Rainbow Threat: Talk, No Action? : Television: Last year, Jesse Jackson was talking boycotts over the status of minorities in the industry. Little has transpired, but he says the campaign will get ‘intense.’

It was a declaration of war.

Accusing the television industry of “institutional racism,” the Rev. Jesse Jackson launched a fiery attack last summer, threatening to punish the networks with viewer boycotts and demonstrations if they did not increase the visibility of minorities in front of and behind the camera.

At a July news conference in South-Central Los Angeles and at an all-day media diversity conference sponsored by his Rainbow Coalition at the Los Angeles Convention Center in September, Jackson used his media-savvy blend of fiery language and almost blinding charisma to register his anger at the industry.

Comparing his campaign to the historic march in Selma, Ala., and other civil rights demonstrations, Jackson declared, “While we’re willing to talk, we’re also willing to walk. It’s now time for aggressive direct action.” He demanded to meet with the heads of the four major commercial broadcast networks and threatened viewer boycotts in September, and then during the November ratings sweeps, if the networks did not employ more minorities.

But just a few months shy of the one-year anniversary of Jackson’s initial volley, some activists and community leaders say it is all quiet--too quiet--on the TV front. The demonstrations never materialized. The boycotts were never called. Jackson held meetings with only two of the four networks--and those were in late 1994.

Now, as the networks prepare to announce their new schedules for the fall season, some people inside and outside the Jackson-headed campaign say the networks paid little heed to Jackson’s threats, and there has been little or no change in the status of minorities within the industry or in prime-time programming.

Some credited Jackson earlier in the season with helping to rescue “M.A.N.T.I.S.,” a Fox show about a black super-hero that seemed headed for early extinction due to poor ratings. A few days after Jackson met with Fox executives in October, the network ordered nine additional episodes. But Fox officials denied that pressure from Jackson influenced their decision.

More important, some observers are questioning Jackson’s commitment to the campaign he started, wondering whether he has abandoned the cause. In a swing through Los Angeles last weekend and early this week, the civil rights leader focused his attention on a three-day march in Georgia this month from House Speaker Newt Gingrich’s Atlanta office to the graveside of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., his visit to the site of the Oklahoma City bombing, the controversy over Gov. Pete Wilson’s hiring of an illegal immigrant several years ago, and the possibility that he might throw his hat in the ring for the 1996 presidential race.

Sonny Skyhawk, founder and president of American Indians in Film, one of the organizations that joined forces with Jackson during last year’s diversity conference, said he felt the campaign against the networks should have moved faster.

“I would hate to criticize him for not being more diligent, but it is frustrating,” Skyhawk said. “I don’t know where (the issue) is or why he is not continuing on this. But I think he got sidetracked on a lot of other things.”

Skyhawk said he was still optimistic that the protests would continue: “I’m taking a wait-and-see attitude. I’m still hoping that some of what he said comes to fruition.”

Others said more pressing and immediate political issues had grabbed Jackson’s attention. Specifically, they noted the November elections, when a Republican wave grabbed power in Washington, and calls for abolishing affirmative action programs.

“He needed to focus his energy on the civil rights initiative, and affirmative action was a much bigger deal,” said Sumi Haru, president of the Assn. of Asian Pacific Artists. “It’s just a sign of the times. There are too many fires to put out.”

Jack Shaheen, a former professor of mass communications at Southern Illinois University and an expert on Arab Americans in the media, said, “The Rev. Jackson is a fantastic leader, but he is concerned with so many issues. You can’t expect one man to do all of these things.”

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Jackson insisted in an interview Wednesday, however, that the television campaign was very much alive. He said the subject would be an important part of the Rainbow Coalition’s annual policy and organizing conference in Atlanta later this month.

He said he has fought to continue government funding for the Public Broadcasting Service, protested the cancellation of the Nickelodeon series about two black brothers, “My Brother and Me,” picketed conservative “hate radio” programs and sent out a fax to 8,000 supporters asking them to rally CBS to bring back the family drama “Under One Roof.”

“It’s going to get more intense,” Jackson said. “We’re getting ready to move toward a boycott of one of the networks. There will be training at the conference on techniques for picketing.”

He said there was a continuing absence of minorities in influential positions on news programs and within the TV industry that affects coverage of stories concerning minorities.

“It’s still very high on our agenda,” he said.

Network officials declined comment on Jackson’s accusations and on what effect his protest has had on them.

Sherrie Mazingo, head of broadcast journalism at USC, said she felt the Jackson campaign has lost steam, and that she was not surprised.

“What happened last season isn’t new, it’s perennial, and may even be cyclical,” Mazingo said. “Protests and accusations and talk like this goes on all the time, and nothing ever happens. Nothing.”

Mazingo referred to similar efforts by the National Assn. for the Advancement of Colored People in the early 1980s, attacking the movie industry’s record in hiring minorities and putting on shows with minority casts. A boycott of films that failed to use blacks in front of or behind the camera was proposed, but never materialized.

“I believe what happens when these things start is that an individual in the organization who is pushing forward on these issues gets tired of banging their head against a brick wall,” Mazingo said. “They make an all-out assault, exhaust a lot of energy and money, and nothing ever significantly changes, except for a token gesture here and there.

“Then after five or 10 years, those same individuals realize nothing has happened, and it starts all over again. It’s a cyclical phenomena, and it will happen again.”

Billie Green, president of the Beverly Hills/Hollywood branch of the NAACP, said efforts by the Rainbow Coalition might be more effective if it joined forces with other organizations that have members within the television industry.