Do News Agencies Fail to Report About Their Own Diversity? by Richard Prince

Feb. 1, 2015

Do News Agencies Fail to Report About Their Own Diversity?
By Richard Prince

Former CNN commentator Roland Martin, now host of TV One's NewsOne Now, says media agencies report on everyone else's deficiencies in diversity except their own. 
PHOTO: Roy Lewis

Jeff Johnson, who recently interviewed President Obama on BET, called the media "schizophrenic" on race issues. PHOTO: Roy Lewis


Despite forecasts of a snow storm, the town hall meeting drew more than 200 to the National Press Club. PHOTO: Roy Lewis

Special to the Trice Edney News Wire from Journal-isms

(TriceEdneyWire.com) - When the news media report on the lack of diversity on police forces or in the Republican Party base, do they ever mention the diversity figures in their own newsrooms? When they discuss income inequality, do they discuss the racial breakdown of those who make six- and seven-figure salaries in their own organizations compared with those who make five figures?

"Shameful, deplorable and hypocritical" is how Roland Martin, commentator and host of TV One's "News One Now With Roland Martin" described the news media on matters of race. The occasion was a panel discussion jointly sponsored by the National Press Club and the Capital Press Club, its African American counterpart, Monday night in the National Press Building in Washington.

Titled "Coverage of Race in America: How are we doing? How can we do better? A cutting edge forum to analyze media coverage from Ferguson to Staten Island," it represented an effort by the two groups to work together. Myron Belkind, then president of the National Press Club, apologized last month on behalf of the 107-year-old organization for the segregation that led to the creation of the Capital Press Club 70 years ago, when blacks could not be members of the older group. The Capital Press Club’s president is Hazel Trice Edney.

The forum drew criticism from the National Association of Hispanic Journalists and Unity: Journalists for Diversity, which represents Asian American, Native American and lesbian and gay journalists, when only African Americans and whites were scheduled for the panel.

Gilbert Bailon, editor of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch and a former president of NAHJ, was added, but the audience was nevertheless still primarily Black and White and about three-fourths African American. C-SPAN cameras recorded the event (video), attended by about 200 people.

While not specifically addressing the demographics of the audience, CNN reporter Athena Jones, who is African-American, said early in the discussion, "There are many people who don't think about racism on a daily basis because they don't have to."

Martin followed his broadside at the lack of media transparency on internal racial matters with an observation that he said his six years at CNN helped teach him: Television hosts sometimes don't ask guests hard questions about race because "most folks in the media actually crave and desire access" to the newsmakers. He added that transparency on hiring should be matched by disclosing how many of the company's suppliers are of color.

In other observations:

April D. Ryan, who covers the White House for American Urban Radio Networks and is author of the newly published "The Presidency in Black and White: My Up-Close View of Three Presidents and Race in America," said more black journalists were covering the White House under Bill Clinton than under Barack Obama. One reason, she said of television networks, has to do with the flavor of the month: "A lot of them want to have white women with blonde hair" as their White House correspondents.

Jones said that too often media stories on race lack context, such as reporting on police protests of New York Mayor Bill de Blasio's comments that he told his Black son to be careful in dealings with authorities. That such talks are almost routinely held in Black homes was not reported enough, Jones said.

Paul Farhi, media reporter for the Washington Post, said that "in the day to day of what we do, there is not the same level of heat and passion that you're getting up here" in the panel. "If we could bottle this passion, we would do a lot more social good and do a lot of good journalism." He also urged that White journalists receive "equity training" to make them aware of their white privilege.

Jeff Johnson, special correspondent at Black Entertainment Television who interviewed Obama for BET this month, said lack of consistent leadership in some communities leads not only to "schizophrenic leadership" but also "a schizophrenic media." He cited his hometown of Cleveland, where 12-year-old Tamir Rice was killed by a police officer, noting that actions by the mayor to punish errant police were overturned by a judge to little media attention.

Johnson also said few were linking African-American dissatisfaction with police actions with upcoming elections in several cities, where mayors who supervise the police will be elected.

Bailon said that contrary to the impression given by the news media, the growth in the Hispanic population will come from native-born Hispanics, not from immigrants, and that the Post-Dispatch was delivering on some of the complaints about Ferguson coverage but that the coverage was not being matched nationally.

Community members were urged to be more assertive with news media and to be more responsible in social media. "The vast majority of the protests have been peaceful," said Kenya Vaughn of the St. Louis American, a member of the Black press, adding that only six days saw violence and that the protests are continuing. That is not the message being delivered in the national media, she said.

Johnson also bemoaned lack of support for Black media that report on racial issues "with integrity," and he urged current members of the media to be "talent scouts" for the next generations of journalists.

Two groups that might qualify were present. A newly formed D.C. group of honor students called Legacy, four African-American entrepreneurs in their late teens who they said have separately built a school in Ethiopia, bought real estate in Kenya, written a book and are feeding impoverished Jamaicans, described their work and wondered what they needed to do to counter the image of their generation as interested primarily in sports and hip-hop music.

Students from Washington's Eliot-Hine Middle School covered the event with their own cameras as their teacher, Mandrell Birks, sought support from the panelists in the students' effort to secure an interview with President Obama. The panelists took Birks' business cards and perused letters of endorsement secured by Birks from local officials and Rep. John Lewis, D-Ga. They promised to help.