Obama Brings Firsts for Black Media

Barack Obama’s election as president is generating major changes in the nation’s Black press, ushering in a series of firsts that editors say will reshape print, Internet, radio and television coverage aimed at Black audiences.

Essence, the top-selling magazine among Black women, will have a full-time White House reporter for the first time. Ebony magazine will add a White House reporter, either full time or as needed. Its sister publication, Jet magazine, will have a weekly two-page Washington report in every issue. BET is scrapping its usual program of videos and sitcoms for a four-hour live broadcast of Obama’s swearing-in. BET did the same thing for both party conventions last summer, and on Election Day. TV One will do the same, airing 21 hours of inauguration coverage throughout the day.

The moves mark a return to a time when the Black press, particularly magazines, was newsier. Jet first published photos of the battered and swollen body of Emmett Till in 1955, sparking outrage and galvanizing a still-young civil rights movement.

What took so long? Katrina happened under Bush, Rwanda happened under Clinton. If more reporters of color were there, maybe those issues would have gained more attention. The addition of Black reporters could mean more focus on the urban agenda, failing schools, crime, job loss, poor health care.

The latest issue of Essence, which reaches 8.5 million readers a month, has two different covers, Barack on one and Michelle on the other, and features famous Black Americans, reflecting on the moment. Ebony named a person of the year for the first time in its 63-year history, dedicating its entire January issue to the president-elect. The Obama watch section is one of the most popular features on the Essence website. For Ebony, the nation’s oldest Black magazine with a monthly readership of 12 million, the coverage paid off — the Chicago-based magazine landed Obama’s first post-election interview.

But all the coverage won’t and can’t be like that. Black folks will be interested in education, unemployment, AIDS, housing, health, crime, etc. The unemployment rate in our community is double the national average. And 95 percent of black children go to public schools. These are the kinds of things Black people are going to be interested in seeing improvements in.

Maybe the Black media is returning to the time when something that was happening in our community, it hit the Black press long before it hit the mainstream. The newsier turn in the Black media is due, at least in part, to the Black brain drain from mainstream publications because of massive industry buyouts and layoffs. And Black publications like Ebony and Essence have reaped the rewards, landing reporters and editors from such top newspapers as the Baltimore Sun, Newsday and the Boston Globe and such organizations as the former Knight Ridder chain.

BET, which will host an inaugural ball for the first time in the network’s history, ran 10 hours of Election Night coverage and reached 10.7 million viewers, topping CNBC’s coverage. Correspondents, who were spread out in cities across the country, had a responsibility to give the information but also say what it felt like and what it meant to our community. They were our storytellers and not just reporters.

BET has long been criticized for running too many booty-shaking music videos, but is in the process of expanding its news coverage beyond the current 25 hours a month. TV one offers more middle of the road programming, but is not offered in all areas of the country. Don’t expect “Meet the Press” or a nightly news-style broadcast from either yet.
But the Black media realizes that Black people are demanding change and accountability and they want to know what’s happening and they want people who they trust to break it down and help them understand it.

How Will Life be for the Obama Daughters in the White House?

They haven't even moved into the White House yet, but Malia and Sasha Obama are the world's most famous tweens. Their parents have often said they want a normal existence for them. But how normal can life be for the first daughters? They're only 10 and 7, and already designers are competing for the chance to dress them. They've been on the cover of People, Us Weekly, Ebony and Jet. And there's that standing invitation to the set of "Hannah Montana."

History suggests that the media will keep their distance. Chelsea Clinton was 13 when she entered the White House and she was largely left alone at the request of her parents. Amy Carter was 9 when she came and was allowed to live a fairly normal life. The Kennedy children were kept from the public eye by their mother. She even set up a school for Caroline at the White House. But technology has advanced to the point where photos and video can be taken by anyone with a cell phone, and uploaded to the Web within minutes. The public is fascinated with all the Obamas, including the girls. But these are kids and there is a tricky line on how public the Obama girls can and should be.

The Obamas are clearly aware there's a fascination with the girls and how they're going to lead their lives. They're going to try to chart a safe course. The girls weren't constant fixtures on the campaign trail, but they were not invisible, either. They occasionally appeared at rallies, spoke onstage to a video image of their father at the Democratic convention, and, along with their parents, gave an interview to "Access Hollywood," a move President-elect Obama later said he regretted. The girls captured many hearts with their poised and joyfulness on the few public appearances they have made, but and I’m positive that there will be far fewer pictures. A couple of exceptions, of course, will be the inauguration and probably a flurry of photos when their puppy arrives.

Once safely in the White House, the girls will be well protected and nurtured. The people surrounding these girls are going to work hard to let them go about their routines. I’m sure they will follow the Clinton pattern. Michelle Obama has talked to Hilary Clinton in great detail about Chelsea’s life during the White House years. Chelsea went to her ballet rehearsals, came home, did homework, and ate dinner with her parents. The White House ushers set up a scavenger hunt for Chelsea when she came, so she could get to know the place. We know the Obama girls like their dance classes, their soccer, and their sleepovers. All these will likely continue. And maybe we can expect President Obama, like candidate Obama, to attend parent-teacher conferences at the private Sidwell Friends School.

The Obama family will be starting with an advantage over the past few years of their lives. They will have dinner together every night. They have just come off the campaign road for the past two years. Now they will see each other seven days a week. Remember they are living in the office. Of course, they'll have to make new friends. At school we can assume that neither Malia nor Sasha will be the odd girl out. They won’t be the picked-on girl. They are going in as the queen bee. They won’t get left out of anything. Every kid in school parents want to be invited to the White House!

Of course, the tricky part comes with teenage years — something Malia, at least, will be experiencing at the end of Obama’s first term. With middle school comes all sorts of issues: rebellion, body issues, mean-girl stuff. But there's plenty of time to think about that. Right now, there are rooms to decorate and lots of people to meet. Michelle says she wants to be mom-in-chief. And Barack Obama says 'I love you' to his children right up there on the stage. You get a sense that there's a lot of love there. I truly believe the Obamas have laid a good foundation.

The Obamas will end their vacation on New Year ’s Day and move to Washington, DC this weekend. Most incoming president come to Washington a few days before the inauguration, but the girls new school, Sidwell Friends School, restarts after the holiday break Monday and President-elect and Michelle want their daughters there from the beginning.

Michelle Obama in Spotlight at Democratic Party Convention

As delegates poured into Denver, Colorado for four days leading up to the historic moment of Barack Obama's formal nomination August 28, his wife, Michelle Obama, will take center stage tonight at the Democratic National Convention for a prime-time speech introducing herself as a potential first lady. Her solo appearance tonight will be her first address to a broad audience of voters and it's a chance for her to help frame her husband's biography.

The speech will be a family affair. Marian Robinson, Michelle's mother, will narrate a video about the next potential first family, and Michelle will be introduced by her brother, Craig, head basketball coach at Oregon State University in Corvallis.

The speech will be peppered with stories about the couple and their two daughters, Malia, 10, and Sasha, 7, but it will mostly be a humanizing portrait of her husband. ``You will have a sense of who she is and what our values are and how we are raising our kids, and I think what you will conclude is `gee, he's sort of like us,''' Senator Obama told voters yesterday in Wisconsin. The address also is a reintroduction for Michelle Obama, 44, who had been the object of criticism for some of her remarks during the primary.

Critics seized on comments she made in February when she said her husband's candidacy made her feel proud of her country ``for the first time in my adult lifetime.'' She later said she had been trying to say how proud she was that so many people were engaging in the political process as a result of her husband's candidacy, and that she had always been proud of her country. Michelle Obama has softened her image by appearing on television programs such as ``The View.'' Going into this week's convention, she is on the covers of Essence and Ebony magazines.

But what if, deep down inside somewhere, Michelle Obama really is angry. What's wrong with a little anger? Black women have a lot of reasons to feel that way, and she, especially, for some of the things that have been said about her and her husband. Maybe this Princeton and Harvard-educated lawyer is angry about Fox News Channel calling her in an on-screen graphic, "Obama's baby mama." (And why are the Reverends Jackson and Sharpton not forming a boycott of the Fox News Channel and their sponsors.) She could be spitting mad about the rumor that there was a video of her railing against "whitey" from the pulpit of Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago. No video has surfaced; the campaign says that's because she never spoke there.

Her speech will serve two purposes; one is to reintroduce herself to the country and to the world because she has never had a larger audience. Secondly her task is to introduce her husband to the audience in a way in which she knows him and we don't. Tonight she breaks ground as she auditions for the role of the first Black first lady of the U.S.

``There haven't been [many] opportunities for Black women to be revered in a way of being referred to as first lady of a city, a state or as a nation,'' said Wellington Webb, Denver's first Black mayor. Such a step would be ``very significant given our history.''

Too often, the media depict Black women as gyrating hoochie mamas, someone's baby mama or dirty crack addicts. Michelle Obama strikes a pose not seen enough: an accomplished, confident, proud Black woman. That seems to scare some people. It is said that people are most afraid of what they are least familiar with. And most people don't really know Michelle Obama. Like most politicians, and their families, we know only what we read about her or see on TV.

Senator Barack Obama's advisers viewed her as his "secret weapon." In the primaries, she was dubbed "the Closer" for her ability to persuade undecided voters to come on board. Now she's the opener, the first-night star called upon to testify about her husband's vision and values, and perhaps settle some doubts about herself.

"People aren't used to strong women," Michelle Obama said when her image came up as she played guest co-host on "The View." America likes a certain type of first lady, the adoring, smiling, know-your-place-and-stay-in-it kind who stands beside her man. They want career political wives, not career women.

Don't get me wrong; I like soft. Who doesn't? It helps make women who they are, but it's just one side of who women are. And Michelle Obama has shown plenty of "soft" already; go watch the family's much-talked about interview with "Access Hollywood," or read her recent interview with Ebony magazine.

Michelle LaVaughn Robinson grew up on the South Side of Chicago in a family of modest means. Fraser Robinson was a local Democratic organizer who worked at a water plant. His wife Marian raised the kids in a one-bedroom apartment on the top floor of her aunt's house, where Michelle and Craig slept in the living room, converted into two tiny bedrooms and a study area.

She fought her way into Princeton, and later to Harvard Law School, and began dating Barack Obama while working at a Chicago corporate law firm. They've been married for 15 years.

She's proved an adept solo campaigner with blue-collar audiences and with women, able to make a connection with voters whose lives are an economic struggle.

"I wake up every morning, wondering how on the Earth I'm going to pull off that next minor miracle to get through the day," she told a Chicago crowd. She talks about work, workouts, parent-teacher conferences, hair appointments, the burdens of campaign travel, the plugged toilet that her husband left her to deal with one day.

"With the exception of the campaign trail and life in the public eye, I have to say that my life now is really not that much different from many of yours," she said.

By all accounts, she has a great husband — who has made history and could make more if he is elected on Nov. 4 — two charming daughters, a power career as a hospital administrator, a million-dollar home in Chicago's Hyde Park. She's also a role model for little girls everywhere, especially those of color, who have been beaten down by poverty, broken homes, failing schools, low self-esteem and every other obstacle life can put in their way.

Think of those girls (and boys too) and how it could help them to see someone like Michelle Obama, strong, self-assured, devoted to family, triumphant over some of those same issues in her own life and possibly headed to the White House, and think to themselves, "Yes, I can."