Newspapers faulted for sports hirings

So on the one hand there seem to be so many white males, on this board and elsewhere, complaining that it's common for them to get passed over for jobs in favor of minorities and women. But on the other hand, when it's pointed out that minorities and women make up a very small portion of the workforce, the explanation is that there's not that many of them applying for jobs. Sorry, folks, but both of these cannot be true.

 

Bingo.

It makes no sense.

 

Were there more black sportswriters 40 years ago? Sure. There were more newspapers 40 years ago than there are now.

 

As I noted earlier, I've seen a high percentage of female hires leave the business entirely.

That's just one outpost reporting in.

During that time three males have left the business.

Two retired and one went to a website.

 

Agreed. And my point from the beginning is that we can't blame these big papers for not hiring a talent pool that just isn't widely available. It was blacks who chose to no longer support black owned newspapers which provided most black sportswriters employment.

 

I"m not sure what to expect from the racial breakdown of layoffs/downsizing when and if it does come out. My guess -- and it's only a guess -- is that whites will be trimmed in greater percentage than minorities because the buyout thing is about whacking older people off the payroll. If you look at the demographic of sportswriters 50+, I suspect that's a whiter group than the sportswriting populace at large.

 

Let's turn that on its ear a bit.

Do you disagree with my earlier point that a woman or a member of a racial minority with the desire to work in sports journalism will undoubtedly get a shot?

I think these stories about white men getting passed over for women or minorities who are less qualified points to just how small the pool of interested, qualified candidates truly is.

I have no doubt that these things happen. I know more than one editor who has admitted that they hired the minority candidate despite inferior qualifications or that they simply eliminated all white males from the pool before they even got started.

But it still doesn't create the diversity we should have in the business. We can debate diversity hires all day, in which case this thread will most assuredly not end well, but it just isn't solving the problem.

 

That's not factored into this survey, but it should be. Just in my newsroom alone, there have been 12 people completely leave the business in the last year. The breakdown is pretty staggering:

2 white males
2 black males
5 white females
3 black females

Now, I realize this is total newsroom, not sports (which, by the way lost a black male and white female), but it's definitely something to consider. Of the 12 that left the business completely, 10 were either minority, female or both. Hard to continue to be diverse when all your diversity is out looking for better-paying jobs.

 

This is where you could stop. I never said those things aren't taking place. There just isn't some minority cabal out there threatening to change the sportswriting landscape as some have made it out to be. There isn't some trend or a consistent pattern that's altered anything. These numbers have virtually stood still since the mid 70's, and what's being brought up in this thread isn't sighting some epidemic of rampant discrimination.

 

I don't know that anybody said "so many" were being passed over, just saying that it does happen.

At the same time, I think the argument on the other side is that there's not a bunch of "good ole boys" keeping the black man and females out of their sports department.

I think the facts are that, just like there probably aren't a lot of males that go into nursing (six percent according to a report in NurseWeek), there aren't a lot of females that go into sports writing.

As for minorities, that's what happens when you're a minority. When the entire collection of minorities (anyone not white) make up only 25% of American citizens, it's going to be tough to outnumber someone in anything.

 

And that's supposed to have some sort of leverage on things that may often happen on a consistent basis?

Things do happen because we're all human. The problem arises when things are allowed to happen often, and entire groups of people are affected. I simply don't see how the numbers being what they are reflect some wide scale problem.

I'm seeing isolated incidents being dressed up as consistent problems when the numbers are saying otherwise.

I think the other side of the argument should be that minorities aren't pursuing the field. You can't create that as the "other" argument that someone on the other side is a rarity.

Did this study site gender and racial discrimination as an issue?

 

No thanks. I'd prefer to make my entire point, not just the part you are interested in.

There have been posts on this thread, and the many other threads we have had on this general topic, suggesting that every white male who has ever thought he was passed over due to gender or race is deluding himself. So citing a little evidence to the contrary is part of the discussion.

Is it some widespread problem changing the face of the business? Of course not. The sports journalism job market is still dominated by white men.

Is it still wrong when somebody is passed over due to their race or gender, whatever their race and gender may be? Yeah, it is.

And my point is that diversity-driven hiring isn't getting the job done. At best, it is relatively useless without finding a way to get more women and more minorities interested in jobs in sports journalism.