Entine, Jon

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Entine, Jon

PERSONAL:

Male. Education: Trinity College, Hartford, CT, B.A., 1974; attended University of Michigan.

ADDRESSES:

Office—Department of English, Miami University, 203 Williams, Oxford Campus, Oxford, OH 45056. Agent—Glenn Hartley, Writer's Representatives, Inc., 116 W. 14th St., 11th Fl., New York, NY 10011-7305; fax: 212-620-0023. E-mail—[email protected].

CAREER:

Writer, journalist, producer, lecturer, and educator. American Broadcasting Companies, Inc. (ABC), New York, NY, and Chicago, IL,ABC News, assignment editor and producer, 20/20 Primetime Live, writer and producer, 1974-83, 1991-93; National Broadcasting Company, Inc. (NBC), New York, NY, NBC News, Nightly News,producer, senior producer of documentaries and specials, 1983-90. Miami University, Oxford, OH, visiting professor of journalism, then scholar-in-residence; American Enterprise Institute, adjunct fellow, 2002—; visiting or adjunct professor at universities, including New York University, Columbia University, University of Michigan, and Arizona State University. Also producer of Black Athletes: Fact and Fiction, NBC-TV, 1989; producer and writer of Miss America; Beyond the Crown, NBC-TV entertainment special, 1994.

AWARDS, HONORS:

National Endowment for the Humanities journalism fellowship, 1981-82; Certificate of Merit, Corcoran Gallery of Art, and National Headliners Club Award, both 1981, both for "Look Out, Gold Swindlers"; Clarion Award, 1989, for "The Transplant Boom"; Cine Golden Eagle Award, 1989, award for best feature film, International Sports Film Festival, 1990, and Ohio State University award, 1990, all for Black Athletes: Fact and Fiction; Emmy Award for news and documentary, Academy of Television Arts and Sciences, 1990, for "China in Crisis," and 1991, for "Gorbachev: The Final Hours"; Chris Award, Columbus International Film Festival, 1993, for "Miracle Cure"; Cine Golden Eagle Bronze Plaque, for "20/20 Vision"; award for best column, Ventura County Press Club, 1999, for "The Ethical Edge" in Business Digest.

WRITINGS:

(With Tom Brokaw, and producer) Black Athletes: Fact and Fiction (television documentary), National Broadcasting Company, Inc. (NBC), 1989.

Miss America: Beyond the Crown (television special) NBC, 1994.

Taboo: Why Black Athletes Dominate Sports and Why We Are Afraid to Talk about It, Public Affairs Press (New York, NY), 2000.

(Editor) Pension Fund Politics: The Dangers of Socially Responsible Investing, AEI Press (Washington, DC), 2005.

(Editor) Let Them Eat Precaution: How Politics Is Undermining the Genetic Revolution in Agriculture, AEI Press (Washington, DC), 2006.

Contributor to Case Histories in Business Ethics,edited by Chris Megone and Simon Robinson, Routledge (London, England), 2000. Contributor to periodicals, including the American Enterprise, Washington Post, GQ, Human Biology, Philadelphia, Jerusalem Post, Chicago Tribune, San Francisco Chronicle, Sunday Times, Guardian, Toronto Globe and Mail, Utne Reader, and Vegetarian Times.Author of "The Ethical Edge" column for Ethical Corporation magazine (London, England) and Business Digest.

SIDELIGHTS:

Jon Entine is a prominent writer, television producer, and lecturer/commentator on business ethics. Entine's 1994 article inBusiness Ethics, "Shattered Image: Is the Body Shop Too Good to Be True?," is a highly regarded article in business ethics reporting. The article, which is excerpted in numerous books and studies, challenged the notion that "good intentions" can be equated with ethical practices.

Entine's Taboo: Why Black Athletes Dominate Sports and Why We Are Afraid to Talk about Itpresents what New York Times Book Review contributor Jim Holt described as a "painstaking case that race and genetics are indeed ‘significant components’ of the ‘stunning and undeniable dominance of black athletes.’" However, Entine explained his premise to Geoff Metcalf, a contributor to theWorld Net Daily Web site, and commented that he was acknowledging racial differences, not racial qualities. "I'm not claiming black superiority," Entine noted. "What I'm claiming is there are different body shapes, different body types and physiology as a result of evolution." Entine added: "Talking about differences between humans has been cast in a very racist and pseudoscientific light. One of the goals of the book … is to destroy that taboo. It really challenges the taboo that there is this inverse relationship between being physically gifted and being mentally gifted."

Taboo, which Entine derived from a television documentary he wrote with Tom Brokaw and titled Black Athletes: Fact and Fiction, sparked controversy with its contention that scientific analysis can discern significant physical differences among racial types. Entine's detractors included American Scientist contributors Paul Achter and Celeste M. Condit, who dismissed the book as "severely distorted" and declared: "Entine's version of genetics constitutes a caricature of that science." Entine's supporters, however, argued thatTaboo proves to be persuasive and provocative. Washington Post Book World contributor Paul Ruffins noted Entine's "impressive array of evidence." Richard Bernstein, writing in the New York Times, commented that the author "makes a careful and reasoned case." S.L. Price wrote in Sports Illustrated that the book constitutes a "balanced, well-reasoned … explanation."

Some reviewers also lauded Entine for addressing such a controversial topic as racial differences. "[Entine] writes carefully on a very touchy topic, and made me a bit more optimistic that some decent people have the courage to broach important questions of genetics and race," wrote Walter E. Williams in American Enterprise. "If decent people don't discuss the subject, we concede the turf to black and white racists." Michael Levin wrote in Psychology Today that the author's "work stands to open the conversation on racial differences to a broader range of topics." Still another reviewer, Gary Kamiya, contended in his Salon.com Web site article that the potential for racist exploitation scarcely negates the validity of Entine's premise. "Racists still cloak their bigotry beneath a lab coat," Kamiya wrote. "But … the mere fact that legitimate arguments may also have been advanced by racists … is not sufficient reason to abandon those arguments or deny those facts." Writing in the Skeptical Inquirer,Kendrick Frazier commented that Entine has foreseen the problematic nature of his premise and has reacted accordingly, adding: "Entine is fully aware of all the sensitivities involved with this topic, and he addresses all of them carefully and fully."