Tegna Station Looks at Their Own Racial Bias

For years, FTVLive has been talking about the lack of racial diversity at TV stations around the country. We have highlighted a number of stations that are sorely lacking when it comes to having people of color on their air.

We have also encouraged media companies to put more POC in management roles along with women.

While we continue to preach this message, it seems to fall on the deaf ears of the industry.

But, KING in Seattle has decided to take a closer look at itself.

“I think most newsrooms around the county, and I think KING 5 would likely fall into this category as well, are very white-centered in terms of their approach (to the news),” said KING 5 President and General Manager Jim Rose.

The Tegna station has hired The Poynter Institute to conduct an audit of KING 5’s on-air content and to provide journalists and marketers training in inclusive journalism.

The station says that the seeds of this new effort were planted when KING 5 staff participated in a series of “implicit bias” training sessions hosted by Dr. Caprice Hollins, starting in May 2020. These sessions were designed to root out what may be unknown and unintended bias among the KING 5 staff.

anchor Mimi Jung said if the story isn’t specifically about race, KING does a poor job of representing those other than white people.

“Just look at airchecks,” Jung said, referring to recordings of KING 5 newscasts.

“Let’s talk about Asian Americans who are on TV, soundbites – you know people who are in authority, man on the street, families that are featured, kids, teachers," Jung said. "Let’s look at our airchecks…and see how many people of color appear on our air.  It’s shocking if you think about it because there are very, very few.”

Asians make up about 15% of Seattle’s population, and Jung said KING’s news programs should reflect that diversity.

“We’re not doing enough. We’re not pushing hard enough,” she said.

The Poynter Institute will conduct a more scientific, data driven review on KING’s content in the coming months and provide KING 5 with feedback on how to serve the community with more inclusive journalism.

Props to KING for taking a closer look at how they are doing. But, then again, if you have to ask, you likely are not doing enough when it comes to diversity.

Just saying.

By the way, Poynter might want to take a look at the make up of their staff as well.

Just saying….

H/T KING