The SPJ Diversity Committee is pleased with The Associated Press’ decision to change the use of the term “illegal immigrant.”

However, the Diversity Committee has been behind the issue of dropping the term “illegal” for the past few years, spearheaded by former committee member Leo Laurence. And it was in New Orleans at the Excellence in Journalism Conference 2011 when I witnessed former Diversity Fellow and Vice Chairwoman Rebecca Aguilar address the SPJ board about her mother, who came to the United States from Mexico, and the pain it caused when she saw the term “illegal alien” used in the newspaper.

Rebecca Aguilar addresses SPJ Board about using term “illegal alien”.
Photo by Sandra Gonzalez

After hearing Aguilar’s impassioned speech, the voting convention delegates passed this resolution on voice vote:

WHEREAS, the Society of Professional Journalists Code of Ethics urges all journalists to be “honest, fair and courageous in gathering, reporting and interpreting information” and;

WHEREAS, mainstream news reports are increasingly using the politically charged phrase “illegal immigrant” and the more offensive and bureaucratic “illegal alien” to describe undocumented immigrants, particularly Latinos and;

WHEREAS, a fundamental principle embedded in our U.S. Constitution is that everyone (including non-citizens) is considered innocent of any crime until proven guilty in a court of law and;

WHEREAS, this constitutional doctrine, often described as “innocent-until-proven-guilty,” applies not just to U.S. Citizens but to everyone in the United States and;

WHEREAS, only the court system, not reporters and editors, can decide when a person has committed an “illegal” act and;

WHEREAS, the National Association of Hispanic Journalists is also concerned with the increasing use of pejorative and potentially inaccurate terms to describe the estimated 11 million undocumented people living in the United States;

THEREFORE, be it resolved that the Society of Professional Journalists convention of delegates: urges journalists and style guide editors to stop the use of illegal alien and encourage continuous discussion and re-evaluation of the use of illegal immigrant in news stories.

Prior to this, it had been rejected by the Resolutions Committee.

The AP is now changing how it will describe people as journalists report stories involving the current immigration issue. According to Senior Vice President and Executive Editor Kathleen Carroll, here is what is behind the decision:

The Stylebook no longer sanctions the term “illegal immigrant” or the use of “illegal” to describe a person. Instead, it tells users that “illegal” should describe only an action, such as living in or immigrating to a country illegally.

“Journalists and others can argue that the new style recommendation is less precise than ‘illegal alien’ or ‘illegal immigrant,’ but it’s important to note that a significant portion of country’s population regards those terms as offensive.  It wasn’t that long ago that keepers of journalism style, including The AP, fought dropping ‘Negro’ as a term for black or African-American people,” says SPJ President Sonny Albarado.

The National Association of Hispanic Journalists also says these terms can be dehumanizing  and demeaning.

“AP is right to note that the English language evolves and that our everyday usage contributes to that evolution. I hope journalists and others continue this conversation about immigration and people who come here legally or illegally until we arrive at terminology most of us can agree on,” Albarado says.

We on the SPJ Diversity Committee agree and hope journalists will eliminate these types of terms from their copy as immigration is a huge issue we will be reporting on this year.

Sandra Gonzalez
SPJ Diversity Committee Chairman
KSNV Reporter
Las Vegas

When I began studying journalism at the graduate level in the late ‘90s, I realized I had been blind.

As journalists, we don’t think much about the sources we use in stories every day; we just try to cover the news and meet our deadlines. But actually studying the content of newspapers, online news and broadcast news can be eye-opening.

Overall, repeated studies show, women make up 33 percent of news sources in the United States, even though they make up 51 percent of the population. In front-page news, women constitute only one-fourth of the sources.

A well-circulated graphic during the 2012 election season showed that women were not even the majority of sources in coverage of so-called “women’s issues” such as abortion, birth control and women’s rights.

The only type of news in which women sources are equitable to men is in features and lifestyles sections.

Why is this a problem? When women are marginalized, it makes it more difficult for them to gain power in society.  The lack of women sources also affects women journalists and their ability to be taken seriously in covering hard news.

Women continue to make up only about 37 percent of newspaper and online newsroom staffs, according to the American Society of News Editors, and about 40 percent of television newsroom workers, according to the Radio Television Digital News Association.

With cutbacks in newsrooms, change has been slow. These percentages have remained steady since the 1990s.

Awareness is the first step. After that, both male and female journalists can make an effort to include women sources in their stories.

How to find them? Here are some links that will help:

SheSource.org: Affiliated with the Women’s Media Center, it offers female experts on a wide range of topics. They are available to comment or to be booked on broadcast shows.

The Op-Ed project: An educational and practical project designed to increase women’s voices in opinion pieces and other commentary.

Women in Media and News: Works with journalists to increase women’s presence in the news media.

 The Gender Report: Monitors coverage of gender in Internet news.

More efforts and organizations are out there. Please add them—and yourself—to the conversation.
Tracy Everbach, Ph.D., is associate professor of journalism at the University of North Texas. She also is a former newspaper reporter for The Dallas Morning News and Boston Herald.

I met Sonny Albarado when he was President-elect during the Excellence in Journalism Conference in New Orleans. That’s where I learned about the SPJ Diversity Leadership Fellows program.  This year I was one of the Diversity Fellows and I sat down with Sonny on the day he was installed as President of SPJ to find out what’s important to him in his new role.

Sandra: What is your biggest goal for SPJ as President?

Sonny: My biggest goal is to help SPJ reshape its image, because as an insider I see SPJ as a very diverse and active organization that’s on the forefront of helping journalists adapt to and manage the technological changes and the business changes that have come about in their profession, recognizing that SPJ stands for some very core values of the journalism profession.

We still have to make sure that people understand that we aren’t just a bunch of old print or old broadcast people who are stuck in some fantasy land of some long ago once it was wonderful golden age. SPJ is a vibrant organization. It is on the cutting edge of several things. We need to make sure that our members understand that, potential members understand that; the general public understands that.

Sandra: And part of the Diversity Fellowship comes with that, so your thoughts on that?

Sonny: To me it’s a crucial part of how SPJ keeps current and keeps becoming more representative of people in the profession. Because we bring in people from minority groups, marginalized groups and we say, “Okay here is what SPJ does.” We introduce them to SPJ’s culture.  We introduce them to SPJ leaders and SPJ activists, and they say, “Oh, maybe I can do that.” And that’s the whole idea.They can become active in their local chapters; they become active on a national level either on committees or other activities, and the hope is that they become members of the national board and ultimately maybe even president.

Sandra: What do you say to the those journalists who say, “Oh, it’s just a bunch of White guys!”?

Sonny: That’s one of my key goals. And it isn’t just a bunch of white guys. We have women. We have Latinos. We have Blacks. We have Asians. We have handicapped people. The organization is a lot more diverse than the image that we have and that’s my key message.

Sandra: We have presidential candidates that are courting the Latino vote from the West coast to the East coast all week long, immigration has been a hot topic, and Sonny you’re not the first, but it’s a good time for a Hispanic president to rise for SPJ.

Sonny: Yes, I think it is. I’ve told fellow SPJers from a Hispanic background I’ve never actually self identified as Hispanic although I know my heritage is Hispanic because it’s one of those situations where I grew up in Anglo culture, well I can’t even say that because I grew up in a Cajun culture. But ever since the census started putting the check mark where you can identify yourself as Hispanic, I made sure that I marked it because that is part of my heritage. Recognizing that, celebrating that, is something that ought be done.

In terms of someone with a Hispanic background becoming president of SPJ, I think it is fortuitous that we’re at a point in the country as a whole where Hispanic culture has become intermixed with our Anglo culture and despite the fears of anti-immigration folks and the folks who say, “Oh no, the White people are losing their identity,” no we are becoming a richer people for it.

Sandra: Last year you were really excited to announce your Hispanic heritage at the business meeting. What sparked that?

Sonny: Well I met Rebecca Aguilar, and she’s such a dynamo and we talked at length about my heritage, and she said, “Albarado, that has to be Spanish,” and so I told her a little bit about my family history. And then she told me the story of her family and it got me thinking there were some similarities there. I don’t speak French. My parents speak French, Cajun French. I don’t speak French because my parents grew up in a time when you were punished in school for speaking French, so they didn’t want their children speaking French, because of the stigma. They didn’t even want us to have an accent. I don’t have that accent. Talking to Rebecca about all these things, I realized I am Hispanic and I need to own that and that why I spoke so fervently at the meeting, and was a revelation: “I am Hispanic, and I need to own that even if I don’t identify as a Latino as someone who has been part of that culture all their lives.

Sandra: What country does this originate from?

Sonny: The Canary Islands; in 1783 Bernardo de Galvez who settled in Louisiana for the Spanish crown brought colonists over and they brought families. The men were hired as soldiers, but they were also brought here to claim land, farm it and raise families. You still have Gonzales’ and Rodriguez’, except the name got shortened to Rodrigue; and Albarados and Alvarez’. In St. Bernard Parish there’s actually a very strong “Islenos” culture.

Sandra Gonzalez is an award winning reporter.  She is currently a reporter at  KSNV-TV in Las Vegas, NV.  She’s a 2012 SPJ Diversity Fellow and a member of the SPJ Diversity Committee. 

From left: Malik Singleton, Nigel Duara, Britney Tabor, Sandra Gonzalez, Sherri Williams, Tony Hernandez.

The idea to establish a program for fellows to learn about the inner workings of SPJ through an immersion into teaching of the Society’s missions, culture and operations came to fruition seven years ago in a Las Vegas hotel that no longer exists. The Diversity Leadership Fellows Program would be an educational process starting at the beginning of the  SPJ national convention.  Selected fellows, who would be involved in many aspects of the conference, would receive complimentary registration and paid travel for the event.

Today, unlike the Vegas hotel where the first group of fellows met, the DLFP still exists.

Why?

SPJ has made it clear that diversity is part of its core mission and values, which is why SPJ’s Sigma Delta Chi Foundation continues to fund the successful program. To that extent, the diversity committee has spent the past several weeks working with Lauren Rochester, SPJ’s awards coordinator, and Chris Vachon, SPJ’s associate executive director,  in selecting participants for the 2012 Diversity Leadership Fellows Program.

We are excited about the six newest fellows, and the awesome list of mentors who have volunteered to work with the fellows.  This year’s fellows include: 

• Nigel Duara, The Associated Press, Oregon/S.W. Washington Chapter, SPJ
• Malik Singleton, CUNY Graduate School of Journalism, Deadline Club Chapter, SPJ
• Sandra Gonzalez, Freelance Digital Journalist, New Orleans Chapter, SPJ
• Sherri Williams, Adjunct Faculty, Syracuse University, Freelance Writer, Former Board Member of the Central Ohio Chapter, SPJ
•  Tony Hernandez, Northwest Arkansas Times, Northwest Arkansas Pro Chapter, SPJ
• Britney Tabor, Denton Record-Chronicle, Fort Worth Chapter, SPJ

Bonnie Newman Davis

SPJ Diversity Committee Chair – 2011-2012

Former KQDS-TV news director Jason Vincent may not have realized he was channeling Lt. Richard Pratt at the time, but Vincent was when he posted a rant on his Facebook page calling a Native American man an animal. In 1898, Pratt wrote in the Carlisle Indian Helper (school newspaper for the Carlisle Indian Industrial School), “when we agree with the oft-repeated sentiment that the only good Indian is a dead one, we mean this characteristic of the Indian. Carlisle’s mission is to kill THIS Indian, as we build up the better man.”

So it seems that Vincent was in agreement when he wrote on his Facebook page, “Add drunk, homeless, Native American man to the list of animals that have wandered into my yard… Then he proceed to wave at me and give me the peace sign when he spotted me in the window. Wow…”What makes Vincent’s comment even more egregious is that he claims to be part Native himself.

Just when so many of my students claim there are no more race problems in America, we see issues such as this on the rise again. This isn’t the first attack against Native American images in the past few years; it is only one of the latest. The idea of the Native as an animal was resurrected a few years ago with the popular Twilight series – the idea that Native men can transform themselves into hairy, snarling animals, giving the illusion that Natives are less than human. The idea seems to be catching on.

The Native American Journalists Association issued a statement decrying the Vincent incident and two other recent words/works by journalists that defames Native Americans. NAJA called on journalists to be more careful in both their reporting and the casual comments that may go before readers/viewers/listeners.

“The character of the (Vincent) comments falls far short of the standards that NAJA expects of journalists, both in the mainstream and tribal media,” the NAJA statement reads. “Our organization supports the Duluth’s station general manager’s decision to accept Vincent’s resignation from his position this week.”

In the same statement, NAJA officials cited Matt Lauer who jokingly calling Meredith Viera an “Indian giver” on the Today Show. NAJA officials said the term “invokes a stereotype and inaccuracy about our history that is offensive to Native people. It should not be used on a national news program, even in a passing reference. NAJA asks that NBC and Lauer apologize for the comment.”

So far, there has been no response from either Lauer or NBC.

NAJA also cautioned reporters to be careful when delving into the controversial human rights case out of Rapid City, S.D. involving a Cheyenne River Sioux elder, Vern Traversie. The elder has post-surgical scars on his body which the AP used to liken the elder’s supporters as stanch believers of “spotting the Madonna in a water stain.” Los Angeles Times columnist John M. Glionna used a similar image, this time saying the image was in a taco shell or tree trunk. “When reporting on Native American issues like this, journalists and media outlets should be mindful of the context of what is being reported,” the NAJA statement reads. “Comparing Traversie’s scars to a vision of the Virgin Mary have the potential to dehumanize the situation.”

[Correction: The above paragraph originally referenced "Rapid City, N.D." The city is in South Dakota.]

Native Americans are people, not animals or objects. Journalists need to remember this and act accordingly. As it states in our SPJ Code of Ethics:

• Tell the story of the diversity and magnitude of the human experience boldly, even when it is unpopular to do so.
• Examine their own cultural values and avoid imposing those values on others.
• Avoid stereotyping by race, gender, age, religion, ethnicity, geography, sexual orientation, disability, physical appearance or social status.
• Give voice to the voiceless; official and unofficial sources of information can be equally valid.

Any journalist who has a question about how to accurately cover Native Americans should call NAJA at (405) 325-9008.

Vincent who was the news director of Fox 21 in the Duluth, Minnesota, resigned on August 17. The station issued an apology and Vincent also apologized on
Facebook.

Rebecca Tallent is a member of the SPJ Diversity Committee.  She’s an associate professor of journalism at the University of Idaho and an award-winning business and environmental reporter in her previous life.  Her current academic research involves Native American news media.  She is of Cherokee heritage. 

Photo Courtesy: Jackson DeMos, USC Annenberg School

The train has left the station – and the good ol’ boy network is recreating itself. That was the call to action voiced by a disgruntled audience member at Digital & Diversity, a town hall at UNITY ‘12 on what diversity means in the digital age. Despite new tools, technologies, and business models, newsrooms are nearly as monochrome and male-dominated as a quarter century ago, participants said.

White male entrepreneurs seem to enjoy implicit favor in venture funding and grants, they observed. Worse yet, the high-speed, high-volume news environment is prone to offensive slips like ESPN’s infamous headline, “Chink in the Armor” — a reference to NBA star Jeremy Lin and an uneven stretch of games for his New York Knicks. Merely through inattention to inclusion, old hierarchies and habits have come right back.

The troubled digital space, though, still holds great opportunity for creating more honest, inclusive coverage, some speakers pointed out. Groups who feel shut out from the news can tell their own stories. Identity-specific news outlets and blogs such as Latina Lista, Native News Network and Pam’s House Blend can quickly hold other journalists accountable, improving the quality of the context we all offer. Partnerships across race, gender and sexual orientation bring stronger, more interesting ideas into everyone’s content.

There’s still time to reshape the news, some speakers proposed, by weaving inclusion right into the structure of news gathering and delivery. Audience members identified six key areas for attention:

• Build inclusive coverage into journalism programs from introductory courses on up.
• Ensure that journalism education and internships are available across the demographic spectrum, through grants and fair application processes.
• Press funders and venture capitalists to reinvent applications and decision-making processes so that entrepreneurs from all backgrounds get an equal chance.
• Encourage other types of support for journalists of color, LGBT entrepreneurs and women to own their own news outlets.
• Obtain a commitment by existing news outlets – whether online only or legacy – to an inclusive management and staff, and track their progress.
• Insist on ethical coverage that pays attention to inclusivity and fairness, and ask hard questions about representation and accuracy.

Focus on a broken system, the audience insisted, not piecemeal problem-solving. About 100 attendees raised concerns and proposed solutions at the session, which was opened by Bill Celis, associate director and associate professor at the USC Annenberg School of Journalism. I helped guide the conversation with Dori Maynard, president of the Robert C. Maynard Institute for Journalism Education in Oakland, Calif., and Evelyn Hsu, the Maynard Institute’s senior director of programs and operations.

Resources:
UNITY/McCormick Foundation Electronic Clearinghouse for News Diversity
ASNE Newsroom Census (See online category)
Markkula Center for Applied Ethics Digital Journalism Ethics Resources
The Maynard Institute for Journalism Education
Santa Clara University Journalism Program
USC Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism
Society of Professional Journalists Ethics Code

Sally Lehrman is a member of the SPJ Diversity Committee. She holds Santa Clara University’s Knight Ridder — San Jose Mercury News Endowed Chair in Journalism and the Public Interest. Sally is also an author and independent journalist who specializes in covering identity, race relations and gender within the context of medicine and science.

Unity 2012

What a historic UNITY Convention it was in Las Vegas! This was my fourth UNITY, but definitely my most memorable. First of all, I have to say I missed my friends from the National Association of Black Journalists. There was electricity in the air at this UNITY 2012, but NABJ’s absence was felt since they parted ways last year.

Opening night was emotional. On stage, UNITY President Joanna Hernandez said to NABJ that UNITY would “welcome you back with open arms.” While NABJ was for the most part invisible, the National Gay and Lesbian Journalists Association was warmly welcomed into the fold. The UNITY family however dropped the extended part of the name “Journalists of Color”.

To kick off UNITY, a plenary of journalists representing each journalism association talked about the challenges of diversity in the media from the past, present, and future of our changing industry. One guest, sports columnist LZ Granderson, both a member of NABJ and NLGJA ended up getting into a heated debate  after the event with NABJ’s President and Vice President. Granderson had told the crowd about being both gay and black that “diversity is more than skin.”

LZ Granderson and NABJ leaders

The public disagreement was just one example of the passion and the pain still stirring after the changes of UNITY following the split of NABJ and addition of NGLJA.

While UNITY has morphed in the past year, social media has changed the flavor of UNITY this time around, “tweeting” in particular. Controversy was the talk of the convention when a student UNITY reporter was told she could not “tweet” at a National Association of Hispanic Journalists board meeting. The incident made big news at the convention, putting NAHJ in the spotlight and a “tweeting” policy that was spoken but not written.

NAHJ had already been experiencing high emotion during a heated election that at times was explosive on social media especially in the presidential race. Elections results were released Friday night at the NAHJ Gala, naming Hugo Balta as the new NAHJ President. Also, SPJ Diversity Committee Vice Chairman Rebecca Aguilar was elected NAHJ Vice President of Online.

New NAHJ President, Hugo Balta

At Balta’s very first board meeting, a motion made by Aguilar to repeal the the “No Tweet” policy was passed in a 6-5 vote.

UNITY has changed as the media industry has changed trying to keep up with the public’s hunger to communicate on the web. One thing hasn’t changed though: the need to keep the pressure on for diversity in those newsrooms. I was glad to see companies were hiring, and I hope the healing process continues within UNITY, and that soon NABJ will return.

I’m glad I was watching Natalie Morales  fill in for Brian Williams last night on NBC Nightly News.  Otherwise, I would have missed news of the launch of NBC Latino.com, a English-language news information and lifestyle Website featuring Hispanic’s perspectives.

“I’ll be a regular contributor along with many of my colleagues,” Morales said as she announced the debut of the site, which is touted as “The New Voice of American Hispanics.”

The announcement appeared in last night’s Nightly News broadcast right after a report on the election of Pena Nieto as Mexico’s new president.

It speaks to the marketing synergy of NBC Universal to cross-promote its media platforms.   The perennial top-rated network evening newscast showcased the nation’s newest spot on the World Wide Web for news about Hispanics, which will be powered by content from Telemundo, which it also also owned along with MSBNC, CNBC and The Weather Channel.

NBC News’ Hispanic Brigade?

NBC Correspondents Gabe Gutierrez, Miguel Almaguer, and Tom Llamas along with Today Show news reader Natalie Morales were all mentioned by name in the news release Monday on the launch of NBC Latino. (Photos: Courtesy NBC News)

Beyond the announcement of the NBC Latino launch, what was even more interesting was how the network also used the opportunity to showcase its stable of Hispanic reporters and the Hispanic editor who will be leading the site.

Chris Pena

““The goal of NBC Latino is to take Hispanic news beyond the usual conversation, toward something more inspired, empowered and energized; to tell and reflect the Hispanic-American story with authentic voices, and make NBC the brand of choice for Hispanics across mobile, online and TV,” said Chris Pena, the executive editor,who is leading a staff of bilingual writers and producers.
As a newsroom manager, Pena has come up through the NBC ranks starting out running Telemundo’s news operation in Houston before moving to the company’s Miami’s station, WTVJ and then Chicago’s WMAQ before moving to the network’s New York headquarters last summer.

Some might suggest NBC Universal grew its own in Pena’s success leading to his role at the helm of NBC Latino.

Mainstreaming Miguel

Even as NBC Latino launches, the network has proven that it can place Hispanic reporters on the frontlines covering the day’s top stories, especially when they bring a resume of journalism awards to the table.

While they may contribute to a target website like NBC Latino, these same reporters are already front-and-center on other NBC platforms too.  All too often targeted web sites will be used to grow “second-string”  talent.  That is not the case here.

Miguel Almaguer reported from Colorado Springs on Monday's broadcast.

A great example of that was shown last night as Miguel Almaguer, the award-winning  Burbank-based correspondent, presented updates from Colorado Springs where wildfires have claimed dozens of homes.

Almaguer brought lots of experience doing that kind of coverage as he has won awards for similar stories produced during wildfires in San Diego.

Another media company, Gannett, pioneered the diversity principle of mainstreaming  or ensuring news sources of color are used all types of stories.  The same is true for reporters who are assigned to cover all stories, not just those with a focus on race or diversity.

Almaguer has been the lead talent on coverage of the wildfires and did a similar job in reporting on the death of Rodney King last month.

Building on The GRIO’s Success

Along with mainstreaming, NBC Universal has long ago realized the importance of targeting content.     Most recently, the launch in June 2008 of TheGRIO.com as “the first video-centric news community site devoted to providing African-Americans with stories and perspectives that appeal to them but are underrepresented in existing national news outlets.”

Beyond the online community, TheGRIO.com offered its GRIO 100 during Black History Month, vignettes on up-and-coming African American leaders in all walks of life.   For at least the past three years, we’ve seen that list of African Americans the site says  “still have work to do.”

Will we see a “Latino 100″ or similar set of reports to air during Hispanic/Latino Heritage Month this September?

As the cliche goes, “only time will tell.”

For now NBC’s multi-pronged effort at targeting and mainstreaming stories and storytellers from diverse racial backgrounds reflects a sophisticated strategy its broadcast , cable and online competitors would do well to imitate.

George L. Daniels is an associate professor of journalism and former chair of the SPJ Diversity Committee.  He currently serves as a member of the SPJ National Board of Directors.

While five words from Anderson Cooper– “The fact is, I’m gay” — have made the headlines the last 24 hours, it’s actually the report , which sparked the e-mail exchange between the CNN Anchor and  Blogger Andrew Sullivan, that warrants a closer look.

I’m glad I picked up a copy of Entertainment Weekly last week when I saw the pictures of eight celebrities and the headline “The New Art of Coming Out.”

The Article That Started It All

The lead writer, Mark Harris, did an excellent job of explaining what goes into a celebrity’s decision to “go public” about his/her sexual orientation.

Harris and three other reporters, Melissa Maerz, Muzhat Naaren and Adam Vary, provided example after example of the struggle that some film and television stars have had with the decision, even to the point of not wanting to provide a comment for this latest story.

Until this week, I, personally, was not familiar with the term “glass closet”– a term for when one’s homosexuality was common knowledge in the entertainment industry, in the press and among gay people, but an individual never says anything specific about it.

The article places this entire discussion into some historical context, while also drawing out a key point– pop culture’s ability to shift the national mood. The timeline that appears in the print edition is awesome.

My intent in purchasing the magazine was to have students in my Race, Gender and Media class read it as part of our unit on “Sexual orientation and media.”       But, given the insights it provides, the story and the timeline that accompanies it could be a teaching tool for any journalist wanting to know how to cover gay, lesbian, bi-sexual and transgender sources.

It goes beyond just asking “is the source’s sexual orientation relevant for the story?”

Courtesy:CNN

Anderson Cooper’s e-mail

Reaction to last week’s  Entertainment Weekly cover story and its mention of a New York Times television critic’s decision to challenge Cooper on not talking about his love life in launching his syndicated talk show was the reason Sullivan e-mailed the CNN anchor in the first place.

It’s interesting to note the New York Times critic wasn’t the only writer to reference Cooper’s lack of disclosure.  Entertainment Weekly writer Tim Stack also made reference to the same lack of disclosure (apparently now known as “the glass closet”).

“There’s no clarity, however, on whether Cooper will address the one topic many people want him to talk about: his personal life,” Stack wrote in the article published last August.

As a result of this latest special report, Cooper has addressed it directly, but also made a statement in his e-mail to Andrew Sullivan that has been under-reported

“I’ve always believed that who a reporter votes for, what religion they are, who they love, should not be something they have to discuss publicly,” Cooper wrote. “As long as a journalist shows fairness and honesty in his or her work, their private life shouldn’t matter.”

I happen to agree with that point.  But, there’s more to the e-mail that is equally important

“In a perfect world, I don’t think it’s anyone else’s business, but I do think there is value in standing up and being counted,” Cooper also wrote in the same e-mail.   “I’m not an activist, but I am a human being and I don’t give that up by being a journalist.”

In many ways, like President Obama’s position on same-sex marriage was evolving,  Anderson Cooper’s position on journalists’ and public figures’ disclosure of their sexual orientation was ALSO evolving.

Thanks to Entertainment Weekly’s reporting  and Andrew Sullivan’s blog post,  we see the impact of this evolution and have learned some lessons on how to reflect this aspect diverse world in which we live.

George L. Daniels is an associate professor of journalism at The University of Alabama and past chairman of the SPJ Diversity Committee.  He’s currently a member of the SPJ National Board of Directors.

I’m wondering how Anderson Cooper of CNN is feeling today. Now that he has told The Daily Beast that he is gay.  Is it a pressure off his back?  I was a television reporter 27 years, and I’ve always believed in being an open book.

Why? Because I expect it from people I interview. I’m a public figure who has chosen to be on television. I don’t want people to think I have something to hide; if I put out that message, they could hide stuff from me.

I always thought Cooper didn’t admit he was gay, because he was afraid his bosses wouldn’t like it and his viewers wouldn’t be too keen about it either.  And when I kept hearing that he wanted to “keep part of his life private” I thought there is no such thing when you’re on television, especially in TV news.

Thank you Anderson Cooper for just putting it out there in The Daily Beast “The Fact Is, I’m Gay.” He says he came out because he didn’t want people to think he was ashamed or hiding something.  I hate to admit it, but that’s what I thought, that he was hiding something.

Anderson Cooper today is showing the public, especially those afraid to come out; that it’s OK to say proudly “I’m gay.”  He’s also showing others in the news business, that yes, journalists can be gay and fair at the same time.

Is he any different today than he was yesterday? No. Can he still cover gay issues fairly? Of course!  In the end, he’s a journalist; a man trusted for  his honesty and hard work.

Rebecca Aguilar is an Emmy award winning freelance reporter based in Dallas, TX.  She’s also the vice chair of SPJ Diversity Committee, a board member with National Association of Hispanic Journalists and SPJ-Fort Worth Chapter.