April 1, 2005
Most Papers Passed at Least One Litmus Test
If the play that newspapers gave the death of lawyer Johnnie Cochran Wednesday can be used to judge their sensitivity to black America's news judgment, then most passed at least one litmus test—it was somewhere on the front page, even if just a few lines.
In some cases—such as in the New York Daily News, Omaha World-Herald, Cincinnati Enquirer and Rochester (N.Y.) Democrat and Chronicle —- the play was perhaps unexpectedly prominent.
In others, such as the New York Times, which made do with a small reference to an inside story, it was disappointing. On still other front pages, such as those of the Winston-Salem Journal in North Carolina and the Detroit News, Cochran was nowhere to be found.
"I just thought he was an important figure in the community," Hollis Towns, managing editor of the Cincinnati Enquirer, told Journal-isms today, "especially here, where we've had some racial problems. When Johnny Carson died earlier this year, it was stripped across our paper. I thought Johnnie Cochran's celebrity was no less than Johnny Carson's," said Towns, who said he had made diversity a priority since he arrived last May from the Kalamazoo (Mich.) Gazette.
Larry King, executive editor of Nebraska's Omaha World- Herald, where Cochran's photo ran next to the paper's front-page nameplate, said that in the news meeting, "it was a quick consensus that this was the most significant story that we should refer to. Throughout our history, certain people in the law profession rise in stature, sometimes judges, sometimes others. Obviously he was one. . . He was mainly known to the broadest number of people as O.J.'s lawyer, but his impact was wider than that."
A look through some of the 403 front pages that the Newseum posted on its Web site Wednesday—and kept there for a few more days for Journal-isms readers thanks to Harland Harris, multimedia department manager—indicates that Cochran fared better than actor and activist Ossie Davis did when he died Feb. 4.
Then, the Des Moines Register, the Oakland Tribune, Washington Times, Portland Oregonian and Winston-Salem Journal failed to put Davis anywhere out front.
This time, the Des Moines paper featured Cochran prominently in its left-hand column; the Oakland Tribune had a front-page photo with a reference to a story inside; and the Oregonian stripped the story across the bottom of the front page, though the Winston-Salem Journal again failed to note the death on its cover.
Wayne Metz, weekend news editor at North Carolina's Raleigh News & Observer, commented for Journal-isms on the play of the Davis death, and does so now on coverage of Cochran.
"Johnnie Cochran achieved a certain notoriety from the O.J. Simpson case and from defending celebrities," Metz said. "Some newsrooms debated whether he was 'worth' page 1. But as we saw, most papers agreed he was. America embraced him as an 'American' cultural icon—think 'Saturday Night Live,' 'Seinfeld.' In the black community, he had a reputation as a legal gunslinger—when any of our nationally know figures got in any kind of trouble, our comedians joked about calling Johnnie Cochran.
"Ossie Davis was an artist, and a black icon—he was under the radar of mainstream America.
"We shared Johnnie but Ossie was ours.
"With Cochran, look at all the headlines and images about the glove. The media can simplify . . . But Davis was so deep, his iconic stance was uncomfortable to America. He called Malcolm, 'Our black, shining prince.' The headline writer a few weeks back chose the imagery of the Spike Lee movie instead. That image of Davis was more in line with Cochran's, 'If it doesn't fit, you must acquit.'
"Mainstream America hated that line. Then their humorists transformed it via 'Seinfeld' into something they could laugh about and feel good about—even if they still hate O.J.
"Through those media images, Cochran was a lot more familiar to mainstream America even if Davis was a more important cultural figure."
Headline writers also had a chance to show whether they could move beyond cliché.
The Fort Worth Star-Telegram wrote, "Attorney Who Defended O.J. Simpson was proudest of his civil rights work." Philadelphia Inquirer: Johnnie L. Cochran Jr., courtroom virtuoso, dies." Wilmington (Del.) News Journal: "Johnnie Cochran dies; he cleared O.J." Washington Post: "Showy, Tenacious Lawyer Rode Simpson Murder Trial to Fame." Palm Beach (Fla.) Post: "Bold attorney became icon after O.J. trial." Tampa Tribune: "Flamboyant And Dedicated, Lawyer Etched in Memory." Quad-City (Iowa) Times: "Attorney famous for glove line dies."
Baltimore Sun: "Simpson trial made attorney 'larger than life.'" Chicago Tribune: "Defended stars and oppressed." San Antonio Express-News: "Fame from O.J. case fit attorney like a glove." Herald-Sun, Durham, N.C.: "Johnnie L. Cochran Jr., legal superstar, dies at 67." Providence Journal: "A colorful career, a famous glove." Press-Enterprise, Riverside, Calif.: "From O.J. to 'No Js'."
Cochran's death also produced localized news stories, columns and editorials:
- Lawrence Aaron, The Record, Hackensack, N.J.: Kids in this Jersey town will miss Johnnie Cochran
- Sam Adams, Denver Rocky Mountain News: Cochran was a true inspiration for many
- Kevin Blackistone, Dallas Morning News: He got Bengal to change stripes
- Herb Boyd, The Black World Today: Eminent Attorney Johnnie L. Cochran, Jr., Dead at 67
- Stanley Crouch, New York Daily News: Four revolutionaries
- Democracy, Now!, Pacifica radio: Famed Attorney Johnnie Cochran, 67, Dies (on Geronimo Pratt case)
- Editorial, Detroit Free Press: Johnnie Cochran—He was skilled in court, caring in the community
- Editorial, Allentown (Pa.) Morning Call: Modern times and celebrity obsession made Johnnie L. Cochran Jr. famous
- Editorial, New York Post: JOHNNIE COCHRAN, 1937-2005
- Editorial, Tri-City Herald, Kennewick, Wash.: Cochran a lawyer for rich, poor alike
- Earl Ofari Hutchinson, syndicated columnist: Cochran Didn't Play the Race Card
- London Telegraph: Johnnie Cochran
- Francis McCabe, Shreveport (La.) Times: Memories of Johnnie Cochran significant, lasting
- Kevin Merida, Washington Post: Johnnie Cochran, the Attorney On the People's Defense Team
- Eugene Robinson, Washington Post: The Defense Rests
- William A. Weathers, Cincinnati Enquirer: Area legal community lauds Cochran's talent
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Suede's Suzanne Boyd, Ying Chu Leave Time Inc.
"Suzanne Boyd, the editor in chief of Essence Communications Partners' shuttered multicultural fashion magazine Suede, quietly left the company this week after turning down an editor-at-large position at corporate parent Time Inc." Jon Fine reported Wednesday in AdAge.
Meanwhile, Vogue magazine Thursday confirmed Canadian news reports that Ying Chu, Suede's beauty director, "has snagged one of the beauty industry's top jobs — beauty editor at Vogue," as the Toronto Star reported. Chu will be second in command of a four-person beauty team. Like Boyd, the Shanghai-born Chu, 27, came from Canada's Flare magazine.
Michelle Ebanks, president of Essence Communications, said of Boyd in the AdAge story, "We're clearly disappointed. She's such an amazingly talented journalist."
"Essence continues to mull ways to make Suede work, insiders said. But it's clear that a relaunched Suede, should it ever occur, would be a significantly different magazine than Ms. Boyd's," Fine wrote in AdAge.
"Chu had been pursued by Vogue even before Suede's demise," the Toronto Star story said. "She passed muster with iconic editor Anna Wintour and will begin work at Conde Nast headquarters as soon as her visa transfer is complete."
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Cartoonist Criticizes Paper's Apology for Her Work
The publisher of Minnesota's Duluth News Tribune apologized to readers Thursday after some Native Americans said they were offended by a syndicated editorial cartoon by Signe Wilkinson of the Philadelphia Daily News on the Red Lake reservation shootings.
Wilkinson told Journal-isms today that she understood that "people who generally are out of power and not the dominant power generally see cartoons as an attack medium," which historically they have been, but that she was on the side of the Native Americans and that no one from the paper had called her about the cartoon before they declared it "racially derogatory."
In the cartoon, "a man with a headband and ponytail holds an 'Indian Tracking Guide' as he walks along a path littered with guns, skulls, swastikas and a picture of Hitler. The man says: 'I'm not recognizing these signs,'" as the Associated Press described it.
The apology by the publisher, Marti Buscaglia, was brief:
"Some of our readers have indicated they were offended by the racially derogatory nature of Wednesday's political cartoon commenting on the Red Lake incident. Frankly, I agree with those viewpoints and want to extend my apologies to those who were offended during a sensitive time in our region," it said.
"About 75 people protested outside the newspaper at noon today. Two of the paper's editors—Editorial Page Editor Robin Washington and Executive Editor Rob Karwath—met [see photo] with some of the protesters to talk and answer questions. They repeated Buscaglia's printed apology, Washington said," according to the AP story.
Asked why the cartoon was considered derogatory, Washington told Journal-isms:
"Primarily it's the Indian Tracking Guide. I don't like making 'if it had been a (insert other ethnicity here)' analogies, but you certainly wouldn't have a black man reading a basketball rule book in response to a drive-by at a neighborhood court."
No other paper had complained about the cartoon, Wilkinson said, but few others circulate in the area near the Red Lake reservation.
Wilkinson said the image represented a guide who was helping "find the clues to lead back to what happened. All I was saying is that Native Americans are now looking for signs to understanding their own youth, that are not the signs we associate with their own youth culture, which are beautiful and life-affirming."
"If I had been asked by the newspaper, that's what I would have said. I think it's an abrogation of the newspaper['s responsibility] to accept every complaint that comes in without at least trying to explain why it was there in the first place. Clearly, the person who put it in the paper did not think it was derogatory."
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"Red Lake Nation Should Consider . . . a Free Press"
Red Lake tribal leaders have come under renewed criticism for their attitudes toward the news media.
Dorreen Yellow Bird, columnist for the Grand Forks (N.D.) Herald, noted that she covers "the Red Lake and White Earth tribes in Minnesota, the Turtle Mountain and Spirit Lake tribes in North Dakota and the Sisseton Wahpeton people in South Dakota, all because the tribes are within our coverage area."
On Wednesday, she explained the good that media coverage can do the tribe, and on Thursday, her colleague Tom Dennis tackled the free-press issue, writing:
"The Red Lake Nation should consider learning from other governments' example, and nurturing the institution of a free press as a way to attack and then solve problems.
"Non-Indians may be surprised that such a suggestion even is necessary. After all, doesn't the First Amendment apply on reservation land, too?
"Basically, the answer is no. As 'The Oxford Companion to the Supreme Court' sums it up, 'The Supreme Court held in Talton v. Mayes (1896) that Indian tribal governments were not subject to restraints placed on federal and state governments by the Constitution and the Bill of Rights.'
"The Indian Civil Rights Act of 1968 did apply much of the Bill of Rights, including the freedoms of speech and of the press, to Indian tribes. But the act is enforceable primarily by tribal, not federal, courts."
Minnesota's Duluth Tribune editorialized Sunday:
"Shutting all media out and putting a hand over the mouths of those who want so desperately to share their grief is . . . wrong. Now more than ever, the world needs to know the stories of Red Lake beyond the terrible events just past. Its leaders need to open the door to that understanding so that a deeper comprehension can be shared by us all."
Meanwhile, reznetnews.org , which showcases the work of Native student journalists, is posting a blog on the Red Lake situation.
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Immigration Report Coverage Called Inflammatory
On March 21, the Pew Hispanic Center reported that, "As of March 2005, the undocumented population has reached nearly 11 million including more than 6 million Mexicans, assuming the same rate of growth as in recent years," that "about 80 to 85 percent of the migration from Mexico in recent years has been undocumented," and that, "Since the mid-1990s, the most rapid growth in the number of undocumented migrants has been in states that previously had relatively small foreign-born populations. As a result, Arizona and North Carolina are now among the states with the largest numbers of undocumented migrants."
In a Hispanic Link report distributed Wednesday by the Scripps Howard News Service, Paul Hortenstine and Charlie Ericksen wrote of the Pew report, "The numbers aren't new to the press. Other sources have claimed figures in that range for quite some time."
"Online, Hispanic Link News Service reviewed major news outlets' coverage of the report. Pew's statistics, it found, were too often transformed into an unwarranted dangerous invasion of this country by potentially sinister foreigners."
Raul Yzaguirre, who stepped down in December as president and CEO of the National Council of La Raza after 30 years, "made the point that migrants who enter the United States to find jobs are recruited, directly and indirectly, by U.S. businesses, adding that neither Mexico nor the United States are doing enough to bridge the economic disparities between the neighboring countries," Hortenstine and Ericksen wrote.
"Joseph Torres, deputy director of the Washington, D.C.-based National Association of Hispanic Journalists, singled out CNN's Lou Dobbs for . . . inflammatory coverage of undocumented immigration and his 'daily drumbeat portraying Hispanics as criminals whose illegal presence threatens the security, livelihood and well being of this country.'"
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Hunter-Gault Back on NPR; Backs Mural Decision
Veteran journalist Charlayne Hunter-Gault showed up on National Public Radio this week reporting on the elections in Zimbabwe, introduced as "NPR's Charlayne Hunter-Gault."
"She has a contract with us in which she will work on assorted assignments throughout the year," NPR spokesman Chad Campbell told Journal-isms. "She is referred to as 'NPR's Charlayne Hunter-Gault' since she is under contract to NPR NEWS."
Hunter-Gault spent two years at NPR before joining CNN as Johannesburg bureau chief in 1999. When she told Journal-isms in January that she would be leaving CNN in March, she said she planned "to concentrate on getting more Africa news into the U.S. market, where there is a crying need," and that she would freelance.
Hunter-Gault made civil rights history when she and Hamilton Holmes Jr. integrated the University of Georgia in 1961.
And this week, the University of Georgia apparently settled a controversy over the portrayal of that experience in a mural at the school.
As reported in February, the mural included an unattributed epithet under a photograph of Hunter-Gault pushing her way through a white crowd at the university in 1961.
"University officials will change the Myers Hall display that contains the controversial quote—'Make way for the nigger'—after covering up the phrase for more than a month," Grayson Irvin reported Tuesday in the Red and Black, the student newspaper.
"The current quote will be removed from the display and replaced with a quote in smaller type, said Rick Gibson, director of Residence Hall Education and Services.
"Some students objected to the use of a racial epithet, while others said they were reluctant to lessen the impact of the display.
"Dean of Student Affairs Rodney Bennett said the changes also include adding an opinion piece Hunter-Gault wrote to The Red & Black in February in support of keeping the epithet.
Irvin reported Wednesday that Hunter-Gault e-mailed the student paper expressing her support for the solution.
The new quote, Irvin reported, comes from Hunter-Gault's book "In My Place," and reads: "As students call out 'Nigger go home' and a variety of other unoriginal taunts, I find myself more bemused than angry or upset."
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Thirst Great for Quality Black Cable Network
"As with any underserved market, expectations for TV One are high," Suzanne C. Ryan wrote Thursday in the Boston Globe, discussing the African American cable network launched in Boston and Brookline in December, and in the rest of Massachusetts and in New Hampshire last week.
"Already, some experts have rolled out a wish list that includes documentaries, news coverage and analysis, political commentary, explorations of Africa and its heritage, and the return of beloved series with black casts that failed on broadcast TV, such as Tim Reid's 1987 drama 'Frank's Place.'
"'There's tons that could be done. The question is, how rich is the programming going to be?' said J. Fred MacDonald, author of 'Blacks and White TV: African Americans in Television Since 1948.' A Chicago-area resident, MacDonald has been watching TV One for more than a year. 'They're off to a promising start. But Comcast has the money to do more. We won't get the programming we want by appealing to morality. African-Americans have to start subscribing and demanding the programming.'
"Donald Bogle, author of 'Bright Boulevards, Bold Dreams: The Story of Black Hollywood,' believes TV One could be a black version of HBO, where cutting-edge original dramas and films are found.
"'I understand that no individual actor, or TV series, or cable network can answer all the needs of an entire race,' he said. 'But TV One could do the things that no other network dares to do, like create black dramas. There are so many African-American filmmakers out there looking for work. This could open the door.'
"For their part, TV One executives appreciate the support but not the pressure. Realistically, original scripted programming—a genre that is struggling even on the big networks—will take years to develop, they say."
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New "Kojak" Most-Watched New Series on Cable
"Kojak, the bald lollipop-loving detective from the '70s, made a strong comeback last weekend in the form of Ving Rhames," Megan Larson wrote Wednesday in Mediaweek.
"USA’s remake of the series, originally starring Telly Savalas, delivered 4.5 million viewers . . . on March 25, which makes it the most-watched new series premiere in cable so far this year."
However, Andrew Wallenstein reported Monday in the Hollywood Reporter that the character's "ethnic conversion has NBC Universal execs nervous about 'Kojak's' overseas prospects, according to sources. For all the success U.S. film and television producers have had blanketing the world with exported productions, the discomfiting perception remains that programing fronted by black lead actors is a tough sell in less progressive regions of the planet, with a few exceptions."
Commentary: Rhames’ ‘Kojak’ Not Only Has Flavor, But Offers Deeper Depictions of Black Men (David Person, BlackAmericaWeb.com)
Racial reversal of famous roles (David Zurawik and Mary Carole McCauley, Baltimore Sun)
A Big First Quarter for Films With African-American Casts (Catherine Billey, New York Times)
When It Comes to Casting, Love Conquers Color (Caryn James, New York Times)
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"Skills Gap" Said to Leave Blogs to Whites
In an article on National Review Online headlined, "Diversity Mongers Target the Web: Can quotas rule the ultimate meritocracy?" Heather Mac Donald of the conservative Manhattan Institute think-tank rejects the thesis that racism or sexism has anything to do with why most bloggers are white men:
"Here's a different explanation for why the blogosphere is dominated by white males: because they're the ones producing the best product," she wrote.
"As for minorities, the skills gap in reading and writing means that, at the moment, a lower percentage of blacks and Hispanics possess the verbal acumen to produce a cutting-edge blog.
"For decades, blacks and Hispanics have scored 200 points below whites on the SATs' verbal section. Black high-school seniors on average read less competently than white 8th graders; Hispanic 12th graders read only slightly better than white 8th graders. And those are just the ones who are graduating. In the Los Angeles school system, which is typical of other large urban districts, 53 percent of black students and 61 percent of Hispanic students drop out before graduating from high school; most of the dropouts exit in the 9th grade. Assuming, generously, that those dropouts have 5th-grade skills, they are unlikely candidates for power blogging."
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An "Africa Channel" for U.S. to Debut
"With the start of the Africa Channel later this year on cable television in the United States, a group of entrepreneurs seasoned in the intricacies of African culture and history hope to demystify the continent for American audiences, Nick Madigan wrote Monday in the New York Times.
"'We're personally invested in really transforming the way people think about Africa,' said Jacob Arback, a former vice president at DirecTV International and a co-founder of the new venture, which has been almost three years in the making. 'This is a passion product.'
"Mr. Arback and his colleagues say they have secured the rights to 1,200 hours of movies, music and reality and variety shows that have already been broadcast in various African nations, primarily South Africa. Some features, including a daily current-events program, 'Africa Today,' will be produced specially for the 24-hour channel."
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African Journalists to Convene at Northwestern
"African media professionals from all over the United States will converge at Northwestern University on Saturday for the annual conference of the National Association of African Journalists," the organization announces.
Speakers at the event, which begins at noon, are to include Mary Mitchell, Chicago Sun-Times columnist. Ceaser Williams, media consultant and former assistant managing editor at the Kansas City Star; and Loren Ghiglione, dean of the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern.
"About 90 percent of African journalists who started their careers in Africa have not been able to practice in the United States, according to a survey before the organization was inaugurated at Howard University Aug. 7, 2004," the group said in a news release. "Among measures to address the situation, the association provides free workshops to its members to help them develop new skills at practicing journalism in the United States."
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Chips Quinn Grads from 5 States Meet Saturday
Graduates of the Chips Quinn Scholars Program from Tennessee, Alabama, Mississippi, Kentucky and Arkansas plan to gather in Atlanta on Saturday for a reunion over dinner at the famed Paschal's Restaurant.
As its Web site notes, "The Chips Quinn Scholars program offers journalism students of color hands-on training in journalism and mentoring by caring news veterans. The aim: Provide special support and encouragement that will open doors to news careers and bring greater diversity to the nation's daily newspaper newsrooms."
"The program, sponsored by the Freedom Forum, provides internships, training and $1,000 scholarships to college students of color who are pursuing careers in print journalism. Internships are offered in Spring and Summer."
The program has produced 899 scholars since 1991.
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