October 2003
Adventurous to a fault
NONA S. POSTON, 1913-2003
In her prime she couldn't have weighed much more than 100 pounds, and her husband wasn't a lot bigger, but there was this snapshot of Nona and Murray Poston astride a camel, as if poised to begin a desert trek. That they likely didn't go very far was immaterial. They were atop the beast and you weren't (and never would be), and that made the Postons special.
Mrs. Poston died Sept. 18, 10 years after her beloved husband of 63 years. The camel experience happened on one of their many travel agency assignments. For 20 years they criss-crossed the world, wrangling interviews with people like Anwar Sadat using press credentials she obtained as an international correspondent for the Itasca Item. Notes UTA's Bill Stone: "There was not a press club anywhere they went that they didn't visit and gab with whatever locals happened to be leaning on the bar. It was from these encounters that most of her good stories (oral more than print) were born."
A UTA graduate who shared some of those stories with Shorthorn readers, she was a member of the First United Methodist Church of Fort Worth, the Women's Club of Fort Worth, the National Press Club of Washington, D.C., and SPJ. She was a Rotarian and a 60-year Fort Worth resident. It provided a good base, did the stately old house east of downtown, for recharging between junkets to the great out there.
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MEETINGS
Next at IABC/Fort Worth ...
How to Communicate with the City -- from
the Man You Used to Communicate with
Former Fort Worth Mayor Kenneth Barr knows a thing or two about getting information into and out of the city bureaucracy, and he'll relate the lessons learned in eight years in office at the October IABC meeting.
Active as mayor in a number of regional, state and national transportation boards, he now devotes full time to his family's printing business. So he could talk trains, too. Perhaps the proper use of the virgule.
* Time & date: 11:30 a.m.-1 p.m. Tuesday, Oct. 7
* Place: Petroleum Club, Carter-Burgess Plaza, 777 Main St., 39th floor
* Parking: $2.50 in parking garage at Seventh and Commerce streets (get ticket validated)
* Cost: $17 members, $22 nonmembers, $12 students
* RSVP: Julie Trowbridge at trowbridgeja@c-b.com
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Next at Greater Fort Worth PRSA ...
Measurement and Evaluation on a Limited Budget
Show results. Right now. TCU experts Gerald L. Grotta and Julie O'Neil will tell how to accomplish that -- measure PR effectiveness (not just output) in a cost-efficient manner -- at the October meeting. Topics will range from distinguishing between outputs and impact measurement tools and the role each plays, to discovering new research and measurement tools to prove the value of public relations to the bottom line.
Dr. Grotta, an internationally recognized authority on marketing and media research, moved to Fort Worth in 1980 to teach at TCU. Three years later, he founded Grotta Marketing Research, Inc., and has worked with a variety of clients, among them The Wall Street Journal and J.C. Penney. Dr. O'Neil has presented at national conferences and published in academic journals such as the Journal of Public Relations Research and the Journal of Nonprofit and Public Sector Marketing.
* Time & date: seminar 8:45 a.m. (registration starts at 8), lunch 11:45 a.m. Wednesday, Oct. 8
* Place: Petroleum Club, Carter-Burgess Plaza, 777 Main St., 39th floor
* Parking: free valet in parking garage at Seventh and Commerce streets (get ticket validated)
* Cost: lunch, $20 PRSA/IABC/SPJ/Ad Club members, $23 nonmembers, $15 students; lunch and seminar, $50 members, $60 nonmembers, $25 students; seminar only, $30 members, $40 nonmembers, $20 students
* RSVP by noon Oct. 6: rsvp@fortworthprsa.org
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Next at Fort Worth SPJ ...
What's a Young College Writer to Do?
What's a Young College Writer to Do?
Prior restraint. Shaky funding. Too many staffers outside the box. Too many professors inside the box. Journalism administrators at four area schools -- Lloyd Goodman, UTA; Tony Pederson, SMU; Susan Zavoina, UNT; and Tommy Thomason, TCU -- will offer their views at the October meeting on the future of college journalism.
* Time & date: mingling 5:30 p.m., food 6, program 6:45 Monday, Oct. 27
* Place: Giovanni's Italian Restaurant, 2140 Ridgmar Blvd.
* Cost: $13 members, $18 nonmembers, $5 students; just to hear the program -- free
* Menu: choice of chicken alla panna (chicken breast sauteed with mushrooms and shallots in a sherry wine cream sauce) or lasagna, plus garlic bread, salad and tea, complimentary glass of wine
* RSVP: Kay Pirtle at mkpirtle@yahoo.com
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STRAIGHT STUFF
Keynoter and "60 Minutes" producer Janice Tomlin fronts a power-packed lineup -- Karen Blumenthal, The Wall Street Journal; Paul Harral, Star-Telegram; Wendy Zellner, Business Week; Angela Jeffrey, APR, PR Trak Media; Robert Wilonsky, Dallas Observer; Suzanne Marta, The Dallas Morning News; Richard Connor, Fort Worth Business Press; Gordon Jackson, Dallas Weekly; William Hoffman, Dallas Business Journal; David S. Margulies, Margulies Communication Group; Adam McGill, D Magazine; Jimmy Porch, Eclipse; Brenda Matamoras, Women's Enterprise; Jill Becker, American Way; Mattie Roberts, TXCN; Jan Phipps, "News 8 Midday," WFAA-TV; Melissa Jones, "Good Morning Texas," WFAA-TV -- for Media Day 2003, sponsored by Dallas PRSA and TPRA, 8:30 a.m.-2:30 p.m. Friday, Oct. 10, at Las Colinas Country Club in Irving. Call (800) 525-0405, or go to https://secure.qsigroup.com/tpra/registrationearly.html. ...
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IRAQ: Images of War An exhibition documenting experiences in the war-torn country
Star-Telegram photographers Khampha Bouaphanh and Tom Pennington previewed an exhibit of their images of the Iraq war for an overflow crowd at Tarrant County College Southeast on Sept. 11, hosted by TCC-SE President Judith Carrier. The exhibit, in the college's Art Corridor II, runs through Oct. 11.
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Alexis Wilson, new editor of Fort Worth, Texas magazine, will tell what kind of articles she likes and how to make the pitch at the PR Consultants Special Interest Group meeting at 11:30 a.m. Friday, Oct. 17, in the Central Market community room. "She contacted us! That seemed pretty cool," reports organizer Nancy Farrar. "Wanted to meet all the sole practitioners at once." ...
The National Association of Hispanic Communicators meets next at 6:30 p.m. Tuesday, Oct. 14, at Telemundo KXTX/Channel 39 on Harry Hines at Oaklawn Avenue in Dallas. No cost for members, $10 nonmembers. ... The fourth annual NAHC journalism workshop at UTA will be Saturday, Oct. 25. To help organize the panels, judge a contest or share a story on how you landed that first communications job, e-mail dfwhispanic@hotmail. More at dfwhispanic.org. ... The NAHC will hold its first planning committee meeting Nov. 8 in Arlington for the 2005 National Association of Hispanic Journalists convention, to be held in Fort Worth. More from John Silva at jsilva@star-telegram.com. ...
Historian Iris Chang, author of "The Rape of Nanking: the Forgotten Holocaust of World War II," a controversial chronicle of the Japanese slaughter of 300,000 Chinese during the war, will discuss her work and her passion for social justice in a conversation with Star-Telegram books editor Jeff Guinn at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, Oct. 14, at the Fort Worth Community Arts Center, W.E. Scott Theater, 3905 W. Lancaster Ave. Chang will sign copies of this and her other books -- "Thread of the Silkworm" and her latest, "The Chinese in America: a Narrative History." Tickets are $18 in advance, $25 at the door and $12.50 students, with proceeds benefiting scholarships, and other community projects of the Asian American Journalists Association in Texas and nationally. Chang, the daughter of Chinese immigrants, holds a journalism degree from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Among her honors is the MacArthur Foundation's Program on Peace and International Cooperation Award and being named Woman of the Year by the Organization of Chinese Americans. More from Scott Nishimura at snishimura@star-telegram.com; Andrea Ahles, aahles@star-telegram.com; or Maricar Estrella,
maricar@star-telegram.com. ...
maricar@star-telegram.com. ...
Nationally known presenters Vada Manager, Nike; Brandon Edwards, Davies Communications; Ford Rowan, Rowan & Blewitt; and Linda Edwards, Shelton & Caudle, will cut loose on the topic "Attack Journalism: How to Respond When the Press Yells 'Gotcha!' (and Points at Your Company, Your CEO ... and You)" in an audio conference at noon Wednesday, Oct. 15, at Alcon Laboratories. Cost is $10. RSVP at rsvp@fortworthprsa.org.
SPJ national update: All Ashcroft, all the time. Attorney General John Ashcroft should make his appearances in defense of the U.S.A. Patriot Act more accessible, SPJ proclaimed at its national convention last month. Admission to Ashcroft's speeches has been conditioned on agreement with his position. Post-speech interviews have been granted only to television reporters. The Patriot Act, passed in the weeks after the terrorist attacks in September 2001, grants federal authorities additional powers; critics say it infringes on civil liberties. ... Forty-eight percent of government officials who handle FOIA requests said in a survey last month that they noticed no changes in what their agencies release since the attorney general redid the Justice Department's FOIA memorandum. Only a third of the officials (31 percent) said their agencies release less information, according to the General Accounting Office.
SPJ national update II: Support for the First Amendment, and no shirking by the Bay. In a nationwide phone poll of 1,000 adults, 19 percent of respondents strongly agreed that the First Amendment goes too far in the rights it guarantees, but the number is sharply lower than the 41 percent found on a survey conducted nine months after Sept. 11, 2001. Nearly half of those questioned believed they have too little access to information, according to the survey commissioned by the Nashville-based First Amendment Center and American Journalism Review magazine. ... Trying to hold officials accountable and give readers a new avenue for redress, the San Francisco Chronicle's "Chronicle Watch" shines the spotlight on everyone from parking directors to transit officials who fail to respond to taxpayer gripes. The paper's Heidi Swillinger receives 100-150 complaints weekly. Bureaucrats hate the column. "It puts pressure on them," Swillinger said.
SPJ national update III: Senators, judges take a stand, and praise for a Republican. Defying a White House veto threat, the Senate on Sept. 16 voted to undo changes to FCC regulations that loosen ownership rules for newspapers and TV and radio stations. The resolution, called a "congressional veto," needs majority approval in the Senate and House, where Speaker Tom DeLay says it has no chance, as well as President Bush's signature. A federal appeals court already has placed the new rules on hold. On Sept. 23, Senate Appropriations Committee chairman Ted Stevens vowed to reinstate the ownership cap despite the likely demise of the budget bill that contains his amendment. "We're not going to have difficulty with that," the Alaska Republican said. "It's already done." As part of a June 2 vote that loosened a range of limits on media mergers, the FCC raised to 45 percent the number of U.S. households that any single TV station may serve. Stevens would restore the cap to 35 percent. Meanwhile, the FCC on Sept. 22 approved, again along party lines, Hispanic TV giant Univisión Communications (32 stations) merging with the top Spanish-language radio company, Hispanic Broadcasting (68 stations). ... The U.S. Court of Appeals in Washington, D.C., refused Sept. 11 to reconsider an appellate panel's ruling that the government must defend a lawsuit for access to documents pertaining to Vice President Dick Cheney's 2001 energy task force. Judicial Watch and the Sierra Club have long sought task force records, which identify those who played a role in shaping the U.S. energy policy more than two years ago. ... SPJ in July saluted Rep. Christopher Cox, R-Calif., for chastising the Secret Service over its interest in Los Angeles Times cartoonist Michael Ramirez. The Pulitzer Prize- and Sigma Delta Chi Award-winning Ramirez drew a takeoff of the 1968 photo of a South Vietnamese general executing a Viet Cong officer at point-blank range. Ramirez labeled the man with the gun "Politics," and he was aiming at President Bush; the backdrop was labeled Iraq. A Secret Service agent came to the Times asking to talk to Ramirez because the cartoon "might be construed as a threat against the president." A Times attorney turned the agent away. Cox, who chairs the House of Representatives committee with oversight of the Secret Service, called the service's actions an attempt at intimidation that reflects "profoundly bad judgment."
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Schieffer to Dine at ACU; After All, a Deal's a Deal
CBS "Face the Nation" anchor Bob Schieffer still plans to have lunch at Abilene Christian University. He will speak at a noon affair Tuesday, Nov. 4, in the Teague Special Events Center. Originally scheduled for March 24, the luncheon had to be postponed when the invasion of Iraq caused CBS to restrict Schieffer's travel.
Lunch with Schieffer was on the auction block at the 2002 SPJ National Convention in Fort Worth. Dr. Cheryl Bacon, chair of ACU's journalism and mass communication department, made the spur-of-the-moment top bid (with help from some free-spending pals) to have the veteran journalist drop by and chat. Schieffer has agreed to do a book signing and speak to classes, in addition to addressing the luncheon.
The ACU Center for Building Communities covered the luncheon costs, which frees the proceeds to be split between the journalism department and the SPJ Legal Defense Fund. Invitations have been mailed to Region 8 SPJ members, but anyone interested may reserve a seat by mailing a check for $15 per ticket to Box 27892, ACU, Abilene 79699. Around 400 people are expected.
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For Everyone Involved, a Lesson in Life
By Frank Perkins
The alleged killing of Baylor University basketball player Patrick Dennehy Jr. by teammate and roommate Carlton Dotson gave local reporters insights into their profession -- and life. Dennehy's body was discovered in July in an isolated area near Waco. He had been shot once in the head. Dotson was arrested in Maryland for Dennehy's killing and is being extradited to Texas.
The story broke wide open when assistant basketball coach Abar Rouse called Star-Telegram investigative reporter Danny Robbins and said he had taped BU basketball coach Dave Bliss asking some of his players to sign a statement alleging that Dennehy was a drug dealer. Rouse gave the tape to Robbins, a former sportswriter. Bliss soon was fired, and Rouse lost his job as a coach although he remains, tenuously, on the Baylor payroll.
Suddenly reporters more familiar with coaching strategy needed to know legal strategy. "I never thought that as a sports writer I would be covering a murder," the Star-Telegram's Jeff Caplan told 40-plus at the September SPJ meeting. "Usually you go to a game and then into a locker room and ask a player, 'How does it feel to have played so badly?' But in this story, I was asking a player's parents how it felt to have their son murdered."
Robbins recalled the day that Dennehy's stepfather cleaned out his son's apartment and a swarm of reporters asked how he felt about possible NCAA sanctions against Baylor. The grief-stricken man replied, "What can the NCAA do to bring him back to life?" That statement, Robbins said, "brings it all into a needed perspective."
Panelist Sara Stone, a 20-year veteran Baylor journalism professor and expert on media law and ethics, complimented the coverage -- "when you have drugs, murder and cover-ups at a university such as Baylor, then reporters need to do their jobs" -- but was critical of Fox News for calling a student on her cell phone and wanting to discuss the killing. "She had not given them her cell phone number, it was unlisted, and yet they had it. It terrified her, and she did not call them back."
Nor were all of the few heroes in this drama given their due, Stone said. Dotson's estranged wife told her mother in April that Dotson smoked pot before games and was deteriorating mentally. The mother wrote Bliss that he had "severe problems" in his program and related her daughter's concerns. He never replied. And Dennehy's girlfriend, Jessica De La Rosa, a track athlete at the University of New Mexico, "self-reported" to her coach that a Baylor coach had paid her cab fare for a trip from Waco to D-FW Airport, an NCAA violation. "These women were unshakable sources," Stone said, "yet they got little or no [media] attention."
Stone called for more openness from Baylor and other private schools on things like budgets and trustees meetings. She said: "If the Baylor athletic department's books had been open to the public as they are in state universities, this story wouldn't have happened."
In a touching aside, she praised comedian Bill Cosby for appearing at Baylor but added that "it troubled me as a mother that Patrick Dennehy's memorial service was held in a chapel that could only seat 500 while Cosby appeared in a stadium that could seat 40,000."
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PEOPLE & PLACES
The Star-Telegram's Gary Piña has been selected NAHJ Region 5 director. Region 5 covers Texas, Oklahoma, Louisiana and New Mexico. The term is for two years. ... Star-Telegram Northeast higher education reporter Jessamy Brown has been invited to attend the Hechinger Institute seminar on the long-range outlook for higher education, "Weathering the Perfect Storm: How Colleges are Dealing with Competition, Budget Cuts and Growing Demand," Oct. 17-19 in New York. ...
You loved her on the Gridiron stage, and now you can hear UTA publicist Donna Darovich every other Monday from 8 to 9 a.m. on the new UTA public affairs Internet show, "Good Morning, UTA." Though not expected to sing, and were she dancing you couldn't tell, Darovich does promise "kind of a free-for-all roundtable news discussion of what's happening at UTA." Next show is Oct. 6. ... Paula LaRocque has a new book out, "The Book on Writing: The Ultimate Guide to Writing Well," complementing her "Championship Writing: 50 Ways to Improve Your Writing" and husband Paul's tomes, "Heads You Win: An Easy Guide to Better Headline and Caption Writing" and "The Concise Guide to Copy Editing: Preparing Written Work for Readers." More at marionstreetpress.com/. ...
TCU Student Publications chief Robert Bohler has been named co-editor (along with Paul Kostyu, a Copley Newspapers Ohio statehouse reporter) of The Working Press at the 2004 SPJ National Convention in New York, the same job he polished off for the just-completed convention in Tampa, Fla., and the 2002 convention in Fort Worth. Former UTA Shorthorn editor Beth Francesco, now the Shorthorn's copy chief, and TCU Image magazine editor Brandon Ortiz also represented area journalists on the 12-member Working Press Tampa staff. The Working Press is funded by SPJ and provides daily coverage of the three-day convention. ...
Tim Smith has joined InterStar Marketing and Public Relations as director of public relations. Previously, he was corporate communications director for the Dallas-based restaurant company Brinker International. Prior to that, he spent nearly 10 years as one of American Airlines' most visible corporate spokesmen. A University of Florida graduate, he worked 18 years in television news, including six as a business and consumer news on-air reporter and anchor at KXAS-TV/NBC 5.
Kudos & Contracts ... The Area Agency on Aging has chosen Envision Works for the second year to help develop three collateral pieces. EW crafted the successful "Care Giver" campaign last year and will create supporting material for this program.
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GET A JOB
Tony Katsulos at Trinity Public Relations in Addison needs two PR pros with four to six years in the business for his Dallas operation, and he may have an opening in Austin soon. "The people need to be able to manage the normal PR activities. If they're more junior, it'll be account management support; more experienced folks will lead accounts. Experience with wireless technologies is a HUGE plus, but not mandatory." Contact Katsulos at 14275 Midway Road #220, Addison 75001, phone (972) 687-9140 or (972) 741-8545.
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NEW MEMBERS
PRSA ... Casey Amanda Forbus, Harris Methodist Fort Worth ... Elizabeth Rainwater Perkins, Casa Mañana ... Gerald Circelli, American Paint Horse Association
SPJ ... Ava Benson, UNT intern at the Associated Press, Dallas ... John Jenkins, KXAS-TV/NBC 5 ... Tony Pederson, SMU Division of Journalism ... Mike Martinez, Knight Ridder Online
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COMINGS & GOINGS
Additions ... at the S-T: U. of Houston grad and IRE and SPJ member Amie Streater, holder of the 2003 National Headliner Award for Public Service and a finalist for a 2003 Pulitzer Prize, covering Tarrant County and government affairs; also a finalist for the Roy Howard Award for Public Service from the Scripps-Howard Foundation, she became an expert on Florida's open records laws in her eight years at the Pensacola News Journal ... U. of Oklahoma grad Alex Branch, fresh from the crime and safety beat at The Wichita Eagle, night police reporter ... ex-Houston Post reporter Scott Streater, taking the environmental beat, an area where he excelled at the Pensacola News Journal, wining a 2002 Society of Environmental Journalists first place, the 2001 Waldo Proffitt Award for environmental journalism in Florida and the 2001 Edward J. Meeman Award for environmental reporting from the Scripps-Howard Foundation ... at the S-T's Diario La Estrella, which became a five-day publication Sept. 2: UTA grad Delia Jalomo, chief designer, joining Jana Burch on the design team ... TCU grad Daniela Munguía, translator ... Pablo Bello, formerly with La Prensa in San Antonio, reporter
Promotions ... at the S-T: Mike Lee to the downtown newsroom to report on City Hall; a Star-Telegram writer since 1996, he has covered everything from cops to city governments, most recently in the Northeast newsroom ... Mitch Mitchell, moving downtown to take the public health beat after covering a variety of topics for the Northeast newsroom, including health and human services ... at Diario La Estrella: Raúl Caballero to managing editor ... Adriana Torrez to features editor ... Federico Drews to chief copy editor
Exits ... S-T education reporter Gustavo Reveles Acosta, returning to the El Paso Times
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PRESIDENT'S CORNER
Roger Partridge, Greater Fort Worth PRSA
Laissez les bons temps rollez! We did just that in August as Dr. Joe Trahan, APR, Fellow PRSA, presented a super-sized program on training the media trainer. Dr. Trahan, seasoned by years of media experience from his military career, may present at the Southwest District Conference early next year. Stay tuned. And the good times will roll on into New Orleans for the International Conference later this month. See prsa.org for the list of programs and seminars.
There will be more training opportunities Wednesday, Oct. 8, at the Petroleum Club when Dr. Julie O'Neil and Dr. Gerald Grotta present "Measurement and Evaluation on a Limited Budget." Seminar sign-up begins at 8 a.m., with lunch at 11:45. Make plans to attend.
Oct. 8 also will be our annual business meeting with the election of officers for 2004. It's an outstanding slate -- president, Pamela Smith; president-elect/membership, Heather Senter, APR; vice president/programs, Holly Ellman; secretary, Marc Flake; treasurer, Theresa Singleton Davis; treasurer-elect, Glenda Thompson; directors Krista Brown, Gary Morey and John Hoffmann and assembly delegates Kim Speairs, APR, and Kristie Aylett, APR -- and all members in good standing who are present may vote. Thanks to Kristie, Kim, Pamela and Mary Dulle, APR, on the nominating committee for excellent work.
Nominations will be accepted from the floor provided that the nominee has already been contacted and agrees to serve. Also, we will vote on proposed bylaws changes, which were e-mailed to current members. Please contace me at roger@ctmf.org if you have any questions. I look forward to seeing you Oct. 8.
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PRESIDENT'S MESSAGE
Lori De La Cruz, IABC/Fort Worth
Tornado hits downtown. Gunman opens fire in church. Garbage and recycling programs go awry. Former Mayor Kenneth Barr had numerous opportunities to craft his own communication style as mayor. On Tuesday, Oct. 7, he will share with IABC the lessons learned in his eight years in office. And thank you to Scott Cytron, ABC, who offered 10 tips to reach a target audience at the September meeting. As all communication professionals know, "if you're not connecting with your key audience, you're wasting time, money and resources."
Be sure to check out IABC/Fort Worth's new Web site, which launched Sept. 1. Sporting an updated logo, a cleaner look and improved navigation, iabcfortworth.com now offers more Web resources for communicators and will soon boast a "knowledge centre" on topics including marketing, graphic design, printing, PR, media relations, communication ethics, advertising and
much more.
much more.
Remember, IABC Tuesday is now the first Tuesday of every month. I hope to see you there!
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OVER & OUT
John Dycus, Fort Worth SPJ
Good job, Art Chapman, on chronicling Mike Cochran as he anticipates retirement. The best retirements are where the projects actually expand but every one gets done because you're now making the schedule. Mike has had enough defining moments for half a dozen careers, but surely there are more tales to tell, more songs to sing. OK, more tales to tell. All I know is he's the best reporter/feature writer with whom I ever shared barbecue or a glide down the San Antonio River or an SPJ party bus to Dallas. When I grow up, I want to write just like him.
Closing words: "With no fanfare and almost no public notice, C-17 transport jets arrive almost every night at Andrews Air Force Base outside Washington, on medical evacuation missions. Since the war began, more than 6,000 military personnel have been flown back to the United States. The number includes the 1,124 wounded in action, 301 who received non-hostile injuries in vehicle accidents and other mishaps, and thousands who became physically or mentally ill." -- Vernon Loeb, Sept. 2, The Washington Post ... "I appreciate people's opinions, but I'm more interested in news. And the best way to get the news is from objective sources, and the most objective sources I have are people on my staff who tell me what's happening in the world." -- President George W. Bush on Fox News via AP, Sept. 22