Maynard Institute archives

Latinos “Punch Below Their Weight”

by richard0775

Despite Numbers, Voting Influence Seen as Limited

Black Dallas Paper Loses Martin Luther King Jr. Parade

Pundit Fired After Calling Flint Crisis “Overblown”

Navarrette Blasts Trump Comments on Pundits of Color

Sean Penn Once Argued That Journalists Should Be Jailed

Some Media Outlets Kept Quiet to Protect Prisoner Swap

#OscarsSoWhite Returns to Social Media, Op-Ed Pages

Washington NFL Team Foundation Gives $3.7M to Tribes

Why Univision Decided to Purchase the Onion

Short Takes

Despite Numbers, Voting Influence Seen as Limited

Latinos, now the nation’s largest minority group, will make up a record 11.9 percent of all U.S. eligible voters in 2016, pulling nearly even with blacks at 12.4 percent, the Pew Research Center reported on Tuesday.

But “for many reasons, Latino voters are likely to once again be underrepresented among voters in 2016 compared with their share of eligible voters or their share of the national population.”

Among other reasons, “Latinos tend to ‘punch below their weight’ in elections because more than half (52%) of the national Latino population is either too young to vote or does not hold U.S. citizenship. By comparison, just 20% of the nation’s white population is not eligible to vote for the same reasons, as is 28% of the black population and 44% of the Asian population,” according to the Pew report by Jens Manuel Krogstad, Mark Hugo Lopez, Gustavo López, Jeffrey S. Passel and Eileen Patten.

Meanwhile, Adolfo Flores of BuzzFeed reported Friday, “Media company mergers rarely result in a significant boost in representation for Latinos on or off screen, despite promises from studio executives to increase diversity, new research has found.

“The report — The Latino Disconnect: The Impact of Media Mergers on Latino Consumers and Representation — was provided to BuzzFeed News ahead of publication and analyzed the relationship between media mergers and Latinos from 2008 to 2015.

“Researchers at Columbia University’s Center for the Study of Ethnicity and Race found there was no significant increase in diversity behind the camera after the 2011 Comcast-NBCUniversal merger, despite a pledge to increase Latino representation in programming.

” ‘In general, we found that the increase in representation after the merger was very minimal and really only happens in front of the camera, which makes sense because it’s the most visible,’ said Frances Negrón-Muntaner, the study’s lead researcher. . . .”

The Pew report listed turnout and a large percentage of millennials as reasons for limited Latino voter influence, but said a record Hispanic vote was possible.

“First, voter turnout rates for Hispanics have been significantly below those of other groups,” it said. “In 2012, fewer than half (48%) of Hispanic eligible voters cast a ballot. . . . By comparison, 64.1% of whites and 66.6% of blacks voted. (Asians, at 46.9%, had a turnout rate similar to that of Hispanics.)

“At the same time, due to the group’s fast-growing population, the absolute number of Hispanic voters has reached record highs despite a decline in voter turnout between the 2008 and 2012 presidential elections. In 2012, a record 11.2 million Hispanics voted . . ., up from what was a record 9.7 million in 2008 . . . It is possible that a record number of Hispanics could vote in 2016, continuing a pattern of record turnout in presidential elections.

“Second, the large share (44%) of millennials among Latino eligible voters, who are less likely to cast a ballot than older voters, could have an impact on voter turnout for all Latinos in 2016. In 2012, just 37.8% of Latino millennials voted, compared with 53.9% among non-millennial Latinos. The voter turnout rate among Latino millennials also trails that of other millennial groups. Some 47.5% of white millennials and 55% of black millennials voted in 2012. Among Asians, 37.3% of millennials voted.

“In addition, Latino millennials register to vote at a lower rate than other millennial groups. Half (50%) of Latino millennial eligible voters said they were registered to vote in 2012, compared with 61% among white millennials and 64% among black millennials. Among Asian millennial eligible voters, 48% were registered to vote.

“While the Latino voter turnout rate could be lower than expected because of the large share of eligible voters who are millennials, the growing number of U.S. citizen immigrant Latinos may help boost Latino voter turnout rates. In 2012, 53.6% of immigrant Latinos voted, a full 7.5 percentage points higher than the 46.1% voter turnout rate among U.S.-born Latinos that year . . . Latino immigrants also voted at a higher rate than U.S.-born Latinos in 2008 — 54.2% versus 48.4%.

“A third reason that Latinos may not vote in large numbers relative to their population in the 2016 elections is that few states with large Hispanic populations are likely to be key battlegrounds. . . .”

Black Dallas Paper Loses Martin Luther King Jr. Parade

“For the first time in almost 30 years, there was only one parade honoring Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. in Dallas,” Jason Whitely and Monica Hernandez reported Monday for WFAA-TV in Dallas. “Some people in the African-American community suspect politics are at play for canceling the second one, which Elite News had always organized.

“The city’s official parade always happened on the Saturday before the federal holiday. Elite News, Dallas’ oldest African-American newspaper, hosted its own parade on Martin Luther King Day. . . .”

Darryl Blair, editor-in-chief of the Elite News, which he said has a circulation of 20,000, told Journal-isms by telephone Wednesday that he was “livid” by what transpired and vowed that his family will have the parade again. His father, William Blair Jr., started the weekly newspaper in 1960, with no journalism background. He also started the King parade.

When the senior Blair died at 92 in 2014, former Dallas councilwoman Sandra Crenshaw told Brian New of KTVT-TV and KTXA-TV, “He started out with four cars. Now, it’s the largest MLK parade in the United States of America.” The parade raised money for the Urban League to provide scholarships for high school seniors, Darryl Blair said.

Blair said of city officials, “They were waiting for my dad to die.” At stake are political points for those seeking higher office, he said.

Sana Syed, a City Hall spokeswoman, referred Journal-isms to a Dallas Morning News story about emails the newspaper had obtained.

“A dispute between City Hall and a southern Dallas newspaper publisher continues to simmer over the annual Martin Luther King Day parade, with accusations that city officials did everything they could to block Darryl Blair and his family from continuing to host the event,” Elizabeth Findell wrote in that story Friday in the Morning News.

“A series of emails obtained by The Dallas Morning News shows that city officials carefully documented their communications with Blair over his plans to file for a parade permit.

“Those emails show a staff eager to back up the process of removing the parade from its longtime sponsor. . . .”

Cheryl Smith, executive editor of the Dallas Weekly and president of the Dallas-Fort Worth Association of Black Journalists, told Journal-isms by email, “Mr. Blair loved parades and recognizing people in our communities. His ‘People’s Parade’ was bigger than the City of Dallas’ and was so much more FUN!

“I believe in honoring our legacy. There’s no need to rewrite history. Dr. William Blair founded the People’s Parade to celebrate the life of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. I think we should honor Mr. Blair’s memory by making sure that his name is always associated with the Dallas Parade. . . .”

Blair said he would put more city officials “on blast” in this week’s edition of Elite News, out Friday.

Meanwhile, members of the Lumbee tribe in North Carolina commemorated a different event on Monday.

“Nearly 100 tribal members braved the frigid 35 degree weather Monday to mark the 58th anniversary of the Victory over the KKK,” the tribe reported.

“A ceremony was held at Hayes Pond south of Maxton to remember those who broke up a Klan rally in 1958.

” ‘This is a part of who we are,’ said Tribal Chairman Harvey Godwin Jr. ‘We drove the KKK out of Robeson County and they haven’t came back since. We need to use that energy to fight our battles today, but without the weapons.’

“On Jan. 18, 1958, several hundred Lumbee, most of them armed, met in a field near Hayes Pond after word spread of a KKK rally organized by Grand Dragon James ‘Catfish’ Cole. . . .”

Pundit Fired After Calling Flint Crisis “Overblown”

“Longtime Michigan political pundit Bill Ballenger was abruptly fired Wednesday from the publication he founded 29 years ago for dismissing the scientific severity of Flint’s lead-contamination water crisis,” Chad Livengood reported for the Detroit News.

“Inside Michigan Politics Publisher Susan J. Demas issued a press release early Wednesday morning saying Ballenger is no longer associated with the publication for his ‘indefensible’ comments in media interviews about Flint’s water, which has been deemed undrinkable without a faucet filter.

“But Demas, who purchased the publication from Ballenger in 2013, terminated a contract for Ballenger’s continued editorial services without informing him by phone.

” ‘It’s rather unfortunate how all of this unfolded, and it’s not how I would have liked it to,’ Demas told The Detroit News Wednesday.

“Demas said she began receiving phone calls at 6 a.m. Wednesday from radio stations seeking comment about Ballenger’s remarks Tuesday night on WKAR-TV’s ‘Off The Record’ after Gov. Rick Snyder’s Flint-centered State of the State address.

” ‘I had to make a decision (early Wednesday morning) on the spot without talking to him,’ she said. . . .”

Livengood also reported, “Ballenger, a Flint native who still resides there part-time, defended his comments that the Flint water crisis is ‘vastly overblown,’ comments he made Tuesday to WJR-AM (760) and The Detroit News.

” ‘I’ve been drinking their water and bathing in it for years, including the last year and a half without a filter,’ Ballenger told The News. ‘The idea that there’s a catastrophe in Flint and the state ought to fork over the extra $500 million found in the budget to solve the water crisis is one of the greatest absurdities of our time.’ . . .”

Navarrette Blasts Trump Comments on Pundits of Color

“Donald Trump often talks about how he wants to return America to what it used to be,” syndicated columnist Ruben Navarrette Jr. wrote Tuesday.

“A big part of it is about taking the country back to a time when people of color knew their place, when they were seen but not heard, and when one could insult them with impunity.

“Trump is never at a loss for words. And yet, while he goes around speaking his mind, he can’t seem to pipe down when others speak theirs. And the GOP front-runner has this especially foul habit of trying to shout down minorities who dare speak out against him.

“Of course, Trump does this with white people, too. Since he started his presidential campaign, the billionaire blowhard has picked fights with NBC’s Chuck Todd, Fox News’ Megyn Kelly, conservative radio host Hugh Hewitt, and others in the media.

“But his attacks on minority commentators are different. They have a particularly sharp, insulting and condescending tone. The criticisms are usually personal, and the barbs are meant to wound.

“Trump doesn’t just criticize people of color for what they say or believe. He zeroes in on who they are and what they represent. The jabs are always about someone’s skill, competence, intelligence or talent. . . .”

Meanwhile, a column that Navarrette wrote for the Washington Post Writers Group was not distributed because he and the syndicate could not agree that it was appropriate to characterize many white liberals as viewing people of color as “their private property.”

Navarrette wrote of Debbie Wasserman Schultz, Democratic National Committee chair, “It’s fine for a political leader to give voice to an alternate narrative, but Wasserman Schultz lives in an alternate universe. She reminds us that many white liberals see people of color as their private property, and they do not react graciously when another party poaches them.”

Navarrette took the column to USA Today, which published it, but where the sentence read, “It’s fine for a political leader to give voice to an alternate narrative, but Wasserman Schultz lives in an alternate universe. Her ugly remarks toward [South Carolina Gov. Nikki] Haley remind us that some white liberals expect people of color to take their marching orders from them, and they do not react graciously when minorities go rogue and insist on thinking for themselves.”

Navarrette messaged Journal-isms, “Now that I’ve cooled off, I can see where my bosses were coming from. I still don’t agree, and I think it was a silly overreaction. But I get to do my job, and they get to do theirs. They have concerns I don’t have to worry about. I can appreciate that.”

Alan Shearer, editorial director/general manager of the writers group, messaged Journal-isms, “Please understand that we were not trying to defend Wasserman Schultz or anyone else. Three editors read every column that goes through here. We all agreed that the wording was inappropriate and unnecessary. We offered several alternatives, which Ruben rejected. He then made his own choice.”

Sean Penn Once Argued That Journalists Should Be Jailed

“Actor Sean Penn likes to call himself a journalist. In his most recent interview with CBS’s 60 Minutes, he went even further and called out the state of journalism in the United States,” Alex Griswold reported Monday for Mediaite.

Griswold quoted Penn: ” ‘I’m really sad about the state of journalism in our country. It has been an incredible hypocrisy and an incredible lesson in just how much they don’t know and how disserved we are. You know, the— of course I know that there are people who don’t like me out of the gate, whether it’s political or… Again, journalists who want to say that I’m not a journalist. Well, I want to see the license that says that they’re a journalist.’

“But it’s a little irksome for this reporter to hear Penn sanctimoniously lecturing actual journalist Charlie Rose about the meaning of journalism, given that he once unironically argued journalists should be thrown in prison for reporting facts he didn’t like.

“The context was that the actor had just come back from giving a glowing interview of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez in 2010. Speaking on HBO’s Real Time with Bill Maher, Penn angrily denounced the U.S. media for calling Chavez a dictator.

” ‘Every day, this elected leader is called a dictator here, and we just accept it, and accept it,’ he complained. ‘And this is mainstream media. There should be a bar by which one goes to prison for these kinds of lies.’ . . .”

Some Media Outlets Kept Quiet to Protect Prisoner Swap

“When news broke today that Washington Post reporter Jason Rezaian would be freed from his longstanding imprisonment from Iran, it came as a welcome surprise to many reporters,” Benjamin Mullin reported Saturday for the Poynter Institute. “But not, apparently, to some journalists at The Huffington Post, CNN, The Washington Post and The Wall Street Journal.

“Several of America’s biggest and most influential outlets were aware the United States was attempting to orchestrate a prisoner exchange with Iran and kept the details quiet at the request of the State Department so as not to jeopardize a swap that might lead to the release of Rezaian and three other Americans.

“News of the media blackout was first disclosed by The Huffington Post Saturday in a story by Washington Bureau Chief Ryan Grim.

“The Huffington Post first received word of the pending exchange from Chase Foster, a former foreign affairs officer at the U.S. State Department, according to Grim. Foster was willing to go on the record about the sensitive matter — an extreme rarity in diplomatic-journalistic relations — but HuffPost held the news so as not to upend the negotiations. They weren’t alone. . . .”

Washington NFL Team Foundation Gives $3.7M to Tribes

“The foundation Washington Redskins owner Daniel Snyder created to support Native Americans contributed $3.7 million during its first year, providing items such as vans, computers and winter coats for more than 20 tribes that desperately needed assistance,” John Woodrow Cox reported Friday for the Washington Post.

“The billionaire’s contributions were outlined in documents produced by the Washington Redskins Original Americans Foundation and in financial records being filed Friday with the IRS.

“Both the team and organization’s involvement with tribes [have] created or exacerbated divisions inside several Native American communities and drawn condemnation from activists who allege that Snyder is merely trying to buy support for his franchise’s controversial name. . . .”

Why Univision Decided to Purchase the Onion

“Univision has a head start on the most unlikely deal of 2016,” Sahil Patel reported Tuesday for digiday.com.

“The Spanish-language media giant has acquired a minority stake [in] The Onion. Valued at less than $200 million, the deal gives Univision a 40 percent stake in The Onion’s parent company, with the option of buying the publisher outright in the future, according to The New York Times.

“The deal comes at a time when Univision is aggressively pushing to diversify its business beyond the Spanish-language TV content it has historically been known for. It’s not just doing more English-language content either, as Univision has placed an internal focus on owning different content verticals that resonate with millennial audiences.

“Last May, the company acquired African-American news and culture site The Root. In the past several years, it also launched two English-language cable channels, Fusion and El Rey. Univision has also been building several digital businesses, including the digital arm of Fusion, the UCN YouTube network and the streaming comedy channel Flama.

” ‘Comedians are seen as the new public intellectuals. That is because they are seen as more real, authentic and able to cut through all the crap that is out there,’ said Isaac Lee, Univision’s chief news and digital officer. . . .”

Short Takes

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