America’s sports pages and sports radio are still virtually all-White, according to the third biannual Associated Press Sports Editors (APSE) Racial and Gender Report Card. The APSE is the largest group representing the sports sections of newspapers and online media sources in the United States and Canada.
The April report, which encompassed nearly 3,000 people, shows that 97 percent of sports editors, 85 percent of assistant sports editors, 86 percent of columnists, 86 percent of reporters and 90 percent of copy editors/designers are White — little change from the 2008 report.
Although the percentages of people of color as sports editors has decreased slightly, the gap between White sports editors and those of color has widened, and there has been a significant decrease among White reporters (87 percent to 85.6 percent), The Institute for Diversity and Ethics in Sport Director Richard Lapchick gave a C-plus for racial hiring practices, up from a C in 2008.
“The numbers continue to be discouraging for women and racial minorities,” notes Penn State Journalism Professor Marie Hardin.
According to the 2011 American Society of News Editors (ASNE) annual workforce census, the percentage of Blacks and other people of color in newsrooms is 12.79 percent but has been going down since 2007.
Blacks make up 5.2 percent at the Star Tribune and 4.7 percent at the Pioneer Press.
Further analysis of the ASNE data from 1999-2010 shows Blacks have the smallest overall gains (1.1 percent for Black males in 2004 and 3.1 percent for Black women in 1999 and 2002) compared with both White males and females. Blacks also show the larger declines at ASNE newspapers (12 percent for males and almost 20 percent for females) compared with White males (10.9 percent in 2008) and White females (11.8 percent in 2009).
“I don’t think you will ever see a huge spike in the number of African Americans in the sports journalism profession,” admits Ron Thomas, a sports journalist for nearly 40 years and director of the journalism and sports program at Morehouse College.
The two most influential positions in the sports departments are editors and columnists. Blacks in 2010 held only 1.4 percent of sports editor positions (three in 2010 as opposed to five in 2008). There are 41 Black columnists nationwide.
“Sports editors largely determine what gets prominently displayed in the papers, whether the story is on the front page or the back page of the section,” explains Thomas. “I think that it’s important to have more Black people in those decision-making positions.”
As for columnists, the MSR has more Blacks (four) than both local daily newspapers combined (zero). Instead, the Twin Cities are treated daily by columnists who are half Carly Simon’s “You’re So Vain” and half Stevie Wonder’s “Misstra Know-It-All” as they wreak influential havoc via words.
“The columnist can more shape opinion and images than any other person in the sports department,” surmises Thomas.
Lapchick’s report also shows a total of 107 Black male and female sports reporters nationwide. Five of them are at both Twin Cities dailies combined, and that has been the norm for years.
And it’s no different at the two local sports stations, KFAN and KSTP. One is local sports-oriented talk from daybreak to sundown, while the other mixes local and national sports talk. Both are all-White.
“Unfortunately, I think the issue [of diversity] is much bigger than individual decision-making by media gatekeepers: the editors and the publishers and producers,” surmises Hardin.
Actually, the issue is very simple — the mainstream media higher-ups see only themselves. They are White men who think that only Whites can write, report and analyze, or only Whites can on-air pontificate. The proof is in the sports pages and sports radio pudding every single day, and its vanilla flavor lacks color.
“It is important to have voices from different backgrounds in the media,” believes Lapchick, who has authored regular racial report cards on pro teams, college sport and mainstream media for two decades.
He also proposed a “Ralph Wiley Rule,” named for the late Black sportswriter and author to mandate that Blacks are included as candidates for key newspaper positions, similar to the NFL’s Rooney Rule for coaches.
“I don’t know how that would play out, but I like that idea,” says Thomas.
“It’s not just the matter of recruitment, but retention [as well],” believes Hardin. “When you recruit women and people of color, that’s one step. The next step is making sure that you retain those folk and promote them appropriately.”
Based on Lapchick’s grade this year, mainstream media appear to prefer remaining barely average at improving their diversity. Based on the view from here, I see it flunking out.
Charles Hallman welcomes reader responses to challman@spokesman-recorder.com.
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