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Trump’s Lawyers Claim Broad Powers to Exclude Reporters

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13 News Organizations Back CNN, Acosta

Most News Outlets Shun ASNE’s Diversity Survey

NPR Reports Rise in Newsroom Latinos, to 8%

USA Today: Those of Color Were 50% of Promotions

Holt Called Most Trusted TV News Personality

Khahaifa Out as Editor, Publisher in Orlando

(More to come)

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13 News Organizations Back CNN, Acosta

“Donald Trump sought Wednesday to land a massive blow in his long-fought battle against the news media, with administration lawyers asserting in court that the president could bar ‘all reporters’ from the White House complex for any reason he sees fit,” Jason Schwartz and Michael Calderone reported Wednesday for Politico.

“The sweeping claim, which came in the first public hearing over CNN’s lawsuit to restore correspondent Jim Acosta’s White House credentials, could have a dramatic impact on news organizations’ access to government officials if it is upheld in court.

“CNN argued in its lawsuit filed Tuesday that the White House infringed on Acosta’s First Amendment rights by revoking his access in response to a dispute over a press conference last week.

“But Trump’s lawyers replied Wednesday in a legal filing that he has ‘broad discretion’ to police journalists’ access to the White House.

“ ‘If the president wants to exclude all reporters from the White House grounds, he has the authority to do that,’ Deputy Assistant Attorney General James Burnham said during the hearing in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. ‘There’s no First Amendment right.’

“Judge Timothy Kelly postponed until Thursday a decision on whether to at least temporarily restore Acosta’s press pass. But the arguments Wednesday represented a significant escalation in Trump’s fight against the media, with more than a dozen news organizations, including POLITICO, weighing in on CNN’s side. . . .”

Schwartz and Calderone also wrote, “Kelly, a Trump appointee, seemed skeptical of some of CNN’s arguments and appeared to agree that Acosta had been disruptive at the press conference. Boutrous responded that Trump set a tone of rudeness. ‘He is the most aggressive, dare I say rude, person in the room,’ ” Ted Boutrous of Gibson and Dunn, who represented CNN and Acosta, said. ” ‘[If] President Trump wants it to be a free-for-all, that’s his prerogative.’

“The White House argued in its legal filing Wednesday that because it has granted hard passes to many other CNN employees, the network cannot say its coverage led to Acosta’s expulsion. The 28-page document mentioned six times that 50 CNN employees have hard passes. Boutrous pointed out that most of those employees are technicians and photographers, part of the large staff a TV network maintains to cover events live at the White House.

“Reporters have denounced the decision to pull Acosta’s access. Thirteen news organizations including Fox News, NBC and POLITICO announced Wednesday they would file amicus briefs supporting CNN’s lawsuit. . . .”

Leaders of the National Association of Hispanic Journalists were scheduled to meet Wednesday with Mercedes Schlapp, White House director of strategic communications, on the Acosta issue.

However, the organization tweeted, “In a last minute change, NAHJ was notified by the White House that Mercedes Schlapp & Bill Shine are required to attend a meeting w/ President Trump & will be rescheduling today’s meeting for after Thanksgiving. NAHJ leadership will still be attending the hearing for @Acosta.”

Shine, former Fox News co-president, is White House deputy chief of staff for communications.

Most News Outlets Shun ASNE’s Diversity Survey

After delaying the result of its annual newsroom diversity survey in September because not enough news organizations participated, the American Society of News Editors said Thursday that its appeal for more to report their numbers yielded only 59 more newspapers and online outlets, not enough for definitive conclusions.

“In September, ASNE announced a historic low among newsrooms participating in the organization’s annual [Newsroom Diversity Survey], which marks its 40th anniversary this year,” the society said in a statement. “Despite a response rate of about 13 percent, with 293 newsrooms of the 1,700 queried for the survey submitting information, there are still encouraging points in the data.

“People of color represent 22.6 percent of the workforce in U.S. newsrooms that responded to this year’s [Newsroom Employment Diversity Survey]. While encouraging, this figure cannot be generalized to interpret the landscape of the U.S. journalism industry as a whole because the responses are not drawn from a random sample. . . .”

The poor response is a low point for the annual survey, which began in 1978. ASNE decided two years ago not to release the figures for individual news outlets to avoid embarrassing those with low numbers, but that decision was quickly reversed as other members cited the need for transparency.

“We are disappointed but we will be looking at why this happened,” Teri Hayt, ASNE’s executive director, said by email of the response. “Too many newsrooms that lost top leaders and then no one realized the survey hadn’t been done? Was the survey too long? The [never-ending] — did we contact the right person in the organization? Are editors not inclined to share numbers since they have not had a change or made a new hire? Lots of variables that we will discuss as we start planning for next year.”

The survey measures progress toward ASNE’s goal of having the percentage of journalists of color in newsrooms nationwide equal to that of people of color in the nation’s population by 2025. The original goal was to have that percentage match that of the general population by 2000.

In 2010, Hispanics or Latinos were 16.3 percent of the U.S. population; blacks or African Americans were 12.6 percent; Asians 4.8 percent; Native Hawaiian or other Pacific Islanders 0.2 percent; and Native Americans or Alaska Natives 0.9 percent. The census counted 6.2 percent as “some other race” and 2.9 percent as two or more races.

NPR Reports Rise in Newsroom Latinos, to 8%

“Having a diverse newsroom is crucial if NPR wants to tell stories that matter to an increasingly diverse country,” Elizabeth Jensen, NPR’s ombudsman, wrote Monday. “For that reason, in each year of my tenure I have requested the newsroom staff diversity statistics from NPR’s human resources department. Numbers don’t tell the whole story, of course, but they offer one way to keep NPR’s progress (or lack of significant progress in recent years) front and center.

(Credit: NPR)

“For 2018, there’s modest change to report when it comes to the race and ethnicity breakdown of NPR’s newsroom staff. As of Oct. 31, the NPR news and information division of 396 people (19 more than a year ago) included 27 percent people of color, up from 25 percent last year. That small bit of growth was primarily the result of an uptick in the percent of newsroom employees who self-identify as Latino or Hispanic.

“Latinx employees now make up 8 percent of the newsroom staff. Keith Woods, NPR’s vice president of newsroom training and diversity, said that is more than double the percentage from five years ago. But, he noted, it’s also less than half the percentage of the U.S. Latinx population. NPR has a ways to go. . . . ”

Jensen also wrote, “Woods highlighted a couple of developments in the past year that are not reflected in the overall numbers. With an expansion in February, five of NPR’s 11 newsmagazine hosts are people of color, and seven are women.

“By his count, newsroom leaders are also more diverse (by race and ethnicity, and gender) than the overall newsroom. He identified 35 people who supervise a reporting desk (such as the national and international desks), oversee a newsmagazine, or are in what he called ‘gatekeeper’ roles from the very top (the incoming chief news executive Nancy Barnes) down through deputy managing editors, regional bureau chiefs and other content decision makers. Within those groups, 14 people, or 40 percent, are people of color, and 63 percent are women.

“That said, there are some glaring holes: there are no Native Americans, no Asian men and just one Latino man in that cohort of newsroom leaders who oversee from the top what the audience hears and reads. . . .”

Nicole Carroll, editor-in-chief of USA Today, tells the Journal-isms Roundtable on Tuesday that her hires since March have been 40 percent people of color. (Credit: Sharon Farmer/sfphotoworks)

USA Today: Those of Color Were 50% of Promotions

Under a new publisher and a new editor, both named this year, USA Today has increased its newsroom diversity figures to 23.4 percent journalists of color, up from 21.1 percent, and the tally for managers from 14.7 percent to 21.4 percent, Nicole Carroll, the paper’s editor, told Washington journalists on Tuesday.

Of “the hires I’ve made since March, and it’s a lot, since we’re really growing our network, about 40 percent are people of color, which I’m very proud of,” (video) Carroll told the Journal-isms Roundtable. “We’re getting the best and the brightest. And of the promotions, 50 percent have been journalists of color.”

Maribel Perez Wadsworth

However, asked about retention, Carroll acknowledged that of 22 people who left the newsroom, 26.9 percent were “diverse.”

Carroll was named in February after having been vice president of news and editor of the Arizona Republic and azcentral.com since 2015.

She appeared with USA Today publisher Maribel Perez Wadsworth, who was named in April. A Cuban-American, she is the first Latina in that role. Wadsworth is also president of the USA Today Network, which consists of the Gannett newspapers, numbering 109 in April.

Wadsworth added that five of eight of Gannett’s regional leaders are people of color. “This is something that remains at the core of our values, and we don’t just talk about it,” Wadsworth said of diversity. “The hires we’re making, the moves we’re making were all meant to continue to expand that very important commitment.”

As one example, Carroll pointed to the work of newly hired reporter Monica Rhor, based in Houston and formerly of the Houston Chronicle. “She is doing great work around gender and diversity. I’m particularly proud of the work we did around the Border Patrol shooting,” Carroll said. “There was a Border Patrol agent who shot four women, and the media coverage at the time was that a border patrol agent shot four prostitutes.

Monica Rhor

“And we were — all of us — we were so frustrated by that because these were women who had lives, and they were being just dismissed as four prostitutes and so Monica . . . and our whole team went and told their stories, talking about mothers and sisters and daughters and the lives they led beyond, you know, where they ended up, so I’m really proud of that type of work, and I think that is a true reflection of our diversity and the passion we have in bringing stories to people. . . .”

[The Border Patrol story was actually written by Rick Jervis, who is also Hispanic, but Rhor  points to stories such as “In 2018 midterms, campaign ads engaged in racist rhetoric” and “He was a KKK member, then a neo-Nazi: How one white supremacist renounced hate.”

[“Under Nicole, USA TODAY is making a real effort to increase staff diversity and coverage of issues of race and identity. It’s nice to hear good words from her about my work and to work at a place that values diversity,” Rhor said by email.]

Separately, Carroll was asked about the criticism the newspaper received last month when it published an op-ed from President Trump critical of Democratic proposals for “Medicare for All” that was filled with inaccuracies. While USA Today later added links to the piece that contradicted what Trump wrote, all pieces relating to the topic should have been published in the same place at the same time, Carroll said.

Having a female publisher and editor is not so unusual within Gannett, Wadsworth said. Carroll said that she is “all about results,” and that making the workplace more friendly to women’s concerns is part of that philosophy, not necessarily taking place because she is a woman.

In May 2017, the “Today” show on NBC featured Kristen Welker, Lester Holt and Craig Melvin in the Middle East. (Credit: NBC)

Holt Called Most Trusted TV News Personality

“According to a new Hollywood Reporter/Morning Consult survey of about 2,200 adults, NBC Nightly News host Lester Holt is the most trusted television news personality in America, trusted ‘a lot’ by 32 percent of respondents and ‘some’ by 30 percent,” Jeremy Barr reported Tuesday for the Hollywood Reporter.

“He’s trailed by two ABC News anchors: his evening news competitor David Muir (28 percent trust ‘a lot’) and Good Morning America co-host Robin Roberts (28 percent).

“Only one cable news host, CNN’s Anderson Cooper (29 percent), is considered exceedingly trustworthy by more than a quarter of Americans polled.

“On the contrary, the 10 least-trusted television news personalities all work for cable networks: Fox News host Sean Hannity leads the way (30 percent say they don’t trust him ‘at all’) followed by MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow (26 percent), CNN’s Don Lemon (25 percent) and MSNBC’s Mika Brzezinski (23 percent).

“Holt, Muir and CBS Evening News anchor Jeff Glor, who rarely editorialize or express political sentiments, are also seen as the three least-ideological news personalities.

” ‘Trust is at the heart of what we do,’ Holt tells THR. ‘The recent sustained attacks on the truth remind us how precious that is. To me, there is no higher honor than to have earned that trust.’ . . .”

Khahaifa Out as Editor, Publisher in Orlando

Avido Khahaifa

Avido Khahaifa, an African American corporate manager who became editor-in-chief of the Orlando Sentinel in 2013 and added publisher to his title in 2016, was removed from both jobs Monday by the parent Tribune Co.

“The announcements come after Tribune Publishing, fresh from shedding its former name of Tronc, announced last week it would be offering voluntary buyouts to employees with 10 or more years of service as part of a company-wide restructuring,” the Sentinel reported.

In Orlando and elsewhere, the troubled Chicago-based company “is offering buyouts to cut its staff in part because of costs incurred from the mass shooting deaths of employees at the company’s Annapolis, Maryland, newspaper, The Virginian-Pilot reported,” Mary Papenfuss wrote Friday for HuffPost.

Kimberly Pierceall reported Friday for the Pilot, “During its third-quarter conference call, the company said it recorded a net loss of $4.2 million in the three months ending Sept. 30, all of it attributable to newsprint tariff costs that have since been rescinded and costs following the June 28 fatal shooting of five members of the company’s The Capital newsroom in Annapolis. . . .”

Meanwhile, journalists at Tribune properties the Capital Gazette, the Carroll County Times and the Baltimore Sun Media Group are uniting to form a union, to be called the Chesapeake News Guild.

Khahaifa tweeted on Monday, “Sept, 1984, first task as a Tribune employee — copy editing a piece. Nov., 2018, last task as a Tribune employee — copy editing a piece. Proud to say I gave everything I had, did everything I could, to make it a better company every day I worked.”

Khahaifa became editor in a cost-cutting move in which then-editor Mark Russell was ousted. Russell later became editor of the Commercial Appeal in Memphis.

Khahaifa messaged Journal-isms on Wednesday, “I haven’t decided yet what I will do next, nor am I in a rush to do so. For now, I’m just going to decompress.”

Told that he had been described in this space as “once a journalist but most recently a manager over the business and editorial sides” and that staffers had called him “a cost-cutter who believes that the newsroom is too large,” Khahaifa messaged that he objected to what he called a “long running narrative that portrays me as a soulless two-dimensional hatchet man who cares nothing about journalism or diversity. . . .

“There is no ‘right’ size for a newsroom. There is what you can afford given your organization’s business model and financial structure,” Khahaifa replied on Thursday.

“I accomplished plenty during my run, and specifically during the eight years that I had oversight of the Orlando newsroom as well as, for several years, the Sun-Sentinel newsroom, not the least of which was appointing the Sentinel’s first black editor when I promoted Mark Russell into the job, and appointing the first and only Latina sports editor (Iliana Limon Romero) at a major metro.

“There was a Pulitzer (at the Sun-Sentinel) on my watch as well as multiple finalists (both papers), multiple ASNE [American Society of News Editors] recognitions and an Emmy. Yes, the newsroom (both) shrank on my watch. I did my best to work through those cuts as thoughtfully, pragmatically and humanely as possible.

“I was as candid as possible with the organization about what I was doing, how I was approaching it and why it was being done. I never shied away from direct questions from employees about tough decisions I had to make, and routinely ran q&a sessions in which I encouraged them to ask whatever they wanted to know about how I was running things. I openly and consistently insisted that we not waste energy whining about what resources or number of people we did not have, but rather focus on figuring out innovative ways to do the most and best that we could with the resources we did have.”

Nancy Meyer, publisher and general manager of the South Florida Sun Sentinel in Fort Lauderdale, will take over as publisher, the Sentinel reported.

Editor-in-chief duties are to be taken over by Julie Anderson, who adds the position to her current role as editor-in-chief of the Sun Sentinel, a post she has held since March 2018.

“Anderson said the company plans to add a state news team that will include editors as well as politics, environmental and public health reporters at both the Sun Sentinel and the Orlando Sentinel. The Orlando Sentinel will also be hiring an opinions editor,” the Orlando Sentinel story said.

(more to come)

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