A Shooting Breaks Out, But National Coverage Is Slow To Follow

Imagine being at a parade on Mother's Day in your neighborhood enjoying yourself. People are dancing and singing and just having a good time. Now imagine a shooting breaks out and people in your vicinity are shot and wounded. Sounds like a pretty frightful experience. This scenario needs no imagination for it's exactly what happened at a second line celebration in New Orleans last weekend.

Violence has been a problem in New Orleans for a few years now since the rebuilding effort after Hurricane Katrina in 2005. Still, it's disheartening to hear 19 people wounded in a shooting when their only crime was enjoying a parade on Mother's Day of all days. Perhaps even more troubling however, is the lack of national media attention this shooting received.

I remember seeing the word 'New Orleans' trending on Twitter that following Sunday evening, and CNN did mention the shooting in their nightly newscast, but within a couple of days it seemed to blow over. At a time when guns and gun ownership is a hotly debated topic in our nation, you would think a shooting at such a public event would warrant more attention. But it didn't. Sadly, this lack of attention about the causes and circumstances behind these crimes has too often been missing in dealing with communities of color.

Melissa Harris-Perry and Co. Speak on "Scandal"

So I caught the Melissa Harris-Perry show last week on MSNBC and really enjoyed many of the segments that were featured. She and her panelists spoke on voter disfranchisement in North Carolina, the women's NCAA Tournament, and the use of language in regards to the immigration debate here in the U.S, among other things.

It was the discussion on the ABC hit show "Scandal" that really caught my attention. Not so much that I'm a regular viewer (I haven't watched "Scandal" in more than a year) but the makeup of MHP's panel was striking in that it was entirely made up of black women. The panel consisted of Janet Mock, Andrea Plaid, Heather McGhee, and Joy-Ann Reid. In more than 20 years of watching TV on a fairly regular basis, I don't ever recall seeing a panel featuring just black women on a major news network. Hat tip to Melissa Harris-Perry and MSNBC.

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MSNBC Makes Serious Gains Among Black Audiences

I remember a few years ago watching a news program with a college buddy of mine who was from Ethiopia. After a few moments, he remarked: "Warin, not to be offensive, but all of the news anchors I ever see on these programs are all white. Why is that?" Interesting question, indeed.


Now a few years later, it seems networks such as MSNBC are beginning to turn the tide. MSNBC just recently indicated that it has seen a 60% growth in its black audience viewership within the last year, making it the number one channel in that demographic. Rival CNN saw over a 20% increase in its black viewers. Why is this significant you may ask?

                                                  MSNBC anchor Tamron Hall