April 16, 1999
By Lynn Elber
AP TELEVISION WRITER
BEVERLY HILLS - The bottom line could be at stake in the worsening treatment of minorities on television, an industry panel said.
Television depictions reinforce the social segregation that is an increasing national problem, said Geraldo Rivera, who participated in the Hollywood Radio and Television Society panel on Monday.
Nely Galan, president of the Hispanic-oriented Telemundo Network, said television ignores the way race plays itself out in real life.
``When you see shows on TV they're either black shows or white shows, and that's not how we live in America,'' Ms. Galan said.
Whoopi Goldberg, the panel's moderator, said TV is regressing in how and how much it depicts minorities. Of 115 shows on the six major broadcast networks, only 18 feature black casts or lead characters, she said.
George Gerbner, a Temple University telecommunications professor and television researcher, said more minority characters were featured in shows canceled in 1998 than there were in series remaining on the air.
Ms. Galan called multiracial images important to viewers, especially young ones: ``I think a lot of our children's selfesteem comes from seeing themselves depicted positively on the medium that is society's most important.''
But companies are missing out economically as well, she said.
``There is a lot of money in the Hispanic market,'' Galan told the audience of several hundred at the Regent Beverly Wilshire Hotel.
Several panelists said it was vital to get more minorities in positions of power as network executives and producers. One said her patience has worn thin.
``I'm becoming like Angela Davis,'' said producer Yvette Lee Bowser (``Living Single,'' ``For Your Love''). ``I'm militant now. I'm angry.''
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