I generally read Politico when it’s linked from somewhere, but I rarely go to their front door and can’t call myself a big fan, primarily because their reader’s comments are such a mess.

With that said, I will say that I seem to recall at least one woman from Politico being an “expert” on the health care reform effort for at least one of C-SPAN’s time-killing, phone-calling segments and she wasn’t the one in the photo, so it’s not like they’re keeping both of their women under a basket.

Still, good catch by Mr. Prince and Mr. Martin.
Hopefully Politico will see the error of their ways.

Oh brother. Should we just accept that everything is racial and this is never going to go away?

Once again CNN is judging people on the basis of skin color. Why don’t they start doing this in their sports coverage? Or looking at the percentage of African-Americans who voted for the white candidate in the last presidential election? Or at the attendees at the recent awards gathering for Rev. Wright and Farrakhan? But the race card is only played by the left, just as every time skin color is raised in the media, it is always by a Democrat.

Oh my God, what a shock!

Mr.Triplett, may we also see pictures of the staffs at Mediaite, Daily Kos, Huffington Post, MoveOn.org, and the Democratic Underground?

Think the majority would be white? You betcha!

come on, what a joke! I agree with Felix why does CNN take a close look at sports in America.
White people who stay in school and become qualified are in the positions.
Whites and Asians see school as a accepted part of our culture. Too few Blacks and Hispanics do.
Until the black community stops glorifying hip hop stars and start showing the youth that there are more black millionaires as chefs then rap stars I think that would be a great start.

They lack of people of color in the ‘new media’ is not a newsflash..I am sure photos of Mediaite staff’s lack an abudance of color as well…

CNN, was this part of their Black in America, part 2? Why is everything with them always about PC world. Roland Martin a patron saint of racism. This man has not uttered an objective phrase in 3 years.

The Black community does not glorify hip hop stars anymore than the white community glorifies rock stars..This type of backward and ignorant posting reflects why sites like Politico, Mediate, Etc reflect the lack of inclusion in their staffs..

Should I hold my breath waiting for equality in white organizations across our nation one would think after our nation’s twisted racial legacy of slavery, segregation, jim crow laws, profiling, disparate treatment and every manner of uncivil contempt for Black americans in the year 2010 these truths about the lack of diversity present in these media outlets would not be an issue…

After centuries of white racism, white privledge and white underdevelopment Enough already…

It’s pretty obvious, to be fair, we need to kill a whole lotta white people.

Hey Thrasher, what about all of the Black racism? Are you equally disgusted with that?

It time to stop this BS about diversity and affirmative action in the workplace, it’s a total waste of time, energy and MONEY. The so called feminist and minority’s leaders have blackmailed this country’s businesses for way to long. I can assure you that if that photo showed all females or all blacks you wouldn’t be hearing a thing about it. You don’t see Univision or BET have any whites do you, where’s the outrage there?

I started in broadcast in the 60’s and watched my affiliate’s have to put up with thug minority leader literally intimidate management to the point of exhaustion. And when they had to fire one, all for very good reasons, my god the amount of legal work required was insane because they were just looking for publicity and a paycheck anyway.

As for the quality of reporting, I’ve seen my local news go so PC by using more and more minority reporters of black and Hispanic race, mostly female, I just can’t watch it anymore because the on camera reporting looks like I’m watching the news at a high school level. They can’t pronounce most of the words or their accents are so thick you can’t understand them. Hell, one even has a lisp.

Hey Michelle,

What does Black racism have to do with White racism?? WHy are you deflecting? The topic is about white media outlets and the absence of diversity ( read Black staffers)..Please start your own thread if you want to discuss Black raism…I am sure in that discussion you will not have evidence of that equals the white racism in our nation…I am still searching for white americans being subject to slavery, lynching, castration, jim crow laws, ect caused by Black folks in our country..

Why are you deflecting? I’m sick of Black racists getting a pass. I’m no fan of politico, but this is getting insane. I think I speak for alot of people when I say we are getting sick to death of being labeled racist if we don’t agree with BO’s thug politics.

btw, as a mormon, my people have been persecuted murdered as well, so you don’t own the market on that. The difference is, I don’t blame people who weren’t alive at the time and you do.

I have it on good authority, namely my high school polo coach’s son’s next door neighbor’s sister’s husband’s secretary that, as we speak, thousands of Third World Black Kommunist doctors are congregating at AMS, CDG, FRA and LHR to fly out to the US tomorrow morning, or should I say mourning, to take over our health care system. Then, what will you say Thrasher?

Well, if you want to know persecution, you should step into my shoes, a White German-American Catholic male in the US. I can’t tell you how many times I ran home in tears after taunts of “Bratwurst Killer!” or “Pretzel Bender!” The stories I could tell you.

I’m not finding your sarcasm funny today.

Sorry, Michelle. I just think you need to lighten up. This was inevitable. Our system is crumbling. Getting out ahead of it a bit, although not that much, might just help fashion something better than a desperate bill would have. Even if it hadn’t passed, however, I don’t think I’d be given to such despair.

am_underground: “I started in broadcast in the 60’s and watched my affiliate’s…”

Wow. Thanks for that post–it was blunt!

I can’t lighten up, I’ve been sick to my stomach since this happened. Everyone agreed we needed changes in the system, but NOT this. Top dems are on record saying their goal it to take over the whole system and put private insurance out of business. This is not what the country was founded on. If people want socialism, then move to a socialist country. And please don’t try to convince me we’re not headed in that direction, because your leaders say otherwise.

I get a kick out of reading comments on this board. What is clear is that many folks don’t understand the realities of perception.

FelixW: You make a ridiculous comment about sports. OK. Have you ever walked into a press box on the high school, college and professional level? Or the sidelines? Or athletic directors? Trust me, it doesn’t look like the product on the field. Hmmm. There are two African Americans who run sports departments at newspapers. Yea, two. Your assumptions are pretty glaring.

By the way, you mentioned Rev. Wright. Did you forget that Trinity is the largest church in the predominantly white United Church of Christ’s denomination? Yea, a predominantly black church on 95th Street in Chicago is the largest in this denomination. Yep, they surely hate all white people!

AM_underground: You call it a waste of time. Really? We are a nation that will be a majority-minority country by 2050. You don’t think viewing the rest of America through the same lense is nonsense? Are you actually trying to tell me that having mostly white men decided the news every day, and having virtually no women in the room, is good for us? You speak of affirmative action. The greatest beneficiary of affirmative action since 1968 have been white women. Are you saying that has been bad for America? Do you even understand the nation’s racial history? One author argued about the G.I. Bill being a tremendous affirmative action program for white military men. Just imagine if black soldiers who wore the U.S. flag and fought for the country had the same right to college, purchasing homes, and jobs as their white counterparts. Would we be seeing the same disparities today? Please, don’t act like everything has always been equal.

I will always fight for diversity. I will always call out institutions that do not include us in decision-making positions. I will never surrender to the silliness of saying, “Hey, you’ve got a black president. That’s enough.” When the inequality gap is closed, then I’ll stop raising the point. But we are not there yet. This nation has gotten a helluva lot better, and things have changed. But we ARE NOT there yet.

@MichelleF: I can’t speak for Mr. Prince or Mr. Martin and I don’t subscribe to the mailing list, but pointing out a lack of diversity doesn’t necessarily equate to calls of racism and the circumstances at Politico has nothing to do with President Obama’s policies.

You are correct Magister, but the message is clear. It’s the same message that has been driven home since Obama was elected.

Roland,
And you are exactly what I was talking about when I talked about Blacks thinking it’s ok to trash others. I so DON’T enjoy your “work”.

You all don’t know that if Politico put a token on their board they would magically become a better source of news? That’s all it takes. According to Roland, perception is reality. Fair enough. I perceive you to be racist scum bag. So it must be real.

Roland,
Do you think a White Republican would have gotten a pass on saying that Hurrican Katrina was good for the schools there. Even though you may have a point, I’m just wondering if you think it would be treated the same.

Great to see Roland S. Martin on Mediaite!

No media operation is perfect and there is no guarantee that having a diversity of people in the room will necessarily make perfect news. But having a diversity of voices at the table–literally, in the case of Politico–means there is the possibility that a variety of perspectives will be considered and oversights won’t occur. Women bring a unique voice and perception to the news, so do African Americans and Latinos and Asians, so do gays and lesbians. For that matter, so do men, and whites, and straight people. Newsrooms need all kinds of diversity–gender, race, sexual orientation, ideological, religious–and that something that Politico thinks is important too, based on the quotes to Prince.

More highlights from Roland’s “distinguished” career:

“If the villain in a movie comes up and says, ‘I love you very much,’ that usually means he wants to kill you. The fact is that Bill O’Reilly is a guy who has made a career demeaning, degrading, and devaluing every black institution he can get his hands on…. You know, he’s about like Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, when it comes to making ridiculous assertions and waiting for people to respond.”

Juan Williams sitting there, is sort of the ‘Happy Negro’ agreeing with Bill O’Reilly, doesn’t impress me at all. A man cannot walk into your home and congratulate your mother for not being a prostitute and not expect you to be offended.”

The only diversity that means anything is ideological diversity. You know nothing about those people except that they are white. You are assuming that if they put a token on their editorial board they will somehow gain some new magical perspective that is just out of reach to them now because of their whiteness. That is completely stupid.

Mr. Martin, when do you forsee a time in our future that we are all declared Americans, sans any ” / ” or ” – “? If it is 2050 like you noted would the Politico staff then be acceptable because it contains all minorities? While you fight for diversity I’ll fight for color-blindness.

FishbowlDC is reporting that one of those top women at Politico is leaving, to join the Wall Street Journal. Politico’s features editor Pia Catton is leaving after less than a year

http://www.mediabistro.com/fishbowlDC/the_revolving_door/politicos_pia_catton_to_wsj_and_big_apple__155898.asp?c=rss

Dear god, Roland should never have commented. Some people on here enjoy calling all blacks reverse racists in about nearly every discussion.

@aikidojoe: I’m so glad that you believe being color blind is all that matters. I’m sure that the poverty difference of 8.6% for Caucasian and 24.7% for Blacks/African-Americans is just a mere coincidence as well. I’m sure gentrification has nothing to do with that. I’m sure that persons who are Latino and Black fully agree that it does not really matter what your color is. Give me a break. The fact that black and latino people are overrepresented in the statistics of poverty and crime tells you there is a huge division and race is correlated.

If you are qualified for the position you are fit for the job. This is not a color thing…

The black people need to start putting education first and stop whining and being victims on everything that happens. They need to look in a mirror and start fixing things themselves instead of blaming everyone else and calling people racist.. Black Americans are only 12% of the American population. so out of every 100 people in a company you should see 12 black people …. that would be a perfect work diversity for most companies.

But the majority of inner city blacks raise there children to be victims the moment they are born and to depend on the government. that is one of many reasons why you see less Blacks in top positions.

The inner city blacks raise their children as best they can, but it is a little bit harder to raise them when the father is in jail, the mother has to work multiple jobs, funds for inner-city schools are being diverted to private (for profit) school vouchers. Those lucky enough to make it out of the inner-cities are rarely seen again. The socioeconomic situation that takes place in the cities is not as simple as you make it. Its not a black thing that people are raised as victims, its a human condition there. Not many who grow up in the city are fortunate to make it out on top…that is true of all races. Its a perpetual cycle of brain drain.

Roland, I heard that at the recent award dinner for Rev. Wright and Louis Farrakhan, that there only two white people in attendance. Does that make this a racist gathering?

The starting line-up for many basketball teams is all black. Does this make them racists?

All of the affirmative action scholarships at the local college went to non-whites. Does that make the college a racist institution?

Or do you simply look at skin color when you want, and ignore it when you want?

“I heard that at the recent award dinner for Rev. Wright and Louis Farrakhan, that there only two white people in attendance. Does that make this a racist gathering? ”
—No it does not make it a racist gather, just as 500 white people gathering together doesn’t make it a racist gathering.

“The starting line-up for many basketball teams is all black. Does this make them racists?”
—No, just as in baseball a lineup of all white guys doesn’t make that team racist, or all white nordic skiers doesn’t make that sport racist.

“All of the affirmative action scholarships at the local college went to non-whites. Does that make the college a racist institution?”
—DO you know what affirmative action is? I don’t think affirmative action is racist.

“Or do you simply look at skin color when you want, and ignore it when you want?”
—You cannot look at skin color alone, its the totality of the situations that people are in. Pretending that everything is all peace, love and harmony in the inner city is just bunk. People who live in the inner city (predominately populated by black and latino) don’t have it easy, and claiming that they should just pull themselves up by their bootstraps is naive. When there are generation after generation who grew up illiterate, that is bound to have an impact on future generations.

I think you are failing to understand how huge an impact of where one grows up has on a persons future. There have been studies done that actually measured exactly that, and the results aren’t surprising. Take a family, move them to the ‘burbs and kid improves in school, graduation rate is higher, college acceptance is higher, etc. People should fail on their own merit, unfortunately many people in the cities don’t ever get a good chance to even try to succeed with the lack of a quality environment.

Michelle,

Please spare me the I am a mormon excuse your religion has a ugly racist legacy with regard to Black folks.. BTW I have no problem with indicting racists dead or alive..

Colorblindness: Backward mantra and convention..It is not progressive to disregard what cultural legacy one brings into the marketplace….I value people and companies that do not ignore the hue and ethic factors..To be colorblind is foolish on so many levels

Roland, if Reverend Wright isn’t against white people, why is he best buddies with Louis Farrakhan, who has referred to whites as ‘blue eyed devils’ and ‘the anti-Christ’, and referred to Judaism as a ‘gutter religion’? Ignoring racism in your own people doesn’t help, Roland.

My point is a simple one. Judging anyone by the color of their skin is wrong. That is true whether the person is an editor at Politco or a point guard in the NBA. What we are seeing now in the media is blatant hypocrisy. If a press photo shows seven white people, this is seen as sufficient to label the gathering as a racist one. But if a photo shows seven black people, this is not considered by the same standards.

You can’t have it both ways. Either you judge people by the color of their skin, or you don’t. And if you fall into the former group, the usual name for what you are doing is racism.

“Look at the content of a person’s character, not their color.” Now who was it who said that? Let’s see……

@felixw

You’re point is naive. Sure, judging a person on the color of their skin is wrong. However, when a news organization has such a lack of diversity in race, religion, gender, etc they are being blinded by group-think. A diversity of people from different backgrounds brings new and insightful perspectives that others may never have even taken into account.

In other words, let’s set up quotas based on skin color.

Do what you want….I prefer to hire people who bring a diversity of experiences to tasks at hand.

When hispanics become the majority, who will we lay the guilt trip on?

Why are you feeling guilty?

Nope. That’s a liberal thing.

Funny–I always thought that was more a catholic thing

C’mon Marcus, be honest. I travel a lot, and watch the local news when I am on the road. Every local news broadcast I see, always has at least one African-American, one Hispanic, etc. Even if there are only five or six on-air personalities, they will always represent these groups. Yet, if you looked at the distribution of the population, you would be forced to conclude that African-Americans are getting more of these jobs than their overall distribution in the population.

So if you criticize Politco, because there are six whites in the photo, in fairness you need to criticize the tokensim and reverse racism at these local news channels all over the country. And if you don’t, you’re a hypocrite.

I repeat, the only honest and ethical solution to this is to stop judging people by the color of their skin.

Well, let me just say this

There’s a reason Harris won’t give you numbers. The numbers are pathetic. Then again, what do you expect? The parent company (Allbritton) recently held a company meeting and every person that stood before the audience making a speech or giving out awards was…you guessed it…a white guy. Oh. There was one exception. You guessed it…the human resources director.

@felixw

The local news people are just figureheads reading from a teleprompter. They are not the ones who select the stories. Yes, local stations have people on the news who represent the community they are in. However, I don’t know how often or diverse your local news viewing is, but I’ve seen all white news personalities, all non-white and mixed. It varies from market to market.

I never criticized Politico directly. Also there is no such thing as reverse racism. Racism is racism for goodness sakes and while you are at it–perhaps actually you should look up the definition of racism. Being overrepresented in a particular field is not racism, nor is under-representation. I have not said that Politico has racist undertones–the problem I criticize with them (and other news places) is the fact that they seem to lack a diversity of persons from differing environments.

Hey, CNN, how about quizzing the NBA on why they don’t have short Jewish guys playing basketball, it looks to me like they are all tall black guys. Should the NFL show some diversity and let some small Muslim women wearing their scarfs have a chance to make a million bucks a game. Perhaps Politico simply hires good news veterans to put out a decent product. Maybe they should hire the New York Times reporter Jayson Blair or even Janet Cooke who made up stories about drug addiction in a kid in DC. These reporters were hired due to a desire to have diversity in the newsroom and allowed to stay longer than they should have for the same reason. Did Martin Luther King say something about character being more important than skin color? We were fools to fall for that line.

So we see a room full of white faces and assume there’s no diversity. That assumption is racism writ about as large as it can be written. I am sick of the implication that something is always and automatically wrong with being white. Keep this up and we’ll see a lot more of the hostile results that we see on even this comment thread.

The million man march was obviously racist, since it was a large gathering of black men.

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