America's Daily Newsrooms Dramatically Miss Ethnic Diversity Goals | NewsBusters.org

America's Daily Newsrooms Dramatically Miss Ethnic Diversity Goals | NewsBusters.org: "“Journalists of color represented only 13.87% of the staff in America's daily newsrooms in 2005, according to the American Society of Newspaper Editors' (ASNE) 29th annual newsroom census released Tuesday.”

Huh? Excuse me? Are these the same newsrooms that are constantly pointing fingers at American corporations as well as the Bush administration and the Republican Party for being bigoted and ethnically intolerant? After all, six of President Bush’s cabinet members are racial or ethnic minorities comprising 40 percent of the fifteen available positions. And, since 37.4 percent of Americans are considered to be part of a racial or ethnic minority according to the 2000 Census, America’s newsrooms are missing the goal of looking like America by fully 63 percent, while President Bush with his cabinet appointments exceeded this diversity goal by seven percent. In fact, as a percentage, President Bush appointed almost three times as many ethnic and racial minorities to his cabinet than currently work in America’s daily newsrooms

So, are these holier-than-thou organizations at least showing improvement in this regard? Hardly: “That percentage represented a nearly invisible increase from last year's census, which identified 13.42% of daily journalists as belonging to racial and ethnic minority groups.”"

I don't think quotas and stuff are a good idea, but the hipocrasy of the journalists and their managers is appalling.