DNC & RNC on TV… In Living Color…Or Black & White?

by
dominique DiPrima

Okay, I admit, I did not attend the Republican National Convention. I would have loved to! What an opportunity to gather googobs of, well, revealing interviews. Maybe someone would have even tossed me some snacks (sometimes you feel like a nut…) I was not able to get a credential in time. But I saw it on television. It was, in fact, in color. Lots of red, white and blue and white, and pink, and mauve and…You get the idea. According to Gallup more than 90 percent of registered Republicans are white, even though European (or white) Americans only make up 63% of the general population. Apparently the Black 10% of the party had other plans that week, I only saw Mia Love and former RNC Chair Michael Steele. And Steele looked like he snuck in the side door.

I really didn’t see many Latinos, Asians, Arab-Americans, or Native Americans either. But I might be wrong. Maybe the beautiful diversity that is America actually was there in Tampa that week. Maybe the real problem was television’s distorted racial/ethnic lens and not the make up of the actual RNC crowd. Sounds highly unlikely, I know, but here’s why I could possibly buy that argument…

You see I did, in fact attend the Democratic National Convention. It was my first national convention and I truly enjoyed it. It was a learning experience on every level and an incredible opportunity as a citizen and a broadcaster. I did get tons of interviews (including one with Michael Steele, who again looked like he may have talked his way in. ) It was electric and exciting on the ground in Charlotte. And as much as I could, while hustling for interviews and rushing to pull together my reports, I kept my eye on the TV coverage. There were screens around the arena showing cable news coverage of the event live. And after I returned home, I went back and looked at some of the convention again, just to see how it played on the small screen. Once again what I saw was in color. But it might just as well have been Black & White!

Once again there was plenty of red, white & blue…And a whole lot of Black. And some white. And a whole lot of Black. Don’t get me wrong, I love seeing my people. Anywhere and everywhere. But the fact is, we make up roughly 10% of the U.S. population and just 19% of the Democratic Party. So why do the television networks choose to show us in such high numbers at this particular convention? I was there and we had a strong presence. But looking at the coverage, especially during the speeches of the President and the First Lady, you would have thought we were the majority. You would have thought we were the only ones who support this president. That’s just not true.
The DNC I saw was truly in color, high def and 3D! It was the America I live in and everybody was there! I saw lots of white people, tons of Latinos, a significant presence of Asians, and others who could have been east Indian or Arab Americans. I saw lots of young people and even more seniors. There were quite a few LGBT representatives. I saw people from all walks of life in terms of style, income, geography and good looks!

Will the networks marginalize this President and his party by who they choose to “cut away” to? Will they scare away independent voters? Do they minimize the power of the true coalition-building that the President Barack Obama (and candidate Barack Obama) are doing and have done? And is it fair, that the networks, whether it is on purpose, or through their own lack of vision slant people’s perceptions of our political processes, politicians and participants?

Why not show us the enthusiastic reaction of the many white male attendees when the First Lady spoke? (If you look at the coverage they show almost exclusively Black women during Michelle Obama’s speech.) Why not feature the truly fired up Asians when the President spoke or the die hard Latino delegates? Why don’t we see more reporters and commentators who represent our diversity giving their perspective when it counts? Why aren’t there producers of color? Where are they? How are our interests represented? Who makes that call? Maybe it’s time we made a call – to our favorite network and let them know we’d like them to do better. Tell them it’s time to move their dated black and white attitudes into a high def/3D world. Let them know we’d like our political coverage in living color!