Duh.

That's the first word that comes to mind when somebody brings up the idea that there is a bias in the media towards certain groups.

If this is news to anybody, I'd have to wonder what channel they were watching. The media is clearly biased against women, people of color, straight people, and those without money.

Looking at the schedule on the major networks, it is plain to see that all the main characters of the shows are whiter than Wonder Bread. In the networks' defense, however, this does have a basis in economics and profits. The networks don't pay for these shows. The commercials do. And the sponsoring company will only pay for the show if it will be watched by the target market for their product, and that market will buy the product. Unfortunately, due to the inequality of income distribution among races, people of color have dramatically less money than whites. Knowing this, companies are going to advertise to the higher income bracket. And with the basic fact that, in general, white people are going to watch shows with white people in them, the networks put on shows with this group.

However, this does not begin to explain the discrimination against the other groups. For example, LGBTQ people (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer). Young gay male couples have more disposable income than just about any other demographic. But how many TV shows can you name that prominently feature people from the queer community? I'll cover my ears now while the entire reading audience screams "Will and Grace!!" As a side note, I am using the reclaimed definition of the word 'queer,' not the famously derogatory definition.

And how about discrimination against women? Women (especially married women) have almost as much disposable income as men do, yet they are portrayed startlingly less frequently as main characters in TV shows. Any reason?

The networks have clearly made a choice of whom they will feature in their flagship programs, and these listed groups have been left out. Like I said in my previous posts, it's up to us to fix it. How quickly this would be fixed if everybody that was really against this type of discrimination actually did something about it. Ah, to be in Utopia.

-Britt