Newshour Struggles With Diversity

PBS’s Newshour is a popular tv program that prides itself in being fair and just. But, their reputation was damaged in 2006 when Extra! released a study on Newshour’s guest list during months from October 2005 to March 2006. The study showed that the program was, in fact, not as socially just as it claimed to be. 

FAIR published some of the findings from the study and provided analysis. FAIR concluded its analysis by stating that the study proves that Newshour provided less diversity than ABC’s Nightline. Of the findings that FAIR listed, there were three that really stood out to me. 

First, the study found that just 4 percent of total sources were public interest groups. This is concerning because, according to the study, Newshour is giving a voice to the powerful, corporate for-profit companies, who are known for not having the public’s best interest in mind. Public interest groups are already overpowered by these authorities so, it only diminishes them more to give the authorities a platform like Newshour. To breakdown this statistic further, the study also found that 14 percent of sources came from the general public and 50 perfect consisted of government and military officials.

Second, 82 percent of guests were male. Again, they have given a voice to privileged, powerful people and silenced the oppressed population. Furthermore, 72 percent of sources were white males. This brings up the final issue that the study found, which is that only 15 percent of U.S. sources were people of color. 

News programs like Newshour should be highlighting the oppressed, the minority, and the small. But, it’s clear from this study that the news is, in fact, giving a spotlight to the oppressor, the majority and the massive.