Al Sharpton and corporate media

[southlandshari]

I know there are PLENTY of other reasons speakers at the Democratic convention, Sharpton in particular, got short shrift from broadcast "media" pundits this week, but thought some of you might enjoy this exchange from the "Democratic National Candidates Forum" organized by the Rainbow/PUSH Coalition in Chicago last June (6/22/03).

Apparently Sharpton already had some things he wanted to say about corporate ownership of the media, because he requested in advance that the question be posed to the panel.

First link is the question, posed by Phil Ponce (Newshour with Jim Lehr National Correspondant); second link is Sharpton's response:


http://www.lisarein.com/videos/rainbow-push/fccquestion-6-22-03.mov

http://www.lisarein.com/videos/rainbow-push/sharpton-6-22-03-fcc.mov

[southlandshari]

1. And by the way

This was my first visit to this web site, but it has lots and lots of links to political, news and comedy video clips that most at DU would enjoy. Some hard-to-find video links there as well.

http://onlisareinsradar.com/

[rocktop15]

2. Thanks!!!

This website is great. I really appr it.

[southlandshari]

3. I thought it was a good find

Here's a link to all (I guess) the video clips linked to the site by topic:

http://www.lisarein.com/videoindex.html

[LiberalManiacfromOC]

9. great site and great links below

:)

[southlandshari]

4. PLEASE read this article from Common Dreams

I guess everyone is Sharpton-ed out, because no one is replying to the original thread.

For anyone interested, though, here's a very good article from Common Dreams on Sharpton, the media, racism and the urgency of this election. The author, Kimberle Williams Crenshaw, is a law professor at both Columbia and UCLA Law Schools and is a regular commentator on The Tavis Smiley Show.

I really hope some folks read this - I believe this is an incredibly important issue that is not getting the attention it merits, and the results could be disasterous for all of us in the end:

http://www.commondreams.org/views04/0730-12.htm

Excerpt (only two paragraphs, because they are long):

Sharpton Sharpens the Challenge with an Overtime Victory
by Kimberle Williams Crenshaw

Rev. Al Sharpton’s speech electrified the Democratic convention last night, providing a long awaited call to arms to the party’s faithful and a passionate response to President Bush’s suggestion last week that African Americans should rethink their loyalty to the Democratic Party. Sharpton’s rhetorical performance was a chapter torn directly out of the Black Baptist tradition, but predictably, Sharpton’s urgent delivery was mistakenly interpreted as angry and off-key, leaving network pundits apoplectic and verbally scorched. Not only did journalists such as Wolf Blitzer and others perform a questionable disciplinary role in denouncing Sharpton as being “off message” -- CNN’s Jeff Greenfield went further to declare that Sharpton had delivered the most incendiary comment of the entire convention. In reminding delegates about the importance of this election with respect to the battle over the courts, Sharpton mused that in 1954, a Supreme Court filled with the likes of George Bush appointees would not have opened the doors of opportunity for someone like Clarence Thomas to have attended law school.

One wonders whether the umbrage taken at Sharpton’s speculation is simply the product of another messaging script that all political actors must now perform, one that requires a feigned consensus around Brown v. Board, the landmark Supreme Court decision that in reality continues to be the subject of scathing criticism within conservative judicial circles. Stepping out of this script to acknowledge that a frightening number of federal judges remain hostile to this case and to other measures promoting racial equality is apparently a political faux pas. Apparently, politics has now caught up with an emerging social sensibility in which the person who denounces the history of racial exclusion carries a greater stigma that the person who does the excluding.

[Laughing Mirror]

5. Excellent article, Thanks for posting it

Sharpton's message about the erosion of rights was strong and forceful, but too subtle for the press, and so they called it "off message." There were no incendiary comments in his speech, and it is ridiculous for the press to attack the messenger. Thank goodness that at least Kimberle Williams Crenshaw gets it.

[southlandshari]

6. critical issue

thanks for reading and responding - I hate to keep posting to my own thread, but this issue is so much more important than many realize. There are MILLIONS of votes out there for the taking if our party will take the tough step of addressing this issue publicly, loudly and often.

It may not be popular, but it is right, and a risk worth taking.

[southlandshari]

14. NPR Commentary

Apparently Kimberle Williams Crenshaw is working on a commentary for NPR on the issues outlined in her op ed piece (link above) and the responses she's had from people around America; if I find out when it will air, I will post it here.

[no name no slogan]

12. Y'know, I hate to say it, but some white people are real asshats

I just loooove how they're spinning Sharpton into some modern Malcolm X, just because he's pointing out some of the realities of this country. Sure, he's not perfect by any stretch of the imagination, but that does not mean that his opinion is no less valid.

I would have loved to see a Sharpton/Bush or Sharpton/Cheney debate-- he would have kicked their butts!

[Reciprocity]

13. "Y'know, I hate to say it, but some white people are real asshats"

What gets me is the MSNBC air heads tuned away from his speech to trash it. Its one thing to hear a speech to the bloody end THEN give your critique. Its something else to assess something you didn't hear.

[noiretextatique]

17. excellent article...denial is the glue that holds the charade together

and all the feigned offense and admonishment is self-serving bs. as the esteemed author mentioned, rw federal judges are no shy about their opposition to rights for anyone not included orginally...which would be wealthy white men only. the denial is so deep that someone like rhenquist, an unbashed racist, is chief justice of the supreme court. it's sickening.

[southlandshari]

7. and yet another

interesting link - this time to a laughable site that promotes the idea that all big broadcast media is liberal. Story #2 on this page is about how all the "liberal" media "ignored" the "Sharpton rant" except for brave little Katie Couric, who "pressed" the reverand about going "off message".

http://www.mediaresearch.org/cyberalerts/2004/cyb20040729pm.asp#2

I don't know why no one else seems to be interested in this stuff. We can all disconnect our tv's and drop out of the mainstream completely, but we'll be worse off than ever. THIS shit is what the vast majority of Americans view as news. We can preach to the choir or we can bite the bullet and challenge the mainstream.

Sorry for the rant. I am very disheartened at the lack of interest today in the issue of the media's treatment of Sharpton, and even more importantly, of the issues he raised last week.

[Laughing Mirror]

8. Maybe a snappier threadline would get more responses

Sharpton "off message" or something like that.

[shraby]

11. Please read the Plame thread #15

and you'll get an idea of what is going on and why America is where it is right now.

[goclark]

15. Thanks for the rant!

You said what needed to be said about the media.
We can turn off the TV and put our head in the sand or we can see it as our duty to monitor them and fight them tooth and nail.

For example, the huge majority of the public probably thinks that CNN is a quality channel for getting the news. As political junkies we know that it isn't.

I was watching CNN during the convention with my mother.I told her to watch for the digs that they were giving about the speakers. She didn't get it at first. She was not catching on at all.

Then I told her I would put my thumb down every time I heard a truly negative and cutting remark about Kerry etc. After about 19 times of doing it,we tried it together. SHE FINALLY GOT IT.

Now my mother is extremely bright but she was clueless. We see CNN as Nazi but Joe Average viewer does not!

[southlandshari]

16. You made my day!

I grit my teeth whenever I'm watching CNN or network news, but I keep watching.

I don't live in a community of activists where I have the luxury of being with enlightened and intelligent people - or people who share my every view of current events - 24/7. I don't even think I want to live in that kind of vacuum, no matter how frustrating the real world, and real people, can be.

Your comments confirmed that I'm not alone in my efforts to bring common sense to the mainstream, rather than shut out the rest of the world because they haven't "gotten it" yet.

Realistic optimism isn't dead!

[goclark]

19. We need to say it loud!

Your thought provoking thread focused on Al Sharpton but the heart of the issue is that Media is telling lies about all of the Democrats and their message.

Maybe if you did another thread and say something like

CNN is UNBALANCED and UNFAIR

then explain your reason for ranting again. Then I would also ask for ideas/suggestions on how DU can get the word out to Joe Average Citizen,who is clueless right now, to focus on CNN and wear them out!

I'm with your rants all the way! I'm mad as hell and I ain;t gonna take it anymore. I'm not going to turn off my TV. I am going to watch these Media whores like a hound dog.

[Reciprocity]

10. My favorite bits from Sharpton speech.

We did it with a go-it-alone foreign policy based on flawed intelligence. We were told that we were going to Iraq because there were weapons of mass destruction. We've lost hundreds of soldiers. We've spent $200 billion dollars at a time when we had record state deficits. And when it became clear that there were no weapons, they changed the premise for the war and said: No, we went because of other reasons.

If I told you tonight, Let's leave the Fleet Center, we're in danger, and when you get outside, you ask me, Reverend Al, What is the danger? and I say, It don't matter. We just needed some fresh air, I have misled you and we were misled.
--------------
The promise of America provides that those who work in our health care system can afford to be hospitalized in the very beds they clean up every day.
The promise of America is that government does not seek to regulate your behavior in the bedroom, but to guarantee your right to provide food in the kitchen.
--------------
It, to me, is a glaring contradiction that we would fight, and rightfully so, to get the right to vote for the people in the capital of Iraq in Baghdad, but still don't give the federal right to vote for the people in the capital of the United States, in Washington, D.C.
---------------------
Mr. President, as I close, Mr. President, I heard you say Friday that you had questions for voters, particularly African- American voters. And you asked the question: Did the Democratic Party take us for granted? Well, I have raised questions. But let me answer your question.

You said the Republican Party was the party of Lincoln and Frederick Douglass. It is true that Mr. Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation, after which there was a commitment to give 40 acres and a mule.

That's where the argument, to this day, of reparations starts. We never got the 40 acres. We went all the way to Herbert Hoover, and we never got the 40 acres.
We didn't get the mule. So we decided we'd ride this donkey as far as it would take us.
Mr. President, you said would we have more leverage if both parties got our votes, but we didn't come this far playing political games. It was those that earned our vote that got our vote. We got the Civil Rights Act under a Democrat. We got the Voting Rights Act under a Democrat. We got the right to organize under Democrats.

Mr. President, the reason we are fighting so hard, the reason we took Florida so seriously, is our right to vote wasn't gained because of our age. Our vote was soaked in the blood of martyrs, soaked in the blood of good men (inaudible) soaked in the blood of four little girls in Birmingham. This vote is sacred to us.

This vote can't be bargained away.
This vote can't be given away.
Mr. President, in all due respect, Mr. President, read my lips: Our vote is not for sale.

-----------------------------
And we come with strong family values. Family values is not just those with two-car garages and a retirement plan. Retirement plans are good. But family values also are those who had to make nothing stretch into something happening, who had to make ends meet.
I was raised by a single mother who made a way for me. She used to scrub floors as a domestic worker, put a cleaning rag in her pocketbook and ride the subways in Brooklyn so I would have food on the table.

But she taught me as I walked her to the subway that life is about not where you start, but where you're going. That's family values.

And I wanted somebody in my community -- I wanted to show that example. As I ran for president, I hoped that one child would come out of the ghetto like I did, could look at me walk across the stage with governors and senators and know they didn't have to be a drug dealer, they didn't have to be a hoodlum, they didn't have to be a gangster, they could stand up from a broken home, on welfare, and they could run for president of the United States.

[BlackVelvetElvis]

18. I taped Rev. Al's speech off CSpan last week

I must of watched it a dozen times since. Your snips express what I loved about it.
Sharpton's speech was incredibly powerful. He exposed the essence of what it means to be a dem (to me anyway) as did Dennis K's speech.
Judging from the delegates response, it hit a nerve! To me, that's valid. Screw the media. They expect every dem to have a cookie cutter style? Noooo. Al spoke the truth.
Will the media compare and contrast the image the republicans want to portray when Santorum speaks a month from now? Let's see how this will play out.

[Sugarbleus]

20. I ADORE Al Sharpton. he has the courage to tell it like it is...

he has flaws, so do I. He has courage I don't have; he spoke to MY heart, MY issues, OUR issues, EVERYBODIES issues.

He had me on my feet that night. I almost fainted with excitement (lol)

He and Barack Obama said much the same thing in different ways...Loved them both.

What Sharpton did comes from REAL COURAGE, imo.

So many people like their lives to be organized, put into neat little cubicles of understanding and managability.... It gets very uncomfortable when that world is invaded with RAW TRUTH..

I wonder how many conservative anuses puckered up tighter than a drum while he gave that speech. :evilgrin:

HOPE IS ON THE WAY! :bounce:

[southlandshari]

21. Heads up for Sharpton fans with a sense of humor

Tonight's Saturday Night Live is a rerun of last year's show featuring Rev. Al Sharpton. I didn't see it first time around, so can't vouch for whether it was a good show, but I'd be willing to bet it is.

[Reciprocity]

22. Okay a show of hands how many cried when ...

he was talking about being raised by a single mother. I'm a southerner you know how we love to have a mama-thon but he had this white women crying like a baby.