Soledad O’Brien on News Media’s Reckoning with Racism

KQED's Forum

KQED

Politics, News, News Commentary

4.6 • 656 Ratings

🗓️ 15 July 2020

⏱️ 54 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

As newsrooms across the country confront issues of race and diversity, award-winning journalist Soledad O’Brien says it’s a welcome “MeToo” moment for journalists of color to speak out. O'Brien detailed her own experiences in a recent op-ed for the New York Times including being called the "affirmative-action hire" by colleagues at her first job. Today, after years working at major news outlets such as NBC and CNN, she's the chief executive of her own production company and regularly uses her Twitter feed to call out poor journalism in headlines and interviews. We’ll talk to O’Brien about how newsrooms should address racism in hiring and news coverage and get her take on the state of journalism in the Trump era. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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1:08.7	From KQED.
1:24.1	From KQED, public radio in San Francisco, I'm Mina Kim.
1:44.6	Coming up on forum, Soledad O'Brien says the reckoning with racism that's happening in the news industry is a welcome me-to moment for journalists of color. Every journalist of color has a story, she writes in a recent New York Times op-ed, where she details an early experience of racism in a San Francisco newsroom and its impact on coverage. O'Brien now runs her own media production company and uses her Twitter feed to call out shoddy
1:49.7	journalism.
1:50.7	A conversation with Soledad O'Brien says a seismic shift is happening in the news industry,
2:19.3	as journalists of color go directly to the public and use social media to call out racism in their newsrooms.
2:25.6	She writes in a recent New York Times opinion piece,
2:28.3	absent a hashtag but buoyed by this public awakening over Black Lives Matter,
2:32.5	we have collectively inaugurated our own Me Too movement.
2:36.5	O'Brien is founder and CEO of Soledat O'Brien Productions after anchoring and reporting for years
2:42.0	for NBC, MSNBC and CNN, which has been a frequent target of her Twitter journalism critiques.
2:48.8	She joins us to take your questions about journalism
2:51.6	this moment. And what happens now that journalists of color are demanding more representation
2:56.6	and influence in newsrooms? Welcome to Forum, Soledad O'Brien.
	...

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