Hate BET? - Think About Supporting "Cable Choice"

Thanks to the Hollywood Reporter for the shout out! Somebody likes my limited graphic design abilities.

Sorry, this was going to be another LOOOOONG post. So I actually posted my full letter to FCC Chairman Kevin Martin over at The War On Black Women.

I've been hemming and hawing about whether to encourage people to support cable choice or a la carte cable. After reading the response of the creator of "Hot Ghetto Mess" to our criticism, I've decided that THIS level of arrogance must be STOPPED. To hear Debra Lee of BET tell it, cable choice or a la carte cable would place BET in serious peril financially ( I think she's lying, but thanks for the heads up Debbie Antoinette!)

What the heck is Cable Choice/ a la carte cable?
Basically ( pardon the pun), what a la carte cable means is that you would pay individually for the channels you actually watch as opposed to paying for one hundred channels when the average person only watches 17.

Those of you who keep e-mailing me saying you don't WATCH BET, you're still paying BET whether you watch them or not. So that's why they don't care if people say they are going to "boycott BET" you can't boycott BET unless you boycott cable in its entirety. BET gets paid whether you watch or not because they get a cut of your subscriber fee.

Although BET routinely runs around touting that they are beamed into 84 million households, they know that only a fraction of that 84 million would pay to specifically view BET. Some figures I have read indicate that BET receives 80% of its revenue from compulsory subscriber fees. Can you say OUCH if consumers had to actually choose to invite BET into their homes? Whether you agree with a la carte pricing or not, you should know that BET is representing that cable would become less DIVERSE if people actually got to choose what they could watch on cable.
Last week the NAACP, in between preparing to bury the "N-word" and selecting the menu for the banquets at their national convention, decided to send a letter to the Chair of the FCC in defense of BET and against cable choice In defense of the NAACP, they don't list BET by name, but who the heck else are they talking about? Here is the link. Here are the letters of other "civil rights" organizations carrying BET's water.

I've decided to write a letter explaining why in the case of BET, cable choice would be a wonderful thing. If you really are sick of BET and would just as soon have it land in the dust bin of history, you can write a letter too. Legislation is currently pending. If you want to send a letter to Chairman Martin about BET's Programming and your desire NOT to have to pay for it out of your cable bill, you can contact Chairman Martin here.

If you want to see the text of my letter to the Chairman, you can go here.

If you want to read about BET's foolishness, you can go here, here, here and here.

In addition to calling Debbie Lee on her elitist multimedia crack peddling, we also throw the occasional jab at Hip Hop, the Russell Simmons School of Obfuscation and Redirection, and Al Sharpton for exploiting the War on Black Women bumrush the closest cable TV camera.

Stroll through our greatest hits : Should Hip Hop be Eradicated?,?, DL Hughley is Wrong: White Folks May Have a Point, Where in the World is Rev. Al- Sharpton Watch Day 01, Sharpton Watch is Over!, OH Snap: Video of protesters confronting Dieon Sanders and Dl Hughley in Ft. Worth. and my inaugural post: After Imus: Now What.

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BET Programming Chief Unrepentant about “Hot Ghetto Mess” - "It's so doggone goood-!"- Ever Heard of Shirley Q. Liquor?

This is a LOOONG Post, but if you don't do anything else, scroll to the end to look at the links about Shirley Q. Liquor. I learn something new everyday.

So what is the big freaking deal with “Hot Ghetto Mess“? The tag line DOES say “ We got to do better!” So that makes everything okay. RIGHT? UM NOOO. According to Reginald Hudlin, he's seen the rough cuts of "Hot Ghetto Mess" and it is "It's SO DOGGONE GOOD."

Don’t let them fool you into thinking that something called “Hot Ghetto Mess” ,whose producers have been running all over the internet begging for people to send them photos of the most outrageous foolishness, is intended to do good. When in the recent history of BET has that network given even the slightest indication that they care about the average Black person? Exactly! They don’t care about Black people so why on earth would you trust that they have good intentions with a show called “Hot Ghetto Mess.”

I reject the argument that people can do anything that they want as long as they had GOOD INTENTIONS. “Oops! Sorry I hit you with my car. I didn’t intend to.” Come on! BET has one intention according to Debra Lee, to make money. Now there are lots of ways BET could make lots of money, but the ways that don’t require pimping out their people require too much work.

CONTEXT MATTERS. The point is that any redeeming value that a show called “ Hot ghetto Mess” may have is far outweighed by the certainty that any “positive” message will be lost in translation. This is not going to be Extreme Makeover: Hood Edition. This is going to be like watching a car wreck according to BET.

Mr Hudlin and Ms. Lee are both rich Harvard graduates who have the money and power to insulate themselves from the consequences of shows like “ Hot Ghetto Mess.” They can sit back and coo and laugh and dismiss the plebeians. “Let them eat cake!” “ It’s so doggone gooood!”


THE REAL DEAL
This is all a desperate attempt to catch up with their network cousin, VH1, home of Flavor of Love, I love New York, and Charm School. Faced with the frightening possibility that the top rated shows for African Americans were all on another network, BET has attempted to one-up VH1 by racing farther and faster to the bottom. I mean BET touts the face that it reaches 84 million households, despite how many people in those 84 million households actually WATCH! It is not a good thing if ratings indicate that Black folks ain’t watching Black Entertainment Television.

Again, I am going to post some additional links to sites that provide the history of blackface and the affect on African Americans even 150 years later. Does anyone have a problem with BET deciding that offering up Black folks as sacrificial lambs to pad their bottom line?

About Face: The HIstory of Blacking Up, The Guardian

Blackface is "a form of racist caricature invented by white Americans in the minstrel-show days of the 1800s," says American academic John Strausbaugh in his book, Black Like You. Blackface minstrelsy became one of the US's most popular musical styles. In this white imitation of black characters black people were portrayed as stupid, superstitious, lying, lazy and lascivious.

"It was a deliberate attempt to suggest that black people had no humanity," says Caryl Phillips, "When you're in blackface you can basically only smile or cry. You're not able to get beyond the blackface mask to display the full range of human emotions, and that suited exactly the prevailing idea in America at the time. It played absolutely into the idea of white racial superiority."

Do you REALLY think "Hot Ghetto Mess" is going to stay confined to the television set. Come on! We'll be seeing "Hot Ghetto Mess" parties this fall on most university campuses. Count on it. The black folks put it on TV so it MUST be okay. When Imus returns next fall to his radio show is he free to refer to folks as a " Hot Ghetto Mess" Will we be so caviler once our inside joke gets usurped by other folks?

Blackface Makes its Way to College Campuses, Daily Orange.com

Gaston Pastor Says Blackface Performance at Church Wasn't Racist, Gaston Gazette

Cultural Sensitivity: US, Japan, and Korea, Jesse Bluejay - You have got to see these pictures of people in Japan and Korea in blackface. I remind you that BET just launched BET Japan.

Shirley Q. Liquor, After Imus: A Black Face Comic Who Sings "12 Days of Kwanzaa", Rolling Stone, You have GOT to read this one. Here is a taste:

"He's a fat, gay forty-five-year-old white man, a part-time nurse, who lives alone with two cats and who believes he's on a mission from God. Once a month, Chuck Knipp (pronounced with a hard K, like "Knievel") transforms himself into a living taboo. First, he puts on a giant housedress and a pink, curly wig. Then he smears his doughy face and neck with chocolate-brown foundation."

Knipp plays Shirley Q Liquor.

"A welfare mother with nineteen kids who guzzles malt liquor, drives a Caddy and says in an "ignunt" Gulf Coast black dialect, "I'm gonna burn me up some chitlins and put some ketchup on there and aks Jesus to forgive my sins." Shirley also shops at "Kmark," eats "Egg McMuffmans," visits her "gynechiatrist" and just loves "homosexicals."

White folks love him. He's being hired to perform for lots of famous white people at their birthday parties and socials. Too many to name here. read the article. He is starting to "wonder" if what he is doing is hurtful

"Wealthy white people are starting to hire me for private parties, where I play the raisin in a bowl of oatmeal," he says. "From the way they interact with me, I can see that my being there as Shirley makes them feel it's acceptable to openly mock black people in a way they otherwise would not, and that does cause me to have second thoughts. If what I'm doing is truly hurtful, then I need to stop."

I can understand his confusion. Its hard for him to know what is offensive when we are cranking it out ourselves and laughing at it.

Still harmless and funny? I've got money that says " Hot Ghetto Mess" parties will be all the rage this fall on college campuses.

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Advertisers Flee Website Promoting Latest BET Show, " Hot Ghetto Mess"

Early indications are that advertisers want nothing to
do with Black Entertainment Television's latest venture into original
programming, a show called "Hot Ghetto Mess." State Farm and Home
Depot ordered BET to take their ads off of a page on BET.com promoting
the show .

The promotional page for the show features a blackface cartoon and
says that "Hot Ghetto Mess is like the traffic accident you can't look
away from."

The blog, What About Our Daughters?, and the National Congress of
Black Women asked advertisers to remove advertising form BET's " Hot
Ghetto Mess" promotional page,. Less than twenty-four hours later,
BET was forced to remove prominent banner ads which had flashed
advertising for State Farm, The Home Depot, Yum Brand's KFC, Target,
AT&T, and Daimler Chrysler. Both State Farm and The Home Depot said
that BET had erred by placing their company's ads on the " Hot Ghetto
Mess" site without their knowledge or permission.

"As a result of a technical issue with their ad-server, BET
inadvertently placed our ads within areas of their site that we did
not specify," said Christi Tricoli, Media Manager for the Home Depot.

State Farm was just as quick to demand that BET remove the company's
advertising from the page. According to Edward Gold, Advertising
Director for State Farm, "Hot Ghetto Mess" does not meet the
company's advertising guidelines and objectives and the company wants
no association with the program.

"We have reviewed the content of this program, which we just heard
about, and we will NOT be airing any State Farm advertising during
this program on BET. We have also directed our agency to have BET.com
remove any State Farm advertising to appear on the web page on
BET.com," Gold said in an email to the blog, What About Our Daughters?

Protests and petitions aimed at getting the show pulled before its
debut on July 25th have popped up all over the internet , but BET has
not relented to the outrage surrounding the show. BET continues to
solicit videos and photos from viewers. Viewers are encouraged to send
in photos and clips of people who look, sound and appear "bad " and
"ugly according to BET.com. The show will be hosted by Charlie
Murphy and according to the "Hot Ghetto Mess" promotions site, the
show will guide viewers through "shaking booties, thug life,
baby-mama drama and pimped-out high schoolers."

FYI. Please contact KFC (YUM BRANDS) to let them know that their ads are still appearing on the "Hot Ghetto Mess" website in the ads left in the left sidebar of the "Hot Ghetto Mess" site. Be nice about it though. The advertisers are at least being responsive to our requests.
Thanks for calling folks, YUM Brands must have gotten on BET for leaving their ads on the page. Now ALL ads are gone from the Bet.com page for " Hot Ghetto Mess." I have told y'all since the beginning of this blog that advertisers are running this show. I am waiting to see which companies are going to be so morally bankrupt that they would be willing to place ads on a show called "Hot Ghetto Mess".

Update No. 2. HA! It is spreading. After i pointed out that State Farm ads were still appearing on the BET.com page promoting DL Hugley's new show, SOB, BET.com has pulled all of the banner ads off of the SOB page as well. I am so sorry to the programmer over at BET.com who thought they were going to be able to leave early for the holiday.

For new readers, I want to remind you to take a look at some of our "Greatest Hits" posts. here are some of my personal favorites: Should Hip Hop be Eradicated?, New Loyalty Oath for the Black Blogosphere?, DL Hughley is Wrong: White Folks May Have a Point, Where in the World is Rev. Al- Sharpton Watch Day 01, Sharpton Watch is Over!, OH Snap: Video of protesters confronting Dieon Sanders and Dl Hughley in Ft. Worth. and my inaugural post: After Imus: Now What.

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State Farm/ The Home Depot Remove Ads from BET's "Hot Ghetto Mess" Website

Folks roll on over to the “Hot Ghetto Mess” site at BET.com Notice anything different? The banner ads have disappeared ( temporarily)! I know at least two advertisers contacted BET and their ad agencies and told BET to take their ads off of the Hot Ghetto Mess site. At 5:02, the State Farm ad was still up, fifteen minutes later, the banner ads have been removed and so has the ad in the middle of the page. So we made somebody at BET work today. If advertisers didn’t want their advertising on a web site promoting the show, imagine who will be willing to purchase ads for the actual show.

On July 25th I will be watching Hot Ghetto Mess and will report back to you which corporations are so morally bankrupt that they would be willing to fund the foolishness. Home Depot and State Farm offered their explanation for how their ads managed to end up next to a racist blackface cartoon. Basically they say BET screwed up.

I hope they will reconsider advertising with BET in any capacity. The advertisers are justifying their relationship with BET by saying that they are purchasing ads on specific shows or in specific sections of the site. Notice State Farm is still advertising on the SOB page.

More African Americans watch TNT, TBS or the CW on any single night than watch BET. There are lots of alternative ways to reach African Americans than BET. I am including the e-mails I received from Home Depot and State Farm. Baby steps folks. Baby steps.

Let this be a message to YOU BET! When “ Hot Ghetto Mess” premieres in July, any corporation whose ads appear on this show is going to hear from us!

The Home Depot is currently purchasing advertising within specific areas of BET.com. As a results of a technical issue with their ad-server, BET inadvertently placed our ads within areas of their site that we did not specify. This issue has since been resolved. We thank you for your inquiry.
Christi Tricoli, Media Manager

To: What About Our Daughters.org
From: Edward C. Gold, Advertising Director, State Farm Insurance Companies
Subject: Hot Ghetto Mess on BET
It has come to our attention that your What About Our Daughters blog has noted that State Farm is a sponsor of the new Hot Ghetto Mess program on BET, which does not premiere until July 25, 2007.
As a company, State Farm takes great care to be sensitive to the TV programming for placement of our advertising messages. We continually review all of the media where our advertising airs to ensure it meets our company’s objectives and guidelines. We have reviewed the content of this program, which we just heard about, and we will NOT be airing any State Farm advertising during this program on BET. We have also directed our agency to have BET.com remove any State Farm advertising to appear on the web page on BET.com describing this program.

As you may be aware, State Farm is proud to be a member of the Family Friendly Programming Forum. This is an association of national advertisers encouraging the entertainment community to provide more family friendly programming options. More information about this association is available online at www.familyprogramawards.com.

We would appreciate it if What About Our Daughters could remove the name of our Chairman and President, Ed Rust Jr., and his address from your blog site, so that we do not receive any additional calls or emails regarding this program.
Please feel free to forward any further concerns to my attention.

Best regards,

Ed

Thanks The Home Depot and State Farm, but y'all can't trust BET to take care of your brand. This WILL happen to your companies again because BET executive have no internal moral compass as demonstrated by a show called "Hot Ghetto Mess." Clearly BET Executives are contemptuous of their own audience and you should reconsider doing business with a company with no moral compass. Let me assure you that I don't know many people over the age of 25 that still watch BET so you are probably incurring a significant risk of being associated with offensive television with far less reward than you think. I can give you plenty of alternative websites where you could reach large numbers of African Americans without incurring the risk that they will put your brand next to some foolishness.

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Contact These Companies and Let Them Know What BET is doing to Their Brand

I’ve tracked down contact information for the CEOs of all of the companies whose advertising has appeared on the “ Hot Ghetto Mess” website at Bet. Com along with the "blackface" cartoon.

Please call them and let them know that we appreciate their company’s commitment to reaching African American consumers, there has to be another way to reach African Americans than subsidizing the promotion of a television show called “ Hot Ghetto Mess” whose logo is a “blackface ” cartoon. BET executives have demonstrated that they cannot be trusted with the their company’s brand.

I have gotten all of these companies on screen capture or I have printed our the page when their ads appeared. Take time today and donate some anytime minutes to let these folks know what BET is doing to their brand. Give them the URL where their advertisement appeared. http://www.bet.com/BETShows/HGM_AboutTheShow.htm.

State Farm Insurance
STATE FARM HAS TOLD BET TO REMOVE ALL STATE FARM ADS FROM THE " HOT GHETTO MESS" HOST PAGE ON BET.COM Thanks State Farm!

KFC Corp (YUM Brands)
1441 Gardener Ln.
Louisville,, KY 40213
502-874-1000
1800-Call-KFC

Target Corp.
Robert J. Ulrich
Chairman and CEO
1000 Nicollet Mall
Minneapolis, MN 55403
612-304-6073

AT&T Corp
David Dorman
Chairman and CEO
295 N. Maple Ave.
Basking Ridge, NJ 07920

DaimlerChrysler Corporation
Dieter Zetsche
1000 Chrysler Dr.
Auburn Hills, MI 48326
800-422-4797
248-576-5741
248-576-4742
www.daimlerchrysler.com

Home Depot Stores
HOME DEPOT HAS REMOVED ITS ADS FROM THE SITE! THANKS HOME DEPOT!

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