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Talk about embarrassing. And downright insulting. "Lead Story" was a BET news talk show that regularly featured Wickham, columnist Clarence Page and George E. Curry, the former editor-in-chief of Emerge magazine. It was an excellent show, but honchos at BET canceled it anyway.
Then BET bigwigs did the unforgivable: they deep-sixed "BET Nightly News," which aired at 11 p.m. Monday through Friday.
This show gave actual news. There were times when I got good column material from watching "BET Nightly News." And where else could black folks see Congress of Racial Equality spokesman Niger Innis, a supporter of the Bush administration, debating black liberal Democrats?
When Hurricane Katrina hit and we needed a black television network to give us news about what was REALLY going on inside the SuperDome, there was no "BET Nightly News" to tell us. Cameras from a "BET Nightly News" crew might have caught police from suburban New Orleans forcing blacks and a smattering of whites back into the flooded city at gunpoint.
We need a black television network news crew to give us the skinny on the race war Latinos are waging on black inmates in the Los Angeles County jail system. White networks are either ignoring or underplaying the story.
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Ah, but this is by design...this is what happens when 1) (white)Corporate media takes over, and 2) there is no "Fairness Doctrine." It's like what happened in ancient Rome: "Give us bread and circuses." In other words, don't give people anything of substance where they can make informed decisions and judgments about the world. Just keep them entertained. And ignorant.
I mean, all of cable TV "news" is like this. The corporations behind the media ownership daily tell Americans what should be important to them, instead of letting people figure it out for themselves. Which is why it's all Natalee Holloway, all the time. It's also why during Katrina, white people were "finding" food, while black people were "looting." They get to frame everything.
That's why I watch the BBC for news. I learned more about Darfur watching BBC than watching anything else.