[...] "I was watching Nancy Grace on Court TV ... and she was showing a clip of the little boy who had been missing in Utah," Morris said, calling from Washington, D.C. "She was just gushing when she said, 'That little boy reminds me so much of my little nephew.'
"Had that little boy been named Tyrone and been black, I don't think she would have identified with him the way that she did. There is a different connection. It's not necessarily overtly racist. It's just natural."
That is why diversity in the media is so important, analysts say.
"We still don't have enough journalists of color who minorities can call and who can push for stories," said Julio Moran, executive director of the California Chicano News Media Association and a former reporter for the Los Angeles Times.
The American Society of Newspaper Editors estimates that only 13 percent of journalists at newspapers are minorities. In TV newsrooms, minorities make up about 22 percent of the work force, according to the Radio-Television News Directors Association.
However, the numbers of minority managers are even smaller, Maynard said.
"News executives say they are reporting these stories because the missing young woman in Aruba is every parent's nightmare," Maynard said.
"Well, Alexis Patterson, a 7-year-old black girl who disappeared on her way to school, is also every parent's nightmare. Where are the hundreds of journalists covering her story?" [...]
| Can you tell I've got my own small ax to grind when it comes to Fahizah Alim's Sacramento Bee article "Absent from the media"?
posted in articles on July 1, 2005 12:15 PM | t (0)
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