Give Us Us Microphones!

One final thing that particularly struck me today, watching the non-stop coverage about the Biden flap (for those who are able to avoid the noise, I mean, the news, here's the wrap-up) was the absolute dearth of minority voices in the mainstream media. It was once again a bunch of middle-aged white guys saying "this is offensive to black people", instead of having black hosts saying this is offensive to "me." If someone says something derogatory about homosexuals, they have Ellen and Rosie on daytime TV to go to bat, if someone says something offensive about Jews....well....you go from this.....

....to seeing things like this.....

...but if you say something derogatory about racial minorities (Jews are a racial minority technically, but it's like men being the gender minority, for most people you wouldn't know unless someone told you), you have to count on someone else to do the talking for you, and hope that they "get it", because you don't have anyone from your demographic with the forum for themselves.

Aside from the occasional visit by Al Sharpton (who, when asked what he said to Biden about the comment about Obama being "clean" quipped, "I told him I take a bath every day") or Juan Williams to the cable news pundits (and even then, usually only when something 'black' happens), there really are not any minority personalities out there offering their thoughts/views/opinions for the general audience. Granted, there are several bloggers and syndicated op-ed columnists out there (Leonard Pitts of the Miami Herald, Clarence Page of the Washington Post, Mary Sanchez of the Kansas City Star, to name a few), but they are relatively few and far between and do not have nearly the audience scope of a Limbaugh, Chris Matthews, or (excuse me while I cringe) Glenn Beck. Sports broadcasting notwithstanding, in the (admittedly ever-shrinking) realm of "hard news", where are they? Give us us cable news shows!