NAACP Slams CNN for Lacking Anchors of Color in New Lineup

July 7th, 2011 11:41 PM

The Wall Street Journal reports that CNN is too white for some. The NAACP condemned CNN for its new all-white prime time news lineup, calling the lack of diversity in its collection of news anchors a “glaring omission.” It apparently doesn't matter one iota that CNN's new executive vice president Mark Whitaker is a black man.

“The NAACP is deeply concerned with the lack of African American journalists in prime time news, both on cable and national news shows,” NAACP President and CEO Benjamin Todd Jealous said in the statement. “We have come to expect this from the likes of Fox News, but not other networks. While we understand that news is now a 24-hour cycle, most Americans get their news from the morning and evening prime time broadcasts.”

Apparently, Roland Martin's ratings when he filled in for Campbell Brown weren't exactly stunning anyone. Ratings, schmatings, say the bean counters. See how many failed whites there are in CNN's prime time over the years!

“We look at diversity across all of our cultural landscape all the time,” NAACP Hollywood Bureau Executive Director Vic Bulluk said in an interview with the Journal. "Affirmative action" isn't established firmly enough at the top of the liberal media.   “It’s clear that this just isn’t an issue over at CNN, but across the whole news spectrum. I don’t know if you can put a number on it. We’re not looking for a mathematical solution to this, but right now we’d be happy with one anchor of color. I know there are a lot of considerations going into who gets to sit in those anchor seats.”