ABC, CBS IGNORE HISTORIC APPOINTMENT OF ONLY AFRICAN AMERICAN SENATOR

◼ On Monday, South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley announced that she was appointing U.S. Congressman Tim Scott to the U.S. Senate seat being vacated by Jim DeMint. When he is sworn in on January 3, Scott will be the lone African American of either party in the Senate but this historic news didn't seem to interest ABC or CBS as neither mentioned the news that night. - Warner Todd Huston/Breitbart

One would think that the "diversity" of this story alone would be of interest to the big networks. After all, we have a female Governor who is the daughter of Sikh immigrants appointing the only African American to the Senate. We also have a Senate seat that is famed for having once been occupied by Strom Thurmond, a one-time Dixiecrat, segregationist turned repentant Republican. And we have the first black Senator from a southern state since Blanche Bruce of Mississippi in 1881. This is almost "diversity" overload.

Perhaps one mitigating factor for the old networks is that all of this "diversity" was wrought by Republicans?

To its credit, NBC did spend some time on this historic appointment. A whole 24 seconds.

◼ South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley is single-handedly diversifying the Republican Party. Haley, an Indian-American, just appointed Representative Tim Scott to replace the state's departing senator, Jim DeMint. Scott will be the only black in the Senate. And South Carolina will have an Indian woman in the governor's office and a black senator. That's remarkable. - Francis Wilkinson/Bloomberg

The Democratic Party incorporated black voters into the fold after championing civil rights legislation in the 1960s, then gradually made room for black elected officials. It diversified from the ground up. Republicans are working in the opposite direction. The party rank and file is overwhelmingly white. But Republican elected officials are increasingly diverse. Scott will join Cuban-American Republicans Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz in the Senate. And in addition to Haley, Republicans can point to Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal, and Governors Brian Sandoval of Nevada and Susana Martinez of New Mexico.