CBS & MSNBC Should Hire Journalists of Color

Malena Amusa

CBS & MSNBC Should Hire Journalists of Color

Following MSNBC, CBS fired renegade radio host Don Imus Thursday from his show that ran for almost 30 years.

But we’re certain their sacking of Imus is no reflection of a moral awakening corporate execs had about their role in perpetuating racism.

When these media corporations saw Imus’ show ad-dollars drop, they dropped Imus. How convenient.

Free Press president Robert McChesney in a letter to the public explains the media’s problem with race and gender:
 

The controversy over Don Imus’ racist remarks goes far beyond one bigoted commentator. But getting rid of Imus won’t fix the media problem.

Most of our TV and radio stations are owned by giant corporate conglomerates. They don’t represent the views of most Americans — and they make huge profits off the public airwaves.

What we need are more diverse, independent and local media owners. Yet right now less than 10% of TV and radio stations are owned by people of color or women.

But instead of addressing this national disgrace, the Federal Communications Commission is actually trying to let the largest companies buy up even more stations!

What Imus said is just the tip of the iceberg. Scores of other TV and radio hosts regularly make racist and sexist comments. The best way to stop this race to the bottom is to change who’s sitting at the top — and making the decisions about who’s behind the mic.

Today, according to one industry study, only 2.5% of radio stations have a person of color in the role of general manager, and only 4.4% have a racial or ethnic minority in the role of news director. The percentage of women in these jobs isn't much higher. No wonder shock jocks like Imus have been able to keep their jobs for so long.
Now is our chance to make a change. In 2003, we stopped the FCC from allowing more media concentration, when more than 3 million people took action to stop Big Media.

This time, we must not only stop further consolidation -- we must demand media ownership that reflects the diversity that makes our nation great.

Onward,
Robert McChesney  President Free Press 
www.freepress.net

P.S. For more on how minority owners have been shutout of the media system, read the Free Press study Out of the Picture.

Posted at 7:08 AM, Apr 13, 2007 in Media Analysis | Permalink | View Comments

Comments

I definitely agree with your views on his firing. If his termination had been a moral decision, he would've receive it immediately following his comments. MSNBC fired him one day after advertisers started to pull out. CBS, the day after that.

In today's Wall Street Journal, it says, CBS earns $25 million per year in ad revenue from Imus' radio program. NBC earns $8 million annually for airing his TV simulcast.

With this kind of earnings at stake, you can see why both networks were hesitant to fire him. I'm sure they were hoping for the problem to blow over with the two-week suspension.

Point blank: When the advertisers pulled out, it hit the networks harder than Imus' racist comments. It hit them in the pockets.

I like the article you added. But, realistically, what can minorities do to increase their media ownership presence?. We would literally have to raise BILLIONS, maybe TRILLIONS of dollars to own more media outlets.

We need more people of color working for corporate jerks that exploit and miseducate people? Why? Possibly people of color need to create more vehicles to present the real news. Possibly working class people need to create more vehicles to present the real news. Possibly the people of the world community should create more vehicles for the real news.

Part of the problem is that people think that in order to be "legit" they must be connected to some kind of corporate machine. We do not.

What everyone should do is stop paying for someone to advertise to you, which is what cable is. If a guy on the street asked you for twenty five dollars to tell you how you sucked, would you pay for it? Heck no, so why would you pay for Madison Avenue to do the same thing. Actually what everyone really should do is stop watching television. The whole point of TV is to sell you something. MSNBC isn't the news, it is a press release, if they had more black, brown or yellow people the bs message will be an easier sell to the black, brown and yellow community.

Is that what we want, more consumerism?

I do not care if they ever have another p.o.c. on the corporate news again as a news reporter or anything else. In fact if you are a person of color and you work for chanel MSNBC, I have to think are you little bit of an idiot. Is the money worth it...

The POC that would be on the corporate news wouldn't be the kind of POC that would make a difference anyway. It would be a safe nice person that went to school, graduated from some ivy league, that spoke in proper English, whose dream would probably include some kind of version of the upper middle class dream...so what does it matter if more people of color were on the news are not?

Look at Girlfriends, I mean it's like Sex in the City. Black women can be silly and shallow and dumb just like white women...yeah that's some progress...

Lo Fleming

I have nothing against more minorities in the main office but WHOSE agenda will they be pushing: the one their white bosses are paying them to enforce blindly or the CORRECT one?