Diversity Means Quotas

Media Monitor ^ | May 29, 2003 | Cliff Kincaid

[Tailgunner Joe]

Times executive editor Howell Raines has basically admitted that affirmative action played a major role in giving disgraced former reporter Jayson Blair the opportunity to prosper at the paper. Blair came to the paper on a minority internship and was promoted to national reporter, covering the beltway sniper shootings, over the objections of a Times editor. The editor was told Blair had to be promoted to diversify the newsroom.

The Times is not alone in pushing diversity. The American Society of Newspaper editors (ASNE), which represents the editors of 850 daily newspapers in the U.S., says its primary mission since 1978 has been "increasing diversity in U.S. newspaper newsrooms…" It sponsors "job fairs directed at young journalists of color and seminars for editors on the changing demographics of the U.S." That means increasing pressure to hire more minorities.

Raines was quoted in the Times as saying, "Our paper has a commitment to diversity and by all accounts he [Jayson Blair] appeared to be a promising young minority reporter. I believe in aggressively providing hiring and career opportunities for minorities." Raines asked, "Does that mean I personally favored Jayson? Not consciously. But you have a right to ask if I, as a white man from Alabama, with those convictions, gave him one chance too many by not stopping his appointment to the sniper team. When I look into my heart for the truth of that, the answer is yes."

The "white man from Alabama" remark suggests guilt over how blacks were treated in the old south, and how Raines made up for that by bending the rules to favor black reporter Jayson Blair...

[GETMAIN]

The American Society of Newspaper editors (ASNE), which represents the editors of 850 daily newspapers in the U.S., says its primary mission since 1978 has been "increasing diversity in U.S. newspaper newsrooms…"
....
Raines was quoted in the Times as saying, "Our paper has a commitment to diversity
--
Whatever happened to a "commitment to quality"?

[mrustow]

BTTT

[dagnabbit]

[rimmont]

The pursuit of the "holy grail" of diversity will necessitate the destruction of the constitution.

[Godel]

The Times is not alone in pushing diversity. The American Society of Newspaper editors (ASNE), which represents the editors of 850 daily newspapers in the U.S., says its primary mission since 1978 has been "increasing diversity in U.S. newspaper newsrooms…" It sponsors "job fairs directed at young journalists of color and seminars for editors on the changing demographics of the U.S." That means increasing pressure to hire more minorities.

I dont understand this. How can the media claim to be fair and objective when they are embracing and pushing a hardline idealogical agenda which endorses mandatory racial discrimination against the majority of Americans?

[rimmont]

With greater and greater diversity there will be fewer and fewer ways in which people will feel connected, more and more ways in which people might be offended, more and more sensibilities to be sensitive to, and an infinitely greater number of ways in which misunderstandings can occur and society can become fractured. This will all result in less and less liberty for everyone, by necessity.

[Ron in Acreage]

We need more mexicans and asians in the NBA, NFL and NHL.

[Sonny M]

No one has said it, so I'll spit it out. The Times did not care for the best african american, they just wanted one, any one would do. To them, all african americans are the same. They probably had a list of canidates and chose Blair based on alphabetical order (it would explain alot).

To the Times, a black man is a black man, college degree or no college degree (blair does not have a degree), as long as he is dark, qualifications are irrelevent, since they are all the same. Diversity to them, was having the right color, and it stopped at that.

[Teacher317]

butbutbutbut diversity is our GREATEST strength! My school said so! Repeatedly!

[Cowboy Bob]

I've been saying this for years.

When the courts started to strike down "quotas," the left simply came up with a new term "diversity." The results are the same.

[lormand]

Diversity is a Trojan Horse which sneeks in monolithic thought in the guise of the diverse skin color.

[ampat]

Don't forget "little people".