Should Diversity Be a Hiring Factor?

A FORMER CNN anchor is suing the cable news network for discrimination. Marina Kolbe says that CNN released her because she was a 42-year old white woman.

Her lawyer, according to the Fulton County Daily Report, claims that CNN, "embarked on a plan to replace its white anchors with on-air talent who were younger or who were ethnic and racial minorities."

According to the article, Internal CNN memos suggest that, beginning in 1999, in some cases a job candidate's race and ethnicity were key factors in hiring on-air talent.

One memo also revealed a push by CNN to hire "younger, more attractive anchors" to draw younger audiences in what was fast becoming a highly competitive 24-hour news environment.

Is having a diverse staff a good or bad thing? Shouldn't the staff be representative of the viewing public? Doesn't a diverse staff only introduce a diversity of thoughts and ideas?

Or should the best candidates get the jobs regardless of their age, ethnicity, gender, race, religion, whatever?

Shouldn't TV just be populated by really good looking people anyway?

And here's an interesting article about Gerald Boyd, the pioneering African-American newsman whose journalism legacy was tainted by the Jayson Blair debacle at the New York Times.