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Whitey Need Not Apply
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Race; Posted on: 2008-08-01 15:02:28 [ Printer friendly / Instant flyer ]
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“Will race be an issue in this campaign?”
By Patrick Buchanan
Hearing the cable talk-show host solemnly pose the question, I could not suppress a belly laugh.
For the anchor was fearful that some white folks might reject Obama because he is African-American — even as a Rasmussen poll was reporting that Barack is beating McCain among black voters 94 to 1.
What, other than race, explains how Barack rolled up 90-10 margins among black voters while running against Hillary Clinton, wife of the man novelist Toni Morrison dubbed “our first black president”?
Indeed, so one-sided was the primary coverage in favor of Barack as the first African-American with a real chance to be president, even “Saturday Night Live” took to mocking the mainstream media.
As for black radio, on “The Tom Joyner Morning Show,” “Michael Baisden Show” and “The Steve Harvey Morning Show,” which together may reach 20 million folks, there is “little pretense of balance,” writes Jim Rutenberg of The New York Times. “More often than not the Obama campaign is discussed as the home team.”
Black Entertainment Television plans to carry Barack’s speech to the Democratic convention live, but has no plans to carry McCain’s. Barack’s speech “is an historic occasion,” says BET Chairman Debra L. Lee, “so that demands some special treatment from us.”
As the mainstream media have moved left and talk radio right, and cable is breaking down along political and ideological lines, there is something else afoot now — the racial Balkanization of the newsroom.
Consider. On Sunday, 6,800 folks showed in Chicago for the 2008 quadrennial convention of UNITY: Journalists of Color. McCain declined an invitation. Bush had been booed at UNITY 2004, while John Kerry got a standing ovation. Featured speaker: Barack. Major concern of the journalists running the show: that their colleagues would lift the roof off the McCormick Place convention center when Barack arrived.
Said Luis Villareal, a producer of NBC’s “Dateline,” “I don’t think it’s such a bad thing if for 15 minutes you take off your reporter hat and respond to (Obama) as a human being at an event where you’re surrounded by people of color and you’re here for a united cause.”
And exactly what “cause” might the 10,000 members of UNITY be united behind? The hiring and advancement of journalists of color in all major news organizations in America.
For, as its emblem depicts, UNITY comprises four alliances: the Asian American Journalists Association, the National Association of Hispanic Journalists, the Native American Journalists Association and the National Association of Black Journalists.
“A New Journalism for a Changing World” is UNITY’s motto. And the title of its July 22 press release reveals what the “new journalism” is all about. “Aim of New UNITY Initiative Is More Diversity in Top Media Management.”
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News Source: Patrick Buchanan
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