After the NAACP threatened to boycott NBC for its lack of representation of black and other minority characters on this season’s line-up, Bob Wright, the network’s president, announced an agreement yesterday that will generate more jobs for minorities both on screen and behind the camera.
The agreement will establish internships and scholarship programs for minority students, and pledges to increase NBC’s purchases from minority-owned businesses over the next 18 months. Perhaps most dramatically, NBC will add a minority writer to the staff of every new show that earns a second year in the line-up.
When asked by a reporter, Wright admitted that his network “had most likely passed up minority talent in the past,” and emphasized NBC’s new intention to integrate diversity both on the air and off.
