To match its liberal editorial policies, the Washington Post has always been a leader among metropolitan dailies in hiring blacks. The blacks on the paper include an editorial writer, a columnist, two assistant city editors, two cultural writers and 14 other reporters and photographers. Of its 393 newsroom employees, including copy boys, clerks and trainees, the Post claims a black representation of 40, or more than 10%. At the Los Angeles Times, four out of 437 editorial employees are black. Only 22 minority-group members (Spanish speaking, American Indian, Oriental and black) are among the 557 New York and Washington reporters, editors and photographers at the New York Times.
Not enough, say seven of the Post's black city-desk reporters. After almost two months of talks with management, the "Metropolitan Seven" have filed a formal complaint with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission charging racial bias in the newspaper's assignment and promotion policies. "This discrimination cannot continue to exist at a publication in a city that is 71.1% black," reads the complaint. "The lack of black participation in the shaping of the news reported by one of America's most prestigious newspapers is to us an insult to the black community." Their proposed solution: hire enough blacks within a year to fill 35% to 45% of every editorial category.
For some time blacks on the Post have talked about a "plantation" atmosphere in which they felt that they were getting inferior assignments and unsatisfactory advancement. One of their spokesmen, Richard Prince, has been covering the district's equivalent of city hall. Another, Ivan Brandon, was promoted in the midst of the controversy to assistant city editor, the second black in that position.
Their formal protest began in January with a letter to Executive Editor Benjamin Bradlee. They demanded to know, among other things, why there were no blacks reporting for the sport and financial sections, why there were no blacks in senior executive positions, why there have traditionally been only one or two blacks on the prestigious national staff.
Another grievance concerns the Post's coverage of black affairs, which some staffers consider too stereotyped. Says one white reporter: "Pick up the paper any day, and you would think that all the blacks in Washington are either on methadone, are welfare mothers, or are running for Miss Teen-Age Black America."
But that charge and the one accusing the Post of discrimination seem overdrawn. The paper frequently runs stories sympathetic to black problems, and articles that treat blacks as individuals. The Post supports an all-black intern program at the Washington Journalism Center. The paper also has sent a black editor around the country scouting for black recruits.