Four Years Later, CBS' "60 Minutes" Discovers The "Stop Snitching" Movement…….

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…………coincidentally enough, a week after airing a report on the I-Mess.

As usual, hiphop was blamed for Everything That Has Gone Wrong With Black People. Although at least there was some acknowledgement last night that money talks, and that the rappers are just doing their part to make it (for the white corporations).

Checking out tonight’s story, I heard no more than two sentences and one sound-bite about police-Black community relations. Not only was the shrift short, that history wasn’t even acknowledged by “60 Minutes”‘ Special Correspondent Anderson Cooper until two-thirds into the story—after the socio-racial pathology had already been established. Oooh-kay.

I’m not offering any excuses for anyone. It’s better to just provide info. So here’s a longer history.

APRIL 27th UPDATE: From EUR:

CAM’RON CLARIFIES  ’60 MINUTES’ COMMENTS: Rapper hires PR firm to deal with backlash following Sunday’s telecast

Rapper Cam’ron has drawn a barrage of criticism and outrage over comments he made during last Sunday’s “60 Minutes” segment on “snitching.”

During the show, the artist said that his street credibility, and ultimately album sales, would suffer if he were to ever cooperate with police in bringing criminals to justice.  He told correspondent Anderson Cooper that he wouldn’t even alert cops if he knew a serial killer had moved next door.

“I wouldn’t call and tell anybody on him—but I’d probably move … but I’m not going to call and be like, ‘The serial killer’s in 4E,'” Cam told Cooper.

According to Allhiphop.com, Cam’ron hired publicity firm 5W Public Relations to help deal with the backlash caused by his controversial comments on the news program. He told the Web site in a statement:  “In 2005, I was a victim of a violent crime. I was shot multiple times without provocation by two armed men who attempted to carjack my vehicle. Although I was a crime victim, I didn’t feel like I could cooperate with the police investigation.”

“Where I come from, once word gets out that you’ve cooperated with the police that only makes you a bigger target of criminal violence,” Cam’ron explained. “That is a dark reality in so many neighborhoods like mine across America. I’m not saying it’s right, but it’s reality. And it’s not unfounded. There’s a harsh reality around violence and criminal justice in our inner cities.”
     
Despite this reality, Cam’ron adds: “My experience in no way justifies what I said” on 60 Minutes. “Looking back now, I can see how those comments could be viewed as offensive, especially to those who have suffered their own personal tragedies or to those who put their lives on the line to protect our citizens from crime.
     
“Please understand that I was expressing my own personal frustration at my own personal circumstances. I in no way was intending to be malicious or harmful. I apologize deeply for this error in judgment.”

WTF?? No More "Eye On Washington?"

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C’mon, WUSA. This was the only news-roundup show hosted by a brother—one who happens to be one of the best live broadcasters in the business.

I will miss this program. Seriously. It was, on average, more lively than “Washington Week” but more cerebral than, say, “The McLaughin Group.” Meaning it was, well, almost perfect as these shows go.

Even worse, it’s being replaced by “ET.”

With apologies to Charlie Brown, *SIGH.*

This Voice of Morpheus……….

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……will be the voice of the Silver Surfer in this summer’s live-action flick “Fantastic Four: Rise Of The Sliver Surfer.” 

EXCELLENT CHOICE!

(I really hope this movie will go down as the greatest sequel of all time.  🙂 )

In response to this news, a poster on the Fantastic Four Message Board said James Earl Jones should be the voice of Galactus. A better choice could not be made.

"The Agronomist" Is On IFC This Month

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So now you’ve been told.

Here’s what I wrote two years ago about the film, the man and his murder seven years ago this month.

Radio Journalist’s Ear To, And Voice Of, A People

The Agronomist
Directed By Jonathan Demme.
THINKFilm and HBO/Cinemax Documentary Films.
A Clinica Estetico production.

Reviewed by Todd Steven Burroughs
June 6, 2005

Radio, when used correctly, can get you killed.

It’s the most powerful, most personal medium. Nothing else on planet Earth can reach more oppressed people—the poorest, the illiterate and semi-illiterate—with the same information at one time. It explains and reflects issues, events, and people. It provides company as well as context. At its best, its mixture and manipulation of supplied sound nourishes the spirit and offers hope for a better tomorrow and, perhaps, even eventual liberation.

So Jean Leopold Dominique, a member of Haiti’s light-skinned mulatto elite, was tuned in to this power. He purchased a radio station. In the 1970s, he turned himself onto the potential of expanding democracy through a free medium. (“Radio, then,” says Dominique, “was not a news medium. It was entertainment.”) He found freedom through his frequency. He committed class suicide using his (broadcast) voice to rally for peasant power. His reward: a violent death after being twice exiled from his homeland.

Jonathan Demme, the filmmaker behind “The Silence Of The Lambs” and “Philadelphia,” was, of course, unaware that Dominique was going to be assassinated in April 2000, outside of Radio Haiti Inter’s studios; Demme had begun interviewing Dominique in 1986 for a documentary on the beleaguered island. They hit it off. So, on and off, the duo’s filmed talks continued until 1999.

Those interviews form the spine of “The Agronomist,” a tribute to Dominique’s life, his wife, and Haiti’s potential and constant strife. (The title comes from the profession he abandoned once broadcasting took hold.) Dominique’s widow, Michele Montas, co-owner of Radio Haiti Inter, assists Demme in telling the story of her husband’s powerful existence as a broadcaster and a grassroots political activist.

The film, which comes out on DVD Tuesday, chronicles the constant battle for free speech in a nation of U.S.-supported dictators and, subsequently, democratically elected presidents who allowed others to use dictator tactics on their behalf. (“It’s 7 a.m.,” Dominique broadcasts one morning in the 1990s. “They try everything—to gnaw at us; to bury us; to electrocute us; to drown us; to drain us; it’s been going on for more than 50 years. Is there a reason for it to stop? Yes—one: Things much change in Haiti.”) The same politically inspired censorship that Dominique experienced when he formed a film club in the 1960s dogged him throughout his career at Radio Haiti Inter. He said he did two things that caught too many angry, oppositional ears: broadcasting in Kreyol (Creole) and providing “in-for-ma-tion”—political commentary and reporting. “Risky business,” Dominique told Demme more than once. Later on in the film, he says directly but not arrogantly: “I know I am attacked because I’m doing my job the way it should be done.”

At first glance, Dominique doesn’t look like a national hero. Pipe ever prominent, physically slight but not frail, he reminded this reviewer of a kind of mulatto Jacques Cousteau. Then he talks, and the energy in his voice takes over. He animates his words with almost comical expressions and with eyes that, when widened to make a point, look ready to pop out of his head. His pronunciation exposes his values (“being TO-GETHER, doing things TO-GETHER”). The fact that he wears his heart, Haiti, on his sleeve is as visible as his wide, big-tooth, grin. His literal smelling of trouble is comical.

Some of Haiti’s best are among those contributing to the story. Wyclef Jean and Jerry “Wonda” Duplessis expertly handle the score, and Edwidge Danticat, the great author, is one of the film’s associate producers.

Victory seems illusionary, particularly viewing “The Agronomist” in the context of today’s headlines. Radio Haiti Inter is no more. As of June 2005, the men charged with Dominique’s murder have either been killed in jail or escaped when Aristide was forced to pack his bags during last year’s coup. The killing’s masterminds are still unknown, and evidence has been lost. Surviving an attempt on her life in Haiti after her husband’s death, Montas now lives and works in America. Nevertheless, the film ends on a triumphal note. A correct choice, since, according to Dominique: “You cannot kill truth; you cannot kill justice; you cannot kill what we are fighting for.”

“Agronomist” Trailer

Copyright © 2004, 2005, 2007 by Todd Steven Burroughs

"Enough" Of Juan Williams

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Juan Williams just said on “FOX News Sunday” that Black America has not had any real campaigns against sexist and mysognistic lyrics. So I yelled at the Tee Vee.

Nothing could be further from the truth. (Has Williams ever gone to a Sharpton speech during the last seven years? Sharpton correctly said on the show that many of their actions against bad hiphop aren’t covered.) But I guess those generalizations allow Williams to continue to be rewarded for his half-truths and half-analysis. 

Williams loves to characterize Jackson and Sharpton as de-facto racial hustlers, but his hustle never changes. He thinks they’re self-appointed. Williams is appointed by White Talking Heads who think that Clarence Page’s dominant miliancy on the Sunday morning talkers needs checking. 🙂

ADDENDUM: Three cheers for Roland S. Martin and his candor on “Reliable Sources.”

Tee Vee "For The People"

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One of the many Afrocentric Listservs that clog my inbox daily provided me with this link, and for that I’m very grateful.

“For The People” was a Black public affairs television show that was unapologetically African-centered. When I first moved to the Washington, D.C. area from the New York tri-state area, I was having serious “Like It Is” withdrawal. Discovering “For The People” on WHUT-TV (then WHMM-TV) was like a surprise gift from Shango.

I miss this program and its host, Listervelt Middleton. Like his guest, Middleton is now an Ancestor.

Imus Epilogue

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Was that an actual flash of anger I saw in Gwen Ifill’s eyes last night? Did I hear a momentary change in tone as she delivered her commentary at the end of PBS’ “Washington Week”?

Well, it’s ABOUT. DAMN. TIME, GWEN.

My great peeve about Black MSM pundits is a simple one. When they criticize whites who diss them every day in one form or another, it’s gotta be “objective” criticism. When they criticize Blacks—especially the now-aging Dashiki Class after the latter calls them Uncle Toms and Aunt Jemimas—they actually return fire like honest-to-gosh opinion writers, not worried at all about offending the targets or those they claim to represent. Guess it’s because the former actually represent REAL power, including the power to get their Black asses canned and rushing to Kinko’s to photocopy their HBCU News Writing syllabi. 🙂

Which is what made Ifill’s slight inflection so interesting. The Mask slipped off a little. Instead of doing what she’s made into an art form—showing the White Boys She Can Play Their Game As Well Or Better, etc.—she actually stepped outside of her smiling Washington insider posture and showed her audience that she was not happy. Not with Imus, and not with her enabling colleagues. She even quoted from her New York Times Op-Ed, which defended the honor of her sisters. Wow…….  🙂

Yeah, Gwen, put ’em on notice: There is no Stork Club anymore! LOL!  And just one more thing: Show that tone again sometime, PLEASE???

(JULY 15 ADDENDUM: Man, she’s called even more people out today on “Meet The Press”, including host Russert! I really hope to see more of this Gwen Ifill in the future.)

Meanwhile, on “Inside Washington,” Newsweek‘s Evan Thomas—who I KNOW got at least one email this past week asking not to appear on Imus’ show—just told the truth: he was on there to sell books, so he ignored all of Imus’ antics. He sounded sad—the way white liberals always do when they are (a)shamed and have to acknowledge white privledge of any amount. Since he defended Imus in the email response he sent back, this remorse just makes him, in this instance, just another Powerful White Boy who’s full of……..

Finally, speaking of white boys, Howard Kurtz is supposed to devote the whole hour of tomorrow’s “Reliable Sources” to the I-Mess. A media critic friend pointed out to me that Kurtz ignored the topic last Sunday. So There Ya Go. 🙂

CODA: As usual, “On The Media” is strong. But I’m not surprised; as a regular listener, I know Brooke and Bob never seem to care who they offend. I guess that shows that either they’re deep in The Club that Mike Wallace talked about with Brooke, or they really don’t care about being celebrity authors or television pundits.

Imus, Part XII: So Now That's It All Over……..

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…….we can all move on. Good to see that Blacks can still organize when they make it a priority.

———————————–

The MSM consensus is that it was female and/or people of color corporate insiders who ulitmately pushed TPTB to push Imus out the door, not protests by Al Sharpton and others. If so, I heartily congratulate the corporate insiders.

I’ve been hard on NABJ for not calling for an advertising boycott. But, credit must be given: NABJ led the way in calling for his ouster.

In fact, Newsweek, in a press release announcing its Imus cover package, gave NABJ mucho activist cred:

Young black journalists were among the first to demand that Imus be ousted. Thursday evening, one day after Imus’s comments, Jemele Hill, an ESPN reporter, posted the Media Matters link on the National Association of Black Journalists’ e-mail list. Greg Lee, a Boston Globe reporter, spotted it right away. “I couldn’t believe Imus would pick on people he had no right to pick on,” he tells Newsweek. Lee forwarded the story to other online forums. In a matter of hours, black journalists in newsrooms across the country were clicking on it, and getting angry. The next day, the NABJ demanded an apology from Imus, then called for him to be fired.

Newsweek reports that after the networks suspended Imus, inside NBC, rank and file employees and reporters were growing impatient with what they considered foot-dragging. NBC Universal CEO Jeff Zucker heard from a subordinate about the growing uproar in NBC News, especially among black journalists, and knew immediately it was “obviously a huge problem and completely unacceptable,” according to two people familiar with his thinking who did not want to be named discussing their boss.

But the higher-ups still didn’t understand just how big a problem they had, until complaints started rolling in from employees all over the company, USA Network and Telemundo, the film group in Hollywood, and NBC-owned-and-operated local stations around the country.

NBC News president Steve Capus called for an extraordinary meeting of African-American employees on Tuesday, April 10. According to people who attended the meeting, but didn’t want to be named discussing internal matters, weatherman Al Roker told Capus, “That could have been my daughter Imus was joking about.” Others piled on. “I’m telling you, Capus got lobbied hard, really hard, and he really took it to heart,” says an NBC News senior producer. “We went out and created diversity in our newsrooms and we empowered employees to say what they think. And they’re telling us. It’s good for us and it’s good for the country.”

In my view, NABJ took a weak stance, since it had no teeth behind it, but it was leading.

Anyway, not too much sour grapes. If the advertising exodus coupled with the employee revolt is how this job got done, then so be it.

(On Sunday’s [April 15th] “Reliable Sources” special on the I-Mess, Ana Marie Cox goes into the Quip Hall of Fame: “It’s wasn’t Al Sharpton that got Imus fired, but Al Roker.”)

I’m just sad, because I believe we could easily get rid of all of the people who attack us daily if we weren’t always worried about playing someone’s else game. But I’m a freelancer, so I get to say that.  🙂