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"Committed
to the Cause:
A Salute to NABJ's Presidents"
Arthur Fennell
1995-1997
Essay by Herbert Lowe
He was a sharecropper's son
and black college graduate from South Carolina who had become a polished,
articulate and charismatic television anchor at WCAU-TV in Philadelphia.
 Yet
in the months before Arthur Fennell became NABJ's first "on-air" president,
only six years after attending his first convention, he was still unknown
to many longtime members.
Fennell had been a chapter leader in two cities and a two-term regional
director. But his was the first unopposed presidential campaign since
the early years, so there were questions. Would he be all style and no
substance? Which direction would he take the association? Could he handle
the pressure?
Two years later - after moneymaking conventions in Nashville and Chicago,
a new NABJ Media Institute, a renewed bond between the national board
of directors and membership, a headquarters relocation and consistent
national exposure - Fennell had erased all doubts.
His board was filled with several new members, including five of whom
he had to appoint because of vacancies. But Fennell used finely honed
interpersonal skills to transform a climate of mistrust and hostility
into enthusiasm and consensus.
"Arthur was a great president," said
Monroe Anderson, director of station services and community affairs
for WBBM-TV in Chicago and
the Region V director on Fennell's board.
"He had this very laid-back ability to get people to do things
for the organization without browbeating them or threatening them," added
Monroe, a former longtime print journalist and veteran observer of Windy
City politics. "You wanted to help Arthur out. It was the way he
phrased things, the way he explained why he needed your help on something."
Not only
was Fennell ready, Anderson said, he was "camera ready." That
would prove to be crucial as NABJ took to the national stage. Six months
into his term, Fennell held a press conference in New Orleans, with his
board of directors and several chapter presidents standing with him,
to say the city risked losing a future NABJ convention because of Louisiana's
new executive order limiting affirmative action.
Later that year, in Nashville, Fennell shared the stage at different
times with Vice President Al Gore; Bob Dole and Jack Kemp, the 1996 Republican
presidential ticket, and Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan. (A photo
of Fennell and Dole ran on the front page of the New York Times.) That
same week, Fennell was again on stage during the annual NABJ awards ceremony,
which for the only time was taped for later national broadcast on Black
Entertainment Television (BET).
The next year in Chicago, Fennell walked on stage with Bill Clinton
in one of NABJ's most profound national moments. Marking the only time
a U.S. president visited an NABJ convention, Clinton delivered a policy
address on education as members beamed and CNN carried it live.
But Fennell wasn't just a figurehead. He could be tough, willing to
stand up against the most intimidating foes to fight for NABJ members.
When the Fruit of Islam (security team) insisted on body-searching members
before letting them into the plenary session to hear Farrakhan, the president
went into the bowels of the convention center and found the minister.
Interrupting an interview of the minister by NABJ students, Fennell told
him the event would be cancelled if his bodyguards didn't desist.
In Chicago, the Secret Service demanded that Fennell scale back the
Newsmaker Luncheon in both time and tables so they could sweep the hotel
ballroom for Clinton and set up space for the press.
Fennell refused to compromise the convention for Clinton's visit. He
argued that key NABJ awards were to be given at the luncheon and that
the Rev. Jesse Jackson and Geronimo Pratt, who had recently been freed
after years of wrongful imprisonment in California, were to speak.
"He handled that masterfully," said JoAnne Lyons Wooten, NABJ's
executive director at the time, who participated in the negotiations. "A
lot of people would have backed down when the advance team for the president
of the United States had taken a position. This was not something they
were asking. They said the tables have to go and Arthur would not have
it. He was an advocate for members. He had their interest at heart."
There were blips on the national screen, for sure.
Farrakhan
berated black journalists for shying away from him back in their newsrooms,
and news reports afterward highlighted the minister
calling them "slaves" for white-owned media. And some veteran
NABJ members criticized the "soft questions" offered Clinton
by hand-picked NABJ members during a Q&A session following his address.
Many were particularly disappointed that Clinton was not asked about
a U.S. apology for slavery, which was a topic in the news at the time.
Some members also felt that Fennell shied away from challenging media
executives about increasing newsroom diversity.
A self-described sports nut and golf addict, Fennell responded to such
criticism as par for the course for TV anchors, and for NABJ presidents.
Still, he admits concentrating on increasing NABJ's profile and leaving
it stronger for his successors.
"My theory was, if this organization was lifted up to a position
of power, and people could see its members' intellect and the prestige,
then we could better meet some of the goals that we had been struggling
for years to obtain," he said unapologetically.
Make no
mistake, however, the Fennell administration did tackle meaty issues.
He assembled an editorial board of respected print journalists
to address such concerns as newsroom diversity, media coverage of Africa
and the CIA's role in supplying drugs to black neighborhoods. The board's
views were published as a syndicated column, "NABJ Speaks," under
his byline in many black newspapers and even some mainstream publications.
The editorial board also contributed to the NABJ Journal, which was revamped
from a newsletter into a magazine.
"Arthur did an excellent job in making sure we were out front on
a lot of issues that were of concern to us as black journalists and to
us as black people," said Paula Madison, a former NABJ executive
board member who is vice president and news director of WNBC-TV in New
York.
A prodigious fund raiser, Fennell also strived to expand NABJ internally.
Many point to the NABJ Media Institute as one of his hallmarks.
Inaugurated with a chapter-leadership seminar in January 1998, and supported
by foundation and industry funding, the institute affords black journalists
training and discussion on, among other things, civic journalism, business
writing, computer-assisted reporting and management. It also showed that
NABJ could better serve its members year-round.
NABJ moved its national office from Reston, Va., to the University of
Maryland at College Park, Md., during Fennell's term. He actually wanted
to move the headquarters to Baltimore, where NABJ could have had its
own building, but the board opted for the university to save money and
because its facilities ensured beginning the institute sooner.
Executive Director Wooten credited Fennell with supporting her efforts
to revamp the association's' financial record keeping. Many noted that
Fennell's administration was rare in that it did not have strife between
the president or executive committee and the executive director.
"Arthur allowed me to do my job," Wooten
said simply.
Fennell was more interested in looking long term. He appointed a multi-tiered
committee of veteran members to produce a five-year strategic plan. It
focused on finance, fund raising, marketing, programs, membership services,
the national office, local chapters, technology and governance.
"I was determined to use them," Fennell
said of the many longtime and new members who served on committees
and task forces.
"I
never had the illusion that as one man I needed to be a cure-all. I
wanted to be the catalyst. For me, ego was never a big part of it.
I never cared who got the credit. What I cared about was we got the job
done."
Fennell, now 40, left WCAU shortly after stepping down as NABJ president
to start his own media consulting company. He is now managing editor/anchor
of Comcast Network, a regional news show in Philadelphia. He has two
daughters, Austyn, 6, and Alexis, 5, and lives in Voorhees, N.J.
Herbert Lowe
is a staff writer at Newsday in Queens, N.Y. He was elected NABJ president
in August 2003, after serving as vice president-print in 1999 and
as NABJ secretary from 1995-1999.
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