Browning's Wakeup Call

Tuesday’s well-attended NAMIC breakfast at National was among the group’s more memorable morning meals, right up there with the breakfast when actor Edward James Olmos blasted the effectiveness of diversity initiatives a few years back. This time it was MTV aff sales/marketing chief Nicole Browning’s honesty about certain cable ops’ reaction to gay/lesbian network Logo. "Selling Logo has been an eye-opening experience," she said as she accepted the Tony Cox award. ‘There are no gays here,’ a sr cable operator said during a Logo presentation, according to Browning. ‘If we launch that network here I will personally resign,’ said another sr exec "whose company has a large diversity initiative," Browning added; just imagine how a gay or lesbian exec sitting at the conference table feels when the boss says something like that, Browning said. (Reminds us of a point Spencer Kaitz made during his farewell speech at the Kaitz dinner last year, noting how many gay and lesbian cable execs are afraid to come out). Other strong speakers were wrapped around Browning’s remarks, particularly law professor Frank Wu, who used an engaging, conversational style to advance the point that all of us have racial images "rattling around in our brains, but it doesn’t mean we’re bigots…it’s just the way history has developed, maybe we can do better." He wondered how much images of African-Americans would improve if "Friends" had a black cast. Media can "help us change the script," he said, ending on a positive note. — Others honored included TW Cable’s Glenn Britt, consultant Joe Lawson and Reed’s Larry Dunn.