Media 2070 FINAL - Flipbook - Page 51
THE 1968 KERNER COMMISSION REPORT
NAMES MEDIA’S ROLE IN SYSTEMIC OPPRESSION
Racial uprisings took place across the country in 1967 in
more than 150 cities, including Detroit and Newark. They
forced the federal government to publicly acknowledge
systemic racism in our society — issues that Black people
had fought to address for over 300 years.1
President Lyndon B. Johnson appointed the National
Advisory Commission on Civil Disorders — also known as
the Kerner Commission — to investigate the root causes
of the racial uprisings. In 1968, the Kerner Commission
released its report, which examined such factors as
policing and unemployment.2 It stated that: “Our nation
is moving toward two societies, one black, one white —
separate and unequal.”3
The report also included a chapter on the news media.
It found the media had “contributed to the black-white
schism in this country” and that it failed to “report
adequately on the causes and consequences of civil
disorders and the underlying problems of race relations.”4
It noted that the white press “repeatedly, if unconsciously,
reflects the biases, the paternalism, the indifference of
white America.”5
The commission also found the Black community
believed the media were “instruments of the white power
structure” — and that “these white interests guide the
entire white community, from the journalists’ friends and
neighbors to city officials, police officers, and department
store owners. Publishers and editors, if not white
reporters, they feel, support and defend these interests
with enthusiasm and dedication.”6
commission wrote. “That is no longer good enough. The
painful process of readjustment that is required of the
American news media must begin now.”8
The report — along with the civil-rights movement and
license challenges that followed the WLBT decision
— pressured the broadcast industry to integrate its
newsrooms. The political dynamics of the times forced
newspapers to do the same.9
The political pressure to increase the numbers of Black
journalists resulted in the founding of the Association of
Black Journalists in Philadelphia in 1973, which in turn
led to the creation of the National Association of Black
Journalists in 1975.10 And over the ensuing four decades,
thousands of Black journalists were hired to work at local
and national media outlets.11
The Kerner Commission report didn’t just influence the
adoption of newsroom policies to boost the presence of
people of color. It also influenced federal policies and
programs that began to address the harms caused by
institutional and structural racism in the media industry.12
•••
1. Report of the National Advisory Commission on Civil Disorders, U.S. Government Printing Office, Feb. 29,
1968: p. 1
2. Ibid, pp. 5–8
3. Ibid, p. 1
4. Ibid, pp. 201, 211
5. Ibid, p. 203
6. Ibid, p. 207
7. Ibid, pp. 212–213
8. Ibid, p. 213
9. “ASNE Diversity History,” News Leaders Association, accessed on Sept. 15, 2020: https://members.
newsleaders.org/content.asp?contentid=57
The report recommended the creation of an Institute
of Urban Communications to recruit and train Black
journalists and other reporters to improve their coverage
of the “urban scene”. The report also advocated for the
creation of a news service to cover “urban affairs” and to
assess the media’s coverage of race, including racial-justice
uprisings. The commission also called for further research
into the media’s impact on race.7
10. Wayne Dawkins, Black Journalists: The NABJ Story, August Press, 1977, p. 16
11. Snapshot on growth of number of Black journalists working in the newspaper industry. In 1978,
there were about 700 Black journalists working at daily newspapers. By 2000, the number had neared
3,000. Deirdre Carmody, “Survey Found No Minority Employees at Most U.S. Newspapers, Editors
Are Told,” The New York Times, April 13, 1979: https://www.nytimes.com/1978/04/13/archives/survey-found-no-minority-employees-at-most-us-newspapers-editors.html; “Minority Journalists Make Small
Gains in Daily Newspapers,” American Society of Newspaper Editors, April 12, 2000: https://members.
newsleaders.org/diversity-survey-2000
12. “Changes, Challenges, and Charting New Courses: Minority Commercial Broadcast Ownership in the
United States,” the Minority Telecommunications Development Program, National Telecommunications
and Information Administration, United States Department of Commerce, 2000, p. 17: https://www.ntia.
doc.gov/files/ntia/publications/mtdpreportv2.pdf
“Along with the country as a whole, the press has too
long basked in a white world, looking out of it, if at all,
with white men’s eyes and a white perspective,” the
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