Monday, September 24, 2007

Talk Radio Flexes it's Black Power

With over 90% of the political talk stations spewing right-wing opinions, it is not surprising that the talkers on these stations often have an impact on influencing public policy and news events.

In 1994 when the Republicans won a landslide victory in the U.S. Congress, taking over both the House of Representatives and the Senate for the first time in over 40 years, much of the credit for this feat was attributed to conservative talk radio. In fact, at a victory dinner after the historic election, the new Speaker of the House, Newt Ginrich, made Rush Limbaugh an honorary member of the House of Representatives in recognition of Limbaugh’s contribution to the Republican victory.

Over the past decade there have been several other examples of how conservative talk radio influenced political events. Like in 2003 when local right wing talkers in California led a successful campaign to recall Democratic Governor Gray Davis and more recently when non-stop immigrant bashing resulted in the defeat of bi-partisan immigration reform legislation.

Even Republican politicians were outraged by this move. Usually conservative Senator Trent Lott (R-MS) complained that "talk radio is running America and we have to deal with that.
problem."

Well, it happened again last week, but this time it wasn’t conservative talk radio, but rather black (AKA Urban) talk radio that influenced a political event.

It is generally agreed that talk radio and internet blogs were responsible for the huge turnout in Jena, La to support the so-called Jena 6. More than 10,000 people showed up in Jena to protest the alleged double standard employed by a District Attorney who charged six black students with attempted murder for school yard fight that sent a white student to the hospital. On the other hand law enforcement and school officials were lenient when white students hung nooses from a tree at the high school and when another white student confronted a group of black students with rifle.

Black talk radio hosts such as Tom Joyner, Steve Harvey, and Michael Baisden played a key role in the cause of Jena 6 and in generating the turn-out at the associated protest action.

The Washington Post attributed the success of the Jena protest to these hosts.


Yesterday morning, as the throng descended on Jena, both the Joyner and Harvey shows featured live updates from the scene. Baisden and Sharpton were in Jena, helping lead the demonstrations. It's fair to say that without black radio, the case of the Jena 6 probably never would have become a significant national story -- and certainly never would have sparked one of the biggest civil rights protests in decades.

The Orlando Sentinel credited talk radio and the internet not black leaders and the mainstream media.

Those standing in line Wednesday to board a bus from Orlando to Jena, La., heard about the racially charged arrests of six black high-school students called the "Jena 6" from the Internet and talk radio -- not civil-rights leaders or the mass media.

We are not surprised by the powerful role of urban radio in general and black talk radio in particular. While general market radio has shown no growth over the past ten years, urban radio has grown by 23% over this period.

Some black leaders have got the message. Jesse Jackson has hosted a weekly talk show syndicated by Premiere Radio Networks for the past three years. Jackson's show is carried on over three dozen stations. Also, about a year ago Al Sharpton threw his hat in the talk radio ring, with a daily show syndicated by Syndication One, which is now carried on over two dozen stations.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Excuse me? Six against one. The one goes to the hospital and that's OK with you? You don't think the six should be prosecuted.
Talk about double standards!
What if...
Six Whites beat up a Black?
Six Straights beat up a gay?
Somehow I doubt you'd be condoning that. But this is OK.
Meanwhile, Whoopi and the Georgia NAACP are defending Michael Vick.
And let's feel bad for the young Black male who shot up Delaware State.
Oh, and a medical school dean in Camden is passing students who should have flunked clinical courses in the name of political correctness. Would you want one of them to operate on you?
Equality requires equal treatment.

Anonymous said...

The first post naturally came from a racist white supremacist poster.

This alleged sociopathic racist white supremacist that was beaten up was able to go to a dance that same night.

Also, prior to this beating, this racist white supremacist punk, or some other racist just like him, pulled his illegal shotgun on black kids, and the racist police arrested the black kids who took the racist killer's illegal shotgun, while they let the racist killer walk away!

Another racist bigot hit another black kid over the head with a bottle, and that white bigot was allowed to skate by the police also.

If six whites had beat up a black kid, that racist white supremacist poster would be claiming that the racist white cowards felt threatened by the one unarmed black person.

I guess that racist also fells for the young racist white punk in Cleveland who shot up the mostly black high school for gifted, academically successful, African-American kids, as well as the racist sociopathic white supremacist in suburban Philadelphia, and his racist white supremacist sociopathic mother bought guns for him, too!

This sociopathic racist also defends racism in America by talking about political correctness, and holds his racist white supremacist belief that whites are superior and blacks and other non-whites are inferior.

I guess this racist also defends the unqualified white medical students at the University of Illinois Circle Campus who received repeated favoritism after these white boys cheated on medical exams, but the honest African-American who reported them was blocked from graduating. But those racist white medical school cheaters are racist anonymous' kind of people.

Also, a week ago, black columnist Leonard Putts correctly and accurately compared the "political correctness" defense of racism and white supremacy to the racist whites of the past century that brutally tortured and lynched African-Americans in the early 1900's in both the North and South, where racist whites castrated blacks, where racist whites murdered African-American families and/or racist whites lynched black kids, and even killed their pets because they were owned by African-Americans. According to racist white supremacists like anonymous, opposing racist lynchings by racist white supremacists of the past is "political correctness".

Anonymous said...

Correction, the columnists' name is Leonard PITTS.

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