CBS recently debuted their sweeping changes in its new CBS This Morning and CBS Evening News, and once again they failed in representing the nation’s largest and fastest growing minority by not hiring at least one qualified Latino reporter or anchor on either one of its national news broadcasts.
Alex Nogales, president, and CEO of the National Hispanic Media Coalition (NHMC) in his statement said:
“There is no doubt that this is a business about ratings. However, [Susan] Zirinsky should focus just as much effort into diversifying her newsrooms by hiring qualified Latino journalists on air as she is by trying to turn a profit. Latino journalists are not only important because they sit at the table with decision-makers, but also cover more accurate portrayals of the beliefs and experiences of the Latino community, which represents 18.9% of the U.S. population – the biggest and growing ethnic minority in the nation.
Zirinsky and other high-ranking, CBS news executives are part of a profession that others accountable, yet do not hold themselves accountable. They should be ashamed for not being committed to inclusive hiring practices race matters. Don’t get me wrong. The new CBS team has the qualifications and experience to do an outstanding job for CBS. But, our community is tired of being absent in the national consciousness and now absent in the consciousness of a national news network. We should not be at odds with CBS and other media outlets across the nation, fighting to be rightly represented on camera and off, and advocating for content that includes our demographic’s socio-economic and political concerns.
“If Zirinsky and her news teams are truly in pursuit of bringing authentic, three-dimensional and original stories to the American public ethically, impartially and honestly, then they should be inclusive of all major ethnic, racial groups in their hiring practices. If not, CBS risks Latinos abandoning its national newscasts.”
The new CBS This Morning anchor team consists of Gayle King, Anthony Mason Tony Dokoupil, and the correspondents dedicated to the show are David Begnaud, Jericka Duncan, Anna Werner and Vladimir Duthiers. Of this team, two are African Americans and one is Haitian/French. The latter does not consider himself Latino. As for CBS Evening News its anchor and managing editor this summer, replacing Jeff Glor. (John Dickerson of the morning show is departing).
The shakeup was led by Susan Zirinsky (pictured left), CBS News division’s first female president, who assumed her post in March. It has been widely reported that Zirinsky hopes to increase CBS’ ratings for both telecasts, which have lagged behind ABC and NBC for years. Ratings have suffered in part from scandals tied to sexual harassment and workplace culture at CBS. CBS employees who either stepped down or were fired due to these allegations were CEO Leslie Moonves, 60 Minutes executive producer Jeff Fager, and Charlie Rose, the former co-host of CBS This Morning.
For more information on NHMC, please For more information on NHMC’s work on media diversity, please visit NHMC.org/issues and follow us on Twitter @NHMC.
Photo Credits: CBS News, Mixdex, Charles Sykes/Invision AP