December 2002
MEETINGS
Next at PRSA/IABC/SPJ ...
Book Those Reservations: Holiday Party Set to Benefit Hospitalized Children at JPS
Benevolent cheer will fill the air as PRSA, IABC and SPJ gather Dec. 11 for the group Holiday Party and book benefit for the JPS Health Network children's library. Last year's affair collected 175 books and $730 to buy more books. Anticipate more of the same this time around, plus the party's traditional silent auction.
Close to 200 good-cause revelers are anticipated, some coming, no doubt, for the step back in time evoked by the hops history -- an intriguing collection of beer-making hardware, bottle openers, serving trays and vintage photos -- that fills the Miller Marketplace and Brew Kettle Museum.
* Time & Date: 5:30-8 p.m. Wednesday, Dec. 11
* Place: Miller Marketplace and Brew Kettle Museum, I-35 & Sycamore School Road exit
* Cost: $15 or the equivalent in children's books
* Menu: Spring Creek barbecue, soft drinks, beer, wine
* Sponsors: Miller Brewing, PR Newswire
* RSVP by noon Dec. 9: Lisa Albert at albert_lisa@hotmail.com
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STRAIGHT STUFF
Stan Levenson of Levenson Public Relations, Dallas, has signed on to teach the five-week PR Firm/Agency Management class crafted by the TCU Department of Journalism in cooperation with Greater Fort Worth PRSA. The course, which debuts in the spring, will be offered through TCU Extended Education and also for one hour of undergraduate or graduate credit. Dr. Doug Newsom will give grad students additional assignments since the class was designed for undergraduates. The class will meet Thursday evenings from 7 to 9:40 p.m. Jan. 30-Feb. 27. Info from Dr. Newsom, (817) 257-6552, or Julie Lovett, TCU Extended Education, (817) 257-6352. ...
The D/FW Network of Hispanic Communicators is having a tamale sale ($10 per dozen) to benefit its scholarship/banquet fund. The tamales will be delivered (also eaten) at a get-together from 2 to 5 p.m. Saturday, Dec. 14, at Cynthia Garcia's home, 9506 Valley Lake Lane in Dallas. E-mail orders to dfwhispanic@hotmail.com; deadline is Dec. 7. Info from Eva-Marie Ayala, (972) 263-4448. ... Expect door-prize drawings throughout the evening and non-stop networking at the Dallas PRSA holiday gathering at 6 p.m. Thursday, Dec. 5, at Blue Mesa Grill in Addison. Gifts will be collected to benefit CASA (Court Appointed Special Advocates), which furthers the rights of abused and neglected children. Cost is $15 for members with reservations, $20 nonmembers with reservations, $10 students with reservations. Call (817) 858-6088 or register at prsadallas.org/lunregistration.html.
SPJ national update: Republican storm warnings. A last-ditch effort by Democrats to block passage of a homeland security bill that Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., called the "most severe weakening of the Freedom of Information Act in its 36-year history" fell short. The Senate voted 52-47 to reject an amendment that would have removed from the bill critical items that Democrats said were favors to friends of Republicans. President Bush signed the bill into law Nov. 25. Among other provisions, private companies now may submit to the government far more information than necessary for national security that is then immediately exempt from the FOIA. Companies that give information to the government on those grounds also gained immunity from civil liability if the information reveals wrongdoing and immunity from antitrust suits. The federal government can trump any state's own FOI protections. Such "unnecessary blanket authority," Sen. Robert Byrd, D-W.Va., had said before the vote, gives the president "carte blanche to expand the culture of secrecy that permeates this administration." Democrat senators in Louisiana, Nebraska and Georgia voted to defeat the amendment. John McCain of Arizona was the only Republican to vote for it. The two independents split, Vermont's James Jeffords voting with the Democrats and Minnesota's Dean Barkley with the Republicans. Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass., was in Paris for a fashion tribute to Jacqueline Kennedy and missed the vote. ... The GOP takeover of the Senate means that Republicans will control committee chairs and, thus, be the gatekeepers for the legislative process. Open government advocates are concerned in several areas, among them: (1) Legislation designed to punish leaks of classified information -- the so-called Official Secrets Act. Attorney General John Ashcroft has told Congress that a new, tougher law isn't necessary, but he also said that he'd work with Congress if the matter comes up. (2) Cameras in federal courts. This issue got farther along in the Senate than ever before with Patrick Leahy in the Judiciary Committee chair. Under GOP control, the bill probably won't make it out of committee.
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OK, It's a Business, but Aren't Those Meerkats Adorable?
You can't beat cute animals for public appeal. Fort Worth Zoo marketing director Kelsey Hayes didn't say that exactly at IABC/Fort Worth's November meeting, but the message came through, just the same. Highlights from her presentation:
The Fort Worth Zoo, established in 1909, is respected as one of the best zoos in the country. It is privatized, and marketing investment must "drive the gate." Three forces propel that marketing effort -- education, conservation and recreation. The primary audience is moms and kids. And weather is the zoo's largest competitor.
Hayes described the zoo's popular adoption program, which allows anyone to "adopt" an animal for a donation. The zoo promotes giving adoptions as gifts. The new "parent" gets a packet with a certificate and picture of the animal and of course can see the animal on zoo visits. More at fortworthzoo.com.
Also at the meeting, Bunny Gardner, president of the Friends of the Fort Worth Public Library, discussed the role of the library in the community and the importance of the Friends as a support group. In a recent survey, IABC/Fort Worth members endorsed a project to donate professional assistance to the Friends by serving as volunteer public communications advisers. Claude Crowley, ABC, a Friends board member, will serve as liaison between the organizations. Contact Crowley at (817) 292-5095 or claudecrowley@earthlink.net.
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Accountability vs. Cooperation: The Press and Law Enforcement Don't Always Agree, and That's Good
by Penny Cockerell
When the FBI last year asked the Star-Telegram to withhold news that two Middle Eastern men riding a local Amtrak train were arrested in connection with Sept. 11, the debate inside the newsroom grew tense. Nineteen hijackers had rammed planes into the World Trade Center and Pentagon, killing thousands. Talk of war was everywhere. Now here were the country's top cops, saying they needed help in order to protect mankind.
At SPJ's November meeting, Tarrant County sheriff Dee Anderson contemplated past and present media-law enforcement issues with Star-Telegram managing editor/enterprise Kathy Vetter and University of North Texas professor Keith Shelton. The topic arose from the recent standoff between police and sniper suspects in the Washington, D.C., area. But it's a daily issue, whether the day ends in mass casualties or mass confusion.
Vetter suggested that law enforcement often goes too far in urging the media to withhold information. "It doesn't come down to 'you publish this and people die,' " she said. "It's more important now than ever that we play our role ... that we are not part of the government." Yet withholding information can be a legitimate aspect of protecting the investigation, Anderson said. In the recent sniper case, information was kept until the men were caught. Had it gotten out, it could have hurt the case.
Concerning the Amtrak story, Vetter said she regrets that her paper agreed to not publish it for a day, though she wasn't there for the decision. "I think we made a mistake, because at that point in time, more than any other time, people needed to know what was going on." The FBI told her staff that the case would be jeopardized if the Amtrak arrests became public. She wonders now if the paper gave the FBI too much credit, especially since the request only came from a local FBI spokesman.
Anderson, meanwhile, was told to hide or destroy any records connected to the Amtrak suspects, which he did. "To this day I can't talk about the things the FBI told us," he said. "It's far removed from how we do our day-to-day operations." A questioner at the meeting asked if newspapers should reveal that they held information at the request of law enforcement. "Don't expect to see that in newspapers any time soon," Vetter said.
Still, reporters and law enforcement must work together to give readers and viewers the news. UNT's Shelton likened the relationship to a "shotgun wedding," but a union that must stick for the system to work. Reporters have to believe law enforcers when they say they don't know, or can't release, something. Law enforcement must trust reporters to handle information correctly. "Accuracy is something law enforcement has a right to expect and the public has a right to expect," Shelton said. "But too often the media don't get it right." He cited a homicide survivors group that has collected a stack of inaccurate stories.
Part of the problem is the tendency for inexperienced reporters to get the police beat, Anderson said. Each new reporter needs training on police methods and routines, in the whole police reality. Then once he's up to speed, he leaves and another comes. "You've got the newest, greenest, most inaccurate reporter reporting on things with lives in people's hands," Anderson said.
Reporter credibility extends to responsibility as well, the panel pointed out. Again, should the media hold a story to prevent further harm? Should a camera be aimed away from a violent incident or from a situation it might provoke? If these things are done, do the media gain or lose credibility?
Vetter stressed that readers don't want the newspaper to be in the government's back pocket. At the same time, Anderson jabbed the Star-Telegram and other papers for keeping their own internal news private while exposing everyone else's. News organizations, he said, suffer when they demand openness, yet refuse to practice it. "Huge scandals erupt in newsrooms across the country and you never hear about them," he said. "How does the rest of the world look at them and say they are the keepers of the flame?"
Asked his advice for grieving victims in dealing with the press, Anderson tells them that they don't have to talk to the media, but if they want to, they should appoint a somewhat-removed friend or family member to speak for them. Above all, he said, on this issue or any other, never lie to the media. Tell them you can't tell them, but don't lie. "To me, you put the media in a horrible, horrible spot when you lie," he said. "There's a difference between telling the truth and telling everything you know. You don't have to tell it all."
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PEOPLE & PLACES
Witherspoon Advertising and Public Relations and Strategic Insight Group (SIG), with 63 years experience between them, have formed an alliance to expand their services. "This marks a significant shift forward for Witherspoon and gives us a distinct difference," said Witherspoon president Debra Morrow. "It helps position us, and our clients, for performance and growth." SIG uses a holistic research methodology to yield what the firm calls "market intelligence," verified by data patterns. "Our specialty is peeling back the onion to find hidden layers of meaning," said Gordon "Dee" Smith, SIG founder and president. "A client might ask, 'How much wood is in that pile over there?' when what they really want to know is, 'Do we have enough wood to make it through the winter?' Those are two very different questions and would require two very different approaches." Founded in 1995, Strategic Insight Group offers next-generation research and advanced analytical services in fields ranging from finance and retail to health care, telecommunications and military intelligence. Clients include Fortune 500 corporations, private concerns, nonprofit institutions and government agencies.
Baby daze! The Star-Telegram's parade o' babies continues. Taylor Emmanuelle Pinkney joined the S-T family at 8:01 a.m. Nov. 13, weighing in at 6 pounds 1 ounce and 19 inches long. Parents are Matt and Felicia Pinkney. ... Heather Witherspoon had Emerson Rose Marie (7 pounds 6 ounces, 20 1/2 inches long) on Thanksgiving morning. Little Emerson Rose looks just like her dad, Chris, Heather declares.
Kudos & Contracts ... Star-Telegram staffers Jennifer Autrey, Mark Hoffer, Ralph Lauer, Tom Pennington, Barry Shlachter and the moved-away Miles Moffeit all snagged Katys at the Dallas Press Club's splashy Fairmont do last month.
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WELCOME, NEW MEMBERS
PRSA ... Betsy Boyett, City of Southlake
SPJ ... freelance journalist/corporate writer Becky Breining, moving membership from the Dallas chapter
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COMINGS & GOINGS
Additions ... at the Art Institute of Dallas: PR director LaTonyie Jarrett-Taylor, formerly communications director at Texas Wesleyan University ... at Tarrant County College: Chris Smith, director of public relations and marketing
Exits ... at the S-T: sports night editor Dan Dunn, one of the really good guys, leaving after 16 years for a day job that affords more family time ... head librarian Jan Fennell, Ph.D., moving to Athens, Tenn., where her husband has accepted the presidency of Tennessee Wesleyan College; in seven years at the paper, she and her staff reshaped the library philosophically as well as physically, with a priority to infuse the news operation with research and reference work ... copy editor Chris Borniger to The Dallas Morning News
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GOOD READING
"Turn Back Before Baghdad" /
Larry Jolidon / Ink-Slinger Press
reviewed by Alex Burton
Textbooks that try to explain how to be a journalist usually deliver a teaching point and then drive it home with case studies. Here is a book that is one long case study, and a compelling one for anybody who wants to get into the business or anybody in the business who wishes to get better.
"Turn Back Before Baghdad" is a compilation of dispatches from the last war in the Middle East, Desert Storm. The dispatches appear exactly as they were written by 80 American and British journalists, before any pool operators or military hand touched them. The late Larry Jolidon of the late Dallas Times Herald collected them and published the book just before his untimely death this year.
Now that we face another war in the same desert, it would serve everyone in the trade to see how the last war was covered. In terms of accessibility, availability and reporters' freedom to move about, the book holds some surprises.
"Turn Back Before Baghdad" (ISBN 0-9646982-1-8) should be required reading in all journalisim classes from high school on. It's sad to report that no journalism school would accept the dispatches in their original form.
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"In Search of America" /
Peter Jennings and Todd Brewster / Hyperion Books
The best-selling authors of "The Century" embark here on a search for connections between 21st-century America and the founding fathers, a project coinciding with the landmark ABC-TV series. The book was conceived long before Sept. 11, 2001, but gauging America's response to events of that day deepened the meaning of the project. More than ever, Americans seem determined to reacquaint with the ideas that united the country in its struggle for independence. Drawing on more than 70 years of journalism experience, the authors explore the basic ideals that define the American character. Lavishly illustrated with photos and peppered with sidebars, "In Search of America" blends eyewitness reporting and history into a provocative journey.
"A Mind at a Time" /
Mel Levine / Simon & Schuster
Even though different minds learn differently, most schools still cling to a one-size-fits-all education philosophy. As a result, children struggle when their learning patterns don't fit the schools they are in. Frustrating a child's desire to learn can have lifelong repercussions. In "A Mind at a Time," Dr. Levine employs case studies to identify specific patterns. There are eight fundamental systems of learning that draw on a variety of neurodevelopmental capacities. No student is equally capable in all eight. Levine shows how parents and children can identify strengths and weaknesses to determine their individual ways of learning.
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PRESIDENT'S CORNER
Kristie Aylett, APR; GFW PRSA
Who needs a trip to Six Flags? Not me -- being PRSA president is quite a ride all by itself. It's even more fun with such a great group of people along.
Allow me to salute my fellow members of the Greater Fort Worth PRSA board of directors and committee chairs: Roger Partridge; Hope Caldwell; Elizabeth Nash; Pamela Smith; Ann Genett-Schrader, APR; Beth Park, APR; Kim Speairs, APR; Carolyn Hodge, APR; Carolyn Bobo, APR, Fellow PRSA; Marc Flake; Beth Solomon, APR; Laura Squires, APR; Theresa Singleton Davis; Lisa Albert; Nancy Farrar; Julie Neal; LaTonyie Jarrett-Taylor; Mary Dulle; Jerrod Resweber; Heather Senter, APR; Holly Ellman; and Carol Murray, APR. This team has done a fabulous job, from the ongoing tasks that are only missed when they're not accomplished to the strategic foresight needed to take the chapter to new heights. "Thanks" seems too simple a word to express my gratitude for their support this year.
It's truly been an honor to serve as your president. See you Dec. 11 at the Holiday Party.
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OVER & OUT
John Dycus, Fort Worth SPJ
Written on Thanksgiving, looking toward Christmas. Fort Worth SPJ has had a grand year: substantive monthly meetings, the pluperfect barbecue bash in Helena and Max Faulkner's back yard, 16 new members -- Cliff Amos, Don Boren, Becky Breining, Dino Chiecchi, Lori Elmore-Moon, Kimberly Gay, Pat Gillespie, Phil Harvey, Beverly Horvit, Mark Horvit, Paula LaRocque, Derik Moore, Denise Mpinga, John Sparks, Henry M. Stewart and Jason Trahan -- and a splendid convention, brilliantly commandeered and universally well-received, in our own cowboy-chic postcard of a downtown. And watch for details in the spring on a partnership with TCU (it was TCU's idea; good job, Tommy Thomason and crew) that will bring comfort and some measure of joy to area high school journalism teachers. This could prove to be one of the chapter's most significant projects in a long time. ...
As our country's leaders, awash in arrogance and myopia, get away with secrecy for its own sake (and more snowmobiles in the national parks, and logging in the national forests, and dirtier air, and sustained dependence on foreign oil, and a contrived, potentially ruinous strike against Iraq), I appreciate more the thoughtful local leaders who surround me. Larry Lutz and the FW SPJ board and membership. Patrick Grady and Lori De La Cruz and the fine rowdies at IABC/Fort Worth. Kristie Aylett and Roger Partridge and the Greater Fort Worth PRSA gang. These groups energize the Tarrant County journalism/PR community. I'm fortunate to be in their company. I shall stop now before this too closely resembles the inebriated toast. Let's save any toasts for Dec. 11 at the Miller museum. Barkeep! More peanuts and Patsy Cline! ...
Hats off to SPJ national president Robert Leger, executive director Terry Harper and the board of directors for asking the tough question. The organization has some decisions to make. Two primary issues -- local vs national focus, generalization vs. specialization -- will shape its course for the foreseeable future. Should SPJ concentrate on top-down efforts or deliver resources at the grassroots level? Should it try to be everything to everybody, or does it select a few vital emphasis areas and form outside partnerships to fill in the gaps? While dozens of niche journalism organizations have sprung up, SPJ remains a broad-based association with the expansive mission of "improving and protecting journalism." Is it time for SPJ to reconsider this shotgun approach? All comments welcome. Contact Harper at (317) 927-8000 ext. 220 or tharper@spj.org. ... And thanks to alert reader Tim Blackwell for his notification that the chapter Web site was temporarily down. "For some reason, I cannot access the November newsletter," he wrote. "Says I'm 'forbidden.' Haven't heard that since seventh grade." ...
Is Helen Thomas, 82, the last real reporter on Capitol Hill? Now retired from UPI after a half-century there and writing a column for Hearst News Service, she blasted both President Bush and the press last month for setting the stage for war with Iraq. Speaking at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge, she denounced Bush's "bullying drumbeat," adding, "I have never covered a president who actually wanted to go to war. Bush's policy of preemptive war is immoral. Such a policy would have legitimized Pearl Harbor." She hit the president for conducting only six press conferences. "I'm on the phone to Ari Fleischer every day, asking will he ever hold another one? The international world is wondering what happened to America's great heart and soul." And she warned the media: "Everybody learned the lessons of Vietnam, including the Pentagon. In Vietnam, correspondents could go anywhere. Now we don't have that access. It's total secrecy. The media overlords should be complaining about this. I do not absolve the press. We've rolled over and played dead." Asked to advise young journalists, she said, "Remind the politicians you interview that you pay them, that they are public servants. Remember, every question is legitimate. And don't give up. There's always a leak. There's always someone who's trying to save the country." ...
For a story about Arabic families in the community, couldn't you add depth with a little understanding about Farsi, which is spoken and written by 31 million people around the world? Wouldn't a story on American Indians gain from a sidebar on Cherokee syllabary, the written system that some believe was invented by Chief Sequoyah in the early 19th century? It's all here at "Omniglot, a Guide to Writing Systems" (omniglot.com).