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Marianne Combs and Marcheta Fornoff

America is growing more diverse. Why aren't newsrooms?

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Fifty years ago, President Lyndon B. Johnson formed a commission to examine the causes of the 1967 race riots. One of its top findings? The news media failed to analyze and report adequately on racial problems in the United States. The commission pointed specifically at a lack of diversity in newsrooms as being a major part of the problem.

Unfortunately, today the situation hasn't significantly improved. Major newsrooms across the country, including our own here at Minnesota Public Radio, still fail to reflect the communities they serve and the fact that our country is rapidly diversifying.

So why do newsrooms continue to lag behind? And what can we learn from those newsrooms who have managed to make significant strides?

MPR guest host Marianne Combs spoke with two journalists about why this is a persistent issue and what newsrooms are doing to fix it:

• Alesha Williams Boyd is the senior digital director for the USA Today Network-New Jersey

•Luis Clemens is a senior editor for diversity for NPR News

Use the audio player above to hear the full discussion