Prometheus 6

Blacks Radio Needs News, Not Michael Baisden’s Slanders
Wednesday, 14 November 2007
by BAR executive editor Glen Ford

Syndicated hustler Michael Baisden, eager to become kingpin of Jena Six fundraising, launched a slanderous campaign against every Black that didn't have access to ABC radio's corporate reach. Baisden's principal target: Color of Change, the mass-based Internet organization that raised and distributed over $200,000 for Jena defendants' legal fees in record time. Baisden used his 50-station network to defame Color of Change, in "reckless disregard of the truth," and was soon forced to issue a fraction of an apology. But Baisden's crimes only serve to dramatize the fact that near-extinction of Black radio news - the mechanism that could have stopped the junkyard dog in his filthy tracks - has left African Americans at the mercy of "media leadership." We must reclaim the commercial airwaves that reach 80-90 percent of Blacks.