Minority sports reporters

Another reason why this is truly a fucked up country. As I said before, many take their cues from the media. If the media is fucked up, is it not wrong to expect others will follow suit?

 

PE ... your cries for DIVERSIFY!! have been heard. Why haven't you responded to the other thread? Do you have any solutions?

I have a real problem, though, with the assertation that I, as a white reporter, cannot connect with a black athlete. That's ridiculous. Should we completely discriminate? How about I only interview the white athletes and a black reporter only gets to interview black athletes. Oh, and let's keep women on nothing but women's sports because they wouldn't know how to relate with males. A good reporter will find a way to connect with whatever subject he/she is interviewing, color aside.

 

Well said, but don't you know that being Jewish doesn't count as a minority, at least not for the purposes of this thread? (Somehow I think you and I could teach people a thing or two about that, but I doubt they'd listen)

 

Here I repeat my comments from the solutions thread:

I've stayed out of this fray until now, but I just have to address the "best person for the job" comments.

I'm in MBA school, and one of the things we study in Organizational Behavior, obviously, is diversity. I think that most people, and I probably did to some degree before recently, believe that diversity is some sort of rule to be complied with, and that you do so at the risk of losing quality among your employees. But what has been proven time and time again by scientific research is that diversity has an inherent value for an organization. It allows a company or work group or newspaper to solve problems better and in more innovative ways. It fosters creativity. It leads to greater job satisfaction for everybody. This is science talking, not liberal feel-good doctrine.

So it follows that sometimes the "best person for the job" can't simply be chosen based on a narrow set of qualifications for the particular job in question. Sometimes you have to take into account the big picture, or the long view, and have faith in your managers to get their employees to crank out good work. Yes, this does mean taking into account race, gender, sexual orientation, age, religion, you name it.

The problem that arises is that organizations have to value diversity, not just in their words, but in their deeds. These values have to come from the top, and people have to buy into them and believe in them at every level. Clearly some of the posters on these "minority reporters" threads do not value diversity, which is unfortunate. If everybody did, we would all be better off.

 

ouofplace, I realize that being jewish excludes me from being a minority in this case, and I am fine with that. The main thing is that no matter color, religion or sex, a good reporter can connect with an athlete. someone said that above,a nd that is the easiest way to say it. but i'd also like to think me not having a problem working christmas can't hurt in a job search

 

pirates - how long before you're out of college and in the real world? i have no doubt the study you're referring to isn't taken from empirical data and the basis for the study is mired in the fact all hiring editors have only hired whitey john whitey since the beginning of time.

also, there is a science to hiring, and it's far from empirical as well, but i still know what's worked for me in the past and what's failed miserably. if you're hiring the best qualified employee -- and a certain percentage comes from personality as well -- you always look at the big picture and never take a narrow scope approach or you're going to fail nearly every time you bring someone new on board (duh).

you're making another (lame) attempt at explaining why hiring editors should throw equality out the door when making a hire in an attempt to diversify, which is ludicrous. if you take the time to look at your "big picture" you realize you're not doing yourself, your department or your new hire any favors if you narrow your candidate pool.

if hiring editors take a blind-eye approach to hiring, this conversation is moot to begin with because you already have a proportionate amount of minorities on staff.

 

The studies are typically comparing the performances of organizations. The more diversity, the higher the performance. I didn't say it was easy to execute. I'm just saying that if you don't have good diversity, you aren't performing as highly as you could.

And as an addendum, they do not teach you in business school how to make the world a nicer place. They teach you how to maximize return to stockholders. Trust me, they would not be preaching diversity if they didn't truly believe it was best for the bottom line.

 

Tom,

If you "best qualified employee" always turns out to be a white male with a hard-on for football, baseball and basketball, you aren't doing your readers or your staff any favors.

 

ace - don't begin to tell me who i hire because you have no clue. your last post is an uninformed and ignorant assertion of the makeup of the folks i hire.

you and your "always turns out to be ..." labeling of someone who does hire the best possible candidate wreaks of the same attitude ashiring editors who only hire white males. you are no different than who you despise, you just stand at the other end of the spectrum.

the world is not made up of either or, there ace, no matter how badly you wished it were.

 

I'm fine with it, too... just being a smart ass.

 

I have no idea where you work or who you hired and was making a general statement, not a specific one.

I seem to have hit a nerve, but it was by mere happenstance.

I apologize to you and your Rainbow Coalition for any offense.

 

wow dude, you failed to address my point at all. if you hire the best qualified candidates from the start, you already are diverse, so the need to minimize the candidate pool during any search is moot and an idiotic idea to begin with.

the nazi-like "approach" to achieve equality is a bit overwhelming.

your school work is impressive, though, but get some real-world experience before you get back with me, won't you?