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13th Annual KCABJ Media Awards
The Kansas City Association of Black Journalists gave its 2003-2004 Thumbs Down Award to The Pitch for its Oct. 2, 2003, article headlined "Going Bust: A scientific study finds that renderings like the new image of Precious Doe are a waste of time." The membership of KCABJ voted to give The Pitch its Thumbs Down Award for an unprecedented second year in a row, saying a news organization "is going pretty low when it mocks a child's death."
The headless body of the little girl now known as Precious Doe was found in April 2001. Her head was found three days later in the same wooded area near Swope Park.
The case remains unsolved despite numerous leads and forensic evidence, drawings and three-dimensional sculptures meant to get people to recognize the victim. The 2003 article in The Pitch stated:
"When no credible leads had surfaced after two years, police commissioned new hand-drawn sketches. And now the new bust has appeared to accolades from the same community leaders who greeted each previous incarnation with elevated hopes and expectations. Which raises the question: Are continuing efforts to bring Precious Doe to life aimed more at pleasing the case¦s obsessed followers or at teasing out tangible investigative progress?"
KCABJ members also determined that it was insensitive and inappropriate for the article to have an accompanying a sketch of the victim with a Jamaican cap. KCABJ members said that in addition to the Precious Doe article, The Pitch earned the Thumbs Down Award for other examples of its negative coverage of other issues, concerns and people in the Kansas City area’s communities of color.
This year’s Thumbs Down Award follows The Pitch and its editor, C.J. Janovy, receiving the dishonor last year for the inaccurate July 3-9, 2003, Janovy column, "Copy Cat: The Star shows its stripes."
The KCABJ Thumbs Down Award annually goes to a Kansas City area journalist, media personality or company for setting back the image of African Americans or other people of color in Greater Kansas City. This award is balanced against the honors KCABJ annually gives to area journalists and the media for enterprise reporting, photography, art, commentary, advertising and new media about people of color. The Kansas City Association of Black Journalists takes great care in naming the Thumbs Down Award recipient, requiring specific documentation.
KCABJ prefers not to bestow its infamous Thumbs Down Award on any media or persons in the media, and there have been good years when no Thumbs Down Award was given. However, the organization takes the action, hoping that by pointing out significant problems in the profession it can push the press toward positive change that will benefit the entire Greater Kansas City community.
KCABJ scholarship winners are graduates of the summer 2004 KCABJ Urban Student Journalism Academy at Penn Valley Community College. They are among the high school and college students metrowide who completed the intensive two-week program in print, broadcast and convergence journalism.
The recipient of the second annual KCABJ-Lucile H. Bluford Scholarship is Doniesha L. Beasley. She is a student at the University of Missouri-Kansas City. Beasley received a $500 savings bond.
The KCABJ-Roy Wilkins Scholarship has been awarded annually since 1987. It is named after a former editor of The Call, Roy Wilkins, who also served as head of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People during the Civil Rights Movement. The winner of the 2004 KCABJ-Roy Wilkins Scholarship is Faiza Alhambra. She received $2,000 in savings bonds for college. Alhambra is a student at the University of Missouri-Kansas City.
The Laura R. Hockaday-KCABJ-Kansas City Star Scholarship went to Adil Shabbir, a senior at Blue Valley High School. The annual scholarship carries Hockaday's name. Until she retired in 2000, Hockaday was the longtime society editor of The Kansas City Star. Hockaday has received numerous awards for making her work inclusive of the racial, ethnic, gender and other diversity in Greater Kansas City. Shabbir is the recipient of a $1,000 college scholarship funded by The Kansas City Star.
The fourth award is the KCABJ-Nancy Diuguid Scholarship. It has been annually funded by KCABJ Treasurer Lewis Diuguid since 1994 and named for his mother, who died of Alzheimer's disease that year. Mrs. Diuguid had longed to be a journalist, but such career options were mostly closed to young black women in the 1950s. The winner is Spencer H. Hardwick, a sophomore at Rockhurst High School. Hardwick received a $500 savings bond for college. Each scholarship award was based on the students¦ performance during the journalism academy.
KCABJ President Tracy Allen gave the KCABJ President's Award to Penn Valley Community College. Penn Valley President Jacqueline Snyder and James Baber, director of instruction at the college, agreed to provide facilities for the academy when a reorganization at Rockhurst University caused it to end its longstanding relationship with KCABJ as the location of the academy.
Penn Valley Community College was the original site of the academy when it was held on consecutive Saturdays. The program moved to Rockhurst College in 1992 when it turned into a two-week, residential summer program and remained there after it became a two-week commuter program for high school and college students interested in journalism careers.
The KCABJ 2004 Media Awards went to:
Disturbing Numbers
The Maynard Journal reports in its summer 2004 inaugural issue that the newspaper industry has only experienced modest increases, and in at least one case, a decrease in the percentage and number of journalists of color when different minority groups are examined.
The percentage of African-American journalists rose from 5.23 percent in 2001 to 5.29 percent in 2002 and 5.33 percent in 2003. But in actual numbers there were more black journalists in the newspaper industry in 2001. There were 2,951 African-American journalists in 2001 compared with 2,879 in 2002 and 2,919 in 2003. The percentage went up in both years because the overall number of journalists went down even more.
The percentages are significant because American Society of Newspaper Editors in 1978 set as a goal to have the percentage of journalists of color equal the percentage of the population by the year 2000. That goal was moved back to 2025. People of color currently make up about 33 percent of the U.S. population.
The Maynard Journal reported that the percentage of Hispanic journalists rose from 3.66 percent, or 2,064, in 2001 to 3.86 percent, or 2,098, in 2002 to 4.04 percent, or 2,212 in 2003.
Asian American journalists rose from 2.3 percent, or 1,299, in 2001 to 2.36 percent, or 1,283, in 2002 to 2.62 percent, or 1,435, in 2003. Native American journalists increased from 0.44 percent, or 249, in 2001 to 0.56 percent, or 307, in 2002 to a drop to 0.53 percent, or 289, in 2003.
Black-on-Black Support
Howard University is providing the new National Association of African Journalists free office space. The offer was approved by Dr. Jannette L. Dates, dean of Howard University's John H. Johnson School of Communications in Washington, D.C.
The space will be free, but NAAJ will be responsible for furnishing and staffing the office. Howard University also will allow NAAJ to use WHUT, Howard University Television studio, for press conferences with visiting African presidents, ambassadors and other political and business leaders.
KCABJ Secretary Eyobong Ita, who is the founder and interim president of NAAJ, said in a prepared statement, "This will accomplish one of our goals, which is for the NAAJ to serve as a forum for visiting African presidents and other prominent Africans to address African journalists on the situation in their various countries. "We will be working with African embassies to work us into the itineries of such people. Hopefully, no longer will they have to go to the National Press Club for their briefings."
NAAJ began Aug. 7 at Howard University during the UNITY Journalists of Color Convention. About 60 members, including active and former African journalists and publishers from Nigeria, Mali, Uganda, Sierra Leone, Tanzania, Kenya, Zimbabwe, Cameroon and other countries attended the inaugural session.
Ita, a Howard University alum, said 90 percent of African journalists who started their careers in Africa have not been able to practice journalism in the United States. NAAJ held a national workshop for its members on Nov. 6 in New York City. Ita said NAAJ said a purpose of the organization was to give African journalists a second chance to work in their chosen profession.
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