NAACP Boycott Shelved; Hearings Next

The National Assn. for the Advancement of Colored People, as expected, backed away Wednesday from threats to stage a boycott of one of the four major broadcast networks this month and instead said it would hold hearings in Los Angeles, beginning Nov. 29, on the lack of racial and ethnic diversity at the networks.

The NAACP will also present ABC, CBS, NBC and Fox with “measurable and verifiable goals and timetables” for increasing diversity, and if they don’t agree to them, the organization will pick one network as the target of a nine-week boycott beginning Jan. 1, said NAACP President Kweisi Mfume. Which network is targeted will depend on how the networks respond, he said.

The NAACP will present the networks with its goals and timetables for increasing diversity both on the air and in the executive and production ranks on Monday, Mfume said. He declined to say what those goals were, saying he wanted to tell the networks privately first, but he said the organization is opposed to quotas.

What initially started as a protest over the complete lack of racial and ethnic minority leads in the 26 new prime-time shows on the four networks this season has grown into a bigger inquiry. The two sides initially had “good meetings that allowed real needed dialogue,” Mfume said, but the networks have yet to comply with a later request by the NAACP for information on diversity in areas such as hiring, marketing, minority vendor relations, investments and philanthropy. The networks’ only response, Mfume said, was to provide their equal employment opportunity reports, although he said ABC had “provided slightly more information in the area of employment.”

Fox had no immediate comment on the NAACP announcement, but CBS and NBC said they have been responsive to the NAACP and remain open to continuing conversations. CBS also said it was proud of its participation in a $1-billion minority media investment fund that was announced Wednesday; the other networks are also investors. ABC said it takes the issue of diversity seriously and, like CBS, said that more can be done.

Mfume said invitations to the hearings will go out to actors, network executives, talent agencies, writers and producers, among others, in the next week or so. The hearings, he said, will be an attempt to determine “why this pattern of discriminatory treatment” continues.

The delay in a possible boycott comes after a September attempt by Latino groups to stage a “brown-out” had virtually no impact on ratings. Mfume said the NAACP realizes the challenge of a boycott will be “massive,” and noted that about 75 organizations have been asked to join the effort.

In Los Angeles, meanwhile, Brotherhood Crusade President Danny Bakewell Sr. on Wednesday announced that he is launching a grass-roots campaign against NBC, saying the network has been the worst in its exclusion of minorities in its programming.

Bakewell, who last season spearheaded an intense protest against UPN’s short-lived Civil War comedy, “The Secret Diary of Desmond Pfeiffer,” said his organization, along with several other groups and churches, would demonstrate in front of the network’s Burbank offices on Monday.