Md. Congressman Cummings Encourages FCC Chairman to Enact XM-Sirius Minority Programming Proposal

- Today, Congressman Elijah E. Cummings (D-Md.), former Chairman of the Congressional Black Caucus, sent the following letter to Kevin Martin, Chairman of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), in response to the recent proposal by FCC Commissioner Jonathan Adelstein requiring Sirius-XM to lease 15 percent of their satellite capacity to diversity programming:

July 23, 2008

The Honorable Kevin Martin
Chairman
Federal Communications Commission
445 12th Street SW
Washington, D.C. 20554

Dear Chairman Martin:

This letter is to follow up on my correspondence dated May 15, 2008, regarding the proposed merger of Sirius Satellite Radio, Inc. and XM Satellite Radio Holdings, Inc., that is being considered by the Commission. I appreciate your time and consideration.

I opposed the Sirius-XM merger due to my concerns that the newly formed company would control over 25 MHz – enough to transmit over 300 channels of radio and some video into every local market in the country. This would be an unprecedented amount of spectrum in the hands of a single company – more than the entire spectrum allocated to FM and AM radio combined. However, I also recognize that—should the merger be approved—it will provide a real opportunity for minority ownership and participation in the satellite marketplace. That is why I support the conditions that Commissioner Jonathan Adelstein recently proposed to you and the other Commissioners regarding dedicating 15 percent of the spectrum to diversity programming.

While I believe the allocation of 20 percent of spectrum to diversity programming to be a stronger commitment, Commissioner Adelstein’s proposal of 15 percent is a giant step toward opening the doors of opportunity for minority-owned businesses that have historically struggled to compete in this industry. Further, I feel it is extremely important that this requirement be negotiated, ratified and approved by the Commission prior to approval of the merger. This percentage of channel capacity would clearly assure the public, and more specifically our minority population, of viable minority media ownership and diverse programming.

I commend Commissioner Adelstein for his willingness to work with you and his fellow Commissioners to bring forth a plan that is clearly in the best interest of consumers. Should you have any questions, please feel free to contact me or my Legislative Director, Ms. Nikki Jones at 202-225-4741.

Sincerely,

Elijah E. Cummings
Member of Congress

Protesters denounce Fox News as racist

Reuters

- Protesters gathered on Wednesday outside Fox News Channel to denounce what they claim is its racist campaign coverage, including a pundit who called Democratic presidential hopeful Barack Obama a terrorist.

The crowd of some 150 people wielded a petition with more than 600,000 signatures objecting to news coverage by Fox, owned by Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp, organizers said.

Some demonstrators held signs that crossed out the network’s “Fair and Balanced” slogan and replaced it with the words “Fairly Racist!”

Led by activist groups MoveOn.org and ColorOfChange.org, protesters cited incidents on Fox including an on-screen graphic calling Michelle Obama “Obama’s baby mama” and a pundit who confused Obama with Osama bin Laden and joked they should both be assassinated.

Another anchor called a televised fist bump between Obama and his wife a “terrorist fist jab,” they said, and talk show host Bill O’Reilly discussed calling a “lynching party” to deal with Michelle Obama after criticizing her patriotism.

“Putting racism on national television and calling it news is never funny,” said Andre Banks of ColorOfChange.

Joining the protest was hip hop star Nas, who said the Fox coverage inspired a song “Sly Fox” on his new album.

“Fox poisons this country every time they air racist propaganda and try and call it news,” he said.

A spokeswoman for Fox said: “Fox News believes in all protesters exercising their right to free speech, including Nas, who has an album to promote.”

How Bright is the Future for Blacks in Journalism? Dimming More Each Day, Experts Suggest

Michael H. Cottman, BlackAmericaWeb.com

- Black journalists said Tuesday they are concerned about the next generation of black writers and editors in mainstream media who will likely face layoffs in their newsrooms, significant job cuts, expanded workloads and tough economic times.

Larry Bivins, Washington editor for Gannett News Service, said he would have a difficult time encouraging high school or college students to pursue print journalism.

“With all the downsizing that’s going on, it would seem almost cruel to promote a career in our industry,” Bivins, a veteran journalist, told BlackAmericaWeb.com. “If newspapers are cutting back, then they aren’t hiring. So what does that say about the future for blacks and diversity? Not a lot that’s good when you consider that traditionally we are the last hired” and sometimes the first fired.

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Talk-show host Tavis Smiley tackles Obama and race

KINNEY LITTLEFIELD, Associated Press

- Tavis Smiley is all wound up. His voice is rough from too much vocalizing, but the host of public television’s “Tavis Smiley” talk show and public radio’s “The Tavis Smiley Show” is on an oratorical roll about race, politics, and his fellow African-American, presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama.

“There is no such thing in America as race transcendence, and Obama’s going to find that out real soon,” says Smiley, leaning into his words. As he sermonizes, he sheds suit jacket, tie and belt in succession, getting comfy in his spacious suite at KCET in Los Angeles after taping two installments of “Tavis Smiley” (Monday-Friday in various time-slots on PBS stations).

Despite the peaceful vibe inside his sanctuary, with its African masks and scented candle, Smiley frowns. “There’s no such thing as ‘post-racial’ in America, because if you push the envelope too far, you’re going to hear about it.”

Smiley should know. For months he has been the object of an Internet firestorm for his perceived negative comments about Obama on commercial radio’s syndicated “The Tom Joyner Morning Show.”

Smiley found himself between race and a hard place when he criticized Obama on-air for choosing not to appear on Smiley’s annual State of the Black Union cablecast on C-SPAN in February. Smiley’s remarks sparked a blaze of invective by African-American bloggers, who questioned Smiley’s loyalty, motives and ego.

After 12 years as a fixture on Joyner’s show, Smiley delivered his final commentary on June 26. Smiley insists his departure was not a reaction to the flak, but rather a decision that he had been on Joyner’s show long enough.

“Just because Barack Obama is black, doesn’t mean he gets a pass on being held accountable on issues that matter to black people,” Smiley says. “I’m not an Obama critic or a McCain critic. The term itself is dismissive and insulting.”

For Smiley - a multimedia entrepreneur who is an important voice in the African-American community, who owns his TV and radio shows, who has authored 11 books and created the nonprofit Tavis Smiley Foundation to empower youth - the disparagement by black bloggers still stings.

His dilemma is also emblematic of the media conundrum of the moment for black and white journalists alike: how to responsibly and sensitively address the issue of race and couch coverage of the likely first-ever run for the White House by a major-party nominee who is black.

“We have an awkward history about how to talk about race in the nation and in newsrooms,” says Gwen Ifill, senior correspondent for PBS’ “The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer” and author of “The Breakthrough: Politics and Race in the Age of Obama,” slated for publication early next year.

“I don’t see any hesitancy about addressing it,” Ifill says. “But I do think we are all searching for the language.”

David Bohrman, CNN’s Washington bureau chief, agrees. “It’s still a sensitive topic, but I think the door’s been opened to the conversation … Whether or not that conversation will happen in a reasonable or superficial way - I don’t think anyone has a real sense of how it will play out right now.”

Smiley will broadcast his talk show live to select markets from the Democratic convention in Denver Aug. 25-28 and the Republican convention in St. Paul, Minn., Sept. 1-4.

“I want to do what I always try to do, which is to be authentic in my coverage,” Smiley says. “I’m an advocacy journalist, not a journalist in the traditional sense. I believe my role in the media is to get people to re-examine the assumptions they hold.”

That challenge is not always obvious on Smiley’s talk show. In its five-year run “Tavis Smiley” has included a stew of both stars and politicos, from Obama, last fall, and Hillary Clinton in February, to Harrison Ford, Dustin Hoffman, and hip, young-skewing musical guests such as Ne-Yo.

But it is Smiley’s role as vigilant media inquisitor - and never mind political correctness - that he seems to relish most.

“This is what I do - asking critical questions,” Smiley says. “Now some of you regard it as keeping a brother down, holding a brother back. Because you regard it that way, you don’t understand that this is the role that I’ve always played.”

Is media playing fair in campaign coverage?

DAVID BAUDER, Associated Press

- Television news’ royalty will fly in to meet Barack Obama during this week’s overseas trip: CBS chief anchor Katie Couric in Jordan on Tuesday, ABC’s Charles Gibson in Israel on Wednesday and NBC’s Brian Williams in Germany on Thursday.

The anchor blessing defines the trip as a Major Event and — much like a “Saturday Night Live” skit in February that depicted a press corps fawning over Obama — raises anew the issue of fairness in campaign coverage.

The news media have devoted significantly more attention to the Democrat since Hillary Rodham Clinton suspended her campaign and left a two-person contest for the presidency between Obama and Republican John McCain, according to research conducted by the Project for Excellence in Journalism.

News executives say there are reasons for the disparity, such as the continuing story about whether Clinton’s and Obama’s supporters can reconcile. They even partly blame McCain. By criticizing Obama for a lack of foreign policy experience, McCain raised the stakes for Obama’s trip, “especially if he winds up going into two war zones,” said Paul Friedman, senior vice president of CBS News.

Obama has traveled to Afghanistan and is expected to go to Iraq. He is also scheduled to visit Jordan, Israel, Germany, France and England. Network anchors stayed home during McCain’s recent foreign excursions.

“The question really needs to be posed: Is this type of coverage fair?” said Rep. Eric Cantor, R-Va. “This is nothing but a political stunt.”

Talk show host Rush Limbaugh said none of this should be a surprise.

“My prediction is that the coverage of Obama on this trip will be oriented toward countering the notion he has no idea what he is talking about on foreign policy and defense issues and instead will prop him up as a qualified statesman,” Limbaugh told The Associated Press. “McCain, on the other hand, is a known quantity on these issues and his position does not excite nor fit the mainstream media’s narrative on Iraq and Afghanistan, so they simply ignore it and him.”

Along with newsworthiness, the question of fairness was discussed within ABC News before it was agreed Gibson would travel, said Jon Banner, executive producer of “World News.” Also, if one network anchor decides to hit the road for a big event, chances are the others will follow.

“We have already been in discussions with the McCain campaign to try to afford them the same or a similar opportunity,” Banner said. “We have gone to great lengths to be fair and provide equal time to both campaigns.”

Shortly after Obama clinched the Democratic nomination, Gibson flew to Miami for a McCain interview, he said.

For each of the weeks between June 9 and July 13, Obama had a much more significant media presence. The Project for Excellence in Journalism evaluates more than 300 political stories each week in newspapers, magazines and television to measure whether each candidate is talked about in more than 25 percent of the stories.

Every week, Obama played an important role in more than two-thirds of the stories. For July 7-13, for example, Obama was a significant presence in 77 percent of the stories, while McCain was in 48 percent, the PEJ said.

Sure, there are some weeks Obama’s going to make more news, said Tom Rosenstiel, the project’s director.

But every week?

“No matter how understandable it is given the newness of the candidate and the historical nature of Obama’s candidacy, in the end it’s probably not fair to McCain,” he said.

The Democrat has proven an attractive commodity; TV debates involving Democrats this campaign consistently drew more viewers than the Republicans. A Time magazine cover with Obama in 2006 was the second-best-selling of the year, and a Men’s Vogue cover outsold every issue but the debut, according to circulation figures reported by Portfolio.com. Newsweek has done six covers with Obama over the past year, two with McCain. A Rolling Stone cover with Obama stopped just short of adding a halo.

If the attention gap continues, the campaign will essentially become a referendum on Obama, Rosenstiel said. While that may serve McCain’s purpose — it beats a referendum on President Bush — it could leave the nation electing a president while the media are paying attention to someone else. Past press infatuations, like Howard Dean in 2004 and McCain in 2000, didn’t turn into long-term affairs.

TV executives noted that Obama has courted attention, particularly for the overseas trip, more so than McCain. There’s some danger involved, too. One Obama gaffe while overseas, or the appearance that he’s not ready for an international spotlight, and the media’s elite will be there to judge him, said Bob Zelnick, Boston University journalism professor.

Friedman cautioned against reading too much into things like PEJ’s coverage index, noting that it’s a long campaign. Yet it’s an open question about whether Obama is simply a more interesting candidate at this point, partly because McCain has been on the scene longer.

While fairness is the goal, “what are we supposed to do, go gin up some story about McCain to get some rough equality of airtime?” he said. “I don’t think so.”

NBC News President Steve Capus said he finds it funny this is an issue, considering how much people have accused the press corps — and still do — of being too cozy with McCain. The Arizona senator had been a frequent guest of “Meet the Press.”

“We’re just trying to do our jobs,” Capus said. “There’s no question that there’s great news value in Sen. Obama’s trip overseas. That’s why we are doing this.”

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