Civil Rights Baby Tackles 12 Timely Topics That Expose TV News' Bad Practices
At a time when the industry is under heightened scrutiny, Nita Wiggins takes the television broadcasting industry to task over bias, nepotism, suppressing political viewpoints, and more in her new memoir.
PARIS, May 7, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- Before Nita Wiggins began teaching journalism in Paris ten years ago, she spent 21 years as a full-time news reporter and sportscaster working for ABC, CBS, NBC, and Fox network affiliates in such cities as Dallas, Seattle, and Memphis.
As a woman of color, Wiggins found that her dream of covering professional sports came with a high price—stress and a raft of institutionalized practices she found unacceptable. In her controversial new memoir, Civil Rights Baby: My Story of Race, Sports, and Breaking Barriers in American Journalism (Casa-Express), she details some of the shocking actions that go on behind the scenes in television newsrooms across the country.
This expert commentator on the changing landscapes of politics, race, and women's employment can talk about the following 12 issues upon which her memoir touches:
- The absence of minority executives in TV news, including at CNN which has been accused of racial bias in promotions
- Scandalous cronyism and nepotism, as seen in politics, Hollywood, and college admissions.
- "Shiny object" reporting instead of contextualized stories.
- Disregarding storylines about women.
- Missing the story on police intimidation of black drivers.
- Reinforcing entrenched ideas instead of reporting on-the-ground realities.
- Falling down on editorial oversight, leading to fake news.
- Not calling out the non-profit NCAA as a "plantation system."
- Allowing -isms to guide story themes and disqualify job applicants.
- Letting a male cameraman shortchange a female colleague with bad video.
- Men behaving badly in Fox newsrooms in New York and Dallas.
- Promoting Red and Blue politics while suppressing third-party ideas.
Praise for Civil Rights Baby
"Civil Rights Baby has given me more heartache than I care to endure. In the face of the passage about the hotel towels, I suddenly burst into tears … This passage reminds me of Ralph Ellison's Invisible Man and Franz Kafka's Metamorphosis ... as I have friends who are also faced with the challenge that [Nita] faced."— Angela Shaw, former staff attorney for the Federal Communications Commission and the NAACP
"A real guidebook for tapping into excellence in the broadcasting field."
— Amal Shah, author and SiriusXM radio host
"This book is a lesson for any person with astronomical goals. Like athletes, Nita beat the odds!"— Everson Walls, Super Bowl winner
"Very compelling. Well-written, crafted and expressed. Quite the fascinating person."— Matt Sampsell, veteran TV sportscaster
About the Author
Nita Wiggins wanted to be a TV sports reporter ever since childhood. She is a communications graduate of Augusta University in Augusta, Ga., and received a master's degree in journalism from L'Ecole Supérieure de Journalisme de Paris, where she now teaches journalism to graduate students. She is a member of the National Association of Black Journalists. She earned the RTNDF Michele Clark Fellowship, in 1989, and shared in a regional Emmy for special-events coverage in 2001.
Media Contact: Nita Wiggins, U.S. cell 678-754-8958; [email protected], www.nitawiggins.com;
Skype: nitamn; @EducatingMsNita
SOURCE Nita Wiggins
Share this article