Diversity takes another hit in journalism

Gotta agree with Mizzou. Minorities aren't the only ones taking a hit these days.

And this stood out to me:

So say the Podunk Press has 10 reporters — four white, two black, two asians, two hispanics.
Four of the six — let's say one from each group — is laid off. Guess what? The percentages for the minorities is going to be higher, simply because there's fewer to begin with. That's unfortunate. But at the end of the day you still have four unemployed journalists. And that's depressing. It feels like counting how many fish you've caught when the boat is filling with water.

 

yadayadayadayada...

Shall we ensure that journalists are shipped out to the firing line in proportion to their racial balance in the population at large? Would that make you happy? :

Jesus H. Tapdancing Christ ... you're pissing in a fucking monsoon here.

 

It's still important.

Doesn't mean it should be on the front burner, considering the state of the industry. But it IS important to the industry that anyone who isn't white and male (and often middle-aged) likely doesn't feel very represented by their community's newspaper. I know mine isn't.

 

To dismiss this because times are tough would be to argue that diversity is something done to be "nice" when it is convenient to be nice -- that it has not been an obligation, that it has not been for the good of the business and the greater good of society, that it has been only for show. That would certainly be the case on some newspapers but not on all of them.

And, diversity issues aside, does anyone really want to argue that the current systems of staff reduction are based on merit?

I see no reason why an easy out of any kind ought to be granted to those who are ultimately responsible for the decisions currently being made. Most of these decisions have been shortsighted, and the people making them should be accountable for those decisions -- all of them. And no less on this issue. If it is too tough for them, perhaps they should step down.

 

During my tenure at The Former Paper, the newsroom eliminated the only beat that was required to have a bilingual reporter staffing it (the name of the beat was 'south county', but it was responsible for basically all the immigration and Border Patrol coverage). Various reasons were given. The fact that his spot generally commanded a higher salary was not really brought up.

There was one reporter in features who spoke Spanish due to her family background and she was pretty much forced to cover anything that involved talking to people who did not speak English. Border Patrol coverage was folded into the cops beat and some of our more interesting stories disappeared because the poor bastard on cops didn't have time to focus on anything that wasn't breaking. The paper ran a Spanish-language weekly that was supposed to pick up our coverage, but it had already been pulling the bulk of its hard news border copy from the daily, so most of our "south county" coverage just evaporated.

This was in a border, Hispanic-majority town.

This went way beyond a "diversity" problem. We were fundamentally ignoring and fucking up covering a major part of our community. And I do think the slowness of newspapers to recognize the importance of the Hispanic population shift is one of the bigger factors in their downfall. Not the biggest, but if there was a top-ten list it'd be on it.

 

The logical explanation for this would be "last hired, first fired," but at many papers, the older, higher-paid staffers have been the ones whacked first.

 

I have seen great equality in the demographic makeup of the potential customer base that is not subscribing to or buying ads in their local newspapers.

It cuts across color lines, age lines, gender lines.

There's yer diversity for ya.

 

The irony here - - I'll stop a bit short of calling it hypocrisy - - is that most US newspapers in their editorial stances during the "good economic times" were four-square behind each and every diversity concept that might have applied to some other industry or government entity. It was all good; only benefits could abound; it was nothing more than best business practices...

Now that the "good economic times" have gone elsewhere and cuts have to be made, it is indeed interesting to see how the champions of all the good that "diverty in and of itself necessarily brings to the table" handle their cutbacks.

Cue Arte Johnson here ... Verrrry Interesting!

 

Drip _ yes, the answer is yes. Where I live, and once worked, only WASP males aged 50 still have sports columns. And they ain't cute guys, either. The place used to have a mod squad look, not to everyone's taste, but a bit more global village...

 

Lets ask all the unemployed people what they think about diversity in the newsroom right now.

 

Malos hombres
Malos hombres
¿Qué van a hacer?
¿Qué van a hacer cuando vienen para ustedes?

;D