Racial bean-counting at the NYTimes
Crikey. The NYTimes devotes a huge article to counting political pundits by race and ethnicity to show how “diverse” campaign coverage is getting. Count the racial beans and call it “progress:”
Black commentators under 40 at CNN, like the journalist and radio host Roland S. Martin; Amy Holmes, a conservative strategist and a former senior speechwriter for Bill Frist, Republican of Tennessee, the former Senate majority leader; and Jamal Simmons, a Democratic strategist, Obama supporter and veteran press spokesman with international experience, have been “breakout stars” this election, Professor Newkirk said.
“They bring such a fresh perspective that we are unaccustomed to hearing in the mainstream media,” she said. “Hopefully, the value of having different perspectives will be appreciated beyond this historic campaign.”
The 2008 lineup at CNN also includes Alex Castellanos, a Cuban-born Republican strategist, and Leslie Sanchez, a Mexican-American Republican strategist who has also appeared on Fox News.
Donna Brazile, who is black and a well-known Democratic strategist, is also a regular CNN contributor who was part of the team in 2004.
Their counterparts at MSNBC include Michelle Bernard, a lawyer by training, who is black and conservative; Rachel Maddow, who is white and has a show on the liberal Air America Radio; Eugene H. Robinson, a black columnist for The Washington Post; and Joe Watkins, a Republican strategist who is also black. Last week Harold Ford Jr., a former congressman from Tennessee, made his MSNBC debut as a political analyst. Mr. Ford, a black Democrat, had been an analyst at Fox News.
The story is illustrated with a big photo of a CNN panel that includes Paul Begala, Jamal Simmons, Roland Martin, and Bill Bennett. The pic is captioned “A DIFFERENT LOOK TO THE TALKING HEADS:”
They see two black guys and call it “diversity.”
What do you see? I see three liberals and one conservative.
Three to one.
What’s “different” about that?
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Well put Michelle.
When we keep pandering to the 13% of our population who claim perpetual victimhood; how will we ever unite as a nation of Americans?
I am tired of hearing the race speech! It’s time to hear the speech for the American citizen.
To rid the airwaves of color bias–TURN YOUR TELEVISION OFF.
Therw’s no color control on my radio or my keyboard.
I see three heads of hair and one cue-ball.
NYT really needs to put a disclaimer on articles like these. I think recycling an old NBC broadcast annoucement phrase it should read, ‘Our bias is brought to you In Living Color by NYT’.
Liberals have never been fair when counting beans or votes.
the condescending racism that oozes from liberals unbeknownst to them, always amazes me. i’ve been watching political coverage too…never once, have i thought about the race of those commenting, only their politics.
That Hillary supporter with the frozen smile on Fox is as fake phony as a two-cent coin.
what’s even more sad is that this article is basically a commercial for MSNBC and CNN…i guess they need all the help they can get since Fox is kicking arses and doesn’t care about their names.
Figures don’t lie…
but liars figure.
Given the source, would anyone expect otherwise. Besides, does the Old Gray Lady truly have the impact it once had?
It is as it has always been – the liberals worry about what a person can’t change (race, nationality, etc.), while conservatives worry about what the individual has done and can do. It is the right that is color blind, not the left.
The article just confirms which party those networks lean towards.The writer doesn’t seem to bright.Was the article printed in color.I wonder what color he is.Color me gone.
The only way to stop taking race into account, is to STOP TAKING RACE INTO ACCOUNT!
Only the left/liberals keep wanting to bring race up all the time.
It is such a destructive thing to base everything on race. Here in Memphis, many blacks feel they are owed something solely because of the color of their skin – so they do nothing for themselves, they wait for the government handout.
And they blame the white man for “keeping them down” – meanwhile Asian immigrants who came here with only the clothes on their backs get and keep jobs, put their children in school and learn to speak proper English, and in one generation they are doctors, lawyers, professionals, integrated into and productive members of society. Funny, the white man isn’t powerful enough or racist enough to keep them down…
American Thinker.com has
“The Democrats cul-de-sac”, by James Pennington.
It is so much fun watching the Democrats try to deal with the “800lb gorilla” in the room which is, Obama must be the nominee or else.
I was interviewed by Roland Martin here in Chicago for the “Draft Condi” campaign. Whenever I said something he disagreed with, his response was “Augh!! Augh!! Augh!!” (Kinda sounded like heartburn. )
He ended up kinda drowning me out at first with his yelling, so I waited for him to recover before continuing the discussion.
This is typical talk show audience kind of discussion. Shout the other guy down and drown him out.
With this in mind, I guess he has a potential future as a host of “Hardball”.
That’s “progress” to the left-leaning media, like the NYT. After all, there is at least one conservative on the panel.
If they get more than that, it moves beyond “progress” to “radical change”. If they’re going to do it, you know it won’t be more than baby steps.
In my time on planet Earth I have learned to only judge people on whom they are and by what they do instead of their particular pigmentation too bad the MSM and race hustlers can’t get beyond this non-issue.
Sorry, the only CNN offering I watch is Lou Dobbs and most of the black commentators he has on his show are astute and analytical(always liberal). However, my friends at Fox keep shoving the black point of view down my throat. I know what their position is going to be before they say boo, of course the government should pay the mortgage for poor blacks, nothing should hurt the Messiah, TWP just don’t get it, so I just turn the sound off. I might miss several ensuing advertisements but that is Fox’s problem. I agree very much with rooster #2 and add I take very little of value from a segment of the population that graduates 25% of it’s children from Detroit high schools. Michelle Obama is a TBP of the more educated versions.
It is progress. Previously it was 5-1 or 6-1 in favor of liberals.
I don’t understand things like this… How is counting the numbers of black and white people a good thing? Isn’t that more racist than just looking at them all as journalists or considering their views? It seems to me that an excellent step toward a “color blind society” would be to stop pointing out a person’s race every possible chance.
Does this mean Sanchez is now exclusive to cnn? I hope not, because she is excellent in FNC’s Fair and Balanced debate segments.
I think we should congratulate the author on being able to name the different skin tones around her. Maybe next week she can move on to shapes and tell us about how it only took her six hours to figure out which hole the round peg goes in.
Michelle, who is the conservative in the picture? If you mean Bennett, I would argue that he is from the same cloth that Juan McCain was spun.
DITTO!
It looks like the SOS (same old “stuff”) they had when I use to watch; only the complexions have changed.
Nice to see a black and white paper focuses so much on color.
Eugh.
Are you actually trying to be a smart-a$$ because Michelle is pointing out the obvious bias against center standing Americans?
If you are being funny, look for a new job. If you are a “typical black person” then most of Amerca feels your pain for your years of oppression that have taken place since the fabulous “60’s”, we understand; YOU ARE A VICTIM!
America, if you don’t like it, leave it!
EXACTLY!!
Racist liberals see nothing but the color of peoples skins.
Conservatives see the content of their characters.
Dr. King must be whirling in his grave at near-light speed.
Hmm. I thought that tll was referring to the NYT author… now I’m confused (it doesn’t take much.)
Help me out tll, did you mean MM of Felicia Lee at NYT?
I think it was in reference to the NYT report.. not Michelle..
but is was nice to see the ‘qualifiers’ for the line up..
can I sign up for the ‘Swedish American, Republican’ view on the panel?
Black and Hispanic commentators seem to have racial tunnel vision for the most part, as do libs, and speak from a viewpoint of racial advocacy, so their opinions have little value on the national political level except that they presage the coming conflicts of majority-minority America.
tll, if you meant NYT author, then after I take my keyboard out of my mouth, I apologize. If you meant MM then please refer back to #26.
When I was younger and still living in the hills, I worked out of state because that was the only way to get work. I took one of my buddies from work back home to a party some other friends were having. All of them got pretty upset with me because my buddy happened to be black. They did not approve of his presence and he did not approve of being taken there. Me? It never occurred to me that he was black because it was never an issue to me. While my friend T-Bone did get over it and eventually laughed about it, my other “friends” back home never understood how it never occurred to me.
I already did. I came back for the 2004 elections but I have to seriously doubt that I will be back to vote for any of the
“representatives”oppressors of the People running in this election. I can still love my Nation while hating the politicians and the government who are destroying it.WarTip,
I just returned 1987-2006 stationed in Germany and am still adjusting to the destruction inflicted on our country, from our own people!
Rule #1: assume racism
One conservative against four liberals is balance according to most media outlets. It takes the combined brainpower of those four usually to stack up against the lone conservative.
As for that photo I can’t see anything as I’m blinded by the reflection off Begala’s forehead.
Bill Bennett? the old white guy?
Can’t they pick someone younger?
even though I think CNN would have a stroke if they put someone like J.C Watts on the panel..
Actually, the NY Times should examine itself. At the Times, with the exception of Bill Kristol, everybody is a snobbish liberal. Liberalism is like mother’s milk at the NY Times. You can read Kristof, Herbert, Friedman, Rich, Dowd, Collins and they are all interchangable. They all make the same snotty remarks about President Bush and they all tell us how much smarter they are than Bush. My favorite snotty remark from the Times was the Maureen Dowd column claiming that the reason she doesn’t have a man is that men are jealous of her money and fame. My second favorite is Nicholas Kristof’s boast that when he was in Iran, the secret police stopped him and demanded to know if he was an American or Israeli spy. Kristof bragged that he answered by telling the Iranian secret police guy that he (Kristof) hated Bush and Sharon as much or more than the Iranians did. And Kristof thought that he was so clever.
Yes. If the MSM equates diversity so heavily with race, why don’t they have a conservative like J.C. Watts on their panels. Actually, I think he is more articulate than Bill Bennett, IMHO.
“RACISM” is as manufactured as Global Warming! NO ONE CAN DEFINE IT without admitting to being one themselves!
To accept as fact the existence of “RACISM,” one must focus on historical “mistreatment” of blacks, because NO ONE mistreats blacks anymore, (except blacks themselves.) In other words, the actual proof of “White Racism” is anecdotal, and highly subjective.
Black Racism, on the other hand, is ACTUALLY VISIBLE, AND CAN BE QUANTIFIED. Black men select white women for their rapes 100 times EACH DAY in America. And they select whites to assault or rob 1100 times EACH DAY!
What should we REALLY CONCERN OURSELVES WITH? Undefinable “hurt feelings” of blacks by whites? Or racially targeted rapes, assaults and robberies of whites by blacks in MASSIVE nunbers on a daily basis?
The only “RACISM” that actually exists in America, is the kind that says it’s OK to pre-judge whites as bigots! All else is elitist propaganda!
#26, I think #22 was referring to the NY Times author, not our esteemed MM. If so, I agree!
The whole thing is oozing with condescension, ala Joe Biden admiring Obama for being “articulate.” As someone else said, if you don’t care about someone’s race, stop talking about someone’s race!
feeler said:
I’m feelin’ ya feeler! Couldn’t have said it better myself!
Harold Ford left Fox? Not enough time in front of the camera? Interesting.
I think most of us here, cept’ for a troll or two or three feel the feeler’s frustration on where the real racism exists.
Kudos feeler!
I don’t know, when I see see professional blacks on the news, I certainly do take note of their race and I’m proud as an American they’re doing so well, particularly when they’re Republicans. Middle-class alacks are the most conservative aspect of the U. S. population and they should be Republicans. FoxNews, I believe, sets the standard for outstanding black commentators and panelists. Similarly, FoxNews has the most cerebral yet gorgeous women in TV news. They are all so intelligent and erudite, that even as a woman, I find their over-the-top looks not offputting.
What it all shows is that we need to vote for Obama, simply because he is black, to be forgiven for “our sins” of slavery. Well, this one, hasn’t sinned and neither did any of my ancestors in Scotland. Simply voting black, regardless of the fact that this guy is totally unqualified and is a racist himself, is repugnant to me. MSM has ditched Clinton and now has thrown all their weight behind Obama. 3 liberals and 1 conservative…what a joke!
um, ok… think I need to clarify something here. I meant the author of the original article, Felicia R. Lee, in my first post. Does that help anyone out? She can’t go two sentences without the word ‘black’, as if we might forget halfway through what the article is about. I don’t care what color they are, it’s what they write and say that counts.