#pcli

Significant changes may be on the horizon for the Society of Professional Journalists by the conclusion of the Excellence in Journalism Conference.

SPJ established a Governance Task Force to analyze the organizational structure of the society’s board of directors and to suggest improvements. The result of their findings is a proposed bylaw change that delegates will vote for or against at this Saturday’s business meeting.

Patti Newberry, who serves as the Governance Task Force chair, said the bylaw change focuses on restructuring the organization, downsizing positions and streamlining communication over a period of three-to-five years.

“The proposal calls for reducing the board from 23 to nine, and as part of that, the regional directors would be removed from the board,” she said.

This means regional directors, now called regional coordinators, would lose the ability to cast votes at the board of directors level.

“The philosophy is the world is a very small place with constant contact through electronic means and that the geographic representational model really is no longer very relevant,” Newberry said. “Where you come from really does not matter as much as it once did.”

Newberry said trimming the board size will be more efficient and productive for the organization.

“I would say the bigger issue here is not to kick off the regional directors. It’s nothing punitive at all,” she said. “The wider goal here is to have a smaller and more strategically focused board. With 23 members, it becomes very difficult to stay on track, to move forward in unison.”

The bylaw proposal also includes an additional two at-large seats that could be filled with regional coordinator positions.

In addition to this bylaw change, the Press Club of Long Island is pushing an amendment to the proposal citing lack of representation at the national level.

Bill Bleyer, treasurer and former president of the PCLI, said his chapter does support the bylaw proposal but they want to tweak the document.

“If they keep one of the regional coordinators on the board in one way or another, it ensures the chapters will have a voice and that the regional coordinators won’t be receiving or making recommendations that the board can ignore,” he said. “Only board members get to vote on national policy so I want to make sure one of the regional coordinators is on the board with a vote.”

The Governance Task Force that proposed the initial bylaw change does not support PCLI’s amendment.

“We feel like if the new board follows our recommendation to create these lines of communication, that will take care of itself, that there will be a voice for regions and importantly the chapter,” Newberry said.

Members will cast their votes at the SPJ business meeting, 2:30 p.m. Sept. 9 in the Platinum 5 Ballroom.

Television host Jerry Springer described his transition from news anchor to self-described “circus ringmaster” in a discussion with The Press Club of Long Island on Tuesday evening.

Speaking to PCLI members and students at Adelphi University’s Olmsted Theatre,  Springer was humorously dismissive of his 21-year-old “Jerry Springer Show,” which he said was designed solely to showcase “outrageous behavior” purely for entertainment and had no socially redeeming value.

He called the show known for its over-the-top and out-of-control guests  “stupid” but “unique.”  But he said he enjoyed hosting it immensely, looking forward to the two days of weekly tapings that allowed him to pursue politics and other interests the rest of the time.

“There is nothing like it,” said the former mayor of Cincinnati, Emmy Award-winning news anchor and commentator and a former progressive radio talk show host with the now defunct Air America. “It’s not obviously a talk show. It’s not theater. It’s not a sporting event. It’s totally unique. It’s a circus. [Guests] could come in looking like the minister’s daughter and by the time the show is over they’re hooting and hollering and screaming.”

“I know when I go to work they are going to hand me people who have done something out of the ordinary,” he explained. “This show I am hired to host, it’s about outrageousness.”

“The show is stupid, of course,” Springer continued. “I would never tell someone to watch it, but I would give the First Amendment as to why we shouldn’t have any censorship.”

He added that his show gives exposure and a voice to a segment of the society that otherwise doesn’t get on television. When he started the show, he said, “Everything was Friends, Seinfeld. That’s not the only people who are Americans.”

The conversation with PCLI President Dominick Miserandino focused largely on media and its role in society.  “It seemed doing the news was exploitive,” said the former political reporter and commentator on Cincinnati’s NBC affiliate, WLWT, where he was awarded 10 Emmys and worked until 1993. Later he became primary news anchor and managing editor.

Springer said his first news job, as well as every other subsequent media gig, was offered to him unsolicited after his mayoral term in Cincinnati ended. He said he always felt more comfortable doing commentary than reading the news. 

“With the news you never ask the person you’re reporting on whether it’s okay if I say this.  There were too many cases where I had such a bad taste.”

Springer, 68, said media is “totally free” in terms of what it’s allowed to do.

“I think there is a self-imposed censorship brought about by economic reasons that is not always in the best interest of the country,” he said. “There is a self-censorship in the media that sometimes restrains the idea of open ideas.”

“What’s beautiful about the media today is that there are so many opportunities to get information. We as consumers have to be smart. [Content] is being written by some person or entity with a point of view. Just because it was said, just because it was printed, doesn’t mean it was the truth.”