Diversify The Media
UPDATE:
Star Ledger reporter Ginger Gibson, a member of the Statehouse press corps tell me she is Mexican:
I saw your piece about the diversity of the press corps. I just wanted to let you know, I’m Mexican. So it’s not all white guys in the press corps, there are some minorities. Just wanted to make sure you knew that.
I never would have guessed that, given Gibson’s fair skin and last name. Another lesson about assumptions.
Yet the point of my piece still stands. The press corps is far from 40% minority, and the Ledger editorial board is still FOS.
On Saturday The Star Ledger published an editorial calling on Governor Chris Christie to appoint minorities to the State Supreme Court.
The Ledger is lamenting the fact that since Christie took office both minorities who were on the court, Justice John Wallace and Justice Roberto Rivera-Sota, have left the bench. For the first time in twenty years there are no minorities on the court. “And yet more than 40 percent of the state’s population is black, Hispanic, or Asian.”
The Ledger took the diversity theme a bit further this morning with an article that sites a Star Ledger analysis which concludes Governor Christie is favoring white middle class senior citizens in selecting communities to host his Town Hall meetings.
This got me thinking about the diversity of the New Jersey Media. Is the New Jersey press corp comprised of 40% of African Americans, Hispanics and Asians? Not even close.
From my experience, without doing an extensive MMM analysis like the Ledger did of Christie’s Town Halls, journalism may be the least diverse industry in New Jersey.
The State House press corp? Overwhelmingly white.
NJ.com, The Star Ledger’s website? Only one African American columnist who writes almost exclusively about Newark.
Giving credit where it is due, Gannett’s papers have a diverse group of reporters, on the local levels. They have an African American Executive Editor, Hollis Towns, at The Asbury ParkPress. Their Statehouse Buerau? Five white guys. They would be wise to make Jane Roh part of that team.
News12 has a diverse staff.
So what is with the progressives at The Star Ledger? Should they be telling the Governor to take the speck out of his eye while they have a log in their own?
Are the folks at The Ledger hypocrites or has Gannett scooped up all the good minority writers?
I don’t know for sure, but I tend to think they’re full of poop. They’re attempting to set the agenda for Christie’s Supreme Court appointments by using the race card. As part of the vast progressive conspiracy, the Ledger likes an activist court that requires billions of dollars to be flushed into urban schools that produce morally unacceptable results in educating minority children. If they can convince the public that race should be a criteria for selecting a Supreme Court Justice, rather than scholarship, judicial temperment and a philosphical committement to interpreting law, rather than writing it from the bench, The Ledger figures they can thrwart Governor Christie from “turning Trenton upside down” anymore than he already has.
The Legislature is very likely to remain in Democratic control after the coming election, which limits severely the reforms Governor Christie can make over the rest of his term. Given the legislative map, a second Christie term will most likely also have a Democratic legislature. That he will have the responsiblity to appoint the majority of the court in his first term, to reshape the court as he promised, will result in the real legacy of the Christie administration.
The Star Ledger’s lip service for diversity is nothing more then getting ready for that coming political battle.
More from my site
Anna Little: New Jersey’s Supreme Court Is Unconstitutional
Patrick Murray: “New Jersey voters are probably a little more savvy than reporters”
Anatomy of a Media Fabricated News Story – Gannett Style
Star Ledger Editor Tom Moran Calls Conservatives Racist
MMM Year in Review – May
APP.com’s traffic ranking plunges 25%
Layoffs At Asbury Park Press
Grading the Governor
Why Christie’s Poll Numbers Are Surging
Ho Lee Fuk, Howie Felterbush!
Seems to be a republican theme…
In 2008, only 36 out of 2380 delegates were African-American. Don’t you think that’s a very telling statistic?
So Art, are you saying he shouldn’t consider placing a minority on the Court? Why hasn’t he nominated at least one minority yet? (Women are a majority)… Is there a reason? Shouldn’t YOU, as the most powerful republican blogger in the state, ask these questions?
Two comments:
1) The Gov can obviously do his town hall meetings wherever he wants to do them. Personally speaking, I wish he would do some at night or on weekends which would give people who work during the day a chance to attend.
2) I did not feel that Justice Wallace should have been replaced. When asked at the time, the Governor could not name one decision that he disagreed with Wallace on.
With that said, there is a big difference between the Supreme Court and a newspaper. I am sure there are pleanty of qualified judges of all races. It’s not unreasonable to hope that the Court could have at least one minority member.
By the way, I thought it was great when the Governor defended his appointment of a Muslim judge in response to the crazies (as he called them).
I’m thinking that “There Should Be A Law!” that says something like race and gender can’t be criteria for a job opening, but that seems like a socialist, liberal idea and I don’t know who would support that kind of thinking. In fact, it’s probably best that we exclude white males from any jobs if we’re going to be on board with the whole hOpey changey thing and we should certainly re-enforce to the white male youth that they shouldn’t even bother trying to aspire to be anything because they’ll just get taxed and penalized for their efforts.
On the other hand, I’m also thinking that applicants/appointees should be judged by the content of their character, not the color of their skin. At least that sounds almost something like what a Republican would say.
… see what I did there? 🙂
Art, I think I mentioned it once before, but if you have time, you should really pickup “We Are Doomed” by John Derbyshire – the concept of “diversity” is well covered and it’s a good read, in my opinion, even beyond the diversity talk.
So Art, are you saying he shouldn’t consider placing a minority on the Court? Why hasn’t he nominated at least one minority yet? (Women are a majority)… Is there a reason? Shouldn’t YOU, as the most powerful republican blogger in the state, ask these questions?
Rick, that’s not what I am saying at all.
I’m saying that the Star Ledger could care less about diversity and is really about setting up the politics of the next Supreme Court nomination inorder to preserve the status quo/thrwart Christie reforming the court.
That status quo has produced a state sponsored racially segregated school system that is immorally failing minority students and immorally seizing the property of the majority to fund the failure.
Tommy DeSeno and I, two Republicans, are the only people willing to talk about that. Everyone else shuts up when we bring it up, as I expect that you will now.
If I were Governor I would charge my search committee with finding me the best available legal minds who are philosophically opposed to judicial activism, without regard for race, color, creed or sexual orientation. I would say a prayer that the committee found a minority or two amongst the bunch.
Maybe the reason that there are not more minorities in journalism and/or qualified to be Supreme Court Justices is that New Jersey’s racially segregated school system has failed its minority population over the last thirty years since the Abbott decision.
Asbury Park is 78% African-American and Hispanic. How is that sponsoring a racially segregated school system? Should they reverse bus these students to RFHRHS to make a point? I bet the all republican committee in Rumson would fight it all the way to the Supreme Court in NJ and beyond. C’mon, gimme a break. The republicans have never really reached out to minorities…except maybe for latinos. Other than that….having 36 African – American delegates out of 2380 delegates to the convention is just plain disgusting. Same as Christie not even trying to nominate a minority…and even worse, he got rid of a very competent Justice Wallace because…why? Is he a bigot? I don’t think so, but c’mon again…gimme a break. There was absolutely no reason NOT to reappoint Justice Wallace…other than plain, petty politics, so why shouldn’t the Star Ledger, or any other media outlet not point that out. Please, tell me, what do YOU think the reason he didn’t reappoint Justice Wallace.
Asbury Park is 78% African-American and Hispanic. How is that sponsoring a racially segregated school system? Should they reverse bus these students to RFHRHS to make a point?
Or to Colts Neck. Not to make a point, but to educate the kids.
Regarding Wallace’s reappointment, the question should not be why didn’t Christie renominate him, but why didn’t the Governor’s nomination get a hearing and why over a year later is there a vacancy on the court. It is Sweeney’s action of refusing to give the Governor’s nominee a hearing that is unprecedented, not the Governor’s decision not to reappoint.
Rick, you acknowledge that the Governor is not bigot, and therefore his reasoning not to reappoint Wallace was not based upon race. Christie’s reasoning was not petty politics. It was his commitment, promised in his campaign, to reshape the court. That Wallace is African American made Christie choice risky politically.
Regarding the number of African Americans who were delegates at the 2008 convention, I agree with you. The Republican Party adopted a politically expedient strategy to surrender the African American vote to the Democrats who pay for that vote with tax dollars and thereby keep African American dependent on the government. It is a bad strategy for America.
Diversity is the biggest con job EVER. Diversity adds nothing to anything. All that matters is an individuals skill set. We don’t gain a dam thing by having one of every race religion and sexual orientation on every team. It is a bunch of bullshit that has been sold to the public as gold.
The day we all wise up and recognize two things the better off we will be.
1. America is succesful because of our culture we will continue to be successful as long as people adopt that culture. When they try to change it we loose.
2. Race will not become irrelevant until we start treating it as irrelevant.
What TR said….
http://www.boston.com/news/globe/ideas/articles/2007/08/05/the_downside_of_diversity/?page=full
Higher diversity meant lower social capital. In his findings, Putnam writes that those in more diverse communities tend to “distrust their neighbors, regardless of the color of their skin, to withdraw even from close friends, to expect the worst from their community and its leaders, to volunteer less, give less to charity and work on community projects less often, to register to vote less, to agitate for social reform more but have less faith that they can actually make a difference, and to huddle unhappily in front of the television.”
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