How CNN Failed The Black Press
By now, CNN should be used to unfavorableheadlines, but I hope the company’s top brass buckled anyway when they came across this one: “CNN excludes Black media outlets from 2024 presidential debate.”
It comes by way of Chia Suggs at The Atlanta Voice, who blasted CNN the day before the debate for failing to provide any black-owned media outlets with press credentials. Suggs writes that while CNN says they gave outlets a June 7 deadline to request press credentials to cover the event, The Atlanta Voice was never made aware of it. When they did approach CNN, a representative told their editor-in-chief that they were “unable to accommodate any additional credential requests” past their original deadline.
Some might say — and I know this because I scrolled my social media feeds and clocked the shade — that the paper is to blame for missing the deadline. Not to brush aside the notion of personal responsibility, but in fairness, meeting a deadline you may have never been told about can be difficult.
Indeed, EBONY expressed similar frustrations about its inability to get press credentials — writing on its own site that “EBONY Media has received limited communication, or invitation, in the quest to secure a credential for the 2024 presidential debate.”
As both outlets have pointed out, of the approximately 800 representatives from various media outlets (both domestic and international) covering the debate after receiving direct invitations to apply for credentials, none of them were Black-owned.
For what it’s worth, April Ryan shared via X, formerly Twitter, that theGrio was credentialed but declined. Even so, one is not enough — especially when no other Black-owned media outlet will be there. EBONY reached out to Rep. Gregory Meeks (D-N.Y.) about that stat, and in a statement to them, he said: “CNN’s exclusion of Black-owned media represents an egregious oversight and is totally unacceptable... Black-owned media provides a critical, trusted source of information to our communities and their role in our democracy must be respected and honored by CNN.”
Meeks called on CNN to ultimately “do better” and “immediately to credential a minimum of ten Black-owned media outlets.”
I don’t think they heard him, but CNN was admittedly tending to multiple complaining parties. Hours before the debate started, The White House Correspondents’ Association (WHCA) released a statement saying it’s “deeply concerned” that CNN “has rejected our repeated requests to include the White House travel pool inside the studio.”
Kelly O’Donnell, the WHCA president, wrote, “The White House pool has a duty to document, report and witness the president’s events and his movements on behalf of the American people.”
She added, “We recognize CNN is investing significant resources to host this debate and we wish them every success. WHCA respectfully requests that CNN adjust its plan and welcome the White House travel pool print representative to witness the debate in full for the sake of the news cycle, for history, and mostly importantly, for the American people.”
Apparently, the Biden campaign supports the WHCA’s request, and the Trump team said they would not oppose it. At least one of these campaigns will answer affirmatively about providing Black media-owned outlets with press credentials. Can you guess which?
In response, CNN issued its own statement: “As proud member of the White House Correspondents Association, we respect the role the organization plays and their support for press freedom and access. CNN’s Presidential Debate is being held without an audience in a CNN studio and is closed to press.”
In other words, they’re going to do what they want to do anyway.
I bring up the WHCA’s beef to acknowledge that CNN is goofing up all around, but even so, one error from the greedy and overzealous executives behind these poor decisions will sting more than the other.
A report released this week from Onyx Impact found that at least 40 million Black Americans may be regularly targeted and fed misinformation around the election. Many of us who have worked in Black media have noticed its erosion in the last decade and how that vacuum is being filled. Now, we have growing evidence that blogs, social media accounts and radio shows like “The Breakfast Club” are how many Black folks get their news.
CNN might not care that their exclusion of Black-owned media outlets only makes it easier for them to be replaced by the likes of Candace Owens, but that doesn’t mean their feet, so to speak, shouldn’t be held to the fire.
I couldn’t find a statement from CNN responding to these complaints. Likewise, Deadline didn’t write about it the way they did the WHCA’s complaints. Surprising? Hardly. Wrong. Yes, still.
This is now the portion of the piece where some have the instinct to wipe out an I ain’t a racist cape to deflect from accountability.
OK, but ignorance is never an excuse for these types of omissions.
How hard is it to find a Black-owned media outlet in Atlanta? I know CNN has some Black people on the payroll. We see them on TV or through internet clips. Did no one over there running the press credentials think to ask one of them? You know, beyond April Ryan, who most in the space are familiar with? I know Google doesn’t work like it used to, but they’re not that hard to find.
All of this could have been easily avoided with actual effort.
So many news organizations, as of late, have boasted about their commitment to journalism in this often virtuous, if not sanctimonious tone, about how they go above and beyond in the name of truth for the American people. Meanwhile, their offices usually fail to reflect what the American population looks like.
For some news organizations — even the most trusted names in the news —the outreach efforts are apparently just as bad.
