What Diversity Looks Like in an Everyday TV Story

Let’s see if you can figure out what it is I love about this story from CBS Evening News Tuesday. Watch the video then read below.

This story is a model for how to “normalize” people who journalists usually are put in little boxes. When was the last time you say a blind trucking company executive? I cannot recall the last time I saw any blind person talking about ANYTHING on TV except blindness. It is as if blind people have nothing to say about politics, air pollution or gas prices. The story doesn’t even say the man is blind because it is not about that.

Then the female landscape company executive comes along. My goodness you mean we can show smart women running businesses who can talk about something other than being a women in business? This is wonderful.

Add to it that the journalist is a black man and WOW we have proof, journalists can show the world as it really is- diverse populations of people doing normal stuff.

BRAVO. Now go give it a try. Find a person with disabilities who talks about about something other than disabilities. Find a same sex couple talking about something other than same marriage issues.
You get the idea. It is about being authentic. When we get to that, we really have found diverse ways of doing journalism.