Editor’s note: Kody Acevedo, who writes regularly for Wrangler News, is a senior in the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism at ASU. Confronted with a dilemma about how to summarize the message he hoped to deliver in this piece, he ends his commentary with a suggestion that readers rely on their own experience and intuition to analyze commentary for themselves. We agree, and encourage you to do likewise in all you read.
I’ve had the pleasure of writing about sports and a number of other topics for Wrangler News for a little over a year.
As in any sport, repetition is important. Day by day, story by story, my writing evolves.
But, sometimes it’s not just the repetitive nature of the business that helps you grow. It’s a composite of the lessons learned along the way—those moments that make you stop and realize that maybe there’s another view that needs to be explored. In other words, maybe I need to check myself to make sure I’m doing my job fairly and accurately.
I had one of those moments last week while attending one of the so-called FRANK Talks hosted by the Chandler Public Library.
Summarized, it’s a series of public conversations on issues of local and national importance, led by humanities scholars and experts on that day’s topic.
The goal is to inspire people to practice the skill of citizenship; to listen respectfully and engage thoughtfully with one another on important issues that affect the community.
The topic of this particular day: Race and Sports.
Presented by Dr. Frederick Gooding of Northern Arizona University, the discussion was designed to shed light on racial issues for non-white athletes and the way these issues are presented in the media.
A lot of interesting points were served up, however Gooding’s comment that generated the most conversation among the small group of us was that most of the media’s sports coverage is “mediated through a white lens.”
According to Gooding, 90% of all sports editors are white and 80% of all sports writers are white.
I did a little research on those numbers as well and what I found is this:
A 2006 study from the University of Central Florida found that of the newspapers that ascribe to standards of the Associated Press Sports Editors organization, four out of 305 writers or editors were black. That’s 4. Four.
The numbers indeed appear to support the professor’s theory.
Decisions made by NBC during the Olympics seem to lead to the idea that he may be on to something.
Here’s what happened. Earlier this year, on
Aug. 11, 20-year-old Simone Manuel tied for first with 16-year-old Canadian sensation Penny Oleksiak in the 100-meter freestyle.
At that moment, Manuel became the first African American female swimmer to win an Olympic medal in an individual event.
That is quite the accomplishment to say the least. Even in 2016, color barriers are still being broken. And in this day and age, little or nothing is missed thanks to social media.
But on that day, the excitement and joy that Americans felt quickly turned into frustration at NBC.
The network decided not to air her medal ceremony live. Instead, it was put on tape delay and shown an hour later.
(Most, if not all, of Michael Phelps’ ceremonies were shown with only a brief delay after the race aired.) This didn’t sit well with many viewers and fans.
Nor should it. Like I said, it’s 2016. It’s sad that this is the takeaway from such a historic night on the Olympic stage.
Back to the main point: Sports coverage is “mediated through a white lens.”
NBC Sports is led by Mark Lazarus, chairman of NBC Sports Group, and Gary Zenkel, president of NBC Olympics. Both white males. Both calling the shots on NBC’s Olympic coverage across the network.
Here’s the thing—we don’t know what NBC’s intentions were behind this. Should this have happened? No. Was it a serious mistake? Yes. Was it racially motivated? Hard to say either way.
I’m no expert. I’m simply listening to what my instincts say.
I tend to give people the benefit of the doubt. I can’t prove it either way, nor can anyone else.
What I also tend to believe is, just because a professor says sports is “mediated through a white lens” doesn’t mean the coverage isn’t fair.
Of course it’s fair.
We (the media) simply cover the action in front of us. No matter what race an athlete is, if she or he makes the game-winning play, we are going to cover it.
If there is a feel-good story of an athlete starting from nothing and making his (or her) way to the top, we are going to find it.
Writers and reporters wouldn’t have a job if they chose to do otherwise.
Yes, the numbers don’t seem to make a lot of sense. Yes, NBC’s decision makes you scratch your head.
But the solution isn’t to point fingers and blame the folks who are paid to tell the story.
Maybe a ray of welcome light could be cast on some of the unknowns if we all tried to read a little deeper into the story itself.
