Black Radio Owner Produces Anti-Obama Ad
A Black Agenda Radio commentary by Glen Ford
Broadcasters
and others wanting a downloadable MP3 copy of this commentary can get
it at our Black Agenda Radio archive
page.
"Never in the history of commercial Black media has a
candidate for national office gotten as much free publicity of all kinds, as
Barack Obama has reaped from Black-owned media."
For as long as I can remember, African Americans have
complained that the Democrats take Blacks for granted. It's almost an axiom.
Such complaints have circulated through the pages of Black newspapers and on
Black radio talk shows ever since the Black vote coalesced near-unanimously
around the Democratic Party, by the mid-Sixties.
Having worked at my share of Black newspapers and radio
stations, I can vouch for the fact that Black-owned media feels its importance
most keenly during election seasons, when the white Democrats - and in most
places the candidates are more likely to be white - show respect and good sense
by sending campaign dollars their way. Campaign advertising was almost as much
a ritual as a commercial transaction; an acknowledgment that the Black media,
and its audience, were not to be taken for granted, even by Democrats.
Then Black folks got more than many had even dared to
wish for: a Black candidate for president on a major party ticket. Nearly all
of the Black-owned media shouted Hallelujah, in unison, and enlisted in Barack
Obama's quest for the White House. Never in the history of commercial Black
media has a candidate for national office gotten as much free publicity of all
kinds, as Barack Obama has reaped from Black-owned media. They talked him up,
they wrote him up, their talk show hosts shouted his critics down, his events
were publicized in every city with Black media outlets as if he were a native
son of the town, a homecoming hero.
And then it came time to spend some serious money on Black
media in what would clearly be the most expensive presidential campaign in
history, but also one in which the Black guy had by far the most money!
"Obama's campaign took Black support for granted, just
like all the other Democrats over the years had been accused of doing."
What did the Obama campaign do? They took Black support for
granted, just like all the other Democrats over the years had been accused of
doing, only this time, even more egregiously so, since Barack Obama had clearly
been the recipient of every possible favor and gift that the Black media could
offer.
Obama's handlers felt no need to pay for what they had
already gotten, free. Black
media owners learned early this year that Obama viewed Black media support
as something he was owed - not the other way around. Back in April, Black
newspapers discovered that neither Hillary Clinton nor Barack Obama had any money
left over after spending it all on white media. Dorothy Leavell, publisher of Black newspapers in Chicago and Gary, Indiana,
said: "If we're treated like this in the primary, there is very little hope
that we'll be treated any better in the general election."
She was right! Charles Cherry II, owner of a Black media
group in Florida, got tired of being left out of Obama's general election
advertising schedule, and decided to produce an anti-Obama radio
commercial, to get the candidate's attention. "If you want to win by getting
black people to vote in the state of Florida," said the station owner, "you
must actively engage the black community's political culture. A large part of
this culture is black-owned media."
Good for
Brother Cherry! Those Democrats do take Black people for granted. Especially
the one with the African name.
For Black
Agenda Radio, I'm Glen Ford.
BAR executive editor Glen Ford can be contacted at [email protected].
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