THE US REPORT

Lots of debate on The Live Feed blog right now over TV One’s decision to cover the Democratic National Convention extensively but to completely ignore the GOP national convention. Many commenters are crying racism. Others say TV One has a 93 percent black audience, and those viewers usually vote a Dem ticket, so it’s no big deal. One or two commenters did remind readers a Republican president actually freed the slaves.

If the Fairness Doctrine returns, as Dem speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi and colleagues hope, the decision wouldn’t fly so smoothly. Although TV One isn't regulated, how can Pelosi and her pro-Fairness Doctrine colleagues justify coercing media that would be regulated to do what others won't when they won't have to which is how freedom of speech is supposed to work anyway.

Personally, I believe what a station (or any media outlet) airs is up to the station and the network. I also believe, however, TV One is doing its viewers a disservice. For one thing, we can’t assume all blacks are Democrats. Check out guests on various programs on Fox News shows—kind of makes me want to say, “Yes, Virginia, there are blacks in the GOP.” TV One also shouldn’t assume whites don’t watch their programming. There would be even hotter debate if a network avoided the Dem convention, and I’m sure there’d be rants about racism since racism is a favorite topic at present among the politically enlightened anyway.

But in the USA, TV networks, websites and newspapers can offer their audiences whatever they want to. That’s the beauty of freedom of speech. We have the option to refrain from reading or viewing, or avoiding sponsors if we don’t like a decision.

The Fairness Doctrine would inject the government into your content. That is an infraction of the US Constitution. So while it saddens me there is a racial divide promulgated by some in our country, I am comforted that we have the freedom to protest or speak against what we don’t agree with. And how do we even define broadcasting today? The doctrine of old was established for a completely different and by today's standards less sophisticated marketplace.

Those who don’t like TV One’s decision can write to the station or to the corporations involved in their venture. According to the station’s website, “TV One is a venture of Radio One, Inc., the largest radio broadcaster primarily targeting African American and urban listeners, and Comcast Corporation, the largest cable operator in the country, along with Bear Stearns, Constellation Ventures, Syndicated Communications and Opportunity Capital Partners.”

Finally, the obsession over a potential black American president reflects exactly how fixated we are on our own country rather than the world at large. Many leaders in other countries are people of color, a fact overlooked by our own media. Coincidentally, most are male. Gender bias it seems has fallen from favor among the “thinkerati” as I call them. In the long line of history, this presidential election will be just another blip on the timeline anyway. We are truly insignificant, other than during the fleeting time we prowl this planet in the flesh. But right now, if you’re a black person who supports a GOP candidate, you are truly insignificant to TV One.

Edited 7-13-08; Kay B. Day