The U.S. District Court of Appeals in Washington, D.C., ruled Jan. 16 that the Federal Communications Commission’s Equal Employment Opportunity regulations were unconstitutional, citing that the rules unlawfully put pressure on broadcasters to recruit people of color for job openings.
The National Telecommunications and Information Administration found Jan. 16 that the number of television stations owned by Hispanics and other people of color decreased between 1998 and 2000 while the number of radio stations increased. The number of full-power television stations owned by Latinos decreased from six in 1998 to one in 2000. Overall, Hispanics own 0.1% of all television stations and 1.8% of all radio stations.
Puerto Rico Gov. Sila María Calderón used the venue of the National Association of Hispanic Journalists’ 12th annual scholarship banquet at New York City’s Plaza Hotel Feb. 22 to call for the U.S. Navy to stop its bombing on the island of Vieques.
Jay Harris’s resignation as publisher of the San Jose Mercury News March 19 sent shockwaves through the paper’s newsroom. In his resignation letter, Harris, an African-American long respected for his efforts to diversify the nation’s newsrooms, criticized the Knight Ridder chain’s emphasis on profits that he said diminished the newspaper’s role as a public servant.
The percentage of Latinos working at English-language daily newspapers declined slightly from 3.68% in 1999 to 3.66 percent 2000, according to the American Society of Newspaper Editors’ annual newsroom survey. The percentage for all journalists of color declined for the first time ever from 11.85% in 1999 to11.64 in 2000.
Latino staffers were members of reporting teams at several newspapers that were awarded the Pulitzer Prize April 16.
Alan Díaz of The Associated Press won one for his photograph of federal agents storming the house of Elián González’s Miami relatives and seizing the boy.
Twenty Latinos on The Miami Herald staff were members of the reporting team that won the Pulitzer for breaking news for its coverage of the federal raid that removed González from his relatives and reunited the Cuban boy with his father.
Five Latino New York Times staffers were part of that paper’s team that won a Pulitzer for national reporting with its series examining U.S. racial experiences and attitudes.
Two Latino staffers were on the Chicago Tribune team that won for explanatory reporting. The paper profiled problems with the U.S. air traffic system.
Nearly1,600 journalists and media executives — a record number — attended the National Association of Hispanic Journalists’ 19th annual convention in Phoenix June20-23, where México Foreign Minister Jorge Castañeda spoke. Inducted into NAHJ Hall of Fame were Hispanic Link publisher Charlie Ericksen, pioneer Southwest radio journalist Peter Moraga and retired Tucson print media executive Edith Auslander.
Arizona Daily Star reporter Carmen Duarte won the Guillermo Martínez-Márquez award, given to the top overall entry in the professional journalism competition for her series “Mama’s Santos.”
Latino employment at seven television stations broadcasting in New York City declined from 12.2% to 11.2% between 1997 and 2000, according to a study released June14 by the New York chapter of the National Hispanic Media Coalition.
Visibility of Hispanic network correspondents reporting for the evening news lagged way behind all other ethnic groups from 1983 to 2000, according to a study released by the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Telecommunications at Arizona State University.
Three Hispanic correspondents reported for the evening news of ABC, CBS and NBC in1983. In 2000 there were only two. Since 1993, just 14 Hispanics reported for network evening news programs.
Latinos accounted for most of the growth of people of color working in newsrooms at local English-language television stations over the past year, according to the annual survey of the Radio-Television News Directors Association. Latino numbers climbed. When Spanish-language stations were included in the total, Latinos made up 10.1% of newsroom employees.
NBCannounced that it will purchase the Spanish-language network Telemudo for $2billion. Telemundo is currently controlled by Liberty Media Corp. and SonyCorp., which paid $539 million for their combined 75% stake in 1997.
Some 80journalists, educators and journalism students gathered Oct. 26 and 27 at Michigan State University in East Lansing to discuss industry issues and coverage of the growing Latino community in the Midwest.
Rick Rodríguez, executive editor of The Sacramento Bee, was elected treasurer-designate of the American Society of Newspaper Editors during the association’s fall board meeting in Minneapolis Nov. 6. He will assume the treasurer’s position in April and become the first Latino president of the association in 2005.
The percentage of stories about Latinos that aired on the evening network newscasts declined from 1.3% in 1999 to 0.53% in 2000, according to the National Association of Hispanic Journalists’ 2001 “Network Brownout” report.
Out of16,000 news stories that aired on ABC, CBS, NBC and CNN last year, only 84 were about Latinos, it reported. Stories on the custody battle over Elián González were tallied separately. As the report noted, the González story proved to bean anomaly, accounting for 2.1% of all stories that aired.
The National Latino Media Council filed a petition with the Federal Communications Commission to deny approval of the pending NBC purchase of Telemundo, the nation’s second largest Spanish-language network.
Former Congressman Esteban Torres, chair of the council, stated the coalition opposes the merger because it does not serve the public interest. It cited in its petition the “detrimental effects” that media consolidation has had on diversity, program content and minority ownership.
Membership in the National Association of Hispanic Publications grew 73% in just three years, from 120 publications in 1998 to 208 in 2001.
