In advance of the November election, Univision Communications and a civil rights group stepped up a campaign to create an additional forum for presidential candidates to address issues important to Latinos and African Americans — and to get a person of color into the presidential debate schedule.
This week, the Commission on Presidential Debates selected Jim Lehrer of PBS News Hour, Bob Schieffer of CBS News, Candy Crowley of CNN and Martha Raddatz of ABC News as moderators for this fall's debates among candidates for president and vice president.
"It has long been the practice of the television industry to avoid putting people of color in front of the camera for fear of running afoul of ... mass market concerns," Ralph B. Everett, chief executive of the civil rights group Joint Center for Political and Economic Studios, wrote in a letter Thursday to Janet H. Brown, executive director on the Commission on Presidential Debates.
Read more at the Los Angeles Times.
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