Thread by @karenkho

has anyone considered how many facts are not being reported because American newsrooms have failed to reflect American demographics for nearly 50 years

what many people define as "objectivity" is really just "perspective of a college-educated centrist straight white male" and this is still the ideal candidate for many newsrooms despite many diversity efforts

we know from studies about the makeup of newsrooms staffs "college-educated centrist straight white male" make up the majority of management, investigative teams, sports desks, politics desks, and opinion pages. they also get paid and retained the most.

women make up half the population, a significant portion of home purchases, and yet issues like childcare, equal pay, discrimination, and health are still not considered "general interest" topics among many news organizations

these affect everyone but are see as women's issues because women suffer them more than men. we still expect women to take care of the kids, earn less, be discriminated for pregnancy, and not be listened to by their doctors.

the media business definitely has a trust issue caused by a lot of disinformation and propaganda, but it also has a basic trust issue in how it has treated and dismissed women and minorities for decades, in and out of its newsrooms

women and minorities have repeatedly said "this is news, it affects us and our communities" but newsrooms did not listen, because our news industry culture still prioritizes a perspective which often ignores the very groups it is supposed to help and give a voice to

TL;DR: very grateful to @TIME for assigning me this story on #CrazyRichAsians, which I never expected would become the international cover, and having the chance to buck the trend in a big way: time.com/longform/crazy…

Also, for receipts, here is the data from ASNE (asne.org/diversity-surv…), the @aajavoices report on pay disparities (voices.aaja.org/index/2018/8/8…), study on the staff of the NYT + WSJ (journalofexpertise.org/articles/JoE_2…), and the report on NBPOC communities on Twitter (knightfoundation.org/features/twitt…).

A few people keep replying "it's not just the last 50 years" but the Kerner Report in 1968 had a key chapter about the media's role in race riots and why increasing diversity needed to be a priority among newsrooms: usatoday.com/story/money/na…