The Imus Affair is About Apartheid in Media (Brent Budowsky)

[babylonsister]

http://pundits.thehill.com/2007/04/11/the-imus-affair-is-about-apartheid-in-media/

The Imus Affair is About Apartheid in Media (Brent Budowsky)

snip//



There is, far too often, a race-based apartheid, and a gender-based apartheid, that plagues both our mainstream media and our corporate conglomerates, at the ownership, management and host levels.

Even Air America — which I have urged repeatedly to build major alliances with African-American and Hispanic hosts, networks and audiences — is far too much white bread for my taste, which is significantly accountable for its troubles.

It’s not enough, if Air America wants to speak for progressives, to have one or two black or Hispanic hosts, or management and ownership that is so heavily dominated by white males to the exclusion of blacks, Hispanics and women in positions of true power.

I single out Air America because it seeks to stand for progressivism and could do better, should do better, and will never succeed until it actually does better.

There is a political apartheid, too, even among Democrats. Why has such little support been given to voter registration, get-out-the-vote drives, and policing honest elections in African-American and Hispanic precincts? The reason is the Democratic consultariat class makes its money not from registering or protecting the franchise of minority voters, but in its piece of the action for giant television ad buys.

There is apartheid on war and peace. One can watch the reruns from 2002, 2003, and 2004, reread the newspapers, or review the insider guests on cable television shows. What got America into the Iraq war without serious debate was not only misrepresentation by the administration, on matters that were well known to insiders but never stated publicly; it was an insider apartheid.


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[Tom Joad]

1. Very important point. It is about racism on the airwaves,

not about the story of one man, but if we mean it that we want to challenge white privilege.

[IndyOp]

2. Definition: Colorblind - If it affects only people of color, we are blind to it!

I remember reading the Black Commentator after the theft of the 2004 election - one article said it perfectly: White progressive only care about the Black Vote if the candidate the white's like lost because Black voters were treated unfairly.

[Canuckistanian]

3. It's still a white man's world in most media

And minorities are shuffled off to "special programming", usually on Sunday afternoons or 3:00 in the morning.

[Morgana LaFey]

4. Boy, he HE nailed it. Excellent insights. nt