I enjoyed speaking with Leonard Lopate yesterday, and to the listeners.

Time to reply to a few of these Comments:

@dboy: Yes, I mentioned "money" during the interview, in the context of requiring payment for my work as a journalist and/or content provider. I find it interesting that this "disturbs" you. Why are you "disturbed" by this? "Conent" is not free. Moreover, those of us who have worked at learning the tradecraft of Journalism are also "real people" with families to support. I entered into journalism more than twenty years ago never expecting to "get rich," but fully expecting to be compensated fairly for my work. It is only during the past half-dozen years or so that this idea of working for low or no pay has taken hold, not only in the minds of readers/viewers but, sadly, at some of the news organizations that benefit from the work of journalists and content providers. Journalism, the American press, is key to safeguarding our Democracy -- its practitioners should not be exploited, no more than any employee in other aspects of the workforce.

@TheTruthFromBecky, yes, race remains an "issue" in the US, and yes, it is "sad." If you listen closely to the interview, I did not enter journalism for any other reason than I enjoyed the work, am good at it, and also believed in its role in providing useful information for Americans. I ultimately felt that I HAD to write about people of color and the issues of relevance to "marginalized" communities because I observed that these stories were not being covered, or were being covered poorly. Many journalists of color fact this dilemma: If we don't cover these issues and people -- and do it appropriately, which is to say FAIRLY -- then who will?

@MikeFromInwood -- great point. As I mentioned, class diversity, too is important in the staffing of news organizations. We didn't have time to get to it on Leonard's show, but I have very strong opinions about how problematic it is for the overall quality of news coverage if your writers, editors, etc., all hail from middle or upper middle class backgrounds, and attended elite colleges. This is a big problem in some news organizations, yet no one ever talks about it.

That's it for now. Thanks for listening, and for reading.

Amy Alexander

(listened to the re-broadcast)
An interesting, informative interview, as usual. It's a shame how it ended: Mr. Lopate respectfully thanked the guest for being on his how. The guest, after being treated with respect, answers with, "Thank you, I had fun".

What on earth does that mean? I have heard several WNYC shows recently (e.g., this one, and On the Media, in which a religion reporter was being interviewed...), in which the guest shows his or her respect for allowing their voice and ideas to be heard, by saying some variation of, "Thanks -- it was fun!". Who on earth cares that the guest "had fun"?

This is a really big deal, since the ending exchange in an interview says a lot about the person being interviewed. In each case, my respect for the guest plummeted with those last three words.

In case they don't know of better, more respectful lines to use: a simple, "Thank you for having me", or "Thank you, I appreciate being on here", says all that needs to be said.

As a visual artist of color and culture consumer here in NYC, I agree with your guest about the art desk at the NYT. The Times' coverage of the art scene IS elitist and non-inclusive. When there's coverage of "non-white" events, exhibits, etc. there's a such a vacuum in perspective that you'd swear those covering were aliens from another planet, or if generous, another country/culture.

So, Ms. Alexander works in "public relations" for a lobbying company. Nice....

I had an experience of dealing with a black lawyer who represented my former employer. The case was "investigated" by a black lawyer from the US Department of Labor. You can imagine how it ended...

This appears to be a pattern. Kind of gives a new definition to the term "new black"...

What disturbs me is how often she indicates money is her primary motivating factor.

I thought "content provider" was a much more general term than "journalist"--more like "writer."

Re: The 'whiteness' of those people who can afford to be lowly-paid interns.

Just as there is diversity among Black people, there is diversity among whites. Arguably more diversity, since there are more White people. Whatever the case, it is very selective which White voices become these lowly-paid interns and perhaps the White voices from modest means are the most silenced.

What about Larry David's advise for blacks to wear glasses?

Apparently, this positions them at the highest level of social structure.

This conversation in 2011 confirms for me that race will always be an issue for some people in this country, the first Black this, the only Black that....sad.

Juan Gonzalez (from Democracy Now) and Joseph Torres also published a book on the topic and more --
"News for All the People: The Epic Story of Race and the American Media "
http://www.amazon.com/News-All-People-Story-American/dp/1844676870/ref=sr_1_3?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1319817697&sr=1-3