BET Founder Johnson May Cede Control
Sun Mar 20, 6:04 PM ET
By DARLENE SUPERVILLE, Associated Press Writer
WASHINGTON - Robert Johnson and Black Entertainment Television are known for one thing: each other. Soon, they could go their separate ways after a profitable 25-year relationship. Johnson is busy with other projects, including his losing NBA franchise in Charlotte, N.C., while the deal that let him stay on as BET's chief executive after he sold the network in 2000 expires this year (wtf?!? somebody PLEASE tell me HOW your contract can EVER have ANY type of EXPIRATION date with something YOU FOUNDED!??! how the hell can he just walk away and not look back?! and if he can, can he really BLAME people for calling him a sellout?!?! i mean REALLY....DAMN)
Stepping down at BET would give Johnson more time to pursue his varied interests.
A divorced father of two, Democratic Party donor and consummate schmoozer who counts former President Clinton among his friends, Johnson set his sights high early on.
Not taken seriously when he first talked about serving a then-untapped market, Johnson was 34 when he launched BET — which is celebrating its silver anniversary this year — from the basement of his Washington home in January 1980.
It is the country's first and largest black-oriented cable network, and has proved an unmatched success. (<--& how that is possible, i'm not quite sure)
"Nobody had a clue about cable back then," says Herman Penner, a college roommate of Johnson's. "Obviously he dreamed a little bit bigger than that and was successful at it."
A Mississippi native with a master's degree from Princeton, Johnson led in other areas, too.
He became the country's first black billionaire after BET's sale for $3 billion nearly five years ago (:?). He is the first black owner of a major sports team, the NBA's first-year Charlotte Bobcats, which Johnson named after himself (:x :x :x).
A lifelong sports fan, Johnson was a partner in the effort to return baseball to the nation's capital, but he pulled out to focus on basketball before the Washington Nationals arrived.
He owns several Hilton and Marriott hotels, one of the country's largest black art collections and several film rights. He has a stake in a jazz record label, is interested in developing real estate and sought unsuccessfully to buy majority control of Independence Federal Savings Bank, one of the largest black-owned thrifts (why...so he can sell that for the best asking price too?!? LEAVE IT ALONE, BOB!)
His plan to become the first black owner of a commercial airline failed several years ago when the government opposed a proposed merger that would have created a new carrier he sought to own.
Johnson, who turns 59 on April 8, is more than just BET.
"What he's doing is sort of the traditional way in which people with a lot of wealth use it," said Ronald Walters, a friend and professor at the University of Maryland. "They don't just do one thing."
BET officials declined to discuss Johnson's future at the network, which reaches more than 79 million U.S. homes — about three-fourths of those with television — and 95 percent of black homes with cable TV, according to Nielsen Media Research. (*sigh*...& again i ask whyyy :?)
But he suggested in a recent Newsweek interview that the end might be near. He declined requests for an AP interview.
"I don't plan to continue in my current capacity," he said he told officials at Viacom, the New York-based media company that owns CBS and MTV and bought BET in 2000 ()
Some analysts said they would not be surprised if Johnson stepped down, noting that he largely has given up control of day-to-day operations since the sale to focus on his other business ventures ( :x :x :x)
"He's no longer the figurehead that he used to be," said Christopher Holmes Smith, a communications professor at the Annenberg School for Communication at the University of Southern California.
If Johnson leaves, the question then becomes, "What happens to BET?" (it gets even MORE F*CKED UP THAN IT ALREADY IS...THAT'S WHAT HAPPENS :x :x :x...DAMMIT)
Will its lineup, largely of black comedies and hip-hop and rap music videos, remain or will Viacom step in and shake things up in response to criticism of BET's programming choices? (. . ...shake it up how? what the hell else could they POSSIBLY DO?!?!?! they damn sure won't IMPROVE the programming...so what's next? converting it to WET?! DAMMIT :x)
Michael Lewellen, a spokesman for Washington-based BET, said via e-mail that the network will continue as an autonomous business unit of Viacom, the same as its other broadcast outlets.
Debra Lee, now BET's president and chief operating officer after joining the network in 1986, is considered the most likely person to succeed Johnson (c'mon, sista...COME ON!!!! IT'S ALL UP TO YOU NOW!!!)
Last year, cable provider Comcast Corp. and black-oriented Radio One launched TV One for blacks age 25 to 54, an older group than BET's mostly youthful audience. Black Family Channel also is on the scene.
With more competition on the airwaves now for black cable TV viewers, one analyst did not see much change in store for BET without its charismatic founder at the controls.
"There will be an opportunity to either find another symbolic figurehead or do an actual reshuffling of the deck of BET's brand and its organizational structure," Smith said. "But my feeling is that won't happen. I think that in the near term it will be pretty much full steam ahead in the direction that it's going." (yeah...and in the worse possible way...)
Friends and former associates credit Johnson's determination and business savvy for his accomplishments in areas where few of those at the top are black. But where there is success, there usually is some criticism along the way, and so it has been with Johnson.
He has drawn criticism from some quarters, perhaps most notably from director Spike Lee, for BET's content. Critics have accused him of "selling out" to the white owners at Viacom and took issue with his decision to replace respected but unprofitable news and public affairs programs with black comedies, music videos and other, more profitable entertainment. (AMEN, AMEN!!! GO SPIKE!! & everyone else who's spoken up...)
Johnson's defense is that he went into business to make money, just as his white counterparts did (. . . Black people...and the almighty dollar...when will we just say NO...HELL NO...DAMMIT). He also has complained that MTV was praised for programming similar to BET's (and HE could have CHANGED the ish...DAG).
Said pop culture critic Ed Robertson: "If BET wasn't making an impact it wouldn't be a target for satire or criticism. It's called 'Black Entertainment Television.' It's not the 'Black News Network.'" (this...from a White man....and yeah, sure it's making an impact....doesn't necessarily mean it's making a GOOD one.....MTV ain't Reality Show Network either...but i couldn't tell u WHEN was the last time i saw a music video of ANY kind on that channel...OR VH1, for that matter....DAMN)
( http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20050320/ap_en_tv/bet_s_johnson_5 )
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oh, and as for Johnson's comment about just wanting to make money like his "White counterparts"....ummm yeah, they can just be out for the green because they realize that they have nothing else they have to worry about in living in this country....they realize that their image is not constantly (or even occasionally) in jeopardy....not EVER....OR about any stereotypes they have to worry about trying to overcome and override....and most/best of all....they realize that they dominate 99.9% of TV AND cable programming as it is.....so why worry about anything BESIDES making money?!?!
WE, on the other hand....have bigger fish to fry....and if you are not trying to help cook....GET THA HELL AWAY (& STAY THE HELL AWAY) FROM THA GRILL :x!!
:lol: ....don't black people see the Eurocentric system that is going on?......Blacks are fooled and blinded by the Rappers!....then in turn...we want to be like them Example: "Yea, I'm 50 cent...im gonna walk around and act all hard and carry a gun"...next thing ya know....he is locked up and can't get into college..which means a crappy job and poverty level...which means his kids will grow up in poverty...and do the same exact thing...its a system the whit'site man has had for us for years...people have just not recognized it....turn the switch off in ya brains damnit
yeah, that was precisely my point....
it's not like BET had quality programming just yesterday, and now in light of this....it's gonna go downhill...
common knowledge is that it's BEEN gone downhill...in fact, it's at the BOTTOM of the hill....
it began plummeting when the man FIRST gave up his damn ownership of it....but NOW, not only will he have done that...but ALSO just wash his hands of the network enTIREly....leaving even MORE room for constant stereotypical and silly television on that channel...
you're right...perhaps people should turn off the TV and open their brains instead more often....however, the REALITY is....that a good majority of people in this country praise that entertainment box....and not EVERYthing on it is garbage....so since people love it so much...why not utilize it to our advantage?! and THAT...is what BET ONCE was....
just irritates the mess out of me...
oh, and about the "movies & music" forum comment....like crunkmoney said, this isn't just about music or entertainment, dear....it's about something much bigger....it's about us.....it's about yet another one of us who have succombed to the almighty dollar....even if it means further sacraficing our image and community.....
damn BET... basketball's back in Charlotte... :grin:
yeah, that's it....
a basketball team....an element of something so popular in American culture (basketball) that is always so heavily associated with Blacks to the point where more stereotypes are derived from it.....is much...much more important than the one outlet on television among a sea of outlets....that could actually be owned by us....be about us....for us....
:?
& i'm not trying to personally attack you, Dwayne....i'm just speaking generally about the people out there who feel him being much more concerned about his ownership of a basketball team overriding any concern he might have about a Black telelvision network....
disturbs me....
damn BET... basketball's back in Charlotte... :grin:
yeah, that's it....
a basketball team....an element of something so popular in American culture (basketball) that is always so heavily associated with Blacks to the point where more stereotypes are derived from it.....is much...much more important than the one outlet on television among a sea of outlets....that could actually be owned by us....be about us....for us....
:?
& i'm not trying to personally attack you, Dwayne....i'm just speaking generally about the people out there who feel him being much more concerned about his ownership of a basketball team overriding any concern he might have about a Black telelvision network....
disturbs me....
mmm hmmm... i had a book of a response, but since IE screwed me up, i lost it... so i'm just gonna say... it's not disturbing b/c he wanted to go into different ventures... he still is the first black owner of a professional sports team... :arrow:
I agree with you 100 %. Personally, I thought when he gave up ownership he sold us out too. Since he sold the network, you are right the quality of the network has diminished completely. Now that he is stepping down, there is no turning back for the network. It will become another tragedy for our people. Once again we have given our strength to a system that is designed to keep us down. When will we learn?
BET is utter garbage as a all around T.V. station. The nightly news is most indefinitely the most bias crap I have ever heard since The **** factor, problem being that none of them even have the CREDENTIALS as **** does to report it. That being said, BET is completely for entertainment purposes. COMPLETELY.
No one watches BET for the news, and if you do, well then you are a loser. BET plays right into the same hand that TNT/WB plays into. Post the news once at the crack of dawn when no one is watching, and once at night when no one WANTS to watch it. All it is is an entertainment station which has somehow metamorphed into becoming the central for Black television, and news; which is pitiful to say the least. Now, I'm not inferring to all of you, but some of yall watch way too much BET for your own good. Monte has the perfect look on what it actually does. BET has been **** **** for the past 6 years. I would rate Telemundo above is as far a TV stations go. Plus...Telemundo has WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY prettier women.
Thunder
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Some analysts said they would not be surprised if Johnson stepped down, noting that he largely has given up control of day-to-day operations since the sale to focus on his other business ventures (
