, a founding member of the Photo League, brought together a group of young photographers to survey New York’s neighborhoods, Maurice Berger wrote Wednesday for the New York Times “Lens” blog.

    “The ‘Harlem Document’ would become their most famous study. Its principal objectives were to produce evidence of a neighborhood in peril — from substandard housing to inadequate health care — and to promote reform. One of the document’s most important artifacts, a photo essay published in Look magazine in May 1940, offers insights into the way the largely white documentary team represented the African-American community from the outside.

    “The article’s view of Harlem was unremittingly grim. It stressed the community’s misfortune while ignoring its rich history, cultural life and the many residents who endured, and even flourished, in spite of hardships. . . .”

    Berger also wrote, “Seventy-four years later, a new book by the photographer Stephen Shames titled ‘Bronx Boys’ (University of Texas Press) rekindles questions about the responsibilities inherent in documenting a community.

    “ ‘Bronx Boys’ chronicles a group of young men coming of age in an environment besieged by poverty, drugs and gang warfare. It focuses on a subculture of ‘crews,’ informal associations of mostly adolescent men teamed together for protection and companionship.

    “Mr. Shames began the project in 1977 photographing the Fordham Bedford and Bathgate sections of the Bronx while on assignment for Look magazine. Mr. Shames frequently returned to the area over the next 22 years and continued to photograph the men. . . .”

    Short Takes

    This breakup is for the best,” Ruben Navarrette Jr. wrote Tuesday for the Washington Post Writers Group, on the rift between CNN and the National Association of Black Journalists. “CNN should not support the NABJ’s convention. It should also not give a dime to the other organizations that claim to represent journalists of color. These groups should never have accepted money from media companies to begin with, since it compromised their ability to be industry watchdogs. . . .”

  • Chuck Todd, the new host of NBC’s “Meet the Press,” told Joe Strupp of Media Matters for America that diversity is “a front-burner issue for us, not a back-burner issue.” Strupp wrote Wednesday, “While Todd said he had so far sought to make his weekly roundtables diverse, he warned of challenges in providing a balanced slate of interview subjects. Todd highlighted how, for instance, ’90 percent of the generals and the military experts out there’ are white men. ‘Some of this stuff is out of your control. At the end of the day, you want to put the best people on. You want to put the best, smartest people on,’ Todd said. . . . ”
  • President Barack Obama is turning to black radio listeners to plead for midterm votes, a targeted approach to drum up Democratic support at a time when many candidates don’t want him around in personm: Nedra Pickler reported Wednesday for the Associated Press. Pickler also wrote, “The Democratic National Committee is using Obama’s popularity among blacks in a seven-figure advertising campaign targeted at minorities and young voters. An ad targeted for black newspapers reads ‘GET HIS BACK’ in large letters over a picture of Obama and urges readers to stand with the president by voting for Democrats. In a DNC commercial airing on radio stations popular among black listeners, an Obama speech touting his economic agenda is set to jazz and ends with a voiceover urging listeners ‘to stand up for our community and vote Nov. 4.’ . . .”
  • These Negroes aren’t necessarily house Negroes but they are getting close,” Wayne Bennett wrote Monday on his Field Negro blog. “I suppose that these [Negroes] could be referred to as porch (or patio) Negroes, since they aren’t quite in the house as yet, but they sure as hell aren’t out here in the fields with the rest of us.” Bennett listed Lester Holt, Michael Strahan, Nelly, Russell Simmons, Juan Williams, Debra Lee, DL Hughley, Kanye West, Key & Peele and Cory Booker. He gave honorable mentions to Zoe Saldana, Jay-Z, Beyonce, Capt. Ronald C. Johnson and Deval Patrick.
  • “Cal State L.A. will celebrate the life and career of pioneering Mexican American journalist Rubén Salazar with the opening of a multimedia exhibition, entitled ‘Legacy of Rubén Salazar: A Man of His Words, a Man of His Time,’ on Thursday, Oct. 23,” the university announced. The notice explained, “Salazar was an accomplished journalist, foreign correspondent and columnist for the Los Angeles Times and news director for Spanish- language KMEX-TV. He was killed by a tear-gas missile fired by a Sheriff’s Department deputy in East Los Angeles during the National Chicano Moratorium against the Vietnam War on Aug. 29, 1970.” the exhibit runs through March 27.
  • “CBS News 24-hour digital news channel will be called CBSN, Capital has learned, and the network is preparing to launch a marketing campaign around it, a source told Capital, featuring the tagline ‘CBS News. Always On,’ Alex Weprin reported Wednesday for capitalnewyork.com. Weprin also wrote, “The channel, which will stream live to TV sets, P.C.s and mobile devices, mimics the look of cable news channels, but in a less formal newsroom setting. CBS News correspondents Jeff Glor and Elaine Quijano are among the anchors for the service, which will also feature original reporting from all of CBS’ reporters. . . .”
  • “Harlingen High School Head Football Coach Manny Gomez on Thursday apologized for explosive remarks he made during a videotaped interview following the Cardinals’ stunning loss to San Benito in the classic Battle of the Arroyo last Friday,” Fernando Del Valle reported Friday for the Valley Morning Star in Harlingen, Texas. Gomez’s outburst followed a question from Manuel de la Rosa of High School Sports Magazine, “Does this loss hurt?” “Gomez responds with an angry, ‘C’mon, man, are you serious? Are you frickin’ serious? Are you frickin’ serious?’ He repeats the phrase a few more times, and ends by telling de la Rosa, ‘Don’t ever come to my game again — understand that.’ . . .”
  • “Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Corbett just signed a new law that allows convicted prisoners to be sued by their victims for ‘seeking publicity or money,’ Todd Steven Burroughs wrote Wednesday for The Root. The law is aimed at prison journalist and convicted cop-killer Mumia Abu-Jamal. Burroughs also wrote, “what one needs to know about the case today is simple: Abu-Jamal’s supporters think him innocent and framed (in one way or another) and want him free, and his opponents want him dead. This is a struggle for life, all puns intended. No compromise is possible. . . .”
  • Think white privilege doesn’t exist in America?Kevin Short wrote Tuesday for the Huffington Post. “Consider just how much the color of a child’s skin changes his or her odds of escaping poverty later in life. Roughly 16 percent of white children born into the poorest one-fifth of U.S. families will rise to become a member of the top one-fifth by the time they turn 40 years old, according to a new study by Brookings Institution researchers for the Boston Federal Reserve. Those are fairly bleak odds, but for poor black children the odds of making it to the top are even longer: Only 3 percent of black children born into the poorest one-fifth of families will ever make the leap to the top income group, according to the study. . . .”
  • “Just days after Univision Puerto Rico shut down its news operations, WAPA Televisión announced it’s launching a new Spanish-language primetime newscast produced specifically for the U.S. market,” Veronica Villafane wrote Tuesday for her Media Moves site. ” ‘Noticentro América,’ debuts next Monday, October 27. The one-hour newscast will air live on WAPA’s U.S. sister cable network, WAPA América, Monday-Friday at 8pm ET/5pm PT. . . .”
  • Dallas Morning News correspondent Alfredo Corchado‘s “Midnight In Mexico” documents his experiences as a journalist during the peak of the Mexican drug war. On Oct. 16, NPR’s “Alt.Latino” hosts Felix Contreras and Jasmine Garsdi discussed the book, “the music that inspired its author, and the state of the Mexican drug war today. . . .”
  • The International Federation of Journalists said Tuesday it joins its regional group “to express its deep shock at the murder of Paraguayan journalist, Pablo Medina Velasquez. According to reports, Medina, 53, a regional correspondent for Paraguay’s largest independent newspaper, ABC Color, was returning from a reporting trip outside the eastern city of Curuguaty last Thursday, 16 October, when his vehicle was stopped by two gunmen on a motorcycle. He was shot four times and died at the scene. His assistant Antonia Maribel Almada, 19, was also killed in the attack. Four suspects are said to have been detained. . . .”
  • Reporters Without Borders said Tuesday that it was appalled that newspaper publisher Mike Mukebayi of the Democratic Republic of Congo “has been held without any justification for the past two months because of a libel suit. The length of his pre-trial detention is out of all proportion, especially as judicial examination of the case has not yet begun. . . .”
  • Nguyen Van Hai, a citizen journalist better known by the blog name of Dieu Cay, was released Tuesday, Reporters Without Borders reported, but the group added “that 26 other citizen journalists are still held in Vietnam, the world’s third biggest prison for netizens. The Vietnamese authorities confirmed this afternoon that Dieu Cay, who had been held since 19 April 2008, was taken to Hanoi’s Noi Bai airport and was put on a flight to the United States. . . .”
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