Former Merc editor and Knight Ridder news VP Jerry Ceppos says in this Poynter Online op-ed that it is time for journalists to explain to the public why we have been striving for ethnically diverse newsrooms. He says that because of a couple of “rude, personal questions” he got people here in the Bay Area about the ethnic background of people in the news business. “We’ve talked for three decades about the need to hire all sorts of people in our newsrooms because of language, cultural and other advantages. But we’ve generally talked only to ourselves,” Ceppos says. “Maybe it’s time to explain to readers that their sources of news will be much more complete when the mix includes everyone from Lebanese-Americans to Egyptian-Americans to Jewish Americans, whose backgrounds help them explain complex stories without slanting the news.”