Just the facts, please

Broadcasting and Cable has an article about how advertisers' demand for time in African-American programming is challenging because "chiefly" there are fewer black-themed shows to buy.

The article highlights the dramatic shift in advertisers' interest toward the much more rapidly growing Hispanic market.

Hispanic programming represents 5% of all advertising dollars and African-American represents just 1%, according to Keith Bowen, executive VP, advertising sales and marketing, for TV One, the three-year-old 40 million-subscriber cable network targeting African-Americans, who is quoted in the article.

While the article was clearly about the need to grow more African-American programming and advertising opportunities, the author was careless in allowing the following statements by Bowen to go unchecked or not fully explained:

First, Bowen says both viewer groups are at about the same population level. While this is technically true (Hispanics are at 42.7 million people and African-Americans are at 39.7 million) the rate of growth for Hispanics is much higher so this won't last for long.

Second, he is quoted as saying, “If you look at buying power, the African-American market is so much more affluent than the Hispanic market." This is factually incorrect. According to the Census' 2005 survey, the median income was $35,967 for Hispanic households and was $30,858 for black households in 2005. So, "much more affluent" is an over statment. And, again, you have to look at the growth.

This isn't a brown v. black issue I'm trying to raise. But clearly, journalists should do their homework and provide proper perspective to what they print.