PROGRAMMING

Pre-Empting Riots

Before a National Association of Broadcasters meeting in Chicago last week, the Federal Communications Commission's Nicholas Johnson exhorted the industry to help "close the understanding gap" that divides white and black Americans. "Broadcasting," he said, "must take the lead in that effort." Johnson quoted a recent study reporting that nearly two-thirds of ghetto homes had TV sets and 100% had radios, while only 14% read newspapers.

As for the other half of the dialogue, he chided the industry for its discrimination--Negroes, he said, hold 10.8% of all jobs in the U.S. but only 3.4% of the jobs in broadcasting. Hiring more Negroes, Johnson suggested, would be the first step to more penetrating and accurate coverage of the Negro community. And in coverage he included society, sports and civic reportage--"the same things you report from the white community. Don't get it all from the police blotter and the rioters.

"Recently," Johnson continued, "I asked a local broadcaster what he was doing to avoid trouble next summer. 'We're buying a mobile unit,' he told me proudly, 'so that we can provide better coverage of the riots.' As you may have guessed by now, that's not quite what I had in mind. If there are riots for a mobile unit to cover next summer, it will not have been used effectively this winter."

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