How Come Sports Websites Aren’t Hiring Minority Writers?
Media Gossip/Musings, Race January 17th. 2008, 3:30pm
If you come here on a regular basis, you know we’ve been tracking the sports media rather intently for a solid 18 months. If you’re a newbie, try searching for a journalist’s name on the right and chances are, we’ve written about them. Sure, we probably scrutinize ESPN and Sports Illustrated more than the others, but that’s because they’re the most powerful brands in sports media. That’s why, when incredibly wealthy Rick Reilly vacations like a rockstar while waiting for his June debut at ESPN, it is news. But what’s going on at Yahoo, Fox and Sportsline in the web war for eyeballs? You probably already know that Yahoo has established itself as more than just a fantasy destination, Fox Sports is matching them hire-for-hire, and CBS Sports (nee Sportsline) just overhauled its frontpage. Let’s probe further.
There’s no question each of the aforementioned sites have made quality hires. Unfortunately … there’s a recurring theme if you visit each website – there’s little or no diversity on the staffs or among the freelancers (unless you count former professional athletes, which is laughable). Based on visiting each of the three websites and looking at photos and reading bios:
* Yahoo Opinion and Analysis – 33 writers, and 30 of them are white males. Of the three minorities, two are former professional athletes.
* Sportsline Experts – 32 writers, and 26 of them are white males (one woman). Of the five minorities, two are former athletes/TV analysts.
* Fox Sports Hot Opinions – 42 writers, and 40 of them are white males (and six are former athletes and there’s one comic). There’s one minority and one female.
By our tally, that’s just five minority writers at three rapidly-expanding sports websites. This will make the boys in Bristol proud – just by looking at Page 2 and on their list of “bloggers,” we counted four minorities. Why are we harping on this subject? Richard Lapchick says it far more eloquently than we could.
50 Responses to “How Come Sports Websites Aren’t Hiring Minority Writers?”
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January 17th, 2008 at 3:39 pm
ESPN does it so they can get credit in post like this. They don’t hire based on talent, they hire on ethnicity.
January 17th, 2008 at 3:39 pm
CBS overhauled their frontpage? It still looks relatively the same as it has for the past couple months to me.
January 17th, 2008 at 3:44 pm
You wonder why there aren’t more minority sportswriter at newspapers and online? Look into Howard Bryant’s experience in Boston. He was a great writer but was attacked on a daily basis by a couple of sports radio assclowns whose racist shenanigans (google “Metco gorilla”) he had complained about. It’s Boston’s loss.
January 17th, 2008 at 3:45 pm
If Jemele Hill and Scoop Jackson are the best ESPN can do re: black writers, well . . .
January 17th, 2008 at 3:48 pm
no kidding. francesa said it perfectly. i don’t see color.
January 17th, 2008 at 3:52 pm
Sports websites don’t like black people.
*Mike Myers just bugged out*
January 17th, 2008 at 3:55 pm
What the fuck do I have to do with any of this?
-Tayshaun Prince
January 17th, 2008 at 3:55 pm
+1 Magglio
January 17th, 2008 at 3:56 pm
Not to sound like a bigot, but when you hire based on gender and color, you get Jemele Hill, who makes my eyes bleed.
January 17th, 2008 at 3:59 pm
Yahoo seems to hate on women too.
January 17th, 2008 at 4:00 pm
if I’m going to take valuable bits of my employers time to read sports articles online, i don’t care what ethnic background someone has, it had just better be a well written story, with well researched facts that are relevant to the article I’m reading.
January 17th, 2008 at 4:01 pm
Shoot hoops to make millions or write about shooting hoops to make hundreds?
Question answered.
January 17th, 2008 at 4:02 pm
Tayshaun Prince?
Oh, you mean Skeletor.
January 17th, 2008 at 4:03 pm
Wil – Did you read the link to the Lapchick story?
January 17th, 2008 at 4:07 pm
Wait a minute… an ESPN writer wrote a story about how awesome ESPN is at doing something its competitors are falling short at? You don’t say?
January 17th, 2008 at 4:10 pm
nope. i’m going to check it out though.
January 17th, 2008 at 4:11 pm
Sports blog land is getting better about this. A short count in my head brings up thestartingfive.wordpress.com, dwil.wordpress.com, nationofislamsportsblog.blogspot.com, The Commission (which sadly I can’t remember their address), Miss Gossip, leave-the-man-alone.blogspot.com, and stopmikelupica.com. And all of those are actually GOOD bloggers that I’m pleased to mention. It’s a sad truth that when a minority gets a blog/media job and they aren’t good, they will get slammed twice as hard.
For you Page 2 fans–Ralph Wiley was an excellent minority writer, LZ Granderson’s decent. Mixed feelings on Scoop and Jemele here as well.
January 17th, 2008 at 4:12 pm
So we all agree that you shouldn’t hire based simply on race or sex.
Now, does the fact that 90% of the writers at three major outlets are the same race and sex tell you thath that might be exactly what’s going on?
Your dislike for Jamele Hill is irrelevant (and hard to disagree with).
January 17th, 2008 at 4:20 pm
The problem: Journalism is like baseball, the road to the good money can be hard, arduous road. Thus, its the road less traveled.
The blacks that do go to college often major in business. Go look at the rates for blacks in the top three journalism schools: Mizzou, Northwestern and Syracuse. Compare that with the number of blacks enrolled in those university’s B-school. That will tell the story.
The opinions, critical thinkers and good writers are there within black society. But they’re not going to college to come out making $30k a year.
It’s unfortunate.
January 17th, 2008 at 4:20 pm
Can we get a tally of how many of those white writers/experts for Yahoo/Fox/CBSSportsline are athletes? It seems like that’s kind of an unfair analysis without that statistic.
What if 20 of Yahoo’s 30 white writers are former athletes? I’m not discounting the controversy, but let’s make sure everything is accounted for.
January 17th, 2008 at 4:24 pm
No, it tells me, statistically speaking, there are a far greater number of more qualified white applicants than black applicants.
Blacks make up ~12% of the U.S population.
Of black males 25 years or older, 4% have a bachelor’s degree or higher.
Of black makes 25 years or older, 31% have a bachelor’s degree or higher.
A little context next time please, TBL.
January 17th, 2008 at 4:26 pm
Correction: “Of black makes 25 years or older, 31% have a bachelor’s degree or higher.” should read: “Of white males 25 years or older, 31% have a bachelor’s degree or higher.”
January 17th, 2008 at 4:30 pm
Mike NYC,
With what you just wrote, don’t you see a problem with at that? Isn’t there some sort of systemic disparity within the context of your last comment? Please respond.
January 17th, 2008 at 4:32 pm
So Mike, 90% of your world is white and male? The bar scene must be scary.
January 17th, 2008 at 4:34 pm
You’ll have to explain further.
Are you disputing that — strictly from a numbers standpoint — there are less qualified black journalists (or Asian, or Hispanic, or whatever) than than white journalists?
January 17th, 2008 at 4:35 pm
Ooooooooh great, an affirmitive action debate disguised as sports banter!!! YES!!!!
January 17th, 2008 at 4:35 pm
Someone has a reading comprehension problem, it seems.
January 17th, 2008 at 4:36 pm
His avatar is Gheorge Muresan, what do you expect?
January 17th, 2008 at 4:37 pm
I’m a black blogger, and former newspaper journalist. Having worked with/for a couple of reputable papers in the Mid-Atlantic region, the media is one of those fields that is slow to receive minorities amongst its ranks. Particularly in the black community, where tenuous views of the media are held due to historical disparities in coverage, and skewed depictions of African-American people.
Would you work for an institution that has disregarded your views for more years than not?
January 17th, 2008 at 4:38 pm
Or, statistically speaking, white males make up about 40% of the population and 90% of the sportswriters. You can break it down by college grads instead of total population, but it’s going to be in the same ballpark.
I dont think anyone is saying we need a quota, just that there’s a disparity and it’s worth thinking about.
January 17th, 2008 at 4:39 pm
There’s a disparity in the amount of whites to blacks in basketball.
Is that worth thinking about?
January 17th, 2008 at 4:44 pm
@cbh49er
Well there is NOW, but there never used to be. Also, wait for the peak of European influence in the NBA and it will be about even again as far as I can predict.
January 17th, 2008 at 4:46 pm
Yeah, but baseball is racist because there are no blacks.
Except the Latin American ones.
January 17th, 2008 at 4:46 pm
Mike NYC — you’re trying to clear yourself of all bias from slipping in things like “strictly from a numbers standpoint” and “statistically speaking” but that doesn’t add up.
Do you have any statistical analysis for us that breaks down interest/participation in sports by race? Because if African-American men (and women) were shown to be at a higher proportion than White men (and women), then those numbers aren’t justifiable “strictly from a numbers standpoint”
January 17th, 2008 at 4:47 pm
Now hold on, before everyone buries Mike in NYC (please don’t be a real racist, Mike, or this is going to be an embarrassing defense!). It’s true that there is a supply problem for minorities at times. For example, in academia there’s a lot of complaints that there aren’t more women in full professorships. That isn’t happening because there’s current discrimination going on across the board (although there is some, I’m sure). It’s happening because there aren’t very many 50-60 year-old women with the 20 years of experience needed to qualify–it’s a result of bias 20 years ago, basically. So it’s a shame, but it doesn’t mean that there’s current bias.
Now, if there are no black bloggers employed by sports blog sites, where all you need to get hired is a free blog off wordpress.com and some writing talent, then it definitely looks like bias to me. (Feel free to guess which one of the two I lack in getting hired :-p).
January 17th, 2008 at 4:50 pm
Still, though, when it comes to black journalists…I know a few young black people who want to be sports journalists, and I don’t know that many black people. I’m suspicious of that explanation. Oh, and I forgot to mention SVP on my list of minority bloggers (smacks forehead) sorry SVP.
January 17th, 2008 at 4:50 pm
Mike NYC,
No, I’m agreeing with you. The lack of black college graduates hinders the number of black journalists, in this case, black sports journalists. In comment 19, I take it a step further and say that there are a lot of blacks who don’t see journalism as a profitable avenue.
Now, I’m getting to the point that that there’s something deeper than just looking at blacks at different levels in sports journalism.
With your facts, there’s no way in hell that blacks will be proportionately represented in the field of journalism, or many other fields for that matter. That’s my point. The problem starts long before hiring black journalists to fill these roles. It’s starts with middle and high school.
January 17th, 2008 at 4:50 pm
Where’s the bias? Look at the math – and no, it’s not “exact” but if you have that statistical analysis yourself, feel free to share it.
It’s not crazy to think that a race that outnumbers another by 6 to 1 and ALSO achieves bachelor degrees at a ratio of 9 to 1 will have a far greater number of qualified applicants.
Hey, where are all the men on the masthead at Vogue?
January 17th, 2008 at 4:57 pm
Mike NYC,
It’s not crazy. But, in this country, there are obvious reasons. Let’s start with the lacking/failing inner-city school systems that permeate our nation ALONGSIDE these revenue-generating grand sports stadiums and arenas, paid for by taxpayers.
Correlation? We could take some of that taxpayer money that gets “created” and funnel it back into the inner city school systems to improve that 9 to 1 ratio.
January 17th, 2008 at 4:59 pm
Victor I would rather see taxpayer money go to underfunded schools than to stadiums any day of the week. You will get no argument from me there.
January 17th, 2008 at 5:05 pm
I hope there will be some money left over to help me with my reading comprehension problem.
January 17th, 2008 at 5:16 pm
As is the case for most things in life, “The Wire” answers even our most complicated questions about racial and cultural issues. We should all just agree to watch this show and be enlightened by its multi-layered message.
Love,
Stringer Bell
January 17th, 2008 at 5:18 pm
A good look.
January 17th, 2008 at 5:19 pm
obviously the issue isn’t simply about the hiring process these national outlets use when filling a position. If we were a society with the right priorities, we wouldn’t have these problems.
Instead of congress having a hearing on the state of health care, education, the failing dollar and racial equality, we have a televised deposition on steroids in baseball.
Lots of people think our government has their priorities out of whack, but they’re only doing what the general public seems interested in. Why are there daily articles on Britney Spears on MSNBC.com, and ESPN leads with a story about Jessica Simpson and Tony Romo?
Sometimes I really think Mike Judge was right with “Idiocracy”, it doesn’t seem that far of a stretch.
January 17th, 2008 at 5:33 pm
with the exception of jason whitlock, jeff goodman, ken rosenthal, and mike harmon, foxsports.com is almost unreadable. the site is just as hard to navigate as it was before they remodeled it about a year ago, and the fact that jay mohr even has a column indicates to me that a bunch of dolts are in charge.
January 17th, 2008 at 5:40 pm
Man, they don’t have any Internets in the ghetto. Now get me some cheez doodles.
- political commentary provided by Stephen A. Smith
January 17th, 2008 at 11:48 pm
Internet writing is in need of a Larry Whiteside.
If we are going to spout random examples to explain why a whole group of people should not have been hired, can we use Skip Bayless as an example to get cranky White Men over the Age of 50 removed from ESPN?
January 18th, 2008 at 1:47 pm
Mike NYC is stating the obvious yet is being labeled as a racist? There is a large element of black culture that discourages education, unfortunately. As a result, there is a significantly smaller pool of black people who are qualified to write for a major publication. Didn’t Whitlock write a story a couple years ago addressing this exact issue? He must be a racist, too.
January 18th, 2008 at 2:55 pm
Tyduffy,
while you’re at it add Jay Mariotti, Woody Paige and Mike Lupica to that list.
January 20th, 2008 at 1:04 pm
First off, thank you to TBL for this very important post… This statistical “college degree analysis” is pure nonsense. Has anyone actually ever READ a daily column lately? Victor’s list of Mariotti, Woody Paige, and Lupica as some of our most well-compensated journalists should clearly speak for itself. All this talk does is stop us from honestly addressing some serious institutional biases in sports journalism.
MCBias mentions D-Wil. I would argue that strictly from a competency point of view, D-Wil could run circles around 95% of all existing mainstream writers. Unlike most he actually often has a DIFFERENT opinion. His bigger crime of course. It is broken down right here:
The Willie Mays of Sports Writing: The 5 Tools of D.K. Wilson and Sports Writing’s Color Barrier http://www.cosellout.com/?p=207
For all you black, brown, and even white high school drop outs who will never land a sports journalism gig, it is suggested that you scroll directly down to “Part III” which cites this TBL article and deals directly with racial discrimination in the larger sports journalism.
For all you college-degree-having-folks, you should have no problem digesting the full 3500 words…