Maynard Institute archives

National Enquirer Draws Blood

by richard0822

Hulk Hogan Fired After Reporters Expose Racist Rant

ESPN Drops Colin Cowherd Over Remarks About Dominicans

Obama Urged to Address Press Freedom in Kenya

Few Think Race Relations Are Improving, Poll Finds

Peter Bhatia Named Editor of Cincinnati Enquirer

Trump’s Border Visit Tops Spanish-Language Newscasts

Sandra Bland Autopsy Rules Jail Death a Suicide

What Kind of Remembrance for 9 Killed in Charleston?

Eliminating Aspects of “Privilege” in the Hiring Process

Short Takes

Hulk Hogan Fired After Reporters Expose Racist Rant

Reporting by the National Enquirer — a supermarket tabloid long scorned by the mainstream media for its sensationalistic stories and questionable journalistic practices — was credited Friday with prompting World Wrestling Entertainment to terminate the contract of its star Terry Bollea, better known as Hulk Hogan.

“Hulk Hogan has been captured on tape spewing foul-mouthed racial slurs — including the N-word,” Dylan Howard and Lachlan Cartwright reported Friday on the Enquirer website.

“In a shocking world exclusive, The National ENQUIRER and RadarOnline.com — in a joint investigation — has learned that sordid pillow talk caught on an unauthorized sex tape includes a revolting conversation in which the pro wrestling icon unleashed a filthy bigoted attack, littered with the N-word and other disgusting racial insults. . . .”

The Enquirer said “an extensive news probe uncovered five independent sources who provided the dramatic contents of the tape to this publication.”

In a story that put the Enquirer’s “joint investigation” terminology in quotation marks, Katie Rogers wrote Friday for the New York Times, “The disclosure of racist language has further tarnished Mr. Bollea’s image as an all-American wrestling star whose Hulk Hogan character won several championships and, at one point, defined an era of wrestling with ‘Hulkamania.’ . . .”

The website celebritynetworth.com put Hogan’s net worth at $8 million but said it was once $30 million to $40 million. “Hulk’s popularity peaked in the late 80s and 90s when as many as 30 million people would sign up for a WWF pay-per-view event like WrestleMania. Hogan used his popularity to launch an acting career,” it added.

Writing in the Daily Beast, Marlow Stern reported Friday that other reasons contributed to Hogan’s firing.

“As Hulkster is set to go to trial in a $100 million personal-injury lawsuit against Gawker Media, which posted video of a sex tape featuring Hogan, it’s been revealed late Thursday night that World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) has scrubbed most mentions of its hall of fame wrestler from its websites and online stores,” Stern wrote.

“According to Wrestling News Source, ‘On WWE.com, Hogan is no longer listed on the WWE Hall of Fame page, and all of his merchandise has also been removed from WWEShop.com. . . .’

“Reports online initially claimed that the reason behind the scrubbing of Hulk Hogan is an audio clip from an interview that’s surfaced online. The radio interview occurred back in October 2012, and featured Hogan on DJ Whoo Kid’s radio show Whoolywood Shuffle, which aired on Eminem’s [SiriusXM] hip-hop channel Shade 45.

“During the interview, host DJ Whoo Kid brought up how Hulk Hogan has a history of calling everyone ‘brother,’ and the conversation then segued into the infamous moment when [wrestler] Booker T called Hulkster a ‘nigger’ on live TV. . . .”

Hogan is quoted as saying he and black wrestlers used the N-word in talking with each other.

“He continued: ‘And everybody down there — Lil Wayne, Birdman — they’re all calling me ‘nigga,’ and then I started sayin’ it. And I always said it, but now all of a sudden I get heat when I say it, and they say, ‘Hogan, you can’t say that,’ so I say, ‘Why can they say it to me then?’ “

“Other sources, however, claim that the controversial racist audio that got Hogan scrubbed is in addition to the radio interview, and comes from a legal deposition in the ongoing Gawker case. The WWE has not yet responded to requests for comment, and has yet to officially confirm the reason for erasing Hogan from their websites.

“Of course, it would be a bit hypocritical for the WWE to be offended by Hulk Hogan’s boneheaded comments when you consider that its CEO, Vince McMahon, once called wrestler John Cena the N-word right in front of Booker T, who then turned to his girlfriend and said, ‘Tell me he did not just say that.’ . . . “

ESPN Drops Cowherd Over Remarks About Dominicans

“Colin Cowherd had been a lame duck at ESPN anyway, but today the sports giant said he’s done there for good. Eight days after the company said its popular radio host and sometimes TV guy was leaving its ranks, ESPN has yanked him off its airwaves over remarks he made questioning the intellect of Dominicans,” Erik Pedersen reported Friday for Deadline Hollywood.

Pederson also wrote, “Naturally, social media had a cow, and ESPN booted Cowherd for good today. ‘Colin Cowherd’s comments over the past two days do not reflect the values of ESPN or our employees,’ the company said in a statement. ‘Colin will no longer appear on ESPN.’ . . .

“. . . For the record, about one-tenth of the players on opening-day MLB rosters were Dominican. . . .”

Richard Sandomir added for the New York Times: “The abrupt end to Cowherd’s career at ESPN came as he was preparing to leave for a television job at Fox Sports 1. He was negotiating to leave on July 31 under a deal that would have given him an early release from a contract that expires on Dec. 31 and would have absolved ESPN from paying him any further, two people briefed on the talks said. He is expected to begin at Fox by the start of the N.F.L. season.

“During his program Thursday, Cowherd questioned those who said baseball was complex. ‘Like I’ve never bought into that “Baseball’s just too complex,” ‘ he said. ‘Really? A third of the sport is from the Dominican Republic.’ . . .”

Obama Urged to Address Press Freedom in Kenya

“President Barack Obama is expected to address a range of topics when he arrives in Kenya tomorrow,” Sue Valentine reported Thursday for the Committee to Protect Journalists.

“The Kenyan government says it plans to discuss security and trade, while opposition parties and civil society want good governance and human rights added to the agenda, according to news reports. We hope the discussion includes the commitments to improve press freedom that the Kenyan government made to CPJ last week.

“On July 15, we released our special report, ‘Broken Promises: How Kenya is failing to uphold its commitment to a free press,’ in Nairobi to a room full of more than 50 Kenyan and foreign journalists. The report found that a combination of legal and physical harassment, as well as concentration in media ownership, is making it increasingly difficult for journalists to work freely in Kenya.

“Kenya’s potential — including strong economic growth and stability and openness relative to neighbors like Somalia, Ethiopia, and Eritrea — will be on full display for Obama. His arrival has seen a flurry of work, such as upgrading the Mombasa Road that connects the airport to downtown Nairobi. But alongside these improvements, Kenyans are grappling with corruption, land-grabbing, and a series of deadly terrorist attacks.

“CPJ’s report found that journalists who cover these and other sensitive topics are subject to harassment and violence, and that attacks on the press in Kenya happen with almost complete impunity.

“Following the launch, Kenya’s cabinet secretary for Information, Communications and Technology (ICT), Fred Matiangi, initially dismissed the report as ‘unscientific’ and a ‘badly crafted joke,’ according to media reports. But in his office the next day, CPJ Executive Director Joel Simon, East Africa Representative Tom Rhodes, and I had a frank and constructive meeting with Matiangi and his colleagues in the ICT ministry. . . .”

Few Think Race Relations Are Improving, Poll Finds

“Seven years ago, in the gauzy afterglow of a stirring election night in Chicago, commentators dared ask whether the United States had finally begun to heal its divisions over race and atone for the original sin of slavery by electing its first black president,” Kevin Sack and Megan Thee-Brenan reported Thursday for the New York Times.

“It has not. Not even close.

“A New York Times/CBS News poll conducted last week reveals that nearly six in 10 Americans, including heavy majorities of both whites and blacks, think race relations are generally bad, and that nearly four in 10 think the situation is getting worse. By comparison, two-thirds of Americans surveyed shortly after President Obama took office said they believed that race relations were generally good.

“The swings in attitude have been particularly striking among African-Americans. During Mr. Obama’s 2008 campaign, nearly 60 percent of blacks said race relations were generally bad, but that number was cut in half shortly after he won. It has now soared to 68 percent, the highest level of discontent among blacks during the Obama years and close to the numbers recorded in the aftermath of the riots that followed the 1992 acquittal of Los Angeles police officers charged in the beating of Rodney King.

“Only a fifth of those surveyed said they thought race relations were improving, while about 40 percent of both blacks and whites said they were staying essentially the same. . . . “

Meanwhile, MTV premiered Jose Antonio Vargas‘ documentary “White People” on Wednesday, in which the journalist and immigration activist “travels around the country asking white millennials to do something,” as Soraya Nadia McDonald reported in her preview Tuesday for the Washington Post. “According to MTV’s own polling, that ‘something’ doesn’t happen very often: thinking about race, and moreover, thinking about whiteness.”

The documentary remains available online.

Peter Bhatia Named Editor of Cincinnati Enquirer

“Peter Bhatia, formerly editor of the [Oregonian in Portland] and current director of the Donald W. Reynolds National Center for Business Journalism, will be editor and vice president of audience engagement at Enquirer Media, which publishes The Cincinnati Enquirer,” Benjamin Mullin reported Thursday for the Poynter Institute.

“The Cincinnati Enquirer [is] among the largest dailies owned by Gannett, a print-centric company that recently spun off from its broadcast-focused parent, TEGNA. Since it was separated from TEGNA, Gannett has embarked on a rebranding under the slogan ‘New Gannett,’ a motto that emphasizes the company’s digital efforts.

“John Zidich, president of Gannett Domestic Publishing, emphasized Gannett’s digital aspirations in a statement provided to the Enquirer.

” ‘Peter brings a wealth of skills, values, experiences and an invigorated commitment to all-platform, high-quality journalism to The Enquirer. He’s an experienced, award-winning journalist who is a hands-on leader and coach. I know he is eager to join New Gannett and help steer us to new heights.’

“Bhatia’s predecessor, Carolyn Washburn, left the Enquirer newsroom after a turbulent turn at the helm. . . .”

Bhatia, whose roots are in India, is among the highest-ranking Asian Americans in the news business and a former president of the American Society of News Editors.

Trump’s Border Visit Tops Spanish-Language Newscasts

“While the national newscasts on ABC, CBS and NBC covered [Donald] Trump’s visit to Laredo, Tex., coverage of the GOP presidential candidate dominated the national news broadcasts on Univision and Telemundo,” Ed O’Keefe reported Thursday for the Washington Post.

“Republicans fearful of how Trump is hurting the party’s image with the nation’s fast-growing Latino voting population need only play back Thursday night’s broadcasts as proof.

“Univision devoted six minutes of coverage to Trump’s visit, while Telemundo gave him a total of nine minutes. No other Republican or Democratic presidential candidate was mentioned on either program.

” ‘The magnate said that the United States needs a wall that divides it from Mexico,’ co-anchor Jorge Ramos told viewers at the top of his ‘Noticiero Univision,’ the more popular of the two newscasts.

“Jose Diaz-Balart, the co-anchor of ‘Noticiero Telemundo,’ anchored his newscast live from Laredo and told viewers that ‘Trump declared to the press that he’s certain of the Latino vote and insisted that he hasn’t insulted anyone.’

“The anchors and correspondents spoke in Spanish. Trump’s remarks in English were translated into Spanish. . . .”

Meanwhile, “Trump’s presidential campaign has denied The Des Moines Register press credentials to gain access to a candidate event scheduled for Saturday in Oskaloosa,” Jason Noble reported Friday for the Register. “The reason: an editorial published by the newspaper last Tuesday calling on Trump to quit the Republican race. . . .”

What Kind of Remembrance for 9 Killed in Charleston?

“The world’s spotlight has been on Charleston for the past few weeks in the wake of the massacre at the Emanuel AME Church,” the Rev. Joseph A. Darby, an elder in the African Methodist Episcopal Church, wrote Thursday in the Post and Courier in Charleston, S.C.

“The aftermath of that horrific event has included the encouraging sight of a community, state and nation coming together to pray and offer support — both emotional and financial — for the nine families struggling to recover and for the church as well; the gracious gesture of forgiveness of the alleged murderer by the families of the slain; and the stunningly swift and long-overdue removal of the Confederate flag from the grounds of the Statehouse in Columbia.

“Now that the news cameras have been packed away and the 24-hour news cycle has moved on to other stories, the discussion has begun of how best to remember the Emanuel Nine, with a monument being one of leading possibilities.

“A monument would be a fitting remembrance, since symbols are important. The Confederate flag debate and the apoplectic, unreasonable and shrilly expressed fear by some that all monuments to Confederate history will now be obliterated are reminders of that. Any monument to the Emanuel Nine, however, should be designed and placed with the utmost care.

“It should not be located in Marion Square. The optics of John C. Calhoun — a vigorous defender of slavery whose political actions laid the foundation for the Civil War — looking down at a memorial to those killed by one of his bigoted cultural heirs would be insulting and repugnant.

“It should, however, reflect the loss of nine clergy and laity of the African Methodist Episcopal Church in the broader context of the historically black church, for that context is one of victory rather than victimization. . . .”

Meanwhile, in North Carolina, “Efforts to remove public monuments, including Confederacy-related memorials, will now require legislative approval,” Matthew Burns reported Thursday for WRAL-TV in Raleigh.

“Gov. Pat McCrory on Thursday signed into law the Historic Artifact Management and Patriotism Act, just two days after the House approved the measure amid heated debate over the idea of protecting Confederate monuments in the wake of a mass shooting in Charleston, S.C., for which a self-professed white supremacist has been charged. . . .”

Eliminating Aspects of “Privilege” in the Hiring Process

“Recently, NPR Visuals announced that they would allow applicants to resend cover letters for their fall internship positions,” Gurman Bhatia reported Thursday for the Poynter Institute. “They felt that their hiring process had not been a level playing field for everyone.

“The issue of diversity has been a topic of constant discussion within the journalism community. While BuzzFeed has tried to come up with an investigative fellowship for mid-career journalists of color, ProPublica launched an Emerging Reporters Program for student journalists of color.

Why allow applicants to resend cover letters? ” ‘I throw off every other cover letter that ledes with how much they love NPR. Or “I grew up listening to NPR in the backseat of a car’ .” That is such a boring way to start a letter,’ a manager joked while looking at intern applications at NPR.”

Bhatia spoke with Brian Boyer, editor of the combined code, design, video and photo team within NPR.

“In an effort to help everyone prepare better, his team outlined the entire hiring process in a blog post,” Bhatia continued. “Part of it also includes how they would send a list of potential questions before the actual interview takes place.”

She quoted Boyer: “Everyone on the Visuals team wants to open our field to the best people out there, but the process doesn’t always work that way. So we’re trying to make the job application process more accessible.”

Bhatia concluded, “A typical fall internship cycle at NPR consists of 50 people, and nearly half of them end up in news and programming departments. . . .

” ‘In Visuals, we try to approach everything with a scientific method. What’s the hypothesis? The hypothesis is that if we attempt to eliminate aspects of privilege in hiring, then we will find a more racially, demographically, socio-economically diverse applicant pool. So, now we are running an experiment. And if it works, we’ll work with it and tweak it and try it,’ said Boyer. ‘We’ll know once the results are in.’ . . .”

Short Takes

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