A new book about race and presidents is drawing attention to the lack of diversity in the White House press corps, especially of African-American reporters covering the first black president in U.S. history.
“Let me tell you something,” said April Ryan, the African-American White House reporter for American Urban Radio Networks. “I’ve come out of that lower press room door, past the podium, or walked by and looked into that crowd. It shocks me sometimes. I’m like, ‘Wow!’”
By her count, there are about five blacks covering the White House. While many hold prominent posts, such as with the Associated Press, Fox and NBC, the numbers are far less than representative of the black population. For perspective, there are about 200 credentialed White House reporters and 49 seats in the James S. Brady Press Briefing room.
Ryan has just released a book on recent presidents titled, “The Presidency in Black and White.” In it she writes about her successful efforts to punch through the mainstream media to get questions to the president and top officials. But she adds that overall coverage would be more rounded if more blacks sat in the briefing room.
“It would be nice to have other reporters of color here, who are in the room who are here daily to ask the questions because maybe we could follow up on each other’s questions so some of our stories could be above the fold,” Ryan said in an interview. She said that it often takes a “crescendo moment” for issues of concern to blacks to win attention by the white press corps.
She noted that during the Clinton years, there were many more black reporters and producers in the White House and Clinton went out of his way to address their questions. He even attended a “soul food dinner” put on by Ryan, lamenting to her that he wished more people would invite him out.
“You’d be amazed how many times people never invite people once they get to be president to anything on a human scale. I mean you get invited to lots fundraisers and dinners,” he said. “‘Would you come to dinner?’ I mean, I’m just talking about go out to dinner and talk. You’d be amazed how little that happens even now with me. It rarely happens.”
She said that when George W. Bush came in, many blacks left the beat and the crowd never returned to cover Obama.
“I think every newsroom should have people from all walks of life to get that flavor, more texture, more depth and flavor for the story,” said Ryan. “We have to have rooms that reflect America.”
In a hint to black media, she suggested that her race can sometimes help in news coverage because she shares a heritage and culture with the president.
“You are the sum of your parts,” she said.
“Let’s say I was an Irish reporter on St. Patrick’s day and people are coming in from Ireland. You have a connection with that because that’s your history, your heritage and your culture and you can kind of relate and get information out of people more so than someone who is not Irish sometimes. And I think that’s kind of the way it is for African-American reporters. Some things you kind of intrinsically know and try to find out,” Ryan told Secrets.
Paul Bedard, the Washington Examiner’s “Washington Secrets” columnist, can be contacted at [email protected].
