Articles Feature

More Companies Pull Ads From ‘O’Reilly’

by richard02753

Sexual Harassment Allegations Are ‘Disturbing’

Angelo Henderson Family Sues Doctors Over Death

Over 15 Years, 1,687 Fewer Newspaper Companies

Last Black Female Newspaper Sports Editor Laid Off

Signed: April Ryan by CNN, Ed O’Keefe by CBS

L.A. Times 4-Part Series: ‘The Problem With Trump’

Jenni Monet Honored for Standing Rock Coverage

Wagner Is Rare Spanish-Speaking Baseball Writer

Tweets ‘Created a Crisis’ Over D.C. Missing Girls

N.Y. Times Readers on Cringeworthy Race Words

Short Takes


Dr. Wendy Walsh, a radio and television personality, detailed a sexual harassment allegation against Fox News host Bill O’Reilly at a news conference with her attorney Monday in Los Angeles. (Credit: Reuters video)

Sexual Harassment Allegations Are ‘Disturbing’

” ‘The O’Reilly Factor’ is facing a growing advertiser revolt, as ten companies have pulled their commercials from the show amid a scandal involving the host, Bill O’Reilly,” Tom Kludt reported Tuesday for CNNMoney. (Click on link for latest tally.)

“Mercedes-Benz, Hyundai, BMW of North America, Constant Contact, Ainsworth Pet Nutrition, UNTUCKit, Allstate, T. Rowe Price, GlaxoSmithKline and Sanofi are pulling ads from ‘The O’Reilly Factor’ after a report about five settlements with women who alleged sexual harassment or verbal abuse by O’Reilly.

“The decisions signal the potential of financial damage for ‘The O’Reilly Factor,’ the most popular show on cable news, and its network, Fox News.

“Hyundai said early Tuesday that it is not currently advertising on ‘The O’Reilly Factor’ but will remove upcoming ads because of the ‘recent and disturbing allegations.’ . . .”

In another development, “O’Reilly arrogantly assumed sex was on the menu after a hotel dinner with Dr. Wendy Walsh in 2013 — and he turned instantly hostile when it was not, she claimed at a press conference Monday,” Nancy Dillon reported for the Daily News in New York.

“The psychologist gave a detailed account of the alleged incident to reporters in Los Angeles after it surfaced in the New York Times over the weekend. . . .”

Kludt’s report continued, “In a statement provided to CNNMoney, a spokesperson for [Mercedes-Benz] called the allegations against O’Reilly ‘disturbing.’

Bill O'Reilly
Bill O’Reilly

” ‘Yes, we had advertising running on The O’Reilly Factor (we run on most major cable news shows) and it has been reassigned in the midst of this controversy,’ said Donna Boland, the manager of corporate communications at Mercedes-Benz. ‘The allegations are disturbing and, given the importance of women in every aspect of our business, we don’t feel this is a good environment in which to advertise our products right now.’ . . .

“CNNMoney reached out to more than 20 companies and brands that have advertised on the ‘O’Reilly Factor’ to ask for a response to a report published by the New York Times over the weekend. The Times reported that settlements totaling $13 million had been reached with five women who accused O’Reilly of inappropriate behavior.

“One of them, Lexus, provided a statement to CNNMoney in which it said, ‘The Lexus ads appearing on the O’Reilly Factor are part of a wide ranging media package, with ads appearing on a variety of cable television programs. We take our duties as a responsible advertiser seriously, and seek to partner with organizations who share our company culture and philosophy of respect for all people. We will continue to monitor the situation and will take any appropriate action through our media buying partners.’

“A spokesperson for Jenny Craig said that the organization ‘condemns any and all forms of sexual harassment,’ but declined to comment further. . . .”

On Saturday, Emily Steel and Michael S. Schmidt reported for the Times, “An investigation by The New York Times has found a total of five women who have received payouts from either Mr. O’Reilly or the company in exchange for agreeing to not pursue litigation or speak about their accusations against him. The agreements totaled about $13 million.

“Two settlements came after the network’s former chairman, Roger Ailes, was dismissed last summer in the wake of a sexual harassment scandal, when the company said it did not tolerate behavior that ‘disrespects women or contributes to an uncomfortable work environment.’

“The women who made allegations against Mr. O’Reilly either worked for him or appeared on his show. They have complained about a wide range of behavior, including verbal abuse, lewd comments, unwanted advances and phone calls in which it sounded as if Mr. O’Reilly was masturbating, according to documents and interviews. . . .”

Also on Monday, “Julie Roginsky, a political consultant and cable news commentator, is the latest to hit Fox News with a lawsuit claiming retaliation over treatment in the wake of alleged Roger Ailes sexual harassment,” Eriq Gardner reported for the Hollywood Reporter.

“On Monday, Roginsky filed suit in New York Supreme Court against the cable network owned by 21st Century Fox, its ex-president Ailes, and current president Bill Shine. . . .”

Angelo Henderson enjoys tributes in October 2012 from the National Association of Black Journalists' local chapter. (Credit: Paula Bridges)
Angelo Henderson enjoyed tributes in October 2012 from the Detroit chapter of the National Association of Black Journalists. (Credit: Paula Bridges)

Angelo Henderson Family Sues Doctors Over Death

Angelo B. Henderson, the Pulitzer Prize-winning Detroit journalist whose passing at 51 in 2014 stunned fellow black journalists and drew hundreds to his livestreamed funeral, died a wrongful death, according to a civil suit filed last week on behalf of his widow, Felecia D. Henderson, Detroit news organizations reported last week.

She is assistant managing editor at the Detroit News.

The suit alleges that “medical negligence allowed a deadly blood clot to travel to his lung,” Mike Martindale reported Wednesday for the Detroit News.

“Henderson, 51, a community activist, minister and former Detroit News reporter, died Feb. 15, 2014, in his Oakland County home about three weeks after surgery for a left knee quadriceps rupture.” In addition to his wife, he is survived by a son.

“Her attorney, Brian McKeen, said he has seen ‘too many of these deaths from pulmonary embolism,’ ” Martindale continued.

“ ‘This is another example of a care provider failing to take simple steps to prevent blood clots,’ said McKeen. ‘He was too young to die.’

“Named as defendants are UnaSource Surgery Center in Troy; Performance Orthopedics, a sports medicine practice in Bingham Farms; and Henderson’s surgeon, Dr. Joseph Guettler. . . .”

The suit seeks a jury trial and more than $25,000 in damages.

Henderson was a popular radio personality at WCHB-AM in Detroit and directed the benevolence ministry at Triumph Church, where he was an associate minister. He won a Pulitzer Prize in feature writing at the Wall Street Journal in 1999.

Hundreds filled the pews of Detroit’s Greater Grace Temple at his services. Allan Lengel, reporting then for Deadline Detroit, estimated that the 4,000-seat auditorium was about 70 percent full.

The National Association of Black Journalists renamed its Community Service Award after Henderson, who had served two terms as the organization’s parliamentarian and was two-term president of the Detroit chapter.

chart

Over 15 Years, 1,687 Fewer Newspaper Companies

“From first quarter 2001 to third quarter 2016, the number of business establishments in the newspaper publishing industry decreased from 9,310 to 7,623, or 18.1 percent,” the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported Monday.

“From first quarter 2007 to third quarter 2016, the number of business establishments in the Internet publishing and web search portals industry increased from 5,532 to 13,924, or over 150 percent. . . .”

Last Black Female Newspaper Sports Editor Laid Off

Jewell Walston
Jewell Walston

Jewell Walston, the last remaining African American female sports editor at a reasonably large metropolitan daily, was let go among layoffs implemented Monday by BM Media Group, the newspaper division of Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway Inc., Managing Editor Andy Morrissey of the Winston-Salem (N.C.) Journal confirmed on Tuesday.

Walston had been sports editor at the Journal since March 2015, according to her LinkedIn bio. She had been an assistant metro editor at the Cincinnati Enquirer, Detroit News and Daily Press in Newport News, Va., as well as an assistant, deputy or chief sports editor at the Cincinnati Enquirer and Asheville (N.C.) Citizen-Times.

Morrissey said the newsroom has about 30 staffers, an African American city editor in D. Jeri Young, four black reporters and an African American clerk who also writes. The Journal said it reduced its staff by 14 on Monday.

In February, Lisa Wilson, executive sports editor at the Buffalo News, announced that she was joining the Undefeated as senior editor for sports.

“BH Media Group, the newspaper division of Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway Inc., announced yesterday that it was cutting 289 jobs at its newspapers across the country yesterday,” Paul Fletcher wrote Tuesday for Forbes.

“The cuts included the elimination of 108 jobs that currently are vacant.

“The reasons for the job losses are depressingly familiar in the newspaper industry: loss of circulation and advertising revenue, lagging revenue from the digital side of the business. . . .”

In Virginia, Mark Robinson reported for Richmond magazine, “The Richmond Times-Dispatch on Monday laid off 33 people, including 13 newsroom staffers, and announced it will cut certain sections in its print edition, decisions management characterized as necessary for the newspaper’s future viability. . . .”

In Oklahoma, “Tulsa World Media Co., operators of the Tulsa World, on Monday eliminated 28 staff positions as part of a company-wide reduction in force. Positions were eliminated in news, advertising, finance, circulation and corporate services,” the Tulsa World reported.

Also in North Carolina, News & Record in Greensboro cut 36 positions on Monday.

Forbes released its 2017 Billionaires List on March 20, showcasing the world’s richest people. For the fourth year in a row, Bill Gates topped the list, with a net worth of $86 billion. Buffett was second. Jeff Bezos, the Amazon CEO who owns the Washington Post, was third. Unlike the BM Media Group, however, the Washington Post is adding staffers.

Signed: April Ryan by CNN, Ed O’Keefe by CBS

“CNN is bringing on April Ryan and CBS News has signed Ed O’Keefe to contributor contracts,” Chris O’Keefe reported Monday for TVNewser.

April Ryan
April Ryan

“Both are longtime D.C. correspondents. Ryan . . . is White House correspondent for American Urban Radio Networks, while O’Keefe is a congressional reporter for the Washington Post.

“Ryan, who was named today to Adweek’s Political Power Players list, has covered the White House since Bill Clinton was president.

“O’Keefe, who has been with the Post since 2005, had his new role announced by Charlie Rose on CBS This Morning:

“ ‘It sounds good when you say it,’ O’Keefe said to Rose.”

Ed O'Keefe
Ed O’Keefe

O’Keefe is national vice president, print of the National Association of Hispanic Journalists, and Ryan has been seen frequently on MSNBC’s “Hardball.”

“I am leaving friends and joining friends at CNN. I am excited and looking forward to this CNN journey!” Ryan emailed Journal-isms.

Michael M. Grynbaum wrote Friday for the New York Times, “One of the few black journalists in the White House press corps, Ms. Ryan has covered presidents and clashed with press secretaries for 20 years.

“But her encounters with the Trump administration are propelling the 49-year-old, Baltimore-bred journalist to a new level of prominence — and into a contentious debate over this White House’s attitudes toward gender and race. . . .”

Separately, Jeff Green, who leads CNN’s News & Alerting team, announced to staffers on March 22 that Sharif Durhams, a homepage editor at the Washington Post, is joining his CNN team as a senior editor.

“He has been a social media editor, digital strategist and reporter for the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, and has reported for the Charlotte Observer, too,” Green wrote.

“He studied journalism and political science at the University of North Carolina, and is the treasurer of NLGJA [National Lesbian & Gay Journalists Association], active in NABJ [National Association of Black Journalists] and a past speaker at the Online News Association conference. Sharif will be based in Atlanta and starts next month. He welcomes tips on biking to work, BeltLine trails and local beers.”

L.A. Times 4-Part Series: ‘The Problem With Trump’

“The Los Angeles Times skewered President Donald Trump in an editorial on Sunday, calling him ‘untethered from reality’ and ‘full of blind self-regard,’ ” Sonam Seth reported for Business Insider.

“The editorial was the first of four the paper plans to run in a series called ‘The problem with Trump.’

“On Sunday, the paper slammed Trump for his crackdown on immigration and so-called sanctuary cities, his repeal of President Barack Obama’s regulations aimed at curbing climate change, his failure to push the GOP’s replacement bill for the Affordable Care Act, and his proposed inflation of the Pentagon’s budget despite a promise to reduce the country’s role in international conflicts.

“But the editorial board’s criticism went further in focusing on Trump personally. . . .”

Jenni Monet
Jenni Monet (Courtesy photo)

Jenni Monet Honored for Standing Rock Coverage

“Columbia Journalism School faculty have named Jenni Monet, an independent journalist, the winner of the 2017 Tobenkin Award for her exceptional coverage of the Standing Rock Sioux battle against the Dakota Access oil pipeline,” the school announced.

“CJS faculty have also awarded a special citation to Will Evans, a reporter for Reveal, for his account of the widespread employer practice of using temp agencies to discriminate against workers based on race, gender, age, and even sexual orientation.

“Evans will accept a special citation. Monet will accept a $1,500 honorarium and will speak to Columbia Journalism students and professors at Columbia University’s annual Journalism Day on May 16, 2017. . . .”

Wagner Is Rare Spanish-Speaking Baseball Writer

James Wagner
James Wagner

“As the Mets welcome the Atlanta Braves to Citi Field on Monday for their season-opening game, Latinos account for close to 30 percent of Major League Baseball players, according to the Institute for Diversity and Ethics in Sport,” Jennifer Krauss reported Sunday for the New York Times “Insider” section.

“The majority of United States-based baseball writers for English-language media, on the other hand, do not speak Spanish.

James Wagner, a Times baseball writer formerly with the Washington Post, “is a rare exception. (The Washington Post’s Nationals reporter, Jorge Castillo; MLB.com’s Angels reporter, Maria Guardado; The Los Angeles Times’s baseball columnist and former Dodgers reporter, Dylan Hernandez; and USA Today’s national baseball reporter Jorge Ortiz are a few others.) Of the regular Mets beat reporters, Mr. Wagner is the only Spanish speaker. . . .”

One can add Jose de Jesus Ortiz of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch to that list.

Tweets ‘Created a Crisis’ Over D.C. Missing Girls

“D.C. police have not effectively used their digital tools to call attention to the fact that 99 percent of missing-persons cases in the city get solved,” Aaron C. Davis and Peter Hermann reported Sunday for the Washington Post. Their story was headlined, “No, there is no spike in missing girls in DC; how tweets created a crisis.”

“Hundreds of their tweets announcing the disappearances continue to circulate on the Internet, like a CD on replay,” Davis and Hermann wrote. “The department doesn’t delete the tweets once a child is located or link to subsequent tweets it posts once a case is closed.

“The number of juveniles reported missing in the District has been trending downward.

“Statistics show that fewer than 190 juveniles have disappeared each month this year, about equal with the number at the same point a year earlier, and down from about 200 a month in 2015. . . .”

 

Credit: Rumsey Taylor/ New York Times
Credit: Rumsey Taylor/New York Times

N.Y. Times Readers on Cringeworthy Race Words

“Last week we shared some of our cringeworthy racial terms, like ‘ethnic,’ ‘exotic’ and ‘urban,’ ”  editors of the New York Times ‘Race/Related’ newsletter wrote on Sunday.

“We’re turning this edition over to you.

“Please forward this email to friends to keep this important conversation going. We’ll continue exploring some of these terms in the months ahead. This sample of responses — lightly edited for space — was culled from the hundreds we received by email and on social media.

“Here’s what you find cringeworthy: . . .”

Nominees included “race,” “other,” “nationality,” “racial tolerance,” “ethnic cleansing,” “Latinx,” “spicy, exotic,” “Caucasian,” “mulatto,” “unconscious bias,” “minority,” “Native,” “ghetto,” “them,” “those people,” “model minority,” “reverse discrimination,” and “not really black,” among many others.

Short Takes

  • “A newspaper in the Mexican border city of Juarez announced Sunday that it is shutting down because of the climate of insecurity and the impunity for killings of journalists,” the Associated Press reported. “Norte executive Oscar Cantu Murguia informed readers of his decision in a farewell letter titled ‘Adios!’ that was published on the paper’s front page and online. He cited the recent slaying of journalist Miroslava Breach in the city of Chihuahua, which like Juarez is in Chihuahua state. Breach was a reporter for the national newspaper La Jornada and had also collaborated with Norte. . . .”
  • “At least 25 journalists were imprisoned in Egypt on December 1, 2016, when CPJ last conducted its census of journalists jailed around the world,” Justin Shilad wrote Thursday for the Committee to Protect Journalists. “Only Turkey and China imprisoned more journalists. Despite these clear violations of Egyptians’ human rights, the United States has earmarked $1.3 billion in military aid to Egypt this year. In one of his first phone calls with a head of state upon taking office,” President Trump reaffirmed to Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi “his commitment to funding Egypt’s fight against terrorism. Yet terrorism is the pretext that Egypt’s government has used to jail most of the journalists behind bars. . . .”
  • Roger Wilkins, a champion of civil rights who died March 26 at 85, “had an outsize impact at The New York Times, given that his career here lasted only five years,” David W. Dunlap wrote Thursday for the Times’ Insider section. “Even as he reached readers who might not otherwise have connected with The Times, Mr. Wilkins was embroiled in intramural conflicts — not a few of his own making. . . .” Paul Delaney, a colleague, recalled, “He could be the cool, reasonable, quiet-spoken intellect that he was. Or, he could be the radical, venom-spitting militant, which left many people perplexed and confused — but many of us understood exactly where he was coming from; we shared his experiences. . . .”
  • “Lack of diversity in newsrooms is getting extra attention since the election, and rightly so,” Kyle Pope, editor of Columbia Journalism Review, said Thursday to “resident management guru” Jill Geisler. “Most managers know to look closely at hiring, sourcing and mentorship, as well as story selection. What else can we do if we’re serious about diversifying our newsrooms?” Geisler replied, “Attention to ‘hiring, sourcing and mentorship’ sounds good, but those are very general terms. To get serious, let’s get more specific with these questions for news leaders: . . .”
Michelle Obama
Michelle Obama
Bernie Ritter
Bernie Ritter

Calvin Sims-International House

(Credit: International House)

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“As a program officer for news media and journalism at the Ford Foundation, I was particularly proud to support Richard’s column, which was the definitive voice promoting and implementing new and meaningful ways to achieve diversity in news media staffing and coverage.”

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