Howard Kurtz writes today on the mostly-white White House press corps. An excerpt:
While there are some exceptions, most major news outlets that regularly chronicle the White House do not have a minority reporter on this, Washington’s most visible beat.
The cable news channels have fared better on this score, with Wendell Goler of Fox News, CNN’s Suzanne Malveaux and, until he recently left the network, MSNBC’s Kevin Corke reporting from the White House. But the broadcast networks, which are often grooming future anchors, are another story.
“The White House is often used as a place for the networks to try out folks they think might have a high-visibility future,” Goler says. “It is more difficult to place African Americans in this position if they’re competing with someone else you’re thinking of for a high-visibility position further down the road.” The beat has been a launching pad since Dan Rather and Tom Brokaw covered the White House, and more recently boosted the careers of Brian Williams, David Gregory, Terry Moran, John Roberts and Claire Shipman.
Mark Whitaker, NBC’s Washington bureau chief, says that race is “a factor we look at, but we want to make sure we have the strongest team at the White House. If it’s an issue, it should have been an issue before Obama.”
Whitaker, who had been Newsweek’s first African American editor, says he has tried to lure NBC anchor Lester Holt to Washington, without success. Diversity, he says, “is definitely something on my agenda long term.”