Behind Closed Doors: Have Black Journalists Become Casualties Of The Information War?
Corporate control of the media has become a problem of great import as of late – especially in the wake of the recent terrorist activity on American shores. Reactionary members of the Bush administration – i.e., Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz, his boss, Donald H. Rumsfeld, and Vice President Richard Cheney - have taken a page from the Gulf War by effectively closing out the mainstream media in general and black press in particular. These men especially have always held extreme right wing views and seem to be the ideological brain swell of the Bush presidency; driving many of the excessive, some would argue, fascistic policies of this administration.
Former DEA special agent Mike Levin, host and executive producer of The Expert Witness Show, which airs on NYC’s WBAI FM 99.5 every Tuesday evening at 7:00 PM, has had former high-ranking CIA officials on his show.
These men have boasted on air how they have conscripted the fourth estate. All of this information comes straight from the mouths of these former government officials and is archived for review on Levine’s web site at http://www.radio4all.org/expert/program.html. Reporters requesting information from Pentagon, State or Justice sources are often given sanitized releases prepared entirely by the press offices of those agencies. These releases are printed or aired virtually unexpurgated by the media.
Most of the recent legislation advanced by the Bush administration under the guise of promoting national security or stimulating the economy would never past the smell test in peacetime.
However, these demagogues have succeeded in scaring the wits out of an already frightened American public. The proposed (15) fifteen year, retroactive tax break to corporations; a ($200,000,000) two hundred billion dollar contract to Lockheed Martin; a national identity card; an Anti-Terrorism bill with legislation to suspend the constitutional rights of those who run afoul of its draconian provisions. All of these initiatives will have definite negative, long-term ramifications for not only the black community but also every dark skinned immigrant in the United States.
Nevertheless, except for a few African American conservatives, or Negro apologists depending on which side of the PC equation one stands, spinning the Bush administration’s version of this information for major media outlets, there has not been any of the deep, insightful analysis one would expect from minority journalists. It is as though black reporters have not been able to effectively access the breaking news conferences where this high profile information is being released.
Wayne Gillman, News Director, of New York City’s Inner City Broadcasting, which operates the popular Urban Adult Contemporary radio stations 107.5 FM WBLS and equally well regarded Caribbean oriented 1190 AM WLIB relies almost exclusively on the associated press [AP] for news releases.
The accuracy of his reporting has gotten so bad that during last week’s Sharp Talk Show, the Reverend Al Sharpton’s segment which airs regularly at 6:00 PM to 8:00 PM on 1190 AM WLIB, Alton Maddox, Sharpton’s co-host, had to clarify misinformation being written by the very wire new service in question relative to an alleged $37,000 payment that Maddox supposedly had made to Steven Pagones.
Pagones was a former Westchester County assistant district attorney who Maddox, C. Vernon Mason, and Al Sharpton had implicated the infamous Tawana Brawley abduction and rape. Pagones brought a defamation suit against all three activists and prevailed. Although Mason and Sharpton had in fact paid their portion of the judgment, Maddox has refused to pay any part of his.
Last week, however, Maddox was ordered by a White Plains court to show up with what he claimed was only a bond. On another show, Politics Live which is hosted by Mark Riley, that aired the very next day on 1190 AM WLIB, Alton Maddox explained to Riley that he in fact did not offer the $37,000 in settlement of the outstanding judgment against him but that the money was indeed to pay a contempt bond to prevent from going to jail. An embarrassed Wayne Gillman who had reported exactly what AP wrote rushed back on air in the middle of Riley’s show to apologize to an angry Maddox.
This situation was probably a combination of Gillman’s own slovenly reporting, and his inability to get to timely, primary source material for on-air reports. Nevertheless, this type of problem is one that has its genesis in an administration that has succeeded in all but suspending the Bill of Rights; the constitutional protection that affords us freedom of speech.
Ironically, another proposal being bandied about is a blatantly unconstitutional bar to the release of information that the executive branch unilaterally deems not in the interest of the public domain. It is an outrageous proposition that has gone under the wire with nary a critical analysis by the mainstream more or less the black press.
The argument being made by many black media owners, however, is that the black community does not support their service. The demise of the very well written Emerge magazine that had been headed up by George Curry is a case in point.
Consequently, black owned radio, print and TV companies are forced to make economic decisions that often adversely impact or at the least severely compromise their news gathering functions. With deeply discounted inventories, they are unable to sustain the first class operations of a Reuters, UPI, Bloomberg, or AP.
Moreover, the national press corp is practically devoid of dark skinned reporters. The ones who are allowed in are rounded ignored when they attempt to ask the tough questions that the President or his press secretary would rather not answer.
The corporate welfare package that the Bush administration is currently touting will cost the country close to $1,000,000,000,000 (one trillion dollars) in the form of reduced entitlements, student aid, and higher consumption taxes. The $200,000,000 (two hundred billion dollar) contract to Lockheed Martin will be paid for with monies that were earmarked for extended unemployment benefits to workers adversely impacted by the fallout from both the WTC and Pentagon disasters, respectively. The Anti-Terrorism bill speaks for itself.
The black press has allowed itself to be closed out of the most historically significant period in modern American times. The war effort and resulting legislation is something that directly and negatively impacts black America. Broadcasters, reporters, editors and producers ought to be challenging their media corporations or bosses to allow them to get in on the fight because if we lose this one, we stand to lose over fifty years of hard fought civil and human rights.
Former DEA special agent Mike Levin, host and executive producer of The Expert Witness Show, which airs on NYC’s WBAI FM 99.5 every Tuesday evening at 7:00 PM, has had former high-ranking CIA officials on his show.
These men have boasted on air how they have conscripted the fourth estate. All of this information comes straight from the mouths of these former government officials and is archived for review on Levine’s web site at http://www.radio4all.org/expert/program.html. Reporters requesting information from Pentagon, State or Justice sources are often given sanitized releases prepared entirely by the press offices of those agencies. These releases are printed or aired virtually unexpurgated by the media.
Most of the recent legislation advanced by the Bush administration under the guise of promoting national security or stimulating the economy would never past the smell test in peacetime.
However, these demagogues have succeeded in scaring the wits out of an already frightened American public. The proposed (15) fifteen year, retroactive tax break to corporations; a ($200,000,000) two hundred billion dollar contract to Lockheed Martin; a national identity card; an Anti-Terrorism bill with legislation to suspend the constitutional rights of those who run afoul of its draconian provisions. All of these initiatives will have definite negative, long-term ramifications for not only the black community but also every dark skinned immigrant in the United States.
Nevertheless, except for a few African American conservatives, or Negro apologists depending on which side of the PC equation one stands, spinning the Bush administration’s version of this information for major media outlets, there has not been any of the deep, insightful analysis one would expect from minority journalists. It is as though black reporters have not been able to effectively access the breaking news conferences where this high profile information is being released.
Wayne Gillman, News Director, of New York City’s Inner City Broadcasting, which operates the popular Urban Adult Contemporary radio stations 107.5 FM WBLS and equally well regarded Caribbean oriented 1190 AM WLIB relies almost exclusively on the associated press [AP] for news releases.
The accuracy of his reporting has gotten so bad that during last week’s Sharp Talk Show, the Reverend Al Sharpton’s segment which airs regularly at 6:00 PM to 8:00 PM on 1190 AM WLIB, Alton Maddox, Sharpton’s co-host, had to clarify misinformation being written by the very wire new service in question relative to an alleged $37,000 payment that Maddox supposedly had made to Steven Pagones.
Pagones was a former Westchester County assistant district attorney who Maddox, C. Vernon Mason, and Al Sharpton had implicated the infamous Tawana Brawley abduction and rape. Pagones brought a defamation suit against all three activists and prevailed. Although Mason and Sharpton had in fact paid their portion of the judgment, Maddox has refused to pay any part of his.
Last week, however, Maddox was ordered by a White Plains court to show up with what he claimed was only a bond. On another show, Politics Live which is hosted by Mark Riley, that aired the very next day on 1190 AM WLIB, Alton Maddox explained to Riley that he in fact did not offer the $37,000 in settlement of the outstanding judgment against him but that the money was indeed to pay a contempt bond to prevent from going to jail. An embarrassed Wayne Gillman who had reported exactly what AP wrote rushed back on air in the middle of Riley’s show to apologize to an angry Maddox.
This situation was probably a combination of Gillman’s own slovenly reporting, and his inability to get to timely, primary source material for on-air reports. Nevertheless, this type of problem is one that has its genesis in an administration that has succeeded in all but suspending the Bill of Rights; the constitutional protection that affords us freedom of speech.
Ironically, another proposal being bandied about is a blatantly unconstitutional bar to the release of information that the executive branch unilaterally deems not in the interest of the public domain. It is an outrageous proposition that has gone under the wire with nary a critical analysis by the mainstream more or less the black press.
The argument being made by many black media owners, however, is that the black community does not support their service. The demise of the very well written Emerge magazine that had been headed up by George Curry is a case in point.
Consequently, black owned radio, print and TV companies are forced to make economic decisions that often adversely impact or at the least severely compromise their news gathering functions. With deeply discounted inventories, they are unable to sustain the first class operations of a Reuters, UPI, Bloomberg, or AP.
Moreover, the national press corp is practically devoid of dark skinned reporters. The ones who are allowed in are rounded ignored when they attempt to ask the tough questions that the President or his press secretary would rather not answer.
The corporate welfare package that the Bush administration is currently touting will cost the country close to $1,000,000,000,000 (one trillion dollars) in the form of reduced entitlements, student aid, and higher consumption taxes. The $200,000,000 (two hundred billion dollar) contract to Lockheed Martin will be paid for with monies that were earmarked for extended unemployment benefits to workers adversely impacted by the fallout from both the WTC and Pentagon disasters, respectively. The Anti-Terrorism bill speaks for itself.
The black press has allowed itself to be closed out of the most historically significant period in modern American times. The war effort and resulting legislation is something that directly and negatively impacts black America. Broadcasters, reporters, editors and producers ought to be challenging their media corporations or bosses to allow them to get in on the fight because if we lose this one, we stand to lose over fifty years of hard fought civil and human rights.
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