Doctor Who and racist/sexist hiring practices

Can I just write about this, please?

Seen on livejournal:

The short version is that, yes, 100% of the writers and directors were both male and white. Because Steven Moffat can't even be bothered to make a little effort to find one person of color and/or one woman. This explained a lot for me about why the show has been drenched in fail. The people at the top can't even bestir themselves to give a shit about their racist and sexist hiring practices. In all of Britain, tell me there isn't a single person of color and/or woman who would like to write or director for Doctor Who. Tell me, and you'd be a liar.

First of all, I think that for a show to be drenched in fail, the writing has to be bad. It doesn't actually matter if the person writing is black or white or Asian or whatever. It's the actual quality of the writing that matters.

Second, I am getting a little tired of people looking at the cast and crew of a show and raising hell when there isn't a "strong female character" or "strong colored character." For a society that loves artistic license so much, can't we allow the artists behind shows to decide what they will, and to let their own imaginations and talent dictate their creations, and not political correctness? I would rather that the writers be chosen because they're good, NOT because it would look good for the show to hire someone from a minority group. You can't just scream "racist!" or "sexist!" without any proof, and you can't just declare that a show is awful once you discover that the people behind the scenes are of a specific race or gender. It's unsound and it's not evidence-based, and it's such a hair-trigger reaction that really irritates me. People should be conscious of representation in the media, sure, but maybe they should do their research before saying things that are potentially libelous.

If we're going to discuss the quality of shows, let's dwell on the script, the production, the character development, the plot. Let's at least acknowledge that these are things that quality depends on--NOT whether the only black character in a recent episode gets killed within the first five minutes. (AND! It's a show that features, as its main characters, a couple--Amy and Rory--where the woman wears the pants in the relationship, and where the lead character's female love interest, River Song, is made to look superior to him in athleticism, in knowledge of things to come, in general awesomeness, and even in operation of his own spaceship. One of her regenerations was even black, which was completely unnecessary, and yet which was done in an effort to include a colored character. Isn't it just so convenient to overlook these things, as well as the existence of female producers for Doctor Who, when you're arguing about discrimination.)

The bottom line? People who write for one of the biggest shows in Britain should be hired because they're good enough, not because of tokenism.