Study: Few Blacks Seen on Talk Shows

[beaconess]

From this morning's Washington Post:

"Only 8 percent of the guests on the major Sunday morning talk shows over the past 18 months were African Americans, with three people accounting for the majority of those appearances, according to a new study by the National Urban League.

Black guests -- newsmakers, the journalists who questioned them and experts who offered commentary -- appeared 176 times out of more than 2,100 opportunities, according to the study, which is scheduled for release today. But 122 of those appearances were made by Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, former secretary of state Colin L. Powell, and Juan Williams, a journalist and regular panel member on "Fox News Sunday."

"There's very clearly a division, an exclusion," said Stephanie J. Jones, executive director of the Urban League Institute, who initiated the study, 'Sunday Morning Apartheid: a Diversity Study of the Sunday Morning Talk Shows.'"

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/07/30/AR2005073001091_pf.html

[spooky3]

1. This is dismal and unacceptable. There was a similar study showing

similarly bad results for women; the numbers were WAY out of proportion to women's 52% in the population. And that study showed that many of the women selected for appearance expressed very RW views, while feminists were few and far between. Wish I had a link.

[ananda]

2. it's all about..

.. demographics.

The networks play to their base, and minorities don't watch the Sunday morning propaganda shows. Even if they did, those producers couldn't afford to offend their corporate GOP owners.

Sue

[mbali]

4. Actually - minorities DO watch these shows

Accoding to a new study, 66% of African Americans get most of their information about government and politics from mainstream outlets, including these talk shows.

But, even if blacks didn't watch these programs, why should that determine whether or not blacks appear on them. Certainly white viewers aren't so narrow minded and bigoted that they would refuse to watch the news if African Americans are included in the presentation and analysis. One would think that intelligent people of any race who turn to these program to learn what's going on in the world would appreciate a well-rounded view.

[mbali]

3. I love the excuses the networks give

"we only interview the newsmakers who dominate the front pages and op-ed pages of every newspaper in America" - who just happen to be white men.

Then, how do they explain why they hardly ever have any blacks on their roundtables? Are George Will and David Broder newsmakers? Since when did Cokie Roberts "dominate the front pages" of any newspaper?

Give me a break.

[Dogmudgeon]

6. Gee whiz ... our RGB balance must be off ...

That must be it. 'Cause we're so non-racist.

Mr. Murdock says so!

--p!

[Smarmie Doofus]

5. True. And beyond that ,there is an exclusion of POV's that....

clash with MSM's POV.

For example, I NEVER ( ok, *almost* never) hear *anyone* on these shows arguing my POV on Iraq, which is, "The war is morally WRONG and the US must WITHDRAW."

The issues are always: "Well, how long will it take until 'the Iraqis' (the US proxy army)are able to take over the brunt of the fighting?" or "Do we have enough troops on the ground?" or "Will Saddam's show trial help or hinder the insurgency."

[Catt03]

7. similar studies are done all the time

checkout Fair or Media Matters and you find reseach like this frequently.

The outcome is usually the same: few African America, few Hispanics, few women and outraqeously unbalanced between Democrats and Republicans.

[beaconess]

8. I believe this is the first study of this type done

Fair and Media Matters and other organizations have looked at gender bias on the sunday morning shows and racial bias in newspapers and news shows. But I think this is the first study about racial bias on network talk shows.

But you're right - all of the studies show the same trend - white men dominate the programs and women, minorities are relegated to the background.

[RUMMYisFROSTED]

9. Of the 500 occurrences of Democrats appearing on the shows

472 were Joe Biden. The other 28 were evenly split between Dianne Feinstein and Joe Lieberman.

[beaconess]

10. LOL

[beaconess]

11. kick

[journalist3072]

12. Unfortunate, but not surprising...

I'm an African-American woman who has a journalism degree.

And often times when I turn on the talking heads shows, I don't see anyone on there who looks like me and represents my interests or values.

It's really sad.

[FrenchieCat]

13. Well...duh, yeah?

Since over and over Sunday regulars are McCain, Binden, Hagel and Levin who are all white....guess that would be so.

[beaconess]

14. That's not the reason . . .

From the study:

"While many of the guest appearances on Sunday morning talk shows are by Senators, Members of Congress, Administration and foreign government officials, they comprise a minority of the guests who appear on these programs. The substantial majority - 65% - of guests on these programs are journalists and non-federal government officials."