Articles Feature

Charles Whitaker Named Medill Dean

by richard04190

Few Majority White J-Schools Have Black Leaders

. . . Daily Northwestern Adds to Diversity Moves

Op-Ed Writer Takes Aim at a Rolling Stones Classic

N.Y. Times Defends Identifying Hondurans

Backers of Accused War Criminal Raise Race Issue

L.A. Times Has a Black Journalist Again in D.C.

Unpaid Prison Labor Continues to Power Florida

A ‘Rather Stunning’ Pulitzer Luncheon

Short Takes (Page 2 of this post)

 

 

 

Charles Whitaker told colleagues Wednesday, "My father was born in 1920. My mother was born in 1923. A year or so after the great race riots of Chicago that sort of ripped the city apart. Their grandparents were slaves. And why did they have tremendous faith in me? I don't think they ever could have seen . . . I wish they were here to see this day. It means a lot to me to have this tremendous honor and responsibility for the school and I look forward to working with each and every one of you . . ." (Credit: Northwestern University)
Charles Whitaker told colleagues Wednesday, “My father was born in 1920. My mother was born in 1923. A year or so after the great race riots of Chicago that sort of ripped the city apart. Their grandparents were slaves. And why did they have tremendous faith in me? I don’t think they ever could have seen . . . I wish they were here to see this day. It means a lot to me to be bestowed with this tremendous honor and responsibility for the school and I look forward to working with each and every one of you. . . .” (Photo credit: Northwestern University; video: Jon Marshall)

Few Majority White J-Schools Have Black Leaders

Charles F. Whitaker was named dean of the Medill School of Journalism, Media, Integrated Marketing Communications at Northwestern University on Wednesday, apparently becoming one of only two African American journalism school deans at a predominantly white institution and the only black man with such a distinction.

The other such dean is Rochelle Ford at Elon University. A third, Lorraine Branham of the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications at Syracuse University, died in April. Other j-school deans are at historically black colleges and universities.

Jon Marshall, a colleague who made a Facebook video of Whitaker’s remarks, told Journal-isms that Whitaker is a much beloved figure, a “wonderful teacher” who already has “a strong sense of the school.”

Whitaker, 60, joined Medill in 1993, and had been interim dean since July 2018. He earned both his bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Medill.

Provost Jonathan Holloway said in a statement that Whitaker “emerged from a national search of highly respected, prominent candidates.”

Medill, based in Evanston, Ill., is considered among the top tier of journalism schools and may be best known for its policy of giving students an “F” if a name is misspelled in an assignment. “Our faculty and alums will never let that go,” Whitaker told Journal-isms.

Medill’s journalism component has 600 undergraduates and 140 graduate students, with another 125 full-time students in the marketing communications section.

In a telephone interview, Whitaker said that “diversity is a huge goal,” both in student enrollment and faculty hires. He also said he wanted the school to remain cutting edge, with faculty members who are thinking of new business models, aspire to train thought leaders and are comfortable in the digital space.

The challenge with diversity, Whitaker said, is that the stories potential students hear about the profession “are discouraging.” They are told that journalism is a dying field. “The challenge is to change the narrative,” he said. The need for writing and telling stories “is greater than it ever was,” especially with the tools now available to journalists. Moreover, journalism is “wonderful training for a lot of fields,” he said.

Diversity does not happen organically, Whitaker continued. It takes strategic planning, including the common sense recruiting tool, “You go where the people of color are.”

One reason there are not more deans of color in journalism schools is that most professors “are used to being worker bees” and don’t seek the administrative jobs. “I never intended to be a dean,” he said. “Circumstances put me in this position. . . . You have a lot of autonomy as a faculty member.”

Wednesday’s announcement also said, “Whitaker’s impact, at Medill and beyond, has been tremendous. He was one of the rotating directors of Medill’s graduate Magazine Publishing Project, an enterprise in which teams of students developed a new magazine or worked in collaboration with an existing publishing company to reinvigorate the editorial and business approach of an existing magazine. For nine years, Whitaker directed the Academy for Alternative Journalism, a summer fellowship program that trained young writers for work at the member publications of the Association of Alternative Newsweeklies in an effort to address the field’s lack of diversity.

“Before joining the Medill faculty, Whitaker was a senior editor at Ebony magazine, where he covered a wide range of cultural, social and political issues and events, including two U.S. presidential campaigns and the installation of the first black members of the British Parliament.

“Whitaker began his journalism career as a newspaper reporter at the Miami Herald. From the Herald, he went to the Louisville Times, where he worked as a deputy feature editor and enterprise feature and arts writer. He has received commendations for his work from a number of journalism societies, including The National Association of Black Journalists, The Society of Professional Journalists and the National Education Writers Association. Recently Whitaker was elected to the national board of the American Society of Magazine Editors, where he has also served as a judge for their annual awards.

“Whitaker is the co-author of ‘Magazine Writing,’ a textbook that examines the magazine industry and deconstructs the art of feature writing for consumer and business-to-business publications. He also is the author of four statistical analyses of the hiring of women and minorities in the magazine industry and has served as an adviser on diversity issues for the Magazine Publishers of America. . . .”

Correction: The subheadline originally read, “Just 2 White J-Schools Have Black Leaders.” However, Keonte Coleman, Ph.D., assistant professor at the School of Journalism and Strategic Media at Middle Tennessee State University, notes, “The information within the article is correct when you only focus on JMC  [journalism and mass communication] schools which use the title of dean, but that focus leaves off Black JMC directors who also head JMC schools.” He mentioned Kathleen McElroy, director of the School of Journalism at the University of Texas at Austin; Craig Freeman, director of the School of Media and Strategic Communications at Oklahoma State University; and Timothy Edwards, who in 2017 was appointed interim director of the School of Mass Communication at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock.

The Daily Northwestern prepared this video about its operation in 2013. The paper acknowledged Wednesday, “We made errors that eroded the trust many marginalized individuals and communities put in their campus’ and their city’s paper of record.” (Credit: YouTube)

. . . Daily Northwestern Adds to Diversity Moves

By coincidence, Charles Whitaker’s appointment as dean of the Medill School of Journalism, Media, and Integrated Marketing Communications was announced the same day the Daily Northwestern, the student newspaper, issued its second annual Diversity Report.

It said, in part, “The Daily’s newsroom is 53 percent white. It’s no secret our newsroom is an overwhelmingly white environment, and that is reflected in our decisions to prioritize coverage of certain communities and not others.

“This whiteness can also lead to reporters of color feeling further alienated in the newsroom, and almost undoubtedly leads to [fewer] marginalized students joining our staff. Reporters of color also too often carry the responsibility of covering race-related stories, which is also true for queer reporters covering queer issues or first-gen/low-income reporters covering the FGLI community. We need to do a better job of making sure all reporters are equipped and expected to cover all communities when necessary. . . .”

The 2,080-word editorial also said, “As explained in this week’s From the Newsroom, current print managing editor Marissa Martinez created the Diversity and Inclusion Editor position during Winter Quarter to streamline diversity responsibilities on staff. Last quarter, Martinez took on all the responsibilities herself. However, this quarter, she expanded the team to include five other senior staffers of various backgrounds and marginalized identities in the newsroom. . . .”

 

The Rolling Stones' Brown Sugar" went to No. 1 in May 1971 and remained a part of the group's repertoire ever since.
The Rolling Stones’ “Brown Sugar” went to No. 1 in May 1971 and has remained a part of the group’s repertoire.

Op-Ed Writer Takes Aim at a Rolling Stones Classic

“Imagine everyone in a sold-out stadium singing along joyfully to a tune glorifying slavery, rape, torture and pedophilia, with the entire chorus led by a hyper-gesticulating 75-year-old white male, centimillionaire,” Ian Brennan wrote Tuesday in an op-ed piece in the Chicago Tribune. “It sounds like something out of a dystopian horror film or a tale of 19th century-era evil.

“Sadly, this spectacle is coming to a major city near you — right here in our post-‘Get Out’ world and with audiences around the globe paying princely sums to participate in the privilege.

“The violence and stereotypes depicted by the lyrics of the Rolling Stones’ ‘Brown Sugar’ (video) are repulsive, yet the song continues to be broadcast without a peep by radio stations around the world and is blasted in cafes, airports, gyms, shopping centers and the ilk, even now well into the #MeToo and #TimesUp era. . . .”

Mick Jagger’s 1971 homage to his then-black girlfriend (Marsha Hunt and Claudia Lennear have each claimed to be the inspiration) is a Rolling Stones classic, its driving beat inspiring listeners to party, not to contemplate the words.

They are strange lyrics for any woman to claim she inspired:

Gold Coast slave ship bound for cotton fields
Sold in the market down in New Orleans
Scarred old slaver knows he’s doin’ all right
Hear him whip the women just around midnight
Brown Sugar, how come you taste so good
Brown Sugar, just like a young girl should
Drums beatin’ cold, English blood runs hot . . .”

Brennan, identified as “a music producer who has devoted his career to promoting voices from underheard regions and persecuted populations,” says he wrote the op-ed because the Stones begin another tour in June and “Brown Sugar” is sure to be included. He wants them to drop it.

A publicist for the Rolling Stones at Rogers & Cowan did not respond to a request for comment, but Jagger was quoted as saying in 1995, “God knows what I’m on about on that song. It’s such a mishmash. All the nasty subjects in one go. […] I never would write that song now. I would probably censor myself. I’d think, ‘Oh God, I can’t. I’ve got to stop. I can’t just write raw like that.’ ”

San Pedro-2 Honduras San Pedro Sula, Honduras, has been dubbed “the world’s most dangerous city.” (Credit: adventurousmiriam.com)

N.Y. Times Defends Identifying Hondurans

“On May 4, The New York Times published an article about a community in Honduras that decided to fight against the most powerful gang in our region: The Mara Salvatrucha 13 (MS-13), Juan José Martínez D’aubuisson and Amelia Frank-Vitale wrote Friday for Latino Rebels. “The publication of this article has put the lives of the people in the community at even greater risk. They say their photos and names were published without their consent. They believe that journalist Azam Hamed and photographer Tyler Hicks have contributed to hastening a death that has been waiting for them for years..

The Times insists it received permission, but removed some photos “at the subjects’ request.”

D’aubuisson and Frank-Vitale continued, “The neighborhood profiled is in the depths of the Rivera Hernández sector of San Pedro Sula, which is one of the most violent areas of all of Honduras. It is a place that varies between urban and rural — the streets are made of dirt, as are many of the houses. The families are very poor and the most brutal violence is that of daily life. The sector is fought over by an ever-changing number of gangs: sometimes it’s seven, sometimes six, sometimes eight. Small gangs are extinguished and new ones are born with the velocity of bullet shots.

From latinorebels.com
From latinorebels.com

“The article tells the story of a group of boys who decided to fight against MS-13 to keep them from entering their neighborhood and the destruction that comes with it. They armed themselves as best they could and they fought. As was expected, they lost. Many were captured and others fled. In this story, Goliath vanquishes David and his body is abandoned in some ditch in Rivera Hernández.

“We learn the story of the losers in great detail: real names, photos with their faces, the location of their houses, an image of the vehicle one of them uses every day for work. They even published photos of two daughters in front of a house. If the people were already a thorn in the side of MS-13, they are now a special target. One of the most important media outlets in the world reported that a group of inexperienced boys and older women were able to keep at bay the most powerful gang in Central America. . . .”

“We have known some of these people since 2015, when Juan first went to San Pedro Sula for the first time to write about the city’s violence. In this community, the rules have always been clear: you don’t publish names and you don’t take photos that show people’s faces. We — both the residents and those of us who have spent years studying the dynamics in places like this — have always been aware that anything else increases the risk of being targeted for death.

“One of the women from the neighborhood, whose role in the self-defense group was exposed and whose face (along with those of her children) was shown, swears she never gave permission to publish her name or her photos. She didn’t even realize when they were taken. Another resident who is featured and who had always resisted leaving his home, told me that now he too is preparing to flee the neighborhood. Me van a hacer picadillo, he says. They are going to make hamburger meat out of me. . . .”

“The Times has since pulled the most damaging photos from the digital version of the story.

“Juan also received an email from the communications director stating that all the people had given their consent to participate in the story — that they, as always, had complied with all ethical norms.

“A renowned journalist once said, ‘We have to treat all our sources as though they had a million dollars to sue us.’ In Rivera Hernández, the Times (and too many other outlets) treats people as they are: poor Hondurans without a cent to sue anyone. . . .”

Ari Isaacman Bevacqua, the Times’ director of communications, told Journal-isms by email Friday, “Azam Ahmed spent weeks reporting the story in Honduras.

“As is always the case with stories in The New York Times, our reporting followed our ethical journalism guidelines. All sources gave permission to participate in the story and to be photographed.

“After the article was published, in an abundance of caution, we removed some photos at the subjects’ request.”

U.S. Army National Guard Sgt. Derrick Miller returns home. (Credit: McClatchy Newspapers) (video)

Backers of Accused War Criminal Raise Race Issue

The rule of thumb in most of the news media, as the Associated Press says in its stylebook,  is, “Include racial or ethnic details only when they are clearly relevant and that relevance is explicit in the story.”

That might be why news consumers might not know that the military men accused or convicted of war crimes — for whom President Trump is considering a pardon — include an African American.

Reporters on the story might not be aware, but defenders of U.S. Army National Guard Sgt. Derrick Miller say race has played a role in his case.

“Derrick, who is African-American, is serving a longer sentence than most of the Caucasian soldiers who committed combat-related homicides,’ according to the Combat Clemency Project at University of Chicago Law School.

“Worse, Derrick, a soldier who killed in defense of his comrades, faces more time in prison than most civilian murderers. We are therefore asking the President and the Secretary of the Army to commute the remainder of Derrick’s sentence and to reduce his offense to voluntary manslaughter.

“As Americans, we have a right to expect our government to protect us from criminals. Derrick Miller is not a criminal. And our country does not need another African-American man taken away from his children to serve unnecessary prison time. We ask everyone who supports our troops overseas — everyone who supports the right of self-defense — and everyone who believes that the punishment should fit the crime to support our Petition.

Change.org has gathered more than 11,000 signatures seeking clemency for Miller.

Miller, a Maryland National Guardsman, came home for the first time in nearly a decade on May 21 after a military court convicted him eight years ago of the 2010 premeditated murder of an Afghan man, Anne Cutler reported that day for WTTG-TV in Washington.  He was granted parole earlier this year.

Military leaders and others have opposed a pardon for the accused war criminals, saying a Trump intervention would undermine military justice.

The Kansas City Star editorialized about Miller on May 23, updated May 24, under the headline, “War criminal freed from Leavenworth shouldn’t get Trump pardon on Memorial Day — or ever.” Miller served time at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas.

The editorial contended, “A visit to Arlington Cemetery is a good way to mark Memorial Day, as Trump did on Thursday. But there’s no need to make everyone buried there roll over.”

L.A. Times Has a Black Journalist Again in D.C.

Kimbriell Kelly
Kimbriell Kelly

“We’re thrilled to announce that Kimbriell Kelly, currently a reporter with the Washington Post, will be joining The Times this summer, filling a key position as an editor in Washington as we seek to further strengthen our bureau there,” Norman Pearlstine, who became executive editor of the Los Angeles Times last year, and Managing Editor Scott Kraft wrote to staffers Tuesday.

Pearlstine told Journal-isms the Times had hired Tyrone Beason, another black journalist, from the Seattle Times, where Beason was a feature writer for Pacific NW, the Times Sunday magazine, and a 24-year veteran. “He will be a columnist covering national politics for us,” Pearlstine said.

When he was hired, Pearlstine said diversity would be a top priority, but the Times’ Washington bureau remained relatively monochromatic.

“We’re very excited about Kimbriell,” bureau chief David Lauter messaged Journal-isms Tuesday. “The bureau currently is about 25 people — a significant increase from where we were a year ago. We have one other African-American staff member — photo editor Kirk McCoy, who is in the process of moving here from LA. And, yes, it’s been a number of years since we’ve had a black journalist on the bureau staff. That’s a problem on which I’m happy we’re making some progress now that we’re hiring again.”

Tyrone Beason
Tyrone Beason

The bureau also has two Asian Americans, economics writer Don Lee and Adrienne Shih, audience engagement editor.

Pearlstine and Kraft said in their memo, “Kimbriell, who comes to us with the enthusiastic endorsement of Washington Bureau Chief David Lauter, has worked for the past six and a half years as an investigative reporter at the Post, taking part in some of their most impressive projects, including ‘Fatal Force,’ the examination of officer-involved shootings which won the Pulitzer Prize for National Reporting in 2015, and ‘Murder with Impunity,’ last year’s series on unsolved urban homicides, which was a finalist for the Pulitzer Explanatory Reporting award.

“As those citations suggest, Kimbriell has deep expertise in data journalism and the use of public records to report and detail stories. She will bring that expertise to bear on our Washington coverage, leading a team of five reporters with a mission to produce significant, unique enterprise on major areas of policy. In addition, she will help expand the skills of the rest of the bureau staff in data-journalism techniques and the use of FOIA and other public records laws.

“A journalist of infectious enthusiasm and tremendous drive, Kimbriell was the editor and publisher of the Chicago Reporter before joining the Post. There, among other projects, she led an investigation into tenant evictions by the Chicago Housing Authority which won a Sigma Delta Chi award for magazine journalism. . . . ”

State prisoners work on the public spaces along a Gainesville, Fla., street in October 2018. The city and county contract inmate labor for a variety of projects around town. (Credit: Alan Youngblood/Gainesville Sun)
State prisoners work on the public spaces along a Gainesville, Fla., street in October 2018. The city and county contract inmate labor for a variety of projects around town. (Credit: Alan Youngblood/Gainesville Sun)

Unpaid Prison Labor Continues to Power Florida

“Some 57 years after slavery had been abolished, a loophole in the 13th Amendment allowed the state to profit off forcing prisoners, most of them black, to work,” Ben Conarck wrote Saturday in the Florida Times-Union for a project headlined, “Work Forced.” “The men lived in filth and had little to eat. They were arrested on frivolous or petty charges and made to pay off their debts working long hours in the sun. Those who didn’t faced whippings, beatings and torture. Guards could be brutal and needlessly vindictive. . . .”

Conarck also wrote, “Like the chain gangs of a century ago, the men on community work squads remain unpaid. Their only alternative to working: confinement. Work squads are made up of inmates nearing release, but they receive no vocational certificates, and have nothing to show for their work when they get out. . . .”

(Credit: YouTube) (video)

A ‘Rather Stunning’ Pulitzer Luncheon

“The distribution of the Pulitzer Prizes, in the rotunda of Low Library at Columbia University, one of the stateliest columned rooms this side of the Atlantic, is a perennially anticlimactic affair,” Betsy Morais reported Tuesday for CJR. “The winners are announced weeks ahead.

“So it was rather stunning when, as servers set down plates of dessert, with chocolates pressed into the Pulitzer logo and flecked with gold leaf, Jennifer Hudson appeared from behind a curtain. She wore a long, flowing gown with a deep V-neck, white with black zig-zagging designs — notebook marginalia. Her hair, curly with blond coloring, sprang out and down her back like a hero’s cape.

“By way of introduction, Dana Canedy, the Pulitzer’s administrator, let everyone know that, as a tribute to Aretha Franklin — to whom the Pulitzer committee awarded a posthumous special citation for her contributions to American music and culture — Hudson had made an impressive voyage: her flight had been cancelled, and she’d driven 14 hours to make this appearance. When Hudson erupted in song, the room was airlifted: ‘Amazing Grace.’ . . .”

Under Canedy, their first African American administrator, the Pulitzers are breaking precedents. Last year, Kendrick Lamar became the first hip-hop artist to win a Pulitzer in the music category.

Short Takes

Continued on Page 2 of this post:

NABJ’s Sarah Glover at Philadelphia City Hall; C.M. Guerrero; Latino call for boycott of CBS News; uphill climb for Latino shows; lawsuit seeks broadcasting of recordings from Maryland criminal trials; Mayor Bill de Blasio and ethnic media outlets; Juan Williams; NABJ’s Black Male Media Project; Sarah Glover and Afro-Colombians; order to unseal Jussie Smollett documents; Kentucky morning host terminated after racist remark; GateHouse Media layoffs; Philadelphia Media Network buyout offers

AP’s Yemeni reporter denied visa to receive Pulitzer; BET and new Marc Lamont Hill digital show; Oliver ‘Ollie’ Harrington, Lalo Alcaraz, Angelo Lopez; Asian Americans and citizenship question; Michele Norris-Johnson; Jim DeRogatis’s new book on R. Kelly; Navajos who live without basic amenities; call for FCC revamping; bail agents profiting from people of color; entries open for reporting on disability; Janet Mason; Nia Towne; failure to surrender weapons; racism in Cuba; Lonnie G. Bunch III; Charisse Gibson

Stephen A. Smith and Magic Johnson; conviction in 1988 killing of Brazilian journalist; fatal shooting of online Brazilian newspaper owner; deteriorating press freedom in Nigeria; Al-Jazeera journalist rearrested in Egypt.

 

Support Journal-isms

 

Facebook users: “Like” “Richard Prince’s Journal-isms” on Facebook.

Follow Richard Prince on Twitter @princeeditor

Richard Prince’s Journal-isms originates from Washington. It began in print before most of us knew what the internet was, and it would like to be referred to as a “column.” Any views expressed in the column are those of the person or organization quoted and not those of any other entity.
 
Send tips, comments and concerns to Richard Prince at journal-isms-owner@yahoogroups.com
 

About Richard Prince

View previous columns (after Feb. 13, 2016).

Columns below from the Maynard Institute are not currently available but are scheduled to be restored soon on journal-isms.com.

Related posts

More Diversity in AP’S Top Ranks

richard

Reporter on Harvey Helps Deliver a Baby

richard

4 Black National Outlets to Simulcast Debate

richard

Leave a Comment

Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment.