New NPR Chief, Jarl Mohn, Vows to Foster Diversity
30th June 2014
When Jarl Mohn takes the helm as NPR’s chief executive on Tuesday, he will call on lessons learned from public radio in Los Angeles to address what he says is one of NPR’s most pressing priorities: increasing its reach into communities of color.
Perhaps it may soon quit being a Voice of the Crust? I’d bet against it.
At the time of his appointment, NPR’s board adopted a strategic plan intended to “increase the diversity of the audience by age, ethnicity and geography,” as well as the sources it quotes and the “diversity of NPR talent;” NPR’s newsroom staff is 77 percent white, and its audience even more so, according to a report from NPR’s ombudsman.
The basic problem is that black and Hispanic people don’t have the priorities that rich white ‘progressives’ think they ought to have, and that isn’t going to change any time soon.