Blacks in the U.S. News and Newsrooms

Voices in a Century of Struggle

Mary Church Terrell,Black American leader,1907

There is a Conspiracy of Silence' in the American press so far as presenting the colored American side of the story. Anybody who makes him ridiculous or criminal can get a hearing, but his struggles and heartaches are tabooed.

Dorothy Gilliam: The Freedom Forum & Newseum News Vol.5 No.7 Aug 1998

The Kerner commission named by President Johnson fingered the press as one of the main culprits in having created two unequal Americas, one black and one white, because the press had failed to write and to report on the whole of America.

26% of the American population is made up of people of colour. By the year 2000, the projection is that number will be 30%. Today in American (print) media, people of colour only make up 12% of the entire [workforce.] Newspapers in America are still about 85% white.

All these struggles have been informed by the need to get more people as journalists, to get more diversity among journalists, to make the media more responsive. We are working not just for the betterment of out profession, [but also] for the betterment of our country.

David K. Shipler, Blacks in the newsroom Columbia Journalism Review May/June 1998, excerpts, p.26/27.

...the representation of blacks on news staffs has stagnated at a low plateau of under 6 percent, reports the American Society of newspaper editors.

"Minority reporters call our news meeting the 'Pale Male Club'" says a white reporter at The Sun in Baltimore.

Among white journalists surveyed by the Associated Press Managing Editors Association, 77 per cent agreed that " a news staff should reflect society in terms of racial/ethnic makeup," and 86 per cent thought that "a diverse newsroom staff strengthens news coverage and credibility."

Newsrooms are now 11.5 per cent minority and 5.4 per cent black; the country is 26 per cent minority and 13 per cent black.

Training Schemes in America
From Shipler 1998, p29.:

In a program named after the late columnist James Reston, for example, The New York Times takes on eight minority interns each summer to work in reporting, copy editing, photography, graphics, and design. The Times Company runs similar minority internships at its smaller papers. The Times Mirror chain hires recent college or journalism school graduates for two year stints. During the first year, ten minority trainees work as reporters at the Los Angeles Times, and eight as copy editors at Newsday; for the second year, they are assigned among the company's seven papers, including the Baltimore Sun. Of the 170 trained so far, 95 per cent have been offered full-time jobs, and 87 per cent are still in journalism.

The Chips Quinn Response
The Chips Quinn Scholars Program of the Freedom Forum has successfully recruited black men and women for professional journalism careers. Starting with six scholars in 1991, and with 248 alumni to date, the program creates training opportunities that open doors to newsrooms nation wide.

Fears for Future
Some advocates of affirmative action worry that the climate of aversion to the policy is being felt in newsrooms. "People are just not serious about it," says Vanessa Williams, a Washington Post reporter who is president of the National Association of Black Journalists. She complains that some publications are cutting back on internships, which "suggests to me that there is not a level of commitment."