NABJ Is Prepared To "Set It Off" If CNN Replaces Larry King With Someone Else White!

The following letter was released today by the National Association of Black Journalists:

Dear Cable News Executives:

It is 2010, but the National Association of Black Journalists sees our cable news networks moving backward when it comes to who they believe is worthy of anchoring prime-time news shows.

NABJ was founded in 1975 to encourage news media companies to hire and to promote more Black journalists. At that time, black journalists originally hired to cover riots during the turbulent 1960s found they were not being assigned to other meaningful beats or were only allowed to cover "Black" stories.

NABJ's advocacy for fair hiring practices paid off. Many of our founders, including columnists Les Payne in New York and DeWayne Wickham in Washington, D.C., and anchor Maureen Bunyan in Washington, D.C. remain prominent figures in the media.

NABJ continues this advocacy today. To be candid, we have been focusing our talks with media executives on ways they can increase the diversity of their news management teams. It is our belief that a diverse management team improves coverage decisions and hiring practices. It seems, though, that the companies have taken that to mean that we don't care about who is on the air. We're watching, and we do.

Over the past several years, NABJ Executive Board members have met with leaders of the top media companies. Our message: "Let us help if you are looking for diverse talent."

Some of the companies have reached out, but the names we have submitted never seem to be called in for interviews.

Three years ago, Ebony magazine's Kevin Chappell noted, "While CNN has the most Black news anchors with eight, the other cable networks don't (fare) as well... and none of the national cable stations has any Blacks in prime-time slots."

Nothing has changed. NABJ questions CNN's decision to hire former New York governor/attorney general Eliot Spitzer to co-host a new show in Campbell Brown's old time slot. The company missed another opportunity to place a person of color in prime time. It just seems that cable news can never find diverse candidates who are good enough to meet their standards. We want to know your standards.

Are you telling us that CNN could find no one better than an ex-politician who quit being New York governor after consorting with prostitutes to grace America's living rooms each night?

CNN does have Tony Harris anchoring in the morning, and Fredricka Whitfield, T.J. Holmes, and Don Lemon on the weekends. But that's not prime time. The same can be said about MSNBC which last week named veteran Lawrence O'Donnell as the anchor of its new 10 p.m. show. The prime-time host line-up at Fox News also lacks any racial diversity.

"In his story, Chappell talked with NABJ Member and CBS News anchor Russ Mitchell who summed up what many of us have witnessed over the years. Mitchell told Ebony "I've been to journalism conferences over and over again, and heard some executive say 'I'd like to hire more African-Americans, but I just can't find any qualified ones out there.' That was b.s. then, and that's b.s. now."

NABJ couldn't agree more.

Sincerely,

The National Association of Black Journalists

SOURCE National Association of Black Journalists

Comcast NBC Merger - Plantation Politics?

(Left to right) Rep. Steve Cohen, Rep Maxine Waters, Chairman John Conyers, a staff assistant, Rep. Louie Gohmert and Rep. Judy Chu

U.S. Congressional Hearing Blasts Comcast

By Yussuf J. Simmonds
LA Sentinel Managing Editor

It was a field hearing of the Congressional Committee on the Judiciary, which was chaired by Representative John Conyers (MI-14) along with Representatives Judy Chu (CA-32), Steve Cohen (TN-9), Louie Gohmert (TX-1) and Maxine Waters (CA-35). Its specific purpose was to solicit input from the community and members of the media on the pending merger of Comcast and NBC/Universal.

There were 12 witnesses slated to testify and when they were finished, the results seemed equally divided on whether or not the merger should go through.

Chairman Conyers said, "This is a hearing, not a formal discussion. It is a historic moment in the economic life of this country." He introduced each member of the panel, welcomed the witnesses and the guests. Then each panel member in turned spoke briefly about what each expected to result from the hearing.

Rep. Gohmert mentioned that the DOJ (Department of Justice) review of the merger is in the public interest and is "the main purpose we're here today."

Rep. Waters was the host since the hearing was held in her district, in addition, she has been on point in seeing that the pending merger is right for the community, for business and that her constituents will be treated fairly and respectfully. She welcomed the panel, the witnesses and the invited guests to the forum.

"DOJ is conducting a labor intensive review," she said, because the media statistics as they relate to minorities, are frightening. "Our due diligence is to further investigate and understand the implications this massive merger could have on our already heavily-consolidated media market and demand transparency. Comcast is in 39 states."

Rep. Cohen started off with some light humor about the stars that Tennessee gave to Los Angeles and loaned to the nation, then said, "I'm here to listen and hear what Comcast is doing."

Rep. Chu stated firmly, "The primary issue is diversity. The lack of diversity in television is not representative of the nation's changing demographics." According to her, the panel was interested in how the issue of diversity will be addressed.

The lineup of witnesses consisted of who's-who in the media and the subject of diversity in the media was front-and-center, as it related primarily to Comcast, the potential purchaser of NBC/Universal, who, if the merger is approved, will be the dominant force in the new company, and in the American media.

They included Paul Madison (NBC/Universal); Samuel Kang (Greenlining Institute); Alfred Liggins III, (Radio/TV One); Stanley Washington (National Coalition of African American Owned Media); Jim Weitkamp (Communications Workers of America); Will Griffin (Hip Hop on Demand); Allen Hammond (Santa Clara University School of Law); Alex Nogales (National Hispanic Media Coalition); Kathryn Galan (National Association of Latino Independent Producers); Darnell Hunt (UCLA); Frank Washington (Tower of Babel, LLC); and Suzanne de Passe, (de Passe Jones Entertainment).

As the executive vice president of diversity at NBCU, Madison told the panel of her 21-year relationship at NBC what the impact and benefits of the merger will have on diversity. As an advocate for the merger, she went on to say that Comcast is committed to investing in NBCU to support and enhance both the quality and the quantity of NBCU's content for consumers to enjoy.

Next was Kang; he was very caustic in his remarks about the merger in general and Comcast in particular. He stated that consumers will be harmed by a merger that creates a media Goliath with too much market control. "If Comcast's acquisition of NBC is approved, the transaction will create a behemoth that would control content production and content distribution at an unprecedented level." He followed up citing facts, dates, figures and statistics. After he was through, the audience applauded.

By contrast Liggins welcomed the merger and stated, "There are some critics of the Comcast/NBCU deal who argue that 'big is bad' and insist that this combination cannot possibly be good for those concerned about diversity or competition in media." He blasted the notion that his company is not 'minority owned' because of his ratio of ownership, and compared it with the ownership ratios of Fox, Viacom and Microsoft. Ending with, "Based upon my eight-year relationship with Comcast, I can offer a personal testament to Comcast's commitment to TV diversity."

It seemed like a seesaw--one for and one against. The next speaker, NCAAOM's Stan Washington, blasted the merger as inherently bad for African Americans saying, "African Americans are not interested in living on a Comcast plantation." His statement included, "African Americans media owners are deeply concerned about the proposed merger of Comcast and NBC Universal because this critical merger threatens to entrench the status-quo that keeps African Americans owned cable networks from being able to secure distribution to the Comcast platform. The lack of African American owned media companies in broadcast and cable networks in the U.S., simply put by an FCC commissioner, 'is a national disgrace.'"

According to Griffin: "Comcast has the best infrastructure of inclusion to build upon in the media industry." He likened the corporate family structure to the Thomas Jefferson/Sally Hemming affair, "If it's in your DNA, you might as well embrace it."

Many of the remaining speakers including Hammond and Hunt gave data and statistics from their academic research. The final speaker, Suzanne de Passe was the only music executive and film producer present and she stated in some ways, "we've gone backwards." Recalling a comment about her western mini television series, 'Lonesome Dove,' one critic said of her, "What is a Black woman doing producing a western."

After all the speakers were through, Rep. Waters focused on the issue of diversity in the present NBC shows on TV. In addition to Madison whom she questioned directly, there were two other NBC associates there, and together they responded to some of Waters' poignant questioning.

The direction of the questions were the numbers of producers and regulars on various television shows in a effort to highlight that if diversity is lacking in the present, it would probably escalate in the future. Waters also called on de Passe to buttress her case against some of NBC's diversity in programming and minority participation in decision-making positions.

Then a parallel was drawn from the recent massive corporations that were too big to fail and the government had to step in to bail them out. When placed against that backdrop, the pending Comcast-NBCU merger becomes economically frightening notwithstanding the other concerns, dispelling the notion: 'bigger is not always better.'

The Sentinel reached out to Madison to be able to understand more clearly her position as the spokesperson for Comcast-NBCU merger. "The brief issue surrounding the merger has to include the concern about diversity and that is ranging from not just the NBC Universal and Comcast team, but I think that we are seeing that played out as far as Congress is concern, because the questions around diversity in this industry, in this entire profession has been a big concern for many years now," she said.

"What we're trying to address is not something specific just about our companies but it's specific about the entertainment industry. And what we put on the table as our commitment begins to make a dent in a long-standing legacy in this industry," she continued, "I don't think you can find any other company that has put more commitments on the table that would advance diversity in the entertainment industry than NBC Universal and Comcast."

In reference to Rep. Waters intense questioning about lack of diversity in programming, Madison responded, "What you saw was the Congresswoman was going through a list of shows that we had just announced in our Fall lineup. What I learned yesterday is that one of the shows that she asked specifically about, we are still staffing those shows; this is a process that is presently in flux."

About the absence of Comcast at the hearing, Madison stated that in February, the chairman of Comcast, Brian Roberts, and the CEO of NBC, spent five hours testifying before the full committee. "At that time there were a wide range of questions that was put to them by many members of the full committee. The questions, as far as we were concerned, had largely to do with diversity and with the process of developing our shows."

Finally, in regards to advertising with the African American media and companies, Madison said that Comcast-NBCU consider that a part of its commitment to improving its overall position on diversity.

Rep. Waters and 68 of her colleagues asked the FCC to conduct public hearings around the country on the merger. The FCC recently announced that it will conduct a public meeting in Chicago in July. Congresswoman Waters considers this a promising start to what she hopes will become a series of public hearings, for which FCC Commissioners Mignon Clyburn and Michael Copps have expressed support.

"The field hearing was important, and the testimony was informative, but many questions still must be answered, especially by Comcast, which chose not to testify," said Rep. Waters. "That is why additional Congressional and formal FCC public hearings in D.C. and around the country are imperative: American consumers need to have all their questions answered as we prepare for one of the largest media mergers in this country's history. I want to thank Chairman Conyers for holding this hearing in Los Angeles, and also to thank my colleagues and the panelists for their participation as well. More events like this are necessary so that we all understand the merger's impact on diversity and consumer costs."

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BET's Original Co-Founder Sheila Johnson Is Not A Happy Camper When It Comes To The Viacom-Owned Black Cable Channel!

Former Black Entertainment Television co-founder Sheila "I'm a Billionaire Too" Johnson talks about her disappointment over the state of BET while promoting her new global organization, I am powerful.
Check it out:

Debra Lee's Abode Gets Over 500 Uninvited Guests: Guards, Please Remove Those BET Ghetto Haters Off My Lawn!

The stately D.C. pad of Debra Lee, Black Entertainment Television's chief executive, got a few house calls yesterday afternoon and no, it's wasn't Girl Scouts selling cookies.
Over 500 people, demanding that BET stop airing what they call demeaning and offensive portrayals of African Americans, decided to throw a block party. Lee, however, chose to get her groove on elsewhere.

Members of the Enough Is Enough Campaign said they will return every weekend until the cable network addresses their grievances. Their present objective is to get corporations to divest from popular culture that portrays black men as "pimps" and "gangsters" and sexually objectifies black women.

A sistah herself, you know Lee was truly outdone! While not making any concessions, she did state in a letter that BET plans to launch 16 "balanced" shows by year's end.

According to the Washington Post, joining protesters from Mount Ennon yesterday were members of the National Organization for Women, the Feminist Majority Foundation, the head of the National Congress of Black Women and Maryland Del. Justin D. Ross (D-Prince George's).I

Although BET was founded by now Black billionaire Robert Johnson some 27 years ago, the cable network is presently owned by Viacom and has many incensed that there concerns are falling on deaf ears. We applaud the proactive steps being taken. The goal, however, is for those organizing protesters to now offer counter-programming that is viable, entertaining and profitable.

If that doesn't happen, then this was just a waste of time.

So family, what's the plan???