ZING: “journalists know that there’s merit in reporting on race and gender metrics… except when they’re our own”

The Columbia Journalism Review comin in HOT AND READY FOR NO NONSENSE this week with this scalding takedown of journalism’s diversity problem: One question that turns courageous journalists into cowards, from Farai Chideya. So much third-degree-burn-inducing logic here that I couldn’t decide whether to just highlight the whole damn thing for you, but here’s probably what should make you, as journalist/media person/person invested in good, representative media sit up:

“Judging from the spate of articles about the lack of diversity in President Trump’s cabinet, journalists know that there’s merit in reporting on race and gender metrics… except when they’re our own. Only doing the research will provide us with a sense of how this impacts newsrooms. But I suspect in the long run, in a world where audiences can cherry pick what they find relevant, less diverse newsrooms are likely to miss key stories, or join in late. That can’t be good for the bottom line.

This is also coming in on the heels of CJR’s great takedown of that whole Amal Clooney defending human rights while okay pregnant, yes, debacle: Newsrooms should follow two simple rules for reporting on women’s bodies. ‘Cause yep, if you can require your reporters to memorize all the cases where one must spell out numbers one through ten, then you can definitely follow these v. easy peezy rules.

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