Journalists Criticize Mainstream Media Coverage of Minorities

Three veteran journalists criticized the "mainstream media's" coverage of minorities and women at a roundtable discussion yesterday at the Kennedy School of Government.

"I have no respect for how the mainstream media covers race...It is a misnomer to say that the media covers racial issues. When they cover race they cover Black people," said former New York Times and Washington Post reporter Lee A. Daniels '71.

About 15 students and Nieman Foundation fellows in journalism attended the panel discussion of Black current and former journalists. titled "The Media and race in the '90s: Covering the 'Problem People," attracted about 15 students and Neiman Foundation fellows. Daniels was joined on the panel by 24-year WBZ-TV veteran Sarah-Ann Shaw and Los Angeles Times Washington Bureau reporter Sam Fulwood III.

Daniels and Fulwood decried the media's minority hiring practices. Daniels said the newspaper industry has made little headway in hiring more minorities in the last 25 years.

"In 1968, three percent of reporters and editors were of color and today the total minority representation in the media is around 10.2 percent. An overall increase of seven percent is not progress," Daniels said.

Fulwood said the industry has also failed to advance more women on the career ladder.

"The intransigence of the mainstream media to the inclusion and advancement to people of color and women is still present," Fulwood said.

The panelists also criticized how the media views Blacks through its coverage.

"The media perceives people outside of the mainstream as problems to be solved," Fulwood said. "Most Blacks who get in the paper are either athletes or criminals."