Posted August 7, 2003
Gerald Boyd: "I Was Not the Black Managing Editor"
Gerald M. Boyd today used his first public comments since resigning as New York Times managing editor on June 5 to blast media portrayals of himself as a mentor and protector of disgraced ex-reporter Jayson Blair, portrayals that he said used unnamed newsroom sources to "attack my 30-year career."
He zeroed in on "at least one editor [who] evidently found it difficult to talk to me about Jayson because I am black, this despite the fact that I have never been viewed and evaluated as unapproachable.
"While I have been proud of my heritage as an African American, no one can peg me as some racial revolutionary," Boyd said in a half-hour address to the Dallas convention of the National Association of Black Journalists.
"What does it say about the state of the newsroom?" Boyd asked, if the editor could not raise the issue "simply because the reporter and I are black? I was not the black managing editor, I was the managing editor."
The New York Times group that investigated the Jayson Blair scandal and its aftermath, a panel known as the Siegal committee, reported last week that:
"The metro editor, Jonathan Landman, didn't think Blair ready for the full-time staff, but after registering his opinion, he didn't press the matter because he 'thought it would be futile.' He told our committee: 'It was clear that Gerald [Boyd] felt pressure to promote Jayson and that he thought it was the right thing to do. The racial dimension of this issue and Gerald's obvious strong feelings made it especially sensitive; in that sense it is fair to say that I backed off a bit more than I would have if race had not been a factor.
"'I think race was the decisive factor in his promotion. I thought then and think now that it was the wrong decision, despite my belief in diversity,'" the passage continued.
Boyd, who began his speech struggling to rein in his emotions, recalled that the last time he stood before the group was when he was named its Journalist of the Year in 2001.
When a questioner asked what words of encouragement he could offer young black journalists, Boyd said that he had sat down with a group of young Times reporters who told him that they were the object of stares, looks and second-guessing. "I told them you are not Jayson Blair and Jayson Blair is not your world. If people won't see you for what you are . . . it's their problem, not your problem, and if they won't, move on."
Yet he said he was so irate after reading a portrayal of himself as Blair's mentor in Newsweek that he called the publication to complain. "To suggest that I played favorites not only diminishes me as a journalist but as a manager, and diminishes all of those people that I have helped try to inspire, to teach, to mold."
It also upset him, he said, to be portrayed in some media reports as executive editor "Howell Raines' henchman or his patsy, that I didn't push back.
"He's been a friend of mine for more than 20 years . . . the relationship of an executive editor and managing editor is like a marriage, but we fight. I feel like taking off my shirt and showing you the scars," Boyd said, saying he fought "for the kind of journalism and newsroom" that he believed in.
Boyd also denied "forcing" Blair's promotion within the paper. "I treated Jayson no differently than I treated any other person on the staff," he said, "Jayson Blair was given a chance to work at the New York Times because he showed promise. . . . He did some good things, he had a good run and then took a dive. I never knew him well nor did I have direct contact with him."
Boyd acknowledged that the Blair scandal damaged news organizations' credibility, but said public doubts preceded Blair. He said he stood ready to work with the American Society of Newspaper Editors and other groups "to engage the public about what journalism is and what it is not. And no one is better able to initiate that discussion than the National Association of Black Journalists," he said.
As for his own career, Boyd, who is 52, said would never leave journalism, and he all but confessed that the Times remained in his blood. He noted that he met his wife, Robin D. Stone, at the newspaper, and told the audience that when he told their 6-year-old son, Zachary, that he would no longer be working at the Times, "I thought he would never stop crying. He parroted what I had told him, that the Times was not just a newspaper, but a public trust."
Times Publisher Arthur Sulzberger Jr., who is to speak at a panel discussion Friday, was in the audience, listening intently, nodding in agreement at times and reacting with animation at others.
"All of that was Gerald," Sulzberger told Journal-isms at the end of the event. "It was honest, it was from the heart, and that's why we miss him."
Rice Links Birmingham '63, Baghdad '03
National security adviser Condoleezza Rice today connected the civil rights movement and the administration's actions in Iraq, saying that both were about a universal desire for freedom.In a question-and-answer session in Dallas at the convention of the National Association of Black Journalists, Rice also said she had contributed to administration discussions on racial matters -- without saying what those were -- and also that "it is not on my radar screen to run for elected office."
Rice was drawn into a discussion of the University of Michigan affirmative action court cases last January after the Washington Post quoted unnamed White House aides saying she had played a crucial role in President Bush's deliberations and helped persuade him to publicly oppose Michigan's program. "Rice reportedly was angry about the article in part because she believed it had been written only because she is black," the Post wrote the next day.
At the NABJ convention, Rice said that as a black person, being asked her views on racial matters "comes with the territory. People all expect" it. "I make my views known."
In her speech defending the administration's foreign policy, Rice noted her upbringing in Birmingham, Ala.:
"Like many of you, I grew up around the home-grown terrorism of the 1960s. I remember the bombing of the church in Birmingham in 1963, because one of the little girls that died was a friend of mine. Forty years removed from the tragedy I can honestly say that Denise McNair and the others did not die in vain. They -- and all who suffered and struggled for civil rights -- helped reintroduce this nation to its founding ideals. And because of their sacrifice we are a better nation -- and a better example to a world where difference is still too often taken as a license to kill," she said.
"Knowing what we know about the difficulties of our own history, let us always be humble in singing freedom's praises. But let our voice not waver in speaking out on the side of people seeking freedom. And let us never indulge the condescending voices who allege that some people are not interested in freedom or aren't ready for freedom's responsibilities. That view was wrong in 1963 in Birmingham and it is wrong in 2003 in Baghdad.
"The desire for freedom transcends race, religion and culture -- as countries as diverse as Germany, Indonesia, Japan, the Philippines, South Africa, South Korea, Taiwan, and Turkey have proved.
"The people of the Middle East are not exempt from this desire. We have an opportunity -- and an obligation -- to help them turn desire into reality. That is the security challenge -- and moral mission."
Posted August 6, 2003
NABJ Prez Breaks Tradition, Disses Candidates
As the National Association of Black Journalists convention opened today in Dallas, president Condace Pressley broke with tradition and publicly disparaged two candidates in the three-way race to succeed her, Herbert Lowe and Cheryl Smith, and endorsed vice president for broadcast Mike Woolfolk for the job.
Outgoing NABJ presidents usually are low-keyed if they express a preference at all for a successor, and almost never jump into the campaign. Pressley defeated Lowe, a reporter at Newsday, for the presidency in 2001. The president remains on the NABJ board as immediate past president when the election is over.
Pressley said that Lowe "does not bring the skill set that's necessary to be president" and that "I have integrity issues when it comes to Cheryl," saying she had had to "chastise" Smith, an NABJ board member representing the region that includes Dallas.
On the NABJ e-mail list, Roland S. Martin, a columnist with Creators Syndicate who has been critical of NABJ leadership, called Pressley's remarks "an absolute disgrace. . . . completely out of bounds . . . suspect" and "dirty campaigning."
Off the list, Sidmel Estes-Sumpter of WAGA-TV in Atlanta, NABJ president from 1991 to 1993 and a Pressley critic, said, "This kind of vicious comment is unprecedented by ANY outgoing president. This is totally wild!"
An article by Josef Sawyer of Howard University on NABJConvention.org, a student-produced convention Web site, said:
"Pressley wholeheartedly endorses Woolfolk, whom she feels has all the tools to be the next president. Her qualms about his opponents, Herb Lowe, a reporter for Newsday, and Cheryl Smith, Region VII Director and Editor-in-Chief of the Dallas Weekly, run deep.
“'Certainly president of NABJ is not a birth right and I don’t know why he [Lowe] wants to be president other than he believes he should be president. He does not bring the skill set that’s necessary to be president,' Pressley said.
"She noted that Lowe filed several late board reports and expressed concern that Lowe is not progressive in his thinking.
"Lowe is glad the vote will not be left up to Pressley.
“'I am relieved to know the president has but one vote, and encouraged to know scores and scores of other voting members don’t share her opinion,' Lowe said in response to Pressley's comments.
"Pressley showed equal disdain for Smith’s candidacy. She characterized Smith's attempt to secure votes to bring this year’s convention to Dallas as under-handed. Pressley said Smith’s last minute private phone calls to absent board members snatched votes away from Atlanta, where Pressley is based. That city will host the convention in 2005.
“I have integrity issues when it comes to Cheryl,” Pressley said. “There were times when I would have to chastise her about a regional conference and how it was being managed and how registration fees were being handled.”
"Smith denies any under-handed deals were made and said she has always been fair with NABJ.
“'I did what smart people do when trying to get something passed, and since then a number of people have used that method,' Smith said. 'There’s nothing sneaky about making sure people vote, and that’s what I did.'"
Meanwhile, in a story in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, Pressley questioned why race was an issue with the Jayson Blair case if it wasn't when other reporters were caught in similar situations.
"The Jayson Blair sins could have been committed, and in the past have been committed, by journalists for whom race was not an issue. . . . But the first thing that you saw was that he was black," she said in that newspaper.
Black Employees Sue Firm Co-Owned by Reuters
"African-American workers at a Manhattan-based company co-owned by Reuters have alleged in complaints that their employer condones a 'racist, hostile' work environment, the employees' lawyers, including Johnnie Cochran, said," Newsday reports.
"The complainants, two current and one former worker, allege Radianz managers sent offensive e-mails, used racial slurs, underpaid an employee because she's black and fired another black worker after he spoke up about being treated differently from whites. Radianz, a network security provider for the financial industry that employs 900, is owned by Reuters, the information services company, which has a 51 percent stake, and Equant, a data-networking company.
"We deny any practice of discriminatory policies in the workplace," said Radianz spokesman Marty Filipowski. "We have zero tolerance for any inappropriate or harassing actions in the workplace."
"Radianz employees Eric Berry, 34, and Yolanda Washington, 44, have filed complaints with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, a formality in racial discrimination cases that precedes filing a lawsuit. Peter Snowden, who was fired from Radianz in January for violating attendance policies, had filed a complaint with the state Division of Human Rights, which forwarded it to the EEOC. Once the EEOC finishes investigating, the three plan to sue and to ask for class-action status, their attorneys said," reported Newsday.
"Berry, a product marketing director, alleges that a supervisor had sent him offensive and demeaning e-mails copied to several others and with subject lines that made the messages seem work-related. One contained a crude drawing depicting Berry's ID photo -- doctored to include dreadlocks, buck teeth and a noose around his neck -- pasted on top of a stick figure with large black genitalia and holding what's presumed to be a beer bottle."
AP: Liberia Founded "by" and "for" Ex-Slaves
Journal-isms reported Monday that news organizations could not decide whether Liberia was founded "by" freed American slaves or "for" them and quoted a Slate magazine piece that argued for the latter.
When Journal-isms took the issue to the Associated Press, AP stood by the use of "by" but also said that the nation was founded both "by and for freed slaves."
West Africa chief of bureau Ellen Knickmeyer wrote in a message to her AP supervisors:
"Liberia was founded in 1847 by and for freed American slaves, who in a declaration of independence called the United States the mother country but charged it with injustices that they said made it necessary to separate.
"Southern slave states and many prominent Americans, Abraham Lincoln later among them, believed America should rid itself of its freed slaves, saying in part that neither whites nor blacks wanted to live among each other. Slaves at times were forced to sign papers agreeing to go to Liberia or Haiti in exchange for their freedom. President James Monroe sent U.S. soldiers to accompany the first ships of freed slaves in 1822, by some accounts forcing a way for the African-Americans among local populations reluctant to receive them."
NPR Questions Its Reporters' Doing Punditry on Fox
Jeffrey A. Dvorkin, the ombudsman for National Public Radio, is questioning whether the appearances of news reporters Mara Liasson and Juan Williams on Fox News shows where they offer their opinions violate NPR guidelines.
"NPR's Nina Totenberg and Tom Gjelten regularly appear on PBS where the discussions are often weighty and the tones are measured. PBS hosts often urge their guest to voice their opinions, but few NPR listeners find that problematic.
"Some listeners find this more troublesome when it comes to FOX News and the regular presence of NPR's Juan Williams and Mara Liasson. That issue came to a head with reference to statements made by Liasson on FOX," he writes.
"NPR reporters, hosts and ombudsmen should not be in the business of making their own opinions known about matters of public controversy. When they do, the public quickly senses that NPR compromises its ability to report in a fair manner.
"In this pundit-crazed media culture, there are more than enough people who opine as soon as the klieg lights come on. NPR and its listeners deserve a better form of public discourse. . . .
"In my opinion, that journalistic tone on FOX can often resemble a food fight rather than a reasoned discussion. The programs can be very entertaining, but no one would confuse them with the Oxford Union debates," Dvorkin said.
Michael Powell Assures Staff He's Not Quitting
Chairman Michael Powell's efforts to ease Federal Communications Commission rules governing media ownership are prompting plenty of emotional debate -- and lots of criticism of Powell, reports the Associated Press, "so much that Powell met with top aides after returning from vacation Monday and assured them he won't quit."
It's lonely at the top, writes Heather Fleming Phillips in the San Jose Mercury News.
New Editor for La Vision de Georgia
Colombian journalist Patricia Ramos is the new editor of the only daily bilingual newspaper in Georgia, La Vision de Georgia, reports Pareja Media Match.
Ximena Ortiz Wins Fellowship to Study Iraq
Ximena Ortiz, editorial writer for The Washington Times, is the 2003 recipient of the Eugene C. Pulliam Fellowship for Editorial Writing presented annually by the Sigma Delta Chi Foundation, the educational arm of the Society of Professional Journalists, SPJ announces.
"As the Pulliam fellow, Ortiz will receive $40,000 from the SDX Foundation to conduct her research. During her fellowship, Ortiz proposes 'a thorough look at the worldwide effects' of the war in Iraq.
"She plans to investigate important decisions that were influenced by the war and examine how policymakers expect to weigh the Iraq campaign in making future decisions. She intends to interview top officials and others in Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Qatar, Venezuela, Argentina, India, Pakistan and other countries," SPJ said.
"Souls of Black Folk" 100th Anniversary Marked
National Public Radio's "All Things Considered" re-examined W.E.B. DuBois' "The Souls of Black Folk" Monday in a piece by Michele Norris and played recollections of people who have read the book, published 100 years ago this month.
"The collection had an immediate impact because it spoke not just of pain and anger, but also of the dashed hopes and unrealized potential of people whose lives were forever constricted by the color of their skin," Norris said.
"One of the other better-known passages from 'The Souls of Black Folk' is the portion where he describes what he calls 'the peculiar sensation of always looking at oneself through the eyes of others, of measuring one's soul by the tape of a world that looks on in amused contempt and pity.' This is something he called a double consciousness," Norris said to DuBois biographer David Levering Lewis.
Replied Lewis:
"I think that this double consciousness -- of being a Negro and American, 'two warring souls in one dark body,' as he so eloquently expresses it -- did not mean that from then till now there would be this kind of schizophrenia. I think what he was really saying was a tension existed in American society as people were assimilated into it based upon class and race and opportunity. And that in time, the best of being African-American and the best of being Euro-American would meld, would blend, would converge. It should be recalled that DuBois, in 1903, is speaking of a condition that many Euro-Americans were speaking of: how to be an Italian in America, how to be a Jew in America, how to be an Irish person in America. But I think it's in that context that this double consciousness might best be appreciated."
Richard Prince's Book Notes -- 10 to Start Summer
Send tips and comments to Richard Prince rprince@maynardije.org.
to top of page