Media 2070 FINAL - Flipbook - Page 53
Meanwhile, CRS Deputy Director Calvin Kytle, a former
journalist and publicist, criticized newspapers at an
annual United Press International conference in 1965
for publishing news about civil rights on the same page
as their daily crime roundups and for failing to seek the
viewpoints of civil-rights leaders.10
When newsrooms were slow to integrate, the CRS pushed
the news industry and media executives behind the scenes
to meet with communities of color. The agency hired Ben
Holman, the first Black journalist to work at the Chicago
Daily News and the first Black on-air reporter for Chicago’s
WBBM-TV, to lead this effort.11 Holman became the
director of the agency in 1969.12
In 1968, the CRS helped organize a Negro and Spanish
Speaking Radio Conference in New York City. The CRS
also played a role in the production of such programs
as the CBS documentary Of Black America and National
Educational Television’s Black Journal. Though CRS
specialists didn’t take “full credit for initiating these
productions” or “record them as a specific output, they did
influence the decisions made by the stations directly and
significantly.”13
In its 1969 report, the CRS observed: “Few
American institutions have so completely
excluded minority group members from
influence and control as have the news
media. This failure is reflected by general
insensitivity and indifference and is
verified by ownership, management, and
employment statistics.”14
The report noted that “no general audience newspaper,
magazine, or radio or television station … is owned or
managed by minority group persons.” At that time, Black
people owned fewer than a dozen radio stations, and
whites owned “almost all Spanish-language radio and TV
stations.”15
By 1970, the CRS’ goals focused on increasing “minority
employment, ownership, and influence” in the media
industry and on developing “techniques to identify and
eliminate institutional racism, particularly as it adversely
[a]ffects delivery of media services to minorities.”16
The CRS provided support for a 1967 national conference
involving media executives, civil-rights groups and Black
and Latinx publications that took place in New York
City. By 1970, the CRS had helped initiate more than
20 such media gatherings in cities nationwide.17 This
included “A Black Perspective on the Media” conference
that the CRS co-sponsored with the National Urban
Coalition. Media representatives discussed coverage of
the Black community and ways to promote employment
opportunities.18
These gatherings gave civil-rights groups the chance to
learn from experts on topics including ways to challenge a
broadcast license and strategies to integrate newsrooms. In
1970, the CRS provided technical assistance to a coalition
— led by the president of Atlanta’s NAACP chapter —
that negotiated agreements with more than 20 Atlanta
broadcast stations to integrate their workforces. The CRS
noted the agreements resulted in the hiring of more than
140 Black technicians and professionals, as well as the
appointment of a Black vice president of a Georgia radio
chain.19
During the early 1970s, as a result of the WLBT case,
civil-rights and community groups filed more than 340
license challenges across the country. Groups like Black
Efforts for Soul in Television (BEST) organized workshops
to teach groups how to file a license challenge and groups
like the Citizens Communication Center provided legal
representation.20
These efforts forced many stations to sign agreements
with local groups to integrate their newsrooms and news
coverage.21 BEST also played a critical role in pressuring
Congress and the president to appoint the first Black FCC
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