Correspondents report racist, biased news
Pharoh Martin/NNPA National Correspondent
Issue date: 9/20/09 Section: Politics
WASHINGTON (NNPA) - The gatekeepers of political opinion on cable are doing nothing to curb the increasingly incinerate and oft times blatantly false rhetoric coming from their political hosts and commentators against political figures of color such as President Obama and Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor.
Therefore, advocates are going for the jobs of conservative pundits like CNN's Lou Dobbs and FOX's Glenn Beck, who have made some of the most inflammatory statements.
"In recent months, we've seen a ramping up of the most hateful rhetoric," said Stephanie Jones, executive director of the National Urban League Policy Institute.
In August, Jones wrote a letter to the heads of all three of the major cable news networks and NBC for giving the one-sided platform for such incendiary points-of-views.
"We wrote to you in October 2008 to urge you to increase the racial diversity of your political and policy coverage in order to meet your obligation to present fair and accurate information to your viewers and to prevent the increasingly frequent dissemination of dangerous myths on your programs," Jones wrote in the letter addressed to network presidents Roger Ailes of FOX News, Steve Capus of NBC News, Phil Griffin of MSNBC, and Jonathan Klein of CNN.
Jones specifically targeted conservative talking heads Lou Dobbs, Pat Buchanan, Glenn Beck and Michele Malkin in her letter.
"While differing perspectives are welcome, these persons not only often blatantly misrepresent facts, the views they express are so extreme and reckless that they have no place on the public airwaves," the letter states. "The fact that such hosts and commentators are given expansive and consistent exposure on your programs, while minority hosts and guests are still all-too-rare, makes this situation even more unacceptable."
These shows very rarely have African-American hosts, Jones said. She said when African Americans are presented as guests they are almost always paired up with another guest to talk about race or politics but are almost never presented as experts.
Therefore, advocates are going for the jobs of conservative pundits like CNN's Lou Dobbs and FOX's Glenn Beck, who have made some of the most inflammatory statements.
"In recent months, we've seen a ramping up of the most hateful rhetoric," said Stephanie Jones, executive director of the National Urban League Policy Institute.
In August, Jones wrote a letter to the heads of all three of the major cable news networks and NBC for giving the one-sided platform for such incendiary points-of-views.
"We wrote to you in October 2008 to urge you to increase the racial diversity of your political and policy coverage in order to meet your obligation to present fair and accurate information to your viewers and to prevent the increasingly frequent dissemination of dangerous myths on your programs," Jones wrote in the letter addressed to network presidents Roger Ailes of FOX News, Steve Capus of NBC News, Phil Griffin of MSNBC, and Jonathan Klein of CNN.
Jones specifically targeted conservative talking heads Lou Dobbs, Pat Buchanan, Glenn Beck and Michele Malkin in her letter.
"While differing perspectives are welcome, these persons not only often blatantly misrepresent facts, the views they express are so extreme and reckless that they have no place on the public airwaves," the letter states. "The fact that such hosts and commentators are given expansive and consistent exposure on your programs, while minority hosts and guests are still all-too-rare, makes this situation even more unacceptable."
These shows very rarely have African-American hosts, Jones said. She said when African Americans are presented as guests they are almost always paired up with another guest to talk about race or politics but are almost never presented as experts.
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