Was TV News History Made in Des Moines This Past Weekend?

It is hard to believe that it took until 2021 before I saw this, but it finally happened.

On Saturday night on the newscast for Hearst-owned KCCI in Des Monies, viewers saw a Black News Anchor toss to a Black Reporter. The weather was handled by a Black Anchor and the sportscast was fronted by a Black Sports Anchor.

Anchor Tisia Muzinga kicked off the newscast and a short time later tossed to a story reported by Kaya James.

Trey Fulbright handled the weather duties and the sportscast had Elgin Rucker giving viewers the score.

Maybe there has been a time when all the people presenting the local news were African American, but I can tell you that, this is the first time I have seen it.

Heck, most stations in the market size of Des Monies don’t even have 4 Black talent on their staff, more or less fronted the same newscast.

It was great to see, but at the same time this is 2021, and something like this should not be a big deal. No one would bat an eye if there were 4 white people giving the news.

I commend KCCI for the history-making newscast and maybe one day I will get to see this happened during a weekday and not just a Saturday night newscast.

OH! And before you racists email me with your comments, “but Scott, you always talk about the need for diversity in TV news, how is having all Black people give the news diverse?”

I’m sure there was more than one station in Iowa this weekend that had a newscast that featured all white people and most viewers didn’t even notice. In fact, my guess is that this scenario did not play out on another newscast anywhere else in the country on Saturday night.

The fact that it happened and that it is noteworthy shows how far we still must go.

When I talk diversity, I talk about the industry as a whole. So, before you racists send that email, do me a favor and just don’t.