Study: DC Press Corps Lacks Diversity

By: Mark Fitzgerald If it weren't for their blue suits and red ties, there would be barely any color at all among the daily newspaper journalists of the Washington press corps, according to a study released Wednesday at the Unity 2004 joint convention of minority journalists associations.

The study found that not quite 10.5% of reporters, editors and bureau chiefs sent to Washington by daily newspapers are journalists of color. The percentage is not only far smaller than the roughly one-third of the U.S. general population who belong to minority racial or ethnic groups -- but at most newspapers with a D.C. presence, it is smaller than the percentage of journalists of color working in the newsroom back home.

The findings have significance for the way the national press covers issues of race and diversity, the report suggests. "It's sadly ironic that the same Washington press corps that has questioned President Bush's commitment to minority issues and criticized the dearth of minorities on John Kerry's campaign staff is itself startlingly monochromatic," the report said. "Go to any news conference at the White House, Pentagon or Capitol Hill and the lack of journalists of color is readily visible. Behind the scenes, where decisions are made about what is news and how to cover it, the exclusion of people of color in Washington bureau management is even more acute."

According to the report -- a joint study by Unity: Journalists of Color Inc. and the University of Maryland's Philip Merrill College of Journalism -- among the 574 reporters, correspondents, editors and bureau chiefs in the D.C. daily newspaper press corps, just 60 are journalists of color, and only one is Native American.

Patty Talahongva, president of the Native American Journalists Association (NAJA) said the report should be a wake-up call for publishers and editors. "Only one (NAJA) member covers the government on a daily basis," she said. "Yet, as sovereign nations, tribal people have a direct interest in what happens in Congress and in federal agencies."

For journalists of color who make it to Washington, it's even lonelier at the top, the study says: "Of the 36 daily newspapers and newspaper groups that have multiple-person news operations covering Washington, only three have non-white bureau chiefs -- Gannett News Service, the Chicago Tribune and The Detroit News."

And while larger chains and papers generally have more diverse newsrooms, that's not always the case in D.C., the report found. The "most diverse" Washington bureaus are maintained by Knight Ridder, Gannett News Service and Newhouse News Service. "But other chain bureaus, including Scripps Howard, Hearst, Copley, McClatchy and Belo, have either few or no journalists of color covering Washington," the report said.

Christopher Callahan, the associate dean of Maryland's j-school and senior editor at the American Journalism Review, was the author and lead researcher of the report. The study explained its methodology this way: "The study relied on past research, including the analysis of individual newspapers and their communities, the annual census of diversity in daily newspaper newsrooms, a Freedom Forum study on newsroom diversity and a survey conducted by Indiana University's School of Journalism. A group of Washington journalists served as the project's advisory committee, helping craft the study's scope and providing guidance."

A full copy of the report is available at Unity's Web site (PDF download).