NOTE: Please see end of blog for update

Just got back from Unity in Chicago, an event which drew 6,000 journalists of color from across the country, Barack Obama and one TV broadcaster who just doesn’t get it.

Unity is supposed to be about celebrating and demanding diversity and, for the most part, I’m always impressed by the character and commitment of those who attend. I’m particularly grateful this year to top-notch TV talent like CBS’s Russ Mitchell and ABC’s Brian Ross, who came to speak on their personal time at my pet project, J Camp, a program for outstanding high-school students, that is now entering its eighth year.

But I won’t be inviting ABC’s Martin Bashir anytime soon. I have a huge amount of time and love invested in the Asian American Journalists Association (I’m a former governing board member and served as the Minnesota state chapter president), but I was puzzled by its decision to invite the “Nightline” co-host to be the keynote speaker at our banquet. Bashir is a broadcaster best known for his interviews with Princess Di and Michael Jackson, both landmark snags, to be sure, but a bit dated and not exactly inspirational.

My worst fear was that he would spend his speech doting on those two chats. That would have been a blessing compared to what really happened. We had been affectionately warned by his colleague Juju Chang in her introduction that Martin loved dirty jokes. The fact that he loved dirty jokes in inappropriate places did not come up.

Shortly after he began, Bashir remarked how exciting it was for him to be in a room full of great looking “Asian babes” and then added that he was glad he was standing behind a podium so noone could see how excited he really was.

Hunh????

It took me about five seconds for the comment to sink in and then I did something I rarely do in public: I started booing. Shockingly, I wasn’t joined by too many people.

I appreciate a keynote speaker who attempts to use humor in a speech, but you have to careful in such settings and Mr. Bashir, a professional journalist, should know better. It’s one thing to make that kind of joke among friends at a bar; it’s another to use it at a banquet celebrating diversity. When we talk about diversity, we should be addressing it in broad terms - and that includes how women are treated. You don’t have to talk to too many Asian-American female broadcasters to learn that, as a group, they’ve been subjected to forms of discrimination, both subtle and overt. Mr. Bashir should know that.

Shame on Mr. Bashir and shame on ABC News if they don’t publicly rebuke him for poorly representing them.

POSTSCRIPT: ABC and Bashir have indeed now apologized, a day after this blog was posted. I suspect this story will get a little more attention as it gets more play. Here are the subsequent apologies that ABC sent me on Friday:

“This kind of remark has no place in any setting and Martin knows that and is truly sorry for his serious error in judgment ”

Jeffrey Schneider, Senior Vice President of ABC News

Statement from Juju Chang: “When I first heard Martin’s ridiculous joke, I thought “oh, man, what an inappropriate thing to say”…But I’ve known Martin for a long time. He’s a good man who said a dumb thing.” He has since apologized to me for his boorishness and I know he deeply regrets it.”

And here is Martin’s letter to AAJA:
Bashir Letter of Apology
31 July 2008
Dear Madam,
I wanted to write and apologize for an inappropriate comment that I made
at the AAJA dinner last Friday and for the offence that it caused to
those present.
Upon reflection, it was a tasteless remark that I now bitterly regret.
I am grateful to you for the opportunity to address those present and
hope that the continuing work of the organization will not by harmed or
undermined by my moment of stupidity.

Yours truly,

M Bashir

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