Al Sharpton Show

NABJ 'Happy' for Al Sharpton Opportunity

Activist Says Black Journalists Would Be Part of His Show

The Rev. Al Sharpton said Tuesday that if his show on MSNBC is made permanent, black journalists will be a part of it.

In a telephone call to Journal-isms, Sharpton said he understood that only a few had complained that journalists, not Sharpton, should have received a bid to host a show, but that the same people who distorted the issue into one of black journalists vs. Sharpton would have done the same had he appeared on a panel at the National Association of Black Journalists convention last week. Therefore, he decided to cancel.

"They were going to play it for confrontation," he said.

Sharpton devoted most of the call to a refutation of hints by Daily Beast writer Wayne Barrett , who wrote July 27, " Eight months after Al Sharpton signed a pivotal agreement that helped Comcast and NBC secure Federal Communications Commission approval for their $30 billion merger , MSNBC appears poised to reward him with a prime-time news show."

The next week, Barrett added, " Al Sharpton wasn’t just pleasing prospective employer MSNBC when he became the first major black leader to endorse the controversial Comcast/NBC merger . It turns out he was also enriching his current employer, Radio One, the largest black-owned radio company in the country, which has paid him more money than he’s made anywhere else in his life."

Sharpton answered several points in the articles, criticizing journalists for repeating the charges without investigating them. He asked, why would TV One support creation of potential rival stations, as Comcast committed to do when it signed memoranda of understanding with African American and other groups? And why would other civil rights groups settle for a television show for Sharpton in exchange?

"That is trivializing the commitment made to black people," Sharpton said. "Do they really think we're that stupid?" He also noted that Comcast was a major supporter of the NABJ convention in Philadelphia last week and that NABJ, like Sharpton, had given MSNBC President Phil Griffin an award. Yet "no one sees that as a conflict of interest."

Sharpton said he and Griffin, whom he said he has known for 15 years, were scheduled "to sit down and have a serious discussion" next week about the show. He said he has made it clear that "I'm still leading the National Action Network and civil rights work is what I do," regardless of whether he gets a show. As a 501(c)(4) corporation, his National Action Network does not make political endorsements, he said, answering critics who said his political activity might present a problem.

Teleprompter Confuses Al Sharpton During MSNBC Show | Prune Juice ...

Watch this clip of Rev. Al Sharpton completely obliterate whatever the hell was written on the teleprompter during Monday’s MSNBC telecast.

Sharpton was guest-hosting a show on the network when he made the public boo-boo. I wish I could tell you what he was *trying* to say … but it just sounded like “FAOEIJ;A;OJ209J3R90MAOIJAFO;IJEF….” LOL!

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