Media Use Euphemisms in Ex-Senator's Obituaries
David S. Broder, the dean of Washington political reporters, said it in his Washington Post column when Sen. Jesse Helms, R-N.C., announced his retirement in 2001. And now that Helms has died at age 86, history seems to be repeating itself.
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| Jesse Helms |
"On the day his decision became known, the New York Times described him as 'a conservative stalwart for nearly 30 years,' the Boston Globe as 'an unyielding icon of conservatives and an archenemy of liberals.' The Washington Post identified Helms as 'one of the most powerful conservatives on Capitol Hill for three decades.'
"Those were accurate descriptions. But they skirted the point. There are plenty of powerful conservatives in government. A few, such as Don Rumsfeld and Henry Hyde, have been around as long as Helms and have their own significant roles in 20th century political history. What really sets Jesse Helms apart is that he is the last prominent unabashed white racist politician in this country — a title that one hopes will now be permanently retired."
The stories on Helms' July 4 demise, in both the freshly written obituaries and those that had been prepared in advance, likewise avoided the "R" word.
"Former U.S. Sen. Jesse A. Helms, the son of a Monroe police chief who rose to national prominence as one of the leading lions of the American right, died early this morning. He was 86," began the story by Rob Christensen in Helms' home-state Raleigh News & Observer.
The New York Times, in an obit bylined by Steven A. Holmes, who has since left the paper, began, "Jesse Helms, the former North Carolina Senator whose courtly manner and mossy drawl barely masked a hard-edged conservatism that opposed civil rights, gay rights, foreign aid and modern art, died early Friday. He was 86." The Web site headline was the tepid "Jesse Helms, Conservative Force in the Senate, Dies at 86."
The Associated Press, in a story by Whitney Woodward and David Epso, also resorted to euphemism: "Former Sen. Jesse Helms, who built a career along the fault lines of racial politics and battled liberals, Communists and the occasional fellow Republican during 30 conservative years in Congress, died on the Fourth of July."
The Washington Post's Web site obituary, written in advance by retired staff writer Bart Barnes, did quote Broder's column using the "R" word. But the lead of the story called Helms "one of America's leading crusaders against communism, liberalism, tax increases, abortion, homosexuality, affirmative action and court-ordered busing to desegregate schools."
The stories are reminiscent of the coverage of Helms' retirement. Then, the progressive media watch group Fairness & Accuracy in Reporting wrote:
"News that North Carolina's Jesse Helms will retire from the Senate when his term is up in 2003 received polite coverage in mainstream media. USA Today (8/22/01) described Helms' views as 'unabashed and outspoken conservatism.' To the Washington Post (8/22/01), Helms is one of the Senate's 'most ardent champions of conservative causes . . . a man of bold colors and few pastels.' Curiously using the past tense, the Los Angeles Times observed, 'he personified the unvarnished, uncompromising, attack-dog brand of conservatism.' (8/22/01)
"Most of the coverage alluded to Helms' unrepentant racism and homophobia — though few called it that. Some outlets presented his bigotry as merely accusations from political foes: 'His opponents have accused him of using race to win elections.' (CBS Evening News, 8/21/01) Overall, most outlets painted Helms as a conservative whose career has merely been punctuated by controversial episodes, not as a demagogue whose career has been defined by the politics of hate and reaction."
FAIR's analysis went on to cite Broder as the exception.
"Broder offered a few examples of Helms' bigotry. There are many," it said.
"As an aide to the 1950 Senate campaign of North Carolina Republican candidate Willis Smith, Helms reportedly helped create attack ads against Smith's opponent, including one which read: 'White people, wake up before it is too late. Do you want Negroes working beside you, your wife and your daughters, in your mills and factories? Frank Graham favors mingling of the races.' Another ad featured photographs Helms himself had doctored to illustrate the allegation that Graham's wife had danced with a black man. (The News and Observer, 8/26/01; The New Republic, 6/19/95; The Observer, 5/5/96; Hard Right: The Rise of Jesse Helms, by Ernest B. Furgurson, Norton, 1986)
"Ancient history? No. Helms remains unapologetic to this day. Forty years after the Smith campaign, Helms would win election against black opponent Harvey Gantt with another ad playing to racist white fear — the so-called 'white hands' ad, in which a white man's hands crumple a rejected job application while a voiceover intones, 'You needed that job . . . but they had to give it to a minority.'"
Writing on the Chicago Tribune blog "The Swamp," Frank James, a black journalist, came closest to matching Broder in directly addressing Helms' stance on race:
"He had, fairly or not, a reputation as one of the Senate's most retrograde members on race issues," James wrote.
"Helms was more complicated on racial issues than the caricature he became for many Americans. He actually had African Americans on his staff including James Meredith who integrated the University of Mississippi.
"But he was a master at racial politics. The Village Voice once reported that before Helms allowed a photo to be taken of him during an interview, he got up and removed a photo that included a black man from the wall behind him, explaining that some people in North Carolina might not understand."
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Monroe Anderson blog, Jesse Helms is dead — Let's bury American racism with him
(July 5)
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Richard Barrett, theNationalist.com: Jesse Helms: American champion —
Segregationist ahead-of-his-time
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Eric Bates, Mother Jones: What You Need to Know about Jesse Helms (1995)
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Isaac Chotiner , "The Plank" blog, New Republic: Jesse Helms anecdotes
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Kent Klein, Voice of America: Former US Senator Jesse Helms Dies At 86
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Mark Memmott blog, USA Today: The 'controversial and polarizing' Jesse Helms has died
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David Waters, "On Faith," washingtonpost.com: Judgment and Jesse Helms
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2 Laid Off at East Bay Papers Try to Figure It Out
For two of the 29 journalists laid off at newspapers in California's Bay Area News Group-East Bay, the news is beginning to sink in."My plans? After dusting myself off, I am in the process of trying to figure out how I best can utilize my skills, knowledge and passion for this industry to continue to bring news, information and the stories of San Francisco Bay Area residents to others," Michelle Fitzhugh-Craig, who was city editor at the Oakland Tribune, told Journal-isms on Friday.
"I'm kind of under a little bit of shell-shock," Dino-Ray Ramos, a fashion columnist and blogger for the newspaper group, told Journal-isms.
The group includes the Oakland Tribune, the Contra Costa Times, Fremont Argus, Hayward Daily News, Tri-Valley Herald, San Jaoquin Herald, San Mateo County Times and a dozen weeklies. The 29 journalists represent 13 percent of the news staff.
Fitzhugh-Craig is vice president/print of the Bay Area Black Journalists Association and also had chaired the National Association of Black Journalists Council of Presidents.
"Of course, I am looking for editorial opportunities at a diverse mix of media organizations," she said. "But understanding the importance of capturing the ever-growing audience who uses the Internet to learn what is happening in the world around them, I believe my primary focus is online journalism. One method of doing so will be to relaunch shades Magazine, Celebrating All Women of Color."
Ramos, a Filipino-American originally from Texas, said he had already begun freelancing and might even do so for the Bay Area News Group. At 29, he had risen rapidly at the paper, promoted from news clerk about six months after he arrived almost two years ago.
"I was kind of enterprising," he said. He started a blog. He wrote feature stories. He started teaching fashion journalism at the Academy of Art University in San Francisco.
"I think they got rid of the wrong people," Ramos said. "They said it was not based on seniority; they were trying to avoid
redundancy in positions. They got rid of good, hardworking people. When I heard my news, I thought, 'maybe this is all for
the best. I need to move forward.'" Ramos said he will remain on staff until July 11, and continue to pursue freelance
opportunities.
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In S.C., Delawese Fulton Takes Buyout at the State
Delawese Fulton, business reporter at the State in Columbia, S.C., told readers on Friday that she had taken a buyout and that they were reading her "last column as a retail reporter for The State.""For now, I will remain in Columbia until my daughter graduates from high school in 2010," Fulton told Journal-isms. "And after a month or so of a well-deserved rest, I am looking forward to freelancing (especially business-oriented publications) and putting my MBA to use. If a solid, well-paying journalism gig comes along, I would surely take that too. It just has to be in Columbia or within a hour's drive (like Charlotte)."
Fulton joined the paper in 2005 after working as a business reporter at the Macon (Ga.) Telegraph, as an education reporter at the Raleigh (N.C.) News & Observer and as a crime reporter at the Post and Courier in Charleston, S.C.
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Feedback: Helms Was a Bigot of the First Order
I'll call Jesse Helms a racist. I spent a good deal of time looking into Helms' background in North Carolina when I was South bureau chief for Time magazine in the 1980s and Time was doing a cover story on the senator, who then was at the height of his power.What I discovered about Helms was not all bad. Apparently, he was a good family man and, as a senator, looked after his constituents, both white and black. One of his childhood friends in Monroe told me Helms even played with black kids as a child. But I also was allowed access to years of editorials that he wrote and read daily over the radio in Raleigh, where he had a regular broadcast, prior to his political career. A look at his vitriolic rhetoric when it came to race relations and civil rights left no doubt in my mind that this guy was a bigot of the first order. And he had no scruples about using racial division and prejudice for his own political gain as a candidate and senator.
He may have loved his wife and daughters and his adopted son, with whom he liked to spend quiet evenings popping popcorn and watching TV, and his only vice may have been an affinity for Lucky Strike cigarettes, but this was a mean-spirited, angry white supremacist and proud of it. May we never see his ilk again in Congress.
Joe Boyce
Indianapolis
July 4, 2008
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Feedback: Journalists, Politicians Are Embarrassed
Jesse Helms was a segregationist, a throwback to the bad old days of Bilbo, Faubus, Thurmond, Maddox and the rest of their despicable racist ilk. As a native North Carolinian, I am glad the old bigot has finally gone on to his reward. I wish it had happened sooner. I hope he is roasting in hell.The main reason journalists and politicians, including those still temporarily in the aptly named White House, don't want to call Helms a racist is that they are embarrassed by their long-lasting support and tolerance for his obnoxious racist beliefs. Tough.
Helms was a bigot. His entire career was based on bigotry. He hated blacks, gays and anybody else who was different. Anybody who ever voted for him supported bigotry. They can all join Helms in hell.
Jack White
Richmond, Va.
July 5, 2008
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NABJ Issues Warning on Layoffs
A McClatchy Managing Editor Joins Buyout Exodus
As news outlets stepped up notices of buyouts and layoffs, the National Association of Black Journalists on Thursday issued "an open letter to the entire industry" asserting that "NABJ will hold you accountable if you do not consider diversity in your hiring and, particularly, firing practices."Diversity has too often been the first casualty in the assault on journalism," it said.
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| Tonnya Kennedy Kohn |
Kennedy Kohn, 42, has been managing editor for five years, and is among 11 journalists leaving the McClatchy-owned paper. The newspaper offered buyout packages to the newsroom.
The NABJ statement listed recent staff cutbacks around the country and cited an estimate from the American Society of Newspaper Editors saying that although the percentage of journalists of color at newspapers has increased, their actual number declined by nearly 300 last year. NABJ said, "Black journalists at NABJ are determined to let every new generation of news management know that minority hiring; promotion and retention are not disposable concepts. No, diversity is a constant whose value never diminishes.
"Discrimination in hiring, race-based promotion decisions, racially motivated firings and layoffs are reprehensible practices.
"The historic nature of this year's presidential election bears witness to that.
"If ever the country needed the insights and expertise of black journalists it is now. The industry needs to make sure black journalists give you their informed perspective not only with the presidential election, but also on issues like housing, predatory lending, the impact of the economic collapse in our communities, the Iraq War, the abandonment of cities, the war on poverty and even the culture of music, relationships, family and education.
"Diversity is not a luxury or a fad. It is a necessity for telling balanced news stories about America and for putting a fresh story perspective before the readers through the lens of minority journalists. While papers and news organizations are weighing their strategies for layoffs, they must respect the many arguments that have been made to encourage staffing papers with educated and insightful journalists of color.
"Also, young minority journalists losing jobs seems to be in a dead heat with veterans also being pushed out. The generation that led the fight for integrated news staffs is being eliminated through forced early retirement and buyouts, instead of being retained as valued sages. Many of them may be at least savvy and energetic enough to make a transition into public relations, academia, freelancing or even starting their own businesses. But that institutional knowledge that is leaving the newsroom will be difficult if not impossible to replace.
"NABJ is committed to doing its part to help, because we all know that after all the changes are made the future is going to be about readers and audience development. Currently, 42 percent of the children now in public schools are minorities and 40 percent of all Americans under the age of 18 are minorities — mostly black and Latino."
It goes on to list NABJ's own efforts to prepare its members for the new environment.
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Timothy Egan, New York Times:
Save the Press
Philly's Long Named VP, to Oversee Consolidations
Sandra Long, a founder of the National Association of Black Journalists who became managing editor/operations at the Philadelphia Inquirer last summer, on Thursday was promoted to vice president of newsroom operations for both the Inquirer and its sister paper, the tabloid Philadelphia Daily News.
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| Sandra Long |
"The proposal to merge functions from the two newsrooms shows the severity of the newspaper industry downturn is making negotiable what was once sacrosanct," Deborah Yao reported Thursday in the Associated Press.
First under scrutiny are the photo departments. The two papers may share photographers, Henry J. Holcomb, president of The Newspaper Guild of Greater Philadelphia, said, and the company is thinking about not renewing its lease on a fleet of cars photographers use, Yao wrote.
"Management is also looking at merging copy desk and other functions. Holcomb said there's work to do: The two newspapers aren't even on the same computer system."
"Sandra is a proven newsroom leader who is enormously talented," Frisby said. "She has been the main liaison between the newsroom and business departments for over 10 years and she has developed excellent working relationships with all divisions throughout Philadelphia Newspapers."
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| Clockwise, from left, Barack Obama, Shawn (Jay-Z) Carter, Prince, Samuel L. Jackson, Denzel Washington, Muhammad Ali, Billy Dee Williams, Marvin Gaye. |
Ed Bradley One of Ebony's "25 Coolest Brothers"
The late Ed Bradley, one of the only television journalists who could pull off wearing an earring or perhaps conducting the ultimate interview with Lena Horne, has been chosen one of Ebony magazine's "25 Coolest Brothers of All Time." The achievement is all the more remarkable because Ebony, listing its selections in its August issue, chose only five who were not athletes or entertainers.Eight of the chosen cool ones have their own separate covers, the first time Ebony has used the increasingly common technique of producing different covers for the same month's issue.
The 25 are, in no particular order:
Barack Obama, Don Cheadle, Billy Dee Williams, Sidney Poitier, Quincy Jones.
Lenny Kravitz, Jimi Hendrix, Richard Roundtree, Denzel Washington, Sammy Davis Jr.
Bob Marley, Ed Bradley, Tupac Shakur, Adam Clayton Powell Jr., Gordon Parks.
Muhammad Ali, Miles Davis, Walt Frazier, Shawn (Jay-Z) Carter, Samuel L. Jackson.
Malcolm X, Snoop Dogg, Prince, Michael Jordan, Marvin Gaye.
Bradley, arguably the most visible black journalist of his generation and
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| Ed Bradley |
At the funeral for the "60 Minutes" correspondent, which was televised on C-Span and attended by more than 2,000 people, Bradley's singer friend Jimmy Buffett sang "Do You Know What It Means to Miss New Orleans?" accompanied on piano by famed New Orleans producer Allen Toussaint; trumpeter Wynton Marsalis played Duke Ellington's "Black and Tan Fantasy"; rhythm 'n' blues singer Irma Thomas, also from the Big Easy, performed "Holy, Holy, Holy" to an organ accompaniment, and Aaron and Art Neville, two of the famed Neville Brothers, contributed "Amazing Grace." A New Orleans jazz band concluded the service playing as they marched down the aisle, as one of three photos on the altar showed Bradley singing "60 Minute Man" with the Nevilles. Former president Bill Clinton, who was then considered cool, was among those who spoke.
An Ebony spokeswoman said not all distributors would have each of the eight covers.
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Justice Department Urged to Investigate Hate Mail
The Justice Department on Friday was asked to investigate "a series of disturbing letters and notes written in a consistently personal, racist, and violent tone to Michelle Ferrier, a columnist with the Daytona Beach News-Journal in Florida and managing editor of MyTopiaCafe, a Web site sponsored by the News-Journal," according to the Committee to Protect Journalists."Ferrier received a total of seven letters and one larger envelope — each one addressed to her at the News-Journal office building — between October 5, 2005, and July 17, 2007, according to copies of the posted correspondence that Ferrier provided to CPJ. Each letter or envelope contained either handwritten letters or handwritten notations marked on photocopies of her columns or other newspaper or magazine articles. The handwriting on each piece of correspondence indicates they came from the same individual," Joel Simon Executive Director of CPJ, wrote to Mark Kappelhoff, chief of the Civil Rights Division.
Ferrier mentioned the letters June 7 at a panel discussion, "Standing Up Against Hate Speech," at the National Conference for Media Reform in Minneapolis on June 7. Kappelhoff urged her to contact the Civil Rights Division, CPJ said.
CPJ's letter to Kappelhoff said, "The fourth letter, postmarked from mid-Florida on July 11, 2006, reads, 'Before this world is over there will be a race war[.] Why do [sic] think so many people are stalking [sic] up on guns?' The same letter goes on, 'How do you get a nigger out of a tree? Cut the rope!'
"Ferrier quit her job on the night desk at the News-Journal in August 2006 after receiving the above letter. 'I was afraid,' she told CPJ. She worked part-time assignments from her home over the next nine months before returning to work full-time again at the News-Journal in May 2007, this time in a daytime position in which she felt reasonably safe coming to work."
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Joe Davidson to Write Column on Federal Workforce
Joe Davidson, a founder of the National Association of Black Journalists who joined the Washington Post in 2005, was named author of the paper's "Federal Diary" column on Thursday. For 65 years, the column has covered issues of interest to the workforce of the city's biggest employer: the federal government.
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| Joe Davidson |
"More recently, Joe has been an editor on Metro, where he significantly improved the District Extra and later the Religion Page. He also oversaw coverage of D.C. education, one of the city's biggest stories, and the pope's historic trip to Washington. And he helped bolster religion coverage for the Web by collaborating with the On Faith blog. Joe is also a founding member of the National Association of Black Journalists and was a charter Ethics Fellow at the Poynter Institute."
The previous Federal Diary columnist, Stephen Barr, was one of about 100 Post employees who took a buyout.
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