Telemundo’s Montenegro Gets Answers From Obama

For some viewers, a highlight of President Obama’s primetime press conference on his 100th day in office (April 29) came when he took questions, back to back, from reporters for Telemundo and BET.

“The presence of a reporter from BET — and the fact that he was included in the president’s prearranged list of those to be called upon — was as surprising as almost anything else that has taken place in the new president’s relations with the news media,” was Mije.org blogger Richard Prince’s take.

He noted Obama called on Lori Montenegro, a Washington-based general-assignment reporter for the Hispanic network Telemundo, in addition to BET’s Andre Showell.

Montenegro told The Wire her Blackberry was already buzzing with shout-outs before the president had finished answering her question.

Reached on the job at the White House Friday, Montenegro said she didn’t know she was about to be called on for the first time by Obama. “When I heard my name I was like, 'Oops, that sounded like my name!’ ”

Obama has made a concerted effort lately to call on minority journalists who aren’t embedded in the White House, and that’s a good thing, Montenegro said.

“Sometimes there are just topics where Hispanic media, or an outlet that might be geared to the African-American community, follows a story very closely for many years. So we have a different take or a different perspective on that issue. … You sometimes get out of the person a different answer, it’s not that typical answer.”

She said she got “a very good answer” to her question about immigration reform. “I don’t think we have ever heard him say we don’t believe in chasing after a handful of workers, [that] that’s not to our benefit.”

Obama also said he wants to get the process started this year and has reached out to Hispanic Congress members and others, she said, and that also advanced the story.

As for the 50 or so calls, e-mails and texts she’s received, Montenegro — a 12-year Telemundo reporter once called on by President George Herbert Walker Bush at a press conference, but never by President George W. Bush — said “people were proud.”

“And a lot of people — I don’t like to talk about it, but a lot of people did state to me that they were so thrilled to actually see a Hispanic, a woman of color, actually get up there and be able to ask a question.

“That is what really struck people,” she said. “That they could see a woman with a Hispanic name, who is of color, have an opportunity.”

'Battlestar’ Star Items On Block, For Charity

Amid the May 8-10 auction of Battlestar Galactica costumes and props in Pasadena, Calif., Sci Fi Channel series stars Grace Park (“Sharon Valerii”), Michael Trucco (“Samuel T. Anders”) and Kate Vernon (“Ellen Tigh”) are donating some items geared to their particular pet causes.

Park’s offering one of her character’s original flight suits to be auctioned off to benefit Harvest India, a humanitarian, non-profit organization based in southern India that also functions as a non-profit ministry in the United States.

Trucco will offer proceeds from his “Anders” Caprica Buccaneers uniform sale to Food on Foot, a not-for-profit organization dedicated to providing the poor and homeless of Los Angeles with nutritious meals, clothing and assistance.

Vernon picked the “Saul & Ellen Tigh” wedding rings and a certain blue dress from the “No Exit” episode as her donation, to help breast-cancer research.

A portion of overall auction proceeds will go to United Way. The auction will be streamed online at Auctionnetwork.com.

Dick Green’s Shoes Proving Hard to Fill

For the last six months, CableLabs has been looking for someone to replace Dick Green, who has run the cable-technology consortium since it was formed in 1988. The announcement came last fall that Green would leave the post when his contract expires in December 2009.

And apparently, so far: no dice. According to an industry insider, the “first round [of candidates] didn’t satisfy.” As of a few weeks ago the search committee was widening its net. The sentiment, this executive says, is: “We’ll know it when we see it.”

CableLabs declined to comment.