The second panel, on “The National Story,” was significantly divided over how race should be perceived in television and print.

John Cowles Professor of Sociology Orlando Patterson stated that the most critical issue facing the media today is “the racialization of issues which are not primarily racial.”

Drawing on examples such as the Los Angeles mayoral race, the U.S. Census interpretation, and Clarence Thomas, Professor Patterson declared that the “Press is racializing an issue” because of “intellectual laziness.”

Nearly every other panelist disagreed, in varying degrees. Harvard Law Professor Christopher Edley, Jr., said “there is too little racialization.”

Carole Simpson, an Emmy Award- winning senior correspondent for ABC News, said that her experiences have taught her that “news costs too damn much.”

Since the arrival of cable television, Ms. Simpson said that the national networks were losing watchers fast, and “the bean-counters became involved.” The network programs are “now in the fight of their lives,” and because of that, they reach out to the viewers’ interests like health and aging while neglecting race.

Mathis’ recent study into the disproportionate use of minorities as experts on news talk shows was also a subject on the national panel. “Smart black people are dime-a-dozen,” Ms. Mathis said.

The so-called “Rolodex problem” was something that Simpson said she observed at ABC News and got together with others to create a list of minority experts. “Change can be affected when people of color come together,” she said.