Date: Feature Week of June 8, 2003
Topic: Black Press Business/Economic
Author: William Reed
Article ID: article_ema060803a

TROUBLED TIMES FOR TOP BLACK JOURNALIST

 Anti-Affirmative Action Forces Disinformation Topples Gerald Boyd

What do Black Americans think of Gerald Boyd�s departure from The New York Times?  Do they view it as: 1) a major Black voice and leader has been silenced; or, 2) he�s just another Brother out-of-work?  Boyd resigned his position as Times Managing Editor the day government labor statistics announced nation�s unemployment at a new high - 6 percent and 10 percent for African-Americans.

Certainly Boyd was �a company man�.  A 30-year journeyman, Boyd worked his way up in the business.  He moved along the corporate track from St. Louis Post-Dispatch copy boy to number two executive at the nation�s top newspaper.  Whether he used his position as a �champion for change� in the industry, or �maintainer� of the status quo, is a question Times� bad boy, Jayson Blair, answers as �the latter�.

Boyd and his boss, Howell Raines, were forced to resign over the reporting scandal Blair started.  It called into question their management styles and issues regarding Times� affirmative action and diversity practices.  The two were overcome by ongoing allegations that they treated the error-prone Blair leniently because he was African American.  Citing that the two didn�t hold people of color to the same standards of excellence they did for white employees, and that Blair was given preference when he was promoted to the national desk at the incredibly young age of 27 - the equivalent of giving a sales rookie the company�s largest account, critics are claiming �favoritism�.

Blair counters that "racism had much more of an impact" on his Times career than affirmative action.   With a story Black professionals understand well, Blair says, �Young, aggressive white reporters are pulled along by white mentors all the time.  Editors trust them intrinsically, feel more comfortable talking to them and support their worldview.  They get big stories and invites for dinner at the boss�s house.�  Blair says this was not the case for him at The Times.  Instead of being Blair�s mentor, Boyd tried to block his promotion to the national desk.  Boyd says never had a particularly close relationship with Blair. "I've had less dealings with him than I've had with most reporters," Boyd said after the scandal broke.

Boyd joined The Times in 1983 following 10 years at the Post-Dispatch.  Boyd was a member of The Times� national political team, reporting on Vice President Bush during the 1984 presidential campaign.  As Managing Editor, Boyd supervised the newspaper's coverage of Washington, foreign, national and metropolitan news and playing a major role in shaping day-to-day reporting, including the final line-up and layout of the front page of the nation�s top paper.

Boyd has a demonstrable record of work among African Americans.  In 1977, He founded the St. Louis Association of Black Journalists and served as its first president.  He initiated a seven-week journalism workshop for high school students as a group project.  He�s been an instructor at Howard University and University of Missouri journalism workshops for minority students.  He was co-senior editor of The Times' Pulitzer Prize-winning "How Race is Lived in America" series, and was cited by the National Association of Black Journalists (NABJ) for a distinguishing body of work that was extraordinary in depth, scope and significance to African Americans. He�s also received the New York Urban League�s highest honor � the Frederick Douglass Award.

Critics may have toppled Boyd, but the industry�s facts show the depravity of their anti-affirmative action initiatives.  A 2002 study showed people of color � 16 percent of Times' editorial staff � are marginalized in that newsroom as well as others across America.  The number of minorities among the nation�s 1,423 daily newsrooms lags behind their percent of the national population.  African, Asian and Native Americans and Hispanics made up 12.5 percent of newsroom staffs in 2002 - well behind their national population numbers - 31.1 percent.  Minorities are 9.9 percent of all supervisors, and 19 percent of all minorities in the industry were supervisors.  Minority women make up 15.8 percent of daily newspaper staffs, and minority men 10.6 percent. Twenty-six percent of daily newspapers have no minorities in newsrooms.

So, losing Boyd from The Times may not be muting a fiery voice for racial equity, but it does disarrange dismal diversity numbers in the industry and at the nation�s leading newspaper. 

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© 2000-2003 William Reed - www.BlackPressInternational.com