The Black Press Wakes Up With Barack Obama's Election But Still Does A Half-Assed Job Of Covering The News
This is an interesting article on the day late and a dollar short awakening of the mainstream black press to politics since Barack Obama was elected President. Apparently, all the black press is falling all over themselves to get prepared for covering Obama's presidency. While I applaud the efforts they are currently making, the black press corps of Essence, Jet, Ebony, The Tavis Smiley Show, BET, TV ONE, Black talk radio shows and others could and should be doing so much more.
The black press corp should not have needed the election of a black President to inspire them to cover White House politics or political issues that had a direct affect on Black America. This was a job that they should have been doing all along. The black mainstream press has spent years doing nothing but covering the superficial about black folks instead of digging into depths of black folks lives. They sold the glitz and gloss of black folks lives and the majority of us bought it, hook, line, and sinker.
All of these groups with the exception of Tavis Smiley have failed to ask any tough questions about Obama's election, his policies, or any current sitting black politicians for that matter. Even Tavis Smiley tucked tail and ran when black folks objected to his questioning of Barack Obama. Real journalists don't quit because their audience gets pissed at the questions they raise, that's a journalist's job, to piss folks off. Instead of challenging black folks to deal with conflicting opinions and criticisms, Smiley just reinforced that concept that all black folks must think alike and agree.
All of these groups have failed to truly embrace or promote black bloggers unless they could pimp black bloggers for their own reasons that had little to do with sharing political news with the black community. When black bloggers who are non-journalists are waxing the ass of the professional black media in terms of social, cultural, and political commentary and criticism, it's time to start asking some serious questions about your effectiveness.
Can anyone recall one black mainstream press agency asking for former Representative William "90 grand in my freezer" Jefferson to resign? The mainstream white press sure did. Did anyone recall one black mainstream press agency making suggestions or speculations about black folks who should or could have filled positions in Barack Obama's cabinet? The mainstream white press sure asked about white folks for cabinet positions.
What black person does not remember seeing the horrific pictures of Emmet Till in Jet magazine? What happened to the days when the black press used to BREAK the news? Black folks have fallen into the habit of being behind the curve instead of working to get ahead of it. It's great that these groups are going to do White House coverage, but instead of having years of experience they should have already had, they will be learning on the job.
And this situation is also on the black community. We should be expecting and demanding more from the black mainstream press. It's high time regular black folks stop being so damn lazy and disinterested. White folks read their trash (TMZ, Perez Hilton, People, Star), but they also EQUALLY keep up with the hardcore news (The New York Times, The Nation, Huffington Post, The Wall St. Journal). Black folks need to decide, because when times get really hard next year, do you want to read and hear about real solutions for real people or do you what to read and hear about the next Tyler Perry movie you won't be able to afford to go see!
