[ ] Agree to annual briefings (e.g. Spring or Winter). Without ado, assure participation by first and second tier decision makers with the Task Force, representatives from various minority focused community based organizations, and scholars who are expert on various relevant issues.
[ ] On Goals 2000 (ASNE Project 2000 race and gender parity). First and foremost, please do it. Publish annual results in your newspaper.
[ ] Secondly, assess the Daily News [Inquirer]climate vis a vis gay and lesbian people and transgendered people and other minorities and women. One recommended approach: In 1999, conduct and publish survey results to help management evaluate its environment and its coverage. Expand the survey instrument to assess race and gender issues. See the attached excerpt from the National Lesbian and Gay Journalist Association RTN Directors Association Newsroom Employees Survey: September 1993 for a useful survey model (Cambridge or a local university could adapt or design an appropriate survey instrument).
[ ] Clearly articulate an institutional commitment, overall, to increased diversity, accuracy, fairness, and representation in news, editorials, and features generally.
[ ] Explicitly require reporters and columnists to conform to basic journalistic standards. Discourage sensationalism and eliminate bias (e.g. the Porter column which seemed to name, define and then blame the "eccentricity" of a murder victim–DeVita- for her murder in Olde City several months ago; Bykofsky who not atypically degrades women, DePaulo as one example)
[ ] Accountability: Develop a mechanism to assess/evaluate annually the paper’s coverage of social, economic, and political issues particularly as such issues relate to and impact on women multiracially and culturally; of racial, ethnic, and religious minorities; of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgendered minorities; and of the poor and the working class.
[ ] In-Depth Coverage: Substantially increase news and editorial attention to civil and human rights issues (e.g. the Pennsylvania Civil Rights Initiative, education equity and mass media issues, family issues; criminal justice issues and constitutional rights issues). Create a mechanism to conduct in-depth discussions proactively, e.g.
[ ] a Civil Rights Beat, inclusive of all women and all minorities
[ ] a Labor Beat , from Labor’s perspective
[ ] an Education Beat from minorities’ perspectives
[ ] a Criminal Justice beat that critically examines law enforcement effectiveness and prevalent system-wide bias
[ ] a Communications Beat defined as critical analysis of media monopoly/ ownership, public interest standards, public accountability; diversity and representation issues.
[ ] Resources: Provide, for example, source information, citations, community organizational resources applicable and appropriate to feature or news stories.
Attached: Recommendations Submitted to Knight Ridder -Philadelphia Inquirer and Daily News 1990-1995, largely not adopted. Knight Ridder did finally establish domestic partnership benefits for gay and for lesbian couples and has covered from time to time issues it defines as newsworthy. Neither a quantitative nor qualitative analysis is available at this time that documents either paper’s coverage of specific issues related to gender, race, sexual orientation et al.