During the recent controversy over former radio and television host Don Imus' remarks about the Rutgers women's basketball team, some cable-news viewers may have noticed something unusual: the presence of significantly more African-Americans. The nature of the controversy led the cable networks to seek comment from a far more diverse group of people than they ordinarily do, which begs the question: To the extent these cable programs included a more diverse guest lineup during the Imus controversy, why do they provide such diversity only when issues of race are in the news cycle? Do cable-news producers view the guests added to the lineup during the Imus controversy as qualified to talk only about issues of race, and not other issues of national and political significance?

And did these guests have any lasting effect on the networks' booking practices, or did they return to their old ways as soon as the Imus issue disappeared? To begin to answer these questions, Media Matters for America analyzed the race/ethnicity and gender of the hosts and guests on the major prime-time cable-news programs. This study looks at the guests who appeared on CNN, Fox News, and MSNBC during the weeknights before the Imus controversy (Monday, April 2, through Friday, April 6), the weeknights of the Imus controversy (Monday, April 9, through Friday, April 13), and the weeknights following the Imus controversy (Monday, April 23, through Friday, April 27). (We omitted the week immediately after the Imus controversy because it was consumed almost entirely by a single issue -- the Virginia Tech shootings -- and thus was atypical). Each guest appearing on the prime-time shows of the top three cable-news networks was recorded and categorized by race/ethnicity and gender. The shows included are:

• CNN's The Situation Room
• CNN's Paula Zahn Now
• CNN's Larry King Live
• Fox News' The O'Reilly Factor
• Fox News' Hannity & Colmes
• MSNBC's Hardball with Chris Matthews
• MSNBC's Countdown with Keith Olbermann
• MSNBC's Scarborough Country

We chose these programs because they air during prime time, from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. It should be noted that Fox News' Fox Report, which airs at 7 p.m., does not normally have guests and was therefore excluded from this study for purposes of guest analysis.

Cable-news hosts

In addition to the guests on the prime-time programs of the top three cable news networks, Media Matters compiled a list of all the regular hosts on cable-news programs between the hours of 4 p.m. and midnight. We chose this time frame because in addition to capturing all the prime-time shows, it also captures the cable networks' full lineups of high-profile shows hosted by identifiable personalities -- most of the shows during these hours have the host's name in the show's title. We also included CNN Headline News and CNBC in the data.

In total, there are 35 hosts and co-hosts of cable-news programs during these hours. All 35 are white, and 29 of the 35 are male.

Race/ethnicity of guests

Whites dominated the guest lists on all three networks in the weeks we examined. All three brought on substantially more African-American guests during the week of the Imus controversy, but largely went back to their white-dominated guest lists following the controversy.

Among the three networks, MSNBC performed the worst all three weeks -- 93 percent of the guests on the network were white the week prior to the controversy, 70 percent were white during the controversy, and 82 percent were white in the post-controversy week. In none of the three weeks did Latinos, Asian-Americans, or any ethnicity other than African-Americans make up more than 5 percent of the guests on any network. CNN had a slightly more racially/ethnically diverse guest lineup than the other networks, though its better performance the week prior to the Imus controversy can be partly attributed to Paula Zahn Now, which ran several segments that week focused on racial issues in America and also included a slightly higher number of African-Americans than other programs during the post-Imus week. Both Paula Zahn Now and The Situation Room on CNN hosted more African-Americans than whites during the week of the Imus controversy, as did Hardball on MSNBC.

The nearly complete absence of Latinos from the cable shows' guest lists is particularly notable. In 2004, the U.S. Census estimated that Hispanics made up 14 percent of the American population; given patterns of population growth, that number is undoubtedly higher today. Yet Hispanics made up less than 2 percent of the guests on these programs during these three weeks. In fact, this number represents a total of only 13 guest appearances, six of which were by Geraldo Rivera.

Simply put, the typical guest on a cable news show is white and male. This becomes stark when we compare the proportion of white men to the proportion of minority women:

Gender of guests

CNN, Fox News, and MSNBC did not fare particularly well when it came to gender diversity in any of the three weeks. Among the individual programs, there was more variation. The most gender-diverse program was The O'Reilly Factor, with a nearly even split between male and female guests during all three weeks, increasing Fox News' overall proportion of female guests. Despite the fact that the remarks that touched off the controversy were not only racist but misogynistic, only Paula Zahn Now and The Situation Room increased their proportion of female guests substantially from the first week to the second. And three others, all of which air on MSNBC -- Scarborough Country, Countdown with Keith Olbermann, and Hardball -- all hosted fewer women during the week of the Imus controversy than the week before.

Conclusion

This study demonstrates that at least during the period we examined, cable news remains an overwhelmingly white and male preserve. The Don Imus controversy put a momentary dent in this pattern as a result of the increase in appearances by African-Americans over that week -- but only a dent, and not a particularly large one at that. When an issue involving gender and race/ethnicity dominates the news, the cable networks do bring on a more diverse lineup of guests than they ordinarily do. The question, then, is why their guest lists are so overwhelmingly white and male the rest of the time.

Although our analysis of guest lists covered the relatively brief period of three weeks, the results suggest that if the cable-news networks want their guests to represent the full spectrum of Americans, they have a long way to go.