News Corp Forms Diversity Council Following New York Post Chimp Cartoon

News Corp. has agreed to form an external diversity council after meeting with civil rights groups about a New York Post cartoon that critics said likened President Barack Obama to a dead chimpanzee.

The company will form a "diversity community council" in New York City that will meet with senior company executives twice a year, News Corp. and the NAACP said Wednesday. It also will include a statement of commitment to diversity in its annual report.

There was an immediate outcry after the Post, a News Corp. subsidiary, published the cartoon in February. The tabloid offered a qualified apology on its Web site, and News Corp. Chairman Rupert Murdoch published a fuller apology in the newspaper, but pressure for further action continued.

NAACP President and CEO Benjamin Todd Jealous called the cartoon an "invitation for assassination" and urged a boycott of the newspaper and the firing of the editor and cartoonist. The Rev. Al Sharpton asked the Federal Communications Commission to review policies allowing News Corp. to control multiple media outlets in the same market.

After the protests died down, there were discussions between community groups and News Corp., which culminated in a meeting on May 19.

The meeting included representatives from the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, Sharpton's National Action Network, the National Urban League and 100 Black Men of America.

The heads of those organizations were not present at the meeting, nor was Murdoch, according to a person who was there. The person was not authorized to discuss the matter and asked not to be identified.

The four groups will be represented on the new diversity committee, said News Corp. spokesman Jack Horner. The membership was still being finalized, but Horner said it would also include organizations such as the Hispanic Federation, Alianza Dominicana and the New York Gauchos, which offers after-school programs and is best known for its top-flight youth basketball teams.

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Horner said Sharpton, a longtime adversary of the New York Post and the subject of recent critical stories by the paper, will not be on the panel.

Committee members are not paid, Horner said, and no donations are part of the agreement.

Similar diversity advisory boards already exist in Chicago and Los Angeles, Horner said.

"This is an expansion of what we've had elsewhere," Horner said. "The key is we're always responding and learning from our communities."

The cartoon, by Post provocateur Sean Delonas, appeared as Obama's stimulus bill moved through Congress and after a violent pet chimp was killed by police in Connecticut. It depicted the body of a bullet-riddled chimp and two police officers. The caption read: "They'll have to find someone else to write the next stimulus bill."

It was unclear what effect the agreement would have within News Corp., whose New York Post and Fox News Channel properties have been persistently criticized by minorities as insensitive or sometimes racist.

The Rev. Jacque Andre DeGraff, of 100 Black Men, attended the May 19 meeting and said part of the results will be "what you don't see ... a heightened sensitivity to the concerns of our community." DeGraff also hoped that they would "cast a wider net" in hiring.

Ultimately, though, "the proof is in the pudding," he said. "Our community has good reason to be skeptical, and not just about News Corp."

Maurice Cox, vice president for diversity at PepsiCo Inc., said his company established similar external advisory committees about 10 years ago. "They have paid significant dividends for us," he said.

The relationship is often tense because the advisers don't have to worry about offending company executives, Cox said.

"There has to be huge trust" for the committees to be effective, he said. "You have to feel comfortable, your CEO has to feel comfortable sitting across the table from someone who might stare him or her down."

Comments

[Skyhawk]

To do what, find ways to offend other non-anglos?

[HarlemFreeThought]

"The membership was still being finalized, but Horner said it would also include organizations such as the ...the New York Gauchos, which offers after-school programs and is best known for its top-flight youth basketball teams."

This is all we are to New Corp. basketball and rappers. How about some engineering mentors, some medical mentors. Folks, our issue is minority ownership of media. Those who rule the distribution, rule the message.

[Mike949]

The effect of diversity councils often times is stop any open discussion of racial issues. People who have "incorrect" perspectives on issues will learn they come from their inherent racist beliefs.
I work at a major university and their are no serious dialogues on racial issues. People simply keep their thoughts to themselves to avoid the criticism and labeling that results.
The impression people had of the cartoon reflected their own beliefs and not necessarily the belief o the artist. Clearly is would serve no purpose to attempt to have an honest dialogue about that so companies will do whatever various groups request.
By the way, does anyone else wonder if Al Sharpton will ever do something that actually attempts to improve race relations?

[MissingAmerica]

Some things will be difficult to undo. I was watching the VP of Iraq last night discussing how stopping the Russian invasion of Afghanistan resulted in that country being set back hundreds of years, culturally. I pray this country will overcome just this sort of ignorance that could conceivably to that to this, once the most progressive country on the globe. The GOP have set us back considerably through just such ignorant displays.

[GHARDY]

To little to late.

[stopplaying]

What can be done? Murdoch has a market and he's using it fully. The hateful rhetoric Fox is spewing is Dangerous. For National Security please install the Fairness Doctrine or going after Rupert Murdoch's special waivers to control so much media, granted to him by George Bush needs to be revoked.

A boycott is one way...or complaints to the FCC perhaps? Let's get something done. Here's their info:

Federal Communications Commission
Consumer & Governmental Affairs Bureau
Consumer Complaints
445 12th Street, SW
Washington, D.C. 20554

http://esupport.fcc.gov/complaints.htm

The completed complaint form (obtained from FCC website) may be faxed toll-free to: 1-866-418-0232. Be sure to include all required information to prevent delay in the processing of your complaint.

You may email your completed complaint form and supporting documents to [e-mail]

[HarlemFreeThought]

You mean the same FCC that allowed Murdoch become the largest media conglomerate in the US?

[northstar11]

a diversity council-----to teach the editors what their parents ought to have taught them when they were kids......­..respect for others -----even if ,especially if you disagree with them

you can debate the issues , but you always respect the person.

[Scarlet Fire90]

I would equate this to Saudi Arabia deciding to explore the possibilities of establishing a women's voting rights council.

[Courtney Cobbs]

Let your money speak for you. Don't consume their crap.
I doubt this Diversity Council will change anything.

[clearthinker2008]

It won't, but it sure sounds like they are tying and that's what they want...to sound like, but not actually try.

[Totto]

Will Michael Steele be on the "diversity council"?

[Ponderus]

Well, I think the New York Post is every bit the equal of Der Stürmer -- if not more so.

[lmvd3]

NOT ENOUGH!!! NOT NEARLY ENOUGH!

[SharpDressedMan]

Faux needs a diversity council. Look at their 2008 election coverage.

[bascombe]

diversity = how many ways and how many times to insult Barack Obama without calling him n*****.

let's not even pretend there is anything serious about it.

[KarateKid]

You can control what they say in public, but you can't control what's inside their hearts. What we are witnessing is the showing of the true colors of the right wingers.

[ItHadToBeSaid]

Exactly!! On Faux News, they are expressing how they feel in every way they can short of spitting out the N word. On internet blogs and behind closed corporate doors (and private news rooms), people are taking it even further -- spitting out the N word and everything else they can think of -- to express how they really feel without threat of any repercussions.

I'm all for diversity and sensitivity training, but I think in this case, there needs to be an intensity of effort that can't be achieved in a twice-yearly meeting. You can't control peoples' feelings, but you should be able to restrict media commentary which depicts racially offensive material, especially when it borders on h/a/t/e speech and has the potential to incite violent criminal behavior.