People of color are largely underrepresented on top cable news shows, a new study from progressive watchdog FAIR has found.
The study looked at five weeks of interview segments from "Anderson Cooper 360," "OutFront with Erin Burnett," "All In with Chris Hayes," "The Rachel Maddow Show," "The O'Reilly Factor" and "Hannity." Guests on each show were evaluated based on race/ethnicity, gender, political affiliation and occupation. FAIR found a deep lack of diversity on each program.
84 percent of all the guests included in the study were white. Rachel Maddow's show was the biggest offender, with only 6 percent of nonwhite guests (though Maddow also had the least amount of guests than any other show). None of these guests were women.
MSNBC's "All In with Chris Hayes," on the other hand, was the most diverse. Twenty-seven percent of Hayes' guests were people of color.
Fox News fell just ahead of Maddow in terms of diversity, but not by much. Only 10 percent of O'Reilly's guests were people of color, while "Hannity" came in at just 15 percent. CNN's "AC 360" was right behind "Hannity" at 14 percent, while 19 percent of Erin Burnett's guests were people of color. The study found the most glaring diversity problem among Latinos, who accounted for just 3 percent of all guests on the shows.
Past studies have shown a similar trend in cable news and in other areas of the media. A recent study looking at 10 top US newspapers proved that people of color are largely absent from the nation's opinion pages. On the average newsroom editorial board, approximately 8 out of 11 members are white. People of color make up just 12 percent of all newspaper employees, the American Society of News Editors found.
And of course, FAIR has also showed that male guests continue to outnumber female guests on every single show at a staggering 730-to-285 ratio.