Articles Feature

For Many, Hollywood Gets Closer to the Truth

by richard01784

Not Yet #OscarsSoDiverse, but Getting There

Trump, Away From Tabloids, Can’t ‘Manage’ Press

30 News Outlets Measuring Customers’ Trust

Indian Media Blame Trump in U.S. Bar Shooting

Desecration Hits Home for Recorder of Hate Crimes

Justice Dept. Flips on Opposition to Texas Voter ID

María Elena Salinas Named to NAB Hall of Fame

Stanley Dearman Dies, Courageous in Mississippi

Héctor Gabino Dies, South Florida’s ‘Visual Poet’

Dan Garcia, San Antonio Anchor, Dies at 65

Short Takes

The New York Times launched its new marketing campaign, “The Truth Is Hard,” during Sunday’s Academy Awards show. (video)

Not Yet #OscarsSoDiverse, but Getting There

“At last,” Derrick Clifton wrote Monday for NBCBLK.

“When Viola Davis finally heard her name announced as an Academy Award winner, after three nominations, her mouth didn’t drop in shock, nor did the splendor of the moment seem to overwhelm her.

“Davis was ready — to proudly claim the golden reward she’d earned and publicly reflect upon her journey, with a story to tell.

Viola Davis (Credit: oscars.com)
Viola Davis (Credit: oscars.com)

” ‘There’s one place where all the people with the greatest potential are gathered. One place — and that’s the graveyard. People ask me all the time, “What kind of stories do you want to tell, Viola?” And I say exhume those bodies. Exhume those stories,’ Davis said, thanking ‘Fences’ playwright and Pulitzer Prize-winner August Wilson for exhuming and exalting ordinary people in his work.

“Somehow, Davis managed to capture what would become a recurring theme of the evening, as Black actors, writers, and filmmakers made history during the ceremony.

“It was the first year where more than three Black Oscar winners took the stage for the marquee categories — writing, acting, and directing. . . .”

Nearly everyone knows what gave Sunday’s telecast its biggest headlines. As Maria Puente and Andrea Mandell wrote Monday for USA Today, “The accountants did it?”

“We all watched in shock as it happened. Now we know exactly what happened.

“PricewaterhouseCoopers, which has handled the accounting for the Academy Awards since 1934, early Monday apologized for giving the wrong envelope to presenters Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway before the two actors erroneously announced La La Land as best picture at Sunday night’s Oscars. In actuality, Moonlight won the top prize. . . .”

But of course that wasn’t the only story. Other takeaways were influenced by ethnic, sexual or workplace perspectives..

The Boricua Film Club wrote Friday for the National Institute for Latino Policy, “In what many are referring to #OscarsSoBlack in contrast to last year’s #OscarSoWhite protest, Latinos were once again almost invisible in this year’s Academy Awards. No Latinos were nominated for any roles, none of the nominated films had any Latino content as far as we can tell, and there weren’t even that many Latinos as presenters! . . .”

In contrast, Ed Diokno wrote Monday for AsAmNews, “It’s a good thing that I wasn’t playing the drinking game during the Oscars telecast last night. You know, every time an Asian appeared, drink a shot of scotch. With the number of Asian appearances, I might be so incapacitated that I wouldn’t be able to write this post. . . .”

Under the headline “Authentic Stories About Native Americans Need Hollywood’s Attention,” Chris Eyre, Joely Proudfit and Heather Rathree wrote Friday in Variety, “Film and TV have always been powerful weapons against Native people, whether it be negative portrayals that reinforce Manifest Destiny-derived mythologies or lack of representation overall. . . .

“That was why we founded The Native Networkers (TNN) in 2015, with a mission to provide resources to the industry that help foster more authentic representation of Native American and Indigenous peoples. Unlike traditional consultants, we collaborate with filmmakers and bridge subject matter at all stages of development, production, and distribution. . . .”

Even journalists had skin in the game. “The New York Times is running its first television ad in seven years during the Oscars Sunday night. The subject? The truth,” Frank Pallotta reported Thursday for CNN.

“The ad begins with voices saying, ‘The truth is our nation is more divided than ever,’ with those words spelled out against a white backdrop. The phrase then changes to ‘The truth is alternative facts are lies.’ The ad repeats different versions of the ‘The truth is…’ as the voices speed up and get louder. It ends with: ‘The truth is hard’ and ‘The truth is more important now than ever.’ . . .”

President Trump responded to that with a tweet early Sunday, “For first time the failing @nytimes will take an ad (a bad one) to help save its failing reputation. Try reporting accurately & fairly!”

Sting performed “The Empty Chair,” which he wrote with J. Ralph for the documentary film “Jim: The James Foley Story.” The film tells the story of journalist Foley, who was killed by ISIS in 2014.

“Sting performed the song solo with just his guitar and a stark backdrop with a poignant quote from Foley that read, ‘If I don’t have the moral courage to challenge authority, we don’t have journalism,‘ ” Madison Vein reported Sunday for Entertainment Weekly.

When “Moonlight” won for Best Adapted Screenplay, Barry Jenkins and co-writer Tarell Alvin McCraney used their platform to give the “black and brown boys and girls and non-gender conforming who don’t see themselves” a shout-out while reflecting on their own histories growing up in Miami, where the film is set,” as Jess Denham reported Tuesday for London’s Independent.

“For all you people out there who feel there is no mirror for you, that you feel your life is not reflected, the Academy has your back, the ACLU has your back, we have your back, and for the next four years we will not leave you alone, we will not forget you,” said Jenkins.

That resonated with those whose identities fit the category, some of them journalists.

Gerrick D. Kennedy, pop music writer for the Los Angeles Times, tweeted, “And right now I’m sobbing hysterically. I’ll be 30 this year. Waited my whole life as a black queer man for a film like @moonlightmov.”

Perhaps more important, according to CBS News, “Moonlight’s” influence reached “the tough streets of Miami’s Liberty City.”

“Natalia Baldie is the artistic director of Northwestern High’s performing arts program,” Manuel Bojorquez reported for the “CBS Evening News” on Monday.

“ ‘What does this represent for those students?’ CBS News asked.

“ ‘They can actually see past the violence and the guns, and start believing in their gifts,’ she said. . . .”

Actor Mahershala Ali discusses “Moonlight” Monday with Gayle King on “CBS This Morning.” (video)

Trump, Away From Tabloids, Can’t ‘Manage’ Press

“The White House press secretary, Sean Spicer, has taken to slapping journalists who write unflattering stories with an epithet he sees as the epitome of low-road, New York Post-style gossip: ‘Page Six reporter,’ ” Glenn Thrush and Michael M. Grynbaum reported Saturday for the New York Times.

“Whether the New England-bred spokesman realizes it or not, the expression is perhaps less an insult than a reminder of an era when Donald J. Trump mastered the New York tabloid terrain — and his own narrative — shaping his image with a combination of on-the-record bluster and off-the-record gossip.

“He’s not in Manhattan anymore. This New York-iest of politicians, now an idiosyncratic, write-your-own-rules president, has stumbled into the most conventional of Washington traps: believing he can master an entrenched political press corps with far deeper connections to the permanent government of federal law enforcement and executive department officials than he has. . . .”

Thrush and Grynbaum also wrote, ” ‘New York is extremely intense and competitive, but it is actually a much smaller pond than Washington, where you have many more players with access to many more sources,’ said Howard Wolfson, who has split his career between New York and Washington, advising former Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg and Hillary Clinton’s 2008 presidential campaign.

“ ‘In New York, you can create a manageable set of relationships in a smaller universe,’ Mr. Wolfson said. ‘In Washington, that becomes a lot more complicated.’

“There is another fundamental difference: During his Page Six days, Mr. Trump was, by and large, trafficking in trivia. As president, he is dealing with the most serious issues of the day. They involve the nation’s safety and prosperity, and it is the role of news organizations to cover them. . . .”

Meanwhile, in the wake of the White House’s decision to bar disfavored news outlets from a briefing on Friday,  “The Washington Post has added a new motto to its [website] front page: ‘Democracy Dies in Darkness.’

“And the L.A. Times has printed up T-shirts, for staff and the public, with the phrase ‘We will not shut up’ in thirteen languages,” Evan Osnos reported Saturday for the New Yorker. Osnos also wrote, “(For its part, The New Yorker will not attend White House briefings until the exclusions are ended, according to David Remnick, the editor of the magazine.) . . .”

30 News Outlets Measuring Customers’ Trust

“As we all work to establish journalism’s credibility and figure how to earn the trust of cynical news consumers, we’re looking for journalists willing to take a radical step: Invite individual members of your community to talk to you about what they trust,” Joy Mayer wrote to news organizations last month. She is an “engagement strategist” and fellow at the Donald W. Reynolds Journalism Institute at the Missouri School of Journalism.

Today, 30 news organizations are participating.

Joy Mayer
Joy Mayer

“That’s right,” Mayer’s pitch continued. “Who among you is willing to meet face-to-face with audience members who aren’t your biggest fans or don’t think you’re a very good news source?

“We have a bunch of questions we’d like to ask those folks. We want to better understand the nature of trust in news, and we think the best way to go about it is to connect them with journalists in their own communities.

“It’s easy for them to rail about crooked media in general. Just like it’s easy for journalists to write off the complaints and concerns of their detractors. But both approaches will be harder to maintain if two human beings — rather than two representatives of warring viewpoints — sit down for a conversation. . . .”

Participants are meeting their third deadline this week. By Friday, they are to “start selecting four people to invite to sit-down interviews of no more than one hour. Look for signs of thoughtfulness — people likely to be willing and able to explain their perspectives. The goal for diversity of participants is:

“a. One person who typically does NOT trust the news, one person who typically DOES trust the news and one person in the middle. The fourth can be in any category.

“b. At least one liberal and at least one conservative

“c. At least one person who’s not white

“d. At least one man and at least one woman

“e. You may interview more than four people if you want to, but your commitment is for just four. . . .”

Among the project’s goals: “Analyze the results from all the participating newsrooms with a goal of producing two publicly available products:

“a. A guide for journalists who want to understand what users trust and make building trust a priority

“b. A guide for journalists who want to have more face-to-face conversations with community members. . . .”

These news outlets are participating: Akron (Ohio) Beacon Journal; Annenberg Media; Daily News, Ball State University; Casper (Wyo.) Star Tribune; Cincinnati Enquirer; the Coloradoan, Fort Collins, Colo.; the Missourian, Columbia, Mo.; Dallas Morning News; Denver Post; Fort Worth Star-Telegram; Fresno (Calif.) Bee; Jacksboro (Texas) Herald-Gazette; Kansas City Star; KUT-FM, Austin, Texas; Star Tribune, Minneapolis; NBC News.

Also, Standard Examiner, Ogden, Utah; Rains County Leader, Emory, Texas; Standard-Times, San Angelo, Texas; Skagit Publishing, Mount Vernon, Wash.; Springfield (Mo.) News-Leader; St. Louis Magazine; St. Louis Public Radio; Steamboat Pilot & Today, Steamboat Springs, Colo.; the Evergrey, Seattle; Lima (Ohio) News; TVN23 in Warsaw, Poland; USA Today; WCPO-TV, Cincinnati; WDET-TV, Detroit.

Srinivas Kuchibhotla is survived by his wife, Sunayana Dumala. (Credit: Facebook)
Srinivas Kuchibhotla is survived by his wife, Sunayana Dumala. (Credit: Facebook)

Indian Media Blame Trump in U.S. Bar Shooting

“The shooting on Wednesday of three men at an Olathe, Kansas, bar has been headline news in India — in newspapers, broadcast outlets and on social media,” Laura Ziegler reported Saturday for KCUR-FM at the University of Missouri- Kansas City.

“Two of the victims of the attack, Srinivas Kuchibhotla and Alok Madasani, had moved to Kansas from India. The third, Ian Grillot, is from the United States.

“Adam Purinton, 51, is currently being held on charges of first-degree murder.

“In India, Wednesday’s crime is being seen as a wake-up call following the Trump administration’s crackdown on immigration and ‘America First’ policies. On Saturday, leaders in India’s Hindu community urged male Indian nationals abroad to wear ‘tika,’ a mark on the forehead that identifies them as Hindu. Hindu women were encouraged to wear the red dot on their foreheads known as ‘bindi.’ . . .”

Desecration Hits Home for Recorder of Hate Crimes

“I’m privileged to have grown up in St. Louis, a place where my grandparents wanted me to stay because it felt ‘safe’ to them — a place they’d made their way to with the help of documents that we know weren’t entirely accurate or complete, and they became citizens anyway,” Ariana Tobin wrote Thursday for ProPublica.

Ariana Tobin
Ariana Tobin

“So when a news link about my family’s Jewish cemetery popped up in the group chat for a reporting project on hate crimes that I’m involved in at ProPublica, I wasn’t prepared. Nor was I prepared when I called home and my mom told me that she was going to exchange cash for gold in case ‘things get worse’ and that my dad — who has never considered shooting anything in his life — had wondered out loud about getting a gun.

“I wanted to say, ‘You’re overreacting.’ But I can’t, really, in part because it’s so hard to gauge the threat. Data on hate crimes — against Jews and everyone else — is miserably incomplete and poorly tracked. My job is about presenting facts to contextualize the news of the day, horrible as it may be. This time, I had to tell my family that I didn’t have them.

“We don’t know if the vandalism at Chesed Shel Emeth was technically a hate crime. The motives behind it may well be uncovered. What we do know is that there is a long tradition of desecrating Jewish cemeteries, from Nazi Germany to present-day France and New York. And whatever the particulars, the news hit at a time when the Jewish community has been put on edge by threats to Jewish community centers where kids go to preschool and their retired grandparents take Kabbalah-infused yoga classes.

“That’s why our project, ‘Documenting Hate,’ an attempt to create a reliable database of hate crimes and bias incidents, asks victims to submit their stories. When I read the submissions, it’s clear that defining ‘hate crimes’ can be as elusive as reliable data tracking them. It’s just as clear that we need to make the attempt to define them, report them, investigate them — to gather enough, at least, for context.

“Yes, it’s about confronting the ugliness and comforting the scared. But it’s also about giving real answers, using actual numbers and telling true stories when our children ask questions like, ‘What happened to the Jews?’

Justice Dept. Flips on Opposition to Texas Voter ID

“After arguing for nearly six years that Texas’ voter ID law intentionally discriminated against minorities, the U.S. Department of Justice has informed the other plaintiffs in the case it has abandoned that position,” Jessica Huseman reported Monday for ProPublica. “The decision comes one day before the DOJ and the other plaintiffs were scheduled to make their latest arguments against the ID law.

“ ‘I think it is clearly a retreat from voting rights,’ said Danielle Lang, deputy director of voting rights for The Campaign Legal Center, which represents plaintiffs in the case. She said her organization has been ‘raising alarm bells’ about new Attorney General Jeff Sessions’ willingness to protect voting rights since he was nominated. Still, today’s decision disturbed her.

“ ‘The DOJ reviewed the evidence and found that Texas [passed this law] on purpose to harm minority voters,’ she said. ‘To turn their back on that is something I’m going to reserve my ability to be outraged about.’ . . .”

María Elena Salinas Named to NAB Hall of Fame

Maria Elena Salinas
María Elena Salinas

“Award-winning journalist and co-anchor of ‘Noticiero Univision’ María Elena Salinas will be inducted into the National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) Broadcasting Hall of Fame at the 2017 NAB Show Television Luncheon on Monday, April 24 in Las Vegas,” NAB announced Monday.

“Salinas began her journalism career in 1981 as a reporter, anchor and public affairs host at Univision’s KMEX-34 in Los Angeles. Her daily reporting to the growing Hispanic community in Southern California led to her joining Jorge Ramos as co-anchor of the national Spanish language news program ‘Noticiero Univision’ in 1987. . . .

” ‘María Elena Salinas is an outstanding example of the profound effect broadcast television can have on the audiences it serves,’ said NAB Executive Vice President of Television Marcellus Alexander. ‘María has a deep connection to the needs of the Latino community, and she represents their interests on and off the screen.’ . . .”

Stanley Dearman, the 84-year-old retired editor and publisher of the Neshoba Democrat in Philadelphia, Miss., was an accomplished classical pianist. (Credit: Steven G. Watson/Neshoba Democrat)
Stanley Dearman, the 84-year-old retired editor and publisher of the Neshoba Democrat in Philadelphia, Miss., was an accomplished classical pianist. (Credit: Steven G. Watson/Neshoba Democrat)

Stanley Dearman Dies, Courageous in Mississippi

“Stanley Dearman, the editor and publisher of a weekly newspaper in Philadelphia, Miss., whose editorials expressing outrage at the 1964 murders of three young civil rights workers helped set the stage for the belated conviction of a former Klansman for organizing the killings, died on Saturday in Gulf Breeze, Fla.,” Richard Goldstein reported Sunday for the New York Times. “He was 84.

“Mr. Dearman’s death was announced by the newspaper, The Neshoba Democrat, which he purchased in 1966 and ran until his retirement 34 years later.

“At a time when rigid segregation reigned in the Deep South, Mr. Dearman, a Mississippi native, called for justice in a case that became a pivotal moment in the civil rights movement. It was the basis for the 1988 film ‘Mississippi Burning.’ . . .”

Jerry Mitchell, veteran civil rights reporter at the Clarion-Ledger in Jackson, Miss., took note of Dearman’s passing Saturday, writing, “Want to know what a real journalist looks like? Look no further than Stanley Dearman, an 84-year-old retired editor who died Saturday. . . .”

Héctor Gabino Dies, South Florida’s ‘Visual Poet’

Héctor Gabino c
Héctor Gabino

“Scanning life through his lens, photographer Héctor Gabino captured South Florida’s everyday events in his images for more than two decades. And he did it with a unique eye and an almost lyrical style,” Daniel Shoer Roth wrote Sunday for the Miami Herald.

“Just as his photos and videos recorded local history for el Nuevo Herald and the Miami Herald, they now mark his colleagues’ memories of the visual poet who took them.

“Gabino died Saturday in Miami at the age of 51, after a battle with cancer that he fought with the same optimism and strong will that were characteristic of his personality. . . .”

Dan Garcia, San Antonio Anchor, Dies at 65

Dan Garcia
Dan Garcia

“Dan Garcia, one of the first Latino anchors on San Antonio TV, died today of congestive heart failure,” Jeanne Jakle reported Friday for the San Antonio Express-News. “He was 65.

“Garcia was a morning anchor on the local NBC affiliate — then KMOL, now WOAI — from 1983 to 1994 before heading to Houston for a consumer reporting job on KHOU-TV.

“He and his air partner, Carol Cavazos, pulled admirable ratings for the early show — finishing No. 2 at the time behind KENS.

“Garcia may be known best, however, for his tireless reporting on the station’s consumer segment, ‘Call Four.’ An amiable man and fierce local watchdog, Garcia frequently earned praise from viewers for being so effective in solving their problems. . . .”

Short Takes

Renee Ferguson-cropped

“Richard Prince deserves our support now more than ever. His aggregation of black voices is profound and powerful. Thank you for your work and the courage of your convictions.”

— Renee Ferguson, a former board member of Investigative Reporters and Editors who retired in 2008 as investigative reporter at WMAQ-TV in Chicago. (Courtesy of the University of Chicago)

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