Bylines   

Hidden Camera Investigation

Last May, Marisa Porto , a police reporter in the Delray Beach bureau of the Ft. Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel , complained of pain in her hands, wrists and arms, symptoms of repetitive stress injury. According to newsroom sources, a company doctor placed the reporter on light duty and told her to wear arm braces at all times. Porto declined to comment, but sources say that recently an investigator hired by personnel videotaped her grocery shopping and pulling weeds at her home sans braces. Three weeks later, Porto was told she could either resign, or be fired and prosecuted for worker's compensation fraud. Editor Gene Cryer ? who says he's a "big believer in psychosomatic illnesses," says she chose to resign. He defends the surveillance, saying "it's a tool used by bright investigators... When we [journalists] use [similar methods], we're just righteous as hell." Police reporter Chele Caughron , who worked with Porto and who also wears a brace, says many staffers were furious because they knew she "worked every day and did her job and excelled at it." Porto is the third Sun-Sentinel reporter whose treatment after complaining of RSI symptoms has caused concern at the paper. This past spring, reporters Berta Delgado and Sallie James were reassigned as security guards at a distant printing plant (see Bylines, June). They have since returned to the newsroom.

Columnist Cries Foul

Carol Parker resigns as a contributor to the twice-weekly South Dade News Leader , based in Homestead, Florida, after the paper's managing editor scolded her in print for a column she had written about a conservative activist. Ralf Stores , director of the local chapter of the American Family Association, had told the Miami Herald that he feared retaliation by gays for his campaign to exclude anyone but "legitimate minorities" from protection by civil rights laws. Stores added that if he or his family were in danger, he'd rather have his children be killed "than have them live a long life knowing their father denied the faith." In her subsequent column, Parker blasted Stores as a zealot, writing, "I'd rather live in a community of loving gay couples than next door to a guy who would watch his children burn to death for the sake of his convictions. Shades of Waco!" After Stores complained to Managing Editor Yolanda Ulrich that Parker's description of him was libelous, Ulrich told readers that Parker had been "lazy" by not interviewing Stores or reading his ballot proposal, and that she should have made it clearer that the column was her opinion. Now a staff writer for a weekly paper in Miami, Parker says she thought Ulrich's reaction was "a joke."

Mayberry News

The new Americana Television Network plans to launch a half-hour weekly program next January based on tidbits culled from small newspapers. "Hometown Gazette" will be set in a newspaper office, where pipe-puffing host Rodney Dillard (a veteran of "The Andy GriffithShow") will select and read humorous, interesting or inspiring articles. Larry Williams , the show's creator, says he developed an affection for small papers during his dozen years as a Hollywood screenwriter. "If I drew my inspiration [for script ideas] from the L.A. Times ," he says, "I would have been drawing my ideas from the same source as everyone else."

Peacock Spreads Its Wings

NBC has purchased Super Channel , Europe's largest television service, and plans to add its newsmagazines and nightly newscasts to its programming. The English-language channel is fed by satellite and cable systems to 56 million homes in Western Europe, Eastern Europe and the Commonwealth of Independent States. The channel already carries a live feed of business news from CNBC , now headed by former George Bush media strategist Roger Ailes . Ailes, who continues as executive producer of Rush Limbaugh 's television program, also will oversee NBC's all news cable channel, "America's Talking," which debuts next year.

N.Y. Post on the Times

The New York Post assigns Hilton Kramer  65, to write "TimesWatch," a column critiquing the New York Times . Kramer, who left the Times in 1982 as chief art critic to found New Criterion , a conservative arts magazine, says Times editors generally "hold the straight PC line. They don't mind offending people so long as they're white heterosexual males. They also don't seem to be too keen about intact middle class families." Kramer says the "liberal" Times does have one strength: its reputation. "But that," he argues, "is in the process of being dissipated."

Realtors Strike Back

Hoping to cut advertising costs and unhappy with coverage in the local press, the Santa Fe Association of Realtors launches its own paper. Associate Publisher Winston Caine , a former reporter at the Rocky Mountain News , says the Santa Fe Real Estate Weekly is "not solely a house organ" but contains articles on planning and zoning issues along with upbeat stories about local Realtors. "We try to maintain some editorial integrity," he says. The paper is one of at least 20 now being published by Realtors across the country. Billie Blair , associate publisher of Santa Fe's daily New Mexican , says that while her paper beefed up coverage and now distributes its own free real estate weekly, Caine's claim that the Realtor's paper will cost the New Mexican as much as $1 million in ad revenue this year is ridiculous. "We lost one major advertiser," she says, "and they came back after a few weeks." (For more on Realtors and the press, see our November 1991 issue.)

Run Up the Middle

Mike Fisher , a sportswriter for the Fort Worth Star-Telegram , sparks debate after claiming in an article that he was a liaison between the Dallas Cowboys and an agent for running back Emmitt Smith during negotiations over Smith's $13.6 million contract. While agent Richard Howell and the Cowboys deny Fisher's claims, the reporter says he agreed to deliver messages if he could also give readers the inside scoop. "By allowing ourselves to be 'used,' we got access," Fisher says now. "As far as I'm concerned, you can use me anytime. Besides, if you're calling the player and the owner and the agent, how can you not be in the middle of it?" Dale Hansen , a veteran sports reporter for Dallas' WSAA-TV , says he's more dismayed by Fisher's "self-serving" explanation than his supposed intermediary role. "Had I done that, the Star-Telegram would have sliced me into tiny little pieces," he says. "His public line is that his readers needed to know. I told him, 'Mike, at least have the decency to admit you were saying, "Hey, look at me!" ' "

Inside Newspapers

The San Francisco Chronicle makes buyout offers to the 252 of its 370 union newsroom employees who have at least five years' experience. By mid-October, about 125 had accepted (see AJR, July/August)... The Chicago Tribune hires Michael Wilmington of the Los Angeles Times as its new film critic. He succeeds Dave Kerr , now at the New York Daily News ... After 27 years at the Washington Post , international trade reporter Stuart Auerbach relocates to Prague to assist the Soros Foundation in developing press voices in Eastern Europe. Christine Spolar , meanwhile, who spent the last year teaching in Slovenia as a Fulbright Scholar, returns to the Post as a correspondent in Los Angeles... The New York Times reassignstheater critic Frank Rich as an op-ed columnist on society and culture... Philip Lentz , a former Chicago Tribune reporter and press secretary for Paul Tsongas ' 1992 presidential campaign, joins the New York Daily News as an editorial writer... Kelly Richmond leaves the Washington bureau of Ottaway Newspapers to join New Jersey's Bergen Record as its Washington correspondent.

Sunshine State

Neil Brown steps down as managing editor of Congressional Quarterly to become world editor at the St. Petersburg Times . Brown, who left the Miami Herald for CQ in 1988, says that if all goes well, "I guess I'll become universe editor.".. Danielle Herubin , formerly Washington correspondent for the Orange County Register , joins the Palm Beach Post as a business reporter... The Miami Herald names Joe Oglesby , formerly an assistant managing editor, as editor of the Broward County edition. He succeeds Sue Reisinger , now deputy Broward editor overseeing coverage from Miami.

Lights Out on Fleet Street

Early next year, the Daily Mirror becomes the last newspaper to leave London's Fleet Street for cheaper rents elsewhere. Marc Ward , who owns a nearby pub, told the Associated Press he's disappointed because the "yuppies" who remain "will have two pints and be flattened out. With [journalists], it's been a fairly secure income."

He Wrote the Book

Edwin Emery , the University of Minnesota professor who wrote "The Press and America," a textbook used by thousands of journalism students since its 1954 debut, died at age 79.

Inside Magazines

Time promotes Joelle Attinger to assistant managing editor, the first woman to reach that level. "I'm very glad we'll no longer be talking about firsts," says Attinger, who joined Time in 1973. "We've ended it here."..
Esquire removes Terry McDonell as editor and replaces him with Edward Kosner , editor of New York since 1980. McDonell now edits Sports Afield , another Hearst magazine.

Sail On

John Sherwood , a former reporter for the now-defunct Washington Star and Los Angeles Herald-Examiner , as well as the Miami Herald and Journal Newspapers of suburban Washington, takes over as managing editor of the Maryland-based sailing magazine, RAGS . "Right now I'm looking out over a sailboat show in Annapolis harbor," he says. "There is life beyond newspapering."

Local Television Feeds

News Director Bob Jordan leaves Seattle's KING to take the same position at KCBS in Los Angeles. Only weeks before, he had accepted a job from King Broadcasting to oversee a new regional cable news channel... A Minneapolis jury awards sports reporter Tom Ryther , 56, $716,000 after deciding KARE unfairly dismissed him because of his age. KARE President Hank Price says Ryther's contract, worth $160,000 a year, was not renewed because research showed he was no longer popular... Broadcast Equities, headed by evangelist Pat Robertson , buys Zapnews , a wire service for small broadcasters. Zapnews will join forces with Robertson's StandardNews radio network and add 15 people to its 11-member staff.

Cable & Satellite

Chris Graves , executive producer for Wall Street Journal Television , takes over as managing editor of Asia Business News . The network hopes to be the first business news channel to be seen across Asia... Citing a confidential memo, Variety reports that CBS plans to launch a public affairs channel using material supplied by CBS News and its local stations. But a CBS spokesperson says the idea was just that – an idea – and that the network has no such plans. CBS News has hooked up, however, with Britain's Sky TV , VTM Belgium and the Tokyo Broadcasting System to share resources... Herb Holmes , a former producer at ABC 's "Nightline" and one-time director of "Entertainment Tonight," plans to launch the Magazine Network in late 1994 with specialized programming based on the content of some 75 general interest publications.

ABC News

Meredith Vieira , most recently co-anchor of the "CBS Morning News" and a former "60 Minutes" correspondent, becomes chief correspondent for "Turning Point," an ABC newsmagazine scheduled to debut early next year. The network also hires David Gelber as executive producer of "Peter Jennings Reporting." Like Vieira, he leaves CBS , where he had worked for "60 Minutes" and the evening news since 1981.

Hoops Scoop

NBA writer Peter Vecsey leaves USA Today to return to the New York Post , where he had worked for 14 years before joining the national daily. Vecsey says he came back because "there's less explaining to do" when writing for sports-crazed New Yorkers. Dick Weiss of the Philadelphia Daily News , meanwhile, joins the New York Daily News to cover college football and basketball. Weiss, who worked in Philly for two decades, taps North Carolina to repeat as men's basketball champs and says he hopes Charlotte takes the NBA title. Vecsey's pick: Portland. You saw it here first.