Re: Harry Porterfield's exit helped open door for minorities

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: Yes, but it also opened the door for bad minorities to step up to the big leagues: hello Giselle Fernandez, hello Diane Burns, etc. : : Harry Porterfield's exit helped open door for minorities : : Phil Rosenthal | Tribune Media : : August 5, 2009 : : When newsman Harry Porterfield was demoted as 6 p.m. weeknight anchor and left WBBM-Ch. 2, the station to which he is now returning 24 years later as an 11 a.m. anchor and features reporter, it sparked a lengthy boycott aimed at spotlighting a need for more diversity both on camera and in management. : : "I quit the station and only learned about the boycott when I started reading about it in the newspapers," recalled Porterfield, who is rejoining WBBM after all this time at rival WLS-Ch. 7, which did not renew his contract, citing budget issues. "I knew that people had called me and said they were unhappy [with the changes at WBBM], but I thought that was the end of it. Then I learned of the boycott and I was stunned. ... It was a positive thing in that it brought a lot of changes." : : Among them, CBS made Johnathan Rodgers (now head of TV One) the station's first African-American general manager and hired Lester Holt (now with NBC News) as anchor. Other stations followed the lead in time, moving minorities into bigger management jobs and from the margins of newscasts to front and center. : : "It's a piece of ancient history, but it's important history," Porterfield said. : : So where are we today? : : "All of the stations are profoundly sensitive to the need to reflect the communities they're serving and the people they're serving," said Bruno Cohen, Channel 2's president and general manager. : : There is no weeknight Chicago newscast regularly anchored by an African-American male since Warner Saunders' retirement this year as 10 p.m. co-anchor at WMAQ-Ch. 5. But several African-American women serve in that lead role locally, and, at least until WFLD-Ch. 32 discontinues its 10 p.m. newscast next month, so does David Novarro, who is Hispanic. : : "You're going to see some cycles in terms of who's on the air and who isn't," Cohen said, "but it isn't because of a lack of sensitivity, which you'd peg to the pre-1960s era, when the people who controlled broadcast outlets had to be convinced it was in their interests to put people of color on the air. We're not in that position by a long shot." : : Both Channel 7 and Chicago Tribune parent Tribune Co.'s WGN-Ch. 9 are run by women. Women head the news departments at WLS and WFLD. WTTW-Ch. 11's signature news entity "Chicago Tonight," which is run by a woman, is hosted by Phil Ponce, a Hispanic. : : There is far greater diversity among the reporter ranks than there used to be, too, such as at WBBM, where the 10 p.m. weeknight news features an African-American sportscaster and weatherman. : : "In some areas, I think [progress] was maintained," Porterfield said. "In terms of reporters and management types, I think it was maintained."

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