NAN turns its sights on XMPosted on 05/14/2002 2:40:29 PM PDT by mhking
NAN turns its sights on XM
By Paige Albiniak
Broadcasting & Cable
5/14/2002 5:14:00 PM
The Rev. Al Sharpton’s National Action Network’s next target will be XM Satellite Radio Holdings Inc., the group said.
NAN is focusing on XM’s management and programming choices. 'XM Satellite Radio derives profits from African-American customers, yet XM Satellite Radio’s management team is overwhelmingly white,' said the Rev. Horace Sheffield III, president of NAN’s Michigan chapter. 'That is wrong.'
NAN has been staging protests outside the headquarters of media companies -- such as EchoStar Communications Corp., Mediacom Communications Corp., Charter Communications Inc. and, now, XM -- to demand carriage for African-American gospel channel The Word Network.
NAN crisis-management consultant Sam Riddle said XM’s programming 'reveals a glaring lack of positive programming options to those channels that glorify the cultures of violence, drugs and female debasement that are too pervasive in urban America.'
Riddle plans to go to Washington, D.C., to look at XM’s public-inspection files, NAN said.
'As long as XM is not in a denial syndrome and is willing to discuss NAN issues, we should be able to reach common ground such as was achieved with broadcast giants such as DirecTV [Inc.], Comcast Cable [Communications Inc.], Charter Communications, Time Warner [Cable], the Armed Forces Network and AT&T [Broadband],' Riddle said.
Charter recently agreed to carry Word on its systems in Atlanta and St. Louis.
If any minoritity student can graduate from an accredited non-minority college; I would give preference to that minority engineer. I have seen graduates from minority colleges that have inflated grades (that simply wouldn't make it through a 'real' school). I have seen individuals that dictate how the company should be run, so the company's culture accomodates their desires. I chose not to see the candidates race prior to the interview. But if the candidate is a minority, and attended a 'real college', I'll go out of my way to give him due consideration, and in more than one instance, preference.
Thus, you would be in the pool of 'qualified candidates' for XM Radio's management team. Just like me. The *fact* of the matter is that of the pool of 'qualified candidates', blacks make up a minority disproportionate to their population. Or, to re-state it, given the engineering population break down by race; whites and asians make up a disproportionate percentage of engineers, when contrasted to the population of the city/state/nation we live in. Thus, for anyone to demand that management of a company refelect the racial background of a given city/state/national average, is itself unfair.
Having heard of your complaint of late about our company, I have decided to formally respond.
F**k off.
Thank you, and I look forward to meeting you some day.
CEO & Chairman of the Board, XM Radio
Bruh, listen to me.
I not only understand your points here, I concur with them. I objected to the blanket.
Al Sharpton does not know how to find qualified black IT personnel, much less understand just how technology such as XM works. What this is is a shakedown, plain and simple. He is wrong for this, just as much as Je$$e is wrong in his shakedowns. I just wish someone would tell them, "No."
So, in my mind, the true issue here is Al and the gang attempting to force a private company into doing its bidding. This has to stop sooner or later, hopefully sooner.
Because that would involve actual work. He just wants the money without having to work for it. What better way to do that than by extorting from the companies that already have it?
I'm white. I guess he feels I should boycott black-owned businesses, because it is wrong for a business owner to derive profit from people of other races.
Missed that one. Kinda blows his whole argument then, at least indirectly.
And THAT is the most insightful post on this thread. Why would Fat Al care about a company which probably employs, I'm guessing, not more than a couple of hundred people?
Those of his ilk usually target deep pockets - unless they are getting paid somewhere else...
He argued that the franchises were all white-owned, but were taking money out of the black community. You'd think that the community was getting nothing in return, when in fact, they are getting hamburgers! Nobody forced the locals to shop there.
-PJ
If it's such a hassle, why don't African-Americans just stop paying for the service?
I believe he may be refering to the obvious answer to that question as the fact.
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