WHO GOT FCCed?
You may know them as the Federal Communications Commission, but when you sound out the letters FCC, what word comes out of your mouth? That’s right, the “F” word. Its quite plain now that thanks to Mike Powell, we in the Black media are going to get FCCed. But Then again, what else is new. When it actually comes down to it we can’t blame it all on Powell, the real scoop is, a significant number of Black newspapers have long since stopped being a real voice for Blacks, and have went way off into some advertising driven A-racial fluff. As a result they have disdained breaking stories about police brutality (although they will follow up on reports on brutality first written by White news sources), these Black editors watch schools shut down in the inner city, and claim its not about race, its about money, or anything but race (never-mind that suburban schools always seem to have enough money to educate their own). Not to mention the complete lack of dialogue that even mildly questions the Bush administration from the time of its questionable presidential victory, to the war on Iraq.
A direct result of this Black media indifference is that over the course of time White alternative newspapers have become the hard-hitting journals in various towns. This begs the question that if Black newspapers fail to tell the complete story of its own community, then does it deserve to be shut down? If so, then Young Michael Powell is just putting some periodicals out of their misery. I’ve heard over the years “I no longer read Black newspapers” from several people in the Black community.
A general feeling is that the Black press has at some point deserted them. Why? Because different Black papers have individual Black publishers and editors who have over the years developed opinions on how news should be disbursed throughout their community regarding what they’re readers should and should not know. Consider this to be a departure from the legacy of the Black press. Probably the most skilled and unsung professionals around today, is the Black newspaper writer, editor, publisher, columnist, and cartoonist. These stalwarts get the least respect from mainstream media. Big city papers may rate journalist from alternative White journals, but never mention journalists from the Black press-essentially the original alternative news-only when a writer takes a point of view that favors majority White points of view, does he or she get recognized.
One good measuring rule for Black editors to use for any given
issue affecting Blacks is, ‘what would Frederick Douglass say about this?’
Would the publisher and writer of a newspaper he published and wrote for while
an escaped slave/a fugitive of society, feel that in the 21st century we have
it made so much today that we can afford to ignore hard-hitting news and commentary,
or would Mr. Douglass have said ‘run with it?’ What USA Today calls
“the law of unintended consequences,” seems to have been very much
intended. The 6/2/03 ruling that threatens to change how many media properties
can be owned by a single entity or company stands to have its immediate effects
on local TV outlets, and in the long run threaten the small press. Black newspapers
are part of the small media, as are Black-owned radio and TV outlets. Advertising
for them was always a struggle, imagine a White-owned company that operates
a TV, radio, and newspaper in the same city selling package deals to advertisers,
as well as boost each other.
One fear is an even further dominance of right-wing slant, and the erosion of
diverse and critical thought.