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New Member
NNPA News Service
National Correspondent
by Artelia C. Covington
WASHINGTON (NNPA)Black Entertainment Television is canceling most of
its popular public affairs programs, including BET Tonight with Ed
Gordon,Lead Story and Teen Summit. BET officials told the NNPA News
Service that both Lead Story, the panel of journalists that appears
each Sunday, and BET Tonight with Ed Gordon will be off the air by
the end of the year. Because of the backlog of programs already
taped, Teen Summit will remain on the air until early 2003.
The only remaining public affairs program on the network is the
nightly news program hosted by Jacque Reid, a former CNN anchor. BET
insiders say the news program was spared because it has a production
contract in place with CBS News, whose parent company also is Viacom.
This was obviously not Bob Johnson's decision because these were his
favorite programs, says one longtime BET executive. Another one
added, It was time to pay the piper and Bob's no longer the piper.
Johnson, the founder and chief executive officer of the company, sold
BET to Viacom on Jan. 23, 2001, for $3 billion $2.5 billion in stock
and $500 million in assumed debt. He owned 63 percent of BET, the
company he started in 1979.
Viacom already owned CBS, MTV, VH-1 and UPN. Purchasing BET, the
first and largest Black-oriented cable network, gave the company
entry into the important African-American community.
Johnson, who became the second-largest owner of Viacom with the sale
but gained no board presence, signed a five-year contract to remain
as chairman and CEO of the BET unit. BET's chief operating officer,
Debra L. Lee, also agreed to serve in her same capacity for five
years.
At the time of the sale, Lee said: The acquisition will have no
impact on the voice of BET. BET will continue to be run by Bob
Johnson and myself in the way we have always run it for the past 20
years. So we will continue to have an independent Black voice.
Obviously, that's not the case.
CBM
National Correspondent
by Artelia C. Covington
WASHINGTON (NNPA)Black Entertainment Television is canceling most of
its popular public affairs programs, including BET Tonight with Ed
Gordon,Lead Story and Teen Summit. BET officials told the NNPA News
Service that both Lead Story, the panel of journalists that appears
each Sunday, and BET Tonight with Ed Gordon will be off the air by
the end of the year. Because of the backlog of programs already
taped, Teen Summit will remain on the air until early 2003.
The only remaining public affairs program on the network is the
nightly news program hosted by Jacque Reid, a former CNN anchor. BET
insiders say the news program was spared because it has a production
contract in place with CBS News, whose parent company also is Viacom.
This was obviously not Bob Johnson's decision because these were his
favorite programs, says one longtime BET executive. Another one
added, It was time to pay the piper and Bob's no longer the piper.
Johnson, the founder and chief executive officer of the company, sold
BET to Viacom on Jan. 23, 2001, for $3 billion $2.5 billion in stock
and $500 million in assumed debt. He owned 63 percent of BET, the
company he started in 1979.
Viacom already owned CBS, MTV, VH-1 and UPN. Purchasing BET, the
first and largest Black-oriented cable network, gave the company
entry into the important African-American community.
Johnson, who became the second-largest owner of Viacom with the sale
but gained no board presence, signed a five-year contract to remain
as chairman and CEO of the BET unit. BET's chief operating officer,
Debra L. Lee, also agreed to serve in her same capacity for five
years.
At the time of the sale, Lee said: The acquisition will have no
impact on the voice of BET. BET will continue to be run by Bob
Johnson and myself in the way we have always run it for the past 20
years. So we will continue to have an independent Black voice.
Obviously, that's not the case.
CBM
