The board of directors of the National Association of Hispanic Journalists is dismayed with your organization’s decision to award a coveted prize to William McGowan’s book Coloring the News. This insulting book is a poorly argued indictment of the need to ensure diversity in America’s newsrooms, in the pages of its newspapers and magazines, and in the images on the nightly news.

While McGowan’s book may have been the only entry in the category of media criticism, you still had a choice in deciding whether to honor it or not. That you chose to do so is disturbing. You have given his specious argument a stamp of credibility that it does not deserve.

McGowan’s thesis, that the crusade for diversity has caused a decline in the quality of American journalism, is not presented in anything approaching a fair manner. It fails as journalism. It fails as scholarship. McGowan falsely presents examples of bad or incomplete journalism as the direct outgrowth of the demand for the full and fair coverage of non-white citizens and communities. His logical leaps are unsupported by the facts he presents.

McGowan even accuses young journalists, "particularly members of minorities," of harboring a "scorn for objectivity," resulting in a newsgathering environment in which "facts lose their currency." What is his evidence for this outrageous insult? He presents none.

Anyone can point to examples of bad journalism. But to blame such examples on the "crusade for diversity" shows a profound lack of understanding of what that crusade is all about, and a hostile attitude toward journalists of color. By honoring McGowan, the National Press Club embraces that hostility and lack of understanding.

The National Association of Hispanic Journalists demands that news organizations cover issues affecting Latinos in the fullest and fairest manner possible. We do not ask news organizations to hold back on coverage of immigration, bilingual education or any other topic. We merely ask for thorough, complete coverage of these issues.

Thoroughness is something that is lacking in McGowan’s book. To cite just one example, on page 15 McGowan refers to a 1996 APME study which found that 40 percent of whites believed that lower standards were employed to promote journalists of color. He fails to note other relevant findings of that study, including the fact that 77 percent of whites agreed that newsroom staffs should reflect society in terms of racial/ethnic makeup and that 86 percent thought that diversity strengthens news coverage and credibility.

Opinion polls are not facts: if our white colleagues believe we are held to a lower standard of performance, they are sadly mistaken. In fact, the opinion is insulting, as it presumes non-white journalists as a whole are less qualified, less committed to good journalism, and less likely to uphold the highest standards of our profession, than white journalists. If non-white reporters are held to a lower standard than white reporters, why is it that America’s newsrooms still do not reflect the diversity of America? Why is it that 45 percent of all daily newspapers across the country still do not employ a single person of color in their newsrooms? These facts undermine McGowan’s argument.

McGowan routinely tries to lump together the demand for full and fair coverage with bad decisions, fear of offending politically powerful audiences, and "political correctness." The fact that the same journalistic flaws can be found in an examination of coverage of politics, business, and other non-racial issues, is completely ignored. Yes, bad journalism does exist. The crusade for diversity is not to blame for it, anymore than a business editor’s demand for strong business reporting is to blame for laudatory articles about Enron prior to 2001. This is a fundamental flaw in McGowan’s argument.

And you’re rewarding him for it?

We join our colleagues at the National Association of Black Journalists in criticizing the quality of this book, and in criticizing your ill-advised decision to uphold it as one of the year’s best efforts.

If you insist on honoring this book, then we challenge you to sponsor a public debate this fall between McGowan and a representative of NAHJ or UNITY. In the interest of fairness, we want the public to see the book you honor subjected to a level of scrutiny higher than that which was employed by your misguided judges.

Sincerely,


Juan Gonzalez
President
National Association of Hispanic Journalists