Adrienne Hall – Reporting
Dave Cavins – Cameraman
Chip Dizard – Producer/Editor

by A.man.I

STUDENT ON THE VERGE OF MAKING HISTORY AT MOREHOUSE COLLEGE
My video production company just wrapped up a two-day shoot for the Associated Press Television Network on a story about a student who could make history when he graduates in a few weeks.

Though many of Josh Packwood’s friends say it’s not about his color, he is about to receive Valedictorian honors, and will be the first Caucasian to do so.

Read more at the all new Visual Eye Media blog.

MIX AND MINGLE WITH BLACK JOURNALISTS
Board members with the National Association of Black Journalists are inviting all members and associate members to network, and relax at Strip at Atlantic Station in Atlanta from 7pm – 9pm tonight. The national representatives are in town for their quarterly meeting.

CNN’S FIRST EVER DIGITAL MEDIA WORKSHOP IS UNDERWAY
Journalists from around the country are in Atlanta for a special workshop focusing on digital journalism at CNN. Thursday and Friday, 19 journalists representing various minority journalism organizations will sharpen their online storytelling skills.

Here are the names of the participants.

• Simone S. Bridges, producer, NYTimes.com (NABJ)
• Stanley B. Chambers, reporter, The News & Observer, Raleigh, N.C. (NABJ)
• Erika Cebreros, associate editor, El Mensajero Newspaper (NAHJ)
• Florangela Davila, writer, lifestyle & culture, The Seattle Times (NAHJ)
• Jigsha Desai, online editor, Knoxnews.com/govolsxtra.com, Knoxville, Tenn. (NAHJ)
• Sara A. Fajardo, photographer, Orlando Sentinel (NAHJ)
• Sharon Ford-Dunn, associate professor, Grambling State University (NABJ)
• Mike Green, content editor, Ashland Daily Tidings, (NABJ)
• Amy Hsuan, staff writer, The Oregonian (AAJA)
• Ko W. Im, freelance news assistant, NY1 (AAJA)
• Joshua Johnson, anchor/reporter, WLRN/Miami Herald News (NLGJA)
• Elio Leturia, visual journalism class supervisor, Columbia College, Chicago (NAHJ)
• Natasha Mitchell, online editor, NewsOK.com/ The Oklahoman (NABJ)
• Victoria Lim, consumer reporter, WFLA-TV, Tampa, Fla. (AAJA)
• Daniel G. Morales, freelance journalist/writer, LaMusica.com, Revista monitor Latino, Quepasa.com (NLGJA)
• Ernesto Mourelo, assistant news director, KVEA Telemundo O&O (NAHJ)
• Franklin Robertson, multimedia editor, Chillicothe Gazette, Ohio (NAJA)
• Nina Sen, reporter, The Hour daily newspaper (SAJA)
• Vino Wong, photographer, Atlanta Journal-Constitution (AAJA)

by A.man.I

You may ask “what the hell was she smoking”? The better question is what was the vice president and GM of Boston’s WHDH-TV, Randi Goldklank sippin’ on? Goldklank is on administrative leave after being arrested during a drunken bout of “flight” rage at Logan Airport.

from TVSpy

According to an explosive police report, Goldklank assaulted a state trooper and broke his eyeglasses; threatened to put an officer “on TV and ruin your life,” and screamed, “do you know who the (expletive) I am? I’ll have a news crew down here in minutes and you will lose your (expletive) jobs you (expletives).” The troopers were responding to a report that Goldklank was unruly on an inbound Delta Air Lines flight Sunday night.

What a power trip. Doesn’t she know that folks are hardly watching the news? Stay off the sizurp.

CAN WE ASK A FEW QUESTIONS PLEASE?

Special Contribution from Chip Dizard

Yesterday, I was on assignment to cover the Pennsylvania Primary for MyUrbanReport.com. I have to tell you that I am an Obama supporter, but I had our team out getting un-biased coverage of all candidates—we even reached out to the Republicans and interviewed a McCain supporter.

Our reporter, Adrienne Hall asked four questions:

1. Who do you support and why?
2. What issues are important to you in your decision to support the candidate?
3. Do you think the (mainstream)media has been doing a good (fair) job in covering the candidates and the issues?
4. Is there anything else you’d like to add?

I thought these questions were fair and gave each side to present their case. The interesting thing that came across is that a majority of Hillary Clinton supporters wanted to know the questions in advance and where was this going to air and why where we there?

Of course, you know where I am going—the race card. Yes, our crew was all black and one of our workers had a Barack shirt on at first, but I intentionally asked him to wear another one so people wouldn’t feel the bias.

Does every African-America support Obama? No—we have evidence here when we interviewed Congresswoman Stephanie Tubbs-Jones of Ohio. The interesting part was that most of Obama supporters both white and black didn’t ask for the details of questions at all. Is there really a racial divide in our Democratic party and we are just too scared to talk about it—that is another blog post in itself, so I digress.

For those of you who are skeptical, I am looking to partner with a another production company out of Charlotte, North Carolina (who happens to have an all white crew) and they will ask the same questions and represent myurbanreport.com during the May 6 primary in North Carolina.

by A.man.I

Sources tell My Urban Report that WFLA NewsChannel 8 in Tampa is reducing its work force. Severance packages have been offered to an undisclosed number of employees.

by A.man.I

OBAMA VS. CLINTON
Of course all eyes are on Philadelphia today. Senator Clinton is hoping for a big win, while Obama is hoping it will be close. My Urban Report producer Chip Dizard is on the ground there, and will be bringing us reaction from voters at the exit polls.

TURNING WASTE INTO FUEL
Since it’s Earth Day, I figured I’d share a link to a video I produced a while ago about an invention that turns liquid waste into a natural gas substitute. It’s called Magnegas.

CNN VISITS THE AUC
CNN anchor/correspondent TJ Holmes is visiting Clark Atlanta University today. He’ll be there from 11am-4pm for the final stop of the network’s Black in America HBCU Tour. The tour is promoting CNN’s citizen journalism portal iReport. Click here for more information.