Diversity in the Media--Still a Long Way to Go

http://www.sptimes.com/2005/08/18/Floridian/Media_s_quest_for_div.shtml

Eric Deggans of the St. Petersburg Times (who happens to be black) wrote this thought-provoking article about the dearth of people of color in positions of high visibility within the news industry, and how that plays out.

Among other effects, he finds the massive coverage of various white women's disappearances hard to justify in light of the acute lack of coverage when a black woman goes missing.

And one can speculate (he doesn't, in this article) about the often-negative portrayal of communities of color, especially inner-city ones--where the news coverage often focuses on crime and rarely talks about all the good community building going on.

Theses issues were expressed somewhat during the recent National Conference on Media Reform, which I covered extensively.

But Deggans also rightly points out that the major networks have had a massive defection of their most visible talent: "And despite an astonishing changing of the guard in network news that has seen Tom Brokaw, Dan Rather, Peter Jennings and Ted Koppel all leaving their high-profile jobs this year, no black person has surfaced as a realistic candidate to replace any of them."

Sometimes, 1960 doesn't seem so long ago. surely, as a society, we can do better.