During the recent National Association Of Black Journalist gathering in Philadelphia PA Michele Martin of NPR's "Tell Me More" looked at the condition of diversity in the nation's news rooms. Using the general population numbers as a reference the analysis is that "racial minorities" are underrepresented in the made stream news media (broadcast & cable television news and traditional newspaper print staffing).
The group entertained the question of if a minority who is rising through the ranks of journalism where he is asked to 'tone it down' can then later come along and provide the bombastic personality of a Bill O'Reilly or Rachel Maddow and thus compel a few million people to tune in to their cable television news analysis & opinion show on a nightly basis.
In my analysis the analysis presented during the NPR round up missed the mark. They pretended that the prevailing Black and (increasingly) Hispanic profile is not heavily correlated with a given ideological bent (progressivism). As such the very people driving for "racial diversity" in the newsroom will also be heard waging attacks against a "journalist of color" who dares think the wrong way.
In truth this is not a drive for racial diversity. This is a drive for racial diversity AND ideological homogeneity. The conjunction is inseparable in the minds of the most strident advocates for so-called "diversity". Those same people have been heard in the past saying "news media OVER-REPRESENTS the Black Conservative message - relative to their actual numbers in the Black community". Indeed there is an ideological component in this debate.
The "MSNBC-ification Of Black Political Discourse - Rev Al Sharpton and Melissa Harris-Perry On MSNBC - The "Un-Fox-Biased Biased Network"
While the diversity debate continues there has been several opportunities for us to appraise the performance of Blacks on prime-time cable news shows. The most recent being Sharpton and Harris-Perry as they substituted on "The Ed Show" and "The Rachel Maddow Show" respectively.
From my view as a critic of Black Progressive-Fundamentalist thought both of these guests proved their predecessor journalist George S. Schuyler correct - there is no such thing as an organic Black Progressive viewpoint. Is is ONLY "Mainstream Progressivism" with a covering of soot. "Lampblacked" if you will.
I have Ms Maddow pegged from more than a year of viewing her show. Despite being an masterful executor of "Keep Your Enemies On Trial So You Don't Have To Indict Your Friends For Their Failures"......Ms Maddow has some gaping holes in her shtick that should be noted - IF - you are interested in appraising her coverage based on its the proportionality to the real world.
She only includes viewpoints and "angles of attack" that support her left-wing/progressive world view. For example when it comes to the issues that are hammering Black America - failing schools, intramural violence - Ms Maddow is not going to open a week-long expose' on how Black people have been victimized by the shortcomings of the machine that we have supported into power over our key institutions. Ms Maddow is far more likely to make a generalized indictment of how conservative RACISM has resulted in the benign neglect that Black people suffer. When she makes reference to the comparative poverty and lower educational attainment rates that are found in the "Republican South" most of her Black viewers fails to understand..........she is talking about Black incompetence in the South .......not just the Republican state leadership.
Enter Prof Melissa Harris-Perry. I did not know who "this woman" was until my Tivo, stuck on MSNBC from my recordings from the night before brought her in as an expert guest to talk about assorted issues on race and poverty. I was initially astounded at her ability to ignore the issue at hand and always promote some issue of "Black inferiority" (of course caused by racism) that is at the root of the problem that she was invited in as "the race lady" to talk about.
The fact that Black people are STILL disproportionately represented in the ranks of poverty is used by this intellectual tag team as evidence of the need to continue to fight against the White-right wing forces that are denying the flow of the sticky nutrient-rich liquid called "Social Justice".
In their permanent struggle they are loathed to do analysis of the basic efficacy of the joint-venture alliance that Blacks and fellow White Progressives have invested in that was supposed to provide structural support for those who answer to the four letter word called "The Least Of These".
As such MSNBC and the prevailing Black political discourse as it has been hijacked today is NOT ABOUT "Black Community Organic Uplift". It is ONLY the starting offense line up in the "Malcolm X Political Football Game" that he so adeptly warned us about nearly 50 years ago.
When it comes to the question of "Black Faces On MSNBC" the question is not "what unique perspectives that are not heard in today's vanilla broadcast world". Instead the onus is to be placed on MSNBC and other progressive-media sources: "If the Black progressive talking head and keyboardist can turn out news content that is 100% inside of your progressive-fundamentalist block"......................."why then don't you treat them as a 100% EQUAL substitute for the White progressive who they so dutifully echo?"
Place a transcript from a White progressive and a Black progressive side by side. Redact the labels associated with the speaker. But for a few exceptions added in for "flavor" - the two passages will be indistinguishable. Thus we must wonder - WHY the MSNBC, NY Times and Washington Post have not given the Black sycophants a color blind fair chance in the newsroom.
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