By David Scott
Boston Sports Media Watch

Jerome Solomon’s upcoming departure from the Globe did not generate much Shots’ email buzz for the fact he is leaving; it did, however, generate chatter for the obvious fact that Boston sportswriters are a very pale shade of white.

The departure of Solomon will ensure, for the first time in at least two decades that Boston will not have ANY African-American beat writers or columnists at either of its two, major dailies (The big boy, Boston Globeand the scrappy Boston Herald).

While the Boston television media corps is not exactly a melting pot of ethnicity, there are at least three, prominent African-American sportscasters in the market, at NECN (Chris Collins, CN8 (Phil Burton) and CBS4 (Steve Burton). Radio – traditionally the most lily-white entity in this region – has THE marquee minority personality in WEEI 850 AM’s national-level talent, Michael Holley.

But the print/web side, even at the smaller and less-Bostoncentric papers, is a lot more Sudbury than Roxbury.

It would appear, from this vantage point at the Shanty, that Boston’s “racist sports town image” is alive and well – at least within the area’s sports media corps. While the local teams’ rosters have kept up with the times, the local teams’ beat people have fallen behind.

Not that any of this is surprising or shocking in the weeks after this report conducted FOR the Associated Press Sports Editors by the Institute for Diversity and Ethics in Sport at the University of Central Florida.

The study, which received a fair share of national attention, found, among other things:

• There were far more “reporters” within the APSE newspapers than any other category with a total of 2,128. Of these, 87.5 percent were white.

• America’s sports “columnists” were 89.9 percent white.

• White men and women comprised 88 percent of the total staffs of all APSE member newspapers; African-Americans held 6.2 percent, Latinos 3.6 percent, Asians 1.3 percent, and “other” people of color less than 1 percent.

• 94.7 percent of APSE sports editors were white while 90.0 percent were white males; African-Americans held only 1.6 percent; Latinos 2.8 percent and “others” less than 1 percent. There were no Asian sports editors.

The Boston papers – not to mention Providence and many suburban newspapers in the region – don’t fare much better with diversity in staffs. The study does some geographical breakdowns, but not enough to clarify what areas of the country have the poorest percentages of racial diversity throughout an entire sports staff (editors are broken out, but not reporters and columnists.

When asked for such statistical breakdowns, Shots was informed by Jessica Bartter, the Communications and Marketing Coordinator for the National Consortium for Academics and Sports, of the following:

“There was not a regional break down of the APSE study results. Part of the agreement that was made with the APSE was that we could not release any specific paper information so the results were kept general and nationwide.”

Shots is pretty confident that it’s no stretch to surmise that the local disparity is one experienced at papers throughout the Northwest (where zero black sports editors now work), the Northeast, the Mid-Atlantic and the APSE’s Great Lakes regions .

The nation’s highest racial diversity (again, just for editors) was in the Southwest portion of the country and, also in the Western region.

Some of those findings are summarized here:

• The Southwest Region of the APSE had the best record for sports editors who were people of color with 9.1 percent. The Northwest region had the most female sports editors at 11.8 percent.

The Southwest Region reported the highest percentage of women and people of color combined with 13.6 percent. The Mid-Atlantic Region reported the lowest percentage of any region with only 2.4 percent of its sports editors who were people of color and no women sports editors.

• In circulation size “A” papers, the Sacramento Bee had the highest percentage for people of color at 54 percent. The Fresno Bee had the highest percentage of people of color at “B” newspapers with 45 percent. The Tallahassee Democrat had the highest percentage for people of color for size “C” newspapers at 36 percent. In size “D” newspapers, the Laredo Morning Times has all five staff who were people of color or 100 percent.

• Looking at opportunities for women in size “A,” the Fort Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel was tops with 24 percent. In size “B” newspapers, Columbia State was first with 29.6 percent. The Bucks County Courier Times led size “C” with 29.4 percent. The Iowa City Press-Citizen, which employs nine people in sport, had 44 percent women to be tops in size “D” newspapers.

• Of all the “A” circulation size papers, the Sacramento Bee totaled the highest percentage of diversity within its sports staff, with 54 percent being women or people of color. The Fresno Bee topped the circulation size “B” papers with 50 percent of its sports staff being women or people of color. The Tallahassee Democrat along with the Duluth News Tribune led the circulation size “C” papers with 50 percent of its sports staff being women or people of color.

By way of background, Richard Lapchick, the Institute’s director (and main author of this study), has been publishing Racial and Gender Report Cards on the NBA, NFL, MLB, WNBA, MLS, and college sport for two decades.

Especially interesting, as Lapchick points out, is that for years, when the coaching carousel starts spinning, there are several writers who start calling for equality. Problem is, they are mostly calling for the equality from very unequal places of employment.

“The media has been excellent at reporting the diversity records for professional and college sport,” Lapchick said in the release. “Yet the media had never turned the mirror on itself. When it did so through this study, APSE newspapers saw how little progress they had made regarding representation of women and people of color in decisions on what is covered, who covers it and who offers opinions on it. We have assigned grades to all categories in pro and college sport.

“While we will not assign official grades in this initial report compiling baseline data, if we did the print media would have worse grades for both race and gender than the sports themselves,” he said “That being said, I have to credit APSE for having the courage to initiate the study so there will be real transparency.”

(We should note that Boston’s female sports media representation is probably quite high in national rankings. The Boston market has long been a launching pad for female talent and that trend continues today (witness Wendi Nix. The study reported that “Women made up 12.6 percent of total staffs of APSE member newspapers.”)

What does all this mean? Well, Shots has already been told by two Boston Globe employees that the replacement for Solomon will most assuredly be a minority. One potential candidate who indicated to us that he is not in-play for the Globe job is Jim Trotter, the San Diego Tribune reporter who had the Willie McGinest comments of last weekend. Trotter, Shots was told, was considered during the last interview process when the Globe eventually hired Solomon.

Regardless, the diversity issue will not go away with just one hire. Maybe there’s no need to change the status quo, but you tend to think that some sort of initiatives should be undertaken, if for no other reason than to shake up the current, sometimes stagnant, pool of sportswriters.

And remember this as well: the minority hires who have come through town recently (Holley, Smith, Solomon) – have been outsiders. Boston isn’t necessarily their “dream job,” the way it might be for a local guy. For better or worse, the Globe is now a stepping stone stop on the way to either Bristol or greener pastures.

That’s just a fact and one that is backed up by all the recent maneuverings at the Globe and elsewhere.

. . . Speaking of local talent, one Shots’ (semi-)rube this week suggested this might set up Howard Bryant’s return to the home state. We tend to think the Cartel Creator is persona non grata at Morrissey Boulevard and Bryant would have to be offered a column or a REAL investigative spot to even be tempted. The Washington Post is just fine for him and he’s actually about to dive head first into his third book – a Hank Aaron tome, due out in Spring of 2009 from Pantheon (who, we’re told, gave HB an HA (Handsome Advance).

. . . Shots has also been led to believe that Smith, now entrenched in various ESPN platforms from Web to TV, was contacted by the Globe to gauge his interest in returning to the Pats’ beat.

Hopefully Smith’s reply went something like this:

HAR – DEE – HAR – HAR. . .

Young, rising, talented black men don’t leave national gigs to return to non-national NEWSPAPER jobs.

The trend is to go from paper to Web, NOT vice versa.

Smith’s got a sweet gig now, that will only get sweeter. Returning to the Globe would be a step backwards.

. . . Beyond that, if the hire was just being made for the sake of truly improving the paper AND simultaneously dealing the Herald a severe blow, Joe Sullivan would grab John Tomase, team him up with Reiss’s Pieces and blow everyone out of the water.

That scenario is unlikely because,

A) The minority mandate that goes with this hire and;

B) The Globe sports section would have to admit that the Herald has talented people (the way the Globe Arts section did with its Sarah Rodman steal). We’re not so sure the Sports desk is capable of swallowing its collective pride in that manner.

But we think they should be. Tomase has chops in reporting and writing and while Albert Breer is combining nicely, it’s Tomase that drives that beat for the Herald. Steal him, and you administer a serious body blow to Hammerin’ Hank Herald, The Little (figuratively) Sports Editor That Could. . . and does.

• Shots’ newfound, if not slightly simmering, interest in tennis brought us to the Rogers Cup on ESPN2 this week where we were pleasantly surprised to hear Sean McDonough pairing with always-worthwhile Patrick McEnroe (along with Jimmy Arias).

We’ve said it before and we’ll say it again now, McDonough does EVERY sport at the highest level. He’s been a hockey guy, a baseball guy, a football guy, a hoops guy (perhaps his very best sport), a golf guy (we believe) and now, a tennis guy.

• For all the times I kill WEEI 850 AM, Tuesday afternoon presented a rare treat with Glenn Ordway, Tony Mazz and Tom E (for Errant driving) Curran sharing booth space. Not only was it a strictly vegetarian afternoon of programming for The Big Show (Pete Meat Sheppard was thankfully no where to be heard all week long), it was also a strictly entertaining afternoon.

Curran’s (alleged) fender-bender at the NB parking garage, his subsequent call from across the street explaining his tardiness and the Pats’ insight he offered were all first rate. Likewise, Mazz was informative on the Sox, but also able to offer good Pats observations as well. And, for one day anyway, Ordway didn’t attempt (or need to be) the loudest, most boorish voice in the studio.

I can’t believe, what I just wrote.

• Keeping with the theme of overall love, Thursday’s Boston Globe sports section was nothing short of spectacular. The paper’s three top writers, Bob Ryan (Harry Sinden column); Dan Shaughnessy (John Henry dinner and a game column) and Jackie MacMullan (Adam Vinatieri story) were all front-of-the-section and all must-read. Inside brought the sad, continuing saga of Peabody homey, Jeff Allison; some local college football; and the regular Thursday, two-page golf section.

It would have passed for the best Sunday section the paper has had in many months, so for a mid-week compilation, you know it was simply stellar.

I can’t believe, what I just wrote. Again.

. . .And you can’t kill Shaughnessy for accepting an olive branch from John Henry. You just can’t. Access is something you have to judge columnists upon and Shuaghnessy’s inner-sanctum access to JH was impressive. The thought of the scene where JH tells DB to SIT and WATCH the game, is too priceless to ignore.

Every writer in Boston would have leapt at the chance to have Henry’s House tour – but only Shaughnessy got it.

• The “Point After” peeps took it down. . .

. . . but we keep it alive. Because we can.

• Someone should be keeping me abreast of these things – especially when they involve long-time Shots fave, Armen Keteyian. With some highly reputable names, this seems to be a Hall of an Idea. Sorry – can’t resist the easy ones.

. . . This was good news we are also tardy, but there’s no one better than Raf

• Shots’ Birthday is in a month and half and here’s all I want – in an XL, of course.

• We believe this to be NESN’s newbie, Kathryn Tappen, but NESN hasn’t posted a news release in almost three weeks. An email to the Network went un-returned.

Anyway, welcome to the ‘hood Kathryn. We’d tend to steer you toward Jayme Parker and TC2 as your “big sisters” and away from Hazel. But you can feel it out for yourself.

Tappen, we believe, will be starting out on the weekend Sports Desk.

• The Pats signed Eddie Berlin just at the time we were wondering where the former CN8 host would land. Wonder if Easy Ed will wear the cowboy boots against Atlanta.

What’s that? Berlin, NOT Berliner? Oh, my bad.

. . .Berliner’s old haunts, CN8, will have a definitely-worth-checking-out series of stores running all next week (Mon-Thurs) on the Cape Cod Baseball League that was spearheaded by producer/reporter Jeb Fisher.

• This has already been going on for quite some time with talent and production staffs, but now it’s becoming official and overt, as ESPN announced on Thursday:

“ESPN will become the overarching brand for all sports programming carried on the ABC Television Network beginning Saturday, Sept. 2 – the debut of ABC’s college football season.

. . . This new approach will cover all of the sports programming on ABC, encompassing all aspects of the production effort including on-air look, graphics and branding.

. . . On Saturday, Sept. 2, the “ESPN on ABC” schedule will begin with College Football Countdown at 3 p.m. ET, followed by regional college football games at 3:30 p.m. The first-ever primetime college football series on broadcast television, Saturday Night Football, will begin that evening on ABC at 8 p.m. with Notre Dame at Georgia Tech.”

Here’s a glimpse of what you can expect:

(Notice the ESPN Saturday Night Football logo displayed, with ABC watermark in lower right-hand corner.)


(Notice ESPN scoreboard and player stats, with ABC watermark in lower right-hand corner.)

• Styx (without dreamy Denis DeYoung) is over at the South Shore Music Circus this weekend and Shots pulled a few strings and managed to get four freebies for the evening. (Guestamite on attendance, including my four: two)

If you see a guy doing Do No Wari Got Toe Mr. Roboto (???) with no rhythm and no clue what the words are, it’s probably me. Or My Buddy Paulie Brookline.

David Scott writes from a seaside shanty on the shores of Hull, Mass. And can be reached at shotsATbostonsportsmedDOTcom