For all the talk about fired radio shock-jock Don Imus and his racial rhetoric last week, the controversy he created brought a distinct and profound presence to America’s television talk shows: Black people.

During a flurry of week-long interviews, black media professionals were dispatched to studios across the country to offer commentary on multiple radio and television programs perhaps like never before.

In a span of five days, on everywhere to CNN, MSNBC, NBC News, CBS, the "Today" Show, and National Public Radio, they provided thoughtful and critical analysis regarding comments by Imus, who ignited a firestorm of outrage when he referred to  members of the Rutgers University women's basketball team as "nappy-headed hos." Imus’ hateful comments infuriated many Americans when he targeted the Rutgers team -- which includes a musical prodigy and a class valedictorian.

Last Thursday, CBS dumped Imus from his radio program, the finale to a stunning fall from grace for one of the nation's most prominent broadcasters. He had already been fired one day earlier from MSNBC, which simulcasts his radio show on the cable television network.

Imus' ouster has already triggered a larger debate about the lack of diversity in broadcast media and the presence of black journalists. Civil rights leaders and pundits who were interviewed last week dramatically underscored the need for more diverse voices in media.

"We applaud those thousands of NABJ members and journalists around the country who have come together and spoken out this week in the wake of the controversy," Bryan Monroe, president of the National Association of Black Journalists, wrote on the NABJ website.

"If there was any question why America needs black voices on the air, behind the camera and in the top ranks of reporting and editing, any question why it is important to have us in the room when decisions are made, this week has provided that answer," Monroe said.

The rush to book black guests on numerous television and radio programs was reminiscent of the O.J. Simpson trial in 1995, perhaps the last time black journalists and civil rights leaders were called on as a national collective to talk about race.

In fact, black journalists are already preparing to use last week’s television and radio blitz as a catalyst to promote more African-American reporters and editors for future programming opportunities, perhaps to discuss the larger issue of language that demeans black women and sexism and racism in American society.

Roland Martin, a syndicated columnist and CNN contributor, said on-air last week that women and women’s organizations must be aggressive and step up efforts to address and stop sexism.

Richard Prince, who writes Journal-isms, an online column for The Robert C. Maynard Institute for Journalism Education, said the broadcast media has been slow to diversify its news organizations, but that Imus, unintentionally, actually helped black journalists get recognized by the networks.

Last week, Prince appeared on All Things Considered" on National Public Radio, was quoted in the New York Times, went on "Here and Now" on WBUR, the public radio station in Boston and was interviewed by WUSA-TV, the CBS affiliate in Washington, and XM Satellite Radio.

"I know that I've never received as many invitations to appear on broadcast outlets as I have since the Imus controversy started, and I'm sure other black journalists can say the same," Prince told BlackAmericaWeb.com. "This is one of the silver linings."

"It's also been a bonus to have Jesse Jackson point out on the 'Today' show that there are virtully no African-American hosts on NBC News shows, and to learn that the executive producer of the MSNBC version of 'Imus in the Morning' is a black man," Prince said.

According to the latest Radio-Television News Directors Association/Ball State University Annual Survey, Prince said, which reports figures from local television stations, the percentage of people of color in local TV news stands at 22.2 percent. However, he said, blacks, Hispanics, Asian Americans and Native Americans make up 33 percent of the U.S. population.

"The networks do not release their figures, but journalists of color who work there have expressed their frustration with the slow progress," said Prince.

A press release by the The Radio-Television News Directors Association says that "this is a moment of opportunity to reinvigorate an important discussion in our society, a discussion about diversity and the devastating impact of ill-chosen language and imagery."

In large part, black journalists and civil rights leaders contributed to Imus’ downfall.

It started with NABJ calling for a boycott of Imus’ show a day after Imus’s comments aired, and other journalists and civil rights leaders joined the chorus of Imus’ critics.

Rev. Jesse Jackson and Rev. Al Sharpton met with top executives at MSNBC and CBS last week, applied pressure, and urged them to fire Imus. And Al Roker, one of NBC's most visible black on-air personalities, was one of about a dozen black NBC employees who met with the company’s top executives.

"[Imus] is a radio icon," Roker said. "That said, it is time for him to go."

During a whirlwind week, there were a number of new black faces who were introduced to many Americans for the first time, including NABJ's Monroe, Martin, a CNN contributor and commentator on TV One; journalist and author Linda Jones; Jonathan Capehart from The Washington Post; conservative commentator Amy Holmes, Michelle Moore of the National Urban League and Jackie Jones from BlackAmericaWeb.com.

Consider this: When is the last time you’ve seen two black women discussing the connotation of the word ‘nappy’ on CNN in prime time during a segment specifically designed to explore the issue of black women’s hair, race, sexism, demeaning black women, and white-male privilege?

The call for greater diversity in broadcasting isn’t new, but it is timely.

I have a black friend in the television news industry who jokes about working for every major television network except Al Jazeera and has spent the past 25 years quietly encouraging television executives to hire more blacks for top jobs and add more African-Americans to the mix of pundits, commentators and technicians. 

While it’s critically important to hear diverse views from African Americans on race -- a seriously under-discussed issue in America -- it’s equally crucial to include black commentators in discussions on all subjects: The 2008 presidential campaign, education, health care, science, the arts, global warming, immigration and the war in Iraq.

Yanick Rice Lamb, a journalism professor at Howard University in Washington, D.C. and a former editor at The New York Times and BET Weekend magazine, told BlackAmericaWeb.com it was good to see so many black journalists weighing in on the Imus controversy.

"However, I hope that news organizations continue to include more of us on an array of topics beyond race," she said. "We have a wide range of expertise. We can cover and comment on everything from politics to global warming. And we're available. No news executive should ever utter that lame, old excuse: 'We can’t find any.'"

In explaining why MSNBC canceled its live simulcast of the radio show "Imus in the Morning," NBC News President Steve Capus said he wants America to engage in an honest dialogue on race relations, saying he listened intently to NBC employees who spoke passionately about changing a culture that finds it acceptable to demean black women.

Many black Americans would no doubt welcome a candid dialogue on race, although some are obviously skeptical having heard the same refrain over the years, a refrain that often leads to empty promises. Even President Bill Clinton’s powerful White House efforts to create a national discussion on race fell flat.

Capus’ words were correct and timely, but his on-air revelation will carry more weight if we begin to see more people of color on television sharing diverse views as a part of the national discourse, as well as blacks in executive positions and behind the cameras.

I have a nine-year-old daughter who plays on her school girl’s basketball team and while Imus’ comments were repugnant, vile, and racist, and while I do not want her exposed to discriminatory ranting on the airways, the broader issue is this: I also want my daughter to see more intelligent multi-cultural thinkers – and black women in particular– speaking with authority on television on a range of issues that could impact her future.

Explaining why he fired Imus, Capus said: "If a person who works for me says, ‘That could have been my daughter,’ how can I ignore that?"

The fact that he couldn't "is a sign of how the world has changed," opined Washington Post's Eugene Robinson in a column published Friday. "Four decades ago, when Imus started his long and lucrative radio career, there were few women and minorities at NBC in a position to influence the company's decision on an issue like this one. Take it another step: There were few women and minorities in positions of authority at the firms that advertised on Imus' show."

Let’s hope that the "truthful dialogue" on race inevitably leads to greater diversity in radio and on television networks where hosts who are hired to keep us informed also inform us about race.

"Now the issue is we must fight for our shares of these posts," the Rev. Jesse Jackson said. "We need more hosts, writers and producers. We need to desegregate the airways, bringing an end to segregation of the airways. From three to 11, all day, all night, they are white."