MTV - Diversity champions? Not so much.
JC
If you could give a diversity award to any cable media outlet, would MTV come to mind first? The Walter Kaitz Foundation says why yes! Advocacy group, Industry Ears says aw hell NO! I caught sight of this article which reports on the foundation’s decision to honor MTV this year, and the following protest by Industry Ears.
The Walter Kaitz Foundation may think MTV Networks is a diversity champion, but a media watchdog group isn’t convinced, and it is circulating a petition claiming that the programmer’s fare is insensitive to people of color.
Industry Ears — a self-described think-tank group focused on media’s impact on children and communities of color — garnered more than 330 signatures on a Web site (www.thepetitionsite.com/takeaction/526905262) denouncing Kaitz’s decision to award MTVN with its Diversity Champions Award during its annual fund-raising dinner last Wednesday.
Industry Ears cited shows such as MTV’s Where’s My Dog’s At and Yo Momma and VH1’s Flavor of Love as shows that among other things demean women and damage young children’s self-concept and social attitudes. Representatives from Kaitz would not comment on the matter.
Not sure why Flavor of Love is mentioned since that’s a VH1 hit :|…the others can stand alone, I think. And let’s not forget about Real World where people become nothing more than tokens or simplistic representations of the larger groups from which they come. Carmen and I have also joked before on our podcast, Addicted to Race, that it can’t be much of a Real World depiction if in their 10+ years of being on the air, they have only had a couple of Asian males. It’s clearly not as realistic as we would like to think. Racist? Not sure if I would go that far. Problematic? Yes. Champions of diversity? I am with Industry Ears - I don’t think so.
I really have to wonder what the criteria is for becoming an honoree of this Foundation. Take a look at their mission:
To advance the contributions of ethnic minorities and women in the cable telecommunications industry, by advocating for diversity and providing resources for the organization’s members and the industry at large.
If you look at their past honorees, you obviously see some big name companies, but I can’t help but wonder if this wasn’t political — tryinna nuzzle up to MTV…can’t hurt, right? Unless the watchdogs are watching and call you on it, huh? 
And the watchdogs are watching. Right, all? I mean, we would have had this if Industry Ears didn’t! 
IkoIko wrote:
You are indeed right to hint there’s more than whiff of politics around this thing. Natalie Finn and Marianne Paskowski of TVWEEK.COM laid out the sugar and poison (respectively) somewhat ironically last week on September 11 in two separate articles. I’m reading between the lines from there two pieces:
Kaitz Foundation raises money for National Association for Multi-ethnicity in Communications (NAMIC), the Emma L. Bowen Foundation (creating cable career opportunities for minority youth), and and Women in Cable & Telecommunications. Their cable industry awards supposedly weigh a number of factors tied to programming, recruitment and corporate outreach.
Here’s the kicker: if you weigh “programming” and “corporate outreach” generally, there is no way in hell you are going to ignore things like “ratings” and “revenue” under the former and “largess” under the latter.
Consider straight from Kaitz itself as part of its praise for MTV Networks (which owns VH1 and Nickelodeon, Comedy Central, and others):
Nickelodeon: Convenes 3rd Annual World Wide Day of Play Sep 30 2006 in which all programming goes off the air for three hours to get people to go outside as part of a healthy kids and family campaign. Total cost: $30 million in on-air messaging, financial grants to schools and communities, and grassroots activities outreach worldwide (not including junior goodwill ambassador program to Katrina-damaged communities)
[MY SIDENOTE: Maybe forcing people to turn off their t.v. sets results in dark screen with a tiny multicolored dot for millions of Americans. For the network, programming static (integrated black and white and gray) or a test pattern (many colors) at some point is considered multiculturalism at its best. Win-Win?]
But I digress…
Basically MTV Networks is being honored by a cable industry support foundation that pumps money towards diversity initiatives in order to keep lawmakers off the industry’s back from mandating that which its supposed to do as a condition of providing services to commmunities in areas it doesn’t want to at rates it shouldn’t be allowed to.
And why specifically is MTV Networks being recognized?
(1) For jamming the same lame old programming onto new digital music channels under different names to different racial and ethnic demographics
(2) For the *other* awards (cable and non-industry) its subsidiary properties already won
(3) Socially responsible work that, while noteworthy, is not marked for being multiracial/multiethnic in its purpose or content.
But then the kicker kicks in:
NAMIC’s Executive Leadership Development Program was initially championed by Tom Freston, who until last week was President and CEO of MTV Networks which is owned by Viacom, chaired by Sumner Redstone, who just named Freston to the position nine months ago.
Freston, age 60, spent 26 years at Viacom, 18 of them at MTV. So amid all the bad news (though he did get a reported $50-60 million severance package), go figure on the award…
Posted 21 Sep 2006 at 7:06 pm ¶