Colored News Network: Why can’t CNN seem to get black news right?

The network’s wall-to-wall black coverage push began in earnest around 2008 with the unveiling of the first in its BIA series. With O’Brien at the helm, the network special examined black women and the family; that first installment would garner some 13 million viewers and lead to a second installation, numerous black-oriented specials revisiting such episodes as the Rodney King beating, and a slick website crammed full of commentary and articles on black-oriented topics.

The network is clearly interested in covering blacks and other minorities, as evidenced by its admirable investment of time and resources. What the cable network lacks, however, is a fresh eye for the issue affecting these communities.

Why revisit the cobwebbed topic of black women’s dating options (note to producers: I am SO good on black women will die fat, old, lonely and with 52 cats and/or children articles, thanks.) when there’s a perfectly good story on black gentrification and intraracial tensions unfolding right in the heart of Washington D.C.? Why dig up tales of highly churched black women when the blending of Latino and black religious communities is the updated, more relevant approach?

To be fair, the challenges to covering black news with a fresh eye are numerous.

For one, getting beyond the obvious in the black community isn’t often easy if you’re not black, and if CNN’s newsroom is like most (and I’ve been far enough into their Atlanta nerve center to confirm as much) the network isn’t exactly teeming with brown reporters.

Indeed, the American Society of News Editors found there were 929 fewer black journalists in a 2010 survey than in 2001 – a drop of 31.5 percent, the steepest decline among all minorities in the field during that time.

That means there are fewer of us working as reporters to pipe up with original ideas that are based on what we see in the community everyday. At the same time, black leadership in all mainstream newsrooms remains comparatively low, limiting the number of minority gate keepers putting the brakes on stories that need some heavy tweaking. Do you think a black editor would have allowed the plight of two hair braiders to be elevated to the status of Kunta Kinte? I doubt it.

The network heads, meanwhile, have little to indicate anything is amiss. For her BIA series, O’Brien earned the National Association of Black Journalists’ “Journalist of the Year” award in 2010, handed out at a San Diego convention where CNN had a heavy recruiting presence and no shortage of black job seekers lining up for interviews.

That places the responsibility on the readers, myself included, to push the network to dig deeper, and produce thought-provoking, forward thinking articles rather than treacle. We have a direct pipeline to networks via comment boxes – and we must use them. Take advantage of the opportunity to tell CNN when a story is old, data is sketchy or that you just don’t like the premise of a piece. It’s easy to complain, but harder to pitch in.

Recently, I perused CNN looking for the latest negro “expose” and it delivered – a piece on how the popular Atlanta-based hair illuminati, the Bronner Bros., had shone a light on natural hair, a “new” trend in the black community.

I texted a fellow journalist, who had already cackled about it heartily. I guess one can be glad CNN is throwing the community a bone.

But after a while you wonder, where’s the beef?

Page 2 of 2 | Previous page