TV Racism Rebuttal

Howard Rosenberg’s “A Voice in Wilderness of TV News” (Sept. 27) contains extraordinary allegations of overt racism in the coverage of TV news that I find very hard to believe.

I’ve worked in broadcast journalism for almost 30 years, the past 20 of which have been spent in well over 100 local and network-owned newsrooms in markets of all sizes, all over the country (and even a couple abroad). Along the way, I’ve had the opportunity to know and/or work with almost all of the industry’s leading consultants, not to mention hundreds (if not thousands) of station executives of every race and gender. Not one of them has ever reported or suggested anything that even remotely resembles these allegations.

In fact, every network, group, and individual station owner I know would immediately fire any manager or employee who espoused such policies. I’m not saying that racism doesn’t exist within the industry, but I have never once seen or heard so much as a rumor of what Rosenberg reported.

SCOTT TALLAL

President,

Insite Media Research, Malibu

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Apparently Av Westin didn’t survey enough people about the coverage of African Americans in our industry. I have never encountered any problems with covering any type of news story positive or negative when dealing with the black community.

I started off in the Greenwood-Greenville, Miss., television market seven years ago. My co-worker (a black woman) and I (a white male) covered everything from black-on-black crime including murder to family reunion celebrations, neighborhood fairs and citizen profiles of people making a difference in the community. Our news director (a white male) would have killed us if we had ignored a story just because it involved only African Americans.

From there I went to Jackson, the state capital. Again no problems from my white news director. I was the weekend anchor and “what’s buggin’ you?” reporter. It didn’t matter to my boss who had a problem, black or white; he just told me to try to help solve the problem. The other stations in town provided equal coverage of the black community.

Now I work for a small TV affiliate news service in Washington. We offer custom coverage of events taking place on Capitol Hill and the D.C. area. Stations pay through the nose for our coverage and never once has a station hesitated to pay for a story about an African American.

When I go out on a story, the only thing I’m concerned about is finding someone, anyone, that will give me an interview. It doesn’t matter to me and most of the reporters or bosses I’ve worked with and continue to work with if they’re black or white.

JAY NIX

Washington