Coalition on TV Diversity Reconciles
Activists complianed NBC deal did not include everyone
By Jason Ma and Sam Chu Lin

Asian American media activists, along with Latino, African American and Native American groups, came together Tuesday to reaffirm their coalition’s solidarity in pressuring the major TV networks to diversify their hiring practices.

This comes after the Asian American, Latino and Native American groups expressed disappointment last week over what they considered to be their exclusion from the diversity deal negotiated by NBC and NAACP President Kweisi Mfume Jan. 5.

They claimed that Mfume reached an agreement with the network without consulting them, and that he did not properly take their concerns into account when negotiating with NBC.

But just before meeting with executives from ABC and NBC in Los Angeles on Tuesday, members of the coalition said the criticism from the previous week arose from a misunderstanding.

“When we raised that [question] with Mr. Mfume, he said, ‘I erred on that, not because I wanted to exclude you. The simple fact is I was representing you as your chairman. And I did that,’” recounted Esteban Torres, spokesperson for the National Latino Media Council.

Mfume added, “We feel pretty good about where we are, not only about our friendship, but our commitment to work together.”

Co-founder of the Media Action Network for Asian Americans Guy Aoki, whose group is also a member of the coalition, said that he was surprised by last week’s news. He added that the coalition previously had agreed not to sign onto any deals unless all four co-chairs representing each minority group agreed to it.

The “memorandum of understanding” was signed by Mfume, representing the NAACP and NBC President Bob Wright. No other organizations or individuals representing organizations were listed.

“It’s good what the NAACP did,” Aoki said. “But we’re concerned that we hadn’t been negotiators in the deal. It’s unfortunate because we’ve all been working as a coalition. This is completely independent of us.”

Although Aoki did not object to what was in the deal -- such as promises from NBC to hire more minorities as writers, producers and directors -- he said he also wanted guarantees from the network to hire a vice president for diversity, noting that the high executive turnover in the entertainment business required a permanent position dedicated to that task.

Former Congressman and spokesperson for the Asian American Coalition Norman Mineta said Tuesday that he was satisfied with the NAACP’s deals with NBC. “What we have here is a very long commitment among the coalition members to negotiate with all of the networks. ...we talk about this being a strong foundation.”

While the coalition’s campaign was originally targeted at what they called a “whitewash” of casting on the major TV network shows -- pointing out that none of the new shows last fall originally had minorities in a lead role -- the NBC agreement does not guarantee any minority castings on TV shows.

Aoki said that, at least in the short-term, having more minorities in front of the camera is more important, because of its “immediate” effect on American viewers and society.

A spokesperson for NBC, speaking on condition of anonymity, defended the deal, saying it was very comprehensive but could not say whether or not NBC would negotiate separate agreements with individual minority groups or hire members of specific groups.

“I don’t know about that,” the spokesperson said. “But we would be willing to discuss anything. NBC is really proud of the program we’ve outlined with the NAACP.”

The spokesperson added that the network assumed at the time of negotiations last week that Mfume represented all the concerns of the rest of the coalition.

Under the deal, NBC has agreed to hire at least one new minority writer next fall for all of its second-year shows, and is encouraging producers to hire minorities in creative positions. The network will also boost support for various job training and internship programs to get more minorities.

NBC has also promised to double its purchasing from minority-owned businesses over the next 18 months, for an additional $10 million in spending. Mfume and top NBC executives will run an all-day seminar next month for producers and studio heads to come up with more ideas.

The network also pledged to discourage the practice of assigning minority writers to programs largely with minority themes.

“We believe that some of the criticism helped to send an alarm throughout the entire industry,” said Mfume Jan. 5. His organization is establishing a Hollywood office to monitor network progress.

ABC became the second major network on Jan. 7 to reach a deal with the NAACP to promote diversity in its ranks, agreeing among other things to tie executive bonuses to success in employing minorities.

ABC’s deal similarly concentrates more on changing the behind-the-scenes operations of the network in the hope that it eventually makes a difference in what goes on the air.

The NAACP had threatened a boycott after complaining about the casting in new programming this fall. The threat hung over all four networks, with the NAACP never specifying which one it considered to have the biggest problem.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.