Wall St. Journal Intern Out After Fabrication Charges

June 28, 2012

Liane Membis discusses her plans as Miss Black America - Connecticut with WTNH-TV in New Haven in November. (Video)

Liane Membis, Yale Grad, Is Miss Black America - Connecticut

An intern at the Wall Street Journal who is Miss Black America - Connecticut, graduated from Yale University and said she wanted to "represent African American women in a positive light," is no longer at the Journal after the newspaper said she fabricated sources and quotes just three weeks into the10-week internship, according to news reports Tuesday.

"The paper wrote that it had removed an article by the intern, Liane Membis, that was published on June 17 because 'many of the names contained in the article about the re-opening of the 103rd Street Pedestrian Bridge in Manhattan were fabricated' and 'the quotes couldn't be independently verified.' The note concluded: 'Ms. Membis is no longer working at The Wall Street Journal,' Christine Haughney reported for the New York Times.

Although "Bridging a Local Divide" was pulled from the Journal website, Talking Biz News said it had been provided a copy by a Journal staffer.

The piece includes quotes from East Harlem residents such as:

" 'Sometimes I just come up on this bridge and stop and look around, right up here on the top,' said Katrina Maple, 64 years old. 'It's calming and relaxing. It feels like we finally got our backyard back.'

On the Washington Post website, Erik Wemple reprinted the quote and asked, "Do people talk like that?"

The Wall Street Journal statement said:

"Liane Membis was an intern for the Journal for less than three weeks and wrote or contributed to five published pieces — one of which has been removed from our online archives and two of which have been edited to remove quotes that were provided by the intern and that cannot be confirmed. Notes detailing the actions taken have been placed at the original URLs. Ms. Membis is no longer working at The Wall Street Journal," according to Andrew Beaujon of the Poynter Institute.

"The two other pieces with editor's notes are 'Space Shuttle Floats Into Its Manhattan Home' by Membis, published June 6, and 'Stop, Frisk in Spotlight' by Pervaiz Shallwani, published June 10."

Haughney added in the Times:

"Ms. Membis's experience at The Journal could create problems for other publications. A graduate of Yale University, she contributed more than three dozen articles to the Yale Daily News. The paper's editor, Max de [La] Bruyère, said, 'We are in the process of reviewing the stories she wrote for the paper as best we can.'

"Ms. Membis also wrote for CNN and Ebony and had an article picked up by The Huffington Post."

Among the pieces she wrote for the Yale Daily News was "Pour some sugar daddy on me," a short essay in 2009 about enjoying lunches with a married man.

Membis' LinkedIn profile lists her as "Wordsmith/Visionary Entrepreneur" and editor/publisher at Liberette Magazine, "an online magazine for women of color who are open-minded and intrigued by thought-provoking reads in a progressive environment."

At Yale, where Membis studied from 2008 to this year, she listed her activities and societies as "Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc., Yale African Students Association, Black [Women's] Coalition, Dwight Hall at Yale."

In an interview in November with WTNH in New Haven, Conn., after she won the Miss Black America - Connecticut contest, Membis said she wanted to "represent African American women in a positive light" and that her platform in the national contest would be "improving literacy in the African American community," asserting that "40 percent of our fourth graders are illiterate in the United States."

• Max de La Bruyère, Yale Daily News: For Our Readers: Regarding Liane Membis '12
  
  
• Peter Jacobs, ivygateblog.com: Former Yale Daily News Writer Fired From Wall Street Journal Internship For Making Up Sources
  
  
• Julia La Roche, businessinsider.com: This Wall Street Journal Intern Was Fired For Fabricating Sources

Suspended Reporter Sees Right-Wing Smear Campaign

"The reporter suspended from Politico for comments about Mitt Romney said on Wednesday that he had been the target of a deliberate right-wing smear campaign," Jack Mirkinson reported for the Huffington Post.

"Speaking to radio and Current TV host Bill Press, Joe Williams, who was punished for saying on MSNBC that Mitt Romney is more comfortable around 'white folks,' said that there had been a 'selective prosecution' against him by conservative websites like The Daily Caller and the late Andrew Breitbart's Big Media.

"Williams told Press that he is still 'in limbo' with Politico, and is in negotiations about his future there.

"Speaking about the comments that got him suspended, Williams said that he 'probably should have selected my words more carefully.' But he defended the broader point he had been making, and said that he thought people had understood what he meant. Asked by Press if he should apologize to Mitt Romney for saying he felt more at home with white people, Williams said, 'If I apologize for that there are going to be many other people who will have to as well.'

". . . Press also asked Williams, who is African American, about a comment he made on Twitter saying that racism is 'the secret sauce in the Politico s--tburger.' Williams said that the tweet, which he made weeks before his Romney comments, had been mistakenly posted to his public feed, rather than in a direct message.

" 'Twitter is a medium that rewards ... lack of thought,' he said. 'I was in a very irritated place. I vented in a public place and that was a huge mistake.' He later said, though, that Politico has 'a lot of questions' to deal with in terms of its staff diversity."

Betsy Rothstein of FishbowlDC reported that Tucker Carlson, editor-in-chief of the Daily Caller, called Williams a nut.

Writing Wednesday about responses to Williams' remarks from editors at Breitbart.com and the Daily Caller, Rothstein said that Carlson, "who has sparred with reporters at Politico for years and repeatedly tied Politico to MSNBC to brand the publication as left wing, remarked, 'Supposedly objective White House correspondent accuses GOP candidate of racism on the basic of no evidence? Seemed like a pretty obvious story to us,' he wrote by email. 'By the way, Williams made those comments in public, on Twitter, so I'd hate to think it took our piece to get his bosses to notice he's a nut, though that's what he claims.' "

NBC Stations' Rules: Don't Post What You Wouldn't Air

"While people typically delineate their personal and professional digital lives, there is little distinction between the two — at least as far as social media is concerned — for the news staffs at the 10 NBC-owned stations," Diana Marszalek reported Tuesday for mediaite.com.

"For the last year or so, the NBC Owned Television Stations have required individuals who work in their newsrooms — from interns and production assistants to reporters and anchors — to follow the company rules governing social media use, regardless of whether they are using the platform to promote news or their personal lives.

"That means news staff is prohibited from tweeting, posting or distributing via other social networking means 'anything that compromises the integrity and objectivity of you or NBCUniversal,' even using a personal account, says Kevin Keeshan, ombudsman for the station group.

" 'We ask them to think and use common sense,' he says. 'Don't post anything we're not prepared to broadcast.' "

• Tommy Christopher, mediaite.com: Joe Williams' 1st Interview Since Politico Suspension: 'I Gave (Breitbart.com) The Rope, They Did The Hanging'
  
  
• Betsy Rothstein, FishbowlDC: Did Politico’s Joe Williams Just Bury Himself?

Another Female Journalist Attacked in Tahrir Square

"The story sounds hideously like another — one of a chaotic, predatory attack on a woman journalist in Cairo's Tahrir Square," Lauren Wolfe wrote Tuesday for the Committee to Protect Journalists.

"Clothes torn from her body, hundreds of men surging to grab her breasts and claw at her. A woman wondering, 'Maybe this is how I go, how I die.' It has been almost a year and a half since CBS correspondent and CPJ board member Lara Logan endured an attack like this. Now, an independent journalist and student named Natasha Smith reports that it has happened to her.

"Smith reported the attack on her blog today, describing how a horde of men descended on her Sunday night, pulling her limbs and throwing her around as she tried to protect her camera. She said she soon lost her camera, her backpack, and began to pray: 'make it stop.'

" 'They were scratching and clenching my breasts and forcing their fingers inside me in every possible way,' Smith wrote. 'So many men. All I could see was leering faces, more and more faces sneering and jeering as I was tossed around like fresh meat among starving lions.'

"In Cairo to film an independent documentary on women's rights and abuses against women in Egypt since the revolution, according to her website, Smith shared an account of her attack that is eerily parallel to Logan's. . . "

"Like a Reunion of People Who Love Bill (Raspberry)"

Retired Washington Post columnist William Raspberry, right, receives a tribute from the Post newsroom Tuesday at a roast and benefit for his BabySteps foundation, which nurtures parents and preschoolers in Raspberry's hometown of Okolona, Miss. With Raspberry are his wife, Sondra, center, and son, Mark.

More than 200 journalists and other community people went to the Washington Post building for the tribute, which raised more than $35,000, according to Walt Swanston, veteran journalist, diversity consultant and one of the organizers. Attendees paid $100 if they were members of a journalism organization; $250 if not. Many who could not attend contributed nonetheless.

Raspberry, 76, a 1994 Pulitzer Prize winner, is suffering from  recurring prostate cancer, Sondra Raspberry said. Juan Williams, Fox News commentator and master of ceremonies for the event, said of the occasion, "It's like a reunion of people who love Bill and love the Washington Post." Local columnist Courtland Milloy Jr. filed a column from Okolona about the Baby Steps program that appeared in Wednesday's print edition. Donald Graham, Washington Post Co. CEO, was honorary co-chair of the event.

• More photos

K.C. Star Looks for Six Traits to Describe Suspects

The Kansas City Star's stylebook says to be "especially cautious about identifying criminal suspects by race or ethnicity when the overall description of the person is vague," public editor Derek Donovan wrote on Sunday.

"It clarifies that skin color should be included when the description also includes height, weight, hair color, approximate age and one other distinguishing element such as a noticeable physical attribute (but not eye color — a strange rule, in my opinion), clothing or a vehicle.

"It allows for two exceptions:

• "When the person has one particularly distinctive physical characteristic, fewer details are acceptable, but race should be included: 'an Asian man about 5 feet 8 inches tall with a wooden left leg.'
  
  
• "Stories about serial or most-wanted criminals may give much less detail because 'a reader will want even superficial information to help him or her decide how to respond to potential threats.'

"Vague descriptions such as 'a black man in his mid-20s' describe thousands of people in the Kansas City area. I hope that people who don't belong to a minority will appreciate that pointing out unhelpful aspects of one's appearance are as offensive as noting the person's religion, political views or alma mater.

"I understand the reasoning behind The Star's guidelines," Donovan wrote, pointing out that the Star doesn't always follow its guidelines, "but I also think readers who find them too restrictive have a point as well. Some descriptions can still be useful with fewer than six attributes."

From Observer to Panelist at Press-Freedom Meeting

Yvette Walker, night news director at the Oklahoman in Oklahoma City and Edith Kinney Gaylord Endowed Chair of Media Ethics at the University of Central Oklahoma, is filing reports for Journal-isms on the International Press Institute's World Congress that began Sunday in Trinidad.

By Yvette Walker

On Tuesday, I appeared on a panel at the IPI World Congress: "Online Media and Ethics in a Changing Media Landscape." Fascinating stuff. I discussed the Trayvon Martin case as it related to how the information circulated via online media and social media. Kwame Laurence, online editor (now focusing more on sports) at the Trinidad Express, discussed comments and moderating commenters.

My points were that the original print story by the Orlando Sentinel was too small to attract the attention the story later received, and that the incident didn't become national and international news until bloggers chimed in, a change.org petition to charge George Zimmerman garnered hundreds of thousands of signatures (now millions) and the iconic hoodie photo was widely shared on social media.

The session flew by and there were great questions and comments, especially from Jacqueline Charles of the Miami Herald, who had just come from the National Association of Black Journalists convention in New Orleans. Charles pointed out that the Martin family mentioned the varying photos of Trayvon that circulated and said they did not intend to manipulate his public persona.

["Trayvon had a baby face," his mother, Sabrina Martin, said at the convention of charges that the family was releasing photos that made her son look younger. "The most recent photos we had were the horseback riding and the Hollister shirt. We're not trying to hide anything. He was a teenager. He was our son." The Rev. Al Sharpton, who appeared with the family at the Thursday session, told the NABJ audience, "Families never plan to be victims." Many journalists forget that victims and their families did not expect to be public figures but treat them as though they did and are, Sharpton said.]

There is much we could have talked about. I did not get a chance to say that there were great examples of analysis, including columns by Charles M. Blow of the New York Times, and from Kelly McBride, senior faculty, ethics, reporting and writing at the Poynter Institute, among others.

Final sessions of the day included "Moving from the Newsroom to the State House (and Back Again)" and "Covering the Environment."

The three-day Congress ended Tuesday night with a closing ceremony at the Diplomatic Center in Port of Spain. I left this beautiful island Wednesday, with thanks to the International Press Institute and to the talented journalists from around the world I was fortunate to meet.

• Steven M. Ellis, International Press Institute: Free Expression Rapporteurs Issue Joint Declaration
  
  
• Steven M. Ellis, International Press Institute: Trinidad and Tobago Prime Minister Promises to Initiate Review of Nation’s Defamation Laws (access from home page)
  
  
• Kejan Haynes, Trinidad Express: 'State-owned media means misinformation'
  
  
• Naomi Hunt, International Press Institute: Ka-Ching!: Avoiding Manipulation through Government Advertising
  
  
• Trinidad Express: Tears for slain journalists
  
  

Blacks, Latinos Affected Most by Health Care Act

As polls showed that African Americans and Hispanics are more favorably disposed toward the Affordable Health Care Act than others, and administration officials said those groups would be disproportionately helped by it, the Obama administration sought Friday to capitalize on its Supreme Court victory by reaching out to those groups.

Valerie Jarrett, senior adviser to President Obama, held interviews Friday with Roland Martin on radio's syndicated "Tom Joyner Morning Show," Warren Ballentine on radio's "Warren Ballentine Show," Leroy Jones of American Urban Radio Network and Joe Madison, known as "The Black Eagle," on SiriusXM satellite radio.

In addition, Jarrett hosted a background briefing conference call for reporters Thursday on what the decision meant to African Americans. The Office of Minority Health in the Department of Health and Human Services sent staffers to radio stations in Atlanta and Maryland to discuss the benefits of the law, which was upheld by the Supreme Court Thursday in a 5-4 decision.

"We had a NBC/Wall Street Journal poll this week that underscored how, in so many respects, the political parties are talking to radically different audiences," John Harwood of the Wall Street Journal said Friday on "The Diane Rehm Show," an NPR program that originates at WAMU-FM in Washington.

". . . If you look at the popularity of the health care law by race, overall in the country, 35 percent of the American people said the health care law was a good idea, 41 percent, bad idea. But break it down: whites, 29 percent good idea, 50 percent bad idea. Mitt Romney has a large lead among white voters. African-Americans, 67 percent say they think the law is a good idea, 4 percent say it's a bad idea, and with Hispanics, 48 and 20. . . . these parties are talking to much different coalitions."

On Politic365.com, Adriana Maestas wrote that "Blacks, Latinos and other folks of color make up more than half of the nation's uninsured population" and listed "5 Things the Obamacare Ruling Does for Blacks and Latinos."

They were: "More Blacks and Latinos will gain health coverage," "More Black and Latino Doctors and Nurses," "Improved Health for the Ladies," "Coverage for Black and Latino Young Adults is Protected" and "More Health Centers in Black and Latino Communities."

• Wayne Bennett, the Field Negro: A victory for O but his AG is still being hunted.
  
  
• Karen DeWitt, Baltimore Post-Examiner: Supreme Court ruling to uphold Obamacare was the 'right' decision
  
  
• Jenn Ettinger, Free Press: Free Press Pleased Supreme Court Denied Broadcasters' Hail Mary Attempt [on media ownership]
  
  
• Fox News Latino: What the Supreme Court Health Care Decision Means for Latinos
  
  
• Victor Garcia, Fox News Latino: Latinos React To Health Care Ruling 
  
  
• Rick Horowitz video: The Supremes Rule. (The Bleat Goes On.)
  
  
• Yanick Rice Lamb, BlackAmericaWeb.com: Supreme Court Ruling Gives Americans a Prescription for Better Health
  
  
• Geraldo Rivera, Fox News Latino: Legislative Vandalism
  
  
• Janell Ross, Huffington Post: Supreme Court Upholds Affordable Care Act, A Boon To Minority Health In The U.S.
  
  
• Amanda Simmons, Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press: Supreme Court ignores requests for video and audio access to health care ruling
  
  

Jon Stewart Can't Resist Tweaking CNN, Fox Screwups

"When CNN and Fox News screwed up and reported that the Supreme Court had declared a key provision of President Obama's healthcare law unconstitutional, it became apparent it would be ripe material for Comedy Central's 'The Daily Show,' " Alex Weprin reported Friday for TVNewser. (Videos)

"Jon Stewart didn't disappoint last night, with most of his ire directed at CNN."

At the Associated Press, Jim Romenesko reported, David Scott, region editor/Central U.S., wrote to colleagues, "Please, immediately, stop taunting on social networks about CNN and others' SCOTUS ruling mistake and the AP getting it right.

" That's not the impression we want to reflect as an organization. Let our reporting take the lead."

• David Bauder, Associated Press: News outlets don't all get ruling right
  
  
• Katy Culver, University of Wisconsin, Madison: Getting news fast and wrong
  
  
• Rebecca Dana, Daily Beast: Humiliating Day for TV News, From Ann Curry’s Exit to CNN, Fox Debacles
  
  
• David Edwards, rawstory.com: O'Reilly promised to 'apologize for being an idiot' if heath law was upheld
  
  
• Steve Myers, Poynter Institute: Were CNN & Fox News’ mistakes on Supreme Court ruling part of ‘process journalism’?
  
  
• James Rainey, Los Angeles Times: CNN, Fox fumble the call, capping months of media misperception
  
  
• Rem Rieder, American Journalism Review: Another Stumble for Reeling CNN
  
  
• Erik Wemple, Washington Post: Bloomberg nails Supreme Court story

Johnson No Longer Namesake of Howard U. School

John H. Johnson, founder of Ebony and Jet magazines, pledged $4 million to the School of Communications at Howard University shortly before his death in 2005.

The school was renamed for him, and the gift was proudly cited at his funeral. Now, Johnson's name has apparently been removed from the school as the publishing company and the university have been unable to leverage the pledge into the $20 million to $30 million needed to construct a new building, people familiar with the situation told Journal-isms.

Kerry-Ann Hamilton, a spokeswoman for the university, would not answer when asked whether the School of Communications was still named after Johnson. Instead, she later gave Journal-isms a statement from the school and the publishing company announcing a new collaboration.

"Howard University and Johnson Publishing Company share a historic and enduring relationship. We continue to collaborate on educational programs together like the newly created John H. Johnson Endowed Chair in Entrepreneurship. The program will mentor and develop young talent to build on the pioneering work and legacy of the late entrepreneur and publisher John H. Johnson," according to the statement from Sidney A. Ribeau, Howard University president, and Linda Johnson Rice, chairman and chief executive officer of Johnson Publishing Company, Inc.

Hamilton said the chair would be launched in the fall.

Reporting on Johnson's funeral in August 2005, Charles Storch wrote this in the Chicago Tribune:

". . . Before nearly 1,500 people in Rockefeller Memorial Chapel at the University of Chicago, Howard University President H. Patrick Swygert recounted how he sold Johnson on donating $4 million for a school of communications that would be named in the publisher's honor.

"Swygert said Johnson listened attentively and respectfully to his pitch, but Swygert sensed the meeting was not going well. He then told Johnson that, as a youth in Philadelphia, he sold Jet door to door, toting the issues in the familiar green-and-white satchel.

" 'When I mentioned the satchel and I mentioned that it was green and white, Mr. Johnson said, "When are we having the dedication program." ' " Earl Graves Sr., publisher of Black Enterprise magazine, was Swygert's partner in appealing to Johnson to make the donation.

Linda Johnson Rice succeeded her father in heading the company. By 2009, Crain's Chicago Business was describing the firm as "under siege" amid the recession, and Rice considered selling it. She eventually decided to redouble efforts to save it.

Today the Howard University website lists the school without Johnson's name, though the school's website section contains a biography of the pioneering publisher.

Anchor Chides Sotomayor Over Immigration Ruling

"Blurring the line between advocate and journalist, Univision anchor Jorge Ramos publicly disapproved of the Supreme Court's ruling on Arizona's immigration law Monday," Cristina Costantini wrote Wednesday for HuffPost LatinoVoices.

"In particular, the vote to uphold the 'papers, please' provision of the law by Judge Sonia Sotomayor, the first Hispanic justice on the Supreme Court, came as a shock to the Spanish-language anchor.

" 'Surprised that Judge Sonia Sotomayor voted in favor of the police acting as immigration agents in Arizona. She could have stopped it, and she did not,' he tweeted in Spanish shortly after the ruling was released.

"The provision, which requires law enforcement to check the legal status of individuals they suspect of being in the country illegally, was not struck down by the court, and will 'only create more persecution and discrimination in Arizona and other states,' he said.

"Ramos called Monday 'a sad day for the Hispanic community,' in an interview with Diane Sawyer on ABC World [News]."

• Marisa Guthrie, Hollywood Reporter: Univision's Jorge Ramos and Maria Elena Salinas to Get Lifetime Achievement Emmy
  
  
• Neil King Jr., Wall Street Journal: Obama Gains Among Latinos
  
  
• Seth Motel and Eileen Patten, Pew Hispanic Center: The 10 Largest Hispanic Origin Groups: Characteristics, Rankings, Top Counties
  
  
• Juan Williams, Elizabeth Llorente, Alan Colmes, Dan Stein, Fox News Latino: Analyzing the Immigration Court Decision

Will the Real Black Press Please Stand Up?

Yes, that's President Obama on the cover of the latest Essence magazine, a publication for black women. He's interviewed by Gwen Ifill, a black woman who is moderator and managing editor of "Washington Week" on PBS and is senior correspondent on "The PBS NewsHour."

And yes, Obama has been interviewed by African American radio jocks Tom Joyner, Warren Ballentine and Steve Harvey, by NPR's Michel Martin, by Ebony and Black Enterprise, and by the Trotter Group, black columnists who are largely in the white press.

Those people are all African American. But they don't really count, according to the owners of black community newspapers who belong to the National Newspaper Publishers Association.

Those others are not the black press: newspapers — not magazines or broadcast outlets — that are owned by African Americans.

The publishers vented at the NNPA's June 20-23 convention in Atlanta, Akeya Dickson wrote this week for the NNPA's news service.

" 'Get Out the Vote,' a panel discussion at the National Newspaper Publishers Association annual convention, should have been renamed, 'Get Out the Anger' as African-American newspaper publishers expressed strong displeasure over what they deemed the failure of President Barack Obama's administration to accommodate the needs of the Black Press," Dickson wrote.

Obama did speak to the publishers at the White House during Black Press Week in the spring. But the president took no questions and did not permit photos, the publishers retort. And Obama held a conference call with NNPA before the 2010 midterm elections, but so much has happened since then, they say.

"We have the largest number of black-owned media than anybody," Dorothy Leavell, a past NNPA president, told Journal-isms by telephone on Friday. "That ought to count for something. He's missing a lot by not talking to African Americans. We have information from our individual communities that might be useful to him," particularly since so many in the White House bubble are not African American.

With African American consumers using a wide variety of media, the argument that one needs the black-owned press to reach black consumers or black voters becomes more difficult to make.

However, ownership makes the difference, Leavell and others say. They have the authenticity.

The argument is not new. Essence, once black-owned, is now a Time Inc. property. Black Entertainment Television is now part of a white-owned conglomerate. Robert L. Johnson, after selling BET to Viacom for $2.3 billion, told the Trotter Group in 2001 that he should not be viewed as a sellout.

"Johnson told us that in the 21st century, African Americans should no longer focus on who owns what, but on what he called 'Black value drivers,' " Wiley Hall wrote then for the Baltimore Afro-American. "Oprah Winfrey, Michael Jordan, Tiger Woods and the BET brand all are Black value drivers, said Johnson. They are proven commodities that generate income and therefore have both power and influence in the marketplace. In Johnson's eyes, the Black community wasn't losing one of its largest, Black-owned media outlets. It was gaining a multi-billion dollar ally in Viacom."

Arguments on all sides can be self-serving.

Alexis Stodghill, writing in March for HuffPost Black Voices, took another tack:

"When you look at the legacy of BET, a company that was completely black-owned and run, you can see that black ownership is not a holy grail. No other media enterprise is more maligned for its cultural products, and it was created by us for us. So while African American ownership may be preferred, it might not guarantee quality or depth of media content, or respect for every black audience member."

Meanwhile, Glen Ford, a writer from the black left, this week broadcast "The Black Press Ponder Obama-Love" to describe as "the Black press" journalists who work in both the black and mainstream media. He launched a salvo at the National Association of Black Journalists, raising in a different context the question of authenticity.

Apparently relying on news reports, Ford wrote for BlackAgendaReport.com about a Saturday afternoon session at last week's NABJ convention with Valerie Jarrett, senior adviser to Obama. "The president 'has a genuine love for the Black community,' said Jarrett — and that was quite sufficient for many of the assembled Black journalists," Ford declared.

But the journalists in the room tell a different story. "Among the topics that NABJ members put before Valerie on Saturday were the pending health care decision, black churches' reaction to the president's gay marriage pronouncement, her plans should the president not get re-elected, and the generally coarse racial climate these days," one of them told Journal-isms privately.

Jarrett was asked "about the fact that, when it comes to the needs/concerns of the black community, the president puts distance between himself and black voters, and wears a mask of impartiality. Specifically, the main issue in question was black unemployment, which is still in the double digits on Obama's watch.

". . . Was Mr. Ford in New Orleans? If so, where was HE when the questioning went down?"

• Gromer Jeffers Jr., Dallas Morning News: Obama adviser Valerie Jarrett outlines split message on the economy
  
  
• Matthew Vann, NABJ Monitor: For Black Journalists, a Homecoming: Some leaving mainstream for black-oriented media
  
  
• DeWayne Wickham, USA Today: Enthusiasm of black vote key to White House

Curry's Passion Was Elsewhere, NBC News Chief Says

Asked why Ann Curry did not work out as a morning TV host, NBC News President Steve Capus "allowed that her weakness was convincingly presiding over morning TV staples such as cooking segments and celebrity interviews that make up a big chunk of the job, " Marisa Guthrie reported Friday for the Hollywood Reporter.

" 'I think it was not where her real passion was,' he said. 'In her heart of hearts, I think she would admit that. I think her real passion is built around reporting on international stories. It's tough to convey a sincere interest in something if you don't possess it. We live in a HD world. Dan Rather used to say the camera never blinks. Well, this is an HD world now, and the camera picks up everything. And you could tell with her, you can tell with any anchor, whether they're into it or not. And I think we've now come up with a role that will play to her strengths.'

"Curry has accepted a new multiyear deal as international correspondent/anchor contributing to all NBC News broadcasts. She'll also appear on Today as anchor-at-large. Of course, many media observers questioned whether Curry had the right attributes and personality for the job when she inherited it from [Meredith] Vieira in June 2011. But Capus maintains that after 14 years on Today as the show's newsreader and fill-in host, 'she deserved a shot.' "

Guthrie wrote that as expected, "NBC News on Friday made a big bet on Savannah Guthrie, naming the former White House correspondent and chief legal analyst co-host of a franchise that brought in more than $600 million worth of advertising last year."

Meanwhile, Alessandra Stanley, writing in the New York Times about Curry's farewell," wrote falsely that "Today" showed a long, affectionate highlight reel of Curry, "from her first days in local news to her trip to the South Pole, where she planted the NBC flag. It included goofy moments clowning on the set, and also a tableau that seemed — under the circumstances — somewhat insensitive."

"I think there are a lot of sloppy examples of journalism these days," Capus told the Hollywood Reporter on Friday, Jordan Zakarin wrote in that publication. " 'When a television critic writes a critique of a program and then later admits she hasn't watched the television broadcast, that's bad journalism. That's not just a mistake.' "

The Poynter Institute's Steve Myers and Andrew Beaujon quoted Stanley as saying by email, "I watched the show on TV, but didn't tape it so I rewatched it online; the highlights reel was online, but was not shown by 'Today.' "

The pair added, "In fact, the video that Stanley watched . . . was a highlight reel from when Curry was announced as co-anchor a year ago.

". . . The Times has posted a correction to the story; Stanley said the correction would be amended to reflect that it was an old video. The story already had been corrected for two other errors. . . . Stanley has a history of accuracy issues."

• David Bauder, Associated Press: Official: Guthrie In For Curry On 'Today'
  
  
• Scott Collins, Los Angeles Times: Ann Curry's ouster from 'Today' is no quick fix for NBC
  
  
• Michael Malone, Broadcasting & Cable: NBC Affiliates Chairman Salutes Shifting Curry
  
  
• Joe Queenan, Wall Street Journal: Forget That 'Today' Star — Weep for Today

Taking the Buyout: "This Is My First Adult Breakup"

Some journalists share more of their personality than others when they write the inevitable farewell note. At the Washington Post, Stephen A. Crockett Jr., 36, deputy nightside supervisor of news aides, accepted the Post's buyout offer and sent this note to colleagues on Friday:

"It's my fault. I know it is. I didn't read the fine print, the part that said if we don't grow together then by default we grow apart. I took you for granted and I know that now. But I didn't cheat. I never loved the radio or television more than I loved you. And sure I hung out with the Internet but we didn’t really do anything, just clicked around but nothing that bad.

"Point is I thought we were stronger. I thought we would always be together and I realize now that I was dreaming. Like it was when we met and my mother sat me down at the long dining room table that only company got to sit at and showed me the Mini Page. I was stuck.

"I rode my bike to get you from the corner store. In high school when you weren't as cool as me I used to fold you real small and read you on the subway in squares. I was shallow back then. The Redskins weren't bad back then. [Michael] Wilbon and [Tony] Kornheiser were boss back then. I never thought I would get old enough to look back at a back then that included cheap gas prices and stories of us in the rain over my head because I didn't have an umbrella.

"I was tripping back then when I picked you up coming out of the barbershop and I was fresh like mint breath, I mean I was right and you were just starting to come around. You 'flyed' out a bit, went all color on me and I thought maybe your head got big but the point is I thought you would always be around and by be around I mean be with me.

"It's like the universe, I can imagine it 50,000 years from now I just can't imagine me not in it and maybe that is the point: I am going to miss you and this is my first adult breakup so forgive me if I'm not doing it right. I just wanted to say that I still believe in you and I am equally sad for us. I just wanted to say that I'll miss you and the us that could have been. I just wanted to say that when everyone is singing your praises and acting all proud of how you pulled it back together I will be smiling and cheering you on from afar saying I knew you back then.

"Asked his plans, how he came up with the concept for the note, and whether it was inspired by the rapper Common's classic "I Used To Love H.E.R.," Crockett told Journal-isms by email:

"In terms of plans, I'm actually finishing up my MA in creative writing at Johns Hopkins. My thesis adviser is Marita Golden and hopefully by the end of this year, I will have something published. Work wise, I'll still be doing stuff with The Root DC.

"I can't say that I was directly inspired by 'I Used To Love H.E.R.' but I am hip-hop. And so all of this lives in me. This was my first adult job and it was tough to walk away from. I just saw it more of a breakup with a paper I've loved since I was a boy. And more about how do you break up with something that you still love? It became an adult breakup, we're not breaking up because I hate you, we're breaking up and I still love you."

Clarence Page Broke Rule on Speeches, Tribune Says

"The Chicago Tribune is reviewing an unauthorized paid speaking engagement by its Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist Clarence Page at an event supporting an Iranian group designated as a terrorist organization," Robert Channick reported Monday night for the Chicago Tribune.

"Page, a member of the Tribune editorial board, received $20,000 and was given travel expenses for the June 23 event in Paris, which was sponsored by a group called the Organizing Committee for Convention for Democracy in Iran. It turned out to be a large rally in support of the Mujahedeen-e-Khalq, a controversial organization that has been engaged in a high-profile campaign to be removed from the U.S. government's list of terrorist groups.

"Page, who joined paid speakers such as former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani and former New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson, said he had misgivings soon after arriving at the event, when he realized the scope was more than just a discussion about human rights and fairness toward Iranian exiles, as he previously thought. He went through with his three-minute speech anyway.

" 'I figured it must be a reputable gathering,' Page said. 'It wasn't until I got over there that I began to question whether this was more of a partisan affair than I had thought before.'

"The story was first reported by nonprofit ProPublica on Monday. Page told the reporter he was planning to give the money back because of his misgivings about the nature of the event. The Washington-based Page then called the Tribune's editorial page editor, Bruce Dold, to fill him in.

"Beyond the ramifications of a controversial political association, accepting the engagement was a breach of the Tribune's code of editorial principles. Although some paid speaking engagements are allowed, all editorial employees need approval before accepting them, Dold said. Page said he took the engagement on his own.

" 'It was a violation of policy,' Dold said. 'A speaking fee must be approved in advance by a manager, and he did not seek approval on this, and you can't accept a speaking fee from any organization with a special interest group or a publicity interest. If approval had been sought, it would have been denied.' "

Unhappiness With Media Surfaces in Mexican Election

"A declared womanizer who gained female votes for his looks, Enrique Peña Nieto[,] and his current wife, Televisa actress Angélica Rivera 'Gaviota', would become the best looking presidential couple in the history of Mexico. That is the only sure thing of the next presidential term," politic365.com reported on Monday.

"The victory of presidential candidate Peña Nieto has been received with pessimism among public opinion and social media users in the country."

On Pacifica Radio's "Democracy Now!" John Ackerman, editor of the Mexican Law Review and a columnist for Proceso magazine and La Jornada newspaper, added:

"Today, Monday, the day after the elections, they have planned a march through downtown Mexico City calling for more democracy and calling for these demands for democratizing the media.

"This is particularly important today, because Peña Nieto is the candidate of the corporate media. And as we talked about last week, corporate media in Mexico is over the top. Two companies control over 95 percent of the audience, of the channels — one company, almost 80 percent, Televisa. And they are the ones who really fabricated Enrique Peña Nieto's image and have — are the principal group responsible for his victory, if that turns out to be the case.

"And so, Peña Nieto, once he becomes president, if that happens, will most likely want to pay back these television companies by giving them even more power once he arrives. And at that moment, it will be absolutely crucial for these students and for Mexican society, in general, to be very vigilant, very participative, to assure that this does not happen and that in fact we actually go in a more progressive, democratic direction in terms of media, because that's one of the crucial reforms that we need today in Mexico to open up public dialogue and assure more broad-based popular participation in politics."

According to Antonio Jiménez, writing Thursday for Nieman Journalism Lab, ". . . when traditional media is untrusted, it opens up space for new competition — new outlets, new voices, new approaches. And that's what’s happened in Mexico, where a generation of digital-native news organizations has changed how at least some Mexicans have learned about the election.

" 'Digital outlets' main contribution was that they've dared to do a different kind of coverage: more in-depth and investigative reporting, and they are faster and more flexible to update the news,' Gabriela Warkentin, a communications scholar at Universidad Iberoamericana, told me.

"This new digital generation has nowhere near the reach of a network like Televisa, she said. (Less than one-third of Mexico’s 111 million people have Internet access.) But their impact comes from doing stories others won't. 'They have provided much more information and analysis [than traditional media] that could help voters on their decision-making process — and that's not a minor thing,' she said."

• Randal C. Archibold, Marc Lacey and Julia Preston, New York Times: TimesCast: PRI Claims Victory in Mexico (Video)
  
  
• Jason Johnson, politic365.com: 5 Reasons Americans Should Care About the Mexican Elections
  
  
• Tania Lara, politic365.com: Enrique Peña Nieto and Mexico's Future
  
  
• Listening Post, Al Jazeera: The Mexican media scandal
  
  
• Sara Rafsky, Committee to Protect Journalists: Film 'Reportero' features tenacious Mexican magazine
  
  

Media Fail to Detail U.S. Voter Disenfranchisement

"As the nation’s first African-American president seeks re-election, new barriers are being proposed or implemented that could disenfranchise voters of color. Are mainstream media doing enough reporting on these efforts and identifying ones designed to reduce the impact on voters of color?" Nadra Kareem Nittle wrote Thursday for the Maynard Institute.

"Specifically, social justice activists say, the media haven’t demonstrated how people of color are disproportionately affected by tactics that include voter identification laws, a purge of registered voters in Florida and measures that make it more difficult for community groups to register voters.

"These are reminiscent of historical deterrents such as literacy tests, poll taxes and confusing registration procedures that minorities have encountered while trying to vote."

• Khalil Abdullah, New America Media: Haitian-Americans Feel Chill of Florida's Voting Purge
  
  
• George E. Curry, National Newspaper Publishers Association: Florida Is Again the [Laughingstock] of America
  
  
• Tony Norman, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette: Attack on voting rights has a deja vu vibe
  
  
• Marisa Treviño, Latina Lista: New data shows the power of the Latino vote is no bluff
  
  

Afro Opts for Transparency, Will Correct Author's ID

In the mainstream media, this might be considered a cardinal sin: A public relations person is asked to write a story about his organization. The paper runs it as its lead story, and the public relations person is identified as a "special," without mentioning where he works.

It happened in the Washington Afro-American, with a story from Haiti this week by Ron Harris, a veteran journalist who now does public relations for Howard University.

"Howard Medical Students, Faculty Provide Services in Haiti," was the print-edition headline. "Special to the AFRO" ran under Harris' name.

It was one of the first products under the Afro's new editor, Avis Thomas-Lester, who joined the publication after 22 years at the Washington Post, where she took a buyout at the end of May.

Thomas-Lester messaged Sunday that she was too busy and would not be able to discuss the issues of conflict of interest and disclosure until Friday or next Monday, July 9. But Jake Oliver, publisher of the Afro, said Monday of the disclosure issue that the Afro would "make that correction in the future. Good journalism requires that.

"At the Afro, we do have a legacy that we need to uphold that reflects high standards and transparency," Oliver told Journal-isms by telephone. The story should have included a note in italics that Harris, a former interim editor of the Afro, works for Howard, Oliver said.

As a part of the black press, the Afro is not a member of the mainstream media. According to Todd Steven Burroughs, a lecturer in the Department of Communication Studies at Morgan State University, a former reporter at the New Jersey Afro-American and an expert on black-press history, the black press operates under different rules.

"The first thing we have to remember about the black press is that the black press is an advocacy press. As an advocacy press, it's historically chosen when it wants to follow journalistic protocol," Burroughs said by telephone.

"Throughout the history of the black press, particularly as mainstream journalism began to insist on the standard of objectivity, there has always been a very cozy relationship between the black press and established black institutions. These alliances can be seen formally vis-à-vis the many columnists in many black newspapers who are leaders of organizations, but also very informally in that other black leaders and black notables could feed the black press information that they would print verbatim."

Burroughs noted that he once worked for the National Newspaper Publishers Association, an organization of black community newspaper publishers. "One of the things I learned with NNPA is that many of these editors are just looking to fill the newshole," Burroughs said, "so it was always a very common thing to see press releases in black newspapers verbatim if the subject was of concern to black people or black people were involved."

Oliver agreed with Burroughs' observation, but still said that identifying Harris would "complete the picture" for readers. Asked whether Harris' authorship of the story presented a conflict of interest, Oliver said that without Harris, the Afro might not have any story.

Harris is a good journalist, and the story was important, Oliver said. "This does provide an invaluable service," the publisher said of the efforts of the Howard medical students and faculty. "Seeing the work they're doing and showing young black medical students" what their colleagues are doing could be inspirational.

". . . On the first day of the week-long mission," Harris wrote, the 30 "volunteer medical personnel were met by hundreds of people who had begun to line up hours before the doctors and students were set to arrive . . . Many people had been suffering from their maladies for more than a year."

• Ron Harris, Afro-American Newspapers: Long Patient Lines, Long Hours and High Heat Greet Medical Mission: Howard Medical Students in Haiti — Day 2

• Society of Professional Journalists: Code of Ethics

Lemon Says Cooper's Coming Out Reflects Well on CNN

". . . Though Anderson Cooper's sexuality had been an open secret forever, his emergence from the closet today – via an email to The Daily Beast's Andrew Sullivan, made public with Cooper's permission – is still big news," Gail Shister wrote Monday for TVNewser.

Shister said that Cooper's CNN colleague, weekend anchor Don Lemon, "labels today’s announcement as 'awesome. I just tweeted him congratulations. We should all be supportive. He's a human being. He wants to be happy and live his life.'

"Lemon came out last year prior to publication of his memoir, 'Transparent.' He and his partner, CNN producer Ben Tinker, have been together five years.

"Cooper's acknowledgment 'says a lot about CNN as a company. Not only are we grounded in the reality of the world, we are also part of the future.'

"Lemon predicts that Cooper will not get any backlash for coming out. 'For someone as accomplished as he is, his actions speak for themselves.' "

• Peter Sterne, Columbia Journalism Review: Anderson Cooper (finally) exits the closet [updated]
  
  
• Andrew Sullivan blog, the Daily Beast: Anderson Cooper: "The Fact Is, I'm Gay."
  
  
• Michael R. Triplett, National Lesbian & Gay Journalists Association: Why Journalists Coming Out (and Being Out) Still Matters

Black Team Controlled Internet Domain Name Registry

". . . Years before Google, before tablets, heck, before the Internet was a popular term, and even before the first domain name was offered to the general public, a predominantly African-American team actually once controlled the Internet; or at least your domain access to it," Lauren deLisa Coleman wrote Thursday for theGrio.com.

"Few may know it today, but Al White was a vital part of that team and still thinks longingly about those heady days when sink or swim business decisions were made by the minute and when untold amounts of money were within grasp's reach — if they just could have held out long enough."

White, Emitt McHenry and other partners started Network Solutions in 1979.

". . . after 16 years of both good and bad times, they sold it to an outfit called Science Applications International Corporation (SAIC) for $4.8 million in 1997.

". . . SAIC would then turn around and later sell Network Solutions in 2000 to VeriSign for $21 billion dollars and make history in one of the biggest tech deals to be completed in the United States at that time. Network Solutions remains one of the most important companies in the Internet industry.

". . . '[P]art of the problem,' explains White, 'is that we have very little reference to our history of contributions to building America. We don't know our history, particularly within tech. We don't know that we come from a long line of inventors and entrepreneurs so there is little psychological support for today's black entrepreneur. But we do, we have and we can still create amazing things… even in this economy!' White cites contributions within Bell Labs, broadband and more where blacks have played a vital yet clandestine role in the rise of technology.

". . . 'If there is any advice I could give black entrepreneurs today,' explains White, 'it would be that you must stick with what you are doing, if you feel it is right. Don't allow other people to tell you that you don't have anything important like we did. That is really the key. That’s why we suffered. Listening to other people… who didn’t know.' "

Was "The Andy Griffith Show" Post-Racial?

Was the absence of black people in Andy Griffith's Mayberry, set in North Carolina and broadcast as the civil rights movement intensified during the 1960s, a problem?

Not really, according to African American columnists with ties to the state who weighed in on Tuesday's death of the beloved Griffith at age 86. Television historians have seen it differently. They called it counter-programming to what was on the evening news.

Rochelle Riley of the Detroit Free Press didn't see it that way. She grew up in Tarboro, N.C. "My family didn't watch 'The Andy Griffith Show' to count black people," Riley wrote,  reprising her declaration when Griffith sidekick Don Knotts died six years ago.

"We watched to see our way of life, one that included spending hours picking plums in the plum orchard, then sitting under a chinaberry tree eating them, or walking along ponds to collect cattails."  "I lived in Mayberry," she wrote.

Allen Johnson, writing for the News & Record in Greensboro, N.C., wrote, "I came across a quote from an old Charlotte Observer interview in which Griffith regretted not casting more black people in the show (they rarely appeared, and when they did, it was mostly as occasional extras).

"Even so, [the] show had universal appeal."

Barry Saunders, columnist for the News & Observer in Raleigh, was an unabashed fan. "Can you believe it?" he wrote. "There is actually debate, among people with real – and, one assumes, functioning – brains over what is the greatest television show of all time." In Saunders' column, race did not even enter the picture.

Mary C. Curtis, writing from Charlotte, N.C., for the Washington Post’s "She the People" blog, did make a connection. In a piece titled, "Andy Griffith was a Democrat, and N.C. disapproved," Curtis noted, "When 'The Andy Griffith Show' made its television debut in fall of 1960, of course, history-making change roiled the actor’s own North Carolina, with the image of Southern sheriff a ways off from Andy Taylor's folksy friendliness.

"Earlier that same year, four students from North Carolina A&T State University in Greensboro challenged segregation with the first sit-in, at a F.W. Woolworth lunch counter.

”Mixing rose-colored fiction and real life, it would be nice to think Floyd the barber would have given those nice young men a shave and a haircut in Mayberry.

”But not even Griffith believed that. A former colleague told me about a call back from Griffith to answer a question on race that he had stumbled on in an interview; it was about his decision to skirt that particular lesson in 'The Andy Griffith Show.' It would have been the one thing Sheriff Andy could not have solved in a half-hour, he figured, so he left it alone, my friend reported." 

Derek H. Alderman, Terri Moreau, and Stefanie Benjamin wrote about "The Andy Griffith Show" for the 2012 book "Blue-Collar Pop Culture: From NASCAR to Jersey Shore" [PDF], edited by M. Keith Booker.

Some African Americans, they wrote, "might wonder how Mayberry came to exist as an all-white community and what this signaled about race relations in the quiet hamlet," also noting that Griffith said he regretted the decision to exclude blacks from the regular cast. The actor explained that African Americans at the time did not want to be portrayed in servant roles and "there is no way in some small town in the South that white people were going to flock to a black doctor or lawyer.

" . . . Of course, the lack of diversity in Mayberry has not gone uncontested. One of the most interesting examples is a 2008 Internet blog post titled ’Why Come There Ain’t No Black People in Mayberry?' " and its accompanying YouTube video, "The Negro Zone."

"The video's director, David Bright, carries out a creative and irreverent editing of public domain footage from Andy Griffith to address the question, 'What would happen to an African American visitor to the fictional Southern town?' Reference to The Negro Zone, a parody of the famous Twilight Zone television series, is meant to capture how surreal it would have been to find an African American in Mayberry. Bright uses green screen technology to insert an African American stranger into scenes from the classic television show. He simulates Mayberry's reaction to this stranger by dubbing audio, splicing together film footage taken from several episodes, and taking plot elements out of their original context.

"When the stranger, a large African American man dressed in a dark suit, arrives by bus to Mayberry and announces his plans to stay in town, we are shown cutaway shots of Mayberrians with looks of horror and suspicion on their faces (including Aunt Bee). The African American visitor soon finds himself the target of a manhunt and is eventually chased from town at gunpoint. The stranger escapes to the outskirts of Mayberry, where he is found by Andy and Barney and then shot dead even after pleading to be allowed to leave town and asking, 'Why can’t we all just get along?' . . . "

• bookguy.com: African-Americans in Mayberry

• Jim Booth, Scholars and Rogues: The truth about Mayberry
  
  
• Ron Howard, Los Angeles Times: What I learned from Andy Griffith
  
  
• Mark Lacter, LAObserved: Mayberry was fine, but 'A Face in the Crowd' was special

• Jim Romenesko blog: CNN makes sure it gets Andy Griffith story right

Judge Denies “Editorial Privilege”  on Chimp Cartoon

"The editor of the New York Post may be forced to answer questions about his discussions with media mogul Rupert Murdoch over fallout from the newspaper's publication of a cartoon that appeared to liken President Barack Obama to a chimpanzee," Jonathan Stempel reported Tuesday for Reuters.

The cartoonist, Sean Delonas, denied the chimpanzee was intended to represent the president.

"A federal judge in Manhattan said editor Col Allan could not invoke 'editorial privilege' and avoid answering questions posed by Sandra Guzman, a former associate editor suing the newspaper for alleged employment discrimination and harassment on the basis of race, gender and national origin," Stempel’s story continued.

"Guzman, who is black and Puerto Rican, in November 2009 sued the Post and parent News Corp, which Murdoch runs, saying she had been fired in retaliation for complaints over inappropriate conduct.

"She also claimed to be among those who objected to the February 18, 2009 cartoon that depicted a policeman shooting a crazed chimpanzee, a play on an actual Connecticut incident.

"The cartoon referred to the recently adopted $787 billion federal economic stimulus and many people saw the chimpanzee as a depiction of Obama. Murdoch later apologized to readers.

"In an order dated June 29, U.S. Magistrate Judge Ronald Ellis said Allan refused during a seven-hour deposition in February to answer several questions related to the cartoon and one related to a photo of a nude man published in connection with former New Jersey Governor James McGreevey's divorce.

"The questions over the cartoon covered such matters as whether Allan told Murdoch he disagreed with publishing an apology and whether Allan understood Murdoch to have believed it was a mistake to do so. . . "

Why Was AP Intern Called "Aspiring" Journalist?

"There is no greater dishonor when reflecting on the death of a young journalist than by referring to them as aspiring," Andrew Katz wrote Tuesday for Time. "It happened on Monday when news broke that Armando 'Mando' Montaño, a 22-year-old recent graduate of Grinnell College and intern with the Associated Press in Mexico City, was found dead in an elevator shaft. Word of his death rocked social networks and prompted friends to write tributes to him that went viral in minutes.

"It was the second time in six weeks for news like this: Marina Keegan, also 22, had just graduated from Yale when she was killed in a late-May car accident in Massachusetts. Within hours of her death, she too was heavily portrayed as an 'aspiring' or 'promising' writer. Yet, in both cases, they had more than proved themselves: Keegan, a longtime Yale Daily News columnist, had already landed a staff position with the New Yorker; and Montaño, who was an editor at Grinnell’s Scarlet & Black and had interned with the Chronicle of Higher Education, the New York Times and the Seattle Times, voluntarily threw himself into one of the world's most dangerous reporting spots. The Committee to Protect Journalists reports that since 2006, at least 45 journalists have either disappeared or been killed in Mexico.

"What's aspiring about that? . . .

"The passion that these two had for an industry that's adapting to new technologies, but which some say is dying in the process, is being met with an unintended disrespect that could turn students away from trying to get into journalism in the first place. Despite years of experience, aspiring is being continuously and wrongly substituted for young in articles that are meant to memorialize them. It's dangerous but avoidable. . . ."

• John de Dios, Fox News Latino: Remembering AP Intern Armando Montaño
  
  
• Editorial, Boston Globe: Young journalist captured spirit of profession
  
  
• Regina Zilbermints, Des Moines Register: Grinnell community mourns young journalist who died in Mexico

Ex-Colleague to Tribune: Leave Clarence Page Alone

"This morning, like thousands of other Chicagoans, I woke to the Chicago Tribune's story essentially threatening to fire Pulitzer Prize winner Clarence Page, the paper's most visible African-American writer and arguably one of its most popular staffers, both among the Trib's readers and his colleagues," Achy Obejas wrote Tuesday for WBEZ-FM in Chicago.

"Page's crime? A breach of editorial policy. He failed to get advanced approval for a speaking gig, and the group he spoke for, MEK, makes the Tribune nervous. MEK is an organization of Iranian exiles opposed to the current government and is currently on the State Department's list of international terrorist groups.

"On face value, it seems like Page appeared before a terrorist group and gave 'em his nod of approval. But my take? Absurd on both counts. (And, yes, in the interest of total disclosure: Page is a former colleague and a good friend of mine.)

"The situation is more nuanced than the Tribune would have us believe. First, Page is not a reporter. He's an opinion page columnist paid to give his personal take on things. He's not paid to be equivocal or tepid, but to write about things that get people going. He's paid to elaborate on issues even if his final conclusion contradicts the Tribune's own editorial stand. That is his job.

"Second, Page has an opinion about MEK that is not outside the mainstream: He thinks MEK should be removed from the U.S. terrorist list.

". . . In nearly 30 years as a professional journalist, Page has never, ever, been involved in any kind of questioning of his professionalism or ethics.

" 'Since I was first hired as a reporter in 1969 and rehired as a columnist and editorial writer in 1984 (after four years in TV), I've had a record of which I have been quite proud,' said Page, the sadness in his voice palpable. 'I'm much more comfortable covering scandals than being in one.'

"What the Tribune needs to do is re-evaluate its policy, and the enforcement of that policy, on outside employment, particularly as it pertains to speaking and public appearances.

"And just leave Clarence alone."

[Page messaged Journal-isms on Thursday, "I'm writing a column for release this weekend that gives my side of this saga. I don't want to scoop myself but, so far, I can say that things are looking very favorable for my continued employment by the newspaper with which I have spent almost all of my long career."]

Sometimes Viewers Don't Know What to Take Seriously

A Twitter account user pointed to this commentary Tuesday by Touré and said, "Conservative successfully identifies @toure parody, takes it seriously anyway.”

The piece by Andrew Kirell of Mediaite began:

"Last week, MSNBC's The Cycle co-hosts Touré, Krystal Ball, and Steve Kornacki all suggested that America should institute compulsory voting as a way to guarantee a more well-educated public. And on Monday's edition of the show, Touré was back at it again, spending an entire segment describing all the paternalistic (his words!) laws he'd like to see our government pass."

Among Touré’s suggestions:

On President Obama: "Maybe he'll go even further trying to bolster his legacy by enacting new paternalistic mandates meant to make the nation better. Saying all Americans must vote, because government works better when all participate in selecting leaders. Eat your vegetables! Maybe mandate that all citizens must go to some sort of post high school college — maybe liberal arts, maybe technical — because America works better when we are better educated and trained. Eat your vegetables! How about a mandate of a year or two of public service after college?"

And: ". . . Mandate extensive pre-marital counseling and maybe even a review board that can determine whether or not a couple can get married, and pre-divorce counseling to try and save marriages, because teaching relationship skills is critical to building strong nuclear families.”

Kirell interjected, "Oh, lord. Based on this and last week's paternalistic nonsense, I have a feeling this was not parody.

" 'I mandate that Touré never be elected to office,' co-host S.E. Cupp responded. That's putting it politely.

". . . please let this be a self-parody," Kirell continued. "Otherwise, Touré's cluelessness is frightening."

Kirell included a link to the MSNBC segment.

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Reporter's Bid for Asylum in U.S. Denied

July 4, 2012

"Sad to Be in the Same Shoes as the Sources I Report"

Was "The Andy Griffith Show" Post-Racial?

Judge Denies "Editorial Privilege" on Chimp Cartoon

Why Was AP Intern Called "Aspiring" Journalist?

Sometimes Viewers Don’t Know What to Take Seriously

"Sad to Be in the Same Shoes as the Sources I Report"

A reporter who fled El Salvador in 2004 and became a respected reporter for Georgia's largest Spanish-language newspaper has been denied political asylum and ordered to return to El Salvador with his family.

"It is very sad to be in the same shoes as the sources I report," said Mario Guevara, reporter at the Atlanta-based MundoHispánico, according to his editor.

Guevara's wife, Miriam, said in a court declaration, "If we have to return to El Salvador, I would not know what to do. Mario will be kidnapped or killed. The police could not help him."

The Atlanta chapter of the National Association of Hispanic Journalists circulated a statement Wednesday. It said, in part, ". . . On a day when the U.S. celebrates its independence, Mario is fighting for his. Nearly a decade ago he left El Salvador because he had to. If he didn't he would have been killed by the rebels and hooligans who challenged his pursuit of truth. It is our grave concern that if he is sent back to El Salvador, he will face a dark reality of what more than 70 journalists around the world have already faced in 2011: death for doing their job."

Gustavo Martinez, reporting on the case Tuesday for MundoHispánico, wrote that Earle Wilson, a judge in Atlanta Immigration Court, denied Guevara's request on June 21, "saying the situation in his country improved, so there is no risk," according to a computer-generated translation.

Reporters Without Borders, the international press-freedom organization, ranked El Salvador 37th among 179 countries on its press-freedom index. The most dangerous countries are at the bottom of the list.

However, Rodrigo Cervantes, editor of MundoHispánico and a graduate of the Maynard Media Academy at Harvard University, wrote in a passionate op-ed this week that Guevara's "boss at the time and photography editor for El Salvador's La Prensa Gráfica, Francisco Campos, declared in a recent affidavit the following:

" 'I have supervised many photojournalists during my career, and in occasions have heard of threats made from similar groups. Mario's situation was much more serious in tone, this is why it still fresh in my mind. The life threats were real. . .' "

Cervantes said of Guevara, ". . . The court provided him with a little less than two months to prepare his departure after paying a fine ('as if this honorable father was a criminal,’ stated his brother, Eduardo Castro, a soldier of the United States Army in a missive sent to various politicians).

"If the order remains as issued, Mario will also have to depart with his wife, Miriam, and his 14-year-old daughter, Katherine. They would also be accompanied by their sons, Jonathan and Oscar, ages one and eight respectively, even though they are citizens of the United States."

Since his arrival in Atlanta in 2007, Guevara has established a solid community reputation, his supporters say.

Martinez quoted Spanish-language morning host Everardo Lopez, known as "El Tigre" of El Patron 105.3 FM: "Mario is the best known journalist in the Hispanic community because, apart from its ethics, [he] always [presents] the human side and [because of] the willingness to help his community."

Cervantes added, "To my knowledge, his record is impeccable, and I dare to say he is perhaps the most well-known journalist in the Hispanic community we serve. His national awards are representative of that.

"He has mainly covered the immigration beat, including the United States-Mexico border and an interview with Maricopa County [Ariz.] Sheriff, Joe Arpaio.

"His investigations of consulates and governmental entities, including immigration prisons and courts, have served to document irregularities and motivate changes. He has also monitored pro or anti-immigration actions from organizations and elected officials. Mario was one of the first to detail the plight of Jessica Cólotl, a Kennesaw State student arrested for driving without a license. The story created a national debate surrounding undocumented students.

"But, most of all, his multiple reports have given the unprotected Latinos and undocumented immigrants a voice, whether they have faced serious illness, discrimination and other restrictions due to lack of resources, creating various avenues for community support in every case.' "

All of that might be irrelevant in an asylum proceeding.

Monica Khant, executive director of Georgia Asylum and Immigration Network, said in Martinez's article that Georgia courts are more conservative than those in other parts of the country.

Martinez wrote, ". . . national data from the Executive Office for Immigration Review indicate that in the specific case of Salvadorans the question is not encouraging."

During fiscal 2011, Salvadorans presented 2,501 requests for asylum, of which 1,321 were rejected and 163 were granted.

• Latinos Unidos Lucc: Change.org petition
  
  
• Frank Smyth, Committee to Protect Journalists: Solidarity, a key to security, eludes Salvadoran press (May 25)

Was "The Andy Griffith Show" Post-Racial?

Was the absence of black people in Andy Griffith's Mayberry, set in North Carolina and broadcast as the civil rights movement intensified during the 1960s, a problem?

Not really, according to African American columnists with ties to the state who weighed in on Tuesday's death of the beloved Griffith at age 86. Television historians have seen it differently. They called it counter-programming to what was on the evening news.

Rochelle Riley of the Detroit Free Press didn't see it that way. She grew up in Tarboro, N.C. "My family didn't watch 'The Andy Griffith Show' to count black people," Riley wrote,  reprising her declaration when Griffith sidekick Don Knotts died six years ago.

"We watched to see our way of life, one that included spending hours picking plums in the plum orchard, then sitting under a chinaberry tree eating them, or walking along ponds to collect cattails."  "I lived in Mayberry," she wrote.

Allen Johnson, writing for the News & Record in Greensboro, N.C., wrote, "I came across a quote from an old Charlotte Observer interview in which Griffith regretted not casting more black people in the show (they rarely appeared, and when they did, it was mostly as occasional extras).

"Even so, [the] show had universal appeal."

Barry Saunders, columnist for the News & Observer in Raleigh, was an unabashed fan. "Can you believe it?" he wrote. "There is actually debate, among people with real – and, one assumes, functioning – brains over what is the greatest television show of all time." In Saunders' column, race did not even enter the picture.

Mary C. Curtis, writing from Charlotte, N.C., for the Washington Post’s "She the People" blog, did make a connection. In a piece titled, "Andy Griffith was a Democrat, and N.C. disapproved," Curtis noted, "When 'The Andy Griffith Show' made its television debut in fall of 1960, of course, history-making change roiled the actor’s own North Carolina, with the image of Southern sheriff a ways off from Andy Taylor's folksy friendliness.

"Earlier that same year, four students from North Carolina A&T State University in Greensboro challenged segregation with the first sit-in, at a F.W. Woolworth lunch counter.

”Mixing rose-colored fiction and real life, it would be nice to think Floyd the barber would have given those nice young men a shave and a haircut in Mayberry.

”But not even Griffith believed that. A former colleague told me about a call back from Griffith to answer a question on race that he had stumbled on in an interview; it was about his decision to skirt that particular lesson in 'The Andy Griffith Show.' It would have been the one thing Sheriff Andy could not have solved in a half-hour, he figured, so he left it alone, my friend reported." 

Derek H. Alderman, Terri Moreau, and Stefanie Benjamin wrote about "The Andy Griffith Show" for the 2012 book "Blue-Collar Pop Culture: From NASCAR to Jersey Shore" [PDF], edited by M. Keith Booker.

Some African Americans, they wrote, "might wonder how Mayberry came to exist as an all-white community and what this signaled about race relations in the quiet hamlet," also noting that Griffith said he regretted the decision to exclude blacks from the regular cast. The actor explained that African Americans at the time did not want to be portrayed in servant roles and "there is no way in some small town in the South that white people were going to flock to a black doctor or lawyer.

" . . . Of course, the lack of diversity in Mayberry has not gone uncontested. One of the most interesting examples is a 2008 Internet blog post titled ’Why Come There Ain’t No Black People in Mayberry?' " and its accompanying YouTube video, "The Negro Zone."

"The video's director, David Bright, carries out a creative and irreverent editing of public domain footage from Andy Griffith to address the question, 'What would happen to an African American visitor to the fictional Southern town?' Reference to The Negro Zone, a parody of the famous Twilight Zone television series, is meant to capture how surreal it would have been to find an African American in Mayberry. Bright uses green screen technology to insert an African American stranger into scenes from the classic television show. He simulates Mayberry's reaction to this stranger by dubbing audio, splicing together film footage taken from several episodes, and taking plot elements out of their original context.

"When the stranger, a large African American man dressed in a dark suit, arrives by bus to Mayberry and announces his plans to stay in town, we are shown cutaway shots of Mayberrians with looks of horror and suspicion on their faces (including Aunt Bee). The African American visitor soon finds himself the target of a manhunt and is eventually chased from town at gunpoint. The stranger escapes to the outskirts of Mayberry, where he is found by Andy and Barney and then shot dead even after pleading to be allowed to leave town and asking, 'Why can’t we all just get along?' . . . "

• bookguy.com: African-Americans in Mayberry

• Jim Booth, Scholars and Rogues: The truth about Mayberry
  
  
• Ron Howard, Los Angeles Times: What I learned from Andy Griffith
  
  
• Mark Lacter, LAObserved: Mayberry was fine, but 'A Face in the Crowd' was special

• Jim Romenesko blog: CNN makes sure it gets Andy Griffith story right

Judge Denies “Editorial Privilege”  on Chimp Cartoon

"The editor of the New York Post may be forced to answer questions about his discussions with media mogul Rupert Murdoch over fallout from the newspaper's publication of a cartoon that appeared to liken President Barack Obama to a chimpanzee," Jonathan Stempel reported Tuesday for Reuters.

The cartoonist, Sean Delonas, denied the chimpanzee was intended to represent the president.

"A federal judge in Manhattan said editor Col Allan could not invoke 'editorial privilege' and avoid answering questions posed by Sandra Guzman, a former associate editor suing the newspaper for alleged employment discrimination and harassment on the basis of race, gender and national origin," Stempel’s story continued.

"Guzman, who is black and Puerto Rican, in November 2009 sued the Post and parent News Corp, which Murdoch runs, saying she had been fired in retaliation for complaints over inappropriate conduct.

"She also claimed to be among those who objected to the February 18, 2009 cartoon that depicted a policeman shooting a crazed chimpanzee, a play on an actual Connecticut incident.

"The cartoon referred to the recently adopted $787 billion federal economic stimulus and many people saw the chimpanzee as a depiction of Obama. Murdoch later apologized to readers.

"In an order dated June 29, U.S. Magistrate Judge Ronald Ellis said Allan refused during a seven-hour deposition in February to answer several questions related to the cartoon and one related to a photo of a nude man published in connection with former New Jersey Governor James McGreevey's divorce.

"The questions over the cartoon covered such matters as whether Allan told Murdoch he disagreed with publishing an apology and whether Allan understood Murdoch to have believed it was a mistake to do so. . . "

Why Was AP Intern Called "Aspiring" Journalist?

"There is no greater dishonor when reflecting on the death of a young journalist than by referring to them as aspiring," Andrew Katz wrote Tuesday for Time. "It happened on Monday when news broke that Armando 'Mando' Montaño, a 22-year-old recent graduate of Grinnell College and intern with the Associated Press in Mexico City, was found dead in an elevator shaft. Word of his death rocked social networks and prompted friends to write tributes to him that went viral in minutes.

"It was the second time in six weeks for news like this: Marina Keegan, also 22, had just graduated from Yale when she was killed in a late-May car accident in Massachusetts. Within hours of her death, she too was heavily portrayed as an 'aspiring' or 'promising' writer. Yet, in both cases, they had more than proved themselves: Keegan, a longtime Yale Daily News columnist, had already landed a staff position with the New Yorker; and Montaño, who was an editor at Grinnell’s Scarlet & Black and had interned with the Chronicle of Higher Education, the New York Times and the Seattle Times, voluntarily threw himself into one of the world's most dangerous reporting spots. The Committee to Protect Journalists reports that since 2006, at least 45 journalists have either disappeared or been killed in Mexico.

"What's aspiring about that? . . .

"The passion that these two had for an industry that's adapting to new technologies, but which some say is dying in the process, is being met with an unintended disrespect that could turn students away from trying to get into journalism in the first place. Despite years of experience, aspiring is being continuously and wrongly substituted for young in articles that are meant to memorialize them. It's dangerous but avoidable. . . ."

• John de Dios, Fox News Latino: Remembering AP Intern Armando Montaño
  
  
• Editorial, Boston Globe: Young journalist captured spirit of profession
  
  
• Regina Zilbermints, Des Moines Register: Grinnell community mourns young journalist who died in Mexico

"Prosecutorial Discretion" Could Spare Deportation

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement has decided that Mario Guevara, the reporter who was denied political asylum and ordered to return to El Salvador with his family, is a candidate for "prosecutorial discretion," according to an ICE spokesman.

"Mario says the media coverage led to the [U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services] contacting his attorney to notify them that he was a candidate for prosecutorial discretion and would close his case, putting a halt to deportation proceedings," Veronica Villafañe reported Thursday for her Media Moves site.

"But that offer isn't enough. They didn't say anything about work authorization or legal status. I can't stay here undocumented, knowing how difficult life is if you don’t have papers. And I can't go back to El Salvador. It's dangerous not only for me, but for my children. I can't risk their lives," Guevara said, according to Villafañe.

"In 24 hours, almost 800 people have signed an online petition calling to stop the deportation of Mario Guevara and his family."

Kate Bumback of the Associated Press reported Thursday that Guevara's lawyer, Byron Kirkpatrick, said he still plans to go forward with an appeal of the immigration court judge's ruling on the asylum request.

"U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, the agency in charge of work authorization, said it cannot comment on individual cases because of the federal Privacy Act," Bumback reported

Guevara is a reporter for Mundo Hispánico, the Spanish-language weekly published by the Atlanta Journal Constitution.

"His situation was aggravated by the fact his wife was arrested on Tuesday, July 3, for driving with an expired license," Villafañe reported.

". . . he claims that last year the [United States Citizenship and Immigration Services] made a mistake and denied his wife a work authorization extension, even though his was approved. Mario's job permit expires December 12.

" 'That's why her license had expired. We were waiting for our court hearing to resolve everything,' says Mario. 'When they arrested her, I decided to go public with our situation. . . ."

• Mariella Saavedra, America's Voice: Undocumented Journalist Mario Guevara Faces Deportation to El Salvador

Anzio Williams Named VP of News at NBC in Philly

Anzio Williams, who just left KCRA-TV in Sacramento, Calif., after five years as news director, is joining NBC-owned WCAU-TV in Philadelphia, the nation's fourth largest television market, as vice president of news, NBC announced on Friday.

"I'm so proud to be part of the hardest working news team in Philadelphia," Williams said in a news release. "This is a great news town, and I cannot wait be a part of this community."

"We're thrilled to welcome Anzio to our leadership team," said Eric Lerner, WCAU's president and general manager. "He has a distinguished record of accomplishments as a news manager and as a proven leader. He is a great addition to our team."

Williams was news director at WDSU in New Orleans when Hurricane Katrina hit the area in 2005. Williams also served as assistant news director at WESH-TV in Orlando and WCNC-TV in Charlotte, N.C.

Williams succeeds Chris Blackman, who left the station June 15 after 26 years at NBC.

ESPN's Larry Graham to Be Sports Editor in San Diego

"Larry Graham will be joining us this fall as our executive sports editor. Larry is currently an NFL editor at ESPN.com," Jeff Light, editor of UT-San Diego, formerly the San Diego Union-Tribune, told staff members in a memo on Thursday.

"Larry has run columnists and bloggers at the nation's top sports dot.com, worked the desk at big metro, ground it out at weeklies and run the show at small dailies. He has seen the tumult of the changing media landscape up close. He has strong opinions about the resourcefulness and determination it takes to succeed. You will find Larry to be a creative person with a vision for our multi-media reality. He has the range, the vision and the work ethic that our business today demands."

"Mike and John and I have agreed to add a number of positions to sports help us build something special. Larry will be recruiting for as we gear up for the fall," he said, referring to Mike Hodges, president of the company, and John Lynch, CEO.

Graham joined ESPN a year ago after being sports editor of the 50,500-circulation Fayetteville (N.C.) Observer.

Light told Journal-isms by email, "Larry's reputation in sports journalism circles was the key. We think he's a great fit for what we are trying to do with this company."

Graham's appointment will return to two the number of African American sports editors at daily newspapers. The other is Lisa Wilson, executive sports editor at the Buffalo News.

Contreras Launches Attack Ad in NAHJ Race

Three weeks after the candidates for president of the National Association of Hispanic Journalists pledged to forgo personal attacks, a video promoting Russell Contreras characterizes rival Hugo Balta as one who has "missed half of his meetings while on the board" and who represents gambling away the organization's future.

The video by Contreras, who is vice president for print and chief financial officer, was removed from its YouTube perch by early Saturday.  However, it remained on his campaign's Facebook page and his Tumblr account, and was posted elsewhere on YouTube.

The video is set in Las Vegas, site of the upcoming Unity convention. "Don't Gamble Away NAHJ's Future — HalftimeInNAHJ" touts Contreras as the candidate who "brought NAHJ its first surplus" in years and "who had perfect attendance as financial officer."

Balta, by contrast, "missed half of his meetings while on the board . . . and left NAHJ more than $300,000 in the red."

While neither Contreras nor his campaign manager, Suzanne Gamboa, responded to an emailed request for comment Friday, Contrereas introduced the video on his Facebook page by saying: "Here's the latest video from HalftimeInNAHJ. The campaign is set to discuss our record and the record of our opponents so NAHJ members can make a clear choice on the next NAHJ board. Our campaign slate will refrain from personal attacks but will fairly contrast our records."

Balta, a former vice president for broadcast, said by email:

"I'm disappointed that Russell continues his personal attack campaigns against me. He knows well that I was unable to attend certain Board meetings because I had been laid off and was searching for a new opportunity. I discussed my dilemma with then NAHJ president Ricardo Pimentel, who was understanding and helped me stay active with my duties on the Board during a very difficult time for me and my family. For Russell to use that against me...I just hope he never has to go through what I and so many members have gone through. You don't kick someone when [they're] down, you lift them up on your shoulders, so they can reach higher than before."

[On Saturday, Balta released his own video responding to Contreras.]

Meanwhile, supporters of television reporter Sal Morales of the NAHJ's South Florida chapter said the NAHJ elections committee discouraged him from running for the general at-large seat, leaving only one candidate on the ballot, Elizabeth Alvarez, a member of Contreras' HalftimeInNAHJ slate.

"Our members are very concerned that appears to be unfair targeting of certain candidates with very little transparency," Frances Robles of the Miami Herald, a former NAHJ board member, told Journal-isms by email. "We hear a lot of noise about 'vetting' and reference-checking and want to know what that's all about. Is that something that takes place in every election?

"The irony here is that I really am not crazy about the idea of unemployed board members. But I think that's for me as a voter to decide, not an elections committee."

She added later, "I spoke to Sal and asked him whether it was OK to pass on his telephone number. He's really concerned that this debate about his candidacy will become a cause celebre by people with agendas against the organization, and that's the last thing he wants.

"He said it was OK to tell you that he was thrilled to see the heart-warming responses to my posts on Facebook but would like to work it out within the group."

Rebecca Aguilar, a freelancer who is NAHJ general at-large officer, supported Morales in a Facebook posting. "As you all know, I'm a current NAHJ board member, and also running for VP of Online. I am also a proud freelance reporter. I was also questioned by the election committee. They wanted to see if I was really getting paid," she wrote.

"I don't think it's fair that Sal Morales is not being allowed to run for office. Does the elections committee have a crystal ball and know that he has no freelance opportunities in the future. He could get a freelance gig tomorrow and then what? Life of the freelancer is hard to predict, but knowing Sal he's going to start getting freelance work soon.

"If Sal is willing to dip into his savings to pay for his food and hotel expenses to board meetings; then he should be allowed to run. He's been a loyal NAHJ member for years. I will say that NAHJ does not have the money to pay expenses for board members to go to board meetings.

". . . we allowed two board members to stay on when they should have been told to leave. We cannot have one set of rules for board members and another for members."

Elaine Aradillas, election committee chair, did not respond to an inquiry from Journal-isms.

[Aradillas posted this note on Facebook on Sunday: "I am out of town on assignment with spotty access to internet, so I'm just now catching up with all of this. Let me start off by saying that I am proud of the work done by the committee. As a committee, we spoke to candidates, their employers and references. We followed the bylaws and the election guide. I am sorry if people feel they were pressured, warned, discouraged, etc. I believe our group has been fair and professional. As for Sal, I spoke with him and he withdrew his nomination. I told him I would keep our conversation private, which I have done."] [Updated July 9.]

Fired Writer Defends Using Unattributed P.R. Material

"A former columnist claims in court that the Kansas City Star defamed him after firing him for using what he says almost all reporters use — press releases," Joe Harris reported Thursday for Courthouse News Service.

"Steve Penn worked for the Star from 1980 to July 2011. His last position was writing a thrice-weekly general interest column about upcoming high school and college sports events, for which Penn says he occasionally used press releases.

" 'The widespread practice in journalism is to treat such press releases as having been voluntarily released by their authors into the flow of news with the intention that the release will be reprinted or published, and preferably with no or minimal editing,' Penn says in his complaint in Jackson County Court.

" 'As such, attribution of such news releases is typically not expected by the author, nor offered by journalists who receive them.'

"Penn claims that it was 'the widespread practice at the Star ... to use these press releases without attribution'."

S. African Cartoon Depicts President as Male Body Part

In May, tensions were inflamed in South Africa after the ruling African National Congress objected to a satirical art exhibition that included a painting showing President Jacob Zuma as Lenin with his genitals exposed. The ANC forced a newspaper to remove the image from its website, and the painting was defaced in the gallery.

Tension is rising again. On Friday, the government demanded that the Mail & Guardian remove from its website a cartoon published Friday that features an erect penis with a showerhead and legs with an accompanying limerick about Zuma.

The limerick read: "Though sex is his publicised sport Zuma took the dick-painting to court suing Brett's free expression, confirmed the impression he's as big a dick as we thought," Agence France-Presse reported Friday.

Zuma has been married six times, currently has four wives and 21 children, and acknowledged in 2010 that he fathered a child that year with a woman who was not among his wives, the Associated Press has reported.

"A court found him not guilty of raping an HIV-positive woman in 2006," AFP added. "He said he took a shower shortly after unprotected sex with the woman."

M&G Editor-in-Chief Nic Dawes said, "We have no plans to remove the cartoon" from the site, according to the South African Press Association.

The ANC, which Zuma heads, the ANC Women's League (ANCWL) and the National Union of Metalworkers of SA (NUMSA) issued statements condemning the cartoon by Jonathan Shapiro, also known as Zapiro.

The ANCWL said: "The Zapiro cartoons rely on their shock value to make an impact, but calling the president of this great nation a 'dick' is unacceptable and the WL would like to know who the 'we' he is referring to in the cartoon actually is, as the majority of the population who voted for the president clearly did not think this of Zuma."

When Women Sued Newsweek for Sex Bias, and Won

"Forty years ago in July, Ms. debuted as a stand-alone magazine," Cyndi Stivers wrote for the July/August cover story of Columbia Journalism review. "Thanks to the efforts of Gloria Steinem, Suzanne Levine (a former editor of this magazine), and their colleagues, a woman is now, by default, addressed without reference to her marital status. It is hard to overemphasize how important (and to be blunt, how unlikely to succeed) this campaign seemed at the time. And Ms. is still on the stands, having staved off a few near-death experiences.

"So how about the media industry itself? . . .

". . . A bit more than 40 years ago, several dozen young women at Newsweek sued for sex discrimination, paving the way for similar suits at The New York Times and Reader's Digest. One of those who sued Newsweek, Lynn Povich, went on to become the magazine's first female senior editor (and later, editor in chief of Working Woman and a senior exec at MSNBC.com). Her memoir about the suit, The Good Girls Revolt, will be published in September by Public Affairs.

"Povich has been in and around journalism since birth: Her father, Shirley Povich, was a renowned sportswriter at The Washington Post; her brother and sister-in-law are TV anchors Maury Povich and Connie Chung; and her husband is Steve Shepard, the longtime editor of Business Week who has since founded a new J-School for the City University of New York (and has a memoir of his own coming out). CJR editor in chief Cyndi Stivers spoke to Povich in June about what it was really like to sue her boss — and win."

Sreenivasan Named Columbia U.'s Digital Officer

"Provost John Coatsworth has appointed Sree Sreenivasan as Columbia's first Chief Digital Officer," Columbia University announced on Thursday. "A noted expert in new media and digital technology, he most recently was dean of student affairs at Columbia's School of Journalism, where he helped establish the school as an early leader in digital media."

Journalism School Dean Nick Lemann named Ernest R. Sotomayor, who was Long Island editor of Newsday.com when he was president of Unity: Journalists of Color Inc., to succeed Sreenivasan as the new dean of student affairs. Sotomayor was assistant dean for career services and continuing education programs.

In his announcement, Coatsworth said, "I am confident that Sree's experience in academic administration and his widely respected expertise in new media technology make him uniquely well suited for this challenge. Our goal is to ensure that we deploy new tools and technologies in interactive and distance learning to ensure the richest and most dynamic educational environment possible for Columbia’s students, as well as learners outside the University."

The news release continued, ". . . He has been named to several lists of digital- and social-media professors to follow; AdAge's 25 media people to follow on Twitter; and Newsweek's list of the 20 most influential South Asians in America. He will remain a member of the Journalism School faculty." Sreenivasan is a founder of the South Asian Journalists Association, which is meeting in Washington, D.C., on Saturday for its annual gala.

"As much as any single person, he has been the keeper of the heart and soul of the Journalism School," Lemann wrote of Sreenivasan, known to many simply as "Sree."

"In particular, he has been essential, beginning with his first days here, in bringing together the school and the digital revolution. He has been a superb evangelist for both causes, and has helped establish the school's international reputation for leadership in digital journalism."

Video blogger Jay Smooth, right, focuses on Mitt Romney's NAACP speech in discussing "Mitt Romney’s Blackest Week Ever." (Video)

Were Boos the Right Angle on Romney Speech?

Were the headlines about the boos for Mitt Romney at the NAACP convention this week overblown? Or did they capture the spirit of the NAACP delegates' reaction to the putative GOP presidential nominee, even if the boos were balanced by a standing ovation?

". . . If you read a headline or watched the news, most likely you're aware that Romney was booed for saying that he would repeal Obamacare," right-of-center columnist Kathleen Parker wrote Friday in the Washington Post. "What you may not know is that Romney also left the stage to a standing ovation.

"Suppose you were an editor, which headline would you prefer:

" 'NAACP boos Romney during speech about Obamacare'

" 'NAACP convention gives Romney a standing O'

"Hmm."

Commentators of color, however, found much to fault in the Romney speech, with some suggesting that highlighting the boos was just fine with the candidate.

"Despite accusations to the contrary, Mitt Romney does get it," Mary C. Curtis wrote for the "She the People" section of the Washington Post website. "No one can go in front of the NAACP and talk of 'Obamacare,' a derisive term meant to provoke, and completely ignore the group's well-publicized concerns over voter-ID laws without getting it.

". . . In Montana, he reported in detail on how he meted out a dose of tough medicine the NAACP needed. 'Your friends who like "Obamacare," you remind them of this, if they want more stuff from government, tell them to go vote for the other guy — more free stuff.' He lumped together the business owners, ministers and middle-class folks who make up the membership of a venerable civil-rights group into just another bunch of freeloaders — and his base loved it.

"The members of the NAACP weren't individuals whose vote he courted. They were props. No mention of the applause he received at the beginning, end and during pieces of his speech the crowd liked. You can bet it's only 'the boos' you will see in fundraising pitches to the hard-core, evidence of stereotypes that didn't need any reinforcement."

• Lauren Victoria Burke, politic365.com: Obama: 1st Dem Nominee in 36 Years to No-Show NAACP in an Election Year
  
  
• Jonathan Capehart, Washington Post: Romney's hollow NAACP speech
  
  
• Michael Cottman, blackamericaweb.com: Romney to Blacks: Want Free Stuff? Vote for Obama
  
  
• Amy Davidson, New Yorker: Six Lessons from the Misreporting of the Health-Care Decision
  
  
• Wayne Dawkins, politicsincolor.com: Candidate Romney, Obamacare and unconscious bias
  
  
• Charles Ellison, politic365.com: Mitt Romney: Racial Folk Hero
  
  
• Rick Horowitz, YouTube.com: Like Obama Was Never There. (Video)
  
  
• Rick Horowitz, YouTube.com: Romney v. Romney (Video)
  
  
• Terry Krepel, Media Matters for America: Fox Airs Nearly All Of Romney Speech To NAACP — But Only A Minute And A Half Of Biden's
  
  
• David Lauter, Los Angeles Times: Race drives the presidential horserace
  
  
• Dr. Wilmer Leon, politic365.com: NAACP: Romney Played to Base, Did Obama Fear Being "Too Black?"
  
  
• Tony Norman, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette: Romney's black support is easy to miss
  
  
• Clarence Page, Chicago Tribune: Mitt Romney's hidden NAACP audience
  
  
• Pew Research Center for the People & the Press: Obama Holds Lead; Romney Trails on Most Issues
  
  
• Touré, Time: Romney Plays The Race Card
  
  
• Michael Warren, Weekly Standard: Obama: My Biggest Mistake Was Not 'Telling a Story' (Updated)
  
  

NAHJ Leaders Reject Plea to Discuss Election Practices

Leaders of the National Association of Hispanic Journalists rejected requests to add questionable practices by its elections committee to the agenda of a "virtual town hall" scheduled Tuesday on the association's finances.

In a Facebook exchange Friday, member Daniel Morales asked, "Any chance we can discuss the elections and the irregularities by the elections committee as well? Both issues are very important at the moment. The abuse and scrutiny of non-halftime slate candidates is blatant," he said in a reference to the HalftimeInNABJ slate headed by Russell Contreras, "and could be a legal liability down the road if the professional careers of these candidates is adversely affected by the questionable actions of Michele Salcedo's chosen [elections] board."

Contreras, NAHJ vice president/print and chief financial officer, responded, "No. We will discuss finances only. This is the first time in years finances released before convention, first time there is financial virtual town hall, and first time we've had a surplus in years. Board voted on election chair and we will not get involved. The candidates on HalftimeInNAHJ were also vetted, had their respective HR departments contacted and provided all the requirements."

Salcedo, NAHJ president, replied, "All candidates have been asked to provide the same information and have been vetted in the same way. The requirements are published in the Elections Guidelines."

As reported on Wednesday, presidential candidate Hugo Balta, who is running against Contreras, said in an email that a member of the elections committee, failing to reach him immediately, called the human resources department of ESPN, his employer, "and asked if I was still w ESPN bc it was her understanding that I had accepted another job  . . . . It was an unpleasant experience for me to say the least. I couldn't imagine how this false information could have happened!?"

Last week, supporters of television reporter Sal Morales of NAHJ's South Florida chapter said the NAHJ elections committee discouraged him from running for the general at-large seat, leaving only a HalftimeInNAHJ candidate in the contest.

Then Mekahlo Medina, a tech/social reporter at KNBC-TV in Los Angeles and non-slate candidate for vice president/broadcast, wrote that "I [received] a call from an election committee member WARNING me that my boss was 'unsure' if my organization would support my run. The problem here, my boss was on vacation and NEVER talked to her!"

Salcedo did not respond to a message seeking further comment, and Contreras would not comment on the record.

Contreras, a reporter for the Associated Press, said on Facebook, "The election committee can call my employer any time. They love me. Committee can also call my former employers, my wife, my Kindergarten teacher, my high school principal, my priest, my dog, my former students, my tejano godparents. Transparency is a good thing. Support it fully."

The "virtual town hall" follows questions that some NAHJ members have raised since March, when Salcedo announced that "according to our final financial numbers, NAHJ finished 2011 with revenues of more than $111,000 over expenses." The association projected a $240,000 deficit for 2010, then implemented severe cutbacks in 2011 to produce a surplus, it said. The "town hall" is scheduled from 7 to 9 p.m.

Magazines Faulted on Black Women's Health

"Crystal Lumpkins, an assistant professor of journalism at the University of Kansas, has completed a study of coverage of women's health issues in popular women's magazines," the Journal of Blacks in Higher Education reported last week.

"Professor Lumpkins surveyed the editorial content of four popular magazines: Ms., Redbook, Good Housekeeping, and Essence. She found that these magazines ignored, for the most part, health issues of particular concern to African American women. Essence is largely targeted at African American women.

"Professor Lumpkins stated, 'The health stories that were most reported were on reproductive and sexual health. Diabetes, heart disease, HIV/AIDS, all of these major health issues in the African American community were not addressed.' "

Meanwhile, figures from the Publishers Information Bureau for April to June showed that, in general, magazines targeting Latinos and the venerable Ebony magazine continued to defy an advertising slump in the consumer magazine industry.

Ebony rose 49.7 percent in advertising dollars over the same period last year, and increased 44.5 percent in advertising pages. Ser Padres, a Spanish-language publication produced by Meredith Corp., rose 41.0 percent in advertising dollars and 10.7 percent in advertising pages. Its sister publication, Siempre Mujer, grew 18.7 percent in advertising dollars and 2.1 percent in ad pages. People en Español rose 13.4 percent in ad dollars and 6.8 percent in ad pages.

Showing declines were Black Enterprise, down 6.6 percent in ad dollars and 7.0 percent in ad pages; Essence, down 19.3 percent in ad dollars and 24.1 percent in ad pages; Jet, down 9.7 percent in ad dollars and 14.2 percent in pages; and Latina, down 4.9 percent in ad dollars and 6.3 percent in ad pages.

In April, Stephen Barr, Johnson Publishing Co. senior vice president/group publishing, attributed increases at Ebony to new advertisers.

Enedina Vega, vice president and publisher of Meredith Hispanic Ventures, attributed the increases at her publications to "the growing awareness among advertisers about the importance of the Hispanic market."

• Bill Mickey, Folio:: Magazine Closures Drop Significantly in First Half 2012
  
  
• Erik Sass, mediapost.com: Magazine Ad Pages Take Another Hit
  
  
• Joshunda Sanders, Maynard Institute for Journalism Education: Mainstream Media Tend to Ignore Blacks' Mental Health Problems

Navarrette Says Anchor Ramos Looked Unprofessional

"When Marco Rubio sat down recently for an interview with Univision's Jorge Ramos, the spirited exchange made for great television. It also made Rubio look sympathetic, and Ramos unprofessional," Ruben Navarrette Jr. wrote this week in his syndicated column.

". . . That a class of people who shouldn't even be in this country in the first place, and don't have a legal right to remain here, have demands at all is one of the things wrong with the immigration debate.

". . . None of this seemed to get through to the Mexican-born Ramos, who really wanted to know why Rubio isn't more outspoken in defense of illegal immigrants. For instance, the journalist asked, how could it be that Rubio doesn't support 'legalization of the undocumented'? Rubio tried to interject that, in fact, he does support legalization for some illegal immigrants under certain circumstances. He just thinks that the issue is more complicated than proponents of comprehensive immigration reform are willing to admit.

"As Rubio tried to make his points, Ramos repeatedly cut him off so the anchor could make his. This wasn't an interview as much as an interrogation. Time and again, Ramos made clear that he expected better from the son of Cuban immigrants. . . ."

• Emil Guillermo, Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund: The war in Afghanistan, boot camp, and the Dream Act
  
  
• Prerna Lal, New America Media:  It's More Complicated Than "Legal vs. Illegal": An Open Letter to Ruben Navarrette
  
  

Robin Roberts, Oprah Bid Monica Pearson Farewell

"A crowd of prominent Atlantans flocked to the Fox Theatre Wednesday night to salute veteran news anchor Monica Pearson as she prepares to sign off for good," Jennifer Brett reported Thursday for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

"Oprah Winfrey made a surprise appearance by video to wish Pearson well.

" 'Monica, hey! I hear you are retiring,' Winfrey said during the video clip. 'I am really so very proud of you. I bow to you. Congratulations.'

"Nancy O’Dell from 'Entertainment Tonight' also appeared by video clip.

" 'We want to join your friends in Atlanta in wishing you the very best,' she said.

". . . The black-tie event was emceed by 'Good Morning America' co-host Robin Roberts, whose participation also was a surprise. . . ."

Meanwhile, Brett continued, Marietta Mayor Steve 'Thunder' Tumlin honored Condace Pressley, program director at WSB radio, and proclaimed July 11 "Condace Pressley Day" in the city because of her contributions to Marietta and to Georgia.

The Atlanta Association of Black Journalists plans to present Pressley the Pioneer Award July 29 at its 30th annual Pioneer Black Journalist Awards. Pressley is a past president of the National Association of Black Journalists.

Ethiopia Hands 6 Journalists Heavy Prison Sentences

"An Ethiopian court today handed down heavy prison sentences to six journalists convicted on vague terrorism charges, local journalists and news reports said," the Committee to Protect Journalists reported on Friday. "Award-winning blogger Eskinder Nega got an 18-year term; the others live in exile and were sentenced in absentia."

International press-freedom organizations denounced the sentences.

CPJ continued, " 'The court has given due considerations to the charges and the sentences are appropriate,' presiding Judge Endeshaw Adane told a packed courtroom at the Lideta Federal High Court in the capital, Addis Ababa, as he issued sentences for 24 defendants, including the journalists, convicted of involvement in a vague terror plot, according to wire reports.

"The judge accused veteran journalist Eskinder of participating in a terrorist organization, planning a terrorist act, and 'working with the Ginbot 7 organization,' a U.S.-based opposition group that the Ethiopian government formally designated a terrorist entity in 2011. The judge also accused Eskinder of wanting to incite anti-government protests in Ethiopia with online articles discussing the Arab Spring. Authorities have detained Eskinder at least eight times during Meles Zenawi's two decades as prime minister, according to CPJ research.

"Exiled journalists Mesfin Negash and Abiye Teklemariam received eight years each based on accusations of making information about Ginbot 7 available to Ethiopians through their news website, Addis Neger Online.

"Abebe Gellaw of the U.S.-based Addis Voice and Abebe Belew of U.S.-based Internet radio station Addis Dimts were each sentenced in absentia to 15 years, and Fasil Yenealem got a life sentence, based on their activities with pro-opposition exiled broadcaster Ethiopian Satellite Television (ESAT), which government prosecutors described in court documents as 'the voice of the terrorist organization Ginbot 7.'

"All of the journalists have professed their innocence, according to news reports."

• Saskia Houttuin, Radio Netherlands Worldwide: Ethiopia: Court Sentences Exiled Journalist in Holland to Life
  
  
• J. David Goodman, New York Times: Ethiopia: Dissident Journalist Sentenced
  
  
• Naomi Hunt, International Press Institute: Eskinder Nega Sentenced to 18 Years in Prison

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. . . ."