In the recent Investigative Reporters & Editors Journal, former 25-66 anchor Femi Redwood calls out stations like Sinclair for not doing more to provide a more-inclusive workplace environment and more coverage of LGBT issues.
Redwood, who left 25-66 to work at CBS News and WINS New York radio station, serves as NABJ’s task force on LGBT issues.
In the article she says: “There’s a lot of work that newsrooms need to do. It doesn’t just fall on LGBTQ+ journalists, it doesn’t fall on the employees. I think a lot of it certainly falls on managers and corporations. It is easy to say ‘Happy Pride Day’ and put up a rainbow flag during pride month. It’s a lot harder to ensure that the coverage is inclusive, it’s fair and it’s as rich as it could be.”
Femi was a vocal advocate in the 25/66 newsroom. As such she was labeled as a troublemaker by the former GM/egomaniac and our current In Over Her Head News Director and HR Director/Party Planner. People don’t want to stick their neck out knowing that they’ll be retaliated against.
It has only become worse for our minority colleagues… just look at the lack of minorities in any prominent management role here at 25-66. Let me save you the math. 0 is the number of department head level hiring managers that are minorities or LGBT.
Some registered account users are experiencing password recognition issues. The issue appears to have been triggered by a PHP update last night. If this is occurring, please try logging in and using the "forgot password?" utility. Bear in mind auto-generated password reset emails may appear in your spam folder. If this does not work, please click the "Contact Us" option near the lower right hand corner of the index page to contact me via email.
Thank you for your patience!
- M.W.
Thank you for your patience!
- M.W.
Redwood calls out local anti-LGBT bias
Re: Redwood calls out local anti-LGBT bias
Reagan: it is a good question you pose. No, there should not be qualifying conditions when it comes to diversity in hiring conditions. We should always hire the best qualified candidates, regardless of gender, race, ethnicity, sexual orientation or other category. But much like our colleagues at 5 and 12 know, when you provide a good station and corporate culture that respects diversity, you get better candidates and we tend to provide better coverage of our diverse communities. I’m sure if we appoint better and more diverse hiring managers, we’ll start to also get more diversity in hiring decisions. You only have to look at 25-66’s management ranks and it has been exclusively white since Sinclair took over (except for a Hispanic male Director of Engineering who was recently let go as part of budget cuts to be replaced by… another white male.). We need to do better.