Presidential candidate Barack Obama suggested hat there be a national
discussion on race. I am pleased to see that TPM has a discussion next
week featuring a variety of African-American voices, from the
Progressive to the Conservative. I am saddened by the fact that such a
broad-based and hopefully insightful conversation will never take place
on any network or cable news show.

In a previous post on this
issue, I noted that all of the hosts of morning and night time news
shows are Caucasian. The hosts are the ones who direct the questioning
and can choose who will respond to a posed question. The host can also
cut off the response to a question, if the response is are not what the
particular host wants to hear.

The fact that the news show hosts
are Caucasian would not matter if they could reflect some understanding
of what the African-American community has to say to the United States.

Unfortunately,
none of the hosts appear to possess this ability. As an example of this
inability, I submit observations from two shows that aired on
03/28/2008:

The first show, Lou Dobbs , had Dobbs along with two
Caucasian males , one a Democratic Party actviist who s Hillary Clinton
supporter and the other a New York Post columnist, discussed Condolezza
Rice's statement regarding the national "birth defect" of slavery.
Roland Martin, an African-American analyst was off camera also offering
commentary. Dobbs appeared outraged at the audacity of Rice's
statement. The other two White males were not angered, but expressed
concern about Rice's choice of words

Roland Martin, on the other
hand, said flat out the Rice had hit the nail on the head. Rice's
viewpoint is shared by a significant number of African-Americans.
Racism was built into the Constitution. There was great symbolism in
Roland Martin being beamed in rather than being on stage. Dobbs and his
two White colleagues face Martin with a force of 3:1. Such an imbalance
is commonplace on cable news shows

The discomfort that Dobbs et
al have with Rice's "wording" suggests that his show will never be an
honest format for a discussion of race.

The second show was Real
Time with Bill Mahrer. The guest were comedian Robert Klein, WaPo
international affairs correspondent Robin Wright, and African-American
PBS talk show host Tavis Smiley. The conversation turned to Reverend
Wright. Both Klein and Wright expressed dismay at Wright's words.
Mahrer was able to understand why an African-American who grew up in
the US cold be a little PO'ed. Smiley reminded the panel that Dr King
had said that a judgment could come down on America from actions in
Vietnam. Klein and Wright were initially reluctant to believe that King
had disparaged the United States. King was not the cuddly Black leader
that many want him to be.

In actuality, Dr King was dis-invited
to the white House for his comments about Vietnam. I bring up the
Mahrer show to bring up two points. One, that there are few hosts on
network or cable news who would take Mahrer's position about Rev
Wright's speech. Second, Robin Wright's outrage at both Rev Wright's
speech and the possibility that Rev King had said something
"unpatriotic" represents the feelings of most of the Caucasians in the
news media.

Dobbs getting upset about Rice's comments to the
Washington Times and Wright rejection of Rev Wright's snippets and the
"UnAmerican" sermon on Vietnam provides clear evidence that the
National discussion on race will be limited until a more diverse base
is used to lead the discussion, rather than just be responders to
biased questioning.

Given the way MSM is constructed, the national discussion on race will not be televised.