Channel 2 demotions protested: Community leaders call for boycott
If it’s become a racial issue, it’s not my doing. People can draw their own conclusions. I don’t know why this (her demotion) has happened. I’ve been told it has nothing to do with my performance, which I was told was excellent. It doesn’t make sense to me and therefore it hasn’t made sense to my supporters, who are asking their own questions and drawing their own conclusions.
- Linda Lorelle
Try this scenario on for size: two Caucasian news anchors are demoted or terminated from their positions at a local television stations. Incensed, White cultural organizations demand to be heard and register their protest with the ownership and management of the station. In a world that caters to the whims of minorities, Whites state that they feel ignored and their needs marginalized by the media. It’s time, they feel, to remedy the situation, and if their demands aren’t met theyll boycott the station and it’s advertisers.
Silly? Offensive? Self-absorbed? Short-sighted? Perhaps, depending on your point of view. Yet this is exactly what African-American community leaders are demanding of Houston’s KPRC television. After demoting two African-American on-air personalities, community leaders have chosen to interpret the move as proof that KPRC lacks both diversity and the commitment to diversity. Of course, the fact that this may have been all about RATINGS and not about race seems to escape these keepers of the flames of community morality and inclusiveness.
Speaking on behalf of a coalition of community leaders, the Rev. William Lawson today called on KPRC-TV to restore anchors Linda Lorelle and Khambrel Marshall to their original on-air positions and asked that viewers and advertisers boycott the station.
“We are encouraging viewers not to patronize businesses that advertise on Channel 2,” said Lawson. Though the roles of Lorelle and Marshall were specifically mentioned, Lawson said he hopes the boycott also will make KPRC management aware that “we’re interested in better programming, better staffing, better managing and their being part of the economic development of the community.”….
“The statistics on minority employment in Houston’s media fall well below the extremely poor national statistics,” he said. “Across the board, change is needed.”
Lawson was joined by a dozen supporters, including Serbino Sandifer Walker, president of the Houston Association of Black Journalists; Sylvia Brooks, president of the Houston Area Urban League; Johnny Mata and Mary Ramos of the League of United Latin American Citizens, and Roy Marsh of Everyones Internet.
OK, y’all; what if KPRC’s personnel decision wasn’t about race? What if, in the hypercompetitive Houston market, KPRC managers felt that it was time to shake things up. After all, when you’re #4, you really DO have to try harder, don’t you think? After all, if ratings equal advertising dollars, and you’re scraping the bottom of the barrel…well, you can imagine that management is going to be pulling out all stops in an effort to increase their market share, no?
Channel 2 general manager Jim Joslyn said today that a meeting with Quanell X and 35 leaders in the African-American community will be held Wednesday.
“I need to really get in touch with that community,” he said. “The same thing will take place in the Hispanic community here. We have not done a good job with this. I don’t think most TV stations do. But we will get in that community. … I want to be part of it.”
To resolve the boycott, he said, “we need to sit down and resolve our differences. I tried to do that on Tuesday (Nov. 8). I would love to hear back from Mr. Lawson. It serves nothing in this community if we don’t sit and discuss the issues.”
But he refused to talk about the status of Lorelle and Marshall.
“I won’t discuss my employees,” he said.
Personally, I am sick and tired of minorities crying racism virtually every time a prominent member of their community takes a hit. Yes, I understand that minorities can and do at times feel unrepresented- and not without some justification. Nonetheless, African-American leaders seem to feel that they have a weapon that they can use whenever it serves their purpose. From where I sit, though, crying racism is tired, it’s overused, and it’s downright reprehensible. How are we as a society to move past race-related issues if those once oppressed wear that oppression as their birthright?
Of course, I’m White, so I can and will no doubt be accused of racism…just another agent of The Man trying to keep The Brothers down. You can think that if you choose, but you’d be wrong. I am as virulently opposed to racism as anyone, but I am tired of an atmosphere in which demoting or reassigning a White man is seen as a personnel move, but doing the same with a Black man is automatically defined as racism.
If you wanted to be treated equally, you need to understand that unpleasant things happen to good people- regardless of the color of their skin. Deal with it…and get over yourselves. It’s not always about racism. In this case, it’s about the difficult to ignore reality that KPRC’s newcasts SUCK. Channel 2 news is to journalism what The Natioanl Enquirer is to the print media. It’s too slick, too sensationalized, and far too superficial and “tabloid” for it’s own good. Truly, Channel 2 News is little more than “flash and trash”. It’s bad television, bad journalism, and I (and I’m sure many others with functional intellects) refuse to subject myself to it. Frankly, Linda Lorelle and Khambrel Marshall, while I’m sure they are outstanding human beings, are symptomatic of everything that is wrong with local TV journalism.
Even Linda Lorelle realized this is not about race. Being a part of the industry, she understands that on-air talent does not come with a recipe for job security. IT’S NOT ABOUT RACE. IT’S ABOUT RATINGS. And no amount of self-absorbed, self-righteous protests from media whores like Quannell X will change that fact. This is not Mississippi in 1964; this is a very comptetive local telivision market in 2005. If the leaders of the local African-American community cannot recognize that, they’ve got bigger problems than KPRC to deal with.
