3 networks get A+ for diversity

A coalition pushing for greater ethnic diversity on television says the picture is brighter, with three networks receiving A-plus grades for involvement by Hispanics.

But the four major broadcast networks must increase and intensify their efforts to reflect the diversity of America, including Asian Americans and American Indians, according to the Multi-Ethnic Media Coalition.

“We’ve had five years of doing this and we can see the trend is upward, always upward, but slowly,” said Alex Nogales, president of the National Hispanic Media Coalition, part of the multi-ethnic coalition.

Among areas of improvement for Hispanics on prime-time programming, A-plus ratings went to ABC for its inclusion of Hispanic stars, writers and producers, CBS for the number of Hispanics in recurring roles and Fox for its Hispanic directors.

Asian Americans and American Indians have less to celebrate, according to the coalition. (Black representation on TV is monitored by the NAACP, which did not participate in the coalition evaluation.)

The networks received overall grades for their representations of minorities, with ABC and Fox earning Bs, CBS getting a C-plus and NBC earning a C.

“Native Americans are the invisible Americans. We’re not acknowledged anywhere,” said Mark Reed, coalition co-chairman. “We’re still stuck in the era of leather and feathers.”

The ABC miniseries “Dreamkeeper” included rare contemporary American Indian characters, he said.

For Asian Americans, some progress in the management ranks has yet to result in increased on-screen depictions, said Karen Narasaki, chairman of the Asian Pacific American Media Coalition. All the networks earned overall Cs on Asian-American diversity.

Narasaki cited disappointment over two new series that wasted opportunities for hiring Asian-American actors: NBC’s police drama “Hawaii” and Fox’s “North Shore.”

Despite their Hawaiian settings, neither reflected the state’s majority Asian-American population, Narasaki said.

“In ‘North Shore,’ only one of the eight (lead) characters was Asian American, and he was the bartender. ‘Hawaii’ had even less diversity than ‘Hawaii Five-O’ did, which was 20 years ago,” she said.