Tips for J.C. Watts to Become The Black Ted Turner

Turns out that of all people, conservative Republican former Congressman J.C. Watts is trying his hand at what BET has said loud and clear that they didn't give a crap about: the news and black people.

So enter Watts and his new enterprise the Black Television News Channel, which he hopes will fill the void of African American-focused news and features. Great idea, actually. But it's not the first time someone has attempted to do news aimed at black people.

BET actually had an excellent news department that focused quality journalism on topics pertinent to our community, as well as throughout the African diaspora. However, once executives at the network decided to pull the plug on its broadcast news division, we were left without a major national television news outlet.
TV One, the black-owned media company headed by radio entrepreneurs Cathy Hughes and her son Alfred Liggins offers news programming through their daily schedule, as does BET, but not on the scale that Watts is talking about. This is a deal with Comcast Cable for a multi-city market to launch in 2009.

Now the question is: how will Watts successfully fill the gap left by BET when they decided to replace legitimate news with gold teeth and booty shaking?

Here's some tips for the BTNC that will help them to grab and keep a hungry black news audience ...

1) Understand who your audience is and take them seriously.

Watts could well have the first nightly national news anchors to report with cornrows and dreads, and it would be a welcome sight. But letting them be inarticulate or unprofessional in order to "keep it real" or on the other hand, introducing black versions of Michael Savage or Tucker Carlson would turn most black folks off. In fact, those two turn black people off, anyway.

2) Introduce several perspectives from the various corners of the black community.

I'm sick of black groupthink. The notion that we all have to vote Democrat, pray Baptist, speak country, screw hetero, eat greasy, work second shift, and dress pimpin' is preposterous. We are a very diverse people within a single ethnic group. That means our points of view will differ depending on where you go and who you talk to. Right now, television news seems to believe that all black people follow the loudest preacher blindly. Watts should commit himself to breaking that stereotype.

3) Report on more than black people.

We know that there is a world outside of our neighborhoods. There are people who are not black who pique our interests, and some of whom directly or indirectly affect black households and families. Non-blacks are our neighbors and friends, too. So a diversity of news would help the digestion of information you're giving us.

4) Don't be too preachy. And for God's sake NO STUPID TALKING HEADS!!!

I'm a grown-ass man. You don't have to tell me how to live my life. Give me the correct, useful info and I'll figure out who I should vote for. The opinions of pundits, most of whom are people just trying to self-promote as if they know things that we don't, are largely pointless and add nothing to my news experience. If you can bring some commentary that would add something new to a controversial topic that's one thing, but hour after hour of blathering idiots is a mistake that MSNBC, CNN and especially FOX News makes consistently and drives me to Comedy Central's The Daily Show.

5) Please make this a 24-hour NEWS channel.

And not a 3-hour news, 21-hour gospel channel. Rev. Cleophus PumpWave Gatorshoe from Collard Green Baptist Church and his minions have already purchased half of the airtime on every cable access station in the country. Not to offend the religious communities, but I'm not edified at all by scriptural interpretations that are on when I should be watching unprejudiced, secular journalism.

So let's see how ol' J.C. does and if he'll listen to what so many of us have been waiting for since they folded Emerge.

A message from Watts