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CBS scores lowest grade for TV network diversity

Wed Jul 17, 7:56 PM ET
By Steve Gorman

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/nm/20020717/tv_nm/diver
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LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - A multiethnic coalition gave the four major
TV networks mediocre to near-failing grades on Thursday for their
efforts to boost racial diversity on the air and behind the camera,
blasting CBS as the slowest to embrace reforms.

Seeking to turn up the heat on CBS, the coalition sent letters to
board members of CBS' parent company, Viacom Inc., and eight of the
network's leading advertisers, including General Motors Corp. and
Procter & Gamble Co., urging them to press CBS to do more for
minorities.

"We're asking corporate America to join us in a partnership to make
this happen," said Karen Narasaki, the head of the consortium of
civil rights groups, who singled out CBS President Leslie Moonves for
especially scathing criticism.

"Leslie Moonves was never that interested in significantly increasing
opportunities for Latinos, Asian Americans and Native Americans. Now
he appears to have lost interest altogether," she said.

CBS issued a statement sharply disputing the coalition's findings,
and the network's vice president for diversity, Josie Thomas, called
Narasaki's criticism of Moonves "crazy."

"Leslie is the most dedicated and focused diversity-conscious
executive in the business," Thomas told Reuters. "Every executive
and ever manager at CBS is taking ownership of this issue."

She added that three out of the four top executives in the network's
development ranks -- senior vice presidents for drama, movies and
miniseries and reality TV -- were minorities, while the head of the
comedy division is a woman.

"I think that speaks volumes about commitment at the top," she said.

CBS GETS LOWEST SCORE, FOX THE HIGHEST CBS received
the lowest overall grade, a D-minus, and the Fox Broadcasting Co., a
unit of Rupert Murdoch's News Corp. Ltd., the highest, a C, on the
coalition's annual "report card" judging the networks' diversity
progress.

Walt Disney Co.-owned ABC, last year's lowest-ranked network, rose
from a D- minus to a C-minus, while last year's leader, NBC, a unit
of General Electric Co. dropped from a C to a D-plus.

The networks generally responded by touting their gains in the ranks
of minorities on camera and behind the scenes but acknowledged they
had further to go.

NBC said it would begin the fall season with minority casting on all
its shows up 29 percent over last year and with nearly 60 percent
increase in minority writers and producers.

"We realize there's work to be done, but let's not discount the
progress that we've made," an NBC spokeswoman said.

Likewise, ABC, which received credit for airing two sitcoms starring
predominantly black or Latino casts -- "My Wife and Kids" and "George
Lopez" -- cited its upcoming Native American miniseries,
"Dreamkeeper," as an example of its "celebrating the diverse colors
and traditions of all Americans."

Fox's senior vice president for diversity, Mitsy Wilson, said her
network had 33 writers, 33 directors and 74 actors of various
minorities on its prime-time lineup last season, with writers and
producers "of color" on 18 of its 21 shows slated for this fall.

NAACP OPTED OUT

The progress reports were prepared by three umbrella groups -- the
National Latino Media Council, the Asian Pacific Americans Media
Council, and American Indians in Film & Television.

The reports did not reflect progress made by blacks in network TV
because a fourth coalition partner, the National Association for the
Advancement of Colored People, the nation's oldest civil rights
group, did not take part.

NAACP executive John White said his organization would issue its own
findings later this month, as it did last year.

The NAACP launched the campaign to increase racial diversity on
television in July 1999, accusing the networks of a "virtual
whitewash in programming."

At the time, civil rights groups seized on the fact that not a single
minority had been cast in a leading role among the 26 new comedy and
drama series then set to premiere in the fall. Early the following
year, each of the four major networks reached agreement with the
NAACP and its coalition partners on ambitious plans for becoming more
inclusive of minorities.

Narasaki said the networks had "made some progress in front of the
cameras, particularly for African Americans," but said minorities
remain largely relegated to token on-air roles.

In some cases, the scope of progress appeared to be in the eye of the
beholder. Some critics have complained that the new CBS series "CSI:
Miami," set in a predominantly Latino urban city, has only one
Hispanic among its lead roles, while CBS executives note that another
co-star is black, so that minorities account for a third of the
six-member ensemble.

Reuters/Variety




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