Might this become the only black news channel?
OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — Former U.S. Rep. J.C. Watts is developing a cable news network focusing on a black audience.Black Television News Channel, scheduled to launch in 2009, will provide “original news programming with a distinctly African-American perspective,” according to a news release. It recently announced a multiyear agreement with Comcast Corp.
“With this agreement, Comcast continues to demonstrate its commitment to working with independent programmers with diverse points of view,” Watts said in a news release.
Watts, a Republican, served as Oklahoma’s 4th Congressional District representative from 1995 to 2003 in the U.S. House and now heads the J.C. Watts Cos. in Washington, D.C. He was not available Thursday for additional comment.
The news release said BTNC expects to be added to Comcast systems in key markets for black audiences such as Philadelphia, Chicago, Detroit, Washington, D.C., Atlanta and Baltimore.
I’d like to pose two questions to the readers of this blog that I found myself wrestling with after hearing of this news: Should there be a black news channel? And if so, what should it look like?
I’ve come to the tentative stance that my ideal news channel would not be a black one per se, but one that seriously analyzes black issues in the context of broader news and connects to others beyond blacks. News about black folk and black issues should not just be for a black audience. The issues that affect blacks are also American issues that others should be aware of and concerned about. Black people and their issues do not exist on some mythical American island.
In the spirit of Obama’s famous race speech, to really heal the racial divide, racial issues need to be laid out on the table for all to chew on and deal with. And don’t get me wrong, this is not about appeasing whites and others or making black issues more palatable and less threatening to them. It’s about creating a frame that simultaneously expresses the uniqueness and commonality of black issues.
Maybe Watts’ news channel will do what I wish for, but I doubt it since a name like Black Television News Channel will only attract a black audience. Or maybe my wish is too much to ask of a news channel at this time or ever. What say you?
7 responses so far ↓
1
JC
// Jun 2, 2008 at 3:09 pm
Black America is long over due for a legitimate, professional and thought provoking news channel, with no buffoons or clowns. And I mean real news about black people in America and internationally forum.
2
Che Baraka
// Jun 24, 2008 at 11:07 pm
“The issues that affect blacks are also American issues that others should be aware of and concerned about. ”
The important issues that affect Americans are also Black (and all minorities) issues that others should be aware of and concerned about. Its not just semantics, or rewording of, “Black Television News Channel” in order to make it more palatable to whites or indicative of its target audience that benefits.
To my thinking, any media source seeking to focus on “black issues” would be one that stategically focused on packaging that content for consumption by a white audience. For the most part the dynamics of “black issues” have their sources in unacknowledged “white issues”.
“I’ve come to the tentative stance that my ideal news channel would not be a black one per se, but one that seriously analyzes black issues in the context of broader news and connects to others beyond blacks.”
That quote speaks to what no media outlet has ever accomplished: objectivity and bias free critical analyses. Broadcast and print media provide what is dicated by the status quo. And, the status quo is banality, conformity, mediocrity and herd-like consensus. Be assured that the majority of Americans are perfectly content with that status quo. Moreover, both whites and blacks seek and aspire to emulate that normality.
Rep. W.C. Watts’, “original news programming with a distinctly African-American perspective” begs the question as measured by America’s present and ever changing social mores, class divides, economics, and politics: What is the distinctly “African-American perspective”?
3
Elena
// Jul 8, 2008 at 8:44 am
Farai Chideya provides a great model in practice for this kind of news project on NPR: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=11
I find her radio show very informative because she focuses on stories that don’t get discussed in mainstream media, while also covering big news events through the perspectives of different minority groups that are often blatantly ignored by the mainstream.
I guess another question will be whether this new news channel will do NPR in-depth reporting (interviewing experts and performing in-field research) or will it follow the CNN model of entertainment news-casting (interviewing political cronies and engaging issues with superficial research)?
4
Elena
// Jul 8, 2008 at 9:04 am
Here’s a much better website for Farai Chideya’s News and Notes:
http://www.npr.org/templates/rundowns/rundown.php?prgId=11
Just for summary-sake, Monday’s show focused on the experience of recovering from a job layoff, on linking Obama’s political shifts to the context of a black woman who died ignored and untreated in a NYC emergency room , and how black republicans are responding to the upcoming the presidential election.
5
Mike
// Jul 9, 2008 at 9:31 pm
I agree that News and Notes does good work. I’ve followed it from its many incarnations and change of hosts from Tavis Smiley to Ed Gordon to Farai Chideya. Unfortunately, I don’t think enough people listen to it (probably because they are not as entertainment driven). If nothing else, I do hope this new network does serious reporting. That alone would be a step forward for news media.
6
Mike
// Jul 9, 2008 at 9:39 pm
Che,
Great points, and your question about what a “distinctly African-America perspective is” is a good one. I wondered that myself when reading it. Hopefully this perspective will have some real depth and breadth to it.
7
Elena
// Jul 10, 2008 at 4:40 pm
Perhaps the TV network will overcome the entertainment/access gap that radio, or more specifically, NPR has?
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