what's your opinion of Tavis Smiley??

I really loved watching him when he was on BET. As a 60+ white woman, I felt like I got a bit of insight on the diversity of black life in America.

There were programs on rap and hip hop, on blacks in the movies, on black homosexuals, on the world of rich blacks before the civil rights movement.

And there was one program about the Tom Joyner show, which I'd never heard of before.....and then shortly afterward c-span spent 2 hours with the show.

Tavis is a polished, confident and in-demand speaker. I love his message on empowerment and his delivery of truth. I can't get enough of Tavis Smiley and I'm hoping to see more Tavis , more often, in mainstream media. In fact, I think there's a career in politics for Tavis !

tavis talks

I used to listen to him on Tom Joyner's show, and sometimes he would start controversies that had not a whole lot of factual support behind them. I thought the CompUSA thing was weak.

Here is a recent conflict he had with NPR. Smiley uses some pretty inflammaotry langauge, in my opinion.


Broadcast All Over
Tavis Smiley's NPR Show Is History, but the Talk Lives On

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A14799-2005Jan16.html

By Howard Kurtz
Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, January 17, 2005; Page C01

brief excerpt:

When Tavis Smiley walked away from his National Public Radio show last month, he did not go quietly.

In a series of interviews, he cast aspersions on his former employer, telling Time: "It is ironic that a Republican president has an administration that is more inclusive and more diverse than a so-called liberal-media-elite network."

But NPR executives say Smiley simply would not negotiate after an agent delivered his demands. "We tried to meet, we tried to talk by phone," says Washington lawyer Robert Barnett, who represented NPR. "We were woefully unsuccessful. . . . I have been doing this 30 years, and I have never had an experience like this. I was disappointed because I wanted to make a deal, and more important my client wanted to make a deal."

Says Smiley: "What NPR is apparently upset about is not that I would not negotiate, but that I wouldn't acquiesce. I do not do my best work in chains and shackles. For black kids and brown kids yet unborn, I felt I had to say no. They were being disrespectful."

(jump)

Smiley wanted not only to own the program but to control the rebroadcast rights, which NPR says is a violation of its federal funding rules. And Smiley insisted on a $3 million promotion budget, which NPR found absurd since its entire advertising budget is $165,000 -- 80 percent of which, executives say, was spent on Smiley's program in each of the last two years. (NPR spent $138,000 last year on ads in Essence and Black Entertainment magazine.)

he says he never demanded a $3M promotion budget, for example, and he says he was perfectly willing to negotiate. It doesn't surprise me that Howie would slant the story in a way that favored NPR and against Tavis, though. I'm sure it didn't surprise Tavis either.

I think sometimes Tavis can be annoying in his interviews, but that's cool. I can be annoying too. I especially like when women fluster him, like Chaka Khan did, by making sexual comments. He gets completely tongue tied.

As I recall, she brought him a Victoria Secrets bra as a gift

I think he does a good job.

at times which many people don't like but then many do, so I give him a thumbs up.

He had guests other NPR hosts wouldn't think of or wouldn't be able to pull.

but he has given great national exposure to black voices who may have never been heard outside of their communities without him.
So, I guess I give him two thumbs up.

I don't agree with everything he says but I give him two thumbs up. He donated a million dollars to Texas State University for a new communications building. At least he's not keeping all of his millions to himself.

sometime gets a bit on my nerves. Did he get famous during the OJ trial? That's what I heard somewhere.

eom.

...always have.

:)