The National Association of Black Journalists wrote a letter to CNN and all the cable news channels about their concerns for lack of black anchors in the news stations. Black Voices reported that they were “working backwards on diversity” which to me can be true. The letter was brought to surface by former New York Govener Elliot Spitzer an anchor at CNN. Here is a snippet of the letter that was written:
Three years ago, Ebony magazine’s Kevin Chappell noted, “While CNN has the most Black news anchors with eight, the other cable networks don’t fair as well… and none of the national cable stations has any Blacks in prime-time slots.”Find this article here.
Nothing has changed. NABJ questions CNN’s decision to hire former New York governor/attorney general Eliot Spitzer to co-host a new show in Campbell Brown’s old time slot. The company missed another opportunity to place a person of color in prime time. It just seems that cable news can never find diverse candidates who are good enough to meet their standards. We want to know your standards.
Are you telling us that CNN could find no one better than an ex-politician who quit being New York governor after consorting with prostitutes to grace America’s living rooms each night?
CNN does have Tony Harris anchoring in the morning, and Fredericka Whitfield, T.J. Holmes, and Don Lemon on the weekends. But that’s not prime time. The same can be said about MSNBC which last week named veteran Lawrence O’Donnell as the anchor of its new 10 p.m. show.
for the full article, http://www.bvonmoney.com/2010/06/30/national-association-of-black-journalists-goes-after-cnn-cable/
Now N.A.B.J has brought forth a good point. Although CNN is more diverse than any other cable news I do not think they do enough. I agree with them saying that the lame excuses for “lack of qualified candidates” are why news stations are lacking color. I happen to be bred from a very prestigous school, Hampton University, where the Scripps Howard School of Journalism has crafted many professionals that would be dying to become anchors for a News channel. I believe that the face of our nation is now colorful and it needs to be seen through our news, our governement, and our lives. Way to go N.A.B.J let’s take action, so all of these recent journalism graduates can get a job, JEESH!
Reesa Speaks 