Dems to Spend ‘7 Figures’ on Ethnic Media

“So far in the 2016 cycle, the RNC has secured advertising in several minority publications.  We will continue to support minority-owned media throughout the remainder of this cycle and beyond.”

Meleiza Figueroa, press director for the Green Party, said by telephone that except for social media, “We haven’t been doing ad buys; we’ve been pushing for interviews and coverage.” Carla Howell, political director of the Libertarian Party, said her group would target “very limited advertising just to Libertarian audiences.”

The DNC announcement said, “The first radio ad going on air today, titled ‘Protecting the Progress,’ (audio) features First Lady Michelle Obama and will run on nationally syndicated African-American radio programs. The ad will lay out what’s at stake for voters in this election and encourage them to visit iwillvote.com to register to vote. . . . .” The ad emphasizes that only by electing Democrats can President Obama’s legacy be protected.

“The DNC contracted Burrell Communications Group, an African-American owned communications firm, to produce ‘Protecting the Progress’ and purchase the advertisements. ‘Protecting the Progress’ will air on nationally syndicated urban radio programs, including ‘The Steve Harvey Show,’ ‘The Tom Joyner Morning Show,’ ‘Keep Hope Alive with Rev. Jesse Jackson,’ ‘Keepin it Real with Rev. Al Sharpton,’ and ‘The DL Hughley Show.’

“In addition, the DNC contracted with MAP Wins, a Hispanic owned and operated media firm, to produce and purchase our advertisements on Hispanic radio and digital outlets. The first of these ads will begin airing this week on key Spanish language networks across the country including Univision, the Hispanic Radio Network, GLR Networks, and Latinos Unidos Online.”

Voting Rights Moving One Step Forward, Two Back?

“This presidential election is the first since the Supreme Court struck down voter rights protections that had been in place since the Civil Rights Era,” (podcast) the San Francisco Bay-area Center for Investigative Reporting noted on Monday.

“Since that 2013 decision, states across the country have rushed to pass new laws that make it harder to vote.” Reveal, the center’s newsletter and podcast, “examines whether these laws are fighting fraud or simply keeping people of color from voting.

“First, we meet Alberta Currie, an 82-year-old African American woman. Born at home in North Carolina, she never had a birth certificate but nonetheless never had trouble voting — that is, until a new state law kicked in for this year’s presidential primary.

“Next, we head to the Lone Star State, where Texas passed the strictest voter ID law in the country. The governor there says the law is urgently needed to address rampant voter fraud. Reveal’s Laura Starecheski looks into that claim and finds a 100-year legacy of laws that has kept black and Latino voters away from the polls.

“With the help of the Houston Chronicle, Starecheski also tells the story of Pasadena, Texas, a suburb where the Hispanic majority remains on the political sidelines. Thanks to the Supreme Court’s decision, the city’s white mayor has been able to redraw its City Council districts in the white minority’s favor.

“And finally, we meet up with Ari Berman of The Nation, who visits a state where the government is actually tearing down barriers to voting: Oregon. Berman investigates a new way of registering voters there that makes it practically automatic.”

• John Avlon, CNNMoney: What news needs to do now
• Wayne Bennett, the Field Negro: Being Putin.
• Garance Burke, Associated Press: “Apprentice” cast and crew say Trump was lewd and sexist
• Charles M. Blow, New York Times: Donald Trump: Terroristic Man-Toddler
• Arthur Browne, Daily News, New York: The devil in Donald: How the ghost of ‘evil’ Roy Cohn lives on inside Trump
• Business Insider: Gary Johnson reportedly once asked an aide: ‘Who’s Harriet Tubman?’
• Duane Champagne, Indian Country Today Media Network: Clinton or Trump? Who Should Natives Support
• Jelani Cobb, New Yorker: Hillary Clinton and the Millennial Vote
• Editorial, Dallas Morning News: Next time, a better-prepared Trump should press Clinton on these key issues
• Editorial, New York Times: Candidate Obama Kept His Promise to Native Americans
• Editorial, New York Times: ¡A votar! Latino Voters Can Make a Difference SpanishEnglish
• Editorial, Washington Post: Do Gary Johnson supporters really want to help Trump win?
• Paul Farhi, Washington Post: Who gave Trump’s taxes to the New York Times? The mystery behind a bombshell story.
• Stephen Henderson, Detroit Free Press: Clinton-Trump debate: The lies, and the candidates who tell them (Sept. 27)
• Gromer Jeffers Jr., Dallas Morning News: Hillary Clinton pounding Trump with high-profile surrogates, ground game
• David Cay Johnston, Daily Beast: Art of the Steal: This is How Trump Lost $916M and Avoided Tax
• Colbert I. King, Washington Post: President Trump would reconstruct our racist past
• Latino Rebels: Mexican Literary Magazine Just Published the Most Powerful Trump Cover Ever
• MJ Lee and Dan Merica, CNN: Clinton: ‘My worries are not the same as black grandmothers’
• Niels Lesniewski, Roll Call: Exclusive: Republicans Launch Willie Horton-Style Attack on Kaine
• Cayden Mak, NBC News Asian America: Democracy Must Be Accessible In Every Language (Sept. 27)
• Steve Mollman, Quartz: VP debate moderator Elaine Quijano is one of the US’s 36 million second-generation immigrants
• Tony Norman, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette: Are you just like Gary Johnson, too?
• Clarence Page, Chicago Tribune: How Donald Trump gets stop-and-frisk wrong
• Leonard Pitts Jr., Miami Herald: Is ‘Huh?’ a better strategy than ‘Duh’?
• Dante Ramos, Boston Globe: ‘Inner cities’ are a solution, not a problem
• Darren Sands and Adrian Carrasquillo, BuzzFeed: Democratic Party Targets Minority Coalition With New Michelle Obama Ad
• Trevor Timm, Columbia Journalism Review: Trump’s many, many threats to sue the press since launching his campaign
• Megan Twohey, New York Times: How Hillary Clinton Grappled With Bill Clinton’s Infidelity, and His Accusers

New York Devotes Issue to Obama Presidency

“Taking up nearly 70 pages in print and a multimedia timeline online, New York looks at the eight years of Barack Obama’s presidency in a special issue,” Aude White wrote for the magazine on Sunday.

“ ‘As Jonathan Chait writes, President Obama has led this nation through a period of convulsive social transformation,’ says New York editor-in-chief Adam Moss. ‘This project attempts to document that change, with the help of many protagonists of all kinds — including the president himself, who sat down with Chait in August.

“Though it was meant as a kind of kaleidoscope, the issue actually has a pretty clear story line, with two forces battling one another for America’s future since Obama’s first day in office, and with a conclusion of sorts only five weeks away.’ . . .”

• Jonathan Chait, New York: Five Days That Shaped a Presidency: Barack Obama shares with Jonathan Chait a very early draft of his memoirs.
• Dana Milbank, Washington Post: Republicans predicted an Obamacare apocalypse. It hasn’t happened.
• Vincent Schilling, Indian Country Today Media Network: Obama’s Last Tribal Nations – An Administration of Promises Kept to Indian Country

‘Because of You, a White Man Can’t Afford to Feed His Family’

Angel Franco says his most memorable day in 30 years as a New York Times staff photographer was his first: “A colleague that worked in the darkroom said to me because of you a white man can’t afford to feed his family,” Franco told Journal-isms Monday by email. “But there have been many positive moments in my career at the Times. . . .”

Franco and Marlene Bagley, a copy editor, are among the latest Times journalists to take buyouts.

“I’ve been at The Times since 1995, working as a copy editor on the National Desk (later, Foreign-National) for most of that time,” Bagley said by email. “I was also lucky enough to work for The Times in the first year of its Journalism Institute at Dillard.”

The New York Times Student Journalism Institute was created in 2003 for journalism students at historically black colleges and universities and was held at Dillard University in New Orleans.

In 2007, the program expanded to Miami in conjunction with the National Association of Hispanic Journalists. Next year it is to be held at the CUNY Graduate School of Journalism in Manhattan for students who are members of NAHJ and the National Association of Black Journalists.

“Before The Times,” Bagley continued, “I worked at The Maynard Institute, San Francisco Examiner, Washington Post, Trenton Times, among others. I don’t know what’s next for me, other than a brief vacation.”

Franco, whose last day is Dec. 30, told Journal-isms, “The future is bright as I have lots to do and discover. My plans are to make images without deadlines or editors. I plan to do workshops and I’m currently teaching at the CUNY Journalism program. Great place and fantastic students.”

Franco, too, listed working with the Student Journalism Institute as one of his positive moments at the Times.

Answering other questions, he listed other such positives:

“Covering communities that other publications didn’t care about.

“The freedom to work on my ideas and the most gifted reporters, writer[s] and editors.”

He also said:

“I will miss the Times and my staff of caring and loving people.

“I will continue working on photo projects for the Times.

“But most of the time will be working on my images and hugging my wife.

“It’s been a great run and one to be proud of.

“One more memory[.] I was on assignment in Puerto Rico and I told my photographer friends and journalist[s] that I was retiring and they were shocked and asked who was going to be our voice at the Times.”

So what did Franco say after that first-day greeting about taking a job from a white  man?

“That’s it. The rest is private,” he replied.

• Rui Kaneya, Honolulu Civil Beat: Honolulu Star-Advertiser To Cut 15 Newsroom Jobs (Sept. 27)

Red Cross Faulted After Louisiana Flooding

“In August, the country’s worst natural disaster since 2012’s Superstorm Sandy hit Louisiana. Flooding killed 13 people and left more than 80,000 homes severely damaged,” Derek Kravitz reported Monday for ProPublica.

“And once again, the American Red Cross’ response left local officials seething.

“ ‘They failed for 12 days,’ the director of a state children’s agency wrote in an email on Aug. 26. He listed a litany of shortcomings: ‘Food. Donations management. Under staffed.’

“Hundreds of Louisiana government documents and emails between officials obtained by ProPublica through freedom of information requests show widespread mismanagement and understaffing at Red Cross-run shelters. Some evacuees went hungry, thirsty and without medical attention as a result. . . .”

• Chris Ariens, TVNewser: Networks Pivot to Coverage of Hurricane Matthew

AP: Police Misuse Databases to Snoop on Journalists

“Police officers across the country misuse confidential law enforcement databases to get information on romantic partners, business associates, neighbors, journalists and others for reasons that have nothing to do with daily police work, an Associated Press investigation has found,” Sadie Gurman and Eric Tucker reported Wednesday for the Associated Press.

“Criminal-history and driver databases give officers critical information about people they encounter on the job. But the AP’s review shows how those systems also can be exploited by officers who, motivated by romantic quarrels, personal conflicts or voyeuristic curiosity, sidestep policies and sometimes the law by snooping. In the most egregious cases, officers have used information to stalk or harass, or have tampered with or sold records they obtained.

“No single agency tracks how often the abuse happens nationwide, and record-keeping inconsistencies make it impossible to know how many violations occur.

“But the AP, through records requests to state agencies and big-city police departments, found law enforcement officers and employees who misused databases were fired, suspended or resigned more than 325 times between 2013 and 2015. They received reprimands, counseling or lesser discipline in more than 250 instances, the review found. . . .”

They also wrote, “Among those punished: an Ohio officer who pleaded guilty to stalking an ex-girlfriend and who looked up information on her; a Michigan officer who looked up home addresses of women he found attractive; and two Miami-Dade officers who ran checks on a journalist after he aired unflattering stories about the department. . . .”

• Editorial, Daily News, New York: When trust is broken between the black community and cops
• Allen Johnson, News & Record, Greensboro, N.C.: The Yourse video was a rerun

• Dana Littlefield, San Diego Union-Tribune: In police shootings, bias may be implicit but public anger isn’t
• Ruben Navarrette Jr., Washington Post Writers Group: For police officers today, ‘things go wrong sometimes’
• Rochelle Riley, Detroit Free Press: Will Charlotte provide a blueprint for surviving hate, distrust? (video)
• John Wilkens, San Diego Union-Tribune: El Cajon shooting puts focus on police de-escalation training

Investigative Group Urges Bilingual Partnering

“What does the explosion of digital news, social networks and mobile connectivity mean for native Spanish speakers and bilingual English and Spanish speakers in the United States?” Lindsay Green-Barber reported Thursday for the Center for Investigative Reporting. “And how can investigative news organizations such as Reveal from The Center for Investigative Reporting make sure that our stories reach those audiences?

“Over the past 12 months, we have mulled over these questions and have undertaken a series of experiments to reach native Spanish speakers and bilingual audiences in the U.S. We’re sharing what we’ve learned in this report [PDF]. . . .

“We also have some main findings from our bilingual experiment that, while quite obvious, are worth repeating here.

“Reporting should happen in both English and Spanish. . . .

“Existing Spanish-language outlets need a partner to help them figure out long-form audio. . . .

“There is huge opportunity for Spanish-language and bilingual media. . . .

11 #TCA16 Takeaways: Diversity Still Not Diverse Enough, Rape Repulses, Nerds Rule TV https://t.co/6sY3J2HIOa pic.twitter.com/efOCMGXYvv

— TheWrap (@TheWrap) August 12, 2016

An Irony After Emmys: #TelevisionCriticsSoWhite

“This year, the Emmys felt like a victory lap for diversity,” Soraya Nadia McDonald wrote Monday for the Undefeated.

” . . . It’s odd then, that in a year that feels like a boon when it comes to nonwhite faces on TV, the corps of people vigorously covering it is still so white.

“In some ways, the Television Critics Association press tour feels like a weird anachronism. For starters, it’s noticeably, abnormally, uncomfortably white. Melanie McFarland, the television critic for Salon who currently serves as treasurer of TCA, estimated that out of the organization’s 220 or so members, “you can generously say like 20 or 30 of them are people of color … in proportion, it’s not a whole lot of us and it never has been.” When I attended this summer, I counted seven black journalists, including myself. . . .”

• Ricardo Bilton, NiemanLab: Collaborate or die: A new initiative wants to make it easier for national and local outlets to work together
• Meredith D. Clark, Poynter Institute: Want more journalists of color? Help pay for their internships.
• April Simpson, current.org: Nonprofit news outlets mirror overall media in diversity, according to ASNE survey

Armstrong Williams Admits to Lewd Comments

“Armstrong Williams, the longtime conservative media entrepreneur and adviser to failed GOP presidential candidate Ben Carson, attracted a round of publicity over the summer for precisely the wrong reasons,” Erik Wemple reported Sunday for the Washington Post.

“He was named in a sexual harassment suit filed in a D.C. federal court by Charlton Woodyard, a former employee of Jos. A. Bank whom Williams had befriended in spring 2013 — and, according to the suit, went on to mentor, manipulate and harass over the next couple of years. The low point of the complaint describes a November 2015 incident at Williams’s house. As the suit tells it, Williams made some unconventional sexual advances toward Woodyard. . . .”

Wemple also wrote, “In a Sept. 12 filing, Williams denied all of these allegations, among others in the complaint. In a Sept. 30 filing, however, Williams reversed course, admitting to the quotes attributed to him in the lawsuit — with a caveat or two, that is. . . .”

Short Takes

• “Gloria Naylor, a writer known for illuminating the stories of Black women, died of a heart attack on September 28 in the Virgin Islands, her sister, Bernice Harrison, confirmed to EBONY,” Britni Danielle reported Monday for Ebony.
• “Sunday’s referendum results surprised many who thought that Colombian voters would support President Juan Manuel Santos’s calls for formalizing the cease fire with the rebels after more than five decades of civil war,” Patricia Guadalupe reported Monday for NBC News Latino. “In Colombia, the vote was very close. . . . . But the ‘no’ vote among Colombians living in the U.S. prevailed by a much larger margin: 62.48 percent against 37.51 percent. . . .”
• “We can’t imagine Lorne Michaels is too impressed with ‘Saturday Night Live’ cast member Michael Che right now,” Julia Brucculieri reported Monday for Huffington Post BlackVoices. “During ‘Weekend Update’ on last night’s Season 42 premiere of the sketch comedy show, Che dropped the n-word while discussing Colin Kaepernick’s protest of the national anthem. . . .”  (video)

• 

  “Although reporter turned marijuana advocate Charlo Greene launched into infamy a couple of years ago when she said ‘Fuck it, I quit’ during her final newscast on Alaska’s KTVA, very few people are aware that she is currently at risk of being sent to prison for the next two decades for ‘misconduct involving a controlled substance,’ ” Mike Adams reported Wednesday for High Times. Adams also wrote, “. . . despite the state’s new pot laws, which took effect on February 24, 2015, the Anchorage Police Department (APD) has acted as though it does not understand what it means to legalize weed — conducting two separate raids on Greene’s Alaska Cannabis Club in March and again in August of last year. . . .”

• “Leesa Dillon returns to New York as Executive Producer for WCBS-TV,” Rick Gevers reported Sunday for his newsletter. “She most recently was the Senior Executive Producer for WGCL-TV in Atlanta. She’s a former news director in Cleveland, as well as for News 12/Bronx-Brooklyn, and has worked in Los Angeles, Philadelphia, Washington, DC, Detroit, Charlotte and Kansas City.”

• 

  Kathy Y. Times, president of Yellow Brick Media Concepts, a public relations firm, and president of the National Association of Black Journalists in 2009-2011, has been named executive associate director of the Florida A&M University Office of Communications, Kanya Stewart reported for the university on Thursday. “In this role, Times will be responsible for developing and implementing all of the University’s marketing, mass communications, and social media strategies. . . . Prior to starting her company, she was a primary news anchor in Jackson, Miss., and worked as a broadcast and newspaper reporter. . . .”

• In Philadelphia, “Erin Coleman has joined WCAU as an anchor and reporter,” Kevin Eck reported Monday for TVSpy. “Coleman, who was born in Philadelphia, will co-anchor the 5 p.m. newscast with Keith Jones and will also report for the Philadelphia NBC-owned station.” Coleman comes from WSB in Atlanta.

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• Journal-isms’ Richard Prince Wants Your Ideas (FishbowlDC, Feb. 26, 2016)
• “JOURNAL-ISMS” IS LATEST TO BEAR BRUNT OF INDUSTRY’S ECONOMIC WOES (Feb. 19, 2016)
• Richard Prince with Charlayne Hunter-Gault,“PBS NewsHour,” “What stagnant diversity means for America’s newsrooms” (Dec. 15, 2015)
• Book Notes: Journalists Follow Their Passions
• Book Notes: Journalists Who Rocked Their World
• Book Notes: Hands Up! Read This!
• Book Notes: New Cosby Bio Looks Like a Best-Seller
• Journo-diversity advocate turns attention to Ezra Klein project (Erik Wemple, Washington Post, March 5, 2014)
• Book Notes: “Love, Peace and Soul!” And More
• Book Notes: Book Notes: Soothing the Senses, Shocking the Conscience
• Diversity’s Greatest Hits, 2015
• Diversity’s Greatest Hits, 2014
• Diversity’s Greatest Hits, 2013
• Diversity’s Greatest Hits, 2012
• Diversity’s Greatest Hits, 2011
• Diversity’s Greatest Hits, 2010
• Diversity’s Greatest Hits, 2009
• Diversity’s Greatest Hits, 2008
• Book Notes: Books to Ring In the New Year
• Book Notes: In-Your-Face Holiday Reads
• Fishbowl Interview With the Fresh Prince of D.C. (Oct. 26, 2012)
• NABJ to Honor Columnist Richard Prince With Ida B. Wells Award (Oct. 11, 2012)
• So What Do You Do, Richard Prince, Columnist for the Maynard Institute? (Richard Horgan, FishbowlLA, Aug. 22, 2012)
• Book Notes: Who Am I? What’s Race Got to Do With It?: Journalists Explore Identity
• Book Notes: Catching Up With Books for the Fall
• Richard Prince Helps Journalists Set High Bar (Jackie Jones,BlackAmericaWeb.com, 2011)
• Book Notes: 10 Ways to Turn Pages This Summer
• Book Notes: 7 for Serious Spring Reading
• Book Notes: 7 Candidates for the Journalist’s Library
• Book Notes: 9 That Add Heft to the Bookshelf
• Five Minutes With Richard Prince (Newspaper Association of America,2005)
• ‘Journal-isms’ That Engage and Inform Diverse Audiences (Q&A with Mallary Jean Tenore, Poynter Institute, 2008)