NO ONE NOTICES THE CONTRAST OF WHITE ON WHITE…. Fox News viewers have been treated with an overabundance of coverage of “news” about the New Black Panther Party and Shirley Sherrod, who at least initially, the network accused of discriminating against whites.
Isn’t Fox News concerned about driving away its African-American viewers with such racially-charged coverage? Probably not — the network just doesn’t have many African-American viewers to drive away.
Fox News may be the undisputed ratings champion in cable news, but not among black viewers.
The New York Times’ Brian Stelter tweeted that, according to Nielsen Media Research, Fox News has averaged just 29,000 black viewers in primetime so far this television season (9/09-7/10).
For comparison purposes, note that 20.7% of CNN’s viewers are black. For MSNBC, the number is 19.3%.
For Fox News, it’s just 1.38%.
I’m going to go out on a limb and guess that this isn’t likely to change anytime soon.
The National Association of Black Journalists has faulted Fox for years for inaccurately portraying blacks. And Mr. Beck called Mr. Obama a racist last August, prompting an advertiser boycott that continues.
In the last month, Fox doggedly pursued an accusation of voter intimidation by a fringe hate group called the New Black Panthers on the day of the last presidential election. One news anchor, Megyn Kelly, devoted dozens of segments to the incident. (Ms. Kelly was even upbraided on the air by a Fox News contributor, Kirsten Powers, who accused her of doing the “scary black man thing.”
Last fall, Fox’s news programs gave heavy play to heavily edited tapes that appeared to show counselors at the liberal community organizing group Acorn giving advice to an ostensible pimp and his prostitute about evading taxes and setting up a brothel. […]
Over the weekend, a former Democratic National Committee chairman, Howard Dean, accused Fox of pushing “a theme of black racism.”
