Date: Monday, February 08, 2010, 8:02 am
By: Deborah Mathis, BlackAmericaWeb.com
Sarah Palin, the Dona Quixote of American politics, has coined a new disparaging term for the U.S. media. At the weekend’s Tea Party Movement convention in Nashville, she referred to the major newspaper, news magazines, news radio, television and cable networks as the “lamestream” media.
As a long-time practitioner of the news business, I take offense only because it comes from an intellectual short-sheet like Palin. For one particular reason, I find the coinage befitting.
That reason is the mainstream media’s inability to recognize their own dishonorable habits in, year after year, showcasing primarily white and predominantly white male commentators – the folks who, arguably, steer public opinion in ways that most duly elected officials can only wish for.
After all, it is radio blowhard Rush Limbaugh, who is the undisputed vicar of ultra conservatism, causing titled men and women to bow in contrition when they challenge or ever so gently criticize him or his views. And it was the loony and paranoid Glenn Beck who energized the Tea Party clan at its dawning. And it is the fire-breathers at Fox News who keep the right wing astir.
The left has its own stable of opinion shapers – Olberman, Maddow, Shultz and such – but no matter which aisle you visit, there is a stark lack of ethnic diversity. Even with a black man in the White House, even with the increasing “browning” of America, even with a high demand for “talking heads” to satisfy the 24-hour-news maw - the universe of reporters, editors, producers, bookers and hosts can’t seem to find but three or four recyclable black and Latino people to lend perspective to developments.
Consider the National Urban League Policy Institute’s 2005 study of Sunday morning talks shows on the five major cable and broadcast networks. Between January 2001 and June 2005, the Institute found, 60 percent of the shows had no black guests, either as newsmakers or news commentators and analysts. In other words, the networks found nothing of value in anything black folks had to say or think about 18 months of news, events and developments.
On this, the national media are incorrigible.
In the summer of 2001, as a fellow at Harvard’s Shorenstein Center, I published a case study that tracked 158 regularly scheduled network and cable news talk shows between November 7 and December 11, 2000, when all of the country was caught up in the controversy over – and awaiting finality in – the presidential election.
You will recall that the election disaster had a powerful racial subtext, which is usually the trigger point for turning to African-American sources. Yet, not even that got the diversity juices flowing. The disparity in bookings along racial lines was obscene.
On the Sunday talk show circuit, for example, appearances by blacks were outnumbered by whites 134 to one.
“Some say they have no special responsibility to seek out people of color for commentary,” Janine Jackson of Fairness and Accuracy in Media told me at the time. “I think there really is an ideological disagreement here. It’s simply good journalism to try to get a range of perspectives on a story and specifically to try to get the perspectives of a particular community that is impacted by the story. That’s not social engineering. That’s journalism.”
Recently, C-SPAN, which prides itself on shooting straight down the middle, explained that it would not be adding Roland Martin’s “Washington Watch” program to its Sunday radio rebroadcasts, telling the Maynard Institute's Richard Prince that it rebroadcasts the five major networks’ Sunday talk shows “because they regularly generate national news coverage and influence the policy debate in Washington.”
In the few months since his .....
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Who the hell is Deborah Mathis?
by
Nellar2002
February 11, 2010, 4:39 pm
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It is not the mainstream media's fault. It's BET, TVOne, we have to create our own talk shows! We even have to create our own Tea Party! We have to quit complaining about them not letting us play and create what we want..Our ancestors did it with colleges, churches, etc.. Stop it please!!!!!
by
Demp109
February 9, 2010, 1:19 pm
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First: We serve a RISEN Savior in Jesus Christ who has a plan
Second: We MUST shun hardcore rap to rid our minds of its mentalities.
Because lemme tell yall, the biggest fear of politics in this world (especially the US) is to have a multitude of - and increasing talent (educated) pool of minorities, as that happening will signal the fall of capitalism.
Rather than being so confrontational and easily irritated by racism, lets us tarry along a different route and funnel our time to educating the youth, at all costs
by
A_day_in_the_life
February 8, 2010, 2:39 pm
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Look yall, its pretty obvious what the deal is with the whole Tea Party movement.
I dont even think having a "media opposition" is worth the time nor money. As I said, our best hope is to provide our kids with an understanding that...
(to be continued above....)
by
A_day_in_the_life
February 8, 2010, 2:35 pm
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She's a joke, but yall are getting yourselves all worked up over this joke aka Palin.
She's whack, but thing is, thats the kinda beliefs the US was founded on...Shady Cadences
Yall dont let this woman and Fox News work you up and disillusion you from making our communities better
Again, the key is that we MUST educate our future to give them a chance. MUST. The more you all worry about her, the less we can work to secure the intellect of our future
by
A_day_in_the_life
February 8, 2010, 2:27 pm
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