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The Last Journalist Standing May Well be Tavis Smiley

Posted: October 24, 2008 | Author: | Filed under: Main Stream Media, No Obama | Tags: , , |Comments Off on The Last Journalist Standing May Well be Tavis Smiley

I’ve written in my blog about the difficulties many African Americans have had for not supporting Obama or seemingly not supporting him enough.  Many black supporters of Hillary were subjected to some fairly outrageous charges during the primary and some were bullied into changing their candidate choice. 

One of the folks that I mentioned in an earlier thread was Tavis Smiley.  Tavis is a journalist and is responsible for the conference entitled “The State of the Black Union” which has been held in New Orleans recently.  My last blog post supporting him was due to his questioning of Barack Obama’s commitment to black American by not showing up for the conference but offering to send Michelle Obama instead.  Senator Clinton was the sole candidate to show up personally at this event.  Tavis said thanks but no thanks to the offer of Michelle and was roundly criticized.

An interview by Jon Friedman with Smiley showed up in Market Watch.  I read his comments and more on the flak he’s been taking for trying to be objective.  Objectivity is something journalists are supposed to be all about.  At least I got that impression from my 3 high school journalism classes.   Maybe if I’d have continued through college I would have found this to be old-fashioned.

Smiley said that to the consternation of a number of Obama supporters, he hasn’t given the Democrat a free pass during the campaign. Smiley said he has acted like an objective, probing journalist. It makes no difference to an ethical journalist — whether he works in a news room or hosts a talk show — what a candidate’s skin color is or whether or not Smiley privately supports that person’s prospects.
Smiley said he had heard from some African-American viewers that “‘Tavis is a hater… a traitor…a sell-out.'”
In July, Huffington Post noted: “For months (Smiley) has been the object of an Internet firestorm for his perceived negative comments about Obama…” See Huffington Post column.
Smiley takes issues with what he sees as Obama’s ‘pivoting positions’.
“The issues I raised were affirmative action, campaign finance reform, gun control, the death penalty and wiretapping.”
He said he recognized that Obama would likely be reluctant to deal with controversial topics “when everything is going his way.”
Unlike many MSM journalist, Smiley seems intent on holding peopel accountable for what they say.  Nearly every one important has been interviewed by Smiley.  However, this article points out to the low likelihood that Senator Barrack Obama will be one of them.  Perhaps because Smiley could really ask some really tough questions without having to fight white guilt or glibe charges of racism.  He has already been fighting off the ‘race-traitor’ label.  The Market Watch Media WebQuestion of the day poses an interesting what-if for those who would like to see Smiley exercise his sharp, focused, and extremely intelligent interview style to the would-be President.
So their question of the day is this:
MEDIA WEB QUESTION OF THE DAY:What question would you like to hear Tavis Smiley ask Barack Obama?
It’s a very good question.  Smiley is a real journalist and would most likely ask questions with journalistic integrity.  I wonder which questions would be asked.  It certainly wouldn’t be the same questions coming from the rest of the media who have acted like Obama’s fluffers from day one.
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