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I have been self-employed since 2002. My focus is on providing online marketing support to small businesses. Many of us are amazed at the rapid growth of social networks and the ability to market one's business on the cheap. However, it is worth remembering that there are still ol' school marketing opportunities with your local media.
Media are constantly looking for new stories and information that will interest their audiences. Chances are, your town has at least one major newspaper, several smaller papers, a few TV stations, a bunch of radio stations, and at least one cable company. Here are a few things to consider:
Local media like to cover local stories. You have a much better chance of getting free publicity from a reporter in your area than from national media.
Local talk radio stations and programs are constantly in need of interesting guests. Watch for times when your area of expertise fits with a breaking story, holiday, or issue the media is covering.
Send your local media a press release when you have something new to announce: a new product, service, public service program, or alliance with another business.
Small businesses often make good feature stories. Work up a sheet of helpful tips related to your business. Make sure they are things the media audience will be interested in.
Work with local charities and blow your own horn.
I hope that these small business tips are helpful to you. Feel free to contact me by email or phone (513.284-4968) if you would like to discuss additional ways to market your small business.
In the meantime, I will continue to share these Village Tips on a semi-regular basis!
Keith Olbermann will be back on his MSNBC show tomorrow. He issued the following note:
Statement To The Viewers Of Countdown
I want to sincerely thank you for the honor of your extraordinary and ground-rattling support.
Your efforts have been integral to the remedying of these recent events, and the results should remind us of the power of individuals spontaneously acting together to correct injustices great or small.
I would also like to acknowledge with respect the many commentators and reporters, including those with whom my politics do not overlap, for their support.
I also wish to apologize to you viewers for having precipitated such anxiety and unnecessary drama. You should know that I mistakenly violated an inconsistently applied rule – which I previously knew nothing about -- that pertains to the process by which such political contributions are approved by NBC. Certainly this mistake merited a form of public acknowledgment and/or internal warning, and an on-air discussion about the merits of limitations on such campaign contributions by all employees of news organizations.
Instead, after my representative was assured that no suspension was contemplated, I was suspended without a hearing, and learned of that suspension through the media.
You should also know that I did not attempt to keep any of these political
contributions secret; I knew they would be known to you and the rest of the public. I did not make them through a relative, friend, corporation, PAC, or any other intermediary, and I did not blame them on some kind of convenient 'mistake' by their recipients.
When a website contacted NBC about one of the donations, I immediately volunteered that there were in fact three of them; and contrary to much of the subsequent reporting, I immediately volunteered to explain all this, on-air and off, in the fashion MSNBC desired.
I genuinely look forward to rejoining you on Countdown on Tuesday, to begin the repayment of your latest display of support and loyalty - support and loyalty that is truly mutual.
It is nice to see that MSNBC listened to the voice of the people. Villagers who are so inclined should feel free to congratulate Keith on his return.
“Became aware of Keith’s political contributions late last night. Mindful of NBC News policy and standards, I have suspended him indefinitely without pay.”
However, Olbermann didn't get prior approval for the donation. NBC News prohibits its employees from working on, or donating to, political campaigns unless a special exception is granted by the news division president -- effectively a ban. Olbermann's bosses did not find out about the donations until after they were made.
The policy seems stupid. There is nothing illegal about making a donation ... so why should an employee be penalized for doing so.
On another level, it seems hypocritical because one of the major news networks (Fox) gave $1 million dollars to the Republican Governors Association without any consequence. Yet, a major news network is suspending, without pay, one of their commentators for giving $2,400 to three candidates?
Progressives took a shellacking during the mid-term elections on Tuesday. Now it appears that some progressives are being eaten alive in the aftermath.
If this isn't resolved quickly then I don't see how or why Keith Olbermann comes back to the network. Like Conan or Juan Williams ... it seems likely that another network may make a lucrative offer to Olbermann.
In the meantime, the call for a boycott of MSNBC has already been made by at least one progressive organization.
When the White House wanted to get its latest message out to Black communities, it didn't call a press conference. Its spokespeople didn't turn to BET or Black radio. They called in Black bloggers, most of them not even remotely political, and few if any working journalists. What the White House hoped to accomplish was crystal clear --- to use them the manner corrupt and lazy reporters are used, to seduce them with the illusion of “privileged access” in return for the ability to plant anonymous stories and gossip as “news” items.
“Real journalists would have laughed those anonymous spokesperson and “off the record” requirements right out of the room. Ethical journalists only grant anonymity to sources like whistle blowers with well-founded fears of retaliation.”
In the words of I.F. Stone, one of the 20th century's great investigative journalists, “Governments lie. All governments lie.” Stone's words are as true now as they were when he uttered them more than half a century ago.
When the White House invited black bloggers in for a Columbus Day meeting, they were told they could print anything they heard in the first half of the meeting, but that they could attribute none of it to any White House spokesperson by name, while the second half of their meeting would be completely “off the record.” Fortunately, or perhaps by design, none of the invited bloggers were actually journalists. They hailed mostly from celebrity gossip sites like ConcreteLoop, and Young, Black and Fabulous, from BET, Essence magazine, from BlackSingles.Com.
Real journalists would have laughed those anonymous spokesperson and “off the record” requirements right out of the room. Ethical journalists only grant anonymity to sources like whistle blowers with well-founded fears of retaliation, not to police to mayors or to prosecutors, not to military or civilian government officials. The only reason for representatives of these powerful institutions to speak to reporters, or bloggers “off the record” is to lie to them with the expectation that they will pass untraceable falsehoods on to the public as news, or in the case of Young, Black and Fabulous, celebrity gossip.
Sure enough, cell phone video of the president dropping in to briefly address the bloggers hit the internet the very next day, prompting the Atlantic's token Black commentator Ta Nehisi Coates to grouse about colored folks who didn't understand what “off the record” meant, as if being the covert mouthpieces of the powerful were something they really should strive to be.
“Black Agenda Report was not invited to the White House briefing,and that's perfectly OK with us.“
One of the invitees was a friend and colleague of ours, Ms. Leutisha Stills, now at Jack and Jill Politics. Observing that the White House hadn't called Black bloggers in since the 2008 presidential campaign, she opined that the bloggers were being, as she put it, “pimped.” We think Ms. Stills was correct, but for the wrong reasons. To be “pimped” is to be manipulated for some underhanded and shameful purpose. Whether bloggers, or journalists are shamefully used once every couple years, or three times every week is a difference only in the frequency of the act, not in the roles of the players or of the played.
Thus when Keli Goff, a Huffington Post and theLoop21.com blogger, called the White House briefing “a good first date,” she was publicly signaling her willingness to be used any way, any time by the powerful. There's a word for people who play that role, and that word is not “journalist.”
In his long career, the great investigative reporter I.F. Stone broke scores of original stories about war, peace and corruption. He never asked for, and he never got the privileged and “off the record” access to the powerful, which Ta Nehisi Coates imagines Black reporters should aspire to, the private interviews with mayors, admirals and presidents, who would have been much too afraid of his direct and probing questions anyway. Stone got his stories the old fashioned way, with diligent research.
Black Agenda Report was not invited to the White House briefing, and that's perfectly OK with us. We understand that reporters and bloggers too, who subsist on privileged access to the powerful in return for passing their anonymous tidbits to the public as news, that such people are being pimped. Which makes them.... well.... you know....
For Black Agenda Radio, I'm Bruce Dixon. Find us on the web every Wednesday at www.blackagendareport.com.
Bruce makes some great points in his commentary. There are just two points that I'd like to make.
First, the White House wanted to get their message out to a wide audience in the Black community. As we know from the Villager's Black Blog Rankings that I maintained for a couple of years ... gossip blogs have remarkably large audiences. That factoid seems to be the most important metric in the equation for the White House peeps.
Second, bloggers are (for the most part) not journalists. We don't have journalistic training ... we don't have the budgets that many journalists have to travel ... we are simply bloggers. As such, to hold bloggers (for the most part) to the same standards as journalists isn't realistic.
On the whole, I think that it is a good thing that Black bloggers are being included in more of the political discussions. Perhaps more of us need to get some journalistic training or learn what the standards are for things like "off-the-record" discussions. But, until then, I think that the African American online community needs to continue to seek out and accept these opportunities when they are available to us.
On Monday, Andrew Breitbart (a blogger who works closely with FOX News and has a long history of launching deceptive, racially charged smear campaigns) posted a deceptively edited video of USDA employee Shirley Sherrod speaking at an NAACP function. The video shows Sherrod telling a story about how she once was asked for help from a White farmer, and how she didn't "give him the full force of what I could do" to help him, because of his race.
Breitbart touted the video as evidence that the NAACP and the Obama administration tolerated racial discrimination against White people, saying that it showed Sherrod's "federal duties are managed through the prism of race and class distinctions." Breitbart's doctored video and false storyline moved quickly to FOX News, where on-air personalities called for Sherrod's firing.
The truth is that Sherrod was telling a 24-year old story about her work for a non-profit organization whose mission was to help Black farmers. Discrimination against Black farmers was rampant, and she described how she was first reluctant when approached by a White farmer named Roger Spooner for help (Sherrod also says that her father was killed by a White farmer 45 years ago). But after seeing that no one wanted to help Spooner, she worked to save his farm, and eventually became good friends with his family.
Yesterday, Roger Spooner said that Sherrod saved their farm and kept them out of bankruptcy. He told CNN, "I don't know what brought up the racist mess. They just want to stir up some trouble, it sounds to me in my opinion."
The NAACP was snookered. They joined the attack on Shirley Sherrod based on the the edited video. They should have simply watched the full speech before they rushed to judgement. The full video is shown below:
It took less than 24 hours for the lies to be debunked. But by that time, it was too late — Sherrod was forced to quit.
Once the truth became known, Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack issued a statement saying that whether or not the smear campaign against Sherrod was based in lies, it was necessary to fire her because the "controversy" would make it hard for her to do her job.
The Obama administration is essentially saying that they will always back down in the face of dishonest, race-baiting smear campaigns launched by right-wing propagandists. They've ended the career of someone who did nothing wrong, and by handing a victory to the people who launched this deception, the administration is encouraging them to launch even more smears. All to avoid "controversy." It's pathetic, it's shameful, and it has to stop.
It's not the first time this has happened. Several members of the Obama administration have lost their jobs or been demoted, and nominees to cabinet positions have either stepped down or withdrawn their nominations after becoming the target of smear campaigns launched by FOX News and Breitbart.
It's bad enough that we have to fight the constant smear campaigns and appeals to racial paranoia from FOX and the right-wing media. But it's completely shameful and outrageous for the Obama administration to throw innocent public servants under the bus just to avoid having to fight back against the lies.
Please join us in calling on the White House to immediately give Shirley Sherrod her job back, and to stop bowing to the will of right-wing propaganda artists.
It is 2010, but the National Association of Black Journalists sees our cable news networks moving backward when it comes to who they believe is worthy of anchoring prime-time news shows.
NABJ was founded in 1975 to encourage news media companies to hire and to promote more Black journalists. At that time, Black journalists originally hired to cover riots during the turbulent 1960s found they were not being assigned to other meaningful beats or were only allowed to cover “Black” stories.
NABJ’s advocacy for fair hiring practices paid off. Many of our founders, including columnists Les Payne in New York and DeWayne Wickham in Washington, D.C., and anchor Maureen Bunyan in Washington, D.C. remain prominent figures in the media.
NABJ continues this advocacy today. To be candid, we have been focusing our talks with media executives on ways they can increase the diversity of their news management teams. It is our belief that a diverse management team improves coverage decisions and hiring practices. It seems, though, that the companies have taken that to mean that we don’t care about who is on the air. We’re watching, and we do.
Over the past several years, NABJ Executive Board members have met with leaders of the top media companies. Our message: “Let us help if you are looking for diverse talent.”
Some of the companies have reached out, but the names we have submitted never seem to be called in for interviews.
Three years ago, Ebony magazine’s Kevin Chappell noted, “While CNN has the most Black news anchors with eight, the other cable networks don’t (fare) as well… and none of the national cable stations has any Blacks in prime-time slots.”
Nothing has changed. NABJ questions CNN’s decision to hire former New York governor/attorney general Eliot Spitzer to co-host a new show in Campbell Brown’s old time slot. The company missed another opportunity to place a person of color in prime time. It just seems that cable news can never find diverse candidates who are good enough to meet their standards. We want to know your standards.
Are you telling us that CNN could find no one better than an ex-politician who quit being New York governor after consorting with prostitutes to grace America’s living rooms each night?
CNN does have Tony Harris anchoring in the morning, and Fredricka Whitfield, T.J. Holmes, and Don Lemon on the weekends. But that’s not prime time. The same can be said about MSNBC which last week named veteran Lawrence O’Donnell as the anchor of its new 10 p.m. show. The prime-time host line-up at Fox News also lacks any racial diversity.
“In his story, Chappell talked with NABJ Member and CBS News anchor Russ Mitchell who summed up what many of us have witnessed over the years. Mitchell told Ebony “I’ve been to journalism conferences over and over again, and heard some executive say ‘I’d like to hire more African-Americans, but I just can’t find any qualified ones out there.’ That was b.s. then, and that’s b.s. now.”
NABJ couldn’t agree more.
Sincerely,
The National Association of Black Journalists
Do you want to raise awareness and drive traffic to bloggers in the afrosphere? If so, you'll be interested to learn that BlackNewsJunkie.com came online 2 years ago.
One of the features of the BlackNewsJunkie.com is to get Black news stories a wider circulation. BlackNewsJunkie.com has been redesigned to provide similar features as Digg, however instead of "digging" a news story; if a user likes a news article, they can give it the proverbial "Black fist" that became iconic during the Black power movement of the 60s.
Imani Mance, owner of BlackNewsJunkie.com notes, "... the Black power fist is universal in the African American community. We thought it was not only appropriate for ranking the top Black news stories of the day, but it also was chosen as our icon because of the historical significance of us launching the site during Black history month."
While African Americans have built a tradition of integration since the 70s of working, playing, shopping and even educating their community with resources provided by mainstream America, they also have a long tradition of creating their own when the mainstream neglects to serve their needs. BlackNewsJunkie.com is an example of this phenomenon of creating something by the people and for the people.
If you are a so called "news junkie" who can’t start your daily Internet browsing activities without getting a dose of the latest news to hit the web, then you can help build something for our people by joining the BlackNewsJunkie.com community today and putting your virtual Black power fist to work.
Ann Curry, who for the past four years has used her position as an influential reporter for NBC to cover the humanitarian crisis in Darfur, is a villager at heart. She has reported on rape and sexual violence against Darfuri women, interviewed survivors and drawn attention to the fact that, despite having borne and seen unbelievable horrors, these women continue to sustain their families and provide leadership in their communities.
Without reporters like Ann Curry we wouldn't hear much from the ground in Sudan. Perhaps equally importantly, though, networks won't spend time, money and resources on issues they think people don't care about. "No news" is not good news for those on the ground. Please contact Dateline NBC at dateline@nbcuni.com and ask the producers to run a special on violence against women in Darfur and to continue to amplify the voices of Sudanese women striving for peace.
National Elder, 91 year old Dr. Edward W. Robinson, Jr., is calling to action those individuals and organizations that are ready to step up and help him implement his solution to combat the rise in violence and other social ills that disproportionately affect the African American community ("THE PROBLEM"). For 65 years, Dr. Robinson, an author, attorney, activist, curriculum specialist, film maker, historian and past president of a Black-owned insurance company has conducted numerous experiments to define the causes of, and find the solutions to, "the problem". This effort has led Robinson to launch a new company called the African Genesis Media Group (AGMG).
His work has proven that THE PROBLEM is that the total society (inclusive of Africans and African Americans) has been programmed by the media to despise everything African. He contends that all of the conditions referred to as "problems" are merely symptoms or manifestations of that one problem. His ground-breaking research recently resulted in the Philadelphia School District commissioning him to infuse African history into the curriculum which all students must complete in order to graduate from high school.
He has gathered together some of the best and brightest minds to form the African Genesis Media Group. The mission of this new company is to promote positive images of the African American community through television, film, print, the arts, lectures and cultural trips. Its purpose is to correct the false perceptions generated by the media over the past 400 years concerning Africans and to restore the world's belief in the fact that ancient Africans created civilization.
If you are sick and tired of your community being plagued by "the problem"; fratricide / teen pregnancy / rising school drop out and incarceration, then heed the call of Dr Robinson to all serious minded individuals and groups interested in doing something in an organized, scientific manner as opposed to just moaning and groaning.
Join him in this effort by visiting their website and signing up. Further information can also be obtained by email or by calling (215) 247-1545.
We still have a long way to go in our nation before we judge people by the content of the character rather than the color of their skin. As long as folks like Mark Larsen continue to spout their racist views.
WWBA-AM (820) morning man Mark Larsen, who is white, dressed in blackface makeup at the start of his show. Joined by the station’s news director Roger Schulman, Larsen joked about caking on the cosmetics, using a number of racially influenced comments in the process. Fans could watch the whole process go down via an in-studio Webcam.
“This gives me that Uncle Tom feel,” said Larsen, who also joked about changing his name to Marcus Washington Larsen. “Are you sure this comes off? Because I don’t feel like running for president.”
Before Tuesday’s election, Larsen talked about seeing a long line of Black people waiting to vote at a Tampa Bay area polling place, saying they “looked like the line for takeout at Big Tim’s Barbecue” in St. Petersburg.
Villagers, what say u? Will we ever make it to the mountaintop?
I no longer question the relevance of the organization. First, one of my colleagues in The AfroSpear is president of the NAACP Wichita Branch and his consistent advocacy on the part of our people is beyond reproach. Second, I've seen the continued evolution of the NAACP Cincinnati Branch as it relates to matters of economic development as well as social justice.
However, I was still surprised to receive invitation to join NAACP president Ben Jealous on a conference call he wanted to hold with some members of the afrosphere. African American Political Pundit and the Super Spade were other bloggers on the call. Mr. Jealous had Hilary Shelton(DC Bureau Director), Carla Sims (Communications) and Nicole Hayes (Media Relations) on the call from the NAACP.
Mr. Jealous indicated that he wants to create a more direct connection with Black people through the evolving blogger networks. He wants to see NAACP use more Web 2.0 tools to communicate with his stakeholders.
The four topics Mr. Jealous wanted to update us on included:
2008 Presidential Election - NAACP effort to register voters as part of the 'Upload to Uplift' initiative was a success. 17,288 people registered to vote via this online project at the time of our call. Mr. Jealous noted that he planned to be in North Carolina in the coming week to encourage early voting. I was pleased to learn that he planned to contact the #1-ranked Black blogger, Pam Spaulding, during his visit to North Carolina.
Black Radio - NAACP wrote FCC Chairman Kevin Martin to ask that the FCC investigate Arbitron's Portable People Meter (PPM) methodology. Jealous says the PPM methodology "dramatically undercounts and misrepresents the listening habits of racial and ethnic minorities -- so much so that the continuing viability of minority radio stations is seriously threatened."
Foreclosure Crisis - Evidently, the NAACP has been knee-deep in this issue since 2007 when it became apparent that 52% of the African American families with subprime mortgages purchased in 2005 were likely to be in foreclosure by 2009. NAACP expressed concern about predatory lendors and shysters that underplayed the balloon payments and interest-rate escalators. NAACP is monitoring how the Treasury Department implements the $700 billion bailout plan to ensure that African Americans families benefit as much as others. African American Political Pundit asked the NAACP to take a look at the contracts purchased with the $700 billion funds to ensure that 8(a) and MBE-certified corporations get a chance to compete whenever possible.
Texas Visit - Mr. Jealous noted that he was heading to Texas this weekend. He planned to meet with NAACP members and leaders impacted by Hurricane Ike. He also wanted to get a first-hand account of the Brandon McClelland case in Paris, TX. We asked him to keep us informed of his findings.
The conference call ended with discussions about NAACP getting onto Twitter and such.
Overall, I found Bro. Jealous to be well-informed and willing to empower his staff. Also, the mere idea that he wants to engage with the afrosphere (Black bloggers) is a powerful indication that he "gets it" when it comes to leading a large organization in the 21st century.
I look forward to future discussions between the NAACP and Ben Jealous. Villagers, let me know if you have issues you want covered at the next conference call between NAACP and Black bloggers.
The first presidential debate between John McCain and Barack Obama takes place this week. I join with Media Matters and others in looking to 'change the debate' from the silliness that we saw during the debates in the primary season. Check out the following video as a reminder of debate questions that were unworthy of being used for POTUS candidates:
I encourage villagers to sign the online petition asking the moderators of the upcoming presidential and vice-presidential debates to do the right thing for the American public.
Hmmmm ... what is the question that you hope Obama or McCain are asked at the first debate later this week?
Drumbeats from Idette Vaughan pointed us to the International P.O.W.E.R. Magazine. This is a personal development magazine focused on prayer, obedience, worship, edification and rebirth.
I was pleased to see that the entire magazine could be read online. I encourage villagers to check out the September 2008 issue.
Drumbeats from Philip Barron inform us that the parents of PFC LaVena Johnson, John and Linda Johnson, are scheduled to be interviewed on The Jim Bohannon Show on Monday night, September 8, during the 11 pm hour.
Also scheduled, during the second half of the hour, is Coz Carson of US Talk Network, who interviewed John and Linda in August. Carson will speak about media coverage on LaVena’s story, particularly the role of alternative media outlets.
Drumbeats from The Urban Report pointed us to this interview of Chicago Tribune reporter Howard Witt. Witt, who broke the Shaquanda Cotton and Jena 6 stories, tells of the power of African American blogs, shortcoming of the white blogosphere and how mainstream media cuts might mean the end of Cotton and Jena 6 type stories.
A&E Network is actually one of my favorite locations on television. There are a number of syndicated shows and original programming from that network that I enjoy watching. So, I am very disappointed at the decision of the network to bring back a self-proclaimed racist, Duane 'Dog' Chapman back on the air. Last month I joined many others in a Day of Blogging for Media Respect to protest this decision. A&E Network did not budge on their decision to bring back Chapman's show.
The next step is simple. Identify the A&E Network advertisers who support this show. We will alert the broader public about those Dog-sponsors. After all, sponsoring Duane Chapman's show is a sign that these companies have little or no respect for their African American customers. Duane Chapman should not be able to profit for his racially-motivated vitriol and hatred [see video].
You can read the press release from the Afrosphere Action Coalition here.
The Obama campaign issued the following statement: “The New Yorker may think, as one of their staff explained to us, that their cover is a satirical lampoon of the caricature Senator Obama’s right wing critics have tried to create. But most readers will see it as tasteless and offensive. And we agree.”
I recall that the editor of Golf Magazine was fired when he allowed a cover photo of a noose. I hope that the editor of The New Yorker and any other idiot that thought this cover was a good idea is fired as well.
Procter & Gamble (P&G) spends more money on advertising than any other company in the world. General Motors (GM) is one of the best known companies in the world. It must be a bad day if both P&G and GM decide to pull their endorsement from your television network. Black Entertainment Television (BET) had a bad day as both P&G and GM finally said 'enough is enough'. The two large corporations pulled ads from BET’s Rap City and 106 & Park programs.
Rap City features music videos and artist interviews and 106 & Park is a top 10 music video countdown. Both shows attract a large under-18 audience. A recent study completed by the Parent Television Council highlighted high levels of sex, violence and profanity in both programs and reported, among other things, that Rap City featured on average 31.6 instances of sex, 25.3 instances of explicit language and 11.7 instances of violence per hour.
Drumbeats can be heard all over the afrosphere in approval of decision by P&G and GM executives. Enough truly is enough! What say u?
A&E Network is the object of our collective ire as a result of their decision to bring Duane Chapman (aka 'Dog the Bounty Hunter') back on the air. Chapman had been taken off the air after his racist rantings became public knowledge.
The AAC wrote the network and its advertisers to express anger over this immoral decision to bring Chapman back on the public airwaves. We are taking a stand against Chapman's expressed racism. It is our view that Chapman has not adequately atoned for the racially derogatory intent of his words. Instead, he made claims about his motivation being benign and disparaged his son’s Black girlfriend, Monique Shinnery.
'They should pull the show completely and never air reruns or anything with Chapman ever again,' SiCap president Wayne Perry says in a press release. "A&E should wash their hands of this guy. Dog’s rant has personally disrupted my faith in people, and we will never associate any of our brands with any forum that supports racism in any way. This goes far beyond what Don Imus said on MSNBC, and they fired him immediately.”
We seek respect for people of African descent.
Daz Wilson, AAC co-coordinator, says, "The Black community won't tolerate the lack of consideration and respect we have seen from television networks, which have become increasingly insulting in their commentary; using stereotypical depictions, and allowing their spokespersons and actors to use racial slurs or refer to 'lynching' in a self-described joking manner. This unacceptable behavior seems to be shared by A&E Network, despite the fact that they and their advertisers benefit from diverse audiences and consumers."
I encourage all villagers to take a moment to call or write A&E Network and its sponsors to let them know you seek respect for people of African descent. Let them know you want A&E Network to remove Duane 'Dog the Bounty Hunter' Chapman from their airwaves.
Kudos to the Afrosphere Action Coalition coordinators -- Daz Wilson, Yobachi Boswell and Francis Holland -- for providing leadership on this Day of Blogging for Media Justice.
I'm interested in hearing your village voice on this Chapman/A&E Network situation and this effort at online activism. What say u?
If you are sick and tired of your community being plagued by "the problem"; fratricide / teen pregnancy / rising school drop out and incarceration, then heed the call of Dr Robinson to all serious minded individuals and groups interested in doing something in an organized, scientific manner as opposed to just moaning and groaning.
