NAHJ Candidate Quits Contreras Ticket

July 16, 2012

"I Don't Want to Be Caught in the Middle of Negative Campaigning"

Nick Valencia, president of the Atlanta chapter of the National Association of Hispanic Journalists and a candidate for vice president/broadcast of the national organization, has quit the HalftimeInNAHJ ticket formed by Russell Contreras, NAHJ vice president/print and chief financial officer.

"I don't want to be caught in the middle of negative campaigning," Valencia told Journal-isms.

Valencia, 28, said in a statement on Monday, the first day of early voting in the election: "After much consideration I have decided to drop off the 'HalftimeinNAHJ' ticket. As President of NAHJ Atlanta, our board and I believe it would be best for NAHJ if I ran as an independent. I wish all candidates the best of luck. I will work with and alongside whomever our membership elects to preside over the board. I look forward to seeing you all at the convention. Pa'lante [Forward]."

Also running independently for vice president/broadcast is Mekahlo Medina, a tech/social reporter at KNBC-TV in Los Angeles and an NAHJ delegate to the Unity Journalists board of directors.

"I respect Mekahlo and what he stands for, and I respect what we stand for," Valencia said, referring to NAHJ. He said he had informed Contreras of his decision.

Medina has also questioned the practices of the incumbent NAHJ board. "Let's be honest: we all knew tough decisions had to be made two years ago," Medina said on his campaign page. "Members knew things would be tough, too, but we were excited to help, to rebuild and to move forward. Instead, some members feel shut down, ignored and, in some cases, ridiculed for asking questions."

He messaged Journal-isms about Valencia's decision: "I am [shocked] and surprised, but then again who would want to run on a negative campaign. It accomplishes nothing for our organization or our members. I'm trying to help rebuild NAHJ not tear down my opponent. Our members deserve better, they have been through enough.

"I appreciate Nick realized the negative way is not the right way. I've always appreciated his commitment to NAHJ and his work with the Atlanta chapter. This race, for me, has never been about slates or candidates. It is about members, ideas and rebuilding an organization that has given me and many others so much."

Contreras said in a statement, ". . . I am grateful for the time Nick was part of our slate and I will continue to work to make sure he is elected, because even if he runs independently, I think he would be a good NAHJ VP for Broadcast and I look forward to working with him.

"Some will take this as a mark against me and my campaign, but I don't see it that way. . . . " [Full statement in Comments section.]

Contreras' opponent, Hugo Balta, welcomed Valencia's withdrawal from the slate.

"I respect Nick's decision," Balta said. "It takes courage to admit making a wrong decision (in joining [HalftimeInNAHJ] party). I support Nick not wanting to be associated with [Contreras'] negative campaign. We have agreed  to work together for the good of NAHJ and its members should we be elected."

According to Valencia's campaign posting while he was part of the slate, "Nick is part of a team of two-time Peabody Award Winning journalists at CNN where he has worked since 2006 and has spent time reporting extensively on the drug war in places like Tijuana and Ciudad Juarez, Mexico. He is currently a National Desk Editor and Reporter and has been in the middle of CNN's newsgathering for the biggest breaking news stories in the last few years.

". . . He has been the NAHJ Atlanta President since 2010 and is one of the founding members of the chapter. Under his leadership, NAHJ Atlanta has maintained a mission of 'unity and inclusion.' He has expanded Atlanta's membership not only in terms of numbers, but diversity to include people of various ethnic backgrounds who are dedicated to the advancement of Latinos in the news industry." The Atlanta chapter has more than 60 members, he told Journal-isms.

The tone of the NAHJ race became contentious even when Contreras was the only presidential candidate.

On May 16, Contreras posted a video declaring his candidacy. The same day, an anonymous poster published a YouTube video that began in the same way as Contreras' video. But the opening line, "Dear Family, I know we've been apart," was interrupted by a voice that said, "apart because Russell Contreras disrespects members." It continued, "Russell doesn't care if you're disrespected. . . . It's Russell's way or no way. That is not leadership. That is not NAHJ. Anyone but Russell. Anyone!"

Balta, a coordinating producer at ESPN who would challenge Contreras in the race, said then that he had nothing to do with the countervideo but agreed with it.

On June 13, Contreras and Balta agreed that "personal attacks have no place in the campaign nor do anonymously produced and posted videos," NAHJ President Michele Salcedo said in a statement posted the next day on the association's website.

Three weeks later, a video promoting Contreras characterized Balta as one who has "missed half of his meetings while on the board" and who represents gambling away the organization's future.

Contreras insisted it was not a personal attack and that he was simply comparing records. Balta, who had been vice president/broadcast, replied that the absences came after he had lost his job and that he had discussed whether to remain on the board with then-NAHJ president O. Ricardo Pimentel. Without naming Balta, Contreras then posted a message on his campaign Facebook page saying that if he were ever laid off, he would resign from the NAHJ board.

Remaining members of the HalftimeInNAHJ slate are Contreras, candidate for president; Francisco Cortes, vice president for online; Erin Ailworth, vice president/print; Blanca Torres, financial officer; Chris Ramirez, secretary; and Elizabeth Alvarez, at-large.

Manny De La Rosa, NAHJ's vice president for broadcast who endorsed Valencia last week, told Journal-isms on Monday, "My endorsement remains the same. Nick has a lot of potential and I believe he will be a great leader in NAHJ," he said in an email. "Slates normally don't work in NAHJ elections. Voters vote for people."

Race Has No Obvious Role in Obama's Foreign Policy

When he went to Ireland last year, President Obama made it a point to connect Ireland with abolitionist journalist Frederick Douglass and the slave trade.

In a visit to Colombia in April, Obama witnessed a land title handover to black Colombians.

Still, according to two journalists or former journalists who have just written about aspects of Obama's foreign policy, race has played little if any role in the conduct of the first black president's statecraft, though it might have affected the expectations of some abroad.

In a 6,925-word piece in the Washington Post on Sunday, Scott Wilson examined Obama's handling of the Mideast conflict and found it wanting, yet representative:

"The way Obama managed the Israeli-Palestinian issue exhibited many of the hallmarks that have defined his first term," Wilson, who has covered both the White House and the Middle East, wrote. "It began with a bid for historic change. But it foundered ultimately on his political and tactical misjudgments, on a lack of trusted relationships and on an outdated view of a conflict that many of his closest advisers imparted to him. And those advisers — veterans of the Middle East peace issue — clashed among themselves over tactics and turf."

Wilson also wrote that Obama's relationship with his former pastor, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, might have affected how he was perceived by American Jewish leaders.

"Obama's Muslim middle name, former anti-Zionist pastor in Chicago and past friendships with prominent Palestinians had shadowed his presidential campaign," Wilson wrote in his narrative. "He wanted to restore the United States' reputation as a credible mediator. To do so, he believed that he needed to regain Arab trust — and talk tough to Israel, publicly and privately."

Wilson told Journal-isms by email: ". . . no, I didn't find that his race played a role. Suspicions about his religion did, at least early on, but race does not seem to have been a factor — unless you count the Rev. Jeremiah Wright factor, and his anti-Zionist message not that uncommon (I believe) in the black church (or at least political ones.) Being associated with Wright made him have to convince Israel supporters he was on their side — something he never quite pulled off. But that's not directly related to his race."

James Mann is a former newspaper reporter, foreign correspondent and columnist who wrote for more than 20 years for the Los Angeles Times and before that for the Washington Post. He is now an author-in-residence at Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies.

In Mann's latest book, "The Obamians: The Struggle Inside the White House to Define American Power," he draws upon 125 interviews to write "with shrewdness and insight about the evolution of the president's thinking, tensions among his staff (over issues like humanitarian intervention and the use of military force), and contrasts and continuities between his conduct of foreign policy and that of the previous two presidents," Michiko Kakutani wrote last week in the New York Times.

"In general, I found that race rarely if ever played a role in his foreign-policy decisions — but that it was sometimes a factor in the reactions to them, particularly overseas," Mann told Journal-isms by email.

"It's hard to see race as a factor in any of his decisions on major issues like Afghanistan, drones, bin Laden, Pakistan, Iran, China, Russia, arms control, climate change, etc.

"But from his very first weeks in office, I've noticed that the foreign reactions to Obama sometimes drew inferences about his foreign policy based on race or color. I remember, soon after he took office, a British television reporter asking to interview me about the idea that Obama would somehow think differently about Europe or somehow be distant from it, because he was the first American president who didn't have 'European roots.' The very premise was silly — Obama's mother's family, the Dunhams, were English, I believe. And George W. Bush, who did of course have entirely European roots, did more to alienate America from Europe than any president since the 1920s.

"At first, I took this as an odd query from just one idiosyncratic reporter. But at some point in Obama's first or second year, it was clear that this bizarre theory stretched high up in the British government: Sir David Manning, the former British ambassador to Washington, aired in public this theory of Obama's foreign policy reflecting the fact that he did not have British roots. (My own take is that Obama, having been educated at an American prep school, Columbia and Harvard Law School, has an elite background and training not too different from FDR, JFK, Bill Clinton or the Bushes).

"I don't mean to single out the British on this — they're just a good example, because they're our closest allies and certainly don't think of themselves as influenced by racial considerations. But people in other countries, too, have shown similar expectations: other Europeans, the Israelis, have exhibited occasional nervousness about Obama because he is not white. And correspondingly, I think that, particularly in Obama's first year, some Arab leaders expected too much from Obama because they thought his color would make a difference in his foreign policy."

[David E. Sanger of the New York Times, author of "Confront and Conceal: Obama's Secret Wars and Surprising Use of American Power," said by email on July 18: "In my reporting for Confront and Conceal I found no evidence of the kind you ask about."]

South Asian Journalists Joke That They Test Parents' Expectations

A running joke developed at the annual gala of the South Asian Journalists Association at the National Press Club Saturday night, the first for the New York-based group to be held in Washington.

"My dad still asks me, 'When are you going to law school?" Aditi Kinkhabwala of the NFL Network, the emcee, said. Then Amita Parashar of NPR's "Tell Me More" with Michel Martin said, "My mom still asks if I'm going to medical school."

When Joya Dass, business anchor for NY1 and CNN, reached the stage to present the award for "Outstanding Business Story on South Asia, or the Worldwide South Asian Diaspora," she quipped, "My parents have moved past career development. They just want me to marry somebody — anybody."

About 200 people attended the affair, sponsored by a journalist of color group that receives less attention than some others. Yet with 750 dues-paying members, it is larger than the National Lesbian & Gay Journalists Association, which has about 600 members, and the Native American Journalists Association, which had 237 members as of its convention last year.

SAJA differs from the other journalism associations in that its charge is primarily networking and helping one another, rather than advocacy. It has no paid staff or headquarters, it is not a member of Unity Journalists and many of its members hold relatively high-ranking positions in the profession. Others are distinctly entrepreneurial. The treasurer, John Laxmi, is an investment banker, not a journalist.

At such occasions, many members wear traditional dress, saris for women and sherwanis for men. And many of their parents did not have journalism in mind for their children. Indian Americans, the Pew Research Center reported in June, are thinking beyond journalism's relatively meager salaries. They have a median household income of $88,000.

On that last point, Jigar Mehta, a digital entrepreneur, former New York Times video journalist and immediate past president of SAJA, said by email, ". . . I think this is similar with other immigrant groups as well. It also reflects how journalism is valued in society (and how journalist pay stacks up).... However it is changing, reflected in the amount of students there, esp for south asians as we now have so many more SA on tv, on the radio, in the leading papers and at the top of their fields....

"This was the case for me in a minor way, because i went and got a engineering degree before becoming a journalist!"

The current president, Anusha Shrivastava, foreign exchange reporter for Dow Jones Newswires and the Wall Street Journal, agrees.

". . . in general, South Asian parents are more inclined to want their offspring to study medicine, engineering or law or become professors or bankers rather than journalists," Shrivastava told Journal-isms by email. "That said, we've heard over and over again that once the children pick journalism as their path, the parents are extremely supportive. That's been my experience, too. My parents would have liked me to study medicine but when I didn't, they thought I'd teach since I got a doctorate in International Relations. I did get hooked to journalism early in life and once they saw me on-air in a BBC World program called 'India Business Report' in the early 90s, and later, on the front page of The Wall Street Journal, they couldn't have been more pleased.

"We now have South Asian journalists reporting on business, sports, fashion, science, politics and technology in newsrooms of every size. Clearly, parents who worry about their children's future in journalism should take heart from this development."

S. Mitra Kalita, senior special writer at the Wall Street Journal, had some news: As of Wednesday, she will leave the Journal to join the Atlantic Monthly as commentary editor of its new free digital product about the global economy, Quartz. Kalita told Journal-isms she was looking for voices to display in the section.

In introducing the night's speaker, Kalita mentioned the "joke about how everybody's parents wanted them to be Sanjay Gupta. But the question we get when we go home is, 'How come you're not Ali Velshi?' "

After scolding Washington lawmakers for their paralysis, Velshi, anchor and chief business correspondent at CNN, recalled that when he told his father that he was going to be a journalist, "All my dad would say was, 'I had a journalist as a tenant once, and he never paid his rent.' "

Yet, Velshi said, "All I ever wanted to do is write for a newspaper. I didn't think anyone on TV was very smart."

He told the journalists that "the most important thing you do is bear witness" and that the public counts on journalists to offer "some sense of analysis."

SAJA awarded $50,000 in scholarships this year, and Velshi said he contributed $2,000 to challenge other broadcasters to create a counterpart to the print-based SAJA Editors Challenge, which this year raised more than $20,000.

It's important that SAJA urges other South Asians to be journalists, Velshi said. "Just go and tell the truth. Don't kill yourself over ratings. Don't decide that you want to be a TV star. Go out and be a journalist."

• SAJA award winners

Ebony Pulls Genarlow Wilson Story, Plans Sex-Abuse Series

Ebony.com has pulled its interview with Genarlow Wilson, who was convicted on child molestation charges at age 17 in 2005, and is planning "a three-part editorial series to educate Black America about these issues and to provide a platform for the powerful voices of women who have been affected by rape and sexual molestation," Johnson Publishing Co. has announced.

Some readers were outraged by the headline on the website's July 9 interview, "Notorious to Glorious: Genarlow Wilson is No Child Molester and Never Was."

Crystal Howard, director of communications for Johnson Publishing Co., told Journal-isms by email on Sunday, "We pulled the original story because we felt that it was clouding Ebony's core mission to uplift and advocate for all members of the [African American] community. It is of paramount importance to us that our readers be able to trust all platforms that bear the Ebony [name] for clear and accurate reporting on the issues that affect Black America the most."

The publication posted a new statement on Saturday on ebony.com:

"Our controversial story on Genarlow Wilson, a young man who was convicted of child molestation at age 17, raised a myriad of issues of pressing importance to the Black community. As a result of Wilson's conviction, debates opened up surrounding the topics of both sexual consent for minors and harsh sentencing laws for Black men. For the past 66 years, Ebony has advocated for the well-being of all members of the African-American community, and has been at the forefront of these necessary conversations.

"Your response to our story has further illuminated for us the importance of engaging around issues of sexual violence, of supporting victims, and of empowering our community with relevant knowledge and resources. We deeply regret that the perception of the article about Wilson (published on EBONY.com on July 9, 2012) led some readers to believe that we are less than sensitive to the plight of young women in sexual assault cases.

"We want you to know that we are now, and have always been committed to confronting sexual assault in our community. At present we have many articles on our site that challenge America's rape culture. In addition, we are developing a three-part editorial series to educate Black America about these issues and to provide a platform for the powerful voices of women who have been affected by rape and sexual molestation. We encourage everyone to join this conversation."

Greensboro Paper Defends Blurring N-Word in Photo

The News & Record in Greensboro, N.C., blurred the N-word in a photo of a banner hanging at a school district's office that "included 21 words printed . . . in red and black ink, a racial epithet, a reference to the Ku Klux Klan and a pledge to 'get our monument back,' in the words of the News & Record's Thursday story.

Editor Jeff Gauger told Journal-isms by email Monday that the word was blurred because "doing so best reflected the taste boundaries of our community."

Gauger wrote:

"As you know, editing is one part knowing and reflecting the taste expectations of your community, and one part leading your community toward its better self.

"We blurred the N-word because, after discussion among a half-dozen editors, I decided that doing so best reflected the taste boundaries of our community. The editors' opinions were not unanimous. The decision was mine alone.

"In deciding, I thought of rape victims, whom newspapers almost uniformly do not identify. In a more perfect world, we would routinely identify them because there is no shame in being a victim. The taste boundaries of most communities do not permit us to.

"As rendered, the published photo left no question as to what the word was, even with the blurring. It matched our expression of the word in text, as 'N-----.' Our published report was both complete and respectful of our community's sense of itself.

"We have received no response since publishing the story and photo, no response either positive or negative."

Media Take Drudge Seriously on Condi Rice Rumor

"When Matt Drudge released his report yesterday that Condoleezza Rice was the new top contender for the GOP vice presidential nomination, pretty much everyone saw it for what it was — an attempt to distract the press from the mounting controversy over Mitt Romney's departure date from Bain Capital," Eric Boehlert and Simon Maloy wrote Friday for Media Matters for America.

"It was so transparent and so improbable that even conservatives like Erick Erickson, while appreciative of the intent, were calling it 'silly.' But it worked: major newspapers and the network morning shows jumped on the Drudge rumor."

• Lauren Ashburn, Daily Beast: How the Drudge Report, With Its Condoleezza Rice 'Scoop,' Again Rules the Media
  
  
• Cora Currier and Suevon Lee, ProPublica: The Best Reporting on Detention and Rendition Under Obama
  
  
• Ted Diadiun, Plain Dealer, Cleveland: Readers wary of bias missed out on an even-handed Bain primer
  
  
• Glenn Kessler, Washington Post: Weighing the evidence on Romney's departure from Bain: A response to readers
  
  
• John McWhorter, Daily News, New York: Mitt's rich and stiff — so what?
  
  
• Leonard Pitts Jr., Miami Herald: Why silence from African-American voters?
  
  
• Geraldo Rivera, Fox News Latino: Obama's Latino Support Eroding
  
  
• Mary Sanchez, Kansas City Star: The subject straight-shootin' Mitt doesn't dare address
  
  

Will Sutton to Head P.R. at Grambling State

"Will Sutton, a 2012 Reynolds Center Visiting Professor, will join Grambling State University as acting Director of Public Relations and Communications," Kelly Carr reported for the center, based at Arizona State University, on Monday.

"Since January, Sutton taught a business journalism class at Grambling as part of the Reynolds Center's Visiting Professor Program, which pairs veteran journalists with academic institutions to encourage stronger financial training. Sutton, whose career included leading award-winning teams at various media outlets, was one of four visiting professors funded by a $1.67 million grant from the Donald W. Reynolds Foundation.

"In his new role, Sutton will handle Grambling's public relations and communications. He will also advise journalism students as they embark on professional careers. . . ."

Sutton is a former deputy managing editor of the News & Observer in Raleigh, N.C., former president of the National Association of Black Journalists and former Scripps Howard Endowed Professor/Visiting Professor at the Scripps Howard School of Journalism and Communications at his alma mater, Hampton University. He was editor of the Post-Tribune in Gary, Ind., from 1993 to 1996.

Too Many Black Men Comfortable in Prisons

Curtis Bunn is a best-selling novelist and national award-winning sports journalist who has worked at the Washington Times, New York Newsday, the Daily News in New York and the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, according to the brief bio at the end of his essay.

"Earlier this week, I was arrested and placed in the Atlanta City Jail," Bunn wrote Sunday for the Atlanta Black Star. "Mug shot. Finger-printed. 'Random' stop. My crime: Traffic violation. From 1996. In New Jersey. This is not written in error.

"In the process of suffering through this ordeal, I stumbled upon some disturbing scenes — scenes that will stick in my head for a long, long time. The view from inside the jail was not pretty; what I saw was a troubling comfort and familiarity too many black men have with the insides of our prisons. For many of them, getting sent back there was like going home. . . ."

William Raspberry Service Planned for National Cathedral

Funeral services for William Raspberry, the retired Washington Post columnist who died of prostate cancer Tuesday at age 76, have been scheduled for Thursday, July 26, at 10 a.m. at the Washington National Cathedral, according to journalist Walt Swanston, a family friend.

A reception is to follow from 12:30 to 3 p.m. at the Washington Post building, 1150 15th St. NW in Washington.

"The Cathedral Church of St. Peter and St. Paul (Washington National Cathedral) has been the location of funeral and memorial services for nearly all the 21 presidents of the United States since Congress incorporated the Protestant Episcopal Cathedral Foundation in 1893," according to the cathedral's website.

"There have been three State Funerals (Eisenhower, Reagan, Ford), one official burial service (Wilson), and seven Memorial Services for presidents of the United States."

A service for Katharine Graham, legendary publisher of the Washington Post, was held there in 2001 , as were services for longtime Post cartoonist Herb Block, also in 2001, and former Post ombudsman Deborah Howell in 2010.

A memorial service for Robert C. Maynard, namesake of the Maynard Institute for Journalism Education, took place at the cathedral in 1993.

The Duke University flag was to be flown at half-staff through July 19 in Raspberry's honor, Keith Lawrence, a Duke University spokesman, told Journal-isms on Wednesday. After his retirement from the Post, Raspberry became Knight Professor of the Practice of Journalism and Public Policy Studies at Duke, where he spent more than 13 years.

Additional tributes have come from Michel Martin of NPR's "Tell Me More" and Rem Rieder of American Journalism Review, among others. Rieder linked to a 1994 profile of Raspberry. [Updated July 19.]

• E.J. Dionne Jr., Washington Post: William Raspberry, a 'role model' and more
  
  
• Editorial, Washington Post: William Raspberry, a columnist who listened respectfully to other views
  
  
• Robert Fleming, Black Star News: William Raspberry: Maverick of The Black Press
  
  
• Jackie Jones, atlantablackstar.com: Newspaper Pioneer William Raspberry Dies at 76
  
  
• James Hill, Washington Post News Media Services: William Raspberry 1935 - 2012
  
  
• Eugene Robinson, Washington Post: Bill Raspberry, a pioneer who aided generations
  
  
• Barrington M. Salmon, Washington Informer: Washington Mourns Raspberry (July 20)
  
  
• Erica Taylor, "The Tom Joyner Morning Show": Little Known Black History Fact: William Raspberry

Conference Call With Members Stokes NAHJ Campaign

The National Association of Hispanic Journalists, which began voting on new officers on Monday, held a conference call with members Tuesday that provided presidential candidate Hugo Balta with grist for a charge that the association has seen "Board member after Board member resigning, relationships with other affinity groups strained, mistreatment of members and sponsors, short cut solutions to long term problems and a storm of negative controversy."

Meanwhile, Balta picked up an endorsement from Rafael Olmeda, president from 2006 to 2008, his second from a former NAHJ president. Balta, a coordinating producer at ESPN, is also backed by Veronica Villafañe, president from 2004 to 2006, and by former executive director Iván Román, who resigned a year ago after having held the job since 2003.

Russell Contreras, vice president for print, chief financial officer and presidential candidate, announced he had the backing of Gregory H. Lee Jr., president of the National Association of Black Journalists and a colleague from their days together in Boston, and told Journal-isms that he, too, had the backing of former NAHJ presidents, whose names he would release "in the future."

O. Ricardo Pimentel, columnist for the San Antonio Express-News and NAHJ president from 2008 to 2010, told Journal-isms he did not plan to endorse anyone "at the moment" and Juan Gonzalez, columnist for the Daily News in New York and president from 2002 to 2004, said he would "probably not" make an endorsement, adding in an email:

"I'll wait till the convention to get a clearer idea of what the policies and positions of the contending candidates are before I decide on my vote. And by 'policies' I mean something more substantive than whether to hold a convention next year, or who should be a voting member. I want to hear their vision for the future of NAHJ and for the journalism profession."

Incumbent Michele Salcedo said by email that she had not endorsed a candidate, but did not say whether she would do so.

In his response to the conference call, Balta also said, "The national convention has historically been NAHJ's best fundraising event. It is irresponsible to learn weeks before the convention that there isn't a confirmed location (let alone decision) for the national convention in 2013.

"The process should have been completed weeks ago (in order to give the new Board and staff a solid plan to execute). . . . Lastly, a member asked if the current leadership knew how much money NAHJ had in the bank. The answer again was not clear.

"That's a number that should roll out of the Financial Officer's mouth before the member finished her question."

Asked whether he wanted to respond to anything in Balta's message, Contreras said by email:

"The [staff] layoffs were very difficult for me to recommend as NAHJ financial officer but were needed for us to avoid bankruptcy. Still, they were only part of the reason NAHJ was able to report its first surplus in years. NAHJ is posting audio of the town hall meeting soon, and I urge those NAHJ members who are planning to vote to listen to it.

Contreras declared at last year's convention at Walt Disney World near Orlando that "This convention here is our last stand-alone convention," but Salcedo said during the conference call that Albuquerque, N.M., was a possible next convention site, according to members discussing the call on Facebook. The Asian American Journalists Association has chosen New York for its 2013 convention, and the National Association of Black Journalists has picked Orlando.

Journalists of Color Return to Accrediting Council

The journalists of color associations have returned to the major organization that accredits college journalism programs after pulling out citing the cost of membership.

"NABJ, AAJA and NAHJ all have returned with the help from the McCormick Foundation, Scripps Howard Foundation and Hearst Foundation," Susanne Shaw, executive director of the Accrediting Council on Education in Journalism and Mass Communication, told Journal-isms by email on Wednesday, referring to the National Association of Black Journalists, the Asian American Journalists Association and the National Association of Hispanic Journalists.

AAJA announced on Tuesday that veteran journalist Joie Chen would represent the organization on the council.

"Chen, who has worked for CBS News, PBS and CNN, is also a frequent presenter at AAJA’s JCamp program for high school students, and her sessions on the importance of media diversity have resonated with the JCamp participants," AAJA said in a news release.

Federico Subervi, professor and director of the Center for the Study of Latino Media & Markets at the School of Journalism and Mass Communication, Texas State University-San Marcos, represents NAHJ. Jackie Jones, veteran journalist and career coach, has returned as NABJ's representative on the council.

The journalists of color organizations fought to be included in the accrediting council as one way to ensure that diversity remains a priority in college journalism programs, both in staffing and curriculum.

However, finances became an issue. When AAJA withdrew in 2006, the dues were $5,000. AAJA cited the cost, and the then-president of the accrediting council, Saundra Keyes, flew to the association's annual meeting in Hawaii to urge it to stay. NAHJ left in 2007 "in protest over their failure to vigorously apply the standards that would have been required for significant diversity gains in the 10 years of our membership." NABJ left in 2010, citing the $4,000 annual cost.

ACEJMC secured a three-year grant to cover the dues for each of the minority journalism organizations.

Jones said by email, "The NABJ never wanted to leave the Council and held out as long as it could until budget considerations forced it to withdraw under Kathy Times," president from 2009 to 2011, "but the intention to return was always there. As soon as I emailed Greg Lee," the current president, "and gave him the news, he replied, 'Let's do it!' "

"I reached out to Michele Salcedo and Doris Truong," presidents of NAHJ and AAJA, respectively, "and let them know that the Council had secured funding and put them in touch with Susanne Shaw, ACEJMC's executive director, and they were on board shortly afterwards.

"While the Council has a history of paying particular attention to matters of diversity, there is no replacement, in my mind, for having the minority journalists associations at the table to contribute to the discussion, vote on policy matters and on accreditation decisions."

Ann Wead Kimbrough Named FAMU Journalism Dean

Ann L. Wead Kimbrough has been named dean of the School of Journalism and Graphic Communication at Florida A&M University, FAMU Interim President Larry Robinson announced on Tuesday. Kimbrough succeeds James Hawkins, who in 2004 became the well-regarded school's second dean.

Kimbrough is the senior administrator of Webster University's two largest Arkansas graduate campuses, the school said.

"She is also a visiting professor at the Arkansas Baptist College instructing students in the areas of global communications, entrepreneurship, marketing, ethics, and sustainability strategies.

"Kimbrough has been an advisor to a student newspaper, faculty sponsor, grant writer, fundraiser, faculty liaison to the university's president's office, internship coordinator, limited time manager of university relations, and a tutor. As a faculty member, Kimbrough has led courses in basic journalism, financial journalism, public relations, strategic communications, international business and cross-cultural communications.

"She has served as the chief of staff to the chief executive officer of DeKalb County Government (Ga.) where she successfully launched a countywide public awareness and educational campaign for successful passage of a $250 million bond referendum. In addition, she is a veteran, award-winning journalist who has served as president of the Atlanta Association of Black Journalists."

• Eric Deggans, National Sports Journalism Center: [Deford] revisits marching band hazing, faces criticism for latest 'Real Sports'
  
  
• Eric Deggans, Tampa Bay (Fla.) Times: HBO's Real Sports features interview with student charged in hazing death of FAMU drum major 
  
  
• Andrew J. Skerritt, Tallahassee Democrat: Looking ahead at Florida A&M

AP Promotes Moody to Global Entertainment, Lifestyles Editor

"Nekesa Mumbi Moody, the AP's music editor for the last 12 years, has been named the news agency's global entertainment and lifestyles editor," the news cooperative announced early Thursday.

"Moody will oversee text and visual staff based in New York, London, Hong Kong, Nashville and Los Angeles. The staff is responsible for coverage of movies, music, television, video games, fashion, food, travel and events such as the Oscars, Emmys, Cannes Film Festival and Fashion Week.

"The announcement was made Thursday by Lou Ferrara, AP's managing editor for entertainment and sports.

" 'Nekesa is one of the top reporters in source development and breaking entertainment news. She is a leader who will drive AP entertainment and lifestyles forward to provide top-tier coverage,' Ferrara said.

"Moody, 41, began her career as an AP intern in Albany, N.Y., and later became a reporter in the bureau, covering state news, politics and sports, and contributing to the national entertainment report. She became an editor on the national editing desk in 1998 and continued her entertainment coverage. She was appointed music writer in 2000." In October, AP announced that Moody would take an expanded role in shaping the wire service's global music report.

More Than 70 Gordon Parks Transparencies Found

"Gordon Parks's portrait of Mr. and Mrs. Albert Thornton Sr., an older black couple in their Mobile, Ala., home in 1956, appears to have little in common with the images we have come to associate with civil rights photography," Maurice Berger wrote Monday for the New York Times.

"It is in color, unlike most photographs of the movement. Its subject matter was neither newsworthy nor historic, unlike more widely published journalistic images of the racial murders, police brutality, demonstrations and boycotts that characterized the epic battle for racial justice and equality.

"Yet, as effectively as any civil rights photograph, the portrait was a forceful 'weapon of choice,' as Mr. Parks would say, in the struggle against racism and segregation. He took the picture on assignment for a September 1956 Life magazine photo-essay, 'The Restraints: Open and Hidden,' which documented the everyday activities and rituals of one extended black family living in the rural South under Jim Crow segregation.

"While 20 photographs were eventually published in Life, the bulk of Mr. Parks's work from that shoot was thought to have been lost. That is, until this spring, when the Gordon Parks Foundation discovered more than 70 color transparencies at the bottom of an old storage box, wrapped in paper and masking tape and marked, 'Segregation Series.' "

Parks died in 2006 at age 93.

Twitter Game Targets Those Non-Diverse Media Lists

". . . The #One4One Game was [born] out of the brouhaha surrounding Newsweek/Daily Beast's list of 100 digital power brokers," Deanna Zandt, a contributor to Forbes, wrote last week.

"Only 7 out of 100 were women, and there were even [worse] ratios for people of color. (There are no Black digital influencers? Really?) The panel that picked the people on this list were similarly representative of who they picked as influential. In my recent post about the sociology of Internet meritocracy, I talked about the phenomenon that creates this situation: homophily. Simply put, homophily is [birds] of a feather flock together. Humans surround themselves with people they think are like them, so when it comes time to pick people from our peer groups, they tend to all look like us."

Zandt wrote, "Go to Twitter now, and, using the #one4one hashtag, tell the world who your One is.

"The #One4One Game, created by me, Melissa Pierce, and Andrew Rasiej, asks digital influencers to name someone whose identity has a radically different trait as their One. If you're a dude, name a woman. If you're white, name a person of color. If you're straight, name an LGBTQ person. You get the picture. Arbitrary points will be assigned by anyone else playing the game – all you have to do is use the hashtag #one4one and share your One (or Ones!), and reply to others' choices. The best (arbitrarily decided, of course) Ones will be archived on the game's website, where six smart men have already started naming women they want to champion."

• Tony Norman, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette: Some real tweets feel too hard to swallow

Zimmerman Gives First Post-Shooting Interview

"After saying he did not regret any of his actions the night he killed Trayvon Martin, George Zimmerman backtracked and apologized to America Wednesday night in his first interview since the shooting that polarized the nation nearly five months ago," Frances Robles reported for the Miami Herald.

"In an apparent attempt at damage control just two days after a cousin's sexual molestation charges went public, Zimmerman broke his silence in an exclusive interview with Fox News conservative talk show host Sean Hannity. His lawyer, Mark O'Mara, sat beside him as Zimmerman recounted the Sunday night that he encountered a hoodie-clad black teenager who walked too leisurely in the rain.

"Asked if he regretted getting out of the car that night or owning a gun, Zimmerman said no. Asked if he would do anything differently, Zimmerman said no a third time, and added that Trayvon's death was 'God's plan.'

"Later, as the interview ended and the host asked if Zimmerman had a message for Trayvon's parents or the general public, Zimmerman said that before responding he wanted to change his answer to the earlier question. He explained that he thought Hannity had asked if he was sorry he didn't get a lawyer at first, wished he hadn't spoken to the police so much or taken voice stress tests.

" 'I do wish there was something, anything I could have done that wouldn't have put me in the position where I had to take his life,' Zimmerman said. 'I want to tell everyone, my wife, my family, my parents, grandmother, the Martins, the city of Sanford and America: I'm sorry that this happened. I'm truly sorry.'

"In a statement after the show, Tracy Martin, Trayvon's father, said: 'We must worship a different God, because there's no way my God would have wanted George Zimmerman to kill my son.' "

• Rebecca Shapiro, Huffington Post: Barbara Walters Rejects George Zimmerman's Interview Demands (July 19)

Gumbel Surprised at Curry's Treatment as "Martyr"

Former "Today" anchor Ann Curry returned to NBC Friday night to anchor the network's coverage of the shooting in Colorado, Alex Weprin reported for TVNewser.

Curry anchored a special edition of "Dateline" live from Aurora, Colo., at 9 p.m., appeared on "NBC Nightly News," and was to co-anchor "Today" with Savannah Guthrie, her replacement, from Aurora on Saturday and Sunday. They are Curry's first appearances on NBC since she left "Today" on June 28.

Meanwhile, former "Today" co-host Bryant Gumbel expressed no sympathy for Curry's being forced out of the "Today" chair.

". . . Gumbel, the broadcaster who presided over the morning program for 15 years, said he feels Curry has received overly favorable treatment," Steven Zeitchik wrote Wednesday for the "Show Tracker" feature in the Los Angeles Times. "Curry's ouster, Gumbel believes, was a simple matter of ratings, and he wonders why so many observers and commentators have rallied so vocally to her defense.

" 'I'm surprised and disappointed at this idea that Ann was a martyr, that she was thrown under the bus,' Gumbel told Show Tracker. 'I don't know why she's being portrayed as a modern-day Joan of Arc. In every job, in every walk of life, people are hired to do a job, and if they don't do it well they are relieved of that job.'

"The famously frank journalist added, 'It's a big-boy business, and when things don't work out, people are asked to leave. It's happened to me; it's happened to almost everyone in this business.' "

• Devin Gordon, GQ: The Jeremy Lin Debate No One Wants to Have
  
  
• Emil Guillermo blog, Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund: Linsanity, Ann Curry, and a New America Media award

Roy S. Johnson Lands at History Channel Magazine

Seventeen months after his job as editor of Men's Fitness magazine was eliminated, veteran journalist Roy S. Johnson announced Thursday that, "It is with humility, gratitude – and, yes, tremendous joy! — that I share with you the news of my new duties as Editor-in-Chief of the History Channel's magazine and Executive Director of the History Channel Club.

"I am overseeing print, digital, social media and sponsorship activities, and will work closely with my new best friends @HistoryChannel to ensure total integration [of] the network's tremendous content with those platforms."

"And I can't wait to go hang with the #swamppeople and #pawnstars!

"Fit! Live! Win! will continue operate, as will my other ventures, including Write On Essays! and RSJ Media Solutions. Sleep? Overrated."

Firing Shows "Race Is Third Rail of American Politics"

"In America, talk about race is complex and fraught with danger. It is easy for people of good will to stumble when discussing it — and then trip a landmine. One recent explosion seems to have led to the firing, in late June, of respected Politico reporter Joe Williams," Jennifer Vanasco wrote Friday for Columbia Journalism Review.

"You may have heard the story. Williams, a White House correspondent for Politico and the former Deputy Chief of the Washington Bureau of the Boston Globe, was suspended and then fired after Breitbart.com posted a clip of him talking on MSNBC. In the quick clip, Williams, who is black, said, 'But when [Mitt Romney] comes on Fox and Friends, they're like him, they're white folks who are very much relaxed in their own company, so it's a very stark contrast I think and a problem that he's not been able to solve to date and he's going to have to work harder if he's going to try to compete.' Translation: Romney is more comfortable around white people."

Referring to American University professor Leonard Steinhorn, director of the Public Communication Division at the AU School of Communication, Vanasco concluded, ". . . [Williams's] firing has some lessons for journalists. First, race is still 'the third rail of American politics,' as Steinhorn said during the interview with CJR. It is important to be able to back up what you say with facts.

"And second, said Steinhorn, if you're not a columnist or an opinion writer, 'Stop the analysis and stop the advocacy and stick to gumshoe reporting.'

"In our brave new world of talking-head reporters, that may be impossible."

"Lens" Tackles "Race, Representation and Diversity"

"Freedom was in color. That was the indelible memory that Omar Rodríguez Saludes remembered the day he boarded an Iberia flight to Spain from Havana in 2010," David Gonzalez wrote July 10 for the Lens blog of the New York Times. "Until then, his world was sketched in drab shades of gray, green and white. Those were the colors of his imprisonment: gray for his rags, white for the walls and green for the guards.

" 'To see any other color was rare,' Mr. Rodríguez Saludes said. "But in that plane, I saw colors. Everyone was dressed regularly. I saw colors I had not seen in a long time.'

"Seven years, to be exact. Journalism was the reason for his imprisonment. Specifically, everyday shots of Havana life, far from the gleaming tourist hotels and beaches. His world showed a crumbling city with haggard faces, presided over, Oz-like, by billboards with revolutionary slogans.

"He had been among some 20 independent journalists who were rounded up by the Cuban government during a sweep of 75 dissidents in March 2003, and given lengthy sentences after quick trials."

Gonzalez told Journal-isms by email this week, "One of the things I had hoped to accomplish when I came on as co-editor of the Lens Blog was to broaden the types of photographers and images featured on the blog. So, in recent months my co-editor Jim Estrin and I have showcased how West African fotogs see West Africa, or how a Guatemalan fotog created an iconic image to symbolize his country's genocide.

"We have also made a point of raising issues of representation — how 'minorities' are seen by others as opposed to how they portray their own world. One of the most talked about posts was 'My White Friends', where Myra Greene, an African American shooter, made her white friends think about their own race as opposed to accept White as the default position.

". . . I do think we have delved more deeply into more issues on race, representation and diversity than any other photo blog that I am aware of."

Latino Activist Worries About El Diario-La Prensa

"When earlier this year the Argentinian newspaper, La Nación, bought ImpreMedia, the publisher of El Diario-La Prensa, La Opinión and other US-based Spanish-language newspapers, they made assurances, like most buyers initially do, that not much would change," Angelo Falcón, president of the New York-based National Institute for Latino Policy, wrote Monday for the institute.

"However, recent changes they have announced for their new properties seem to point to the real possibility that El Diario-La Prensa's days may be numbered. The city's Latino community may have to speak up now if they want to see this historic paper (and now news site) to continue to operate," Falcón continued, speaking of New York.

". . . The takeover of El Diario and ImpreMedia by this politically conservative Argentinian newspaper raised eyebrows in light of El Diario's largely liberal political leanings. But now the question is not so much whether its political orientation will change but whether its new foreign owners will shut it down or allow it to fail.

". . . Before the La Nación takeover, Juan González and Joseph Torres, in their book, News for All the People, described El Diario-La Prensa's position as follows:

" 'None of the surviving Spanish-language dailies in the United States are owned or controlled by Latinos. Even the most prestigious, El Diario/La Prensa and La Opinión, are run by non-Hispanic investors and executives. ImpreMedia, which acquired La Opinión and New York's Hoy from the Tribune Company, and purchased El Diario separately, has emerged as the largest publisher of Spanish-language dailies in the country, with the Lozano family, former owner of La Opinión, holding a minority share. Founded by Canadian entrepreneur John Paton in 2003, ImpreMedia is a joint venture of three private equity firms — ACON Investments, Clarity Partners, and Halyard Capital . . . — with the specific aim of 'consolidating the Spanish-language newspaper sector.'

"Since then, this media consolidation has gone from one dominant foreign investor from Canada to now another even more dominant foreign investor from Argentina. The paper currently, for example, outsources much of its production to cheap labor in Monterrey, Mexico, undercutting local union workers in the process. So will we being seeing more of this under the Argentinian owners? What this means for the future of not only of El Diario but for Spanish-language dailies in the United States as a whole is anybody's guess at this point. But it certainly has important implications for the way millions of Latinos will be getting their news and defining their issues. . . ."

Ex-Univision Boss Gives to "Anti-Immigrant" Candidates

"Jerry Perenchio, who built a personal fortune as co-owner of the Univision Spanish-language TV network, donated at least $2.5 million to super PACs backing candidates who political analysts describe as anti-immigrant," Janell Ross reported Wednesday for Huffington Post.

"His $2.6 million in super PAC contributions this election cycle — all but $100,000 directed to super PACs backing Republican candidates tough on immigration — makes him one of the nation's 10 biggest known campaign donors, according to Federal Elections Commission records.

"Perenchio, the 81-year-old son of an Italian immigrant, declined to comment on his super PAC contributions through an assistant at Chartwell Partners, the Los Angeles-based boutique investment company where he now serves as CEO. He contributed to super PACs supporting GOP presidential candidates Mitt Romney, Jon Huntsman and to Karl Rove's American Crossroads, which backs conservative candidates."

Fox Hypocritical to Offer Latino Website, Some Say

"Leading Latino leaders are criticizing the Fox News website Fox News Latino, saying it lacks credibility among Hispanics by profiting from them even as they are demonized by the conservative parent network known for anti-immigrant coverage," Joe Strupp reported Friday for Media Matters for America.

"Since it launched in 2010, Fox News Latino has positioned itself as 'the place to go for news that impacts the Latino Community,' covering news, politics, entertainment, and other stories through that lens.

" 'We were skeptical when we heard about this,' Inez Gonzalez, executive vice president of the National Hispanic Media Coalition, said of the creation of Fox News Latino. 'Fox News is a big voice in the anti-Latino rhetoric, so we were skeptical. Some of the articles that I have seen have been interesting to me, [but] I think the owners are hypocrites. I think they are totally forgetting there is [doublespeak] here. . . . ' "

• Jeremy W. Peters, New York Times: Jokes About Fox News Creep Into Obama's Comments as the Campaign Heats Up

Money Request Cost Zimmerman a Talk With Walters

Barbara Walters Friday confirmed a New York Post report that she was set to interview George Zimmerman, accused in the killing of unarmed Florida teenager Trayvon Martin, until Zimmerman asked for money at the last minute, Kristal Roberts reported for ABC News.

"Walters confirmed the posts report on The View, saying that she and her crew were preparing to do the interview when Zimmerman said there was a change of plans. Walters said Zimmerman refused to do the interview unless she paid for the month-long hotel stay.

"She said as a member of ABC News she couldn't do that."

Meanwhile, Colleen Curry, Matt Gutman and Seni Tienabeso reported Thursday for ABC that "Zimmerman's television interview in which he said he had few regrets about the night he killed teenager Trayvon Martin has been entered as possible evidence in his upcoming murder trial.

"In a wide ranging interview with Fox News' Sean Hannity Zimmerman, appearing articulate and calm, said he neither regretted carrying a gun that night nor pursuing the 17-year-old Martin."

• Joy-Ann Reid, theGrio.com: 5 things George Zimmerman told Sean Hannity that may come back to haunt him

C-SPAN to Televise Harlem Book Fair Saturday

C-SPAN's Book TV is televising the 14th annual Harlem Book Fair live Saturday from 12:30 p.m. to 6:30 p.m. Eastern time from the New York Public Library's Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture.

Scheduled are:

12:30 p.m.: "African American Publishing," with Carol Mackey, editor-in-chief, Black Expressions Book Club; Zane, author and publisher; Charmaine Parker, publishing director, Strebor Books.

2 p.m.: "Education," with Akil Khalfani, "The Hidden Debate: The Truth Revealed about the Battle over Affirmative Action in South Africa and the United States"; Baruti Kafele, "Motivating Black Males to Achieve in School & In Life"; John Michael Lee Jr., "The Educational Experience of Young Men of Color: A Review of Research, Pathways and Progress"; Shaun R. Harper, "Student Engagement in Higher Education: Theoretical Perspectives and Practical Approaches for Diverse Populations." The moderator is Carlton E. Brown, president of Clark Atlanta University.

3:30 p.m.: "2012 Presidential Election," with Khalil Gibran Muhammad, "The Condemnation of Blackness: Race, Crime, and the Making of Modern Urban America"; Cornel West, "The Rich and the Rest of Us: A Poverty Manifesto"; Fredrick C. Harris, "The Price of the Ticket: Barack Obama and the Rise and Decline of Black Politics"; Sonia Sanchez, author and activist. Moderator: Peniel Joseph, "Dark Days, Bright Nights: From Black Power to Barack Obama."

5 p.m.: "150th Anniversary of the Emancipation Proclamation," with Nell Irvin Painter, "The History of White People"; Obery M. Hendricks, "The Universe Bends Toward Justice: Radical Reflections on the Bible, the Church, and the Body Politic"; Farah Jasmine Griffin, "Who Set You Flowin'? The African-American Migration Narrative." Moderator: Christopher Paul Moore, historian and curator, Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture.

Pundit Admits Opining on Paterno Statue Too Soon

File this under "it sounded good at the time" or "too-infrequent admissions by commentators that they aren't always right."

Ta-Nehisi Coates, the Atlantic magazine blogger, wrote an op-ed for the New York Times last week in which he argued that the statue of Joe Paterno, the disgraced Penn State football coach, should remain.

". . . in a democracy, memorial statues are not simply comments on their subjects, but comments on their makers," Coates wrote, citing this example: "In Columbia, S.C., there stands a statue of Ben Tillman, the populist South Carolina senator who helped found Clemson University and, in his spare time, defended lynching from his august national offices."

And so, Coates argued, referring to Jerry Sandusky, the coach exposed as a child predator, ". . . Removing the Paterno statue allows Happy Valley to forget its own compliance in a national crime, to expunge its own culpability in its ruthless pursuit of glory. The statue should remain, and beneath it there should be a full explanation of Sandusky's crimes, Paterno's role and some warning to all of us who would turn a pastime into a god and elect a mortal man as its avatar."

Not so fast, argued Jessica Luther Wednesday on shakesville.com: "This argument that the statue should stand does not take into account what it might mean to the victims of Sandusky that the grinning JoePa remains an image on campus in any capacity.

"One of the great frustrations of media coverage when it comes to the Sandusky trial has been the focus on how everyone else outside of the victims themselves will cope with what has happened. How will Penn State football move on? What will the Penn State community do to heal? Not that those aren't legitimate questions. Yet when they take precedence in any capacity over the most direct victims (some of them still children) of Sandusky's crimes, we are doing it wrong."

In a blog post on Sunday, Coates conceded the point.

"I continue to be concerned about public historiography, but that all feels really abstract when you're talking about a victim of child rape. To carry forth my original analogy, whatever my thoughts on Ben Tillman, it would take a cold heart to make academic points to the families of lynching victims from the confines of the writer's comfy offices.

"As for my part, I try to see as much as I can. But I miss things. More perspectives would have made for a better column."

As Reuters reported, the NCAA, the governing body of U.S. college sports, fined Penn State $60 million and voided its football victories for the past 14 seasons Monday in an unprecedented rebuke for the school's failure to stop Sandusky's sexual abuse of children.

Jason Pugh added in the Times of Shreveport, La., "When NCAA president Mark Emmert announced sanctions against Penn State, it helped legendary Grambling State football coach Eddie Robinson return to the top of the NCAA Division I all-time wins list."

• Howard Bryant, ESPN.com: Penn State should not play football (July 14)
  
  
• Bryan Burwell, St. Louis Post-Dispatch: Paterno family still trying to cover up (July 17)
  
  
• Kristian Dyer, Yahoo Sports: City of Grambling praises decision to strip Joe Paterno of wins record
  
  
• Jemele Hill, ESPN.com: 'Worst' scandals or 'latest' scandals?
  
  
• Bomani Jones, sbnation.com: Penn State, And The NCAA's Thirst For Punishment
  
  
• Roland S. Martin, Creators Syndicate: Joe Paterno Is Nothing More Than a Coward (July 13)
  
  
• Monte Poole, Bay Area News Group: NCAA's strict sanctions against Penn State unfortunately don't affect those associated with Jerry Sandusky or Joe Paterno
  
  
• Jason Reid, Washington Post: If Penn State doesn’t shut down football program, the NCAA should (July 13)
  
  
• Drew Sharp, Detroit Free Press: Money matters make proper punishment of Penn State impractical (July 22)
  
  
• Deron Snyder, Washington Times: Justice on the way for Sandusky’s abettors (July 10)
  
  
• Jason Whitlock, FoxSports.com: Shocker: NCAA does the right thing

Judy Woodruff, left, and Gwen Ifill discuss Bain Capital on PBS. (Video)

Ifill, Woodruff to Be First All-Female Convention Team

"Late last month, PBS announced that Gwen Ifill and Judy Woodruff would co-anchor the network's coverage of the 2012 conventions," Alyssa Rosenberg wrote Monday for slate.com. "That's not really surprising: Ifill and Woodruff are two of PBS's most distinguished anchors. But at the Television Critics Association Press Tour in Los Angeles, Calif. on Sunday, the network pointed out something interesting. Ifill and Woodruff will be the first all-female team in news broadcast history to spearhead a network's convention coverage.

" . . . We don't even notice how often it is that white men provide the default perspective on any given event — which is why there is something powerful about PBS's rather routine decision. Woodruff and Ifill will inevitably bring their own experiences to anchoring the conventions, whether as women journalists, or in Ifill's case, as a woman of color. Turns out there's no reason a presidential election should need the supposedly soothing gravitas of a man to help viewers interpret information and make decisions."

• Ben Armbruster, theGrio.com: Romney Rep Tara Wall Struggles to Define Republican's Afghanistan Policy
  
  
• Eric Deggans, Tampa Bay (Fla.) Times: Gwen Ifill talks on bringing Washington Week to St. Petersburg and the subtle departure of Jim Lehrer (July 24)
  
  
• Gene Demby, HuffPost BlackVoices: Voter ID Law Support Linked To Attitudes About African Americans, Study Finds 
  
  
• John Harwood, New York Times: More News Reports Show Up in Campaign Ads, to Journalists' Chagrin
  
  
• Rick Horowitz, YouTube.com: "You Didn't Build That" (video)
  
  
• Eugene Kane, Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel: A little color wouldn't hurt in Romney's VP 
  
  
• Jim Naureckas, Fairness & Accuracy In Reporting: Objectivity and Its Opposite, 'Objectivity'
  
  
• Ruben Navarrette Jr., Washington Post News Media Services: Harry Reid and the race card
  
  
• Solange Uwimana, Media Matters for America: CNN Facilitates Romney's Deceptive Attack Ad Against Obama
  
  
• Armstrong Williams blog, the Hill: Romney needs to break the tradition of political mudslinging

NAHJ Veterans Pose 9 Media Questions to Candidates

Last week, Juan Gonzalez, columnist for the Daily News in New York and president of the National Association of Hispanic Journalists from 2002 to 2004, said he would "probably not" make an endorsement in the NAHJ president's race, telling Journal-isms, "I'll wait till the convention to get a clearer idea of what the policies and positions of the contending candidates are before I decide on my vote.

"And by 'policies' I mean something more substantive than whether to hold a convention next year, or who should be a voting member. I want to hear their vision for the future of NAHJ and for the journalism profession."

Since then, Gilbert Bailon, NAHJ president from 1994 to 1996, and Cecilia Alvear, president from 2000 to 2002, told Journal-isms they also were not ready to endorse. "I want to study the candidates and their proposals and visions very carefully," Alvear said. Bailon, now editor of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, said, "I've been away from the board for a long while, and I don't know a number of the current players. I will be at Unity to get reconnected."

On Saturday, Gonzalez and other journalists with a history in the association — three of them members of NAHJ's Hall of Fame — sent all NAHJ candidates a list of nine questions seeking their views on such issues as media consolidation, the state of Spanish-language media, NAHJ's advocacy role, whether broadcasters should be required to place their political files online and the concept of Network Neutrality, or "open Internet."

The group included Jessica Durkin, founder, InOtherNews.us and former NAHJ board member; Felix Gutierrez, professor at USC Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism; Maggie Rivas-Rodriguez, associate professor of journalism, University of Texas at Austin School of Journalism, and Joseph Torres, senior external affairs director for Free Press and former deputy director of NAHJ.

"We are concerned the association is not well positioned to advocate for issues and policies that deal with the many challenging structural issues confronting journalists of color," they said. "If we do not help shape the changing structure, we fear that journalists of color will remain marginalized in whatever media platform we work."

Hugo Balta and Russell Contreras, presidential candidates; Josie Tizcareno Pereira, candidate for at-large, Spanish language officer; and Federico Subervi, candidate for at-large, academic officer, have responded.

Separately, Contreras, vice president/print and chief financial officer, posted his own "NAHJ Plan for Growth 2014" on the site of his slate, "HalftimeInNAHJ."

Among his items was a proposal for Unity Journalists, the alliance that now includes NAHJ, the Asian American Journalists Association, the Native American Journalists Association and the National Lesbian & Gay Journalists Asssociation. The National Association of Black Journalists withdrew last year. Contreras wrote:

"The NAHJ board will decide the future of NAHJ's role in UNITY. As NAHJ president, I will call for a summit of the UNITY alliance partners and NABJ President Greg Lee to iron out a new agreement that puts the concerns of the alliance partners first, not UNITY. NAHJ will ask all UNITY board members who are no longer journalists to resign immediately. NAHJ will look toward partnering with NABJ, NAJA and AAJA on future conventions, and possible reorganizing under a new alliance with updated bylaws and goals."

While the statement does not mention NLGJA, Contreras told Journal-isms by email, "The call for a summit with UNITY alliance partners includes NLGJA. They are an alliance partner. I've also approached NLGJA and talked to some board members about partnering with us in the future. We have a good working relationship with them." [Updated July 24]

• Native American Journalists Association: Announcing the candidates for the upcoming NAJA Board Election at UNITY

Proctor Back in Newspapers as Editor of N.C. Group

"Glenn Proctor, a Pulitzer Prize winning journalist and award-winning news media manager, has been appointed executive editor of Lake Norman Publications . . ." a group of weekly and monthly papers in the region about 25 miles north of Charlotte, N.C., the Huntersville (N.C.) Herald reported Friday.

"In his new role, Proctor will oversee the day-to-day news and digital information operations of the company's newspapers — the Herald Weekly, Mooresville Weekly and Denver Weekly and the monthly Mountain Island Monitor.

" 'I like to win,' Proctor told the staff Wednesday, July 18, during the announcement of his hiring. 'Whether that's with better writing, better layout (design of pages), better photography or better attitudes, I like to win.'

"Craig Moon, owner and CEO of Lake Norman Publications, said, 'Glenn is just the type of person our newspapers need at this point in our company's development — an award-winning, uncompromising journalist who excels at mentoring and leadership."

Moon retired in 2009 as president and publisher of USA Today. Proctor retired last year as vice president for news and executive editor of the Richmond (Va.) Times-Dispatch.

Proctor wrote on Facebook, "As David Ng put it: This is like the scene from Godfather III when Al Pacino as Michael Corleone says, 'I keep trying to get out and they keep sucking me back in.' "

Writers Examine Use of N-Word, Beauty Standards

Emma Sapong, a reporter for the Buffalo News, wrote Friday about the use of the "N" word by African Americans, accompanying it with a sidebar headlined, "Why I had to write this story." The daughter of a Liberian mother, Sapong said she was not fully prepared for its casual use by African American adults when she was growing up.

Nor was she "Some 20 years later, as an adult journalist, well-versed in American life and its fixation with race." She "met the n-word's other personality" when it was hurled at her by young white men as she walked down a Buffalo street.

Meanwhile, Jessica C. Andrews, writing Thursday for the online Clutch magazine, examined the implications of comments on Facebook and Twitter about the facial features of Blue Ivy Carter, infant daughter of entertainers Beyoncé and Jay-Z, and what the remarks say about beauty standards in 2012.

"The criticism of full lips, 'nappy' hair, and wide noses in our communities is weighted," Andrews wrote. "Some people would have you believe attractiveness is subjective, but the truth is our collective view of facial features is tangled in the web of racism. In our social imagination, European features set the standard for what's beautiful, rendering broad noses and big lips ugly."

• Nadra Kareem Nittle, Maynard Institute: The Media and the N-Word
  
  

NABJ "Meet-Up" at Martin Luther King Memorial

About 40 members of the National Association of Black Journalists, the Association of Black Media Workers (Baltimore), Philadelphia Association of Black Journalists and Washington Association of Black Journalists gathered in a slight drizzle Saturday at the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial in Washington to take a photo and celebrate King's legacy. The "meet-up" was followed by a picnic in the Maryland suburbs.