Category Archives: news

A Glimpse Of The Futu—er, Present? :)

Posted on by drumsintheglobalvillage

A couple of months or so ago, my friend and comrade Jared Ball and I wrote about the need for a “B-SPAN”—a Black C-SPAN that would serve the people’s needs.

So I was more than slightly intrigued when I found the following in my email box this morning:

Wi-Fi TV Launches Black and African-American Internet TV and Chat as Digital Divide Closes

Wi-Fi TV Leads the Way in Bringing Black Themes to the Changing Face of Television and Millions of Black Internet Users

NEWPORT BEACH, CA — (MARKET WIRE) — August 23, 2006 — Wi-Fi TV Inc. (PINKSHEETS: WTVN) today became the first Internet TV provider in the world to create channel categories for Black and African American TV channels and live chat.

“As live interactive TV comes to Internet enabled PCs, laptops, cellular phones and mobile devices, and the nature of TV itself is re-invented, Wi-Fi TV will work to make the growing economic power, compelling history and great cultural richness of African-Americans a vital part of the mix,” said Alex Kanakaris, Chairman of Wi-Fi TV Inc.

Wi-Fi TV (www.Wi-FiTV.com) will provide extensive links to the Wi-Fi TV Black and African-American channel pages from throughout its live interactive TV web site, and will place channels and content pertaining to Black themes in many different Wi-Fi TV categories, including Education, Entertainment, Politics, News, Music and History.

“Wi-Fi TV is taking the lead in bringing African American live TV content to the Internet, in connecting Internet TV with African Americans and in providing education, culture and entertainment for an African American audience,” said Mr. Kanakaris. “We are actively selling Wi-Fi TV Channels to the African American community and are truly excited about the kind of content we will be able to provide that old fashioned analog TV never will,” he added.

According to the New York Times (March 31, 2006, article by Michael Marriott) the “Digital Divide” is closing as Blacks turn to the Internet. “African-Americans are steadily gaining access to and ease with the Internet, signaling a remarkable closing of the ‘digital divide’ that many experts had worried would be a crippling disadvantage in achieving success,” the newspaper reported.

According to the New York Times:

— African-Americans, even those at the lower end of the economic scale,
are making significant gains in online adoption.
— Organizations that serve African-Americans are turning to the Internet
to reach out to them.
— The sharpest growth is among young people but African-Americans of
various ages are increasing usage as well.

According to a Pew national survey of people 18 and older, completed in February 2006, 74 percent of whites go online, 61 percent of African-Americans do and 80 percent of English-speaking Hispanic-Americans report using the Internet.

In a similar Pew survey in 1998, just 42 percent of white American adults said they used the Internet while only 23 percent of African-American adults did so. Forty percent of English-speaking Hispanic-Americans said they used the Internet at that time.

About Wi-Fi TV, Inc.

Wi-Fi TV can be seen over the Internet in the United States, Latin America and globally. 300 channels of live TV programming, Country and Category specific breaking news and free voice over IP phone calls are available at www.Wi-FiTV.com.

Wi-Fi TV viewers from 130 countries around the world are tracked on the home page (www.Wi-FiTV.com) by the independent NeoTracker. Wi-Fi TV, Inc. has opened a new content and technology demo room for the press in Newport Beach, California. For further information contact Colby Marceau, (949) 716-9397, info@wi-fitv.com.

Hope You're Reading……….

Posted on by drumsintheglobalvillage

…………….BlackAmericaWeb‘s five-part series on Katrina, One Year Later.

While you’re there, check out BAW’s article on the current state of Black television.

I’m beginning to no longer remember a time in which we didn’t have immediately accessible, national Black-generated print reporting. It’s a good feeling for this Black media historian and AFRO and NNPA News Service alum. 🙂

Katrina Appointment Television

Posted on by drumsintheglobalvillage

And then the waters came. They clearly haven’t left our psyches yet—and they shouldn’t.

Anyway, Richard Prince has, as usual, done a great public service. The “Journal-isms” columnist compiled this list of Katrina network and cable coverage. The electronic onslaught starts tomorrow or so.

(Also, if you missed Spike’s documentary, the entire thing—both parts, all four acts—will air on HBO again Tuesday night.) For those with satellite or digital cable, here’s the full schedule on where and when it’ll air on HBO’s “family” of channels AFTER Tuesday.

I Miss Being That Optimistic……

Posted on by drumsintheglobalvillage

……..but the more and more I read our history in 2006, the more and more I understand that the present in which we are living is extraordinarily different, on many levels, from our collective past, if you start that particular clock with Reconstruction and break it in the aftershock of the tragedy at the Lorraine Hotel. The many changes of our current world make the possibility a Movement—as we have known the term—well, highly improbable.

I know—I’m Master Of The Obvious. 🙂 Anyway, check this out.

By the way, I attended the first one, and wrote a little sump’in that I thought needed to be said at the time.

The *NEW* Syndicated BET: The "E" Stands For "Enterprise"

Posted on by drumsintheglobalvillage

So Black Enterprise finally has made the leap into Tee Vee. (I’m sure someone at Essence with a long memory is going, “So what? We had a nationally syndicated show years ago.”) ‘Member it? Nope? Okay, moving on, then…….. 🙂

Buying “America’s Black Forum” and re-shaping it can only been seen as a good thing. The program’s only claim to fame in its years on broadcast life-support was that it was a national mainstream platform for Armstrong Williams and Niger Innis to parry their conservative views with crusading—and graying—Black liberals Julian Bond and Deborah Mathis. *YAWN*. It’ll be interesting to see if Ed Gordon and Co. will create something that will have a purpose beyond being an early-morning FCC requirement.

Peter's Farewell Deals With Blacks And AIDS

Posted on by drumsintheglobalvillage

Damn, I miss Peter Jennings. He helmed what was then the only (relatively-free) bullshit-free newscast. I still watch what’s now called “World News With Charles Gibson” still out of loyalty. We’ll see how long this loyalty lasts when I get the option of checking out kick-ass Katie (sans those extraordinary legs :)) on CBS at the same Bat-time.

Peter’s last project, which ABC finished up for him, is a prime-time “special” (the dreaded “D” word was banished from network news divisions a LONG TIME AGO) on African-Americans and AIDS. It’s scheduled to air on Thursday at 10 p.m. Those of us who constantly complain about how the white boys of the internationally-known alphabet either don’t cover our issues, or mis-cover them when they do, should be by their Tee Vees or Tee-Vos.

The Return Of Black Power Radio In NYC?

Posted on by drumsintheglobalvillage

The New York Amsterdam News has reported that WLIB, the flagship station of white-liberal talker Air America, may go back to its Black news-talks roots, via being a New York affiliate for Syndication One. I hope this is true. WLIB was once the information-clearinghouse for Black activists in New York City, and I’d like to see that reality return in whatever form. I miss the radio that was a mainstay of my growing up years.

Saying It's A Satire Makes Sexism Okay? (UPDATE)

Posted on by drumsintheglobalvillage

Here’s the statement from Lisa Fager of Industry Ears.

Viacom’s MTV continues to justify the exploitation of African American women by hiding behind words like “satire” and “parody”.  The animated portrayal of two African American women scurrying on all fours with leashes around their necks, defecating on a pet shop floor goes far beyond the pale of acceptability.  It is not art; it is an assault.  The justification given by stating that one of the animated dogs points out his disgust by saying, “I find this a bit degrading and I’m a dog” does not eliminate the harm.Actually, the point is countered by the other dog who states, “Are you joking?  What’s cooler than a two-legger who treats other two-leggers like four-leggers?”  This statement emphasizes and reinforces – as tolerable behavior – the treatment of black women as dogs.

The fact that Viacom’s MTV chose to air this program on Saturday afternoons just in time for children to tune in after their morning dose of cartoons, demonstrates their complete disregard for the impact these images have on furthering both racist and misogynistic attitudes.  “Where My Dogs At?” is symptomatic of what appears to be a programming strategy that is aimed at attracting an audience by portraying African American women and communities in the most degrading, confrontational manner imaginable. These images are harmful in our society and promote the racist stereotypes of black women as nothing better than dogs.  The impact on children and young people is even more relevant because internalization of these images can inhibit the development of a healthy self-concept.  It is indeed our right and our duty to teach our children that such negative depictions are not acceptable. There is no place in our society for images that repeatedly and continually cast African Americans in images that are reminiscent of the darkest hours of this nation’s past.

We call on responsible corporate citizens to condemn the airing of this program and any program that propagates harmful, racist stereotypes and misogynistic images.  We think this is wrong and we respectfully ask the President of MTV, Christina Norman, as well as other Viacom executives to
rethink the manner in which they depict African Americans and women.  We urge all concerned individuals and organizations to email Christina Norman ( Christina.Norman@mtv.com ) and their local cable providers to demand the removal of “Where My Dogs At?” and any other program that exploits African Americans and women. 

About Industry Ears

Established in 2004, Industry Ears (IE) is a new generation think-tank focused on media’s impact on children and communities of color. IE is dedicated to addressing and finding solutions to negative and harmful content through media education, research, advocacy, public policy and continuous dialogue with industry stakeholders.

Saying It's A Satire Makes Sexism Okay?

Posted on by drumsintheglobalvillage

I’m going to try to get Lisa Fager’s full statement on this, so stay tuned. 

MTV2 faces decisions on ‘degrading’ cartoon
Episode of ‘Where My Dogs At?’ showed black women leashed, on all fours 

MSNBC News Services

Updated: 12:19 a.m. ET Aug 10, 2006

The MTV2 network said it had not decided whether it will ever again air a cartoon criticized as offensive for depicting women being led around on leashes.

It’s also not certain whether the series, “Where My Dogs At?” will come back for a second season, spokesman Jeff Castaneda said Wednesday. Its first season ended during the last week of July.

One episode, aired in the early afternoon, featured an appearance by a cartoon Snoop Dogg accompanied by two women in neck collars and chains. MTV2 said the episode was a satire of an actual Snoop appearance where women were in collars and chains.

“We certainly do not condone Snoop’s actions and the goal was to take aim at that incident for its insensitivity and outrageousness,” Castaneda said. “Even one of the dogs, a main character on the show, states, ‘I find that degrading and I am a dog.”’

The cartoon has drawn fire from several prominent African Americans who call the episode degrading.

Critics say MTV2 showed especially poor judgment because the weekly animated program, “Where My Dogs At?”, appeals to young teens and airs at an hour, 12:30 p.m. on Saturdays, when many children are watching television.

The half-hour show lampoons real-life celebrities and pop culture as seen through the eyes of two wise-cracking stray dogs — Woofie and Buddy — voiced by comedians Tracy Morgan and Jeffrey Ross, respectively.

A statement released this week by the Viacom Inc.-owned cable network, whose president, Christina Norman, is black, defended the episode in question as social satire.

In it, a look-alike of rap star Snoop Dogg strolls into a pet shop with two bikini-clad black women on leashes. They hunch over on all fours and scratch themselves as he orders one of them to “hand me my latte.” At the end of the segment, the Snoopathon Dogg Esquire character dons a rubber glove to clean up excrement left on the floor by one of the women.

MTV2 said the “Woofie Loves Snoop” episode first aired on July 1.

Several prominent blacks, including New York Daily News columnist Stanley Crouch, condemned the segment as misogynist, racist and crude, and they questioned the sincerity of MTV’s contention that it was satirizing the outlandish behavior of a real-life rapper.

“Where’s the context in that?” said Lisa Fager, president and co-founder of Industry Ears, a consortium of broadcast industry professionals who monitor and critique media content.

Crouch suggested in a column this week that the “Where My Dogs At?” segment was an extension of dehumanizing images contained in gangsta rap videos aired by MTV and projected ”around the world as ’real’ black culture.”

Payne Brown, a high-ranking executive at cable giant Comcast Corp., said he lodged a personal complaint in an e-mail to Norman but found her response, essentially the same as the network’s press statement, to be “unsatisfying.”

“Clearly, it goes far beyond the pale of anything that remotely could be considered acceptable,” he said of the episode, stressing that he was not speaking for Comcast. “This is just me as an African-American father, husband and son.”

The first season of the show, which carries a rating advising that parents may find its material unsuitable for children under age 14, drew a cumulative audience of 17.2 million viewers, according to Nielsen Media Research.

Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.