Last Updated: May 20, 1999
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Diversity
ASNE brings together participants of many backgrounds,
experiences, to discuss the goal beyond 2000; the message: keep diversity
goals and try to do better
There was disagreement, lots of it. m m m m m m m m mBut one message
came through loud clear from the Diversity Dialogue held Jan. 30 and 31
at The Freedom Forum Pacific Coast Center in San Francisco: at a minimum,
ASNE needs to retain its goal of having newsroom staffs reflect the racial-ethnic
mix of the country.
The meeting was a project of ASNE’s Diversity Committee, undertaken
as ASNE is considering whether it should continue into the next century
its Year 2000 goal of reaching racial-ethnic parity in newsrooms with the
general population. It brought together 78 officers and members of ASNE
and a variety of journalism organizations, to discuss where the industry
is in the effort to diversify newsrooms and where it ought to go.
Former ASNE president Loren Ghiglione, director of journalism programs
at Emory University in Atlanta, is preparing a report for the ASNE board’s
April meeting on the Society’s current and future diversity initiatives.
Ghiglione shared some preliminary thoughts on his project with the San
Francisco participants during a dinner session.
Participants observed that the issues surrounding the newsroom today
are more complex than they were 30 years ago when the Kerner Commission
report was issued.
"Society changed more rapidly than we expected," said Frank Blethen,
publisher of The Seattle Times. "The world has changed."
There was general agreement and lots of evidence presented that the
industry had progressed substantially since setting its Year 2000 Goal
in 1978. But there was also agreement that the industry has a long way
to go.
And what some participants termed "the tender topics" — what the definition
of diversity should be and whether ASNE should continue its current goal
of reaching parity in newsrooms — generated passionate and, at times, heated,
discussion.
The question of what the definition of diversity ought to be generated
the most disagreement.
Several participants, like Joseph Boyce, senior editor of The Wall Street
Journal, argued that the diversity definition and goals ought to remain
focused on increasing the numbers of minorities in the newsrooms.
"There are still people in this industry that would have Native American
journalists fighting with black journalists, fighting with Latino journalists,
fighting with Asian American journalists ... We haven’t gotten that job
done yet," Boyce said.
James Clark, assistant executive editor of The Orlando (Fla.) Sentinel,
agreed.
"We need to stick to the plan we haven’t met yet."
Stephen Montiel, president of the Oakland, Calif.-based Maynard Institute
of Journalism, said diversity today is multidimensional and intersects
race, gender, class, geography and sexual orientation. Newsroom diversity
should reflect the "wholeness of society," he said.
Joy Cook, president of Journalism & Women Symposium (JAWS), argued
that gender parity ought to be part of ASNE’s target. "I think it would
be very short-sighted in not having an all-inclusive goal," she said.
Still others noted that any diversity goal ought to include diversifying
the content of newspapers.
"I would never separate people from coverage ... You could have a staff
that’s 45 percent black and put out the whitest newspaper on the face of
the earth," said Milton Coleman, deputy managing editor of The Washington
Post.
Several participants contended that ASNE wasn’t taking a strong enough
role in pressuring members to diversify their newsrooms.
"ASNE needs to be more visible and show more leadership," said Vanessa
Williams, president of the National Association of Black Journalists. "It
seems like people of color are fighting on their own."
And while ASNE members are newspaper editors who are not bound by the
organization’s goals, Felix Gutierrez, Freedom Forum Pacific Coast Center
senior vice president and executive director who moderated the meeting,
noted, "The industry can’t mandate, but we know the power of peer pressure."
Gutierrez challenged the participants to seek "visionary ideas" on diversity
for the next century. Noting that the "solutions of the 1960s have been
applied to the 1990s," he urged editors and minority journalists organizations
to set higher goals and to develop bolder strategies for beyond 2000.
No votes were taken on the contentious issues but there seemed to be
general agreement that, at minimum, ASNE should not abandon its long-held
diversity goals.
That was a message that ASNE President Sandra Mims Rowe, editor of The
Oregonian, and Vice President Edward Seaton, editor-in-chief of The Manhattan
(Kan.) Mercury took away from the meeting.
"It was a difficult and challenging meeting as I think was appropriate
given the importance and significance of the subject," Rowe said.
She added that "people made it clear that they hold ASNE accountable"
for the lack of sufficient progress in the industry even though ASNE can’t
force members to do anything. It was an issue, she said, that deserves
more dialogue.
Seaton, who will take over as president in April, said the meeting was
valuable as ASNE prepares to reexamine its diversity goals. He said that
the issue would likely be taken up at the ASNE board of directors’ fall
meeting.
Rodriguez, chair of the Diversity Committee, is managing editor of
The Sacramento (Calif.) Bee.
