A Small Voice In the Nation's Capital! News and issues that you don't get delivered to your front door or tune into at 6 or 11
FROM THE "WHAT HAVE I BEEN TELLING YOU ALL ALONG" FILE
If you can dream - and not make dreams your master;
If you can think and not make thoughts your aim;
If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster
and treat those two impostors just the same;
If you can bear to hear the truth you've spoken
twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,
And stoop and build 'em up with worn-out tools:
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
to serve your turn long after they are gone,
and so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: 'Hold on!'
if neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you . . .
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds' worth of distance run,
Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it . . .
--Kipling
Where I've Been & What I've Done--The Bio
The search button is FINALLY working! Please take a look at archives and commentaries.
From Dave, a self-described "one of many not-so-angry, compassionate conservative white guy listeners."
"Greetings from a long-time (2 years at least) downloader of the ABW show"Common sense is so addictive! Your comments about overweight, dimple-derriered divas had me laughing so hard I almost drove off the road! But when you focused on the facts about childhood obesity it almost made me cry. It's so sad that the blessing of our nation's food bounty, where not even the poorest go hungry, has resulted in the poorest are at risk for ill health due to overeating. Adults have choices, but kids depend on parents guiding their choices. It's reassuring to hear true community leaders remind parents they have responsibilities. Keep up the good work! I'll keep listening. best, one of your many not-so-angry, compassionate conservative white guy listeners!
Excellent viewpoint and content from Michant2
"Your show is very enjoyable and the content is excellent. I enjoy your point of view on the many subjects that you cover and think that you always hit on things that people are thinking but are afraid to say. It's good to hear someone voice her opinion on relevant topics of today concerning not only black people or black women, but things that affect everyone."
Excellent job on the past 3 shows! from D.H.
"You were awesome as a guest on WWWT-FM. Good job on discussing a wide array of topics including politics, news, education, obese kids, terrible prom attire, etc. . . . I'm looking forward to winning more Sunny James converts . . ."
From Jamie Nero
"I have found your podcasts to be informative, educational and entertaining. In fact, I got a pair of dress shoes repaired after listening to one of your podcasts. Thanks!(I saved some money that day)."
Please, keep sending in those good words. I need your support. Sunny
Did somebody say "support?" Feel free to hit the orange Paypal button to keep The Sunny James Show growing and thriving.
1. Ragin' Ray Nagin. He may have spoken bluntly but that doesn't make it any less true. You can catch his August 27th Meet the Press appearance on a podcast near you. GET IT! and this is the MSNBC video link GET IT!
2. Survivor. It's a Race War in primetime on CBS. GET IT! and GET IT!
3. Bonnie Erbe's Response to the Forbes.com article titled "Don't Marry Career Women" GET IT!
4. I've provided a review of Juan William's book "Enough", but not the excerpt that I read during the show. Sorry for the miscommunication.
-- In honor of my daughter's 15th birthday which she shares with the anniversary (August 26) of the passage of the the 19th amendment, a look at the Equal Rites Awards, according to Ellen Goodman in the Boston Globe GET IT!
-- Cosby Exhorts Students, Parents at Baltimore elementary schools
-- Juan Williams' book "Enough" and Walter Mosley's "A Life out of Context" GET IT!
-- Russell Simmons Hip-Hop King Maker GET IT! and GET IT!
Please pick up a copy of Juan Williams new book "Enough." And as a reminder from shows past, pick up a copy of Walter Mosley's "A Life Out of Context." Both great books to start thinking critically about the state of Black America.
I've noticed an increase in the number of downloads from HBCUs in the last several weeks. Thanks to all those great minds who find the time to listen. Now that you're back at school, homecoming is just around the corner. If there is an event that you'd like to give some attention drop me an email at theangryblackwoman@earthlink.net. (And here's a last minute shout out to the ABW fans down at Auburn--Go Tigers!)
My apologies, I mentioned during Show #20 that I'd would have information about, Hip-Hop: Beats and Rhymes, a documentary film scheduled to air on PBS stations after the first of the year. I will get that info to you with Show #22.
Show #21
-- SHORT TAKES --
1. Ragin' Ray Nagin. He may have spoken bluntly but that doesn't make it any less true. You can catch his August 27th Meet the Press appearance on a podcast near you. GET IT! and this is the MSNBC video link GET IT!
2. Survivor. It's a Race War in primetime on CBS.
3. Bonnie Erbe's Response to the Forbes.com article titled "Don't Marry Career Women" GET IT!
4. I've provided a review of Juan William's book "Enough", but not the excerpt that I read during the show. Sorry for the miscommunication.
-- In honor of my daughter's 15th birthday which she shares with the anniversary (August 26) of the passage of the the 19th amendment, a look at the Equal Rites Awards, according to Ellen Goodman in the Boston Globe
-- Cosby Exhorts Students, Parents at Baltimore elementary schools
-- Juan Williams' book "Enough" and Walter Mosley's "A Life out of Context"
-- The ABW Rant. The Disappearing News and the New Technology Ship has Sailed Without Black Passengers, GET IT! AND with Ed Gordon's audience dwindling and PBS stations around the country discontinuing his show, what is PBS going to serve it's Black audience now and how is PBS' lack of knowlege in programming for a black audience going to play out? GET IT!
-- Liberia's Blackboard Headlines in the New York TimesGET IT!
-- The Chronicle of Higher Education Ask Can Technology Save the Developing World?
What is that Smell? Programming Radio and TV For a
Black Audience, Of Course
I want to share some thoughts with you all in what
I hope will be seeds that you will continue to nurture. I have been asked
on many occasions why I have undertaken this endeavor, this internet radio
show. Well, I've been around broadcasting for a long time. I've
worked at the FCC, BET and NBC, and I've worked for the broadcasters' lobbyists
group, the National Association of Broadcasters, and currently for public broadcasting.
I've watched for many years while the interests of African Americans got low
profile coverage or were blatantly ignored and pushed to the back burner,
depending on, of course, who was in the White House. As technology has
changed and will continue to for many years to come, African Americans have to
learn, not just what the technology is and its accompanying buzz words, but how
to serve our communities news and information needs by using that same
technology. We cannot continue to just be consumers and provide ourselves
and our progeny with the latest and greatest toys and believe we're apart of
what's hip because we've got new gadgets. In The New YorkTimes
dated August 4, and in a cute play on words, Lydia Polgreen wrote:
"All the News that Fits: Liberia's Blackboard Headline." In
this struggling African country there beats a fervent heart much like my
own. Mr. Serleaf gets it. He understands that knowledge is
power. As he writes his chalkboard news for his community, he must be
wishing, hoping, praying that one day, what he does will not be necessary.
In the United States, this bastion of the spoiled
and greedy, I have been plagued, of late, by thoughts of what Black folks
consider information and news and the businesses that delivers those bits of
infinitesimal misinformation, those small flavorless morsels that Clear
Channel, Radio One, NBC, BET, W this and K that, and all the other
broadcasting alphabet soup that are pretending to serve the Black communities
around the country by serving up wall to wall hip-hop and R&B and making
the news disappear. I recently remembered that day several years ago,
when BET announced the decision to murder its news programming. I don't
remember the exact day the news died on BET, but I remember feeling that things
were changing and not for the better. What other broadcasters or
cablecasters could take up the flag or wear the mantel, or was better
positioned to serve our community than BET? Even before BET sold out they
could have shown the world how to educate a community. As MTV
celebrates the 25th anniversary of the channel that hip-hop made,
the channel is showing the first video seen on the channel. It was
"Video Killed the Radio Star." Apparently, the entertainment
division of these conglomerates killed the news. The awful thing is we
would need something akin CSI to solve the crime or better yet a good game of
Clue. Was radio and TV news done in by Professor Plum in the library with
a lead pipe or maybe by Bob Johnson in the bank with a billion large or better
yet and probably more true is that the news was done in by the very community
that it was serving and its willingness to continue to accept being 2nd
rate and to take crumbs from the table, after all isn't that what we've always
done.
The line between entertainment and news has
blurred to the point of news becoming a faint, infrequent apparition. As
I've said before, there is less and less news in a news broadcast these days
and I believe that in some communities the viewers and listeners mistake news
for entertainment and entertainment for news. How will our community
mobilize, be informed, make a change? In the past, at least in WashingtonDC, there was a healthy, competitive cadre of
African American news professionals. They were informed, responsible and
worked stories until the last unseemly detail was exposed. They were
responsible for what was disseminated into the community and it was because of
their diligence that news was the news. Stations were built around the
strength of their news operations and the information they could deliver to the
community. Yes, the day to day act of living can be difficult,
challenging and down right painful. Sometimes the headlines of the day
meet you like a ton of bricks. You want to look the other way. But
today's audiences have been slowly trained, conditioned and seemingly,
literally programmed to expect less and be more interested in some far off
star's lives than what's happening in their own neighborhoods. But there
are small voices out there, like mine who are speaking out. Those voices
will get louder and more insistent that radio stations, particularly, really
serve the communities that they come into.
I would love to see Radio
One, Clear Channel, and any other enterprise that delivers relevant, competent
news to our community thrive and prosper. But in recently released second
quarter financial reports, Radio One, whose founder Kathy Hughes, sent this
writer and host an email of suport several months ago, earnings fell 4% from a
year ago to $97.8 million. Profit dropped 59% from a year ago to $8.1 and
the stock fell about 8%. I can only hope that listeners are driving the
landscape to change.
Last week The Wall Street Journal ran an article titled "Moguls of
New Media." In this article about podcasting and podcasters are delivering
programming to and making deals with traditional media outlets, there was not
one African American enterprise that made the cut. It is my hope that the
African American audience wakes up and begins makes more thoughtful decisions
about where their news, information and entertainment comes from. If what
you're having served up looks like filet mignon, but smells like crap you
better check it twice before taking a bite.
My, oh my, what a hot summer it's been! The challenges that this ABW faced all of the first half of the year have revisited and my first priority is to stay focused on the positive. I am sooooo looking forward to the fall, my favorite time of year, cooler temperatures, clearer heads and hopefully some prayers answered. So, I am more than pleased to be joining you again for Show #20. There was so much I wanted to share but simply had to keep my producer'shat in place and hopefully have chosen wisely in what I've shared with you for this show.
One item that I will be revisiting for Show #21 is the upcoming showing on PBS in 2007 of a documentary titled Hip Hop: Beats and Rhymes, directed by Bryon Hurt. I will have lot's to share next time about this upcoming and controversial documentary but in the mean time here's something to get you started. GET IT!
In addition, I'm looking for ways to increase the amount of information I pass along, but not increase the duration of the show and until something different comes to mind, I've started what I call "Short Takes." Sometimes it's just not necessary to reshash an entire story or something that's been around awhile, note a correction or give a heads up to something in the works--You'll find that stuff in "Short Takes." If that works for you, please let me know. If you've got another idea, I'd love to hear it. So here's a link about former Congresswoman McKinney and what appears to be her successor GET IT!
As I take my leave for now, please pay particular attention to The ABW Rant. I have included several links to information that I think is relevant to you as a listener trying to get and stay informed and to me as I try to fill a void. The quanity, quality and value of news and information provided to the African American community, no matter how you cut it, is shrinking. Just this morning, Monday, August 14, in the St. Petersburg Times', Eric Deggans, reports on another PBS program supposedly for us that is failing or soon will. I don't believe that the host in question was suspect, just the way PBS has chosen to produce the program that leaves something to be desired. As George Curry of the National Newspaper Publishers Association News Service put it, "it's the bland leading the bland."
