African Americans out- Former Governor Elliot Spitzer Gets Primetime CNN Show

[NovaSkegee]

June 23, 2010

Former Governor Elliot Spitzer Gets Primetime CNN Show

CBS News

http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-503544_162-20008567-503544.html



CNN announced today that former New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer, who resigned from office following revelations that he had visited a prostitute, will be the host of a new primetime show on the network.


Spitzer, a Democrat, will appear in the 8:00 p.m. time-slot along with conservative columnist Kathleen Parker in a as-yet-unnamed show that sounds somewhat similar to CNN's former liberal-vs.-conservative program "Crossfire."


"Other cable news channels force-feed viewers one narrow, predictable point of view; in contrast, CNN will be offering a lively roundup of all the best ideas - presented by two of the most intelligent and outspoken figures in the country," CNN/U.S. president Jon Klein said in a statement. "Eliot and Kathleen are beholden to no vested interest - in fact, quite the opposite: they are renowned for taking on the most powerful targets and most important causes."


Parker, who describes herself as a "rational" conservative, wrote a column in 2008 calling for an "out of her league" Sarah Palin to remove herself from the Republican presidential ticket; she has won the Pulitzer Prize for Commentary for her syndicated columns.


Spitzer, meanwhile, has been steadily rehabilitating his image since his fall from grace in March 2008, appearing regularly on cable news shows, teaching and penning a column for the online magazine Slate. He complained to Time Magazine of his boredom earlier this year, saying, "When you have nothing to do all day, you eventually start yelling from the rafters."


In the CNN release, Spitzer says he is "grateful to CNN for the opportunity to co-host a show that will advance the discussion of the defining issues of our time."

The new show will take over the timeslot formerly held by Campbell Brown, who stepped down last month with an acknowledgement that her ratings were lagging.

[NovaSkegee]

CNN will not give a talented African American their own show on CNN in Primetime.

Yet, they will give a job to Elliot Spitzer.

Elliot Spitzer was born and raised in The Bronx, to Jewish real estate tycoon Bernard Spitzer. Spitzer's parents moved from Austria to New York's Lower East Side after World War I.

On March 10, 2008, The New York Times reported that Spitzer had previously patronized a high-priced prostitution service called Emperors Club VIP and met for over two hours with a $1,000-an-hour call girl going by the name Ashley Alexandra Dupré (legal name Ashley Rae Maika DiPietro, born Ashley Youmans).

Spitzer had at least 7 or 8 liaisons with women from the agency over six months, and paid more than $15,000.

According to published reports, investigators believe Spitzer paid up to $80,000 for prostitutes over a period of several years while he was Attorney General, and later as Governor.

[DRUMMA1]

Booooo!!

When Campbell Brown was on maternity leave, she had Rowland Martin sit in for her during those few weeks and he had that show jumpin. lol.  The format, music, and panelists were all on point.   

[Brother Tony]

 

[NovaSkegee]

Booooo!!

When Campbell Brown was on maternity leave, she had Rowland Martin sit in for her during those few weeks and he had that show jumpin. lol.  The format, music, and panelists were all on point.   

I think there's so many great journalist out here that are African American that do excellent research and have excellent presentation ....but, CNN and MSNBC will not allow these people to host their own shows. These stations only allow African Americans read the news and do the little short news interviews. But, they don't have them on the political talk shows.

CNN all too often will not have people of color on their panel discussion. They have all the same folks that you see all the time doing these talks and critiques.

[westcoastaggie]

Booooo!!

When Campbell Brown was on maternity leave, she had Rowland Martin sit in for her during those few weeks and he had that show jumpin. lol.  The format, music, and panelists were all on point.   

I enjoyed it too when Martin was Campbel's replacement. But when Roland took over, the ratings really went down and never recovered. I hate to say it but many whites who watch these programs want to watch programs that reinforce their viewpoints rather than watch a show that tells both sides of the story and forces them to decide for themselves on issues.   

[westcoastaggie]

Booooo!!

When Campbell Brown was on maternity leave, she had Rowland Martin sit in for her during those few weeks and he had that show jumpin. lol.  The format, music, and panelists were all on point.   

I think there's so many great journalist out here that are African American that do excellent research and have excellent presentation ....but, CNN and MSNBC will not allow these people to host their own shows. These stations only allow African Americans read the news and do the little short news interviews. But, they don't have them on the political talk shows.

CNN all too often will not have people of color on their panel discussion. They have all the same folks that you see all the time doing these talks and critiques.

White people, who out number African-Americans and other non whites, just don't watch.

[DRUMMA1]

Great points, WestCoastAggie.

[Ken]

I got an idea, why not get some investors and start our OWN network.

[Bison 4 Life]

Thought a black president would lead to more diversity on cable news? Wrong. Since November 2008, the TV landscape has only gotten whiter. Rachel Sklar on what changed between Obama’s election and the hiring of Eliot Spitzer.

CNN just announced two new hosts for the 8 p.m. prime time hour recently vacated by Campbell Brown: Eliot Spitzer and Kathleen Parker. Last week, MSNBC announced that the new host for its 10 p.m. prime time show would be network staple Lawrence O’Donnell. What do these three people have in common (and thankfully for O’Donnell and Parker, it’s not being caught with your socks down with a prostitute)? Pretty obvious: They’re white.

They’re white like Chris Matthews is white, like Bill O’Reilly is white and Keith Olbermann is white, like Wolf Blitzer is white and Megyn Kelly is white and John King is white and Ed Schultz, Greta Van Susteren, Jake Tapper, Joe Scarborough, Bob Schieffer, David Gregory, Chris Wallace, Rachel Maddow, and Dylan Ratigan are white, not unlike the lion’s share of their guests.

“No one would have thought that, when there was finally a black president, TV would get whiter.”

Flip through the channels and there is no denying it: The world of cable news—and their network chat-show brethren—is very, very white.


http://www.thedailybeast.com/blogs-and-stories/2010-06-24/msnbc-cnn-fox-cable-news-is-very-white/?cid=hp:beastoriginalsC5[/url]
[url]

[Valley Girl]

If we just report the news then we're "safe"....if we give an opinion then somehow we're "angry"

[soflorattler]

Thought a black president would lead to more diversity on cable news? Wrong. Since November 2008, the TV landscape has only gotten whiter.

Not only the cable news shows. Have you been paying attention to commercials over the same period? Black faces have continually been disappearing from mainstream TV media promotions. I look at it like this- If I don't see anyone who looks like me in a commercial, I don't buy that product, no matter how good or cheap it is. Market quality products to me, and I'll buy or recommend your products.

[westcoastaggie]

Open Letter: NABJ Questions Diversity on Cable News Networks

Dear Cable News Executives:

It is 2010, but the National Association of Black Journalists sees our cable news networks moving backward when it comes to who they believe is worthy of anchoring prime time news shows.

NABJ was founded in 1975 to encourage news media companies to hire and to promote more Black journalists. At that time, black journalists originally hired to cover riots during the turbulent 1960s found they were not being assigned to meaningful beats or were only allowed to cover “Black” stories.

NABJ’s advocacy for fair hiring practices paid off. Many of our founders, including columnists Les Payne in New York and DeWayne Wickham in Washington, D.C., and anchor Maureen Bunyan in Washington, D.C. remain prominent figures in the media.

NABJ continues this advocacy today. To be candid, we have been focusing our talks with media executives on ways they can increase the diversity of their news management teams. It is our belief that a diverse management team improves coverage decisions and hiring practices. It seems, though, that the companies have taken that to mean that we don’t care about who is on the air. We’re watching, and we do.

Over the past several years, NABJ Executive Board members have met with leaders of the top media companies. Our message: “Let us help if you are looking for diverse talent.”

Some of the companies have reached out, but the names we have submitted never seem to be called in for interviews.

Three years ago, Ebony magazine's Kevin Chappell noted, “While CNN has the most Black news anchors with eight, the other cable networks don’t fair as well... and none of the national cable stations has any Blacks in prime-time slots.”
(http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1077/is_10_62/ai_n19378633/)

Nothing has changed. NABJ questions CNN’s decision to hire former New York governor/attorney general Eliot Spitzer to co-host a new show in Campbell Brown’s old time slot. The company missed another opportunity to place a person of color in prime time. It just seems that cable news can never find diverse candidates who are good enough to meet their standards. We want to know your standards.

Are you telling us that CNN could find no one better than an ex-politician who quit being New York governor after consorting with prostitutes to grace America’s living rooms each night?

CNN does have Tony Harris anchoring in the morning, and Fredericka Whitfield, T.J. Holmes, and Don Lemon on the weekends. But that’s not prime time. The same can be said about MSNBC which last week named veteran Lawrence O’Donnell as the anchor of its new 10 p.m. show.

"In his story, Chappell talked with NABJ Member and CBS News anchor Russ Mitchell who summed up what many of us have witnessed over the years. Mitchell told Ebony "I've been to journalism conferences over and over again, and heard some executive say 'I'd like to hire more African-Americans, but I just can't find any qualified ones out there.' That was b.s. then, and that's b.s. now."

NABJ couldn’t agree more.

Sincerely,

The National Association of Black Journalists


FYI: I am a Student Member of the NABJ and I totally agree with this open letter.

[Bison 4 Life]

I wish TvOne and BET would funnel more cash into their news operations.

[EB]

I wish TvOne and BET would funnel more cash into their news operations.

This is good point.  I was thinking about "what if" BET had a larger or real news operation.