A second major television network has laid off its race and culture team as part of corporate streamlining along with a deemphasis of reporting on diversity issues.
The action by CBS News late last week follows a similar move last month by NBC which disbanded its staff for NBC Asian America and three other verticals covering people of color.
The cuts at the Tiffany Network are part of some 100 layoffs announced last week at CBS and come just weeks following the hiring of CBS’ new editor and chief, Bari Weiss.
Weiss co-founded the Daily Caller which has been outspoken about what it considered mainstream media’s woke culture, reported NPR.
According to Nieman Labs, CBS’ parent company, also began to layoff some 2,000 employees. It called the dismantling of the race and culture units at both CBS and NBC a trend in the years since the murder of George Floyd by a Minneapolis police officer.
Alvin Patrick, the former head of CBS’ race and culture unit remains on staff, the Daily Mail reported.
He once described his team this way.
“We are serving, just like CBS Standards and Practices, as an extra pair of fresh eyes on stories that may need guidance on context, tone and intention for every show and platform in the division.
“I’m looking at scripts and screeners and pointing out the different things that we should pay attention to, so that we’re not stereotyping, so that we’re giving the proper context, so that the audience is walking away with an informed and truthful understanding of a particular subject.”
The layoffs of the teams at NBC have been roundly criticized by the Asian American Journalists Association, The Asian American Foundation and Media Action Network for Asian Americans.
So far, no response to the cuts at CBS.
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