Media

Black, Asian Broadcast Ownership Dips “Bill O’Reilly can breathe a little easier. “Last week while speaking about the reelection of President Obama, the Fox News commentator said, ‘The white establishment is now the minority,’ ” Joe Flint wrote Wednesday for the Los Angeles Times. “But when it comes to who owns the nation’s TV and…

Program to Air Weekly as Ratings Disappoint BET announced Monday that it is scaling back its much-anticipated late-night, half-hour vehicle for T.J. Holmes, the former CNN anchor, from half an hour Monday through Thursday to an hour once a week. The show launched Oct. 1. CEO Debra Lee said last month the show is “designed…

Cozy Ties With GOP Raise Questions of Integrity “On Election Night, I tweeted that Republicans shocked about Mitt Romney’s loss Tuesday should be angry at a conservative media that misled them about the former [Massachusetts] governor’s chances,” Adam Serwer wrote Thursday for Mother Jones. “In the waning days of the race, much of this manifested…

Results Point to Lesson on News Media Diversity More than an hour before the networks declared Tuesday night that President Obama had been reelected, Chuck Todd delivered a message on MSNBC that should resonate through the news media. “The story of this election is the story of demographics,” Todd said. Speaking of the Republicans, he…

As With Obama, Expectations Come With the Territory President Obama is expected to receive upwards of 90 percent of the African American vote in Tuesday’s election, despite a phenomenon not unknown to other people of color in executive positions, even in the news business: muted disappointment by some that he has not done enough for…

Most Journalistic Reaction: “Disapproving” Robert Vickers, a black journalist and the political writer at the Patriot-News in Harrisburg, Pa., gave some readers at least two reasons to disagree with him Friday. He told them his choice for president, and said that person is Mitt Romney, the Republican candidate. “Given that my role here is to…

Rufus Friday Disagrees With Editorial Board The publisher and president of the Lexington (Ky.) Herald-Leader became one of few prominent African Americans to publicly support Mitt Romney for president Sunday when the paper’s editorial board disclosed that Rufus M. Friday disagreed with its endorsement of President Obama. “. . . He chose not to use…

Storm Raises 
Suppressed Issue of Climate Change “It was not a good year for people, 
weather and climate. The winter was strangely warm in many places and 
the summer ridiculously hot,” Adam Frank wrote 
Sunday for NPR. “As a large fraction of the country suffered through extreme or 
even extraordinary drought many folks naturally wondered,…

AP Poll: 51% Express Explicit Anti-Black Attitudes “The 2012 election is shaping up to be more polarized along racial lines than any presidential contest since 1988, with President Obama experiencing a steep drop in support among white voters from four years ago,” Jon Cohen and Rosalind S. Helderman reported Thursday for the Washington Post. “At…

Debates Skipped Faith, Justice, Southern Hemisphere “Criminal justice reform may top the list of third-rail political issues to be strictly avoided on the campaign trail. And, perhaps as expected, it didn’t rear its head at any of the presidential debates,” Farai Chideya wrote Wednesday for Columbia Journalism Review. “Politicians from both major parties tend to…