The Black news space has become a hellscape

With the dearth of Black newsmagazines that flourished in the '70s, there are virtually none left standing. And the Black new space has become a hellscape with the current cast of characters tantamount to allowing the inmates to run the asylum. I grew up watching Tony Brown, John Johnson, Melba Tolliver, Gil Noble, and Bill McCreary; listening to Wayne Gillman and Gary Byrd on Black-owned radio; reading Sepia, Jet, and Ebony magazines, which were a mainstay on the cocktail tables of every Black household. I was filled with pride to see well-groomed, well-read, and well-prepared hosts, reporters, and producers deliver content in solemn, measured tones devoid of amateurishness that characterizes two particularly reprehensible hosts, which spanned the Black experience. Those days are long gone. Now we are left with a seventy-year-old guy who looks like a babble head that crucifies the English language day in and day out unscripted on a syndicated radio show that he allows his "frequent flyers" to filibuster with misinformation that he often has to correct; and a disheveled fifty-something-year-old, obese, profane, overbearing, rude and opinionated windbag, whose guests tolerate him only because he has his own digital show; one where when he is not overtalking his guests in an annoying, high-pitched soprano at disco volume to compensate for his lack of resonance, engaging in sophomoric repartee with guests who may be from a rival fraternity, or telling a Black female guest who happens to also be an attorney to "shut the fuck up" during a panel discussion after the Harris-Trump debate. He now wants to be a preacher using his platform to proselytize his Christian faith, which I promptly tuned out. The only other access to Black-oriented talk shows is Sirius satellite radio, which has a few worthy of note like Lurie Daniel Favors, Reecie Colbert to name two. A couple of podcasts like Nativeland Podcast, the Breakfast Club, and others I do not have time to listen to. The early Black newsmagazines shows had corporate sponsorship that dried up after white liberal guilt did as well. So, progressive Black folks are left with the debris and detritus in the persons of people who should not be on the air; people who could not hold a candle to a Bill McCreary; yelling, hollering, screeching, cursing, opining or blabbering but doing little substantive reporting in tight, well-produced segments that chronicle issues of substance to the Black community. The practice squad has taken the field. And we have no one to blame but ourselves because we do not support Black media.