Sarah Palin, the Dona Quixote of American politics, has coined a new disparaging term for the U.S. media. At the weekend’s Tea Party Movement convention in Nashville, she referred to the major newspaper, news magazines, news radio, television and cable networks as the “lamestream” media. 

As a long-time practitioner of the news business, I take offense only because it comes from an intellectual short-sheet like Palin. For one particular reason, I find the coinage befitting.

That reason is the mainstream media’s inability to recognize their own dishonorable habits in, year after year, showcasing primarily white and predominantly white male commentators – the folks who, arguably, steer public opinion in ways that most duly elected officials can only wish for. 

After all, it is radio blowhard Rush Limbaugh, who is the undisputed vicar of ultra conservatism, causing titled men and women to bow in contrition when they challenge or ever so gently criticize him or his views. And it was the loony and paranoid Glenn Beck who energized the Tea Party clan at its dawning. And it is the fire-breathers at Fox News who keep the right wing astir.

The left has its own stable of opinion shapers – Olberman, Maddow, Shultz and such – but no matter which aisle you visit, there is a stark lack of ethnic diversity. Even with a black man in the White House, even with the increasing “browning” of America, even with a high demand for “talking heads” to satisfy the 24-hour-news maw - the universe of reporters, editors, producers, bookers and hosts can’t seem to find but three or four recyclable black and Latino people to lend perspective to developments.

Consider the National Urban League Policy Institute’s 2005 study of Sunday morning talks shows on the five major cable and broadcast networks. Between January 2001 and June 2005, the Institute found, 60 percent of the shows had no black guests, either as newsmakers or news commentators and analysts. In other words, the networks found nothing of value in anything black folks had to say or think about 18 months of news, events and developments.

On this, the national media are incorrigible. 

In the summer of 2001, as a fellow at Harvard’s Shorenstein Center, I published a case study that tracked 158 regularly scheduled network and cable news talk shows between November 7 and December 11, 2000, when all of the country was caught up in the controversy over – and awaiting finality in – the presidential election. 

You will recall that the election disaster had a powerful racial subtext, which is usually the trigger point for turning to African-American sources. Yet, not even that got the diversity juices flowing. The disparity in bookings along racial lines was obscene.

On the Sunday talk show circuit, for example, appearances by blacks were outnumbered by whites 134 to one.

“Some say they have no special responsibility to seek out people of color for commentary,” Janine Jackson of Fairness and Accuracy in Media told me at the time. “I think there really is an ideological disagreement here. It’s simply good journalism to try to get a range of perspectives on a story and specifically to try to get the perspectives of a particular community that is impacted by the story. That’s not social engineering. That’s journalism.”

Recently, C-SPAN, which prides itself on shooting straight down the middle, explained that it would not be adding Roland Martin’s “Washington Watch” program to its Sunday radio rebroadcasts, telling the Maynard Institute's Richard Prince that it rebroadcasts the five major networks’ Sunday talk shows “because they regularly generate national news coverage and influence the policy debate in Washington.”

In the few months since his .....

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as i have said before awf Sevennotrump & branaria are both cut from the same ignorant cloth.the black community supports the democrats religiously and have many media outlets to get their message out.but the democrats refuse to let them be heard nationallyand they are stupid to demand air time.when you have so called leaders that are not held accountable(jesse,al etc.) for their actions this how you get treated,only these two will never understand

by   
Hoodtechie2
February 8, 2010, 2:22 pm
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Branarla: This klansman comes on this site using a dozen (or more user names). He tries to pose as a negro several uncletoms, but he knows so little about Black people, he has made statements indicating he thought both Sharpton & Jackson were the leaders of the NAACP. He tried to quote MLK the other day and butchered the statement so badly it was almost unrecognizable, plus he used it in a context where MLK would have never visited. Here he wants to pretend those “tea- party-scum-bags” aren’t racist. You’ve done the correct thing in not engaging this DUMMY!

by   
Sevennotrump
February 8, 2010, 1:47 pm
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The tea party protests are about one color=Green.They are tired of the spending by our elected leaders.

by   
AWF
February 8, 2010, 1:24 pm
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Anyone who asks why shouldnt even be a part of this discussion. Not up for debate

by   
Branarla
February 8, 2010, 1:12 pm
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Why is the movement racist Brahnaria?

by   
AWF
February 8, 2010, 12:46 pm
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Ms Mathis, I couldnt agree with you more. I kept changing channels the other day to find someone of color speaking out about this Tea Party/Sarah Palin phenomena and I found one African American commentator on MSNBC who thought Palin was great. What is wrong with the African American media. Where is BET? Where is Jessie? Where are all the black journalist? We dont seem to have a voice anymore except on the radio. We should have our own anti Tea Party movement that calls this racist organization out for what it truly is.

by   
Branarla
February 8, 2010, 12:28 pm
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In fact I did know that Seven. His addressing AWF is similar to me addressing you –talking to one’s self! I also notice every time he posts that he’s an ignorant trailer-park fool. Notice how he hits the enter key, to change lines in the middle of a sentence, [reasonable (enter) conversation]. Notice also his dumb-azz doesn’t have enough sense to capitalize letters at the beginning of a sentence and he just ends a paragraph with no punctuation; no period, no exclamation point, no question mark –NO NOTHING!

by   
Sevennotrump
February 8, 2010, 12:08 pm
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Hey Sevennotrump: Did you know the klansman who sometimes calls himself “hoodtechie” also calls himself, “uncletom, Fj1200, WhatIThink, MrKnowItAll, PollyPockets, MacBen, NateTwo", etc, etc, etc. His DUMB azz was so infuriated after Obama’s election, he dreamed up what he THOUGHT was a clever scheme, to adopt a dozen usernames & pretend to be “negros” who voted for Obama but are now disenchanted & have decided to vote for a repugnican klansman in the next election. NOT!

by   
Sevennotrump
February 8, 2010, 12:06 pm
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don't be disheartened awf,Sevennotrump is a liberal fool who doesn't have the intellect to even have a reasonable conversation.mainstream media has been caught with their pants down spreading facts that are not true or unproven.Sevennotrump is the type of ignorant brother that they program and everything revolves around color for him/her.my guess is Sevennotrump is not well educated

by   
Hoodtechie2
February 8, 2010, 11:20 am
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Further, your question requires a question. Is a conservative ever going to do anything favorable, so Ms. Mathis can write a favorable report on them? So far, they’ve blurted out disrespectfully during a formal house hearing, they’ve supported legislation, then suddenly opposed it when the Black President supports it, just so they can stand opposed to anything the Black man says. What would you like her to write that would be favorable about racist hypocrasy? If there are REALLY any Black conservatives left siding with those racists, you are a sorry bunch of Clarence Thomases.

by   
Sevennotrump
February 8, 2010, 9:30 am
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AWF: I as a Black conservative have a problem with racists coming on this site, attempting to pose as “negro uncletoms” and claiming to be disheartened with liberal platforms. THIS IS A BLACK SITE, 96% of Black people voted for President Obama. If liberal platforms irritate you, take your bigoted azz to Limbaugh’s site. & NO, I’m no more conservative than you are Black, so we’re even on the lies. Don’t bother telling me Blacks aren’t monolithic, I said 96%, if you’re in the 4 %, GET LOST!

by   
Sevennotrump
February 8, 2010, 9:27 am
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This is america.Hard work gets you to the wealthy,upper class,regardless of race,color or creed.

by   
AWF
February 8, 2010, 9:26 am
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DEAR AMERICA,Sarah,Palin,is the last person on this earth ,netx to Rush Limbaugh that shopld ever wanna govern this United State's of Amecica,she's just not really a true American,her Goals are the same as the rest of the wealthy ,upper class,just not willing to allow a black person to tell them just how much money they can steal from America,they wanna always be the richest and have the power and now that we have a Black President trying to level the playing field for all Palin and the other's don't want this to happen,Obama has tried to accopmpish more .johnwas

by   
Johnwas
February 8, 2010, 8:58 am
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I as a Black Conservative Love the way you REport the news keep doing what you do Ms. Mathis

by   
Caretha1
February 8, 2010, 8:41 am
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I,as a black conservative,have a problem with the way you slant the news on the liberal bent and the color bent.Here's a question for you Ms,mathis;will you ever report favorably on a conservative in ANY of your stories?

by   
AWF
February 8, 2010, 7:57 am
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