May 1, 2007
Former Newsweek Editor to Oversee Newsgathering
Mark Whitaker, former editor of Newsweek and a veteran journalist of nearly three decades, will join NBC News as senior vice president, NBC announced on Tuesday.
 |
| Mark Whitaker |
"Whitaker will serve as the second-in-command within NBC News and have oversight of NBC News' daily editorial and newsgathering efforts worldwide. He will provide continuity between newsgathering operations and individual broadcasts and new media," the announcement said. "He will also be responsible for NBC News division-wide editorial specials and will help develop online content for MSNBC.com."
The announcement was made by NBC News President Steve Capus, who said in the release, "This is yet another terrific announcement for NBC News and our front office team. Mark's talents as a journalist are unparalleled virtually anywhere in the business. He brings not only a keen sensibility for the news, but also a real expertise in digital and online ventures. He's exactly the type of person I've been looking for to bolster our executive ranks." Whitaker, 49, will report to Capus.
At Newsweek, Whitaker became the first African American to edit a major newsmagazine. The Washington Post Co., which owns the magazine, announced in September that after eight years as editor, Whitaker would move to a new role as vice president and editor-in-chief of new ventures of Washingtonpost.Newsweek Interactive, the Post company's digital division.
He "will take charge of developing a range of new Washington Post Company Web sites. Whitaker will also hold the title of Corporate Editor of Newsweek, where he will continue a number of initiatives he has started with Newsweek.com," the Post Co. announcement said.
The Whitaker appointment marks the second for an African American at the networks' vice presidential level in less than a week. Lyne Pitts was named one of five NBC News vice presidents last Thursday, with oversight of the news division's strategic partnerships and managing production.
MESSAGE BOARDS: Feel free to post a comment on this subject and view those from others.
It's Official: Black Family Channel Moving to Web
"Making it official, Black Family Channel closed its deal to cease operations as a linear cable channel, shifting its distribution slots to Gospel Music Channel," Linda Moss reported on Tuesday for Multichannel News.
 |
"As a result of the agreement between the two networks and a number of cable operators, Gospel replaced BFC in a majority of its markets, including New York, Philadelphia, Boston, Los Angeles, St. Louis and San Francisco.
"Gospel is gaining carriage on nearly 275 systems from Bright House Networks, Charter Communications, Comcast, Cox Communications and Time Warner Cable.
"BFC is expected to move its programming onto the Internet.
"We are thrilled with the endorsement from BFC and the cable industry," Gospel founder and president Charles Humbard said in a prepared statement. "With Gospel Music Channel in so many new markets, millions of new subscribers can now enjoy our inspirational, family-friendly music entertainment."
Black Family Channel had its own spin, announcing:
"Black Family Channel's slate of original, must-see, award-winning programs will soon be available free as a brand new, feature-rich broadband TV service.
"'The cable network known for its family-friendly fare targeting African-Americans and urban communities will now be available to Black families world-wide without gatekeepers and barriers,' said Rick Newberger, President and CEO of Black Family Channel. Anyone who has access to a broadband connection at home, at school, or at work will be able to get Black Family Channel. The broadband service is launching soon under the leadership of Hollywood actor and director Robert Townsend and Mr. Newberger.
"In tandem with the launch of the broadband service, Black Family Channel announced a cable partnership with Gospel Music Channel, the nation's first and only 24-hour music television entertainment network dedicated to all styles of Gospel and Christian music. 'Gospel Music Channel embodies the same traditional values that Black Family Channel set forth,' stated Chairman Willie Gary. 'Our mission is the same. Together we will empower and uplift families from all the negative imagery on television. My partners and I believe that expanding into Broadband and joining our cable subscribers together with Gospel Music Channel is a more strategic approach in reaching and serving our audience,' continued Gary."
Gary said in the Palm Beach (Fla.) Post last week that millions of dollars are changing hands as part of the arrangement, Eve Samples reported, but she said Gary would not reveal the specific terms. Some of the Black Family Channel's employees may move to the Gospel Music Channel, Samples wrote.
An operator at the channel said Ray Metoyer, executive producer, news, was no longer employed by the channel. Veteran broadcast journalist Greg Morrison, who had produced a newscast for 20 months, left last fall, and recently joined the national assignment desk full-time at CNN.
In addition to financial problems, the channel was facing a dispute among the founders. Kathy Chaney reported in the Chicago Defender in October that James & Jackson LLC, founders of MBC Gospel Network, later changed to the Black Family Channel, filed a multi-million dollar lawsuit against their partners in the venture, who include Gary, boxer Evander Holyfield and former baseball star Cecil Fielder.
James & Jackson LLC, whose partners include Marlon Jackson, a member of the Jackson 5, claimed the other Black Family Channel partners tried to squeeze it out of its share of interest.
MESSAGE BOARDS: Feel free to post a comment on this subject and view those from others.
TV One CEO Says Family Channel Was Disrespected
Johnathan Rodgers, CEO of TV One, the cable channel that says it targets African American adults, said the demise of Black Family Channel as a cable entity "leaves a void in the . . . concept of programming specifically for black families," but it was not surprising because operators took advantage of the network by not paying it what it was owed.
 |
| Johnathan Rodgers |
For African Americans, "the nature of the cable business is such that the cable and satellite operators don't give you the distribution, or if they do, they don't want to pay you," Rodgers told Journal-isms.
"A lot of African Americans are so eager to create a situation where we control our own images that we create bad deals," he said. "Despite Willie Gary's great intentions . . . there's only so much you can bear," Rodgers said.
"Now, there is only one viable" cable station "owned and controlled by African Americans — TV One," Rodgers said. TV One, launched on Martin Luther King Day, 2003, is a partnership between Comcast and Radio One, which is publicly traded. Rodgers said advertisers and cable operators consider it black-owned. Black Entertainment Television is owned by Viacom.
Rodgers, who came to TV One after working at CBS and the Discovery Channel, had praise for BET, which some in the media have portrayed as a rival. "It has really improved" under CEO Debra Lee and Reginald Hudlin, BET's president of entertainment, he said, adding they are "doing an outstanding job in bringing quality television to the screen."
While the loss of Black Family Channel's cable presence leaves a void in programming for black families, Rodgers said, but television programming for children is the one area "where multiculturalism lives. There are significant choices for African Americans who will see themselves" on such networks as Nickelodeon, Public Broadcasting Service and ABC Family. "That is not the case with African American adults, where they are marginalized," Rodgers said.
Jeanine Liburd, senior vice president for communications at BET, did not respond to a request for comment.
MESSAGE BOARDS: Feel free to post a comment on this subject and view those from others.
5 of Color Selected as Michigan, Stanford Fellows
Five U.S. journalists of color are among the 2007-08 classes announced on Tuesday by the journalism fellowship programs at Stanford University and the University of Michigan, programs designed to give mid-career journalists a subsidized break. Recruitment efforts yielded an increase in applicants of color, spokesmen said.
The John S. Knight Fellowships at Stanford went to Andrea Lewis, co-host/producer, "The Morning Show," KPFA Radio/Pacifica Radio Network, Berkeley, Calif., who is African American; Elizabeth Dalziel, staff photographer in Beijing for the Associated Press, who is Latina; and Helen Ubiñas, columnist for the Hartford Courant, who is also Latina, James G. Bettinger, program director, told Journal-isms.
Lewis plans to study "the role of alternative journalism in contemporary American culture and democracy," Dalziel, the intersection of art and news photography; and Ubiñas, "the disparate effects of poverty, race and family dynamics on individual outcomes."
At Michigan, Knight-Wallace Fellowships went to Jamaal Abdul-Alim, an education reporter at the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, who is African American, and Rochelle Riley, a columnist for the Detroit Free Press who is also African American.
Abdul-Alim plans to study the impact of incentives on student achievement and Riley, "how multimedia empires are built."
Birgit Rieck, program manager at Michigan, said 20 percent of the applicants this year were African American, which she attributed to recruitment of applicants at the journalist of color conventions by administrators of the various programs, who successfully lobbied for panel discussions on fellowships there and brought along fellowship program graduates of color.
"I have a bachelor's degree in Latin American history and a master's in African history. I'm very interested in this," Rieck said. "We worked our behinds off." Michigan picks a class of 13 U.S. fellows.
Three years ago, the Nieman fellowship program at Harvard University, which is due to announce its selections later in the month, announced a class with no African Americans. Curator Bob Giles said then, "the lack of strong U.S. African American candidates is a continuing disappointment to us."
By last year, the Niemans had five journalists of color, likely its most diverse class ever.
At Stanford, the 12 U.S. fellows and eight international winners pursue independent courses of study and participate in special seminars. "We had 23 applications from journalists of color, constituting 28 percent of the total applicants. In the past four years the range has been from 25 to 28 percent," Bettinger said of the U.S. applicants.
"Our applications from journalists of color have increased in the past few years after being quite a bit lower (as low as 11 percent). We've worked really hard to make sure that journalists of color know about the opportunities of a Knight Fellowship, because we think that's an important group for us to reach."
MESSAGE BOARDS: Feel free to post a comment on this subject and view those from others.
Newsday Loses, Gains a Black Reporter
April 30, 2007
Herbert Lowe Leaves; Keith Herbert Arrives
Herbert Lowe, a seven-year reporter at Newsday and president of the National Association of Black Journalists from 2003 to 2005, is joining the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation as communications director, bringing to nine the number of journalists of color to leave the Long Island newspaper since December.
 |
Jason Miccolo Johnson/NABJ
Herbert and Mira Lowe, shown at the 2005 convention of the National Association of Black Journalists in Atlanta, each headed to other jobs. |
Herbert has joined the Long Island desk as a reporter. "Most recently, Keith covered courts for the Philadelphia Inquirer. He has worked at the Morning Call in Allentown, Pa., The Reporter in Lansdale, Pa., and The Times Herald in Norristown, Pa. Keith holds a journalism degree from Temple University," editor John Mancini told the staff.
Mira Lowe, Herbert Lowe's wife and formerly Newsday's associate editor for recruitment, left Newsday in March to work in Chicago for Johnson Publishing Co., where she is assistant managing editor.
Herbert Lowe said the couple plans to buy a house in Chicago, though his new job is in Washington.
The hemorrhaging of journalists of color, and others at the paper has been attributed to cutbacks, diminished opportunities and uncertainty over the ownership of the Tribune Co. publication. The others of color to leave were John Gonzales, J. Jioni Palmer, Errol Cockfield, Wil Cruz, Walter Middlebrook, Ray Sánchez and Curtis Taylor. On April 2, the Tribune Co. board agreed to sell the company to Chicago real estate magnate Sam Zell. But the direction Zell will take his new properties remains uncertain.
 |
| Keith Herbert |
"I had to think long and hard about this," said Lowe, 44, who has been working on a team providing breaking news to the Newsday Web site. "My wife will be in Chicago. . . .I know it will be said that I'll be leaving journalism. That is really, really meaningful to me. I'm conflicted," he said. But "I see myself as following my passion. Anyone who knows me knows how much I've enjoyed working with a nonprofit organization," NABJ, "and this will allow me to do that which I feel I'll be really good at."
The Congressional Black Caucus Foundation is best known for its fall legislative weekend of policy discussions and partying. It also issues policy papers on education, public health and economic development and offers fellowships and internships, according to its director, Elsie Scott.
"We are excited and very pleased to get an experienced journalist and somebody active in the field, who knows a lot of people and can hit the ground running," she said of Lowe, saying he would help both in communications and in raising the foundation's "branding ability."
"The foundation does a lot of work, but not a lot of people know about it," Lowe said.
MESSAGE BOARDS: Feel free to post a comment on this subject and view those from others.
Trahant Sees Circulation Decline as the Wrong Story
"Paid circulation figures will again show decline. So what. That's an old narrative. The better story is the evolving nature of journalism and community discourse," Mark Trahant, editorial page editor of the Seattle Post-Intelligencer wrote on Sunday. |
| Mark Trahant |
His column anticipated this story: "U.S. newspaper circulation fell 2.1 percent in the six months through March as the Los Angeles Times and Washington Post lost readers, the Newspaper Association of America said," as Leon Lazaroff reported on Monday for Bloomberg.com.
"Circulation at 745 daily newspapers was 45 million, down from 45.9 million in the same period a year earlier, the association said today in a statement, citing data from the Audit Bureau of Circulations. Subscribers fell 2.6 percent during the same period a year earlier.
"Customers are canceling subscriptions in favor of getting news and information from the Internet, dragging down revenue from circulation and advertising. Subscriber losses, historically around 1 percent every six months, accelerated to more [than] 2 percent in the past two years."
Trahant, who is also board chairman of the Maynard Institute, wrote that "This is a time for optimism. . . . I think about how much my job has changed in the past year.
"These days our role is more of a conversation starter than a court. We gather with friends, in person or online, and engage in discourse. We never have the final say; we leave that to readers posting comments at seattlepi.com's SoundOff. Our editorial from last Sunday about the Iraq war is now a full debate among folks who care enough to post their words, a growing thread nearing 400 ideas."
"Another significant change from a year ago is the growth of Editorial Board podcasting. We're now scheduling as many sessions as we can accommodate because it's a way to give our readers more access to newsmakers. Just last week we heard from Gov. Chris Gregoire and House Speaker Frank Chopp about the just completed legislative session. The conversation lasted more than an hour, a rich opportunity to hear details of two leaders' views.
"I'm struck by how many people download the podcast — the polar opposite of a political sound-bite. It takes time and patience to listen to the whole conversation."
MESSAGE BOARDS: Feel free to post a comment on this subject and view those from others.
Extraordinary Year for Florida A&M Newspaper Staff
"Florida A & M students who are graduating today will leave behind a school that has faced a year of financial scandals, shootings, labor strife, criminal trials and student mischief worthy of a TV melodrama," Noah Bierman wrote Sunday in the Miami Herald."Capturing it all: FAMU's newspaper staff, students who became an integral part of the story when they went on strike as the school's financial crisis left hundreds of employees without paychecks and drew the attention of state lawmakers.
"The most poignant story came from the heart of The Famuan newsroom: The news editor, an outspoken 19-year-old named Nefertiti Williams, was killed over Thanksgiving in a murder-suicide that devastated the staff.
". . . On campus, the year has been extraordinary — with constant student protests over budgets and jail beatings; statewide criminal trials that tested a new anti-hazing law; the search for a new campus president; state audits; a homecoming king removed for bad grades; a famous marching band caught pilfering from Detroit hotel rooms; and a sense among some that deepening financial troubles are threatening the historically black college's very existence."
MESSAGE BOARDS: Feel free to post a comment on this subject and view those from others.
Public Editor Praises Media in Atlanta Shooting Case
"From the start, the official version of the events surrounding Kathryn Johnston's death didn't ring true. A 92-year-old woman is killed in a shootout with police in the midst of an alleged drug bust? No way," Angela Tuck, public editor of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, wrote on Saturday."Narcotics officers claimed a man they arrested on drug charges promised to lead them to a house where they would find a kilo of cocaine. They contacted an informant and arranged for him to make a controlled buy at the house on 933 Neal St. They told a magistrate judge they purchased $50 worth of cocaine from a man named Sam at the Neal Street address. The magistrate issued a no-knock warrant for them to search the house.
"When they returned to bash in the front door of Johnston's home, the grandmother who lived alone behind burglar bars, fired on them. They fired back — 39 times — killing her.
"Immediately after the shooting, Johnston's family and neighbors cried foul. The woman lived in constant fear. There was no evidence of drug activity at her home.
"Television and newspaper reporters, including several who worked the story for The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, did what journalists are supposed to do. They asked questions, applying pressure to police and city leaders. They kept the circumstances of Johnston's death — and the investigation surrounding it — in the public eye.
"Since Johnston's death," Tuck noted, "the AJC has written more than 80 stories on the investigation into her death and the community's resulting outrage. The case underscores the divide between law enforcement authorities and the communities they serve."
MESSAGE BOARDS: Feel free to post a comment on this subject and view those from others.
Are Latinos White? A History Lesson
"Even though the U.S. Supreme Court answered the question in 1954, people still ask: 'Aren't Mexican Americans "white"?' And few realize that the answer forever changed Latinos' legal status everywhere," Carlos Guerra wrote Saturday in the San Antonio Express-News. "Yes, Hernandez vs. Texas (PDF) remains little known as its importance is underappreciated."'I didn't learn anything about this case in University of Chicago (Law School),' says Carlos Sandoval, an inactive attorney who began making a documentary about it in 2002, when he realized that it wasn't until the 1950s that Latinos were afforded equal rights protections."
Guerra recalled the story of Pete Hernandez, who killed another farm worker in Edna, Texas. He was quickly indicted, tried and convicted by a jury that included no Mexican Americans.
"As a Mexican American, Hernandez was denied his 14th Amendment right of equal protection, the lawyers argued. But that protection applies only to blacks and whites, the state responded, and being white, his conviction should stand.
"But no Latinos had sat on any Jackson County juries for at least 25 years, the young lawyers showed. That was a coincidence, the state's attorney replied.
"But in a 9-0 decision, the Supreme Court justices disagreed.
"'The evidence in this case was sufficient to prove that persons of Mexican descent constitute a separate class, distinct from whites,' wrote Chief Justice Earl Warren, before adding that when 'laws single out that class for different treatment, the guarantees of the Constitution have been violated.'
"This monumental ruling knocked out an important linchpin in the notion that 'separate' could still be 'equal' — in treatment, facilities and opportunities — and it became an underpinning that helped broaden protections for other groups in a wide variety of areas.
"But this Latino story, and the story of these Latino lawyers, has gone virtually untold, Sandoval says. And because of it — and others like it — Latinos are misunderstood and remain invisible to many Americans."
MESSAGE BOARDS: Feel free to post a comment on this subject and view those from others.
Nominate Educator Who Has Helped J-Diversity
The National Conference of Editorial Writers annually grants a Barry Bingham Sr. Fellowship — actually an award — "in recognition of an educator's outstanding efforts to encourage minority students in the field of journalism." The educator should be at the college level. Nominations, which are now being accepted for the 2007 award, should consist of a statement about why you believe your nominee is deserving.The final selection will be made by the NCEW Foundation board and will be announced in time for this year's NCEW convention in Kansas City, when the presentation will be made.
Since 2000, an honorarium of $1,000 has been awarded the recipient, to be used to "further work in progress or begin a new project."
Past winners include James Hawkins of Florida A&M University (1990); Larry Kaggwa of Howard U. (1992); Ben Holman of the U. of Maryland (1996); Linda Jones, Roosevelt U., Chicago (1998); Ramon Chavez, U. of Colorado, Boulder (1999); Erna Smith of San Francisco State (2000); Joseph Selden of Penn State (2001); Cheryl Smith; Paul Quinn College (2002); Rose Richard, Marquette University (2003), Leara D. Rhodes of the University of Georgia (2004), Denny McAuliffe of the University of Montana (2005) and Pearl Stewart of Black College Wire (2006).
Nominations may be e-mailed to Richard Prince, NCEW Diversity Committee chair, rprince(at)maynardije.org, The deadline is June 15.
MESSAGE BOARDS: Feel free to post a comment on this subject and view those from others.
Short Takes
- New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson, a Democratic candidate
in the 2008 presidential elections, met with photographers and reporters from
Vietnamese, Latino, Chinese, Korean, Iranian and other ethnic publications
in Los Angeles for a question-and-answer roundtable, Daffodil Altan,
reported
on Friday for El Tecolote in the San Francisco Bay area.
- Mexican journalist Lydia Cacho is exposing the players
in Cancun-based sex rings, and risking her life for it, R.M. Arrieta
reported
Sunday for New American Media. "Her awareness led her to a life of activism
and journalism. She started a high-security shelter for abused women in Cancun
where children opened up to her about the dark underworld of child porn rings
and prostitution. As a result, she says, 'I've been taken to jail for telling
other people's stories. No one imagines that Cancun has this dark side.'"
- Twelve staff members at Reznet, "online student newspaper for Native America,"
have been selected for internships this summer at newspapers — including
the New York Times and the Washington Post — and at a bureau of the
Associated Press, Sports Illustrated magazine and CBS News, the Web site reported.
"Ten are graduates of the American Indian Journalism Institute (AIJI), an
intensive program for college students sponsored by the Freedom Forum for
the past six years at the University of South Dakota in Vermillion."
-
Leoneda Inge of North Carolina public radio station WUNC and Jose Eduardo
Teixeira Costa of VOCÊ S/A, a
monthly business magazine based in Sao Paulo, Brazil, are among 10 Knight-Bagehot Fellows in economics and business
journalism named
by the Columbia University Graduate School
of Journalism for the 2007-2008 academic year.
- Neil Foote, who has worked for the Miami Herald, Dallas
Morning News, Washington Post and the American Society of Newspaper Editors,
is leaving Tom Joyner's REACH Media Inc. after seven years
"to work for the toughest boss I know: Me! As of May 2nd, I'll be devoting
my efforts full-time to my own content development, public relations and web
consulting firm: Foote Communications LLC," he told colleagues on Monday.
Foote, who is based in Dallas, is also vice
chair of the National Association of Minority Media Executives, known
as NAMME.
- Former Maryland Lt. Gov. Michael Steele, who was viewed
as one of the African American stars in the Republican Party when he ran unsuccessfully
for the U.S. Senate last year, has joined Fox News Channel as a political
contributor, Fox announced.
- Democratic candidates have declined to participate in two presidential debates
sponsored by Fox News Channel. The first, co-sponsored with the Nevada Democratic
Party, was canceled. The second, co-sponsored with the Congressional Black
Caucus, is scheduled for Sept. 23. Chris Wallace, host of
"Fox News Sunday," is "surprised that the media's not outraged by what he describes
as presidential candidates playing to the extreme left in their party," Tim
Cuprisin wrote
Thursday in the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel. "How would the mainstream media
react . . . if right-wing Republican groups were insisting that Republicans
couldn't . . . do a debate with the New York Times or MSNBC," Wallace was
quoted as saying. "They'd view it as selling out to the right-wing nuts."
- Bernard McGuirk, a 20-year producer and on-air jester for the "Imus in the
Morning" radio program who was fired a week after his boss for the banter in which
members of the Rutgers University women's basketball team were called "nappy-headed
ho's," said he "didn't get the memo" that the phrase 'ho's' had reached the
level of the n-word in offensiveness. In an interview
on Fox News Channel's "Hannity & Colmes," McGuirk sharply criticized the Rev.
Al Sharpton, who was among those who campaigned to get them
fired. "It seemed like he terrorized broadcast executives," McGuirk said.
"It seemed like they were in a fetal position under their desks sucking their
thumbs on their Blackberrys, trying to coordinate their response."
- "Little did I imagine when longtime '60 Minutes' newsman Ed Bradley
passed away last fall, that five months later I would be marching in the 'second
line' of his jazz funeral in New Orleans," Greg Mitchell
wrote
Monday in Editor & Publisher. "It happened on Friday at the annual Jazzfest.
Bradley, a frequent attendee of the fabled event in the Big Easy, was honored
with a typically raucous funeral procession on opening day. Apparently he
asked for this in his will."
- "In an effort to broaden its reach to the Tri-State's Spanish-speaking population,
WKRC-Channel 12 said it will begin daily newscasts in Spanish on its Web site,"
the Cincinnati Business Courier reported
on Friday. "Local 12 News En Español will make its debut May 26, the
station said in a news release. It will include video webcasts, as well as
written content, and will be available on the Local12.com Web site."
- Journalists monitoring the Nigerian elections "stumbled on some polling stations where some malpractices were being perpetrated," the Daily Champion in Lagos, Nigeria, reported on Sunday. "Attempts by the newsmen to question the sharp practices irked party loyalists who swooped on them. 'But for the quick intervention of the Police Commissioner and God, we would have been killed by the mob,' a journalist who preferred anonymity told the News Agency of Nigeria."
MESSAGE BOARDS: Feel free to post a comment on this subject and view those from others.
Send tips and comments to Richard Prince.
To be notified of new columns, contact journal-isms-subscribe@yahoogroups.com and tell us who you are
View previous columns.
Five Minutes With Richard Prince (Newspaper Association of America)
to top of page