A MeToo Moment for Journalists of Color

Excerpt from a piece by Soledad O’Brien "A MeToo Moment for Journalists of Color"

We’re finally feeling empowered to speak openly about racism in the newsroom. 

Every journalist of color has a story.

1995

My first job as an on-air reporter was at KRON in San Francisco from 1993 to 1996. I saw my new colleagues having a lively conversation and wanted to jump in. I discovered that they were talking about the “affirmative-action hire,” who turned out to be me. That’s how they saw me — it didn’t matter that I’d been a researcher and producer at NBC News or that I had gone to Harvard...

I have never been alone in speaking up, but these days something seismic is finally happening. Journalists of color are sidestepping management and going straight to the public: Absent a hashtag but buoyed by this public awakening over Black Lives Matter, we have collectively inaugurated our own #MeToo movement.

read the full article at nytimes.com

The Know Zone

Bleu in the studio and Soledad "in the field"

From 1991 to 1993, Soledad O'Brien worked for NBC News in New York, where she produced stories exclusively for Chief Health and Science Correspondent Robert Bazell for NBC Nightly News and Today.

In 1993, she joined NBC's KRON television in San Francisco covering local news. She also was given the chance to co-host the Discovery Channel's The Know Zone (along with a popular SF disc jockey, Don Bleu) for two seasons while she was there.

She received an Emmy award as anchor for The Know Zone in 1995. It was her first national show and she hosted for two seasons on The Discovery Channel.

“It wasn’t strictly a science and technology show for kids, but it kind of had a kid bent to it,” Soledad has said. “We covered science in a conversational tone and tried to find unusual ways to explain things.”

The experience working with science and technology stories probably helped her land her next job at MSNBC hosting The Site.