Politics

NBC chastised by Congressional Black Caucus members for lack of diversity

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The commotion surrounding Keith Olbermann, MSNBC, Tea Partiers (… oh, and black people, too) has turned from race-baiting to headhunting.

The trouble began when Olbermann shook his eyebrows at Tea Partiers, calling them, um, monochromatic. The Dallas Tea Party struck back with a multicultural video in which they declared, “We have more black friends than you.” The following week, Olbermann took several precious minutes to respond on his show. “Nuh-uh,” he said, “We got more of them than you.

At least two people might disagree with Olbermann.

During an unrelated hearing Thursday, Reps. Shelia Jackson-Lee and Maxine Waters, denied NBC a “ghetto pass,” ripping into NBC executive Jeff Zucker for what they see as the “lack of diversity in programming and in the executive ranks at either company.”

Armed with lists of board members for both companies, Waters asked Roberts why Comcast had only one woman and one black man on its board. She then asked Zucker why NBC didn’t currently have any black programming on NBC. “Is there some assumption that black programming is not profitable?” she asked him.

Zucker said that diversity was one of his strategic goals and that the company was trying to do better.

Today, NewsBusters included in its coverage a visual reminder of MSNBC’s diversity with a soundtrack and screen saver provided by Olbermann himself:

Full story: NBC Chastised by Congressional Black Caucus Members for Lack of Diversity – NewsBusters.org