WGA East Panel To Push For More People Of Color As Voices On Mainstream News Shows

EXCLUSIVE: The WGA East will hold an online forum on August 11 to advocate for the inclusion of more people of color as voices on mainstream news programs and nonfiction shows.

The members-only conversation will be moderated by Michael Harriot, senior writer at TheRoot.com, where he covers the intersection of race, politics and culture. His work has appeared in the Washington Post and The New York Times, and he is a frequent political commentator on MSNBC and CNN, earning the National Association of Black Journalists Award for digital commentary. His book, BlackAF History, will be released in the spring.

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Here is a rundown of the panelists:

Eneida Del Valle is a producer with the Investigative Unit at CBS News who has worked in all areas of media including radio, television and print, traveling across the globe to document both the Latino and non-Latino experience.

Felice León is a host, producer and multimedia journalist who currently works as a video producer at The Root, where she hosts and co-produces the original series “Unpack That,” which explores topics that specifically relate to society’s tenuous relationship with race. She’s been featured on The Daily Beast, WNYC, Essence, Ebony, The Village Voice and BET.com.

Kathy McGee, a news writer/producer at WCBS-TV with more than 30 years of experience in broadcast journalism, is vice president of the WGA East Council and a member of the guild’s Committee for Inclusion and Equity.

Jade Magnus Ogunnaike is the senior director of the Media, Culture, and Economic Justice team at Color of Change, the civil rights advocacy group, where she has created campaigns such as #BlackWomensBrunch, an event that brought together Black women from across the country; #DropRKelly, the three-year-long effort to get R. Kelly dropped from RCA Records, and #QuitTheCouncil, a campaign to convince a member of President Trump’s business council to quit. Most recently, she led the successful push to convince Zoom to hire their first Chief Diversity Officer, and has created the #BeyondTheStatement hub, a set of campaigns designed to demand that corporations back up their verbal support of racial justice with a living wage.

Arsenia Reilly-Collins is a Filipinx union and community organizer with over 20 years’ experience in labor relations and politics. She is currently the guild’s Director of Contract Campaigns, and has served as the lead negotiator at The Onion, Slate, Salon, Vice, Fast Company, Talking Points Memo, Refinery 29, Gimlet Media, Future Media, Gizmodo Media Group, Ringer, and the Committee to Protect Journalists. She also teaches at the CUNY School of Labor Studies.

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