Kent Ninomiya is the first male

Asian American Asian Americans are Americans with ancestry from the continent of Asia (including naturalized Americans who are immigrants from specific regions in Asia and descendants of those immigrants). Although this term had historically been used fo ...

broadcast journalist Broadcast journalism is the field of news and journals which are broadcast by electronic methods instead of the older methods, such as printed newspapers and posters. It works on radio (via air, cable, and Internet), television (via air, cable, ...

to be a primary

news anchor A news presenter – also known as a newsreader, newscaster (short for "news broadcaster"), anchorman or anchorwoman, news anchor or simply an anchor – is a person who presents news during a news program on TV, radio or the Internet. ...

of a television station in the United States. The Asian American Journalist Association, often referred to as the AAJA, notes that there are numerous Asian American women on the air at American television news stations but very few Asian American men. This disparity is even more pronounced with television news anchors. Kent Ninomiya was the first Asian American man to be a main anchor.

Main Anchor

Kent Ninomiya became the primary news anchor for

KSTP-TV KSTP-TV (channel 5) is a television station licensed to Saint Paul, Minnesota, United States, serving the Twin Cities area as an affiliate of ABC. It is the flagship television property of locally based Hubbard Broadcasting, which has owned th ...

Minneapolis Minneapolis is a city in Hennepin County, Minnesota, United States, and its county seat. With a population of 429,954 as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is the state's List of cities in Minnesota, most populous city. Locat ...

- St Paul in 2003. His co-anchor, Harris Faulkner, is an

African American African Americans, also known as Black Americans and formerly also called Afro-Americans, are an Race and ethnicity in the United States, American racial and ethnic group that consists of Americans who have total or partial ancestry from an ...

female. The all minority main anchor team working in a television market with very few minority viewers was heralded as a bold step forward by

journalism Journalism is the production and distribution of reports on the interaction of events, facts, ideas, and people that are the "news of the day" and that informs society to at least some degree of accuracy. The word, a noun, applies to the journ ...

organizations across the country. Ninomiya was also primary news anchor and

managing editor A managing editor (ME) is a senior member of a publication's management team. Typically, the managing editor reports directly to the editor-in-chief and oversees all aspects of the publication. United States In the United States, a managing edi ...

at WICD in Champaign in 2006 and 2007.

Other Anchoring

Ninomiya first became a full-time news anchor in 1999 when he was named the weekday 5am - 7am morning news anchor for

KGO-TV KGO-TV (channel 7) is a television station licensed to San Francisco, California, United States, serving the San Francisco Bay Area. It has been owned and operated by the American Broadcasting Company, ABC television network through its ABC Owne ...

, the ABC owned and operated television station in San Francisco. At KGO his co-anchors included Beth Spicuza, Carolyn Johnson and Elizabeth Bermudez. From 2001 through 2003 Ninomiya anchored the weekend evening news at

KCOP KCOP-TV (channel 13), branded Fox 11 Plus, is a television station in Los Angeles, California, United States, serving as the West Coast of the United States, West Coast flagship (broadcasting), flagship station of MyNetworkTV. It is owned and op ...

in Los Angeles. He worked with several prominent co-anchors there including Gina Silva, Jennifer Gould, Maria Quiban and Lauren Sánchez. During Ninomiya's time at KCOP, the news operation was merged with

KTTV KTTV (channel 11) is a television station in Los Angeles, California, United States, serving as the West Coast of the United States, West Coast flagship (broadcasting), flagship station of the Fox Broadcasting Company, Fox network. It is owned a ...

, the

Fox Foxes are small-to-medium-sized omnivorous mammals belonging to several genera of the family Canidae. They have a flattened skull; upright, triangular ears; a pointed, slightly upturned snout; and a long, bushy tail ("brush"). Twelve species ...

station in Los Angeles, as part of a

duopoly A duopoly (from Greek , ; and , ) is a type of oligopoly where two firms have dominant or exclusive control over a market, and most (if not all) of the competition within that market occurs directly between them. Duopoly is the most commonly ...

. Ninomiya appeared on the air for both Los Angeles television stations.

Reporter/Anchor

Prior to working in Los Angeles, Ninomiya was a

reporter A journalist is a person who gathers information in the form of text, audio or pictures, processes it into a newsworthy form and disseminates it to the public. This is called journalism. Roles Journalists can work in broadcast, print, advertis ...

and fill in anchor. From 1993 to 1998 he worked for

WLS-TV WLS-TV (channel 7) is a television station in Chicago, Illinois, United States, serving as the market's ABC network outlet. It has been owned and operated by the network's ABC Owned Television Stations division since the station's inception. ...

, the ABC owned and operated television station in

Chicago Chicago is the List of municipalities in Illinois, most populous city in the U.S. state of Illinois and in the Midwestern United States. With a population of 2,746,388, as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is the List of Unite ...

. From 1991 to 1993 he worked at

KGTV KGTV (channel 10) is a television station in San Diego, California, United States, affiliated with ABC and owned by the E. W. Scripps Company. The station's studios are located on Air Way in the Riverview-Webster section of San Diego, and its ...

the ABC television station in

San Diego San Diego ( , ) is a city on the Pacific coast of Southern California, adjacent to the Mexico–United States border. With a population of over 1.4 million, it is the List of United States cities by population, eighth-most populous city in t ...

. From 1990 to 1991 he worked for KFSN the ABC owned and operated television station in

Fresno Fresno (; ) is a city in the San Joaquin Valley of California, United States. It is the county seat of Fresno County, California, Fresno County and the largest city in the greater Central Valley (California), Central Valley region. It covers a ...

. In 1990 he worked for KJEO (now KGPE) the

CBS CBS Broadcasting Inc., commonly shortened to CBS (an abbreviation of its original name, Columbia Broadcasting System), is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the CBS Entertainme ...

television station in Fresno.

Early Anchoring

Ninomiya first appeared on the air as a television news anchor in 1989 when he was the weekday morning news anchor for KIEM, the

NBC The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the NBC Entertainment division of NBCUniversal, a subsidiary of Comcast. It is one of NBCUniversal's ...

television station in

Eureka, California Eureka ( ; Wiyot: ; Hupa: ; ) is a city and the county seat of Humboldt County, located on the North Coast of California. The city is located on U.S. Route 101 on the shores of Humboldt Bay, north of San Francisco and south of the Oreg ...

. He also reported for that station.

Early career

Ninomiya's first appearance on television was in early 1989 at WGGB, the ABC television station in

Springfield, Massachusetts Springfield is the most populous city in Hampden County, Massachusetts, United States, and its county seat. Springfield sits on the eastern bank of the Connecticut River near its confluence with three rivers: the western Westfield River, the ea ...

, where he was an assignment editor and reporter. Prior to that, he worked behind the scenes at the

Washington, D.C. Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly known as Washington or D.C., is the capital city and federal district of the United States. The city is on the Potomac River, across from Virginia, and shares land borders with ...

, bureau of

CNN Cable News Network (CNN) is a multinational news organization operating, most notably, a website and a TV channel headquartered in Atlanta. Founded in 1980 by American media proprietor Ted Turner and Reese Schonfeld as a 24-hour cable ne ...

in 1988, KGO-TV in San Francisco in 1988, and

KTVU KTVU (channel 2) is a television station licensed to Oakland, California, United States, serving the San Francisco Bay Area. It is owned and operated by the Fox Broadcasting Company, Fox network through its Fox Television Stations division along ...

Oakland Oakland is a city in the East Bay region of the San Francisco Bay Area in the U.S. state of California. It is the county seat and most populous city in Alameda County, with a population of 440,646 in 2020. A major West Coast port, Oakland is ...

in 1987.

Education

Kent Ninomiya graduated

magna cum laude Latin honors are a system of Latin phrases used in some colleges and universities to indicate the level of distinction with which an academic degree has been earned. The system is primarily used in the United States. It is also used in some Sout ...

from St. Mary's University School of Law with a

Juris Doctor A Juris Doctor, Doctor of Jurisprudence, or Doctor of Law (JD) is a graduate-entry professional degree that primarily prepares individuals to practice law. In the United States and the Philippines, it is the only qualifying law degree. Other j ...

. He has a bachelor's degree in

social sciences Social science (often rendered in the plural as the social sciences) is one of the branches of science, devoted to the study of society, societies and the Social relation, relationships among members within those societies. The term was former ...

from the

University of California at Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California), is a public land-grant research university in Berkeley, California, United States. Founded in 1868 and named after the Anglo-Irish philosopher George Berkele ...

and was a

fellow A fellow is a title and form of address for distinguished, learned, or skilled individuals in academia, medicine, research, and industry. The exact meaning of the term differs in each field. In learned society, learned or professional society, p ...

of Journalism

Ethics Ethics is the philosophy, philosophical study of Morality, moral phenomena. Also called moral philosophy, it investigates Normativity, normative questions about what people ought to do or which behavior is morally right. Its main branches inclu ...

at the

Poynter Institute The Poynter Institute for Media Studies is a non-profit journalism school and research organization in St. Petersburg, Florida, United States. The school is the owner of the ''Tampa Bay Times'' newspaper and the International Fact-Checking Netw ...

Current

Kent Ninomiya is a lawyer at Ninomiya Law, PLLC specializing in mass media and social media law.

References

External links

Kent Ninomiya web site
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Ninomiya, Kent 1966 births American broadcast news analysts American infotainers American male journalists American journalists of Asian descent American television journalists American writers of Japanese descent American television reporters and correspondents Living people Television anchors from Los Angeles Television pioneers University of California, Berkeley alumni