New head of news at NBC-Universal openly promises to discriminate against Caucasians
After just over a month in his new job as head of the newly formed NBC-Universal News Group, combining NBC News, MSNBC, CNBC, and all streaming operations, Cesar Conde is making news himself. In a video and memo to the approximately 3,000 employees he supervises, Conde announced a goal of 50% of employees being female and 50% "people of color," an expression commonly taken to mean non-Caucasians.
Since Caucasians account for more than 76% of the United States population according to the Census Bureau, this amounts to a vow of racial discrimination.
Ben Smith of the New York Times tweets out the memo:
New memo from NBC News chief @cesarconde_ sets a goal for representation: "that 50% of our News organization employees be women and 50% of our total workforce be people of color." pic.twitter.com/s3B5KmHz7Z
— Ben Smith (@benyt) July 7, 2020
According to the Los Angeles Times, women already constitute about half of the workforce, so the goals outlined by Conde are exclusively aimed at reducing the employment opportunities for Caucasians:
Conde, who is the former chief of NBCUniversal's Spanish-language network Telemundo, said the current 27% diversity level is "better than most in our industry — but it is not good enough." The breakdown is 8% Black, 8% Latino, 8% Asian, 2% multiracial and less than 1% Native American. Women make up nearly 50% of the workforce in the news division.
There are plenty of Caucasians already working at the networks Conde supervises whose departures would not pain me: Joe Scarborough, Lawrence O'Donnell, and Rachel Maddow come to mind immediately. But I am against racial discrimination in all its ugly manifestations, so I am not urging their firing on any grounds other than competence and ratings.
Conde is a corporate climber, sporting a Harvard B.A. and an MBA from the Wharton School of Finance, having been head of Univision before becoming chairman of Telemundo (owned by NBC-Universal) and then moving to his current job. He has no background in the news business himself.
Photo credit: Twitter icon.