New Panel to Fight Bias in Media, Jackson Says : Activism: Civil rights leader says group will use education and sometimes boycotts to combat what he calls exclusion of minorities from high-profile and powerful positions.

Institutional racism is rampant in television and newspapers, the Rev. Jesse Jackson said Saturday in Los Angeles as he announced formation of a commission to do battle with the mass media.

The Rainbow Commission on Fairness in the Media will use “research, education, negotiations and boycotts” to combat prejudice in the media, Jackson said at a news conference at the West Angeles Church of God in Christ on South Crenshaw Boulevard.

The commission will be active in the top 25 advertising market areas in the country, and plans to use tactics similar to those employed by Jackson’s Rainbow Coalition when it recently insisted that organized sports place more minorities in positions of authority.

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In a wide-ranging indictment, Jackson accused the media of presenting negative images of nonwhites and of systematically excluding minorities from high-profile jobs in television and from positions of authority in newspapers.

“We are projected as less intelligent than we are,” he said, “less hard-working than we work, more violent than we are, less patriotic than we are.”

Jackson complained that white males fill all the jobs as hosts on Sunday news programs.

“They do not look like the American public,” he said.

Jackson also criticized an ABC news promotion picturing an all-white cast of commentators.

Although TV news received the brunt of his criticism, Jackson also found newspapers wanting.

“The number of blacks in authority in newsrooms is very low,” he said.

Newspaper columns and radio talk shows are dominated by “right-of-center” males, he said, adding: “And it’s not offensive to the ruling powers that be.”

The news media in general has not paid enough attention to such issues as a criminal justice system with an inmate population that is mostly black, although the majority of those arrested are white, Jackson said.

He also complained of recent cancellations of several television shows that featured black stars: “Arsenio,” “Roc,” “Sinbad” and “South Central” will not return next fall.

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There had been speculation among reporters attending the news conference that Jackson was in town in connection with the O.J. Simpson murder case. After the activist minister completed his condemnation of racism in the media, the first question from a reporter dealt with Simpson.

“How do you view the coverage of the Simpson case?” asked the reporter.

“You just ignored the substance of what I discussed, using your prerogative to determine what would be on the air,” Jackson responded.

The formation of the commission on media fairness was announced after a closed-door session attended by 85 people, including ministers, elected officials, attorneys and entertainment industry representatives.

Media experts agreed with some of Jackson’s criticism, but said he is ignoring progress.

“No one would deny that there is racism in journalism,” said Edwin Guthman, professor of journalism at USC. “But certainly an enormous amount of progress has been made over the last two decades.”

Robert J. Haiman, president of the prestigious Poynter Institute for Media Studies in St. Petersburg, Fla., reacted similarly. “The press does have a long way to go in its portrayal of minorities and the hiring of minorities,” he said. “My impression, however, is that a good bit of progress is already under way.”