Submitted by Micky Hingorani on Mon, 05/07/2007 - 4:37pm
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In the wake of the Imus media flap, cable news was awash in commentators of color.  As soon as the the news cycle shifted, however, all those commentators seemed to disappear, replaced by the usual (white male) suspects. 

The folks at Media Matters for America turned their keen analytical skills to this phenomenon and here's what they found:

  • Between 4pm and midnight, there are 35 hosts and cohosts on CNN, MSNBC and Fox.  29 are Male and 35 are white.
  • There is an almost complete lack of women of color and latino commentators in cable news (maybe this is CNN's solution . . . ?).
  • Inclusion of people of color jumped dramatically during the Imus affair.  That jump dropped off just as abruptly a week later:

race-divide-chart02  race-divide-chart03   race-divide-chart04

Media Matters hits the nail on the head in their conclusion: Cable news networks have no problem booking commentators of color when race is in the news.  Why do they have such difficulty on a day to day basis?