Black Entertainment Television announced today it is ending “BET Nightly News” and replacing it with one-minute news briefs from 10 a.m. to 11 p.m.
The changes were portrayed today as “more fast-paced and primetime access to the major news of the day” at the network’s annual Upfront presentation to advertisers, media buyers and industry watchers to advertisers in New York.
The announcement completes a series of reductions in BET’s regular news and public affairs programming that accelerated at the end of 2002, when it canceled “Lead Story,” “BET Tonight With Ed Gordon” and “Teen Summit.” (more…)
I seriously do not think that it would not have mattered if Bob Johnson still owned BET. It was already heading down this path a long time ago.
On the other hand, I can’t be mad at BET, after all it is Black ENTERTAINMENT Television. I think that this really ticks off many blacks because of something I talked about a while ago on this site: One black person’s success equals community-wide representation.
Are successful Black businesses “selling out†or “cashing in’?
This does shine some light on the much bigger issue that there is a lack of significant news coverage within the black community. Most black newspapers today steer clear of discussing issues NOT RELATED TO RACISM. If you want to know how the trade deficit has an impact on blacks here in America, stock and investment news (besides Blackenterprise.com), and other issues on an international level, don’t pick up most black newspapers.
The real truth is, there is no real interest among many black Americans to be abreast on current events. Earl Graves of Black Enterprise magazine has been very successful with his magazine as it does an exceptional job with keeping black folks abreast on financial issues. On the other hand, magazines like Emerge (a black version of Time/Newsweek), met with early failure and eventually elimination from this much needed genre.
I am quite sure that if a poll was taken today, we would find that viewership/listenership of news is highest amongst blacks during election season. This is the absolute worst time in the world for anyone to immerse themselves in current events as election season is a high-time for propagation from all sides of the political spectrum. This is why many blacks find themselves repeating the talking points of some commentator, or radical activist who still thinks he/she is living in the Watts of the 1960′s rather than expressing original thought (for the racially sensitive–yes I know this applies to other races as well) . To simply blame the errors of government on racism does very little in a constructive debate. One must be able to demonstrate and articulate a thorough understanding of the issues without using racism as a base if respect is to be gained at the tables of debate throughout this country.
Music videos have their place. So should the news!
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