Archive for category journalism
Note from Emil Guillermo: Help,I’m a pioneer!
AAJA, the Asian American Journalists Association has figured out the best way to get back at me after all my years of being a bickering member.
It’s honoring me.
On Wed., Aug. 4, I’m being honored among 150 others as an Asian American pioneer in U.S. journalism. (Yes, Tritia Toyota and Connie Chung are on the list too. But so ae lots of others who were founders and original members of AAJA).
How’d that happen?
It’s just a citation for being old and one of the first Asian Americans to consider journalism instead of medicine, the law, restaurant ownership, or investment banking for a career.
At this point in time, I’d have to say, choosing journalism may not have been the best choice.
But it was my choice. And I’m gratified that someone noticed that I was the first Asian American male and first Filipino American to host a national news program when I was senior host of “All Things Considered” in 1989.
I hope that doesn’t become the headline in my obituary someday. It’s not over yet. (I can’t even withdraw from my IRA without a 10 percent penalty).
I’m still a pioneer who hasn’t quite reached the promised land.
Emil Guillermo on the passing of a newspaper: Aloha Honolulu Advertiser
Posted by Amok in blog, journalism, news on June 6th, 2010
The major morning daily in the state of Hawaii died this morning after 154 years.
In 2005, I left the mainland to join the Honloulu Advertiser for a brief fling.
I didn’t realize that just as I was realizing my dream of being an “ink stained wretch” that newspapers were nosediving faster than my retro-career was ascending.
When I got there, the Advertiser boasted about hitting revenue records. After a year, cost cutting measures were already in place. Trust me, the “Tiser didn’t go broke transporting my little Toyota from the Mainland. The spending cuts should have been the tip-off.
But newspaper people, despite all the negatives you see in the news, are really professional optimists.
No need for a correction now, the paper was sold for half of what the old owners bought it for. And some of my old colleagues are scratching their heads trying to figure out where they fit in the new one paper town. The Star-Bulletin, the small paper, ate the big paper, the ‘Tiser. The new paper may have indigestion. I hope it survives.
I’ll also miss the Advertiser because it was the first paper to which I gladly silenced my voice, my byline, my perspective, to write under the masthead, which at that time sported hibiscus.
I”ve learned my lesson.
Little known fact. I used the flower in an editorial once as in “stopped to smell the hibiscus.” I thought it clever until my dutiful then-editor, the great Hawaii political analyst Jerry Burris told me “Hibiscus don’t smell. Plumeria do.” Hence, I stopped to smell the plumeria.
I would have liked to have smelled it a bit longer there. But I returned to California in 2007, happy for the experience of seeing the dark side of paradise as a journalist, but realizing that the media was changing faster than we all thought.
In my next Twitter, I’ll try to squeeze in the next Watergate.
To Grads: The truth about journalism
Posted by Amok in blog, diversity, journalism, news on June 2nd, 2010
June is grad season, and globetrotting millionaire journalist Christiane Amanpour has graduated to the place for old journalists. No knock on Amanpour who left CNN and war zones to join Disney’s Sunday salon in D.C.
My quarrel with her is over what she said to the 2010 class at Harvard recently.
I’m not jealous of her. I spoke at Harvard’s Class Day in 1977 as class humorist. I told 3,000 mostly rich white people about being a Filipino at Harvard. I appeared as Marcos. It was a crack-up. For details, you’ll have to get my book “Amok.”
I don’t know if Amanpour channeled a dictator during her speech. In fact, I wouldn’t have known about it had she not used that new media technique known as Twitter, where she tweeted thusly: Delivered Harvard Class Day speech for seniors yesterday. Great honor for me! Urged them to pursue journalism, find passion and purpose. 6:08 AM May 27th
Twitter’s great isn’t it? But here I can respond in more than 140 characters.
I’m glad she’s honored. It was an honor for me. My first stand-up comedy routine. And then I went into journalism. Amanpour did the reverse. She spent years in the trenches covering wars and wearing Safari outfits, and then went to Harvard to deliver her biggest one-liner: She actually urged people to pursue journalism.
That’s a funny line. But easy for a multi-millionaire journalist to say.
The fact is many of the journalists I know are currently under or unemployed. Among them a few Pulitizer prize winners and a number of regional and local award winners who just can’t get a job because there aren’t any.
The journalism industry’s business model has disintegrated in the last five years, and the only way a news organization seems to stay in business is by cutting wages, people, and coverage.
It’s not pretty.
In Honolulu, the small paper bought the big paper making the city a one newspaper town with one too many staffs. Many of my old colleagues who have done nothing but journalism are now polishing up resumes to send where? The next newspaper that will go under?
In radio and TV, your best prospects of getting a job is not having done a hot story, but being hot and young (which means you have no kids, mortgage, nor a need for a high salary). Great. But it’s unlikely you’ll cover Watergate. Or even a City Hall scandal. Maybe you’ll get a murder. Is that your passion?
And if you’re a minority, the days when diversity was valued by the mainstream media are over. An industry loses compassion in survival mode.
You want the future of journalism? You’re seeing it. The niche market. Highly targeted audiences. Not the shotgun approach of the “mass media.” When was the last time your local mainstream paper even printed the word “Filipino” in the context of your life, your community? That’s why one of the outlets I write for, the Philippine News, the oldest Filipino newspaper in America, has real value.
Perhaps I’ve reacted to Amanpour more acutely because recently I gave a talk to 5th graders at the ACORN Woodland Academy in Oakland.
How can you tell 5th graders in the inner city with a straight face to go into a dying industry?
So I was honest. I told them you could make millions, or you can make ten cents a word. I told them they are already licensed to be journalists. The First Amendment (which they had just learned about) gives them that right.
Now the question is are you curious? Do you want to know–everything? And once you do know, are you burning to tell everyone the truth about it?
If so, you are cursed, but journalism will be both your blessing and reward.
That’s more honest than Amanpour’s message at Harvard.
(Oh, and I also told them to learn how to tweet).
Mainstream media finally notices: Olympic champion diver Victoria Manalo Draves is still dead after 19 days
I first heard of Victoria Manalo Draves’ death more than two weeks ago.
Draves was an important, iconic figure in the Filipino American community. Born to a Filipino father and a Caucasian mother during a time when mixed-marriages were against the law, young Vicky Manalo was shunned as a kid in San Francsico from swimming among whites. It didn’t stop Draves from becoming an Olympic champion in 1948.
Of course, that doesn’t mean she gets the respect she deserves on the day of her death.
Today’s obit in the New York Times shows just how far Filipinos, even half-white ones, can be in terms of real inclusion.
It took the Times 19 days to report the death of an Olympic champion, excusing its tardiness by saying Manalo’s death “had not been widely reported.” I heard about it through the ethnic media.
So the mainstream’s elite newspaper is just 19 days behind in reporting a significant death of a Filipino American. At least now we can measure how far behind the mainstream can be.
So much for diversity in journalism. At least it wasn’t 19 years.
With “Partial Martial,” Philippines President Arroyo secures her legacy as “Marcos Lite”
Posted by Amok in blog, journalism, news on December 7th, 2009
President Arroyo has finally secured her legacy as “Marcos Lite.”
That’s my name for the president who has managed to keep the corruption levels and human rights violations during her administration under a level to cause absolute world-wide indignation.
She’s President Obama’s buddy, right.
But now Arroyo has unequivocally earned her sobriquet by using the already horrific Maguindanao mass murders to justify martial law, a straight steal from the Marcos playbook.
For one second, perhaps we can let cooler heads prevail. Is it really all that bad? It’s not full martial law. Just in Maguindanao.
Call it “Partial Martial.”
Of course, there’s no such thing as being a little bit pregnant either.
But let’s give the president the benefit of the doubt.
The power move shows Arroyo certainly isn’t going gently into her good night. I thought P.M. was supposed to stand for “prime minister,” reportedly the next coveted position Madame Arroyo was concocting for future occupancy. That would require some changes in the Philippine democracy itself, but it seems that with this “p.m.” Arroyo’s already applying some aggressive constitutional interpretation.
She’s even using the same rule that Marcos used to invoke full-on martial law.
But as Pacifico Agabin, a former dean of the University of the Philippines College of Law, told Inquirer reporters, Arroyo’s declaration is unwarranted and unnecessary as the government has shown control of the situation in Maguindanao with the arrests of the Ampatuans.
“The only grounds for the declaration of martial law are invasion and rebellion. I don’t think the Ampatuans are capable of launching a rebellion against the government,” he told the Inquirer.
He added that the constitution requires “actual rebellion,” not merely a threat.
There was already a change in the law in 1987, so that a repeat of Marcos could not be possible without a real threat to the government.
The U.S. Constitution, from which the Philippine Constitution has a “martial law” clause. But who in his right mind would declare it in a democracy without a real threat to the government.
Certainly a president can issue a “state of emergency” if need be. But to go right to martial law?
In this case, Arroyo has taken off her soiled velvet gloves and revealed her iron fist.
Did she really think it would be as becoming with her red dress?
There’s no reason for partial martial, period. A massacre, as bad as it is, isn’t a rebellion.
So what’s the purpose, of p.m.?
Well, p.r.
Arroyo likely feels the only way to distance her administration from her former allies the Ampatuans is to come down hard on on all of Maguindanao. With partial martial, she creates the illusion of zero tolerance, whereas all along she has actually empowered the Ampatuans to do as they wish.
She also tests her power. Partial martial let’s her feel the wheel of absolute control in a portion of the archipelago, and let’s her consider an option. Could she go all the way in a transgression of the constitution to extend her presidency for “the good of the country”?
Legislators and the people must speak out now. Marcos Lite? “Partial Martial” is a clear sign of a second coming.
Amokwatch: Serena, Kanye, Joe Dub—outbursts galore, and race is the subtext; And guess who’s missing? The Asian American victim; Also, a quickie review of Leno
They all went amok in a bad way: Serena, Kanye and Joe Dub.
And we’ve heard from all the perps and their victims and supporters on all sides, except one.
Who’s speaking about the Asian American woman, the linesperson who dared to speak out and correct the foot fault of Serena Williams at the U.S. Open?
No one. Because no one cares about her.
Poor Kim Clijsters who just had to sit back and let victory drop into her lap, they care about her. But the line judge? We’ve heard nothing. A name of “Shinno” has come up on the web. But there’s no sympathy for her.
She’s the invisible victim.
If anything, there’s been a little back pedalling on the outrage toward Serena. Now people are saying it’s just Serena’s passion for winning.
I heard one blowhard talk host talking about how in such a championship situation that it was a ”chickenshit” call by the line judge.
Hey, what is sports without rules? You don’t give out mulligans when its for real. When the Giants strike out do you say strike three was b.s., give us strike four?
No, the line judge was right. But this isn’t about rules. It’s about race.
Let’s play substitution. If a line judge looked like Serena or Kim Clijsters and made the call, do you think Serena would have felt she could get away with that b.s. outrage?
She was being a bully, plain and simple. She felt she could get away with it, because the line judge was looked to be Ms.Meek Asian Book Worm. She stereotyped us, had it in her head that it was OK, and let out her venomous wrath without any respect.
Do you think Serena would have done that to a black judge? A white judge? One who didn’t appear to be meek and readily dominated?
If you don’t think race had something to play in the dynamic, your head’s in the sand. Asian Americans just don’t get the respect they deserve in general. And in little things like this, it’s out there for all the world to see.
Just ask yourself where is the line judge, and why isn’t there an outpouring of sympathy for her after she made a fair and correct call and engendered the wrath of Serena?
Why isn’t she on Jay Leno’s show?There was an Asian stand in on a joke. But no one said let’s get the Asian victim. Why?
KANYE NOT TOO SWIFT
As for Kanye? His move the other night was reverse Joe Wilson. Wilson is the segregationist who can’t accept that a black man is president in the modern day and calls Obama a “liar.” Kanye can’t accept that a white chick like Taylor Swift is up there winning the hip-pop and hip-hop culture’s VMA? What irony for those who remember the day when MTV refused to play black artists. But now Taylor Swift, the 19-year old cross-over country act who draws them in with chick pop gets out of the white country ghetto and under Kanye’s skin.
But he’ll bounce back. He nearly cried on Leno last night.
LENO OUTSMARTS THEM ALL
When Leno was just a sub on The Tonight Show, I used to freelance jokes to him. I never was paid better per vowel.
So I’m a bit partial to Leno, though I am a former Poonie like Conan. But what struck me was how Leno has outmaneuvered, outpoliticked everyone in the big game of showbiz “Survivor.” When he left the 11:30 slot, he got the 10 pm slot. For those of us who have watched “Letterman” earlier in some markets, the format can work. A lot of people don’t want to stay up late anymore.
Leno drew 18 million at 10 p.m. last night. And now you can bet all the expensive 10 p.m. dramas will be worried. Dollar for dollar, Leno’s show will prove to be cheaper per rating point, and more profitable.
OK, now for the show. Was it funny? It makes you smile. That’s it. Leno’s brand of corn sells. And it works. If he has good guests and good gets (Kanye West’s silence about his mother was as good a get as possible last night), then Leno will soar.
And then everybody will go to bed at 11 p.m.
Too bad for local news. Too bad for Conan.
Van Jones: Latest victim of the Right’s Nouveau McCarthyism
Posted by Amok in blog, diversity, journalism, news on September 6th, 2009
The new partisan parlor game in Washington is a devilish one, all about sucking the life out of the Obama administration one aide at a time. Unfortunately by targeting Van Jones, a man with an unfailing belief and passion for the environment and the creation of a green agenda for America, the right has only succeeded in forcing out a bright, competent person of color who could have done a lot of good for this country.
http://voices.washingtonpost.com/44/2009/09/06/van_jones_resigns.html
When I first met Jones in the late ‘90s, I was naturally impressed. On New California Media, a television program I hosted and produced on PBS and cable outlets in the state, Jones was a frequent guest. He was a Yale law grad and the founder of the Ella Baker Center for Human Rights in Oakland, and when I needed someone to comment on community issues, Jones knew his stuff and his rhetoric. His was passionate,intelligent and smooth. I figured politics would be a natural progression. But when his focus turned to green and the environment, while I was surprised, I saw it as a good move for him politically. And more his style.
Green is everybody. Green is the world. Green is the future.
For any person of color, race is always an issue. In environmental issues, race is often a key dividing line between who gets to go green and who stays toxic. People of color are all too often shut out and dumped on when the talk turns to green. So Van going green made a lot of sense. But I also felt that going green gave him a sense of liberation from tired old race politics. Van was no child of ’60s. He was now. Going green gave him some real stuff to chew on in the coming years.
So isn’t it ironic that what comes back to haunt him are statements and positions from his activist past. None of it is relevant. Anti-war stuff?Crude references to Republicans? But all of it can be made to be a distraction as Jones pointed out in his resignation statement. And once the right finds a small hole to exploit, it bores in and makes it seem like the Grand Canyon. What would have come next? Van Jones with Paris Hilton? Breaking pita bread with Muslims? In the absurd political world of the right, it’s all fair game in the effort to find things that will destroy an administration one person at a time.
If good people like Van Jones can’t fight these kind of tactics, then public life in the age of the politics of personal destruction is simply not worth it.
Van Jones’ resignation is a loss because he represented the hope that a lot of young people saw in the Obama campaign. Maybe that’s the right’s grand plan. Kill the hope.
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