Back in 1967, President Lyndon B. Johnson established the Kerner Commission to investigate the reasons for violence and unrest in the black and Latino neighborhoods in several American cities. When the commission’s report was released in 1968, it warned that the nation was, "moving toward two societies, one black, one white, separate and unequal." The commission was especially critical of the lack of diversity in the news media and the way in which it covered race and politics at the time.

A new report out today considers the current state of racial and gender diversity in newsrooms around the country and looks at the broader implications of the limited progress that has been made, particularly when it comes to political coverage.

Farai Chideya, program officer for journalism for the Ford Foundation and fellow at Harvard’s Shorenstein Center on Media, Politics and Public Policy, authored the report: "In the Shadow of Kerner: Fifty Years Later, Newsroom Diversity and Equity Stall." Chideya joins the program to discuss what she found.