The NYTimes’ Felicia Lee assesses the on-air diversity efforts of the cable news networks as they cover the Presidential election. CNN’s president Jon Klein says “With the advent of the Internet, consumers realized that there are a lot of other voices. There are an awful lot of people writing, at think tanks, advising campaigns.” MSNBC exec-in-charge Phil Griffin admitted “After the Don Imus situation, we had to reflect and say ‘we’ve got to make a bigger commitment'” to diversity.
At CNN:
Donna Brazile…Roland S. Martin; Amy Holmes, a conservative strategist…Jamal Simmons, a Democratic strategist…Alex Castellanos, a Cuban-born Republican strategist, and Leslie Sanchez (pictured), a Mexican-American Republican strategist who has also appeared on Fox News.
At MSNBC:
Michelle Bernard (pictured), a lawyer by training, who is black and conservative; Rachel Maddow, who is white and has a show on the liberal Air America Radio; Eugene H. Robinson, a black columnist for The Washington Post; and Joe Watkins, a Republican strategist who is also black. Last week Harold Ford Jr., a former congressman from Tennessee, made his MSNBC debut as a political analyst. Mr. Ford, a black Democrat, had been an analyst at Fox News.
At FNC:
Juan Williams (pictured), who is black and a National Public Radio correspondent, is a longtime regular on Fox News Sunday, which also uses minority female analysts like Angela McGlowan, a Republican strategist who is black; Michelle Malkin, a conservative Filipino-American journalist; and Linda Chavez, who is Hispanic and held positions in the Reagan administration. A recent addition is Laura Ingraham, a syndicated radio host who is white.