Texas news station, KCEN, unveiled its new history-making lineup for “Texas Today,” which is being helmed by three Black women.
The NBC News affiliate, which serves Waco, Temple and Killeen, has made history and will be the first-ever all-Black and all-female team of news anchors.
The three starring ladies are Taheshah Moise, Jasmine Caldwell and meteorologist Ashley Carter.
“When I first came to KCEN in 2017, we did not have any African American anchors. It was completely different,” Caldwell told KCEN. “I just think back to when I was a young girl and I used to watch the news with my parents and I never saw anyone who looked like me,” said Texas Today Anchor Taheshah Moise. “If I did, they were outside reporting in the cold.”
The ladies will air Monday through Friday from 4:30 a.m. through 7:30 a.m. on “Texas Today.”
“It didn’t hit me then that nobody really looked like me, like the people I was watching growing up,” Carter said. “But then as I started to do it, people started to point it out, how there was not a lot of women who are Black and do the weather. It kind of added on the responsibility of, OK, I didn’t get to see it growing up, and now little girls in this area are going to see me when they wake up, and now it can become a reality.”
Some have called the new lineup a “publicity stunt,” but the criticism has not deterred the team from its mission.
“I think the thing that I was most fearful of is people downplaying our talents to try and say this team was put together so this station could look more diverse,” Carter added.
“I think it is important to know when people watch us every morning, they will be able to see that each and every one of us earned our position on this team. I don’t think our news director intentionally did it. I think he just realized they are all women, and they are all black, but hey they are the best for this show, and this is what we’re going to do.”
