Black, Latino, Asian and White: Diversity at NPR : NPR Ombudsman : NPR: When NPR announced the hiring of Gary Knell as CEO in October, Joel Dreyfuss of The Root, an African-American oriented website, published an open letter challenging Knell and NPR to work harder to diversify its staff and programming. Dreyfuss said he wanted NPR to be "a reflection of the America I live in," which, of course, is part of public radio's mission.
Dreyfuss's demand has been a running one for decades among some racial and ethnic minority advocates and listeners. Discrimination lawsuits, messy firings and various diversity attempts helped fuel the attention. So, over recent months, I have been building my own notes in an attempt to measure just how good a job NPR is doing now. What I find so far is that, racially and ethnically, NPR is not doing badly, and is getting better.
