ABSTRACT
I was pulling into the parking lot of my then two-year-old's day care when I first heard the news that the contract of popular talk-show host Tavis Smiley was not being renewed by Black Entertainment Television (BET). The announcement came courtesy of Tom Joyner, who is the host of the largest syndicated radio program targeted to African- American audiences. The Tom Joyner Morning Show is part of my everyday ritual: my daughter and I get to listen to some old-school soul and I get to get my laff-on courtesy of J. Anthony Brown and my inform-on via Smiley's twice-weekly commentaries. For sure I was surprised by the announcement, even letting out a loud chuckle at the irony of the move, as I stood in the parking lot. Hell, it was only two years earlier that Newsweek said that Smiley was one of the twenty or so people who were changing how we get our news, and, of course, he had been the winner of the coveted NAACP “I make Negroes look good” Image Award three years running. He had also achieved the distinction of being BET's highest paid on-air talent. But my surprise turned to reservation as I prepared for the inevitable “rally around the race” pitch that Joyner et al. were going to employ to get Smiley reinstated as the host of BET Tonight. By the time I had returned to the car ten minutes later, Joyner was giving out the e-mail address and phone number to Viacom's (the parent company of BET) CEO, Mel Karmazin. I had been here before.
