CNN Trains Its Lens on Race

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The notion that there is something called “black America” is a subject of debate. But in a year that marks both the 40th anniversary of the assassination of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Senator Barack Obama’s rise to become the presumptive Democratic nominee for president, CNN set out to explore how black people are feeling, thinking and doing.

That 18-month effort, which involved extensive research and a comprehensive national poll, has been spun into two two-hour documentaries, to be broadcast this week. “Black in America: The Black Woman and Family” will be shown Wednesday night; “Black in America: The Black Man” will be broadcast Thursday.

While viewers will catch sight of a few celebrities — Spike Lee, Whoopi Goldberg, Russell Simmons — most of the reports use ordinary people to flesh out topics like the education gap, the state of the black middle class, the AIDS epidemic, single parenthood and black men behind bars.

“I was sent out to do stories that are underreported,” Soledad O’Brien, the reporter for the programs, said in an interview. “It fit with personal interest.” Like Mr. Obama, Ms. O’Brien, a 42-year-old CNN anchor and special correspondent, is biracial. She has a black mother from Cuba and a white father from Australia.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/23/arts/television/23cnn.html?th&emc=th