Tavis finally bites the dust..
I know it's a bit late and old news about Tavis.. but this is a very good piece!!!
note: after receiving a few comments regarding this diarrhea, i've decided to make a little something something clear. i'm obviously clearly disliking tavis smiley. yes, this whole thing, this entire website is about personal opinion. so if you don't like it, respond and if your response is honest and thoughtful enough, hell i might publish it!
tavis smiley, host of b.e.t. tonight, a 2-year running nightly political forum focusing on the various african american perspectives on today's issues, will not be continuing on as such since viacom, owner of bet, has exercised the option of not extending his contract. tavis, known as the ultimate black interviewer, has had interviews with such people as the pope, bill clinton, michael jackson and others. he's made a statement you can view as well. because of the unbelievable opportunity he got as being the only balck opinion show host on the black entertainment network, he's been afforded opportunities to interview famous people everywhere. (he was let go via a faxed letter to his agent, containing a few lines, and quoted: "Five years, four sentences".
here's where i come in. listen buddy, if i was running the show, i would not even have called your ass! wake up people! he's not great! bet and many blacks are making him out to be the most awesome journalist that's lived! and he is not! he just got a great opportunity! not to say that he was the right guy for the job, but he did what he hadda do to get the job done i'm sure. plus a team of great writers always gives you an edge. he was just in the right place at the right time. u want to see a great black journalist? bernard shaw. that's a great journalist. a great black journalist.
i've watched smiley on the tv a couple of times, and believe me, i was not impressed. i think certain episodes of "what it is" on primetime have caught more of my interests than the string of famous characters he parades in front of black folks, thus heralding his ability to really make things happen, and talk to important people. which is not really existent or relevant, it's more like this: "hey, he's here, let him do it." if i was an important white leader in america, i'd make it my business to talk to the most popular black media politico around. regardless of how much of an idiot he really was. and there you have it. man, smiley has been so praised, it makes me sick. read some of this shit.
"Time selected him as one of America’s 50 most promising young leaders. Newsweek profiled him as one of the "20 people changing how Americans get their news" and dubbed him one of the nation’s "captains of the airwaves." Vanity Fair inducted him into their Hall of Fame. The New York Post screamed "Look out Larry King, here comes Tavis Smiley!" The Los Angeles Times says he’s on the "fast track, left lane." The Washington Post declared that he’s "winning friends and influencing people." The Philadelphia Inquirer says Smiley’s one of the most important political voices of his generation. Essence raves that his political writings "show us how to correct America’s swerve to the right." And Buzz magazine rates him one of the "100 coolest people in Los Angeles."
if you honestly believe this, that he's such a damned messiah to the race, then we have more problems than i thought. i know dozens of people who could do his job better than him! 10 times better! but unfortunately, they don't know the people he knows, they don't have the ins he had when he first started. he's been with BET for 5 years now, so he got a shot, and made it work. now, being good at what he does, and making the show work, are two distinctively different things. and i know he's not good at what he does, he just makes it work. the argument could be made that, he's not really doing anything good to start with, actually, causing me to rephrase the statement that he's not good at what he does.
anyway, what i wanted to say, is that, basically, my point has been proven. the network realizes they could do much better without tavis, and finally are letting him go. i'm happy about that. unless of course, and here i go twisting possibilities around (i love to do that), unless viacom is pressuring bet to simmer the political aspect of the network, down to a comfortable level. no need for the 36 billion company (99 annual report) to start making ennemies! i mean they cover the blacks (bet), the women (lifetime), the world on the road (infinity broadcasting radio empire owning 180 stations in 22 states), the world at home (blockbuster video), retail electronics (the wiz), what you read (simon and schuster), and the movies (paramount studios). they own everything. so you bet they can make things fit what they want. so that could be a reason. but i don't think so.
the bottom line is tavis smiley is an idiot and opportunist, who got smart watching games from the bench. that doesn't make him a pro. case in point, he's fired. by a company who knows entertainment.