Diversity Blog

Keeping it to yourself

HollyEdgell — Sun, 12 Oct 2008 16:49:00 GMT

I notice a trend with a lot of my journalism friends on Facebook. To wit, they're joining groups supporting (or dissing) one or another political party or candidate and/or declaring their political leanings in some other fashion. A wise man (my coworker Randy Reeves) recently advised our journalism students here at Mizzou to remove all such references from their Facebook pages and divest themselves of bumper stickers, t-shirts and other items that advertise their political leanings. I am hereby urging my SPJ colleagues and other friends in journalism follow suit! It's one thing for a journalist to go to the polls and cast his or her vote; it's quite another to declare to the world that we are for or against a particular party, candidate or issue. This is exactly why members of the public suspect that many journalists are not approaching their work with open minds. Of course, I can't force you to do anything -- and boy is it hard to keep things to yourself in this particular election cycle. I do hope I've given members and friends some food for thought and discussion!

It's hard out there for a journalist -- in an election cycle like this one

HollyEdgell — Sun, 12 Oct 2008 16:33:00 GMT

The presidential campaign officially turned weird last week, when John McCain had to spend precious town hall meeting time defending his rival Barack Obama. If the two people we saw over and over again on the news are typical of McCain’s rally attendees…. Well, McCain will have a lot more defending to do. In case you missed it (http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/10/10/mccain.crowd/index.html?iref=newssearch), one guy told McCain he was afraid of living in a country under a President Obama. McCain – to his credit – told the man his rival was a good person and not a leader to fear. Then there was a woman who rambled for a bit before finally telling McCain she didn’t trust Obama because he’s “an Arab.” Say what? Here, McCain managed to defend Obama and alienate any Arab-Americans who might have been thinking of voting for the Republican candidate. He said that Obama was a decent man and a citizen. Awkward, offensive, weird. You could see by McCain’s body language and hear in his voice he was dismayed by the remarks of the two supporters I mention here. I wonder if he has spent this weekend having a few stern words with his handlers and his running mate about painting Obama as somehow not one of us. Is he re-thinking the strategy of asking, “Who is the real Barack Obama?” Certainly, Palin – for all her family values – seems unrepentant and exuberant in declarations. As the days in this presidential campaign dwindle, I am feeling a lot of things about the two candidates. A journalist is supposed to keep her political leanings to herself, but it’s hard in this cycle – as racism and xenophobia collide with an economic meltdown, a healthcare system in crisis, and the daily barrage of news about failing U.S. policies in Iraq and Afghanistan. Add sheer and often willful ignorance to the mix and it’s hard to stay neutral. Still, I remind my fellow journalists to count to ten, take deep breaths, and take stock of their biases. Now more than ever, we need to approach our work with cool heads -- even if our hearts beat to the rhythm of a particular candidate’s words.

MEXICAN IMMIGRANT BECOMES A STAR

LeoLaurence — Sun, 31 Aug 2008 00:21:00 GMT

by Leo E. Laurence; Member: S-P-J National Committee on Diversity

We are a nation of immigrants. That diversity makes us strong!

Unfortunately, we also have a looooong (sic) history of treating those immigrants in the worst way, and we're still doing it; especially with anyone with brown skin (Latinos).

Also unfortunately, our mainstream media sometimes feeds on this hostility towards immigrants, particularly by the way our print and broadcast journalists continue to refer to the undocumented as "illegal immigrants."

That's unfortunate because it is offensive to our Constitutional doctrine of the "presumption of innocence," firmly embedded in our English common-law form of jurisprudence. Only a judge can say who is illegal. Not journalists. Not the Minutemen!

Some say that may be a sign of the fear so many insecure Anglos in the United States are experienceing regarding their diminishing status in American culture. They worry as the number of Latinos continues to dramatically increase proportionately as compared with whites.

Some even predict that the United States may become a Spanish-speaking country in 50-years, joining the nations of Central and South America. That really, really scares many in our white population, BIG time. Unfortunately, our mainstream media sometimes feeds on that fear.

Fortunately, the Beijing Olymics provided us with a bright spot on the immigrant issue, too often flooded with the "illegal immigrant" hatred.

"Immigrants don't come empty-handed," as columnist Ruben Navarrette, Jr. of the "San Diego Union Tribune" recently wrote.

"These (immigrants) bring their hopes for a better future for their children and work ethic that often puts natives to shame," Navarrette wrote.

I've personally seen that strong work ethic so many times coast-to-coast. Mexican laborers are really, really a hard-working group; oftentimes laboring much harder than many other ethnic groups including whites.

And, most of the jobs these immigrants take are those that American whites don't want -- in the hot farm fields providing us with the food we eat, and cleaning up after us in our sumptuous homes and hotels.

"And, they apply (their extremely strong work ethic) to a million different pursuits, including Olympic gold," Navarrette wrote (See SignOnSanDiego.com).

"Thirty-three U.S. Olympic athletes for these Games were immigrants, (and) a number of those were sons and daughters of immigrants.

"Among the immigrants: Sudanese refugee and 1,500 meter runner Lopez Lamong, who (proudly was elected to) serve as the flag-bearer for the United States in the Opening Ceremonies.

"(Another was) beach volleyball player Phil Dalhausser, who lives in Ventura, CA; and gymnist Nastia Liukin, whose parents brought her from Russia in 1992 and now lives in Parker, Texas; and Alexander Artemev, who was born in the Soviet Union and now lives in Highlands, CO," Navarrette wrote.

There were others.

But the immigrant who impressed me the most - partly because he brought glory to the United States - but who also would be condemned by many of our anti-Mexican immigrant haters - is a 21-year-old wrestler.

". . . (F)or my money the best U.S. immigrant story of these Games belonged to wrestler Henry Cejudo, all 5-feet-4 and 121 pounds of him," wrote Navarrette.

"Cejudo, who was a long shot to win ANY medal in Beijing, won the gold in the freestyle wrestling after defeating (the favored) Japan's Tomohiro Matsunaga. Cejudo celebrated by breaking into tears and - after family members in the stands tossed him an American flag - wrapping himself in Old Glory and parading around the arena.

"The road to victory was long," wrote Navarrette, one of the nation's leading Mexican columnists in America.

"The son of (undocumented) immigrants from Mexico City, Cejudo was born in Los Angeles (and therefore is an American citizen), but moved around the southwest.

"Raised by his mother after his parents separated when he was 4, he grew up poor and eventually looked at wrestling to save his life. It did!

"In his moment of glory, Cejudo didn't forget that. He proclaimed his love for his country and settled the questions that pokes at so many immigration restrictionists - that of alleged, divided loyalties - the same suspicions that made life difficult for immigrant American-Germans and American Japanese in the 20th century.

"'I'm proud of my Mexican heritage,' Cejudo told reporters. 'But, I'm an American! It's the best country in the world. They call it the Land-of-Opportunity, and it is.'

"Cejudo had one advantage: his mother. She didn't coddle him or tolerate excuses. Instead, while working two and sometimes three jobs, she pounded into his head what it took to be successful in this country.

"'I never played the victim,' Cejudo said. 'My Mom taught us to suck it up. Whatever you want to do, you can do; and that's about it.'

"'That's my kind of Mom.'

"And (Mexican immigrant Cejudo) is my kind of American. This country could use more folks like him," wrote Navarrette.

"Those who want to seal off America have a crass term for the U.S.-born children of undocumented immigrants. They call them 'anchor babies,' who help keep their undocumwented parents rooted here. Some restrictionists even want to amend the Constitutiona so that, in the future, children born in this country of undocumented immigrants would be denied citizenship in order to make it easier to deport them.

"It's a dangerous and despicable idea.

"It's not the parents who are anchored in the United States. It's their kids - people like Henry Cejudo. He made his choice. He's not going anywhere. And, if you want to pry that American flag - 'his' flag - away from him, you're going to have to wrestle him for it," wrote "San Diego Union Tribune" columnist Navarrette.

As diversity in any newsroom will make it stronger, diversity in America will continue to make out country stronger, just as Mexican immigrant - and U.S. citizen - Cejudo did when he brought home the gold medal in wrestling to our great country.

_______________

Contact Leo E. Laurence at leopowerhere@msn.com, or call (619) 757-4909.

NBC DENIES CENSORING GAY OLYMPIC DIVER

LeoLaurence — Fri, 29 Aug 2008 16:16:00 GMT

by Leo E. Laurence; Member: S-P-J National Committee on Diversity

NBC Sports has denied even being aware of any controversy over its coverage of the only openly gay Olympian, Australian diver Mathew Mitcham.

Moments after his dramatic upset in a surprise, gold-medal finish, Mitcham grabbed his mother and his gay partner, Lachlam Fletcher, thanking them for being the two most important peoploe in his life. NBC ignored it.

He won the 10-meter platform event at the Beijing Olympics, beating out the favorite Chinese athlete. And, "despite intensive coverage of other gold-medalists personal lives during the games, NBC failed to mention that Mitcham was Gay, or shoot footage of the diver's partner cheering him on and congratulating him after his win," wrote journalists Ann Turner and Mark Umbach.

"The celebration and joy (was) apparent on both their faces as they hugged and showed their affection for each other on camera," in a YouTube.com interview, Turner and Umbach wrote.

"Mitcham's victory over the Chinese in the 10-meter platform was a shocking upset especially after he failed to even qualify in an earlier diving event on the 3-meter platform.

"In what many have lauded in the press as the 'perfect dive,' the Austrailian diver smoked the competition on his last try, pulling in an amazing score of 112.10 on his final dive - the highest individual dive score ever during Olympic competition.

"Mitcham had been behind (the) favored Chinese diver Zhou Luxin by about 35 points going into the last dive and no one had expected him to be able to take home the gold.

"Such amazing stories at the Games were a staple of NBC, who farmed out similar athlete's successes for every minute of airtime they could transmit. However, while NBC was more than willing to talk about various athlete's parents, husbands, wives, boyfriends, girlsfriends and even love triangles, the network was remarkably silent about Mitcham's family.

"When Mitcham raced into the stands after his win to give his partner, Fletcher, a kiss - NBC did not follow him to capture the glorious moment. Never once NBC mention that Mitcham was Gay," Turner and Umbach reported.

NBC is being accused on censoring their coverage of the only "out" gay Olympian at the Games.

However, speaking to AfterElton.com, NBC spokesman Greg Hughes said the network wasn't even aware of any controversy over their coverage of Mitcham.

"We don't discuss an athlete's sexual orientation," Hughes said.

AfterElton.com's editor Michael Jenson pointed out to Hughes that, every time they talked about an athlete's wife, husband or heterosexual love triangle, they are indeed talking about sexual orientation.

NBC's response: The network doesn't show such things "in every case . . . I could show you 500 athletes we didn't show. We don't show everyone. We don't show every ceremony," Hughes said.

It was simply "not possible to cover the entire personal story of every athlete regarding their performance," Hughes added.

"Yet, NBC did find time to mention on air that Mitcham had previously quit the sport and had to deal with 'personal issues' in his life to get back on track. Surely being the ONLY openly gay, male athlete at the Beijing Olympics might have been a slightly more interesting tidbit to share?" Turner and Umbach wrote.

More on Mitcham's journey to the Olympics is available at Advocate.com and http://gaywired.com/Article.dfm?Section=66&JD=20108. NBC Sports is at nbcsports@nbcuni.com .

_______________________

For comment, Leo E. Laurence, J.D. can be reached at leopowerhere@msn.com or (619) 757-4909

DIVERSITY MISSING IN DEMO COVERAGE

LeoLaurence — Tue, 26 Aug 2008 23:50:00 GMT

by Leo E. Laurence; Member, S-P-J National Committee on Diversity

Diversity seems to be missing in much of the massive coverage of the Democratic National Convention in Denver. Yet, it IS there, big time!

For example, more than 40 Arab Americans are participating as delegates or members of standing committees, according to the Arab American Institute; but that is not being reported.

This is unusual in that Sen. Barrack Obama has been often accused - falsely - of being a Muslim. And, as he says, he's got a "funny name."

Arab Americans first participated as an organized community in the 1984 convention in San Francisco. Jesse Jackson recognized their potential voting strength and reached out to them. Unfortunately, the process was so new to many, and only four Arab Americans were there as delegates. However, an Arab American gave one of Jackson's nominating speeches.

After four years of mobilizing, Arab Americans went to the 1988 convention in Atlanta with over 50 delegates; including the first-ever Muslim woman, Mary Lahaj of Massachusettes. While many in the party's leadership resisted, the first-ever debate on Middle-Eastern history occurred.

The Clinton campaign tried to prevent Arab Americans from participating in 1992 in New York, but they succeeded with help from the party's chairman, the late Ron Brown.

Arab Americans finally earned their place at the table when their Democratic Leadership Council was formally recognized - for the first time - at the convention in Chicago in 1996.

By the 2000 convnetion in Los Angeles, Arab Americans had become a fixture in the party. And, for the first, time both Vice President Gore and Governor Bush met with their delegation.

The largest Arab American delegatin attended the 2004 convention in Boston and was their most diverse group. Over 50 senators and congresspersons attended.

Now in 2008, Arab Americans are particpating at every level, convening the party's Ethnic Council and chairing two caucuses, including the powerful Rules Committee.

Gay Participation

From the news converage, you wouldn't know that the treasurer of the Democratic Party, Andrew Tobias, is an "out" Gay, and made a speech Monday night largely unreported by the media.

Of over 4,400 delegates, nearly 400 are Gay, Lesbian or Bisexual. They represent 48 states, up from 42 in 2004. Those sending openly Gay or Lesbian delegates for the first time include Hawaii, Mississippi, Montana, South Dakota and Tennessee.

As part of the convention's "Rising Stars" progam, lesbian congresswoman Tammy Baldwin of Wisconsin gave a speech Tuesday night.

Baldwin also served on the 15-member committee that drafted the party's platform and is the first openly Lesbian member of congress.

Massachusettes' Barney Frank, an openly gay comgressman since 1981, says the DNC platform covers civil unions, hate crimes and Gays in the military.

"This country is working (towards approval of) same-sex marriages," he said.

Frank believes democrats will pick up at least five seats in the Senate - and maybe seven or eight - and 10 to 15 in the House.

"Getting rid of the 'Don't Ask, Don't Tell' policy (military's ban on open Gays service members) is important (for the new president); but the first thing is to get out of Iraq," Frank added.

"The hate-crimes bill is an easy one. Both houses have passed it," Frank explained.

In current legislative races, openly gay philanthropist Jared Polis of Colorado is expectd to win in November, making him the first openly Gay man to win a seat in congress as a non-incumbent.

There are 424 openly Gay, Lesbian and Bisexual elected officials in the United States, according to the gay Victory Fund.

In Oregon, bisexual Kate Brown, the democratic leader in the State Senate, has a strong shot at winning as Secretary of State.

In Texas, lesbian democrat Lupe Valder is in a tough fight for re-election as sheriff of Dallas.

In Michigan, democrat Garney Lewis is running for an open seat in the state's House. It's one of 20 states without an "out" gay state legislator.

Olympic Coverage

Many gay men were thrilled to watch all the strong athletes competing in the Olympics; and yes, some were Gay. But, the media intentionally ignored their sexual orientation; or, because of it, NBC intentionally limited their coverage.

For example, moments after his surprise gold-medal finish, Australian diver Mathew Mitcham - openly Gay - grabbed his mother and his partner and thanked them for being the two most important people in his life.

But, NBC made no mention of Mitcham's partner, Lachlam. Indeed, even though the network paned to an Olympic athlete's family and significant others after a major win, the failed to do so while covering Mitcham.

"If he had cancer, or if his parents has been kileld in a car crash when he was 2, or if he had just proposed to his girlfriend, NBC would have mentioned it," a cricial article in Outsports.com said.

"But, NBC never showed Mitcham hugging his boyfriend, never mentioned it."

An article in Yahoo.com agreed with these criticisms of the NBC's seeminly discriminatory coverage, saying, "It was at odds with the way NBC had shown the spotlight on other athletes throughout this Olympic season."

Meanwhile in California, churches are making a huge push to recruit 1,000,000 evangelicals to post yard signs supporting Proposition-8 on the November ballot. It will overturn the recent decision by the California Supreme Court legalizing gay marriages.

This may be one of the few times that Catholics, Muslims, Jews, Sikhs, Hindus and evalgelicals have collectively organized in a major way politically in California. It's an open question as to whether this could jeopardize their church, IRS tax-exempt status which forbids political activity.

Some church leaders are vehemently opposed to this religous mobilization.

"Fair-minded Californians should be concerned about some of the tactics and arguments of these faith-based leaders (supporting Proposition 8)," said Susan Russell, a priest at All Saints Episcopal Church in Pasadena.

"My faith supports the freedom to marry because, as a Jew, I have the responsibility to fight for what is right and to bring goodness into the world," said Rabbi Zach Shapiro of Temple Akiba in Culver City.

The catholic Knights of Columbis recently donated $1,000,000 to the "Yes on 8" campign, according to the "Los Angeles Times."

____________________

For comment, contact Leo E. Laurence, J.D. at leopowerhere@msn.com or call (619) 757-4909

Can Black Journalists Be Objective When Covering a Black Candidate?

PuengVongs — Mon, 25 Aug 2008 20:47:00 GMT

NABJ President Barbara Ciara:

When I was an aspiring journalist back in the 1970s, a college professor taught a lesson that has shaped the kind of journalist I try to be today. He instructed our class to use three questions when approaching a story. Before writing or broadcasting the story we should ask ourselves: Is it true? Is it fair? Is it necessary?

I was reminded of that lesson when attending the UNITY Journalists of color convention in Chicago in July. The UNITY alliance is made up of Asian, Hispanic, Native American and Black journalists. Together it is the largest organization of journalists of color in the world. Most political candidates consider it a “must attend” event during an election year.

The National Association of Black Journalists has hosted President George W. Bush, National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice, and Secretary of State Colin Powell, all Republicans. It’s a better journalistic experience when all parties are represented.

On July, 27th Barack Obama, the presumptive Democratic nominee for president made UNITY his first stop after visiting Iraq and European countries. Republican nominee John McCain was invited but declined. Both candidates were invited months in advance when it became clear they were frontrunners. It’s too bad McCain didn’t consider UNITY a “must attend” event. It would have been a great opportunity to hear the platforms of both candidates speaking before thousands of journalists.

The Obama appearance was not exclusive to those attending. It was also broadcast live on CNN. That’s when an interesting angle surfaced among the media covering the event. The question was asked, is it possible for journalists of color to cover the Obama campaign without bias?

“Excuse me,” I countered when I heard that would be the angle of several news organizations covering the Obama appearance. The little hairs on the back of my neck danced in anger.

Yeah, I’m mad at the question, and the suggestion. How does that expression go? “We have seen the enemy and it is us.” My answer to the question is with a question: What in the world are you thinking? Or better still – are you thinking?

Will Black reporters dance with joy in their written words or in their broadcasts because of the historic nature of the campaign? How did that question become a legitimate news story? I wondered what my college professor would say.

Is it true? Let’s see, have you counted the number of African Americans who are on the Obama campaign plane? There is not one single front-line Black reporter from ABC, CBS, or NBC assigned to cover the Obama campaign, nor will you find an African American assigned to cover the candidate from the New York Times, or Time magazine.You need the opportunity to play the game before you can be accused of misplaying it.

Besides, one of the toughest questions asked of Obama during the CNN broadcast at UNITY came from African American columnist Leonard Pitts. He wanted to know if Obama was avoiding visiting Mosques and Muslims out of fear that he would run the risk of being tied, incorrectly, to a faith he doesn’t practice. Was Obama allowing propaganda to disregard the Muslim community? It was a tough question – and a Black reporter asked it. I guess Pitts didn’t get the memo.

Is it fair? Did female reporters have to pass a litmus test before they were assigned to cover Sen. Hillary Clinton? Perhaps we should question the plethora of White guys covering Sen. McCain and ask them if they can cover a White candidate without displaying bias. After all, they must love the guy since he’s the same shade and gender right?

Is it necessary? I asked my colleague Pat McReynolds his thoughts and after a thoughtful pause he said, “We all have biases. No one could truthfully say otherwise. But as in any profession, if you are good at what you do and take your job seriously, you check your biases at the door no matter whether you are black or white.”

I’m annoyed that skin color has been injected into the presidential race. It detracts from the issues that matter to us all. And what matters most to journalists is our credibility. When you question that be prepared for a 12-round heavyweight verbal fight.

Don’t get me wrong, journalists are not above biases or answering tough questions. But keep it above the belt. McReynolds summed up my feelings with his parting comment when he said, “To me, saying all African American journalists think alike is just as insulting, if not more so, than saying they all look alike!”Is it true, is it fair, and is it necessary?

Yours in service,

Barbara Ciara
President, National Association of Black Journalists

DEMOCRATS AND DIVERSITY ???

LeoLaurence — Mon, 25 Aug 2008 17:19:00 GMT

by Leo E. Laurence; Member, S-P-J National Committee on Diversity

As democrats convene in Denver to formally nominate Sen. Barrack Obama for president and Sen. Joseph Biden for vice president, journalists need to look at whether or not diversity plays a role in the convention, and on the campaign trail.

So far, it seems to be muted.

By diversity, our SPJ's National Committee on Diversity includes ethnic minorities (Latinos, etc.), and also Gays & Lesbians plus the physically and mentally disabled.

The National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials has been holding voter forums around the country to listen to what Latinos have to say about the presidential campaign.

They found that even within the Latino Community, the demographics are widely diverse, varying in age, gender, national origin and sexual orientation.

Many were concerned about he wars in Iraq and Afphanistan; not only with the loss of life, but also worried that the cost of the two wars is taking funding away from important, domestic needs. They were also concerned that the immigration debate - and escalating attacks on "illegal aliens" (inaccurate phrase, only a court can call someone illegal) - has significantly increased the overt discrimination against Latinos, including those who are citizens.

There are 1.2 million more Latinos who are eligible to vote now than in the last presidential election. Latinos are so large a political force that they might decide the margin of victory in important battleground states like New Mexico, Colorado, Nevada, Florida and even in California.

Also, the party seems to be ignoring the Gay & Lesbian vote, which is also growing significantly. Or, at least the media seems to be ignoring it as a voting block.

While Gays have historically voted for democrats, there is some concern as to whether the party is "really" committed to gay civil rights. Indeed, on one of the key, current issues in the Gay & Lesbian Community - gay marriages (which the California Supreme Court recently legalized) - Sen. Obama is opposed. He prefers the lesser status of domestic partnerships, an alternative that the California high court said violates the equal-protection clause.

Sen. Obama, however, had spoken - if only briefly - in opposition to California's statewide Proposition 8 on the November ballot. It will invalidate the state's high-court ruling.

Also, Sen. Obama has not pushed opposition to the military's discriminatory "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy prohibiting Gays & Lesbians from serving openly in the military. It was approved by former President Bill Clinton, making him quite unpopular with Gays. The policy has been used to literally kick out thousands of gay service members, including many fluent in the Arabic language, needed so desperately in the Middle Eastern wars.

While Gays & Lesbians will probably continue to vote for democrats, unless the party and its candidates speak out on these issues of importance to their community, there may be far fewer who volunteer to work on the campaign.

The federal government is also preparing to significantly strengthen the famous Americans-with- Disabilities-Act. This is extremely important to the disabled community, but the democrats have been silent about it on the campaign trail.

These diversity issues need to be covered by journalists working the campaign, both nationally anhd locally.

______________

For comment, contact Leo E. Laurence, J.D. at (619) 757-4909 or e-mail at leopowerhere@msn.com

DIVERSITY IN JOURNALISM EDUCATION

LeoLaurence — Mon, 25 Aug 2008 15:39:00 GMT

by Leo E. Laurence; Member, National Committee on Diversity

A university scholar in Barcelona, Spain was surprised by the strong and often hostile reactions to my earlier blog postings discouraging the use of the phrase "illegal immigrant" by journalists.

Because of our constitutional presumption of innocence, only a judge can label a person as illegal in our system of jurisprudence. Therefore, the blog posting contended, journalists should avoid using either "illegal immigrant" or "illegal alien" unless that person has been found guilty in federal court.

Reaction to that blog was vicious! Mike and Lesa Meyer argued that our laws are "only meant for American citizens, not law breaking non-citizens. They have not earned the right to be protected by American law." Obviously, that is inaccurate, as a matter of law.

Jeff sent an e-mail calling me "an enemy coldier," and Stephen Bennett called undocumented immigrants "invaders."

That hostile reaction surprised Teun A. vanDijk of the "Universitat Pompeu Fabra" of Barcelona, Spain (teun@discourses.org), a long-time scholar in the area of diversity, racism and the press.

Teun is doing research on diversity in journalism education in both the United States and in Europe.

Unfortunately, diversity is often not a big issue in journalism education at both the high school and university levels in America.

For example, a popular 695-page text book used in high-school journalism classes ("IDEAS, Practical Ideas for Teaching Journalism," published by the Southern California Journalism Education Assocation) doesn't even discuss the issue of divesity at all.

Often, diversity discussions are limited to ethnic minorities (Latinos, African-Americans, etc.), but in the S-P-J's Diversity Committee, the scope is larger and includes Gays & Lesbians and the disabled (including the mentally disabled, not just those in wheelchairs).

Diversity issues are important in too few classrooms and newsrooms. Even at the SPJ chapter level, it is unfortunately limited to one panel discussion, and ignored the rest of the year.

For example, even the major broadcast networks carelessly and regularly use the phrase "illegal immigrants" when referring to undocumented workers in the United States; in total disrespect to the legal and civil rights of the people involved.

And reporters who are assigned to do a story on a transgender person sometimes do not know the difference between a transgender, transsexual and transvestite (see our SPJ diversity blog on the issue).

Many of our journalism classes teach students how to do an interview and write a story, but fail to teach students as to the challenges they will face when covering a story involving disversity issues.

Some journalists, for example, use the word "hispanic," when the word "Latinos" is preferred by many Spanish-speaking persons. The word hispanic, they believe, is a "white word" created originally by the Census Bureau so they could lump everyone with brown skin into one convenient category.

Inasmuch as diversity seems to be lacking in many journalism classes, that increases the imporance of the work of the SPJ's Diversity Committe, and the tools it provides on the SPJ's website under "diversity."

Diversity in staffing and in news coverage always makes a news operation stronger.

__________________

For comment, contact Leo E. Laurence, J.D. at (619) 757-4909 or e-mail at leopowerhere@msn.com

Covering stories about the transgender can be challening

LeoLaurence — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 16:12:00 GMT

By Leo E. Laurence; Member, National Committee on Diversity

The Fox News Channel got into trouble in August by airing “a crude and obnoxious segment concerning the recent announcement of America’s Next Top Model’s first-ever transgender contestant,” as described by the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLADD).

“Fox News anchor Gregg Jarrett and Us Weekly Editor-at-Large Ian Drew spent (a segment on August 14th) insulting the . . . con-testant, using dehumanizing terminology, inaccurate and inappro-priate pronouns and offensive references to her anatomy,” said a GLADD “Call to Action.”

“While laughing and joking, Jarrett mocked Isis’ description of herself as a woman whose ‘card were dealt differently,’ and said, ‘That’s an understatement.’

Drew said on the air, “They are not exactly the most high-class group of women.”

Responding to GLADD, “Us Weekly” issued this statement: “We apologize if any group was offended by our editor’s comments as it was by no means his intention.”

Fox News did not respond to GLADD, according to “The Donna Blog” that followed this story.

Historically, the transgenders have occupied an unusual place in community life. In the last decade, they have been adopted by many in the Gay & Lesbian Community, which is often called GLBT (Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender), though in some cities, lesbians have insisted in being listed first as LGBT. There re-mains, however, considerable friction between gay men, lesbians and the transgender in many cities.

Many Gays believe the transgender should develop their own separate community, apart from the Gay Community because the transgender often are not Gay (or lesbian). Indeed, many of the transgender lead a straight lifestyle.

“I told my parents I was Gay, but I never really felt Gay be-cause I didn’t feel like a woman,” said Tony Weeks in an interview with “Zenger’s Newsmagazine” in San Diego. Tony is anatomically a woman, but lives – and looks like – a man.

“But, there was no other category to put myself in (referring to Gay). So, since I didn’t even ‘feel’ that, I didn’t feel part of the human race,” Weeks added. He lives a straight lifestyle, living with Ashley; who now looks like a woman, but is a male-to-female transgender person.

“One of the benefits of being with her is that, by me being able to accept her as a woman, it made it easier for me to accept myself as a (female-to-male transgender) man before we had our surgeries.

The “Zenger’s” editor, Mark Conlan, asked Tony: “One of the quirkier aspects of this whole thing (is) what you talked about the mix-up between gender identities and sexual orientation. You’re dealing with someone and you’re thinking, ‘She’s attracted to me because she thinks I’m a woman. But, I’m really not a gay woman; I’m a straight man.’

Tony responded: “Yes. You see where it could make you feel like you’re just nuts.”

Ashley added: “I knew that I wasn’t straight, so I thought the only alternative was that I was Gay. I lived that lifestyle for some time, and I knew that it really wasn’t me, but it fit better than ‘straight’. Later I got involved with the Bisexual Community, and I found that a lot of Bisexual feelings are similar to Transgender feelings.

“Most people don’t understand the whole thing of Transsexu-als. I can’t totally explain it. I can just tell you this much, it’s not easy. It’s not like you transition and everything is great in your life,” Tony explained.

If life itself is complicated and difficult for transgender individuals, then journalists have a particularly difficult job in reporting in their stories.

While transgender individuals are now included in the sphere of influence of the Gay & Lesbian Community (e.g., the acronym GLBT), many transgender individuals do not consider themselves to be Gay and live a straight lifestyle. Consequently, many Gays – especially gay seniors – are uncomfortable relating to transgender individuals.

Indeed, some transgender persons seem to be overtly homopho-bic. One, Alysa Wolven of San Diego, a male-to-female transgen-dered person, has been actively involved for years in “getting rid of those homosexuals who cruise Balboa Park at night.” She proudly waged a major campaign to push the city’s Parks Department to de-nude the historically gay Sixth Avenue Area of the park of all brush so the police could more easily spot Gays simply walking in the wooded areas.

Definitions

One problem facing journalists covering these issues is the difficulty in defining the terms, some of which not even Gays un-derstand.

What is a transgender vs. a transsexual vs. a transvestite? “While the term transgender” includes all “transsexuals,”

Most transgender people are not transsexuals,” according to the “Sexinfo” website of the University of California at Santa Bar-bara.

“The word ‘transgender’ is a broad term that describes all people who feel that their anatomical sex does not match their gender identity, and/or whose appearance and behaviors do not con-form to the societal roles expected of their sex. This includes male-to-female transsexuals, female-to-male transsexuals, as well as drag queens and drag kings.

“Transsexuals are people who intend to live as a gender other than that assigned to them at birth. Many transsexuals alter their primary and secondary sex characteristics with hormone treatments, surgery or both. Transsexuals make up only a minority of the transgender community.

“A transvestite is a person who dresses in the clothing of the other gender, or cross dresses. They usually keep their gender identity according to their sexual anatomy. Nevertheless, their cross-dressing places them in the broad category of the trans-gender,” the UCSB website explains. Transvestites are often straight and do not identify with the Gay Community.

As a practical matter, drag queens, especially those who regularly perform in gay bars, culturally consider themselves to by Gay and do not identify with the Transgender Community; though the UCSB academicians consider them to be part of it.

Historically, life was much more simple 39 years ago in the closeted homosexual community. Then life suddenly and dramatically changed, when the closeted community was “outted” and Gay Lib was first launched in San Francisco, then later at the Stonewall riots in New York City.

Gay men clearly dominated the scene in the late 60s, and were numerically larger than lesbians in the general population, and remain so today. But, as lesbians became more vocal and took a leading leadership role, the all-inclusive Gay Community became the Gay & Lesbian Community.

As bisexuals emerged more prominently in the 80s and 90s, the name changed to Gay, Lesbian and Bisexual Community. Then more re-cently, the name changed again and now we have the Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender Community. In some cities, however, the words Gay and Lesbian are listed in reverse order. But, clearly there is no unanimity in the GLBT community that the transgender make a good fit. As a practical matter, however, it doesn’t appear that any fundamental name change will occur anytime soon.

Journalists, however, need to understand these complexities of all the different titles assigned to the widely diverse life-styles within the GLBT Community. As is often said, it includes everyone from “leather to lace.”

Reporters also need to avoid the degrading comments made by Fox News anchor Gregg Jarrett and Us Weekly Editor-at-Large Ian Drew on August 14,th when they made crude and obnoxious comments about the first-ever transgender contestant on “America’s Next Top Model” program.

A-D-A CHANGES WILL HELP DISABLED

LeoLaurence — Wed, 30 Jul 2008 22:00:00 GMT

by Leo E. Laurence; Member: Nat'l. Committee on Diversity

Imagine you are a disabled, Iraq war veteran and confined to a wheelchair. You want to go play some miniature golf, only to discover when you arrive that the facility is not accessible to anyone in a wheelchair. You feel disappointed and depressed.

After losing a leg to an IED in Iraq, you come home and can't even play miniature golf.

But, that may change. The federal government is considering major changes to the historic Americans-with-Disabilities Act (ADA). Consider this: There are already about 51 million disabled Americans, and that number is steadily growing as wounded veterans return from the Middle-Eastern wars.

By the way, in the S-P-J, the National Committee on Diversity works with the disabled, as well as with ethnic minorities and Gays.

The proposed 1000-pages of new regulations will apply to a wide range of facilities, including access to court houses, amusement parks, drinking fountains, stadium and theatre seating, fishing piers and boat slips and bowling lanes, among many others.

They establish specific regulations for qualifying accessible designs. For example, 50-percent of the holes at a miniature golf course would have to be accessible for players in wheelchair, something that Iraq vet would appreciate.

The new rules will apply to new businesses and to alterations to existing ones.

But, there are complaints. Rather than praise the proposed regulations as helpful to bring in more business from the disabled, many business assocations are complainting about the cost.

And, journalists covering the story sometimes favor those business complaints. For example, an Associated Press story on the issue was slanted, with a headline that said the new regulations would "hit" millions of businesses. It was clearly a business-oriented story.

While some business interests are complaining, some disability advocates say the proposed regulatioins don't go far enough. They cite the need for regulations to help the disabled avoid ticket fraud and in information technology - such as at hotel and airport check-in kiosks.

They also cite the need for close-captioning at movie theatres for the deaf and hard-of-hearing. These are issues they say need to be addressed as the proposed regulations are vetted in future months.

___________

Leo E. Laurence, J.D. can be reached at leopowerhere@msn.com or call (619) 757-4909

WRITE and WRONG - have journalists learned???

LeoLaurence — Mon, 28 Jul 2008 18:01:00 GMT

by Leo E. Laurence; Member: Nat'l. Committee on Diversity

WRITE and WRONG is a one-page essay by Anna Quidlen in the July 21st issue of Newsweek. It is about "a teacher who is psyched about engaging struggling students (and who) learns that bureaucracy is more important that pedogogy," the essayist write.

Maybe journalists can learn a lesson from this.

In the Newsweek essay, Quindlen reports on a teacher named Donnie Heermann who was placed on an 18-month suspension without pay for using The Freedom Writer's Diary as a teaching tool by her school board in Perry County, Indiana.

The book grew out of the work of a new teacher of a class of "at-risk" students in California. "'At-risk' is edu-code for students who are poor, usually minority, with chaotic home lives and are likely to drop out," Quindlen writes.

That teacher, Erin Gruwell, decided that "the road to success was for her students to write about their lives," the essay continues. "They kept diaries about everything from self-doubt to incest to gang membership."

"Some of the students used profanity and racial slurs; but a reader notices that, as their writing improves, that disappears. As they wrote more, they made better choices. They also had better lives.

"The students in Gruwell's classes started out believing that they might not survive high school - literally. By the end of the book, they're headed for college," Quindlen writes.

The students in Heermann's classes at Perry Meridan High School in Indiana were not so much different from the ones in the book.

So, Heermann bought 150 copies of The Freedom Writer's Diary and gave them as a gift to her students, after reporting her intentions to her superiors. She even got permission slips from her students' parents.

After handing out the books, she was almost immediately ordered to get them back, and to keep a list of those students who refused to comply. Most of the kids kept their copies, which were a personal gift from the teacher.

Heermann was told she would be fired if she didn't resign.

She was forbidden to contact her former students, and forced to go overnight from a powerful influence on her students to nothingness. She heard that some quit going to class and dropped out of school.

These are kids who assume that they will get a shaft from the government, school or anyone else in authority. That's also what "at-risk" means.

She doesn't regret what she did. "You know what," she said. "My kids still have the book. They kept The Freedom Writer's Diary. They kept the book," she added.

"It's hard to unearth exactly why (the Indiana school board) was so hellbent on keeping The Freedom Writer's Diary out of the classroom. Maybe it was the use of a particular racial slur, the one that keeps getting people riled up about Huckleberry Finn, and that keeps (out) the perfect teaching moment for discussing racial divisions in America - at least if you're not paralized by cowardice.

"You have to wonder if the (Indiana) school board ever read the book. Maybe they never got to the entry by the student who wrote: Who would have thought the 'at-risk' kids making it this far? But, we did, even though the educational system desperately tried to hold us down," Quindlen writes.

Something similar happened in San Diego. For over 4-1/2 years, the local SPJ "pro" chapter sponsored the unprecedented High School Journalism Project (HSJP). Local journalists, editors, photo-journalists and even page designers from print and broadcast media taught high-school students about their profession every week in those classes.

The HSJP was even featured in two, illustrated stories in the Quill, the SPJ's monthly magazine.

Did the HSJP work? Several participating students are now working on their journalism degrees in universities. Mike Ritter, a HSJP participant who was the Sports Editor of the Patriot Press at San Diego's Patrick Henry High Schoo, later became the Sports Editor of the daily newspaper at the University of Arizona.

At the ripe age of 21, Ritter was hired this year to cover major-leage beaseball for MLB.com.

He totally credits the HSJP for his success.

"On a personal level, as sports editor for the Patriot Press in high school, Leo and I worked one-on-one during the production of our sports' section," Ritter wrote.

"He helped instill great journalism passion in me. I was waivering between several different college majors as a high-school senior. But, after working with Leo, it was easy for me to pick journalism," Ritter added.

For unknown reasons, the SPJ's local chapter dropped their sponsorship of the HSJP.

More recently, the journalism class at San Diego's flagship institution, San Diego High School, the oldest in the city, has for decades produced the school's official newspaper, The Russ.

That journalism course was dropped as a regular f-r-credit class and downgraded to an extra-curricular activity. The local SPJ did nothing about it, though a board member was asked to help.

Some believe our high-school students deserve more.

___________________

Contact Leo E. Laurence, J.D., at leopowerhere@msn.com or (619) 757-4909 cell

Diversity issues highlighted at the 2008 SPJ Convention & National Journalism Conference

JoeSkeel — Fri, 11 Jul 2008 20:48:00 GMT

Celebrate diversity, learn how to diversify sources and identify disparities at the 2008 SPJ Conference & National Journalism Convention, Sept. 4-7 in Atlanta, Ga.

Listed below is a mere sampling of the professional development programs at this year’s Convention designed to increase your knowledge on how to add diversity to your publication or broadcast!

International News in the World of Globalization

Description: With globalization increasing each day on political, economic and cultural levels, it becomes even more important for newspapers, magazines, online and other publications to focus on international news. In addition, with the recent consensus showing the increase of immigrants from countries around the globe, it makes it just as crucial to provide international news to a diverse and rich community. This session would focus on the significance of international news and the vital role it must play in the world of globalization.

Speakers: TBA

Finding, Sourcing and Writing Stories That Matter About Disability

Description: The disability community is the largest minority group in America, yet media coverage focuses on those we pity, those who inspire us, and those who need our charity. This session will explore substantive stories about people with disabilities and the civil rights issues that are critically important to them, beyond the health/medical beat. We'll explore newsroom attitudes that inhibit better coverage, and how to integrate disability issues into all beats - from business to arts to sports. We'll also share ideas on how to interview sources who have mobility, speech or hearing impairments so the interviewer and interviewee are both comfortable.

Speaker: Susan LoTempio, assistant managing editor/readership, Buffalo News

What Else Can We Report About Latinos?

Description: It's a fact that the Latino population is growing and becoming increasingly important, but how can we, as a reporters and editors, reflect that? Often, Latinos are portrayed stereotypically in the news as part of a crime, gang or immigration issue. Are these the only topics we can cover about Latinos? What can we add to mainstream newscasts and publications that would provide more coverage about the Latino community?

Speaker: Rodrigo F. Cervantes, editor, Mundo Hispánico

Leap the Digital Divide: Communicating to Communities of Color Online

Description: What do Univision.com, BlackPlanet.com and The Washington Post’s TheRoot.com know that many others don’t? The Internet is a great way to drill down into a community. As old paradigms fade, innovators at the leading edge share the knowledge they are developing about strategies for community connection and news online.

Speakers: TBA

The Jena Six: What We Learned

Description: A noose hanging from a tree, arson at the Jena High School and schoolyard fight are just some of the incidents that led to a story now often referred to as the “Jena Six.” The Jena Six are six black teenagers who were initially charged with attempted murder for beating up a white teenager. The emotional and racially charged story captivated this Louisiana town. Hear from reporters who have been covering this story from the beginning and how it has impacted their lives, their news outlets and their work as journalists.

Speakers: Abbey Brown, reporter, The Town Talk, Alexandria, La.; Bonnie Gonzalez, news reporter, KLAX-TV, Alexandria, La.

For a full list of programs offered at this year’s Convention & National Journalism Conference, visit http://www.spj.org/c-programs.asp.

GAY BOYCOTT IN SAN DIEGO MAY GO NATIONWIDE

LeoLaurence — Fri, 11 Jul 2008 04:06:00 GMT

by Leo E. Laurence, J.D.; Member: SPJ Nat'l. Committee on Diversity

When the California Supreme Court legalized gay marriages effective June 17th, homophobic opponents quickly launched a successful drive to put an initiative on the November ballot to overturn it.

The state's high court carefully analyized the two separate-but-equal conditions under which California laws allowed a couple to unite: "marriage" for straights and "domestic partnerships" for Gays.

The high court held that those laws violated the state's Constitution. It was basically an equal-protection argument, one which also prevailed in Massachursettes and which outlawed separate-but-equal education for blacks and whites in the south years ago.

Gay-rights supporters and their union allies in San Diego - which are numerous - have now launched a boycott of the elegant Manchester Grand Hyatt, a favorite hotel of the rich and famous in downtown San Diego.

Another high-end hotel, the new Grand Del Mar, is also targeted in this boycott.

The owner of the two hotels, multi-millinaire Doug Manchester, made a major contribution to the statewide ballot initiative, dubbed Proposition-8, which will amend the state's Constitution to ban same-sex marriages. The amount of his significant contribution is reported somewhere between $125,000 and $1 million.

Boycott leaders are urging the traveling and vacationing public to avoid these two, high-end hotels in the San Diego area because Proposition-8 amounts to discriminatory treatment of Gays and Lesbians.

"Manchester's contribution to this anti-marriage initiative is discrimination pure and simply," said Briget Browning, president of Unite-Here Local 30, in an interview with the San Diego Union Tribune. That union represents 4,500 hotel and restaurant workers.

Manchester said in an earlier interview that he decided to donate to Proposition-8 because he was motivated by his Catholic faith to believe that marraige must be only between a man and a woman.

Manchester also said that, as he understand it, if schools teach that marriage is between a man and a woman, they could be sued for discrimination against Gays. That issue, however, has not been litigated.

He also stressed that he welcomes money from Gays and Lesbians in his hotels and restaurants.

For now, some gay civil-rights activists say they are only targeting the local Manchester Grand Hyatt and the Grand Del Mar hotels, rather than the larger Hyatt Corporation, which runs both. That's because the corporation has a good record of hiring Gays and Lesbians.

However, other gay activits disagreed, saying the boycott could easily go nationwide against all Hyatt hotels.

Manchester is one of several wealthy San Diegans who are contributing significantly to overturn the state Supreme Court's decision.

Others include wealthy Mission Valley developer Terry Caster who has reportedly contributed $125,000; and Robert Hoehn, owner of the large Hoehn Motors auto dealership, who reportedly gave $25,000.

"Our goal is to create a loss of business for those who contirbute to Proposition-8," said Fred Karger, one of the boycott's organizers.

Both sides of the battle over Proposition-8 are expected to raise huge amounts of money, for a combined total of about $30 million.

After the state's high-court ruling legalizing gay marriages, the non-partisn Field Poll found that a majority of Californians opposed the constitional ban (Proposition-8); and for the first time, actually support gay marriages.

__________________

Contact journalist Leo E. Laurence, J.D., at leopowerhere@msn.com, or call (619) 757-4909

ENGLISH-ONLY LANGUAGE WARS ARE UNNECESSARY

LeoLaurence — Thu, 10 Jul 2008 00:36:00 GMT

by Leo E. Laurence, J.D., Member: SPJ Nat'l. Committee on Diversity

Our American cultural landscape is changing, particularly as the percentage of resident, Spanish-speaking Latinos increases and many young people speak more than one language. This makes many people very uncomfortable.

But, I think the English-only wars that are emerging are unnecessary and even un-American.

Research actually indicates that children of immigrants are more likely to lose their native language and speak only English, than never learning English at all.

One day the valedictorian of a high school wrote into his speech a single sentence, welcoming his grandparents who had traveled to the Unitd States to attend the ceremony. That sentence was in his grandparent's native language. No harm? Of course, not!

At an eighth-grade graduation in the same city, another valedictorian did something similar. She included a single sentence thanking her grandparents - and in their native language - for their support. Again, no harm.

The single line in the high-school speech was in German. The single sentence in the junior-high speech was in Spanish.

However, guess which one caused a furor.

Days before the graduation ceremony, the junion-high principal tried to pressure his student to remove the line in Spanish. He was afraid those who didn't understand Spanish might feel uncomfortable. It is more probable that the principal didn't want to respond to angry phone calls anticipated from people like the Miinutemen.

The girl stood her ground, and the principal backed down. The Constitution's first-amendment right of free-speech was on her side, the same as the Constitution's presumption of innocence makes it wrong for journalists to use the phrase "illegal immigrants" when referring to undocumented immigrants in their stories. It's the law!

Conversely, no one said a word about the line in German, but the Minutemen types are attacking Mexicans, not Germans.

More recently, Cindy and Hue Co, cousins and co-valdictorians in a Louisiana high school, delivered part of their speech in Vietnameese. They are daughters of Vietnamese immigrants.

Cindy told the Associated Press that she added a sentence in Vietnamese to thank her parents. It also meant that she could always be true to herself, and it expressed gratitude to her parents for immigrating to the United States.

It, too, unfortunately turned out to be controversial.

Now the school officials are thinking about adopting an official school policy that requires future commencement speeches to be in English only, contrary to the First Amendment of our fedeal Constitution. That doesn't surprise me, because several high schools in San Diego have intentionally violated state laws regulating their school newspapers.

I dislike it when busybody school officials think that, because they don't like something (e.g., adding a compliment in another language to a valedictory speech) they can simply outlaw it, even when that act may violate federal law.

I don't like it when journalists call undocumented immigrants "illegal aliens," in violation of our constitutional presumption of innocence.

I don't like it when some American teenagers, who can barely speak proper English, may eventually be outmatched in the global market by a teenager from Mexico, Europe or Asia who can speak two or more languages.

Let's face it, English-only policies may seriously handicap American students as they grow up and enter the global market.

Monolingual students need to study harder and become bilingual themselves, and adults need to lay off their objections about a single sentence in a graduation speech in another language.

___________________

Contact journalist Leo E. Laurence, J.D. at leopowerhere@msn.com or call (619) 757-4909.

NEEDED: STORIES ON SUPREME COURT APPOINTMENTS

LeoLaurence — Mon, 07 Jul 2008 05:27:00 GMT

by Leo E. Laurence, J.D.; Member: Nat'l. Committee on Diversity

In the daily grind of stories from the campaign trails of our presumptive, presidential nominees; we are seeing far too few articles - and speeches by the campaigners - on the major importance of Supreme Court appointments that the next president will likely make - which could change the course of American jurisprudence for generations to come.

Time magazine and the Washington Post are rare exceptions.

"(The Supreme Court) is sharply divided ideologically on some of the most fundimental, constitutional questions; and the upcoming presidential election will determine its future path," wrote Robert Burns in the Washington Post.

"A victory by the presumptive Democratic nominee, Barrack Obama, would probably mean preserving the uneasy - but roughly balanced - status quo, since the justices who are considered most likely to retire are liberal.

"A win for his Republican counterpart, John McCain, could mean a fundimental shift to a conservative majority ready to take on past court rulings on abortion rights, affirmatrive action and other issues of importance to the right," Burns wrote.

In its most recent term, the high court has bounced back and forth between the left and the right on the constitutional rights of terrorist suspects, individual gun ownershiip and the increaingly narrow view of who is eligible for the death penalty.

Each case has pitted the four consistently conservative justices against the four slightly-less consistent liberals, with Justice Anthony M. Kennedy returning to his role of last term as the deciding vote.

"The blockbuster cases, the really big cases, have now brought into very sharp focus how closely divided this court is on the really large and philosophically-charged issues before the court," says Charles J. Cooper, a Washington lawyer quoted by Burns.

"It has cast 'the sharpest possible focus on how important the court is going to be . . . in the upcoming election debate,'" Cooper added.

The average age of the court's liberals will be 75 when it opens its next term in October.

An Obama victory will surely replace one of those liberals with another liberal. But, a McCain win will give the high court a solid, majority block (of conservatives) for years to come.

Chief Justice John Roberts has made a determined effort to have the other justices draft narrow rulings, creating the stronger possibility that there will be a greater consensus and avoid the 5-4 splits. Also, more non-controversial business cases have been acceptd by the Robert's court.

Roberts has done well. Of the 15 cases in which the U.S. Chamber of Commerce has filed briefs, 80% were deciced by a 7-2 or higher split, and a third were unanimous. Roberts was in the majority in 90% of all the cases this term, more frequently than any other justice.

But, "regardless of Robert's consensus building, the future of the court will be determined by the (upcoming) presidential election," Time magazine reported in its issue dated July 14th.

"If McCain wins and gets to replace one of two liberal justices with reliable conservatives, there will be a lopsided, conservative majority and Roberts will have little incentive to win over the marginalized liberal justices who remain.

"By contrast, if Obama wins, the ideologial makeup of the court will remain the same in the foreseeable future - four liberal justices and four conservatives, with Kennedy in the middle," Time says.

"In that case, Robert's success in promoting bipartisn unity may make the difference between a Supreme Court that declares war on Obamam's domestic agenda . . . and a court that is content to get out of the way of a Democratic president and Congress," Time concludes.

__________________

Leo E. Laurence, J.D. belongs to that small "club" of journalists nationwide who holds a law degree, which included the late Tim Russert. Contact Laurence at leopowerhere@msn.com or call (619) 757-4909.