Sad Farewell to Bay Area Broadcast Legend Ray Taliaferro
December 20, 2018
Wright Enterprises founder Jackie Wright honors respected Bay Area Broadcaster. Original Post Written December 5, 2018.
Appeared in "Nation Bids Farewell To A Great Leader from "The Greatest Generation" posted 12/6/18
http://www.wrightnow.biz/apps/articles/web/articleid/83284/columnid//default.asp ~~~
Ray Taliaferro, WE Bid Thee Farewell
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| National Association of Black Journalist honored Taliaferro at Washington D.C.'s Newseum in January 2011. |
Condolences are extended to the Taliaferro Family as they search for answerssurrounding Ray Taliaferro's disappearance and death.
"You know what my affliction was as a kid? I stuttered. So, I never dreamed I could be a broadcaster." Ray Taliaferro
From Bayview Hunter's Point in San Francisco, Ray Taliaferro, an award winning broadcast Journalist was a true overcomer. Jim Harrington's 2011 Mercury News article points out that his arts beginnings began by knocking on the door of a church.
It's gives one pause to note that he was last seen alive at door of a church, West End Baptist Church in Paducah, Kentucky.
As media covers the tragic loss of Ray Taliaferro, let's not exercise revisionist history. Ray Taliaferro was forced off the airwaves. January 2011, The National Association of Black Journalist honored him at the Newseum in Washington, D.C. and by December 1, 2011, he was walked out the door with his personal belongings with no advance notice of what was coming.
In the article, "What Happened at KGO Radio December 1, 2011, Does it Matter?" W.E. asked why the San Francisco Chronicle chose this photo of Ray Taliaferro in its coverage of the 12/1/11 KGO Firings?
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In a story about the "veterans leaving," the accomplished broadcast legend and community leader is pictured between two clowns. Really?! This is the most professional photo that the San Francisco Chronicle could find?
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There's a lot to read between the lines about that fateful December day. It's been previously said that the situation was so stressful until radio legend Gene Burns, who had fragile health at the time, died within three weeks. After being fired from KGO, Burns was to start a new job at KKSF in January 2012.
It so sad to note that the San Francisco Chronicle used this same photo in its coverage of Ray Taliaferro's demise.
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Why would anyone use a photo with comic elements to speak of a person's death? This photo in the SF Chronicle goes beyond being tasteless. It makes the coverage seem totally insincere.
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The photo caption is incongruous with the laughing clowns background image: "The family of Ray Taliaferro, a longtime Bay Area journalist and radio host, announced his death Sunday, Dec. 2, 2018." This photo with its caption makes the article disingenuous in my assessment. Maybe it's just my southern upbringing that seeks honor and decorum when speaking of the lives and deaths of people.
From the word going out and the signal sent, "The media is the enemy of the people," to Khashoggi's execution, to the five newsroom murders at the Capital Gazette in Annapolis, MD, to the mail bombs sent to CNN, and the bomb threat at CNN this week alone, the state of affairs in media is of grave concern. The elimination of acting "in the public interest" has created a cannibalistic beast to aggrandize the balance sheets managed by greedy moguls resulting in diminishing returns for humanity.
Democracy does not exist without a healthy Fourth Estate. The media are only as good as the people in the newsroom, the management and the owners.
I'm reminded of a personal experience of being one of two persons of color in a television departmental management meeting in the 2000's, not the 1970's. Just a few seconds into my report about the community response to the Katrina disaster refugees, an award-winning news director interrupted my report and shouted loudly "Who Cares?" My shocked but calm response was "the people affected by the storm; the people that care about them; and the individuals and organizations helping them care." I proceeded to complete my overall report.
With little or no diversity, one can expect far more serious issues to occur than the subtle insult of a noble man utilizing a tasteless photo. There are the issues of how stories are covered and the issues of whether they are covered or not. On-going limited coverage or biased coverage or no coverage at all of a particular community, paints half-truths or results in lies upon which social and economic decisions are made that erode a healthy society. Without a true picture all are negatively impacted.
Where are the Dr. Carlton B. Goodletts who stormed the citadel of San Francisco media to open the doors for legendary journalists like Belva Davis and others? (He also fought and defeated San Francisco hospitals' discrimination policies that only allowed White physicians to practice. Progressive San Francisco?)
Where are the demands for community pages in newspapers and public affairs shows on radio and television and now the Internet to give some balance to the impact of negatively focused news?
Jackie Wright
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