MCOM 105: DIVERSITY IN THE MEDIA GENDER ISSUES
TOPIC #1
Trump lets Miss USA keep her title
By ADAM GOLDMAN, Associated Press Writer Tuesday, Dec, 19, 2006
NEW YORK -
Miss USA Tara Conner, who had come under criticism amid rumors she had been frequenting bars while underage, will be allowed to keep her title, Donald Trump announced Tuesday.
"I've always been a believer in second chances," Trump, who owns the
Miss Universe Organization with NBC, said with Conner at his side.
Trump said he and Conner had met earlier Tuesday morning.
"She left a small town in Kentucky and she was telling me that she got caught up in the whirlwind of New York," Trump said at a news conference. "It's a story that has happened many times before to many women and many men who came to the Big Apple. They wanted their slice of the Big Apple and they found out it wasn't so easy."
Conner won the title in April and has been living in New York. Recent media accounts of heavy drinking brought a storm of criticism since she was underage at the time. She turned 21 on Monday.
In a tear-choked voice, Conner said, "In no way did I think it would be possible for a second chance to be given to me."
Turning to Trump, she said, "You'll never know what this means to me, and I swear I will not let you down."
Trump said Conner would be entering rehab. A pageant official said details would be worked out privately with Conner over the next weeks.
"I think Tara is going to be the great comeback kid," Trump said.
If Conner had been dethroned, her title would have been taken over by first runner-up Miss California Tamiko Nash.
Conner, a 5-foot-5 blonde, has been competing in pageants since age 4. After winning the Miss USA title in April, she finished fourth in the Miss Universe pageant in July.
In 2002, Miss Russia Oxana Fedorova won the Miss Universe pageant but was stripped of her title after violating her contract. Trump said Fedorova didn't show up for some photo shoots and charity events. It was the first time a titleholder had been ousted in the contest's more than 50-year history. Fedorova denied she was fired and said she gave up the title voluntarily.
( Miss USA website: http://www.missusa.com/index2.html )
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ADL condemns fired publisher Regan
By HILLEL ITALIE, AP National Writer Dec. 19, 2006
NEW YORK - Publisher Judith Regan's alleged complaints of a "Jewish cabal" and other remarks that led to her firing were condemned by the Anti-Defamation League on Tuesday.
"If Ms. Regan did make the charge that a Jewish cabal was conspiring against her, she clearly stepped over the line
by employing the age-old anti-Semitic canard that Jews conspire against non-Jews," ADL National Director
Abraham H. Foxman said. "She also gives credence to the conspiracy theory that Jews control the media.
"Whatever her dispute with HarperCollins, the Jewishness of her critics had absolutely no relevance to the matter
at hand, which leads one to question why she resorted to raising the Jewish issue."
Regan was fired Friday by the News Corp.-owned HarperCollins after a telephone confrontation in which she complained of a "Jewish cabal" against her in the industry and appeared to liken herself to a victim of the Nazis as she stated that Jews "should know about ganging up, finding common enemies and telling the big lie."
Andrew Butcher, a spokesman for Rupert Murdoch's News Corp., told The Associated Press on Monday that the remarks were made during a conversation between Regan and HarperCollins lawyer Mark Jackson, who took notes. At the time, the two were discussing the future of a new novel about baseball star Mickey Mantle.
Butcher released the comments in response to a threatened libel suit from Regan's legal representative, Hollywood attorney Bert Fields, who had called earlier reports of inappropriate remarks "completely untrue."
Since 1994, Regan had headed the ReganBooks imprint at HarperCollins. Silent publicly since her dismissal, she is preparing a brief statement, Fields said.
Fields, whose other clients have included Tom Cruise and Steven Spielberg, told the AP Tuesday that he "was really alarmed" by Foxman's remarks and found them "quite harmful to the Jewish cause. And I feel free to say that because I am Jewish."
Fields acknowledged that Regan had used the word "cabal," but denied she said "Jewish cabal." Even if she had,
he said, her comments would not be anti-Semitic.
"I am quite stunned at what I think is a super thin-skinned response (by Foxman)," Fields said. "If a Jewish person is
in a cabal, I don't think it implies that all Jews are conspiring against her. And to say that is silly."
Regan, one of the book world's most successful and temperamental publishers, reportedly had a long history
of tension with HarperCollins CEO Jane Friedman even as Murdoch supported her. But last month, Murdoch
canceled "If I Did It," her planned
Bottom of Form
O.J. Simpson book and TV interview.
Simpson's book, said to have described how he theoretically would have committed the murders of ex-wife Nicole Brown Simpson and her friend Ronald Goldman, had been scheduled for release Nov. 30 following the airing of a two-part Simpson interview on the Fox network.
Butcher said that Regan and Jackson were discussing an upcoming Regan book, Peter Golenbock's "7: The Mickey Mantle Novel," in which the author, imagining he is Mantle, details a life of sexual exploits, including a tryst with Marilyn Monroe.
With Mantle's family and fans of the late Yankee enraged, Regan and Jackson of HarperCollins were discussing the timing and content of the planned March release, according to Butcher. Regan got frustrated by what she believed was HarperCollins' lack of support, and lashed out.
She complained that Jackson, Friedman, HarperCollins Executive Editor David Hirshey and longtime literary agent Esther Newberg were a "Jewish cabal," Butcher said.
Butcher said she pleaded with Jackson: "Of all people, Jews should know about ganging up, finding common enemies and telling the big lie."
Fields said Tuesday he saw nothing wrong with Regan's pointing out that Jews should be "understanding about any victim, because they have suffered themselves." The attorney said that a suit for breach of contract would be filed "within the next few days," but that any charges of libel were still being "explored."
Fields also confirmed that before she was fired Regan was in the planning stages of a reality TV show — with the knowledge of HarperCollins — to air on Bravo. A spokeswoman for Bravo, Cameron Blanchard, said the deal was still in "development" and declined comment on its status or its content.
Fox calls off O.J. interview, book
OUTRAGE TRIGGERS RARE CANCELLATION
By Charlie McCollum
San Jose Mercury News Nov, 21, 2006
Faced with mounting public disgust and criticism, Rupert Murdoch's News Corp. pulled the plug on the O.J. Simpson's ``If I Did It,'' book and television show Monday.
In a terse statement News Corp. chairman Murdoch said he and the company's senior management ``agree with the American public that this was an ill-considered project. We are sorry for any pain that this has caused the families of Ron Goldman and Nicole Brown Simpson.''
In the Fox TV special and the book published by News Corp.-owned ReganBooks, Simpson was to discuss how he would have killed his wife Nicole Brown Simpson and her friend Ron Goldman in 1994 -- if he had.
The former NFL great was charged with their murders but was acquitted a year later. In a 1997 civil case, he was found responsible for their deaths and was ordered to pay $33 million to the victims' survivors, a judgment he has never obeyed.
A News Corp. executive told the New York Times in a telephone interview that payments to representatives for Simpson for the TV interview and the book will probably still have to be made.
Standard publishing contracts call for a percentage of an author's advance, usually up to 50 percent, to be paid when a contract is signed, and for the remainder to be paid when the finished book is accepted by the publisher. The executive told the Times that Simpson's book is covered by a standard publishing contract.
It was the furious attacks by the Brown and Goldman families that triggered much of the firestorm surrounding ``If I Did It'' this past week, setting off a national debate.
The Goldman and Brown families were angered even further Monday when News Corp.'s Fox Broadcasting arm reportedly sought their blessing of the project in exchange for a large monetary payout. Fox also wanted to be able to say that some of the proceeds from the broadcast would go to the victims' families, according to MarketWatch.com.
The families refused the offers.
No one at News Corp. would discuss on the record the exact details about how the project had been accepted in the first place. But one News Corp. executive who was involved in the negotiations told the New York Times that Murdoch had been aware of the deals before they were announced publicly.
It is rare for a network to pull a heavily promoted show under public pressure. The only recent precedent occurred three years ago when CBS yanked a miniseries about Ronald and Nancy Reagan after complaints about its accuracy. (``The Reagans'' later aired on Showtime, a premium cable channel.)
And it is even rarer, and perhaps unprecedented, for a book to be almost literally yanked off store shelves solely because of what was being written and who wrote it.
The only comparable situation publishing executives could recall on Monday was Simon and Schuster's decision in 1991 to not publish Bret Easton Ellis' ``American Psycho'' because of its sympathetic portrayal of a serial killer. But that novel had not yet been printed, and an edited version was later published.
A spokeswoman for ReganBooks said Monday that the copies of ``If I Did It'' distributed to bookstores are being recalled and that the entire press run of the book would be destroyed. She declined to say how many copies are involved.
The fiery uproar over the book and TV special began last Wednesday with Judith Regan, publisher of the book and producer of the special, throwing gas on the fire when she said ``If I Did It'' was Simpson's ``confession.''
Radio talk shows were bombarded by angry callers. Fox stations across the country were swamped by e-mails, letters and phone calls from outraged viewers. Some independent bookstores refused to carry ``If I Did It.''
Even commentators on Fox News, also owned by News Corp., weighed in. Bill O'Reilly, the cable news channel's most prominent personality, told his viewers last week, ``Shamefully, the Fox Broadcasting network is set to carry the program, which is simply intolerable and a low point in American culture.''
By Sunday, 13 Fox stations including outlets in Fresno and Providence, R.I., had decided not to carry ``If I Did It'' on Nov. 27 and 29.
KTVU, the local Fox affiliate, had not yet reached a decision on whether to air the special but vice-president and general manager Tim McVay said Monday that the station was ``very comfortable with the network decision.''
In addition, the sources said, advertisers who had expressed some interest in what likely was to be a highly rated special were pulling back.
Simpson could not be reached for comment. But Yale Galanter, his current attorney, told the Associated Press that his client had known for several days that cancellation of the special and book ``was a possibility.''
``There are only three possible reactions: anger, happiness or indifference,'' Galanter said. ``He's totally indifferent about the fact that it's been canceled.''
Contact Charlie McCollum at or (408) 920-5245. His blog on TV appears at www.mercextra.com/aei.
TOPIC #2 - GENDER ISSUES: STUDYING DATING HABITS
The Pew Internet Project is a non-profit, non-partisan initiative of the Pew Research Center that produces reports exploring the impact of the internet on children, families, communities, the work place, schools, health care, and civic/political life. Support for the non-profit Pew Internet Project is provided by The Pew Charitable Trusts.Online at: http://www.pewinternet.org/report_display.asp?r=177
Online Dating: Americans who are seeking romance use the internet to help them in their search, but there is still widespread public concern about the safety of online dating
There is now relatively broad public contact with the online dating world. Some 31% of American adults say they know someone who has used a dating website and 15% of American adults – about 30 million people – say they know someone who has been in a long-term relationship or married someone he or she met online.
Yet, dating websites are just one of many online avenues that can facilitate a romantic connection. Three out of four internet users who are single and looking for a romantic partner have done at least one dating-related activity online—ranging from using dating websites, to searching for information about prospective dates, to flirting via email and instant messaging, to browsing for information about the local singles scene.
Some 11% of all internet users and 37% of those who are single and looking say they have gone to dating websites. A majority of them say they have had positive experiences and believe their use of such sites helps them to find a better match. A notable number of these online daters have found firsthand that lasting romance can be forged online; 17% of them say they have entered long-term relationships or married someone they met through the services.
At the same time, while online dating is becoming more commonplace, there are still concerns in the wider public about the dangers of posting personal information on dating sites and about the honesty of those who pursue online dating.