Carolyn Bailey Lewis is a woman who has been determined to always push herself and to set new standards throughout her career. She has been a pioneer in her field, but it hasn’t been easy. While forging her path, as a black woman, Carolyn has had to fight battles against racism, bigotry, and prejudice as well as sexism. Coming from the small town of Bluefield, West Virginia where she attended segregated schools and lived in a segregated neighborhood, Carolyn became the only black woman in her class of journalism students at West Virginia University. Being able to adapt to a “white world” and function as the only person of color took great strength, will, and dexterity. In 1971, Carolyn became the first black woman to graduate from the Perley I Reed School of Journalism, now the Reed College of Media at West Virginia University. She continued her trailblazing in 1993 when she became the first African American woman named to manage a full-service public television station in the continental United States at WNPB-TV in Morgantown. In 1997, she became the Director and General Manager of WOUB Public Media at Ohio University, where she stayed until her retirement. That same year she also became an ordained minister. During her 14 years at WOUB, Carolyn rose nationally in the ranks of public broadcasting. She was a member of the Board of Trustees of the Association of Public Television Stations (APTS), a member of the Board of Directors of the National Education Telecommunications Association (NETA) and Chair of the PBS Advertising and Promotion Advisory Committee. But she wasn’t finished. Against all odds and while confined to a wheelchair, she received her Doctor of Philosophy degree in Communications Studies – 36 years after her undergraduate degree from WVU. Most recently, she received the 2020 Medal of Merit for Professional Achievement from Ohio University. Currently, in her retirement Carolyn has authored a book, is the co-founder and chairman of the Dr. Carolyn Foster Bailey Lewis Family Foundation and is the co-founder and CEO of LifeDay Greeting Cards, Inc. Her LifeDay cards celebrate surviving a major life-altering event or monumental moment in life.

Spectrum

African American Woman Forged Her Path in Public Broadcasting

The Republican Party has morphed from one in chaos shortly after President Joseph Biden’s inauguration to one that is now firmly under the thumb of former President Donald J. Trump. Loose ends are being roped in by the former President and the GOP is now firmly in Trump’s hands, says Philip Elliott, Time Washington correspondent and author of TIME’s weekday newsletter “D.C. Brief.” Elliott believes that efforts by Trump devotees to limit voting access in many states, along with redistricting of Congressional districts after the 2020 census give the GOP the distinct advantage to gain seats in the House and the Senate in the 2022 midterm elections. Add to that mix, Trump is still promoting the falsehood that his Presidency was stolen from him through election chicanery. This whips up and perhaps expands his base, Elliott notes. This promise of regaining control of the legislative branch for the last two years of President Biden’s term is enough to keep, even anti-Trump Republicans in line through the midterms, Elliott adds. All these factors lead to the conclusion the Trump is still in control and will be leading the GOP, at least through 2022 and most likely right up to the 2024 Presidential race.

Trump’s Grip on the Republican Party Tightens Even While Out-of-Office

Katie Quinn, sometimes known as qkatie to her millions of follows, has written a new book that was over 3.5 years in the making: “Cheese, Wine and Bread: Discovering the Magic of Fermentation in England, Italy and France.” She studied the role of fermentation in the trio of staples of life: cheese, wine and bread as she worked in and studied all three industries in three different countries. The book is a combination of personal stories, personality profiles of people she encountered and recipes. Mix in some scientific facts about fermentation and you have a book that is delightful but difficult to characterize. It is part memoir and part travelogue, with huge doses of riveting storytelling and amazing photographs and illustrations. Quinn also told WOUB’s Spectrum podcast about her rise from small town girl in Athens, Ohio to being a page at NBC in New York City and how that experience allowed her to learn from some of America’s greatest food personalities. She talked about her rise in New York broadcasting but then her shift to attend the Le Cordon Bleu in Paris to become a chef. Quin also tells us the story behind her “QKatie” YouTube channel with over 50,000 subscribers and her current life in Italy. She also has a podcast called “Keep It Quirky,” her catchphrase for not being mundane or boring and she has a new podcast collaboration on the horizon

Katie Quinn, Author & Media Personality, talks about Food/Life

Dr. George Wood is an educator, a former school administrator, a writer, and a podcaster. He also is a resident of small town Amesville, Ohio. Just before the onslaught of the COVID-19 pandemic, he retired from a lifetime in education, and he found himself restless and looking for something meaningful to do. After conversations with his wife, he took off on a two-month 7,500 trip through the Midwest. He started his journey as a trout fishing trip but ended up spending much more time talking to people in the small towns that he visited. He had two rules…he would not eat in a national chain restaurant and he would avoid driving on Interstates as much as possible. Therefore, he spent his time on the backroads of the Midwest, eating in small town diners, and talking with fascinating people. At night, he would go back to his small travel trailer and write about the conversations that he had and about the pride people took in their hometowns. When he meandered back to Ohio, he started writing stories about these small forgotten towns and the interesting people who inhabit them. He joined with two colleagues and turned the stories into a new podcast called “Positively No Outlet.” He describes the podcast as: “Stories from Unplugged America - Our goal is to bring you stories from rural America — from the fly-over places that are far from the hot light of the national media. Stories of ordinary people doing ordinary and sometimes extraordinary things.” Dr. Wood has now embarked on more trips. This time to the South. He hopes to continue his small-town storytelling and even expanding his podcast’s breadth. Currently, you may find “Positively No Outlet” on one of your favorites podcast outlets.

“Positively No Outlet” – a Podcast that highlights small town Americans

As the trial of Derek Chauvin for George Floyd’s death comes to its conclusion this week, against a backdrop of additional police violence, many African Americans still feel the trauma of police violence. While the trial of police officer Chauvin has moved forward, at least, two other people of color have been gunned down by police. Duante Wright in Minnesota and a 13 year-old Latino Adam Toledo in Chicago. The other cases amp up even higher the desires in the Black Community for guilty verdicts in the Chauvin case, says Gayle Williams-Beyers, the first black judge of the South Euclid Ohio Municipal Court. On this episode of WOUB’s Spectrum podcast, Judge Byers and host and former judge Tom Hodson break down the Chauvin trial. They examine prosecution strategies and defense positions in terms that non-lawyers can understand. They discuss the importance of this trial and the anticipated verdicts on the future of policing and race relations. Judge Byers also expresses the frustrations she feels that while one trial is transpiring, other incidents of police violence keep happening. She also notes that the Chauvin trial has prompted a form of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) in many African Americans. She says it has been like reliving the horror of George Floyd’s and other deaths all over again. She says it has caused major anxiety in black families – especially those that have young black sons. Mothers fear for their sons’ safety and fear that old precautions no longer can prevent unwarranted police attacks.

The Trauma of George Floyd’s Death Still Reverberates

Conspiracy theories have grown and continue to multiply as newsrooms downsize and more people rely on social media to fill the void. This is the belief of Dr. Michael Bugeja, distinguished professor of liberal arts and sciences at the Greenlee School of Journalism and Communication at Iowa State University. “Journalism is not dead but on life support. Social media dominates civic, political and familial debate, offering snap judgments to affinity groups,” Bugeja adds in a recent commentary. Bugeja, an author, scholar, ethicist and journalist, lays much of the blame on the rise in conspiracy theories, at the feet of a news industry that has lost its way. As use of social media as a news source has risen, the reliance on mainstream balanced journalism has plummeted, according to Bugeja. In a recent commentary for “Poynter,” a journalism think-tank, Bugeja said: “…conspiracy theories have less to do with breakdowns in social machinery, weaponized politics or reason vs. intuition. Polarization materialized as millions of Americans googled answers from affinity groups, increasing screen time while mainstream media downsized newsrooms.” As newsrooms have cut back reporting staffs, the need to fill a 24-hour news cycle has increased. However, mainstream media cannot fill the void. So, instead, it is filled by bloggers, social media and affinity groups pushing wild theories. Newsrooms need to hire more reporters, editors and producers, according to Bugeja, and more clearly delineate their content as objective reporting versus analysis. He also says that we should require courses in “media and technology literacy” in our schools and he is a strong proponent of non-profit localized news models to supplement mainstream media. He concludes his Poynter commentary by saying: “We must replenish newsrooms, create more nonprofit outlets and require social media payouts, or conspiracies will continue, eroding what is left of democracy and the public’s ability to differentiate between fact and factoid.”Conspiracy theories have grown and continue to multiply as newsrooms downsize and more people rely on social media to fill the void. This is the belief of Dr. Michael Bugeja, distinguished professor of liberal arts and sciences at the Greenlee School of Journalism and Communication at Iowa State University. “Journalism is not dead but on life support. Social media dominates civic, political and familial debate, offering snap judgments to affinity groups,” Bugeja adds in a recent commentary. Bugeja, an author, scholar, ethicist and journalist, lays much of the blame on the rise in conspiracy theories, at the feet of a news industry that has lost its way. As use of social media as a news source has risen, the reliance on mainstream balanced journalism has plummeted, according to Bugeja.

Conspiracy Theories Thrive as Journalism is on Life-Support Says Media Expert

The Biden Administration has targeted climate change as a priority in its first 100 days. It is unraveling four years of President Donald Trump’s deregulation and laisse-faire attitude toward the environment. Rarely have we seen so much change so quickly, says Dr. Geoffrey Dabelko, professor and associate dean at the Voinovich School of Leadership and Public Policy at Ohio University and senior advisor on “climate issues” at the Wilson Center in Washington, D.C. President Joseph Biden has made sweeping changes across administrative fields, according to Dabelko. Biden is appointing key cabinet members who promote tackling climate change problems, and the appointment of former Sec. of State John Kerry as a White House coordinator of climate change policies is significant. Biden is seeking a more integrated approach to tackling climate change issues. He is even including the State Department and major financial institutions in his battle, Dabelko notes. Although there have been far-reaching changes in the country’s climate change policies in the first 100 days of Biden’s presidency, Dabelko sees potential battles on the horizon. Biden may confront skirmishes even within his own political party as “Progressive Democrats” push him to do more than “Moderate Democrats” find desirable. Biden also will face staunch opposition from House and Senate Republicans. This opposition may spark further debate about eliminating the “Filibuster Rule” in the Senate that requires 60% of the Senators to stop a filibuster and bring a matter to the floor for a vote. Some Democrats are advocating the elimination of the rule while others find it a safeguard against overwhelming partisan changes when the party is in the minority. On the international front, Dabelko sees American rejoining the Paris Climate Accords but questions whether the USA can re-establish its former leadership role.

Climate Change Policies Have Seen Great Change in Biden’s First 100 Days

Eunice Hunton Carter and her family were “unsung heroes” in social justice movements in the early 20th Century and now her life is brought into focus by a new biography, “Eunice Hunton Carter: A Lifelong Fight for Social Justice,” published by the Fordham University Press. Co-Author and noted biographer Marilyn Greenwald highlights the many accomplishments of Carter. She was the first black woman prosecutor in the Manhattan Prosecutors Office in the 1930’s. While trying her cases, Carter established the link between organized crime and prostitution, according to Greenwald. Carter used that information to be the only black woman and black attorney on the team of attorneys that convicted mobster Charles “Lucky” Luciano in 1936. Earlier in her career, Carter was a writer and was active in the Harlem Renaissance. She wrote short stories and art criticism, says Greenwald. Later in her career, she consulted with the United Nations and promoted causes for women on the global stage, Greenwald notes. Carter’s family also was quite active in social justice causes. Her grandfather was a slave who purchased his freedom, moved to Canada and became a wealthy businessman. Her father was a top official for the YMCA and devoted two decades of his life to integrate YMCAs in the South, says Greenwald. Carter’s mother was a major pivotal figure in the Black Women’s Club movement and she even traveled to France during World War I to assist black soldiers. The new biography of Eunice Hunton Carter will be out in April 2021, but it is available now through “pre-order” at Amazon and Barnes and Noble.

Black Female Lawyer Eunice Hunton Carter Blazed Trails for Social Justice

The Dave Thomas Foundation recently celebrated its 10,000th adoption of a child from foster care and the milestone was reached during the COVID-19 pandemic. The Foundation was created by Wendy’s founder Dave Thomas as an independent non-profit foundation separate from the restaurant chain, says Rita Soronen, CEO of the Foundation. The Foundation focuses on the adoption of children who have been in foster care the longest and those who might soon turn 18 without being adopted by a family. It works with its Wendy’s Wonderful Kids program which partners with private and public adoption agencies to fund specially trained adoption recruiters. These recruiters work specifically to find adoptive homes for teenagers, children with special needs, and siblings who have been in foster care the longest, according to Soronen. The Dave Thomas Foundation tries to find adoptive homes for children before they “age-out” of foster care – turn 18 or 21 years of age depending on the state. The Foundation understands that if a child ages-out of foster care they are more likely to be homeless, unemployed, and face a myriad of other issues. The Foundation also has been urging states to put moratoria on youth’s aging-out of the system during the COVID pandemic, says Soronen. To date, through Soronen’s efforts, the Foundation has convinced 9 states and the District of Columbia to enact such moratoria. The COVID-19 crisis has presented special problems for the Foundation’s work, but it has successfully pivoted to find ways of continuing its adoption efforts even through pandemic isolation. The Foundation was recently highlighted by the “New York Times” for its pandemic efforts.

Dave Thomas Foundation Celebrates Adoption Milestone During COVID-19

After President Joseph Biden’s inauguration and the attack on the Capitol on January 6, the Republican Party has undergone a struggle to chart the future of the party. Will it still be the party of Trump and his zealous base or will more traditionally mainstream Republicans take the party’s helm? Will Trump’s appeal fade? Daily news unfolds showing a chess game for control between groups led by GOP Senate stalwart Mitch McConnell and more radical members of his party in the House and the Senate aligned with former President Trump. Each move is met by a countermove as the story unfolds. All of this political drama is playing out against the backdrop of upcoming 2022 elections which have at least six GOP Senators at risk, says Philip Elliott, Washington correspondent for TIME and author of TIME’s weekday newsletter D.C. Brief. Also, according to Elliott, people are already lining up to be the GOP presidential candidates in 2024. This adds to the jockeying for position and appeals to certain elements of the Republican base. Threats of primary battles, a possible third party launched Trump, and further party disruptions paint a vary blurry landscape of the GOP’s future, Elliott says. He also notes that Democrats are not totally unified either and that President Joseph R. Biden’s early months are going to be clouded by Congressional disarray. You can read Elliott’s daily newsletter at https://time.com/tag/the-dc-brief/

GOP Struggling to Chart the “Right” Course Post Trump Presidency

As of Jan. 13, the Athens County Ohio Health Department has vaccinated only 438 of its approximately 65,000 population for a frustratingly low .67 percent. Meanwhile, the county remains one of the counties in Ohio that is in greatest danger of COVID-19 spread. Athens County is a rural Appalachian County in Southeast Ohio that also houses a major state university – Ohio University. Athens County is indicative of many rural counties across America. The Spectrum Podcast decided to look deeper into this issue Why is the number of vaccinations so low? The answer is lack of supply of vaccine, according to Dr. James R. Gaskell, Athens City-County Health Commissioner and Medical Director. Each Thursday or Friday, the local Health Department is notified by the Ohio Department of Health of the number of vaccine doses it will receive on the following Monday. The trickle-down of the vaccine from the manufacturers to the federal government, to the states and then to local rural areas is not flowing smoothly. For example, next week, Athens County hopes to get about 200 to 300 more doses of vaccines to start to inoculate people 80 years of age or older. About 600 local people in that age group have requested the shot, but less than half will be able to be inoculated next week. The delays continue and the disease spread grows. Meanwhile, residents of some assisted living facilities and other congregate settings for older Athens County residents (Groups 1-A) have still not received vaccinations to be supplied by CVS and other pharmacies. So, Group 1-A in priority has not been served and now Groups 1-B (ages 65 and over) will need to wait because supplies are not reaching the local areas. Dr. Gaskell emphasizes that every week’s supply of vaccine is put into arms that same week. The slowdown is not in the administration of vaccinations. It is in obtaining the vaccine. We have the facilities and the staff to get the job done if we can get the vaccines, Dr. Gaskell says. Athens County has about 8,000 residents 65 years old and older, according to Dr. Gaskell, and to date, about 1,300 have requested the vaccine. At this point, Dr. Gaskell cannot predict how long it will take to get vaccines in the arms of this group. Meanwhile, COVID-19 case numbers continue to rise, and masking and social distancing are mandatory to protect against spread, Dr. Gaskell says. He suggests that virus precautions will need to be taken until 80 percent of the population has been vaccinated. We are ready if we can get the vaccines, says Dr. Gaskell, even though his staff is already stretched thin with increased case numbers, increased contact tracing and vaccinations. Add to these problems, thousands of Ohio University students return next week to increase the area population and increase congregate living settings. Yet, Dr. Gaskell calls his staff indefatigable and ready to go when doses get to the county. But, for now…they wait.

Rural Health Depts. Face Difficulties Getting COVID-19 Vaccine

Too often African American women and girls are targets of violence and abuse in America. The abuse is caused by interactions with law enforcement as well as domestic abuse, says Dr. Aretina Hamilton, a human geographer, scholar, and author. She says Black women live in a patriarchal environment where they are, unfortunately, valued less than even Black men. As a result, Dr. Hamilton says that too often Black women and girls are considered “disposable” in society and are not valued in the caste system in which they live. Not only are Black women and girls subject to domestic violence in their homes, they are a subset of Black people being shot by police. Since 2015, 247 Black women were killed by police officers and 89 of them were killed at home or in their residences, according to a “Washington Post” October 21, 2020 article. The “Washington Post” has been tracking deaths of black women by police since 2015. The fact that the lives of Black women are often considered less valuable or less newsworthy than black men is a major concern of advocates. This slight is seen by many scholars and public policy makers as a major problem. Dr. Hamilton is joined in this conversation by Judge Gayle Williams Byers the first Black female judge in the S. Euclid Municipal Court in South Euclid, Ohio. Judge Byers adds her personal perspective of seeing Black female victims of domestic violence in her court.

Black Women and Girls are Too Often the Targets of Violence in America

In our everyday conversations, many of us use words or phrases that have racist meanings or derivations, even if we don’t intend our speech to be racist. Many of these words or phrases have worked their way into our common vernacular in a covert way and by their use promote inequality. Just a few examples are “master bedroom or master bathroom,” “blacklisting” someone, “uppity,” “black mark,” “sold down the river,” or “black sheep of the family” all have their derivations during slavery or reconstruction. The list of these types of terms is voluminous. The use of phrases of this nature perpetuate the master/slave dynamic and covertly and subtlety advance systemic racism through our normal speech, says Dr. Kalvin Harvell, professor of sociology at Henry Ford College in Dearborn, Michigan. Dr. Harvell has been the president of the Michigan Sociological Society and his is the founder of Harvell and Associates, an educational consulting firm. While the bulk of our racist speech is directed toward African Americans, we do have other phrases that target other ethnicities. For example, the term “gypped” is a verbal slam towards gypsies (or Romani people). “Paddy wagon” is a reference to Irish immigrants being lawless and arrested. These racist terms also can be coded and merge into our lexicon. For example, often the media, uses the term “urban” to mean inner-city, poor, and black. If we want to refer to a gentrified part of a city, we refer to it as “metropolitan.” These types of terms not only appear in our daily lexicon, but they also are often used by journalists, thereby perpetuating racial stereotypes and tropes, says Dr. Harvell. To be anti-racist, he says, one must examine one’s own speech patterns and purge words and phrases that are hurtful and promote inequality.

Racist Language and References Permeate Our Speech and Promote Inequality

We are in the last seven days of the 2020 Presidential election, but it is a campaign and a race like no other. Traditional campaigning has been turned on its head. With seven days to go, 66 million people have already voted, eclipsing the total early vote count from 2016. Some experts say that by election day 85 million out of a total of 240 million eligible voters will have already submitted their votes. We have had 48 percent of the total vote in 2016 already vote, thereby, altering the dynamics of last-minute campaigning, says Philip Elliott, Washington Correspondent for TIME and a columnist for TIME’s new daily political newsletter, “The D.C. Brief.” Rallies and campaign events now rile up a candidate’s base vote, but last-minute policy arguments or issues are lost since so many people have already voted, he notes. The rallies also may not alter turnout. Campaigning during a pandemic also has highlighted the different personal styles of the candidates. President Trump has been full speed ahead having massive rallies with few masks and no social distancing while former Vice-President Biden has been doing a great deal of virtual campaigning and trying to follow public health safety guidelines. The contrasts in styles place the divides in the country in stark contrast with one-another. Trump is trying a more scatter-shot approach compared to Biden’s more laser directed messaging. Trump’s surrogates, like Chief-of-Staff Mark Meadows and Senior Advisor Jared Kushner, also have seemed to be spouting public messaging contrary to the President’s talking points. On the other side, former President Obama and Vice President Candidate Senator Kamala Harris have been more in tune with Biden’s messaging. Elliott says that all of these nuances and variations from traditional campaigning make the race more difficult to track. He notes polling is much better in 2020 than in 2016 but there still may be silent Trump voters who will vote on election day but not participate in any polling. He also notes the Republicans have bested Democrats in getting more new registered voters who the GOP hope go to the polls for Trump. In any event, this last week of campaigning will be interesting. Listen to Elliott give us his inside the beltway perspective on this week’s Spectrum Podcast episode.

Early Voting May Change the Impact of Last Week Blitz Campaigning

In World War I, President Woodrow Wilson started an agency for governmental propaganda. It became the precursor and template of today’s governmental manipulation of information which often creates fictions and promotes those in power. Author, scholar, and journalist Dr. John Maxwell Hamilton delves into the birth of American government propaganda in his new book “Manipulating the Masses: Woodrow Wilson and the Birth of American Propaganda“ and traces its impact on the American Presidency from Woodrow Wilson to President Donald J. Trump. The first governmental propaganda agency was created just eight days after the USA entered World War I and only existed for 1.5 years, but it became the template for how the government can manipulate information to steer public opinion, says Dr. Hamilton The Committee on Public Information (CPI) was America’s first and only ministry of propaganda but it left a powerful legacy. Hamilton explains the pervasiveness of the Committee’s reach. It touched every part of America including advertising, artists, universities, travelling salesmen and even the Boy Scouts, according to Hamilton. He notes that the CPI did instill some valuable information practices such as creating the “Federal Register” to bring governmental information to the masses and to delve into international policies. However, he also says that the CPI was often racist, undemocratic and coercive. Today, Dr. Hamilton writes that governmental propaganda is “out of control. Too large to control. And, we have insufficient guardrails to curb it.” It has developed cynicism about government among our citizens and it’s a precursor of many of the techniques we see used by Presidents and other politicians today. Hamilton is the Hopkins P. Breazeale LSU Foundation Professor of Journalism in the Manship School of Mass Communication at Louisiana State University. He also is a global fellow at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars in Washington, D.C. Dr. Hamilton also serves as a senior associate for the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, D.C. The book is published by the LSU Press.

American Governmental Propaganda Starts in WWI but Still Thrives Today

Spectrum features conversations with an eclectic group of fascinating people, some are famous and some are not, but they all have captivating stories.

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