Regarding The Tom Joyner Morning Show
There is no way to put into words the love and respect that Tom Joyner and I have for each other, or the love affair that I've had with TJMS listeners for almost 12 years now.
Due to the overwhelming amount of phone calls and emails I have received from listeners and other media, I wanted to briefly clarify a few issues that I will address more fully in my regular TJMS commentary on Tuesday morning, April 15, at 8:20 a.m. ET.
I did not "quit" the Tom Joyner Morning Show effective immediately. In July I will celebrate my 12th anniversary with the show, and as I discussed with Tom, it is my intention to take on the issues of the day in my commentary twice every week with the same energy, passion and commitment until the end of June.
Contrary to what has been suggested, I have decided to clear some things off my plate so that I can devote my time and attention to some exciting and empowering projects that The Smiley Group, Inc. and other divisions of my company have underway this summer, this fall and beyond.
I look forward to continuing the dialogue on Tuesday and in the coming months.
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I listen to the Tom Joyner show and I love to hear J. Anthony Brown tell jokes and sing. I love the fact that the Tom Joyner Foundation gives money to help send students to college.
All I know about Tavis Smiley is his programs on the state of the black this and that. I don't know of anything that Tavis Smiley has done to help in the black community, except talk
What Tavis and others like Tavis need to understand is that Senator Obama is running for President to help all people. His focus is not and should not be based on the black community only. America is 300 million strong. It would be unfair of Obama to attend Tavis' events, which is nothing more than gloom and doom of black folks.
When his candidate, Senator Clinton, arrived at the state of the blacks, she did not talk to the black people who were in attendance. For whatever reason, she arrived after they had left and ended up talking one on one with Tavis Smiley. I would also like to see a list of things he's done for the black community with his own hands.
Lastly, I do not believe Tavis is being threatened. I believe he's telling the tales of threatening calls and E-mails just to get attention. The only threat Tavis is facing is food. He needs to back away from the table. He looks like a big unshaved ham hock to me.
It would take too long to point out all of your misinformation so I'll just pick one. Clinton gave a speech at the State of the Black Nation to a full house. After it ended, she was interviewed one-on-one by Smiley. You must have tuned in to the last five minutes, which is a shame because it was a powerful show with a riveting panel.
YOU STILL ARE THE "BAMA OF THE WEEK"!!! LOL!
You are a sell out. Plain and simple. Obama will win. Where will that leave you?
Who are you to call some one a sell out maybe Obama is the sell out he is the one pandering to the White Man!
dave - I think if Obama wins, Smiley will still be what he has always been - a classy, talented guy.
As if people who don't support Obama will be left somewhere undesireable if he is elected. As if they will suddenly be shunned to the fringes of society. Left to a cold lonely existence. The arrogance is so palpable with Obamatron it's hard to see through.
what do you mean if? If you are not an Obama-Zombie you are already shunned to the fringes of society
Dammit! To think I thought my prayers were answered.
don't let the doorknob hit ya...
Look, your career seems to be centered around the black community, yet you choose to not support the candidate that they overwhelmingly back. On top of that, you have the nerve to put Obama down because he didn't have time to come down and pander to YOU.
You have a right to say whatever you like, but are you really shocked about there being a backlash?
Why is the community you profess to represent, running past you and Clinton to Obama?
When Obama wins, this is really going to be embarrassing to know YOU did your best to not just support Clinton, but to stand in his way.
KIM HE WANT WIN!!! a vote for OBAMA IS A VOTE FOR REPUBLICAN IF HE DID WIN DO YOU
THINK HE IS GOING TO LOOK OUT FOR BLACK FOLKS, LOOK AT HOW MANY AFRICAN AMERICANS IS IN HIS CAMPAIGN MAYBE ONE OR TWO!!! WHAT DOES THAT TELL YOU!!!
This posting is silly and you are an idiot. It takes a very ignorant person to contend that one candidate is superior based not on facts but on some goofy feeling. Go to school.
Frankly, this is all nonsense. Politics does make strange bedfellows, but sooner or later everyone has to get out of bed. Say Obama wins it all. Is Tavis Smiley willing to stand outside and just look in? Can anyone say bandwagon?
"Say Obama wins it all. Is Tavis Smiley willing to stand outside and just look in? Can anyone say bandwagon?" Idiotic comment!
When one candidate takes the nomination, it's not jumping on the bandwagon for members of the party to support their candidate and then support them when they're in office, although not blindly. As far as the primary goes, there are plenty of us who are still pulling (the lever) for Hillary and hoping she will win the nomination. Yet most of us will vote for Obama should he be the nominee...
Agreed on the bandwagon part.
I will be voting for Hillary in the GE if Obama loses. I will be disagreeing with the way she ran this primary. I will still also be aggrieved if she or her supporters continue to use racial code for the rest of the primary.
The Republicans do not have anything new to offer me. They will not soft shoe the racial code. They will go after Obama like they went after Harold Ford in his race for the TN senate seat.
I don't think bandwagons or bedfellows have anything to do with it. If Smiley is a Democrat I'm sure he will support Obama in every way he can. He's not stupid.
Who gives a shit if Tavis Smiley quits or stays? No one's clamoring either way. His diction is almost as bad as Tom Brokaw's.
LOL! I think Tavis does speak rapidly, but NO ONE has Tom Brokaw's singular diction issue.
It is very imitable and I've laughed at many a TV skit or cartoon sitcom a la The Simpsons or Family Guy when a Brokaw character is involved.
Politically, Brokaw has been in the Republican tank probably all his career, but never more so than when he gleefully announced that Bush had won in 2000. He had to take back those words for about a month, but in the end he got his man in the White House. Now he is in the black turtleneck set, plugging his awful book (Boom!).
Tom Brokaw is a Democrat. He was offered a job in the Clinton administration and considered as a possible running mate for Kerry in 2004.
Nah.... Screw that King Tavis needs to go. He had drunk too much of his Kool Aide thinking he was the king maker. There are numerouse forums to address black issues. Everyone doesn't have to come to the state of black america. Matter of fact, I think it's a dog and pony show. So called, self appointed black elites come together from around the country, blow hot air, talking about what the white man did or didn't do. Some folks try to show-off their command of the english language. After all is said and done they crawl back to their little holes around the country and then turn around and trot out the next year.
We're tired of that crap. We need real change and Obama is bringing that. He understands that affirmative action programs are not sustainable for the long-term. It's a necessary evil for now, but the real playing field evener is education.
amen
AMEN!
Well said,mindact , Tavis Smiley and the likes of him just wanted to entrap Senator Obama with questions on repartions and affirmative action .Obama going down to New Orleans and mingling with the new Black Panther group and others would have probably ended his candidency. Tavis knows this . Thats what Sean Hannity and Rush Limbaugh is looking for,something like this to run with on their hate radio everyday. A man like Tavis should have known all this.
I disagree.
MINDACT Even if you get all that you hope for out of Barack Obama, do you really believe all problems you mentioned will be resolved in 4 years?
Tavis. SOBU. The rest of the scholastic thinkers in black America will still be relevant and vital to moving the agenda forward.
As much as I enjoyed MLK in my older years, I have to acknowledge he would not have gotten as far without the Panthers, NOI, or the demonstrations within SNCC.
Our community is diverse. We are even more diverse than I initially believed.
I agree with Bill Cosby as much as I agree with you. No one person can do it all. It takes a multitude of talented people to step up and work on the issues so that change will come.
I thought that is what the Democratic party represented for us all. It is one of the reason I haven't wanted Hillary out of the race before the last state has voted. We are different from the Republican party in that we have had a contest of ideas throughout 48 states. They contended in little more than half that. Different ideas do matter.
Tavis, your blind loyalty to HRC has been evident. Even on your PBS show which mostly offers a biased point of view: yours.
Frankly, considering the 'war', the state of the economy and the view of America around the world, the stakes in the presidential contest are too high for blind loyalty.
I am African American but I do NOT blindly follow Obama. I believe he's what America needs right now. And, it's certainly NOT because of his race.
I hope you truly re-consider alignment with HRC.
Peace
Not to worry because addled-headed PBS Charlie Rose is fawningly in the tank for Obama. Hillary does not even exist in his world view and he panders every chance he gets to drag obsequious comments about Obama. PBS Charlie Rose is Obama's love slave. Try centuries of that slavery, O'Bama.
Charlie Rose addled brained? What are you're basing that on, other than your unbridled hatred of Barack?
Blind loalty is exactly what you are showing to Obama. I admire Travis and love his show, the guy is thinking with his brain, which is more than I can say for you, and others that blindly follow Obama. Obama does not have the years of public service that Hillary has, and he has a preacher that I would have left years ago. How can you overlook THAT? You obviously do blindly follow Obama, but he just isn't qualified, face the facts.
The Statitistics from polls show that More Folk we College Degrees support OBAMA than "Typical" Clinton supporters. The polls show that Obama supporters tend to be more politically astute and aware of issues and less susceptible to Clinton BS Lies and Pandering than Clinton supporters. Tavis is full of himself. And I say this as member of his Frat (It's a Black Thang, If you are a member of AA community you understand the loyalty). If he needs his arse kissed we the AA community ain't doing it. I would love the opportunity to tell that to Tavis to his face.
In a comparative sense, was Bill Clinton "qualified?" Let's see...two years as Attorney General of Arkansas, twelve years as Governor of Arkansas. How does that make him qualified to handle foreign policy? And yet...over
How about Hillary? Eight years as a US Senator. Fine. How about Barack? Three years as a US Senator, seven years as a State Senator. Looks like Barack has two more years in legislature than Hillary.
So what's this "experience" nonsense you are harping on? How about you vote for who you think will do the better job and let others do the same without slinging your petty, juvenile insults around? Isn't that how a democracy works? You got something against democracy, tadpole?
Oh, its ok that Hillary lies, btw what church does Hillary attend anyway. Hillary can do no wrong in your eyes, just keeps on lieing. I have listened to Tavis a lot recently and I thought he should stop hating and being so salty to Obama.
I wrote something about this elsewhere on this blog, but having watched a lot of The Tavis Smiley Show this campaign season, I really am stunned to learn that he supports Hillary Clinton.
Apparently, he interviewed Obama on his show and maybe roughed him up a bit? I didn't see that, but what's wrong with putting some hard questions to a candidate? I would hope he would've done the same thing to Hillary, if he's interviewed her.
Obviously, I don't watch his TV show as often as I thought I did!
OMIGOD, Tavis dares NOT to support Obama? Who does he think he, is a thinking person? I tremble to imagine what is down the road if all the ADORATION of Obama (who is a viable, intelligent, well-spoken, progressive candidate) doesn't result in the INSTANT CHANGE this American electorate has come to DEMAND!!! The cult of celebrity that drives our society at this period is beyond SAD!!! It's destructive and one only need to spend a few moments engaging with our dollar driven MSM to realize that education and information are at the bottom of the list...OR read the comments on some blogs and scratch your head wondering HOW they are improving the discussion!!!
I think that his support of Hillary is fantastic. It shows that it is no longer a requirement to consider a candidate based upon his or her race or gender. He is a role model. How this translates into his business is his business.
I support Obama for specific reasons, and would rather avoid the insults that we so often find throughout these threads, although “Obamabot” is pretty good. It really isn’t apt however.
Let’s move forward from these race and gender considered “programs” and get to those things that really matter, the issues. Tavis may support Hillary, and I as a white/hispanic male may support Obama without it being about me supporting a male candidate.
It is not the “time” of any race or gendered person to become President, but of the most qualified. Thankfully, we have two well qualified candidates.
amen
it doesn't bother you that he doesn't have but 3 black people working on his campaign? It should. He's all talk. He is surrounded by old WHITE dems. His big supporters, Kerry, Kennedy and Richardson ALL betrayed the voters in their states. ALL of their states voted for Hillary. If they were all Obama states and they threw in with Hillary, you would be screaming racism. The fact is, you should be offended by them giving support to Obama when the voters they represent in their states voted for Hillary.
Nothing he does wrong bothers his supporters. You Obamabots remind me of the blind Bushies
Oh who cares.
If he had all black people in his campaign, you'd call him a racist.
If he had none, you'd scream racism.
He has three and you still want people to be bothered.
Enough with the faux outrage.
And what the heck is wrong with old WHITE dems? My family is comprised of old WHITE dems.
By the way, years ago, when I worked in the construction field, I had a few black people working with me. GASP! I'd better turn in my "Only Surrounded By White People" card.
I have long noticed "black faces" as spokespersons for Republican agenda, defending controversial issues, incidents, especially on fox news, now one might consider this mere coincidence but for a party notorious for being "white dominated" it is too much of a coincidence too be mere coincidence, it is planned by those in Republican party which want too put a black face on a party notorious for being home of the dixiecrats [former democrats who fled the democratic party in protest over civil rights being given to blacks in 1960's era], the few blacks whom join the Republican party seem too act suprised when their brethren deem them "puppets to their masters", those who sold out their brethren for a cushy job in the "big house" as in times past when they were divided into field hands and house servants, anyone who cannot see some elite/educated blacks have sold out their fellow man black, white, hispanic, asian any color that is not of the rich elite ruling class of which the Republicans truly represent they do not really represent the common man as their pundits Sean Hannity, Bill Orielly and company seem too pretend, but in reality they are and always have been the party of the rich white elite whom are good business men and have bought the souls of some non white faces too spread their conservative, compassionate fake rhetoric..
What do black Republicans have to do with Tavis Smiley? His record over the last decade flies in the face of what most commentators on Fox have to offer.
In fact, Smiley is the opposite of those faces.
To bad you are quitting, I am white (shame on me) but I kind of liked you . In this Obama atmosphere
we whites are all supposed to feel guilty for being white. I feel so guilty its coming out of my.......m
I am white so I can see where you are coming from but its not about feeling bad for being white. If you treat every person with the respect and understanding they deserve and don't care about race, religion, etc. then you aren't in the group that people have been talking about. I was raised that I was no better than anyone else, that was the cause of the only spanking I remember, and it wasn't about race, it was about me being arrogant. Get a copy of Howard Zinn's compliation and read the parts about the civil rights movement in Georgia. Be bitter if you want to but celebrate open-mindedness every chance you get if you really believe in it.
spot on
If you truly feel this way about equality, as I do, then you should run from Obama as fast as you can. Obama is about divisiveness on race, age, sex, religion, education, and income. Every ounce of his campaign oozes exclusivity and elitism. His main support evolved from the Kennedy-Cambridge liberal elite and once you realize this you find he does not care about working Americans, except to shame them for their resentfulness of people such as himself.
I can't say I don't feel what you feel. However, I know better. I know how I was raised. I know what morals and values I hold close to my heart. I know, that while people may not believe what I believe or see things how I see things, I know that I have the capacity within my heart to love all. Give me their shortcomings. Those are what make us human. Give me their anger and passion. Without those nothing can be accomplished. Give me their hatred and I wait with my love. For hatred, ultimately, will never find it's way out of a wet paper bag with razor sharp scissors.
I know Tavis Smiley knows what I feel because he lives that every day. Rock on Brother Smiley. Rock on.
That is ridiculous. Your suppose to feel guilty? That is a feeling you have put on yourself. You must have a reason for feeling guilty. Think about it? You sound like my 12 year old. They made me do that or feel that......
It is called "political correctness" and we currently see the negative extreme of it. People who disagree with Obama are smeared as racist, regardless of color and Obama can't do no wrong and Clinton can do no right, because he is black and she is white.
Hey, look up! That's a joke up there, flying over your head.
It's getting a lot tougher for black people who do not support Obama. CNN did a report last week (not heard a word since) about how many blacks who support Hillary are being threatened and harrassed. One black woman said that many people are staying in the closet in support of Hillary because it is safer. Is this the Hope & Change that Barak and Michelle (never in my adult life really been proud of my country) Obama is selling. America will wake up too late to see what frauds and what really dispicable people they are.
Really? Despicable? Listen, I know Hillary's supporters will fight to the death for her, however misguided their loyalty might be. But despicable? Really?
Black lawmakers who advance an ugly stereotype about other black people for self-serving reasons (or any reason, for that matter)? Yes, dispicable.
yes, despicable.
You haven't heard a word since because the report was never true. It is what you might refer to as patent nonsense. CNN is not really a source one would refer to if had any interest in what goes on amongst Black people.
Wait a second. With all of the lunacy of this primary and its visceral, palpable anger and bitterness, you actually find it hard to believe that supporters of Hillary Clinton who happen to be AA don't experience some sort of "Uncle Tom/Ruckus" reaction from other AA individuals who happen to support Barack Obama. I mean, come on. It's to the tune of 90% of the demographic which supports Obama. Do you believe in "pack mentality"? If not, I think you might be well-advised to research it and it's historical significance.
Both Hillary and Barack have, in addition to the normal people who support them, an unhinged lunatic fringe following who have decided to throw all of their considerable excess crazy into their support of their candidates. Threats and harassment directed toward anyone based on what or whom they stand for are in diametric opposition to what Obama stands for; it's a damn shame that Black Hillary supporters are encountering such trouble, but please don't blame Barack Obama for that; he can't control and doesn't endorse what every single person voting for him says or does.
He could give a speech and ask them to stop.
Why hasn't he done that?
Have you noticed that none of them have actually said that they were physically threatened? I sure haven't heard it. I've heard the words "threat", "anger", and so on, but it does seem to me that many of these people are trying to give the impression that they have been seriously threatened over their choice, when they actaully haven't been.
Look, the only "threats" these people have received are threats to be voted out of their jobs. Their constituients have every right to work to try to make that happen. By playing on stereotypes of violent blacks, they've willfully contributed to the race-baiting, and they're despicable for doing it..
Bushclub has set the bar pretty high for despicable. Also corrupt,in
Hmmm... he and Michelle are doing somersaults over that bar, if you ask me...
Tavis Smiley is as good as they get.
I second that!
ditto
I couldn't agree more.
Well said!
Travis, I hope you will change your mind. I am an Obama supporter, but I think it is important for many different audiences to hear your voice. There's still time. Please just change your mind and stay on the show.
You might be better served to ask your fellow Obama supporters to tone down the hate and mean-spiritedness.
yeah, call us hate-filled, way to spread the love, mimjob.
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