What Black Bloggers Are Saying About BET's "We Got to DO a Better Mess"

Mo' Kelly is on a TEAR over there at the Mo' Kelly Report. Y'all know I don't believe in talking to BET, they are lying money grubbing sociopaths, but for some reason Mo' wants to talk to Jeanine Liburd, VP of Communications (her contact info is over at Mo's). I just called to tell her to talk to Mo'kelly and she was in a "conference call". FYI BET has been in a perpetual conference call for the past three weeks. Really Viacom, you should just run the place by a remote control computer. I don't think you could do worse.

Afro-Netizen is also not impressed by the name change. BET's new family values show changing its name from "Hot Ghetto Mess" to "Racism on Auto Pilot". (Or is it "We Can Do Better"?) Well, a fetid rose by any other name is still a fetid rose, right?

UPDATE(11:31) - You guys have got to listen to the audio of Reginald Hudlin's Interview with Television critics last weekend. Things did not go well. Notice when a reporter asks them last week why they just didn't change the name. Jam basically says that they didn't need to. Also listen to her dodge her website playing fast and loose with rules about posting potentially underage girls half naked. Y'all think we caused him a little headache?

UPDATE(9:52)- Someone has commented that the blog was mentioned on CNN. When and what show? I want to post a link

Jasmyne Cannick - Excellent writer that she is, basically articulates the points I would make if I could actually write. HAHAHA! She points out BET's unique position, how BET is abusing that position. She also brings up Shirley Q. Liquor. If you don't who Shirley Q. is, you need to. Its is pretty good and she goes toe to toe with Hudlin and Donaldson. Read "We Could Do Better... But We Won't." Reporters and producers who are looking for somebody other than me for comment, contact Jasmyne or the folks over at Racialicious. They spell it out far better than I can and they will do it without sounding like a Baptist preacher trying to convert folks ( it is a blessing.. it is a curse).

Faye Anderson gets it. In "BET Must Do Better" Faye calls the name change what it is... putting lipstick on a Pig. She, like I will be putting sponsors on blast come Wednesday night. She talks about previous efforts to reign in BET and why this time has been different.

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Open Letter to Ad Agencies - BET Goes Back on Word. “Hot Ghetto Mess” is still a Mess!

The blog, “What About Our Daughters?” has Sent the following letters to television advertising agencies.:

This letter is to alert you and your clients of a show airing on Black Entertainment Television tonight at 9:30PM CST called “We Got to Do Better.” The show was formerly called “Hot Ghetto Mess.” Following a public outcry, including a campaign started at my blog, “What About Our Daughters?,” Black Entertainment Television, relented and changed the name of the show as part of a compromise.

It appears as if the change in show title was just a ruse and BET intends to continue to promote the website HotGhettoMess.com by having the host, Charlie Murphy use the phrase “Hot Ghetto Mess” throughout the show. This is unacceptable and is not what we agreed to. The purpose of the name change was to sever the television show from the disgusting abominable website, HotGhettoMess.com .

If you have clients who have purchased advertising that will appear during the show, this letter serves as notice that we find it unacceptable for a corporation to associate itself with a show that promotes a website that contains photos of young African American children in abusive and neglectful conditions, teenage girls with their breasts exposed, some against their will, and a general pattern of bullying the poor, the mentally ill, the delusional and the very young.

If your clients have ads appearing in the show, please pass this on. We will keep a record of which ad agencies we sent this alert to in the event that your client becomes the subject of a boycott or protest as a result of their funding of “Hot Ghetto Mess” and you failed to inform them of the potential negative consequences of purchasing advertising on the show, whatever BET calls it.

Sincerely,

Gina
WhatAboutOurDaughters.blogspot.com
Whataboutourdaughters@gmail.com

Folks, I stayed up all night into the early morning hunting down, emailing and calling the 15 top multicultural ad agencies in this country to warn them and their clients about what BET is trying to pull. We have no way of knowing which companies are going to purchase advertising on HGM Redux, but I got money that says that by contacting these 15 ad buyers that we hit at least half of the sponsors. So when we target the advertisers, they will know that their ad agency let them walk into a hornets nest without giving them warning. NOT A GOOD THING!

IT would have been too much like RIGHT for BET to be honorable even in defeat, but NO, this is BET we're talking about here. Aren't they tired of me yet? How do you screw up a handmade compromise? For those of you who poo pooed the name change, you were right. We should have finished them off, you cannot be reasonable with these folks. . That mistake will never be made again. I keep trying to retire and exit stage left and BET keeps yanking me back in.

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Today is the DAY! Get Your Pens and Pencils Ready!

Folks I hope you have found yourself a watch party. If not, throw your own. IT has been a tough three weeks since I discovered the original HGM site ( of which I still have screen captures). I knew 30 seconds after I saw the ads pop up next to that blackface cartoon that a show called "Hot Ghetto Mess" was not going to air. I went to school with these marketing executives. They are risk averse and being associated with a blackface cartoon, by itself, was enough to drive them off.

I don't know what tomorrow will bring, but I know this. For the first time in 27 years, BET was forced to change course. Unlike BET Uncut which took SIX years to kill, this took more like six minutes on the phone with a CEO's office.

So get your pens and pencils ready. Write down your impressions and record the products and services advertised on the show and let us all sit back and wait to see what is going to happen.

This has been a ridiculously good learning experience for moi even though I have to deal with the occasional vermin that has been attracted to the site by the increased attention. This was worth it. This was absolutely worth it.

Whichever side you came down on this issue, do not lose sight of the fact that this battle was waged by two African American female attorneys in their thirties. Somewhere Thurgood Marshall, Ada Lois Sipuel Fisher and Charles Hamilton Houston have got to be smiling because both of us were zealous advocates for our positions right up to the bitter end. We ought to be proud of that.

Regardless of whose side you are on, I hope that this episode has given all of us a glimpse into the potential for Bloggers of Color, even if they are fighting with each other. Next summer we hope to all be able to gather to help lay the groundwork for future efforts by Bloggers of Color at the first International Black Interactive Conference, tentatively called Blogging While Brown.

Check out one of the best articles by a reporter about this whole brouhaha. Its is balanced. She talked to more than two people and she brought in an impartial expert. "BET still has 'Mess' Even With Title Change" . It is by Monica Haynes, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.

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Enjoy The Best Of WAOD - After Imus: Now What

I think I have made the original point of this blog. If you stop funding foolishness, it will go away.

I admire Jameela Donaldson for sticking with it for what must have been three long years of catching pure hell. I don't agree with your methods, but I have to admire you for hanging in there for so long.

Enjoy some of our archived posts and see how we ended up here. Don't worry. I ain't going to shut down the blog , just hand over day to day operations to some other bloggers for a while while I work on some movement building issues. Our new writers will be starting on Friday. I had to get them time to get their stuff together. I'll still be around and working feverishly in the background on logistics and strategy.

Folks remember that a blog is not an organization. It is a benevolent dictatorship. It is merely the outgrowth of an individual's personality and passion. So imagine what ever small demand you make on a blogger and multiply that by 1000 for all the other people that make their tiny demands. All those tiny little demands like " ad me to your blogroll" ( which is tacky by the way), or "I got this project I am working on can you put it on your blog" or " I got a show, can you come on." all add up really fast. Your cooperation in these matters is appreciated.

April 18, 2007

Was anyone else discouraged after Oprah’s Town Hall Meeting ?

I think there plenty of us that are equally outraged about the portrayal of African American women in popular culture . Now we need to get organized. It is time to DEFUND THE WAR ON BLACK WOMEN! Period. End of discussion. This isn’t about artistic expression. This is about capitalism. People have a right to basically say whatever they want to, but I don’t have to subsidize it in any way. Hence the term “starving artist.”

I know that there are countless groups throughout the nation that have been fighting the good fight and have gone relatively unnoticed by MSM ( mainstream media). Nor do I think we can rely on black men to lead the charge. So if you or your organization has started a local, regional, or national effort to take ACTION, let me know and I’ll post it on this blog. If you already have a distribution list to issue calls to action. Let me know, I’ll post it. I am not trying to create a new organization, just serve as a conduit to connect like- minded people together. My technical abilities are rather limited and I have the attention span of knat, but I can manage to post on a blog to get this started. We need a Moveon.org or EMILY’s List for black women.

I’m not interested in any committees, dialogues, commissions or a task force. Those are just ways to wear passionate people out. Diane Weathers said black women should take the lead in this fight. What are we going to DO now?

July 24, 2007
HAHAH! Why didn't I listen to my own advice. It's like I am psychic or something.

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An Introduction to some AMAZING Black blogs!

My Black Blogging Brethren and Sisteren ( is that a word?) are preparing to take this object lesson and run with it. I hope you will visit their sites. They are some wonderful writers and passionate activists. They were here before I got here and they will be here when this blog is gone .

If you want a sampling of the diversity and vibrancy of the Black Blogoshpere or Afrosphere or whatever you call it, you can take a glimpse at some aggregator sites with a wide sampling of Black bloggers.

The First is Bronze Trinity's Afrospehere Pageflakes Newspaper. Make sure you click on all four tabs.

RSSpect.org- Carries live feeds from countless numbers of Black bloggers.

African American Opinion - Contains cross postings from Black bloggers on a number of issues.

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