Founder of BET Cable TV Network Slams Obama

[BeatleBoot]

http://www.sanluisobispo.com/news/politics/story/245220.html

Bob Johnson criticizes Obama

By PHILIP ELLIOTT
Associated Press Writer

One of Hillary Rodham Clinton's most prominent black supporters said Sunday he was insulted by the characterization by rival Barack Obama's presidential campaign of her remarks about the civil rights movement.

Bob Johnson, the nation's first black billionaire and founder of the BET cable television network, said Obama's campaign had acted dishonestly and had distorted Clinton's remarks about Martin Luther King Jr.

Johnson also seemed to hint at Obama's acknowledged youthful drug use, an issue that led another Clinton campaign official to resign. Johnson later denied that was the case.

Clinton was quoted just before the New Hampshire primary as saying King's dream of racial equality was realized only when President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Some black leaders have criticized that remark as suggesting Johnson deserved more credit than the slain civil rights leader for the passage and enactment of major civil rights legislation.

While introducing Clinton at Columbia College on Sunday, Johnson criticized Obama's camp.

"That kind of campaign behavior would not be reasonable with me for a guy who says 'I want to be a reasonable, likable, Sidney Poitier,'" said Johnson, owner of the NBA's Charlotte Bobcats. He commented after Clinton said in a televised interview Sunday that she hoped the campaign would not be about race.

Johnson also said Obama's own record should give voters pause.

"To me, as an African American, I am frankly insulted the Obama campaign would imply that we are so stupid that we would think Hillary and Bill Clinton, who have been deeply and emotionally involved in black issues - when Barack Obama was doing something in the neighborhood; I won't say what he was doing, but he said it in his book - when they have been involved," Johnson said.

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[fenriswolf]

1. oh come on

like the founder of BET has any credibility. That channel does nothing for the african american community except degrade it. I am not african american but I do know that the african american community has a deep and rich culture and women wearing nothing while dancing around "homies" talking about gangsta and ho's is not doing a good job of representing the african american community.

but hay thats just my opinon. If you think the guy is a credible voice for the african american community at large and not in it for the bucks (corporations) be my guest to prove me wrong.

[NYCGirl]

2. This guy served on Bush's Social Security Privatization Commission?

But, over the past few years, Johnson has waged political battles that put him drastically at odds with Clinton, the candidate he now supports.

Johnson served on President George Bush's commission on privatizing social security. In January 2005, he convened a summit whose stated purpose was to raise and answer questions about the African American community's political affiliations, but whose true design, critics claim, was to peal black voters away from the Democratic Party.

He has repeatedly called for the repeal of the estate tax, saying that the policy is propagated by "a liberal, noblesse oblige attitude that they have probably had in their families for generations."

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/01/13/proclinton-bet-founder-a_n_81286.html