Minority journalists to ask McCain, Obama questions

Minority journalists meeting in Chicago for a convention this summer will question presidential candidates in a nationally televised primetime forum.

UNITY, an alliance of four associations representing minority journalists, had been planning to conduct its forum on the afternoon of July 24. But CNN now plans to telecast the two-hour event that same day at 7 p.m., a timeslot that could draw more than 2 million viewers.

"As an organization representing journalists from a diversity of backgrounds, UNITY's forum will reflect a different brand of questions than the public has heard so far in the campaigns," UNITY President Karen Lincoln Michel said in a statement.

Panelists questioning the candidates will come from the four associations represented by UNITY: the Asian American Journalists Association, the National Association of Black Journalists, the National Association of Hispanic Journalists and the Native American Journalists Association.

UNITY members will conduct the forum as part of its fourth quadrennial convention with the theme "A New Journalism for a Changing World" at McCormick Place.