NAACP: TV Nets Lagging in Diversity

Nearly a decade after the NAACP condemned a "virtual whiteout" in broadcast TV, the civil rights group said major networks have stalled in their efforts to further ethnic diversity on-screen and off. Television shows of the future could be even less inclusive because of a failure to cultivate young minority stars and to bring minorities into decision-making positions, NAACP President and CEO Benjamin Todd Jealous said. The effect on the country could be profound, Jealous said. "This is America: So goes TV, so goes reality. We don't think it's any accident that before we had a black president in reality, we had a black president on TV," he said, referring to the chief executive portrayed by Dennis Haysbert on Fox's "24." A "critical lack of programming by, for or about people of color" can be traced in part to the lack of minorities who have the power to approve new series or make final creative decisions, said Vicangelo Bulluck, executive director of NAACP's Hollywood bureau.