eChaser: December 2005


	Welcome to our newsletter ... Society of Professional Journalists, Fort Worth Professional Chapter Public Relations Society of America, Greater Fort Worth Chapter International Association of Business Communicators, Fort Worth Chapter eChaser archive [graphics format] We appreciate our advertisers! Advanced Mobility Systems Balcom Agency Barr Printing Bass Performance Hall Business Wire The Collegian, Tarrant County College District DFW Printing Co. Fort Worth Business Press Fort Worth Transportation Authority Fort Worth Zoo Helping Restore Ability InterStar Marketing and Public Relations Jesse Hornbuckle Photography Joe T. Garcia's Mexican Food Restaurant Jubilee Theatre The Keller Citizen North Texas Daily Optimist, Abilene Christian University Pancho's Mexican Buffet PR Newswire PRSA Creative Consultants SIG Robert Hart Studio The Shorthorn, UTA Star-Telegram TCU Daily Skiff Tony Roma's The University of Texas at Arlington VMS Weber Shandwick Worldwide Wise County Messenger Witherspoon Advertising and Public Relations December 2005 MEETINGS Next at Greater Fort Worth PRSA ... Holiday Luncheon to Benefit American Red Cross You know you never have enough time to mingle during a regular chapter meeting. You have to stand in line to pay (fix that by paying online with Cvent), then go through the buffet. If you've managed to score a seat at a table with some scintillating people (and aren't all PRSA attendees scintillating?), you have maybe 10 minutes to get a conversation going. Then the meeting starts, and your attention turns to the speaker. The PRSA December networking holiday luncheon is here to help. Not only will you have time to visit with your friends, colleagues and perhaps-soon-to-be-your-boss, you also will be helping the Chisholm Trail chapter of the American Red Cross. Proceeds after meal costs will go to this organization that worked so hard this past hurricane season and that is always there in times of need, great or small. Time & date: 11:45 a.m.-1 p.m. Wednesday, Dec. 14 Place: Petroleum Club, Carter-Burgess Plaza, 777 Main St., 39th floor Parking: free valet in parking garage at Seventh and Commerce streets Cost: $25 members, $30 nonmembers, $20 students RSVP by noon Dec. 9: rsvp@fortworthprsa.org ----- Next at IABC/Fort Worth ... Big Bash at the Brewery See the splashy color invitation above. That's the December IABC meeting. The regular professional development schedule will resume in January. ----- Next at Fort Worth SPJ ... Big Bash at the Brewery II Ditto the journalists. =================================================== STRAIGHT STUFF The Metcalf Institute for Marine and Environmental Reporting is offering two fellowship programs to working pros. Coastal Impacts: Marine and Environmental Science for Journalists: Intensive, hands-on immersion with field scientists, grad students and policy experts. Participants will attend lectures, debates and panel sessions led by writers and researchers. The workshop emphasizes data analysis, research methods and the integration of science with public policy. Room, board and tuition provided. Postmark deadline Feb. 6. Metcalf Institute Diversity Fellowships in Environmental Reporting: Ten-month workout for six minority journalists focusing on environmental justice. Features four weeks of independent study with mentorship at the University of Rhode Island and 37 weeks reporting on science and the environment at one of six news outlets, including Science Friday, NOVA Science Television/NOVA Online, The Providence Journal and NPR member station WBUR. This fellowship is supported by the National Science Foundation and includes a $28,000 stipend. Applications must be postmarked by April 14. More at metcalfinstitute.org. ... Deadline is Jan. 11 to enter the Education Writers Association's annual contest recognizing outstanding work covering prekindegarten, k-12 and higher education. Eighteen categories -- news, features, series, opinion, investigative -- embrace journalists working in print (including trade publications), broadcast and online media. More here or from EWA membership and marketing coordinator Tom Kenny at tkenny@ewa.org. ... Applications for the 2006 International Radio & Television Society Minority Career Workshop and the 2006 IRTS Summer Fellowship Program are now available at irts.org/programs/programs.html. IABC local update: IABC/Dallas' annual "Season of Giving" meeting Tuesday, Dec. 13, will host representatives from local nonprofits for lunch (topic: "Cause-Based Marketing: Partnerships That Do Good and Build Brands") and networking designed to improve their communication savvy and profitability. More here. PRSA local update: Greater Fort Worth PRSA's first Editorial Forum was a success, according to members in attendance and panel participants. Billed for members only, the forum offered face time with Star-Telegram reporters, editors, columnists and editorial board members on how they like to be pitched to, etc. Three volunteers took fastidious notes, and a report will be e-mailed to members, along with a copy of deputy editorial page editor J.R. Labbe's "cheat sheet" for appearing before an editorial board. Organizers especially thank deputy editorial page editor Rex Seline, who coordinated the panelists, including reporters Amie Streater (education), John Gutierrez-Mier (community affairs), Heather Landy (retail) and Carolyn Poirot (features, health care); editors Labbe, Kristin Sullivan, Steve Kaskovich, Lee Williams and Paul Harral; and columnist Bud Kennedy. PRSA local update II: No meeting for the PRSA Independent Practitioners SIG this month, but still these people can party. Nancy and Ed Farrar are opening their Fort Worth home, 5924 Forest Lane, for a gathering from 5 to 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, Dec. 6. Cocktails and hors d'oeuvres will be served. RSVP by Dec. 2 to (817) 937-1557 or nancyh829@aol.com. PRSA local update III: Entry deadline is 5 p.m. Thursday, Jan. 26, for the state public relations industry's 2006 Silver Spur/Best of Texas Awards. Enter early. Enter often. Info at tpra.com or from Julie B. Fix, APR, at (281) 494-6097. Greater Fort Worth PRSA is again partnering with the Texas Public Relations Association to sponsor the competition. Chapter members may enter at the member rate and the chapter will receive a share of the contest proceeds. The Silver Spur and Best of Texas Awards will be presented at an awards banquet Saturday, Feb. 25, during TPRA's annual conference in Austin. SPJ national update: Illinois AG may yet have to go on the record; "The Nexus of Politics and Terror"; and Murrow wouldn't know CBS. The Supreme Court has told the attorneys for an Illinois college administrator being sued for censoring her school newspaper to file a response to the students' petition, a move some say shows that the court may consider the case. This latest twist in Hosty v. Carter could force Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan to make clear her position on college press freedom, an issue that prompted debate after she received the Sunshine Award in October from the Society of Professional Journalists. More here. ... MSNBC's Keith Olbermann notes that more than a dozen times in the last three years a political downturn for the administration has been followed by a "terror event" -- a change in alert status, an arrest, a warning. Coincidence? On May 10, after his resignation, former Secretary of Homeland Security Tom Ridge looked back on the terror alerts issued on his watch. He said: "More often than not, we were the least inclined to raise it. Sometimes we disagreed with the intelligence assessment. Sometimes we thought even if the intelligence was good, you don't necessarily put the country on (alert). ... There were times when some people were really aggressive about raising it, and we said, 'For that?' " More here. ... The producer fired for her role in the discredited CBS News report about President Bush's military service believes that CBS was more interested in protecting itself than learning the truth behind her story. In an excerpt from her upcoming book, Mary Mapes writes that "no one was happier" than executives at CBS owner Viacom to receive an independent panel's condemnation of her and three colleagues for their role in the September 2004 story on "60 Minutes II." When she was interviewed by the panel, panel member Louis Boccardi, retired Associated Press chief executive, asked whether she described herself as a liberal and whether most of her co-workers thought she was a liberal. Mapes said this reminded her of Sen. Joseph McCarthy's hearings in the 1950s where he probed whether people were Communists. "What in the world would Edward R. Murrow think of his network now?" she asked. More here. SPJ national update II: In the beginning, no Iraq-al Qaeda link; bloggers win one (but newsrooms are losing); and Times pressured over war coverage. A National Journal report asserts that 10 days after the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, President Bush was told in a briefing that the U.S. intelligence community had no evidence linking Saddam Hussein to the attacks and scant credible evidence that Iraq had any collaborative ties with al Qaeda, according to government records and officials with firsthand knowledge of the matter. The administration has refused to provide the Sept. 21, 2002, president's daily brief, even on a classified basis. More here. ... The Federal Election Commission on Nov. 24 recognized the partisan blog Fired Up! as a press entity that is allowed, like journalists, to cover and comment on political candidates without any positive statements being counted as campaign expenditures. Fired Up! consists of three state-specific blogs for Maryland, Missouri and Washington, plus one covering national issues. More here. Meanwhile, more than 1,900 newspaper jobs have been lost in 2005. ... A senior Washington bureau staff member of The New York Times says in a New York Observer story that as the administration in 2002 edged closer to invading Iraq, the Times editorial climate shifted from questioning the rationale for military action to putting the paper on a proper war footing. "Everyone could see the war coming. The Times wanted to be out front on the biggest story," the staffer said. More here. SPJ national update III: The Main Street strategy for selling Knight Ridder; at least Kermit's clean; and they're still mad about Judy. On Nov. 14, KR announced that it will be for sale. The company owns 32 newspapers, including the Star-Telegram. Maybe it should sell those papers to 32 local buyers, who would pay a premium to own the hometown daily. More here and here and here and here. ... Investigators at the Corporation for Public Broadcasting say ex-chairman Kenneth Tomlinson repeatedly broke federal law and the organization's own regulations in a campaign to combat what he saw as liberal bias. Still at PBS, a new study finds public broadcasting news the most trusted in the land, topping the Fox News Channel, CNN, the broadcast network operations and major newspapers. More here and here and here and here. ... The SPJ Deadline Club chapter in the New York City area sent an open letter Nov. 17 to SPJ's executive committee over its disgruntlement at New York Times reporter (now former reporter) Judith Miller receiving SPJ's First Amendment Award. "Serious questions remain unanswered about Ms. Miller's actions surrounding the Central Intelligence Agency leak case," the letter states, "and as such, the Society acted in haste in honoring her." And the Northern California SPJ chapter, joined by the mid-Florida chapter, issued a pointed statement Oct. 30 outlining their argument for why Miller should not have received the award at the SPJ National Convention in Las Vegas. The Northern California chapter led a motion to rescind the recognition, but it was defeated. More here and here and here. SPJ national update IV: No oversight, no accountability; no public's right to know; and White House alters transcript. As proposed, a secretive new federal agency designed to manage the government's bioterrorism research would be exempt from the Freedom of Information Act and from rules designed to counter waste and fraud. Scientists also caution that the agency could draw funds away from the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta and the National Institutes of Health. More here and here. ... A divided federal appeals court for a second time rejected four journalists' appeal of a judge's order directing them to testify about their confidential sources as part of nuclear scientist Wen Ho Lee's lawsuit against the government. "It's hard to imagine how his (Lee's) interest could outweigh the public's interest in protecting journalists' ability to report without reservation on sensitive issues of national security," Judge David S. Tatel wrote in dissent. More here and here. ... Presidential spokesman Scott McClellan appeared to confirm the premise of a question from NBC News correspondent David Gregory at the Oct. 31 White House press briefing -- it's on the video clip -- but the White House's own transcript has McClellan saying just the opposite. More here. SPJ national update V: Alito's paper trail; House defeats bill exempting the Internet from FEC regulation; and a heckuva job, Brownie, heckuva job. The Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press has prepared a summary of the First Amendment and media-related cases decided by U.S. Supreme Court nominee Samuel A. Alito Jr. It reveals a strong tendency to side with those arguing free speech cases -- with the possible exception of federal prisoners. More here. ... Online political expression should not be exempt from campaign-finance law, the House decided Nov. 2 as lawmakers warned that the Internet has opened up a new loophole for uncontrolled spending on elections. The House voted 225-182 for a bill that would have excluded blogs, e-mails and other Internet communications from regulation by the Federal Election Commission. More here. ... Federal Emergency Management Agency director (now former director) Michael Brown discussed his appearance, his dog and his public image as the government's relief effort unraveled after Hurricane Katrina, based on e-mails released Nov. 2. "If you'll look at my lovely FEMA attire you'll really vomit,'' Brown wrote colleagues the morning of Aug. 29, the day the storm hit the Gulf Coast. "I am a fashion god.'' The e-mails were among 1,000 pages of electronic messages the Homeland Security Department turned over to a House panel probing the federal response. More here. ----- EPA Proposal Threatens Public Health by Robert Leger, SPJ Freedom of Information Committee The EPA proposes two changes that would cut the legs out from under a premier community right-to-know law, the Toxic Release Inventory. The annual TRI informs communities about the amounts of toxic chemicals released into the air, water and land. The information empowers citizens to press companies to reduce pollution. In many ways, openly available information is a greater force than regulation for protecting public health. The proposed rule change would raise the threshold for reporting the details on toxic releases by 10 times. And the EPA has informed Congress that it intends to take the reports every other year, instead of the current annual requirement. Companies report pollution in one of two ways. Depending on the type of chemical and the amount released, a very small number of facilities may use a short report, Form A, that lists only the name of the chemical and no other details. Most facilities are required to file a Form R, which lists the chemical, how much was released and where it went (air, water, land). Releases and disposals of persistent bioaccumulative toxins (PBTs), like lead and mercury, must be reported on Form R. The EPA change would let companies report the handling of 500 pounds or less of PBTs on the short form (as long as the PBTs are not released directly into the environment). The EPA also wants to raise the threshold for full reporting on non-PBT chemicals from 500 pounds to 5,000 pounds. It says that releases between 500 and 5,000 pounds account for no more than 2 percent of the waste tracked under TRI. While that may be true, the argument understates the impact on communities. If your neighborhood is downwind from a toxic release, several thousand pounds is significant. Under this rule change, almost 4,000 facilities would no longer have to report details of their toxic pollution, according to OMB Watch. More than one-fourth of the current 80,170 Form Rs would be eligible for Form A reporting. And 2,364 communities would be denied details on half of the chemicals being released in their area. A company that is releasing 2,000 pounds of benzene -- the chemical that wreaked havoc with China's water supply last month -- currently must report details on emissions. The community is fully informed. Under the proposed change, this company could increase its releases by 500 pounds a year and not have report it until the amount exceeded 5,000 pounds. The community would be kept in the dark about these increases for seven years. The EPA comment period runs through Dec. 5. The changes are listed as Docket TRI-2005-0073. Comments may be posted at regulations.gov. The text of the proposed rule is at epa.gov/tri/. Additional information is available from OMB Watch, its affiliated Right to Know Network and the Society of Environmental Journalists. =================================================== PEOPLE & PLACES The Optimist student newspaper at Abilene Christian U. received a 2005 Pacemaker, arguably the most coveted recognition in college journalism, at the Associated College Press annual convention in Kansas City, Mo. Second-year editor Jonathan Smith accepted the award on behalf of the staff. The Optimist was one of 25 newspapers nationwide to be honored and one of only two from Texas. Other winners included The Harvard Crimson, the UTD Mercury at UT Dallas and The University Daily Kansas at the University of Kansas. While the Optimist regularly earns the ACP All-American ranking, this is its first Pacemaker since 1983. ... Fort Worth Weekly was named best medium/market special interest newspaper at the 47th annual Katie Awards, a six-state media competition. The Star-Telegram won best major-market daily paper for the third year in a row and won in several other categories on the work of Tim Madigan, Liz Stevens, Trebor Banstetter, Steve Wilson, Mark Rogers, Khampha Bouaphanh, Sonny Bohanan, Ellen Schroeder and Rodger Mallison. Former SPJ Fort Worth chapter programs VP Penny Cockerell with The Oklahoman also won a Katie, as did Fort Worth Weekly's Dan Malone, Betty Brink and Brooke Gray, and Robert Francis and Bill Thompson at the Fort Worth Business Press. UTA Shorthorn ex Mary Schlangenstein with Bloomberg News won three Katies, and a JPS Health Network team of Drenda Witt, Stacy Boatman, Margaret Campbell and Jamie Brown won for the Partners Gala media kit. Baby daze! Daniel Perotin Banstetter was born at 6:19 a.m. Nov. 12 at Harris Methodist Fort Worth Medical Center to proud parents Trebor and Maria Perotin Banstetter, both Star-Telegram reporters. =================================================== GET A JOB The 100,000 circulation Arizona Daily Star in Tucson, about an hour's drive from Sonora, Mexico, seeks a reporter to write stories on immigration, politics, social issues and other aspects of border life. At least three years experience at a daily paper and a year covering border-related issues are required, as is proficiency in Spanish. Send résumé, cover letter and work samples to metro editor Hipolito R. Corella, Arizona Daily Star, P.O. Box 26807, Tucson, Ariz. 85726-6807. ... Wal-Mart seeks a corporate communications senior manager in the Bentonville, Ark., home office. At least seven years experience with a combination of experience in communication and PR required. Send writing samples and résumé to ryan.loken@wal-mart.com. =================================================== NEW MEMBERS IABC ... Cheryl Hart, Hart Marketing SPJ ... Dave Koger ... Robert Hart, Belo Interactive =================================================== COMINGS & GOINGS Promotions ... at the S-T: Paul Moseley, to photo director in the Northeast newsroom ... Ian McVea, to photo director in the Arlington newsroom ... Bruce Maxwell, to deputy photo director in the Arlington newsroom =================================================== PRESIDENT'S CORNER Heather Senter, Greater Fort Worth PRSA As I prepare to hand over the president's duties to Holly Ellman, I want to take a step back and evaluate the year. Our board started with four goals. We finished with four goals accomplished -- and then some. * Establish a Masters Special Interest Group targeted at seasoned pros with 15-plus years experience or APR designation. Andra Bennett, APR, took the charge and now leads 15 or so practitioners who regularly meet over dinner (and drinks). The group continues to grow, and Andra will chair it again next year. * Emphasize diversity. It's a national PRSA priority, and one of ours, too. We focused an entire month, including a program on diversity issues. Our speaker, Dora Tovar, was so enticed by our chapter that she transfered her membership from Dallas. She's working on a follow-up program for 2006. * Increase our chapter's APRs. With national making the APR exam more convenient, including dropping the minimum five years work experience required to take it, we have no excuse. Mary Dulle, APR, Fellow PRSA, reports that one of our members has passed the readiness review and is ready to take the written examination. * Provide value to our members. Lisa Fellers did an excellent job working with DFW Communicators on a Metroplex-wide job bank. Check it out at dfwcommunicators.com. Our SIG leaders -- Chris Smith (Education), Kelly Strzinek (Health Care), Nancy Farrar and Sandra Brodnicki (Independent Practitioners), Phil Beckman (Nu Pros) and Andra Bennett (Masters) -- have spent the year scheduling media panels, teleseminars and networking events. Each group has seen a tremendous response. Is there value here? You be the judge. With all this activity, you'd expect membership to be up, and it is -- 15 percent. Kudos to Holly Ellman for an outstanding year of recruiting members and helping them stay involved. Our numbers now top 165. And the members-only media panel that Holly planned last month was a huge success. We hope to make it an annual event. We also made progress on other fronts. Kelly Keenum led the revamp of our Web site, fortworthprsa.org. We're now using Cvent, with which members can pay for meetings online using a credit card (paying at the meeting remains an option). And board member Bill Lawrence, APR (and now Fellow PRSA), was appointed to the PRSA College of Fellows. Every other board member has helped keep this machine running, and without them and their countless volunteer hours, this chapter would not be possible. Thank you so much, board members and members, for making this year a success. Best wishes for a happy and healthy holiday season. ----- PRESIDENT'S COLUMN Richard Maxwell, IABC/Fort Worth Krista Simmons, executive editor of the Fort Worth Business Press, told a festive pre-Thanksgiving crowd Nov. 22 how to get media attention for a company or event. As an ex-PR professional, she brought a unique perspective to the topic. Also joining us was past IABC international chairman and Katrina evacuee Charles Pizzo. Join us from 5:30 to 8 p.m. Thursday, Dec. 8, for the JPS book benefit and combined IABC/PRSA/SPJ/ABCDEFG barbecue-and-beer holiday gathering in the Coors Distributing Co. hospitality room. Cost is $15 or the equivalent in new or good-condition-used children's books for the JPS Health Network children's library. RSVP to mkpirtle@yahoo.com. Last month we introduced you to new members Kathleen Pai at Lockheed Martin and Jeff Posey with Carter & Burgess. The month meet Cheryl Hart, the heart of Hart Marketing. Know folks who would like information on IABC membership? Have them contact membership VP Paul Sturiale at paulsturiale@yahoo.com. There's no regular meeting in December. Our next luncheon meeting will be Tuesday, Jan. 24, at the Petroleum Club. Stay tuned for details. ----- OVER & OUT John Dycus, Fort Worth SPJ Glenn Mitchell was smarter than I am, better looking, wider read and hipper. Infinitely more hip. Yet on those rare occasions when we were together, he never acted like he knew it. With Glenn, he was never the story -- you were the story. Maybe that's what made him such an exceptional interviewer. Surely it contributed to him being such an exceptional person. He died Nov. 20 at age 55, leaving a family of KERA/90.1 FM listeners -- he was a talk-radio mainstay at the station since it signed on in 1974 -- as loyal as any blood relatives. "These days, so many people have agendas and axes to grind and big egos. Glenn took great pride in his work, but he did it without ego," David Marquis, who had known Glenn for 25 years, said in an Ed Bark Dallas Morning News remembrance. Marquis called his friend "the most fair and open-minded journalist I ever met": "He would bring on good guests, ask good questions and then step out of the way and let them answer. He didn't put himself first. He put knowledge first." Bob Ray Sanders in his Star-Telegram column emphasized how "Glenn was never out to show how smart he was or hog the attention. His job was to focus on his guests and their ideas; to help educate and, yes, entertain a large listening audience; to be that calming, courteous and competent voice in the wilderness." Glenn and Susan Krasnow were wed in the backyard of their Dallas home, and I had the privilege of attending. Part traditional ceremony, part Woodstock and part performance art, the evening was eclectic, meaningful, imaginative and fun. I recall Glenn working the crowd, ensuring that everyone was welcomed and at ease. Because he was never the story. You were. ... We appreciate David Carlson making a 24-hour fly-in to be with us at Joe T. Garcia's. The tradition is for each new national SPJ president to make his first official appearance at the Fort Worth professional chapter. The tradition had lapsed, and Dave has us back on track. For his trouble, he got the branding iron and the enchilada plate. ... A hearty welcome to five -- five! -- new advertisers. The Robert Hart Studio, Jesse Hornbuckle Photography, the Balcom Agency, The Collegian at Tarrant County Community College and The Keller Citizen all see value in being in the eChaser ad rail. And they're right. Closing words, the angles of war: "I like guys who got five deferments and have never been there and send people to war, and then don't like to hear suggestions about what needs to be done." -- U.S. Rep. Jack Murtha, D-Pa., who spent 37 years in the Marine Corps, earning the Bronze Star, two purple hearts, the Vietnamese Cross of Gallantry and the Navy Distinguished Service Medal, and who in November called for the withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq ... "All this madness, all this rage, all this flaming death of our civilization and our hopes, has been brought about because a set of official gentlemen, living luxurious lives, mostly stupid, and all without imagination or heart, have chosen that it should occur rather than that any one of them should suffer some infinitesimal rebuff to his country's pride." -- Bertrand Russell on World War I ... "Anti-war books are as likely to stop war as anti-glacier books are to stop glaciers." -- Kurt Vonnegut Jr.

Welcome to our newsletter ...

Society of Professional Journalists, Fort Worth Professional Chapter

Public Relations Society of America, Greater Fort Worth Chapter

International Association of Business Communicators, Fort Worth Chapter

TCU Daily Skiff
Tony Roma's
The University of Texas at Arlington
VMS
Weber Shandwick Worldwide
Wise County Messenger
Witherspoon Advertising and Public Relations

December 2005

MEETINGS

Next at Greater Fort Worth PRSA ...

Holiday Luncheon to Benefit American Red Cross

You know you never have enough time to mingle during a regular chapter meeting. You have to stand in line to pay (fix that by paying online with Cvent), then go through the buffet. If you've managed to score a seat at a table with some scintillating people (and aren't all PRSA attendees scintillating?), you have maybe 10 minutes to get a conversation going. Then the meeting starts, and your attention turns to the speaker.

The PRSA December networking holiday luncheon is here to help. Not only will you have time to visit with your friends, colleagues and perhaps-soon-to-be-your-boss, you also will be helping the Chisholm Trail chapter of the American Red Cross. Proceeds after meal costs will go to this organization that worked so hard this past hurricane season and that is always there in times of need, great or small.

Time & date: 11:45 a.m.-1 p.m. Wednesday, Dec. 14

Place: Petroleum Club, Carter-Burgess Plaza, 777 Main St., 39th floor

Parking: free valet in parking garage at Seventh and Commerce streets

Cost: $25 members, $30 nonmembers, $20 students

RSVP by noon Dec. 9: rsvp@fortworthprsa.org

-----

Next at IABC/Fort Worth ...

Big Bash at the Brewery

See the splashy color invitation above. That's the December IABC meeting. The regular professional development schedule will resume in January.

-----

Next at Fort Worth SPJ ...

Big Bash at the Brewery II

Ditto the journalists.

===================================================

STRAIGHT STUFF

The Metcalf Institute for Marine and Environmental Reporting is offering two fellowship programs to working pros. Coastal Impacts: Marine and Environmental Science for Journalists: Intensive, hands-on immersion with field scientists, grad students and policy experts. Participants will attend lectures, debates and panel sessions led by writers and researchers. The workshop emphasizes data analysis, research methods and the integration of science with public policy. Room, board and tuition provided. Postmark deadline Feb. 6. Metcalf Institute Diversity Fellowships in Environmental Reporting: Ten-month workout for six minority journalists focusing on environmental justice. Features four weeks of independent study with mentorship at the University of Rhode Island and 37 weeks reporting on science and the environment at one of six news outlets, including Science Friday, NOVA Science Television/NOVA Online, The Providence Journal and NPR member station WBUR. This fellowship is supported by the National Science Foundation and includes a $28,000 stipend. Applications must be postmarked by April 14. More at metcalfinstitute.org. ...

Deadline is Jan. 11 to enter the Education Writers Association's annual contest recognizing outstanding work covering prekindegarten, k-12 and higher education. Eighteen categories -- news, features, series, opinion, investigative -- embrace journalists working in print (including trade publications), broadcast and online media. More here or from EWA membership and marketing coordinator Tom Kenny at tkenny@ewa.org. ...

Applications for the 2006 International Radio & Television Society Minority Career Workshop and the 2006 IRTS Summer Fellowship Program are now available at irts.org/programs/programs.html.

IABC local update: IABC/Dallas' annual "Season of Giving" meeting Tuesday, Dec. 13, will host representatives from local nonprofits for lunch (topic: "Cause-Based Marketing: Partnerships That Do Good and Build Brands") and networking designed to improve their communication savvy and profitability. More here.

PRSA local update: Greater Fort Worth PRSA's first Editorial Forum was a success, according to members in attendance and panel participants. Billed for members only, the forum offered face time with Star-Telegram reporters, editors, columnists and editorial board members on how they like to be pitched to, etc. Three volunteers took fastidious notes, and a report will be e-mailed to members, along with a copy of deputy editorial page editor J.R. Labbe's "cheat sheet" for appearing before an editorial board. Organizers especially thank deputy editorial page editor Rex Seline, who coordinated the panelists, including reporters Amie Streater (education), John Gutierrez-Mier (community affairs), Heather Landy (retail) and Carolyn Poirot (features, health care); editors Labbe, Kristin Sullivan, Steve Kaskovich, Lee Williams and Paul Harral; and columnist Bud Kennedy.

PRSA local update II: No meeting for the PRSA Independent Practitioners SIG this month, but still these people can party. Nancy and Ed Farrar are opening their Fort Worth home, 5924 Forest Lane, for a gathering from 5 to 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, Dec. 6. Cocktails and hors d'oeuvres will be served. RSVP by Dec. 2 to (817) 937-1557 or nancyh829@aol.com.

PRSA local update III: Entry deadline is 5 p.m. Thursday, Jan. 26, for the state public relations industry's 2006 Silver Spur/Best of Texas Awards. Enter early. Enter often. Info at tpra.com or from Julie B. Fix, APR, at (281) 494-6097. Greater Fort Worth PRSA is again partnering with the Texas Public Relations Association to sponsor the competition. Chapter members may enter at the member rate and the chapter will receive a share of the contest proceeds. The Silver Spur and Best of Texas Awards will be presented at an awards banquet Saturday, Feb. 25, during TPRA's annual conference in Austin.

SPJ national update: Illinois AG may yet have to go on the record; "The Nexus of Politics and Terror"; and Murrow wouldn't know CBS. The Supreme Court has told the attorneys for an Illinois college administrator being sued for censoring her school newspaper to file a response to the students' petition, a move some say shows that the court may consider the case. This latest twist in Hosty v. Carter could force Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan to make clear her position on college press freedom, an issue that prompted debate after she received the Sunshine Award in October from the Society of Professional Journalists. More here. ... MSNBC's Keith Olbermann notes that more than a dozen times in the last three years a political downturn for the administration has been followed by a "terror event" -- a change in alert status, an arrest, a warning. Coincidence? On May 10, after his resignation, former Secretary of Homeland Security Tom Ridge looked back on the terror alerts issued on his watch. He said: "More often than not, we were the least inclined to raise it. Sometimes we disagreed with the intelligence assessment. Sometimes we thought even if the intelligence was good, you don't necessarily put the country on (alert). ... There were times when some people were really aggressive about raising it, and we said, 'For that?' " More here. ... The producer fired for her role in the discredited CBS News report about President Bush's military service believes that CBS was more interested in protecting itself than learning the truth behind her story. In an excerpt from her upcoming book, Mary Mapes writes that "no one was happier" than executives at CBS owner Viacom to receive an independent panel's condemnation of her and three colleagues for their role in the September 2004 story on "60 Minutes II." When she was interviewed by the panel, panel member Louis Boccardi, retired Associated Press chief executive, asked whether she described herself as a liberal and whether most of her co-workers thought she was a liberal. Mapes said this reminded her of Sen. Joseph McCarthy's hearings in the 1950s where he probed whether people were Communists. "What in the world would Edward R. Murrow think of his network now?" she asked. More here.

SPJ national update II: In the beginning, no Iraq-al Qaeda link; bloggers win one (but newsrooms are losing); and Times pressured over war coverage. A National Journal report asserts that 10 days after the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, President Bush was told in a briefing that the U.S. intelligence community had no evidence linking Saddam Hussein to the attacks and scant credible evidence that Iraq had any collaborative ties with al Qaeda, according to government records and officials with firsthand knowledge of the matter. The administration has refused to provide the Sept. 21, 2002, president's daily brief, even on a classified basis. More here. ... The Federal Election Commission on Nov. 24 recognized the partisan blog Fired Up! as a press entity that is allowed, like journalists, to cover and comment on political candidates without any positive statements being counted as campaign expenditures. Fired Up! consists of three state-specific blogs for Maryland, Missouri and Washington, plus one covering national issues. More here. Meanwhile, more than 1,900 newspaper jobs have been lost in 2005. ... A senior Washington bureau staff member of The New York Times says in a New York Observer story that as the administration in 2002 edged closer to invading Iraq, the Times editorial climate shifted from questioning the rationale for military action to putting the paper on a proper war footing. "Everyone could see the war coming. The Times wanted to be out front on the biggest story," the staffer said. More here.

SPJ national update III: The Main Street strategy for selling Knight Ridder; at least Kermit's clean; and they're still mad about Judy. On Nov. 14, KR announced that it will be for sale. The company owns 32 newspapers, including the Star-Telegram. Maybe it should sell those papers to 32 local buyers, who would pay a premium to own the hometown daily. More here and here and here and here. ... Investigators at the Corporation for Public Broadcasting say ex-chairman Kenneth Tomlinson repeatedly broke federal law and the organization's own regulations in a campaign to combat what he saw as liberal bias. Still at PBS, a new study finds public broadcasting news the most trusted in the land, topping the Fox News Channel, CNN, the broadcast network operations and major newspapers. More here and here and here and here. ... The SPJ Deadline Club chapter in the New York City area sent an open letter Nov. 17 to SPJ's executive committee over its disgruntlement at New York Times reporter (now former reporter) Judith Miller receiving SPJ's First Amendment Award. "Serious questions remain unanswered about Ms. Miller's actions surrounding the Central Intelligence Agency leak case," the letter states, "and as such, the Society acted in haste in honoring her." And the Northern California SPJ chapter, joined by the mid-Florida chapter, issued a pointed statement Oct. 30 outlining their argument for why Miller should not have received the award at the SPJ National Convention in Las Vegas. The Northern California chapter led a motion to rescind the recognition, but it was defeated. More here and here and here.

SPJ national update IV: No oversight, no accountability; no public's right to know; and White House alters transcript. As proposed, a secretive new federal agency designed to manage the government's bioterrorism research would be exempt from the Freedom of Information Act and from rules designed to counter waste and fraud. Scientists also caution that the agency could draw funds away from the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta and the National Institutes of Health. More here and here. ... A divided federal appeals court for a second time rejected four journalists' appeal of a judge's order directing them to testify about their confidential sources as part of nuclear scientist Wen Ho Lee's lawsuit against the government. "It's hard to imagine how his (Lee's) interest could outweigh the public's interest in protecting journalists' ability to report without reservation on sensitive issues of national security," Judge David S. Tatel wrote in dissent. More here and here. ... Presidential spokesman Scott McClellan appeared to confirm the premise of a question from NBC News correspondent David Gregory at the Oct. 31 White House press briefing -- it's on the video clip -- but the White House's own transcript has McClellan saying just the opposite. More here.

SPJ national update V: Alito's paper trail; House defeats bill exempting the Internet from FEC regulation; and a heckuva job, Brownie, heckuva job. The Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press has prepared a summary of the First Amendment and media-related cases decided by U.S. Supreme Court nominee Samuel A. Alito Jr. It reveals a strong tendency to side with those arguing free speech cases -- with the possible exception of federal prisoners. More here. ... Online political expression should not be exempt from campaign-finance law, the House decided Nov. 2 as lawmakers warned that the Internet has opened up a new loophole for uncontrolled spending on elections. The House voted 225-182 for a bill that would have excluded blogs, e-mails and other Internet communications from regulation by the Federal Election Commission. More here. ... Federal Emergency Management Agency director (now former director) Michael Brown discussed his appearance, his dog and his public image as the government's relief effort unraveled after Hurricane Katrina, based on e-mails released Nov. 2. "If you'll look at my lovely FEMA attire you'll really vomit,'' Brown wrote colleagues the morning of Aug. 29, the day the storm hit the Gulf Coast. "I am a fashion god.'' The e-mails were among 1,000 pages of electronic messages the Homeland Security Department turned over to a House panel probing the federal response. More here.

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EPA Proposal Threatens Public Health

by Robert Leger,

SPJ Freedom of Information Committee

The EPA proposes two changes that would cut the legs out from under a premier community right-to-know law, the Toxic Release Inventory. The annual TRI informs communities about the amounts of toxic chemicals released into the air, water and land. The information empowers citizens to press companies to reduce pollution. In many ways, openly available information is a greater force than regulation for protecting public health.

The proposed rule change would raise the threshold for reporting the details on toxic releases by 10 times. And the EPA has informed Congress that it intends to take the reports every other year, instead of the current annual requirement.

Companies report pollution in one of two ways. Depending on the type of chemical and the amount released, a very small number of facilities may use a short report, Form A, that lists only the name of the chemical and no other details. Most facilities are required to file a Form R, which lists the chemical, how much was released and where it went (air, water, land).

Releases and disposals of persistent bioaccumulative toxins (PBTs), like lead and mercury, must be reported on Form R. The EPA change would let companies report the handling of 500 pounds or less of PBTs on the short form (as long as the PBTs are not released directly into the environment).

The EPA also wants to raise the threshold for full reporting on non-PBT chemicals from 500 pounds to 5,000 pounds. It says that releases between 500 and 5,000 pounds account for no more than 2 percent of the waste tracked under TRI. While that may be true, the argument understates the impact on communities. If your neighborhood is downwind from a toxic release, several thousand pounds is significant.

Under this rule change, almost 4,000 facilities would no longer have to report details of their toxic pollution, according to OMB Watch. More than one-fourth of the current 80,170 Form Rs would be eligible for Form A reporting. And 2,364 communities would be denied details on half of the chemicals being released in their area.

A company that is releasing 2,000 pounds of benzene -- the chemical that wreaked havoc with China's water supply last month -- currently must report details on emissions. The community is fully informed. Under the proposed change, this company could increase its releases by 500 pounds a year and not have report it until the amount exceeded 5,000 pounds. The community would be kept in the dark about these increases for seven years.

The EPA comment period runs through Dec. 5. The changes are listed as Docket TRI-2005-0073. Comments may be posted at regulations.gov.

The text of the proposed rule is at epa.gov/tri/. Additional information is available from OMB Watch, its affiliated Right to Know Network and the Society of Environmental Journalists.

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PEOPLE & PLACES

The Optimist student newspaper at Abilene Christian U. received a 2005 Pacemaker, arguably the most coveted recognition in college journalism, at the Associated College Press annual convention in Kansas City, Mo. Second-year editor Jonathan Smith accepted the award on behalf of the staff. The Optimist was one of 25 newspapers nationwide to be honored and one of only two from Texas. Other winners included The Harvard Crimson, the UTD Mercury at UT Dallas and The University Daily Kansas at the University of Kansas. While the Optimist regularly earns the ACP All-American ranking, this is its first Pacemaker since 1983. ...

Fort Worth Weekly was named best medium/market special interest newspaper at the 47th annual Katie Awards, a six-state media competition. The Star-Telegram won best major-market daily paper for the third year in a row and won in several other categories on the work of Tim Madigan, Liz Stevens, Trebor Banstetter, Steve Wilson, Mark Rogers, Khampha Bouaphanh, Sonny Bohanan, Ellen Schroeder and Rodger Mallison. Former SPJ Fort Worth chapter programs VP Penny Cockerell with The Oklahoman also won a Katie, as did Fort Worth Weekly's Dan Malone, Betty Brink and Brooke Gray, and Robert Francis and Bill Thompson at the Fort Worth Business Press. UTA Shorthorn ex Mary Schlangenstein with Bloomberg News won three Katies, and a JPS Health Network team of Drenda Witt, Stacy Boatman, Margaret Campbell and Jamie Brown won for the Partners Gala media kit.

Baby daze! Daniel Perotin Banstetter was born at 6:19 a.m. Nov. 12 at Harris Methodist Fort Worth Medical Center to proud parents Trebor and Maria Perotin Banstetter, both Star-Telegram reporters.

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GET A JOB

The 100,000 circulation Arizona Daily Star in Tucson, about an hour's drive from Sonora, Mexico, seeks a reporter to write stories on immigration, politics, social issues and other aspects of border life. At least three years experience at a daily paper and a year covering border-related issues are required, as is proficiency in Spanish. Send résumé, cover letter and work samples to metro editor Hipolito R. Corella, Arizona Daily Star, P.O. Box 26807, Tucson, Ariz. 85726-6807. ...

Wal-Mart seeks a corporate communications senior manager in the Bentonville, Ark., home office. At least seven years experience with a combination of experience in communication and PR required. Send writing samples and résumé to ryan.loken@wal-mart.com.

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NEW MEMBERS

IABC ... Cheryl Hart, Hart Marketing

SPJ ... Dave Koger ... Robert Hart, Belo Interactive

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COMINGS & GOINGS

Promotions ... at the S-T: Paul Moseley, to photo director in the Northeast newsroom ... Ian McVea, to photo director in the Arlington newsroom ... Bruce Maxwell, to deputy photo director in the Arlington newsroom

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PRESIDENT'S CORNER

Heather Senter, Greater Fort Worth PRSA

As I prepare to hand over the president's duties to Holly Ellman, I want to take a step back and evaluate the year. Our board started with four goals. We finished with four goals accomplished -- and then some.

* Establish a Masters Special Interest Group targeted at seasoned pros with 15-plus years experience or APR designation. Andra Bennett, APR, took the charge and now leads 15 or so practitioners who regularly meet over dinner (and drinks). The group continues to grow, and Andra will chair it again next year.

* Emphasize diversity. It's a national PRSA priority, and one of ours, too. We focused an entire month, including a program on diversity issues. Our speaker, Dora Tovar, was so enticed by our chapter that she transfered her membership from Dallas. She's working on a follow-up program for 2006.

* Increase our chapter's APRs. With national making the APR exam more convenient, including dropping the minimum five years work experience required to take it, we have no excuse. Mary Dulle, APR, Fellow PRSA, reports that one of our members has passed the readiness review and is ready to take the written examination.

* Provide value to our members. Lisa Fellers did an excellent job working with DFW Communicators on a Metroplex-wide job bank. Check it out at dfwcommunicators.com. Our SIG leaders -- Chris Smith (Education), Kelly Strzinek (Health Care), Nancy Farrar and Sandra Brodnicki (Independent Practitioners), Phil Beckman (Nu Pros) and Andra Bennett (Masters) -- have spent the year scheduling media panels, teleseminars and networking events. Each group has seen a tremendous response. Is there value here? You be the judge.

With all this activity, you'd expect membership to be up, and it is -- 15 percent. Kudos to Holly Ellman for an outstanding year of recruiting members and helping them stay involved. Our numbers now top 165. And the members-only media panel that Holly planned last month was a huge success. We hope to make it an annual event.

We also made progress on other fronts. Kelly Keenum led the revamp of our Web site, fortworthprsa.org. We're now using Cvent, with which members can pay for meetings online using a credit card (paying at the meeting remains an option). And board member Bill Lawrence, APR (and now Fellow PRSA), was appointed to the PRSA College of Fellows.

Every other board member has helped keep this machine running, and without them and their countless volunteer hours, this chapter would not be possible. Thank you so much, board members and members, for making this year a success.

Best wishes for a happy and healthy holiday season.

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PRESIDENT'S COLUMN

Richard Maxwell, IABC/Fort Worth

Krista Simmons, executive editor of the Fort Worth Business Press, told a festive pre-Thanksgiving crowd Nov. 22 how to get media attention for a company or event. As an ex-PR professional, she brought a unique perspective to the topic. Also joining us was past IABC international chairman and Katrina evacuee Charles Pizzo.

Join us from 5:30 to 8 p.m. Thursday, Dec. 8, for the JPS book benefit and combined IABC/PRSA/SPJ/ABCDEFG barbecue-and-beer holiday gathering in the Coors Distributing Co. hospitality room. Cost is $15 or the equivalent in new or good-condition-used children's books for the JPS Health Network children's library. RSVP to mkpirtle@yahoo.com.

Last month we introduced you to new members Kathleen Pai at Lockheed Martin and Jeff Posey with Carter & Burgess. The month meet Cheryl Hart, the heart of Hart Marketing. Know folks who would like information on IABC membership? Have them contact membership VP Paul Sturiale at paulsturiale@yahoo.com.

There's no regular meeting in December. Our next luncheon meeting will be Tuesday, Jan. 24, at the Petroleum Club. Stay tuned for details.

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OVER & OUT

John Dycus, Fort Worth SPJ

Glenn Mitchell was smarter than I am, better looking, wider read and hipper. Infinitely more hip. Yet on those rare occasions when we were together, he never acted like he knew it. With Glenn, he was never the story -- you were the story. Maybe that's what made him such an exceptional interviewer. Surely it contributed to him being such an exceptional person. He died Nov. 20 at age 55, leaving a family of KERA/90.1 FM listeners -- he was a talk-radio mainstay at the station since it signed on in 1974 -- as loyal as any blood relatives. "These days, so many people have agendas and axes to grind and big egos. Glenn took great pride in his work, but he did it without ego," David Marquis, who had known Glenn for 25 years, said in an Ed Bark Dallas Morning News remembrance. Marquis called his friend "the most fair and open-minded journalist I ever met": "He would bring on good guests, ask good questions and then step out of the way and let them answer. He didn't put himself first. He put knowledge first." Bob Ray Sanders in his Star-Telegram column emphasized how "Glenn was never out to show how smart he was or hog the attention. His job was to focus on his guests and their ideas; to help educate and, yes, entertain a large listening audience; to be that calming, courteous and competent voice in the wilderness." Glenn and Susan Krasnow were wed in the backyard of their Dallas home, and I had the privilege of attending. Part traditional ceremony, part Woodstock and part performance art, the evening was eclectic, meaningful, imaginative and fun. I recall Glenn working the crowd, ensuring that everyone was welcomed and at ease. Because he was never the story. You were. ...

We appreciate David Carlson making a 24-hour fly-in to be with us at Joe T. Garcia's. The tradition is for each new national SPJ president to make his first official appearance at the Fort Worth professional chapter. The tradition had lapsed, and Dave has us back on track. For his trouble, he got the branding iron and the enchilada plate. ...

A hearty welcome to five -- five! -- new advertisers. The Robert Hart Studio, Jesse Hornbuckle Photography, the Balcom Agency, The Collegian at Tarrant County Community College and The Keller Citizen all see value in being in the eChaser ad rail. And they're right.

Closing words, the angles of war: "I like guys who got five deferments and have never been there and send people to war, and then don't like to hear suggestions about what needs to be done." -- U.S. Rep. Jack Murtha, D-Pa., who spent 37 years in the Marine Corps, earning the Bronze Star, two purple hearts, the Vietnamese Cross of Gallantry and the Navy Distinguished Service Medal, and who in November called for the withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq ... "All this madness, all this rage, all this flaming death of our civilization and our hopes, has been brought about because a set of official gentlemen, living luxurious lives, mostly stupid, and all without imagination or heart, have chosen that it should occur rather than that any one of them should suffer some infinitesimal rebuff to his country's pride." -- Bertrand Russell on World War I ... "Anti-war books are as likely to stop war as anti-glacier books are to stop glaciers." -- Kurt Vonnegut Jr.