Need for more Journalists of Colour

[kitty]

http://www.newsday.com/news/opinion/ny-vpsot103924651aug10,0,5078414.story?coll==ny-viewpoints-headlines

We need more diverse newsrooms
There aren't nearly enough journalists of color to mirror the nation's changing demographics

BY ERNEST R. SOTOMAYOR
Ernest R. Sotomayor is Long Island editor of Newsday.com and president of UNITY, the world's largest coalition of journalists of color.

August 10, 2004
Last week, nearly 8,200 journalists of color - representing many different races, ethnicities, cultures, economies and nationalities - came from five continents to attend the biggest convention of journalists ever.

It was significant that the alliance of which I'm president, UNITY: Journalists of Color Inc., gathered in Washington, capital of one of the world's most diverse nations, but also a place that has long been a lightning rod in the fight for civil rights.

What this coalition intended was for UNITY 2004 to focus not only on racial justice, but also to turn up the heat on the news media. Because what is at stake is a fair, accurate, credible and honest news industry, and ultimately its very survival.

The foundation of this business is built on our obligation to provide readers and viewers the most complete and accurate news report. That means more than just getting the address of a crime correct, more than just accurately adding up the city hall budget numbers or getting a quote just right. It means making sure that the voices of all our communities are represented.

Anything short of that and we are denying those communities their legitimate voice, presenting only a partial picture. And that's not honest journalism.

So what UNITY sought in this convention and through years of advocacy, training and research is to push the news media to make their staffs more racially and ethnically diverse, use more people of color as sources in stories, and have more of us gathering the news that is delivered to America's homes.

We sought equal representation in news reports, so that coverage is not dominated by a deluge of detail about the tragic incidents involving whites like JonBenet Ramsey, Laci Peterson or Elizabeth Smart, while black, Latino, Asian or Native American girls and women in similar circumstances die in obscurity.

The failure to reflect the views of all our communities is making many in the news media more and more irrelevant. Those publications and broadcasters will continue withering unless they see people who look like them and represent their viewpoints in print and on the 6 o'clock news.

A third of the nation's population is made up of people of color, and the numbers are changing fast. More than half the population, by the year 2050, will be people of color. And that's already the case in New York City.

Yet no mainstream news organization in this area, including Newsday, comes close to having a news-gathering staff that reflects that population. Nationwide, only 12.5 percent of all professionals in newspaper newsrooms are people of color, and in local radio and TV broadcasting the figure is about 20 percent.

We don't have data for magazines or the national network broadcasters because they refuse to disclose such data, even though they seek and report the same data from other private industries and government. The three main television anchors for the nationally broadcast news shows are all white men, their heirs apparent are white men, and overwhelmingly the other "news" programs on the networks all week are the same. That's fair, accurate and honest?

A report unveiled by UNITY at this convention showed that only 10 percent of the national newspaper journalists covering Washington are people of color. Three national newspaper chains had none at all. Those are the facts, you decide.

In New York, there are but a handful of Native Americans among the thousands in newsrooms, even though this state has one of the largest indigenous populations in America.

To meet the challenge, news organizations will have to take several key steps. The first of which is to hire, retain, train and promote into management positions far more people of color.

This happens when there is a will to do so. And it makes a difference that minority journalists are hired into all departments, from local news to sports to the opinion pages, from on-air talent to those behind the scenes.

The next step is ensuring constant monitoring of coverage to ensure it's fair and balanced. We need to make sure that sources for stories include the viewpoints of people of color so when we seek reaction to economic stories, for instance, or reaction to the war in Iraq, we don't forget that people of color spend money and serve in the military.
There is no other industry or profession that enjoys the protection of the U.S. Constitution, as the news media do by virtue of the First Amendment, which guarantees freedom of speech and free press.

That carries an awesome responsibility, and one our industry must live up to.

[TB4000]

In a few certain cities, the majority of the anchors are of a minority persuasion, but nationally or in some larger cities, it's usually a bunch of white guys and one black, latina or asian woman. They're killing two quota birds with one stone, apparantly.

[kitty]

I read an interesting book that postulated that the reason why asian women are clustered as news anchors is because they represent a safe model minority -- someone who is diverse, and thus real, but also is reading the news and, b/c of the model minority myth, safe enough to assume to not be altering or objectifying the news in any way.

Basically, a brainless, house negro archetype. way to go connie chung.

[nonamerasian]

More than more minorities in the newsroom, there needs to be more minority issues covered.

[ism]

The UNITY Conference always draws a lot of criticism. Two major pieces in reaction to Sotomayor criticize the call: Jeff Jacoby at the Boston Globe takes the color-blind approach (http://www.boston.com/news/globe/editorial_opinion/oped/articles/2004/08/12/when_diversity_is_only_skin_deep/) and former News Director Terry Heaton says from experience, diversity doesn't work in practicality (http://journalism.nyu.edu/pubzone/weblogs/pressthink/2004/08/11/heaton_unity.html). UNITY already draws flack for "making the media look liberal," which seems to create a big backlash against anything it says. Is UNITY doing more harm than good?

[mr. x]

http://www.theonion.com/news/index.php?issue=4030&n=2

Strip Club Makes Commitment to Hire More Minorities

TAMPA, FL—Richard Brainard, owner of Shakerz Gentlemen's Lounge, announced plans Monday to hire more minorities at his Kennedy Boulevard nightspot.
Brainard (inset) and the strip club he owns.
Above: Brainard (inset) and the strip club he owns.

"We're looking for some Asians, mainly, but I think we could also use two or three Puerto Ricans and a light-skinned black girl," Brainard said. "Man, those Puerto Ricans can dance. Makes you wish you were 22 again, I'll tell you that."

Brainard said the new hires will help Shakerz better represent his community.

"We need a lineup that's a little more Tampa," Brainard said. "That means we need more Mexicans. Sometimes it's hard to find one with a decent pair of tits, but that's not going to stop me. We're doing this because it's right, not because it's easy."

Shakerz has had positive experiences with minority employees in the past, Brainard said.

"Margarita's a real class act," Brainard said. "And Camero, the black girl we had last year, was sweet as shit. Sure, we had a lot of problems with her not showing up, but it's not because she was black. Skipping out on shifts is a thing chicks from all races try to pull."

"Except the Dominicans," Brainard added.

While he's already placed a handwritten "Now Hiring" sign in the women's bathroom, Brainard said he also plans to place an ad in the South Tampa Community Courier announcing the availability of "dancing positions for girls of all nationalities."

"Sometimes, I let [manager Randy] Toby pick the girls, but this time I'm gonna do it myself," Brainard said. "I'll make sure we get a little more color in the lineup. Now, I'm not gonna refuse to hire a white girl if a hot one comes in. That'd be what they characterize as racism against whites. What's it called? Reverse racism."

Representatives from several competing exotic-dance clubs said Shakerz's new hiring initiative simply brings the club up to speed with other Tampa establishments.

"We've had black girls since '92," said Ricky Alvarez, co-owner of Mr. Bo-Jiggles Adult Entertainment & Seafood Bar. "As long as a candidate is qualified, we never discriminate based on race. That said, with Shakerz making moves, we're going to be proactive and get ourselves the skinniest black girl we can find. And also one with a real plump ass and big tits—we don't discriminate based on weight."

Many Shakerz patrons have expressed excitement about the new equality-minded hiring policy.

"Damn, we're gonna party when the new girls start," said Trent Billings, a real-estate developer who has lived in Tampa his entire life. "Maybe put up some flags or have some sort of U.N.-style wet-T-shirt contest or something. Or maybe a strip-off, to see which races are best at stripping. Something fun."
Part of the workforce Brainard hopes to diversify.
Above: Part of the workforce Brainard hopes to diversify.

Added Billings: "They do that, I'll be there, and I'll have plenty of dollar bills in my hand. I love women, no matter what color they are. And they love me, too, 'cause I ain't cheap."

Current Shakerz dancers said they support the affirmative-action measures.

"Lots of different kinds of guys come in here—everyone from advertising types to truckers—so it makes sense to have a lot of types of girls," said Mandy Flowers, who has been dancing at Shakerz for nearly a year. "Meeting different types of people is one of the benefits of this job. I like working with the Puerto Ricans. They're always down with partying after closing time."

Informed of the initiative, Florida Equal Opportunity Employment Commission spokesman Arthur Wright applauded Shakerz for "promoting racial equality throughout the adult industries of central Florida."

"We fully support Brainard's diversification efforts," Wright said. "Finally, someone is recognizing that it takes all kinds to entertain a broad cross-section of lonely, horny men with specific ethnicity-based fantasies. The interests of business and society can be one and the same."

In a move likely to please Wright, the owner of another area small business has already chosen to emulate Brainard's plan of action.

"We have a pretty good mix—customers are always asking for Latin girls and Asians—but now that I think about it, I guess we could use a couple new girls of color," Night Dreams Escorts manager Tony D'Ammagio said. "We're always looking for new girls."

END OF ARTICLE

"Okay Mr X what does this have to do with what kitty's talking about"

Ans: everything

white guys run the station

white guys like sex

[kitty]

the problem with color-blind? the fact that the world isn't color-blind.

[Hiroshi2]

Hmmm...............and I'm considering majoring in journalism in college.



Well I can't speak for asians, but I know black people usually have black newspapers in most large cities. Like here we have the Birmingham Times, the largest black paper in the South. And it covers black issues, etc. I don't know if Asians have something like that somewhere, but I'm sure Latinos have a newspaper as well (even down here they do).

[Faithless]

I read an interesting book that postulated that the reason why asian women are clustered as news anchors is because they represent a safe model minority -- someone who is diverse, and thus real, but also is reading the news and, b/c of the model minority myth, safe enough to assume to not be altering or objectifying the news in any way.

Basically, a brainless, house negro archetype. way to go connie chung.

Emil goes amok on Connie.

Rehabbing Connie Chung (http://www.philippinenews.com/news/view_article.html?article_id=c8ef112f1046496a95b0b ac50f114d33)

Emil Guillermo, Mar 16, 2005

AMERICAN Filipinos don’t have a group like the Committee of 100, an elite group of Chinese leaders in the U.S. that act as a conscience for the community.
It’s more likely Filipinos would have several Committees of 100. If one didn’t like the first 100, they’d start another 100.

But if there are any Chinese Filipinos among us in the American Filipino community, maybe you should contact C-100’s New York office. The group, perhaps the most influential of its kind in the country, is willing to throw away its credibility with one simple act. It wants to honor Connie at its big annual conference April 7 in Washington, D.C. It appears Connie’s brother-in-law has made a major push for her to receive a special honor at the opening night banquet. But there is some dissension in the ranks.

Of course, in typical Asian American fashion, no one wants to go amok in public. So I will.

Why is a group whose focus has been on U.S.-China relations spending any time honoring a TV anchor woman who has spent the majority of her life in Asian American denial? For years, Connie was so career-minded, so un-community savvy that she put up her own Great Wall. She benefited from affirmative action at CBS, from her ethnicity, from her so called “China-doll” good looks. She sold her image to TV news for fame and fortune. And she didn’t have to hop on the dumbwaiter and ride to the top. She took a nice corporate elevator, instead. But as soon as she got to her exalted spot, she never bothered to send the elevator back down.

Her thoughts about community? Non-existent. The girl had enough “ends-justify-the-means” spirit for one mega media career. Chung traded on her race to personal benefit in the media. But when it came to community, Connie was the ice-queen, isolated in the bed she created for herself. For years, Connie’s ascendance was a bitter pill among comrades in the Asian American Journalists Association (AAJA). There were Asian American males stymied by glass ceilings. There were feisty and high-flying Asian American anchors like Tricia Toyota in Los Angeles, who weren’t deferential enough to stay on the Connie track.

But no one was willing to confront Connie as openly as I was. In 1993, the same year she was named Dan Rather’s co-anchor at CBS, she finally came to an AAJA convention in Los Angeles. That’s where I challenged Connie when she first made her first appearance to the group. She had never showed up before. My question was very simple: I asked her where she’d been. Why hadn’t she been to an AAJA convention before? Why wasn’t she ever there to help? For my tough questions, I was cheered by the small group of activists in the organization. But most of them, the Connie Chung wannabes and the male sycophants like New York television reporter Ti-Hua Chang shouted me down, cut off my microphone. I was rocking the canoe. So of course, it was interesting hearing Connie just last August. She spoke to the AAJA like she was Norma Rae. “We need to come out of ourselves,” she said. “That’s what reporters do, stick microphones in front of peoples’ faces and knock on doors of people who don’t want to hear from us.” Was it the real Connie? Or was it the truth serum? I actually wrote something nice about Connie. But now I’ve come back to my senses. Would a few nice deeds now make up for the past? That’s some short penance.

That’s what the dissenters among the Committee of 100 are wondering. They’re circulating complaints lodged by the community against Connie’s transgressions. One document, an open letter from letter from the Independent Federation of Chinese Students and Scholars (IFCSS), advocated a class action against Chung and CBS for an “Eye on America” program May 19, 1994.

Wrote the organization’s president: “Not only has the program defamed the Chinese nationals and other Chinese Americans as a whole group by creating an impression that every ordinary Chinese who has come to this country could be a potential spy and Americans should watch out on their Chinese neighbors, it also has gone so far as to advise the employers around the country to be suspicious on their Chinese employees or job applicants because these people are from China. Rarely have we seen such an openly and blatant advocating for discrimination against an ethnic group.”

What views of the community was Connie spreading to the world? “The impression left by this report,” wrote the IFCSS, “is that any Chinese, no matter how innocent he/she looks or is, could be a potential spy.”

No one is suggesting as a journalist that Connie be an advocate for Chinese, or Asian Americans. Only for the truth. As a journalist, Connie could have done much more to seek a more balanced and even handed report. Even the New York Times admitted its journalistic shortcomings in its coverage of Wen Ho Lee. The Times acknowledged it relied on one government source and that it should have humanized and not demonized Lee in its spy case coverage.

As I dredge up the past, Connie leaves one overall impression. And isn’t that of an ideal community minded honoree. Sure, Connie’s crimes aren’t war crimes. But they are crimes against the community. By honoring her, the Committee of 100 rehabilitates her image and whitewashes her past.

E-mail: emil@amok.com

[nola]

a brainless, house negro archetype. way to go connie chung.whoa--yeah.

[thaite]

I was there at UNITY and I heard Connie Chung speak. She was one of the first few Asians in US television journalism, and sometimes when you forge the road alone you have to take the path of least resistance. I think you're rapping Connie a little unnecesarily hard.

Here's a link to a study AAJA had done on Asian men in TV. (http://www.aaja.org/resources/publications/2003asianmale.pdf)

[Faithless]

I was there at UNITY and I heard Connie Chung speak. She was one of the first few Asians in US television journalism, and sometimes when you forge the road alone you have to take the path of least resistance. I think you're rapping Connie a little unnecesarily hard.
Personally, I'm not.

I found the article and I put it out there.

It's Mr. Guillermo whose doing the unnecessary rapping:
...
In 1993, the same year she was named Dan Rather’s co-anchor at CBS, she finally came to an AAJA convention in Los Angeles. That’s where I challenged Connie when she first made her first appearance to the group. She had never showed up before. My question was very simple: I asked her where she’d been. Why hadn’t she been to an AAJA convention before? Why wasn’t she ever there to help? For my tough questions, I was cheered by the small group of activists in the organization. But most of them, the Connie Chung wannabes and the male sycophants like New York television reporter Ti-Hua Chang shouted me down, cut off my microphone. I was rocking the canoe. So of course, it was interesting hearing Connie just last August. She spoke to the AAJA like she was Norma Rae. “We need to come out of ourselves,” she said. “That’s what reporters do, stick microphones in front of peoples’ faces and knock on doors of people who don’t want to hear from us.”
...

[raacluse]

I don't know whether AAJA is interested in rocking the boat. After all, they get all this money from mainstream journalism to put on fancy conventions. Why would they want to bite the hands that feed them?

Emil may be over-the-top, but he seems to lay out a case for his umbrage.

And as to whether Connie can be rehabbed... it probably won't matter much if the Committee of 100 does so. They're a somewhat elitist bunch whose endorsement may not count for much, these days. But, what the heck... why not? She was once a role model for many Asian American females going into tv news.

Should she be rehabbed by AAJA? I guess it'll depend if some journalists with long memories, like Emil, would think she's still a sellout. It's up to her to show that she's reforming her bad old self. :confused:

[nola]

She was the first but she's sooo brainless, wimpy and never speaks up about Asian American issues. Bleah.

[thaite]

I don't know whether AAJA is interested in rocking the boat. After all, they get all this money from mainstream journalism to put on fancy conventions. Why would they want to bite the hands that feed them?


you mean like this? (http://www.aaja.org/news/mediawatch/)

i should remind you that AAJA in itself is not an advocate or protest organization. It has a very precise mission:

1. To encourage Asian American and Pacific Islanders to enter the ranks of journalism
2. To work for fair and accurate coverage of Asian American and Pacific Islanders
3. To increase the number of Asian American and Pacific Islander journalists and news managers in the industry.

[raacluse]

I dunno... hiring more j-school grads on board floundering news media firms is a recipe for what? :confused:

Hmmm... I've been out of touch with AAJA for the past couple years, so I haven't been following their issues.

From the links Thaite has provided, it looks like AAJA is monitoring slurs (an eternal function), and trying to quantify the absence of Asian male news anchors. The latter is quite welcome, but only confirms what everyone already has known for years.

Maybe what's needed are more Media Moguls of Colour...

[Faithless]

She was the first but she's sooo brainless, wimpy and never speaks up about Asian American issues. Bleah.
Which person are you talking about.

And which issue should she have been speaking to? And in what public forum or setting?

And what Asian American journalist (other than Emil) is doing this? :smile:

[nola]

Connie. She avoids talking about Asian American anything or anything political for that matter and she married a sleazy white guy.