Capital Press Club Podcast
Capital Press Club Podcast
CPC Legacy Podcast #24 - Media Evolution and Black Identity
Join us for an engaging discussion with Derrick Kenny as we navigate the dynamic world of media transformation. Derek brings his unique perspective as a steadfast cable subscriber, contrasting with my own early adoption of cord-cutting back in 2000. Together, we unravel Comcast's strategic shift towards content production and its implications for the future of cable and streaming services. From the intricate maze of Hulu and Peacock to the essential fight for accessible news, we explore what these changes mean for how we consume information today.
The conversation takes a fascinating turn as we highlight the transformative power of social media and real-time content in shaping news consumption. Discover the exciting potential of "Shop with BET," a platform designed to elevate Black-owned businesses and foster economic growth within culturally significant markets. This initiative echoes the innovative spirit of shows like Shark Tank by providing a modern twist on supporting Black commerce in a digital age. We reflect on how platforms like BET are setting a powerful precedent for others to follow, paving the way for inclusive economic opportunities.
Our exploration deepens with a thoughtful look into Black American identity, the evolving language around it, and the critical need for information verification in today's fast-paced digital landscape. We examine the rich history and ongoing debate about terms like "African American" and "Black," emphasizing personal choice and diversity within the community. As we wrap up this insightful episode, we express gratitude to Derek Kenney and wish our listeners a joyful holiday season filled with awareness and understanding. Stay tuned for more compelling conversations in future episodes.
Welcome. Welcome back to another episode of the Capital Press Club Legacy Podcast. I'm Dr Colin Campbell and I am welcoming you to episode number 24 in our podcast. Of course, we always start out with this day in Black history, and on this day in Black history, more accurately November 18th, robert Chambliss was convicted in his complicity or his conspiratorial collaboration with the Birmingham bombing in 1963, where four black girls were bombed in a church on their way to school, and he was sentenced to life imprisonment and he later died at a health and medical facility at the age of 81, always saying that he was innocent. Now, what's interesting about this case and the Birmingham bombing was that it was originally closed. It was shut down in 1968, but it was later discovered that there was some evidence that was not given to prosecutors and that was not previously released by the FBI. So the case was reopened and there were men that were retried Chambliss was one of them and again sentenced to life imprisonment for conspiracy in that bombing.
Speaker 1:He later died at the ripe old age actually of 81 years old, so he was still able to live a full life even though he was convicted in this bombing and, like I said, he always said that he was innocent. Well, with more for the Capitol Press Club Legacy podcast and some of the issues that affect our media today, I bring in to the fold my man, derek Kenney. And Derek, you know a lot going on this week. We're going to start out with the Comcast announcement to sell MSNBC and some other channels like Oxygen, the Oprah network, o Network, so they are looking to possibly put all of these channels together, separate Comcast from these channels so that they can concentrate more on production and just, I guess, adjust for the fact that we're seeing an attrition of subscribers and attention in cable news. You're a cable subscriber, right? Dk?
Speaker 2:I am. I'm a proud cable subscriber. I was especially proud last night when I was watching Netflix buffering and stalling Cable's reliable. I'm still old school. I like to go sit in my chair, recline, lean back, get the remote control, hit the power button and find a channel. Sometimes I don't feel like finding an app, then finding something to watch and then watching that and then going through that. Sometimes I just want to turn on my TV and let my TV work and do what it does. But the apps have their place. There's a lot of great content out there and a lot of the content is overlapping now. So it's a little more complex now. Even as you try to plan out your budget, you've got to kind of figure out. You know well, disney has Marvel and Hulu. Do you get Hulu? That also has some of the shows I like that's on Paramount. Do you get Paramount because some of their shows are on Hulu?
Speaker 1:And then you've got to go through a whole planning process and it's a little complex.
Speaker 2:So I'm waiting to see how things. You know, when you have a new market, all the entrants jump in there. Everyone's well financed and then at some point they've got to make money, right. So now Hulu has to make money. I think Comcast owns Hulu. Netflix has to make money and Netflix is making a profit by making money making a profit. And now Comcast is kind of which is an interesting move because they're selling off some of these assets. They're really selling off maybe some of the rights to those apps the MSNBC app, whatever other types of apps, whatever they're associated with those brands.
Speaker 1:So it's interesting, they're getting out of the content brand.
Speaker 1:Yeah, they have Peacock as well. We have to remember that's part of the package too is Peacock, and Peacock has actually had a lot of success over the past few years putting on their programming on streaming platform, promoting some extra content, and I think they want to go into development there because they saw an increase in subscribers by the millions with their peacock app. So I think they want to put more r&d and investment into peacock because, again, this goes in line with the current trend of streaming. Like you were doing last night on netflix, I believe you said watch the mike tyson fight um, and dealing with the frustrations there. But you were, like millions of people, dealing with that frustration because that's the preferred method that people are now or have been jumping to to get their content than watching it on traditional cable. Now I've been unplugged since or I cut the cord I think is the term 2000. So I have not had cable since then. So what is this? 20, 24, 60?
Speaker 1:years net cable. I used to have direct. Tv. Make a long story short. I felt they were a bit unfair with some of their charging practices, so I decided to cut the cord then, and now I get broadcast tv and then I just, you know, my my streaming platforms choose you have a good point there, like you can still get a lot of channels with just an antenna right An antenna and a digital encoder or something, or most TVs.
Speaker 2:If you have the antenna, they can pick up the terrestrial HD channels that are available, so you don't need to pay for anything to really just to watch your broadcast news channels, nbc, fox, whatever else that's available in the local area. But I will say though, though, that Peacock, whether they're I just looked it up they're not quite profitable yet. So a lot of these are ventures that are well-invested, that haven't really yielded profit yet, but the investors don't seem to stop investing. So well, as long as the money's there, a lot of those apps will be there.
Speaker 2:It'll be interesting to see in the next five years how they consolidate whether it's like bundling or formally consolidate, and how that will impact the way we get our news and information, because, at the end of the day, we really really need to make sure we have easy and full access to news information, and I'd argue that that should be free. That should be something that's free the news and information, and we can get that from our antennas. You get that with your cable bundle, but that's just not necessarily free. But yeah, that's really concerning. I wanted to see more about what Comcast does and then how other large entities that also provide the means to which you can view streaming content and cable content start separating themselves from the creative part of the business. So I wonder if Verizon is going to do something or AT&T is going to do something similar, where they might start separating themselves. It will be interesting to see.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you have Peacock that, although I guess it's not profitable yet, that's where they're putting a lot of their attention Because we have to remember, even the Summer Olympics was hosted by Peacock. So they are really trying to pull a lot of their viewers over to that streaming platform. So I guess it will eventually be very profitable, especially since that's where the current trends are indicating a lot of movement and a lot of attention, where you seeing a lot of people moving away from the traditional cable news model, looking for, in various ways on different streaming platforms, not just the products of legacy media, but also YouTube also, x also.
Speaker 1:Yeah, people get their news on in different nuanced ways on established platforms in the internet space that were previously used for other things. That's where people are getting their news and information from, including Facebook and that started.
Speaker 1:I would say back in, uh, again around that I would say 2000,. Michael Jackson died in 2008 or 2009. I remember tweeting that out and putting it on Facebook and people following my tweets and Facebook after Michael Jackson died before they were going to regular news programming. Of course, people with it and legacy media caught up with it after that, but initially it was something put out by TMZ and then people started tweeting that news and that's what people were following at first. That's the time I was really aware of people looking for alternative ways to get their news and information and, of course, it's only been since then.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and I think the challenge for modern news professionals or modern information professionals is you can't just use one way of communicating things. You actually you got to use the mix. You got to be in social media. You got to, of course, still sit into traditional or media legacy I guess now it's called legacy media, like newspapers and TV stations but it's on you as well as individuals, even if you're a news reporter, to share the news yourself on your own platform, whether it's on Twitter or X or Facebook or TikTok.
Speaker 2:A lot of people are getting a lot of cool stuff on TikTok and residents or people in general want news of the moment. They want the shaky cell phone video. The second something's happening from the location Even faster than a camera and a crew can get out to a location. They want to see something on X, maybe a live stream from a reporter reporting live with a cell phone. It's a different environment, different expectations and so many different ways to get information. It's a different environment, different expectations and so many different ways to get information.
Speaker 2:I just wonder when the dust settles and people start getting to my age where they don't want to look at so many different options to get what they want. They just want to kind of go. I just want to go here and click this or talk to this and I get what I want. I wonder what it's going to look like when the dust settles, because it's still a relatively new market, all these apps and stuff, and whether or not a place like Twitter or X that's trying to be all things to all people, or Facebook that provides a lot of really good video content, live video content and news and information, and they're combined with Instagram is also another source of news and information and entertainment. You know what's the future going to be. You know, yeah, I'm excited. I'm excited, though, to see what it will be.
Speaker 1:I think it's going to be interesting to see these developments, obviously, to see what people's habits are as they adapt, and we're seeing that in real time. I mean, one of the things that we can talk about as well is Shop with BET. It's a new platform that is launching where it's going to focus on black owned businesses, black commerce, black mercantilism to use an archaic term but it's going to be focused on people, for black people, of black people, and selling their things online, and I think, again, this is where you're seeing more people instead of going to the brick and mortar stores, buying their products online. Of course, amazon is a huge indicator of that, a marketplace giant. Well, I think they're trying to nuance this and trying to specify this for Black sellers and Black promoters and Black business people who are selling their content online as well. So think of the Home Shopping Network and how popular that's been HSN, and now they're doing something similar at BET, but focused on Black products and Black entrepreneurism. So I think that'll be interesting.
Speaker 1:One of the hosts is supposed to be Amara Kamp, a woman I used to work with many years ago when I was at BET. She worked in CBS and News Path and she was a good friend of mine back then. I think she's going to be one of the hosts and I believe there's another woman too in her 30s who's also going to be hosting the show, and I think it's going to again kind of take on that home shopping network format where they're selling Black products, and I think that that's a great marketplace for us to expand Black wealth and to focus on things that might be more culturally related instead of things that are just kind of blanket. We could say, hey, this has more of an impact when we're making a specific purchase. All right, do you try to buy Black products, derek, when you're out shopping? Do you try to buy products, derek? When you're out shopping, do you try to buy?
Speaker 2:oh yeah, definitely. I think it's important to try to help make your money circulate several times before it goes out, and for a lot of us it's just shopping local, like you shop in your neighborhood, you shop in your network when you support your family or your cousin or your uncle's businesses. A lot of times you're supporting African-American businesses without even knowing, because they're providing good services, it's good quality and it's available to you, close to where you live, and then also some of it is available to you just a click or button push away from being able to buy things and I think, passively I do so and then actively, when available, I do so as well. But I also support major brands as well, like any other American. But I do realize the value, as other groups do.
Speaker 2:Jewish people or, I think, asian Americans all are able to boast that money circulates in their community several times before it goes out to the broader American public, which is not necessarily a bad thing. It's just the nature of a close-knit community. You tend to support and buy from those closest to you, and many of us, like myself, live in communities that are a majority African-American. So many of the businesses I encounter and the people I encounter are African-American as well.
Speaker 1:Yeah, the host of this show Shop With BET again Mark Camp Campo, and then KJ Smith is the other person, and then Gabrielle Richards is supposed to help with some of the more clothing-related collaborations that will be sold on there. So you have three ladies up there talking about the latest in black fashion, black products. So that'll be interesting. Now, this is done in cooperation with a group called Sistus Media that's C-I-S-T-U-S Sistus Media, and they're putting this all together to bring a different type of merchandising to the public, one that we haven't seen before, obviously, one that specifies on clothing and goods that are sold within the frame of Black entrepreneurship.
Speaker 1:So I think this is kind of a space that does need to be developed more especially when it comes to developing Black wealth and trying to keep money within our society before it is spent and before it leaves our communities for other communities who are then capitalizing on the hard-earned dollars that are made by black americans. And what's interesting, too, is that we do spend a lot. Uh, the figures are just more, sometimes disproportionately higher than you would think for our population and what we spend on various things, whether it is entertainment, whether it is various products and goods and services we do spend a lot of money and put it back into the American economy.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1:Really getting that money back or the benefits of contributing as much as we do to the American economy. When you look at some of the wealth deficits in various states and across the nation, you'll see that the average white household is worth sometimes more than twice as much as the average black household, and you wonder why that is. Well, you have a lack in home ownership. You have a lack of opportunity. You have people who do have homes. They may be undervalued and again, the money that's spent is not going back into building up black communities. It's going back into into other communities and building those up instead.
Speaker 1:So again, will this show shop with BET resolve all of those issues? No, definitely not. But it is a step and it is a way for more black entrepreneurs to show off their goods and provide more services. And maybe this could be a model for other pockets of our population to do similar types of programming, where you're promoting Black business, where you're promoting cultural equity within business and showing that it doesn't have to be hyper capitalistic and basically demonstrating the exploitation of a particular society for the benefit of other communities and societies. So this could be a very positive development. I'm kind of curious to see where it will go, and then who will pick up on it as, like I said, a model for other types of platforms.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I wonder if it's building on the trend in social media where you have influencers like Keith Lee and others that are going to small black businesses, whether, in the instance of Keith Lee, he's going to small food shops all across the country and giving them a boost in sales, that same type of positive exposure that also yields positive results in terms of views and support for the influencer. One of that's a trend that BET is trying to capitalize on, as well as the popularity of shows like Shark Tank, where you're able to highlight businesses that are small or up and coming that need support. You're able to highlight businesses that are small or up and coming that need support. But I think it's great where you can combine some type of altruistic benefit to a community or to a business community or a large community like African Americans, while still trying to boost your ratings, your business goals. I think it's a great idea. If it works, I'm looking, I'm all for it.
Speaker 1:Yeah, me too. Me too, I'm kind of curious to see I believe that they had a broadcast not too long ago. It's either they had one this week or it's coming out next upcoming week and then they'll have another one. So, again, it's not quite a regular feature of BET just yet, but I think they're testing out the market to see if it's something that they could do more on a consistent basis. And we can't, of course, can I ignore the timing of all of this.
Speaker 1:As we approach the holiday season and people will be looking to make more purchases, looking for those ideas of what to buy for their loved ones. As every year, it seems to be that struggle of what to purchase. Here comes a different opportunity and a nuanced way and a new platform for people to find new ideas and look at different things that they may want to buy that they hadn't thought of before. So it'll be interesting to see and how they develop this idea and this collaboration into something a lot bigger which again could be used as a model for other people looking to do something similar to build black wealth within purchasing products and and merchandising and things like that. So, yeah, it'll be definitely interesting and something to keep our eye on, if not even for places to buy things for our loved ones, as the holidays are quickly approaching.
Speaker 1:All right all right, let's move on to our next story about Trick Daddy.
Speaker 1:Now, all right with ever since Jesse Jackson came out with it, I believe in the 80s, when he was running for president, or on the campaign trail, where he talked about Black Americans being African American, and the reason why he did that was to show that we have a unique struggle and experience, beyond what white Americans have and what immigrants face. It's even those who might have been indentured servants. A lot of people will argue that Irish people were also slaves and blah, blah, blah. Not to what's the word de-emphasize or diminish the Irish experience, but when it comes to Black Americans, diminish, yeah, which, as we know, was pretty limited, and then they were able to still reap the benefits of whiteness later on, even after this period, where that's something that black Americans still haven't been afforded again.
Speaker 1:Yes, we can look at the richest among us, we can look at the Oprah Winfrey's and the Michael Jordan's and Tyler Perry's, and. But we have to remember we know maybe 10 people, 10 super rich, uber rich Black Americans of the tens or hundreds of millions that exist in the country and then, when we look from state to state, at the wealth gap, we realize that Black Americans still have not surpassed some of the restrictions and impediments that they had from slavery era. So that's what makes it a unique experience, which is why that term African-American has been applied. But then you have those who say, well, maybe we're more American Africans, maybe we should put American first and that word should be a preeminent word in our description. And that word should the preeminent word in our description, but again with that extra descriptor of being African, to show again our unique experience.
Speaker 2:Trick Daddy says he's not African-American. Hey, and you know, I think we are one of the unique people in this country that can truly say we are American. First, we always talked about our tendency to spend money because we're children of capitalism. We, a lot of us, trace our roots back to some part of America, some part of Virginia, where there may have been unjust areas for slaves coming in from across the Atlantic ocean Right, and that's where the extent of our literal known history is. So, as a culture, as a people, a lot of us our experiences or our knowledge of our history, of course we know that we come from somewhere in Africa, but it takes a lot more research and a lot more inference to determine which tribe you came from and who your peoples might be. But we're different from other Black peoples where, if you're an African that migrated to America in the last 100 years or so, you shouldn't be considered African American. There should be a distinction. I think if you're from Ghana, you should be a Ghanaian-American, if you're from Botswana, you're a Botswana-American, just like the same way that people from Russia would be Russian-American or someone from Italy would be Italian-American, and then if you're looking at race, then we're all black. So whether that you're an immigrant or whether that you're indigenous or, I would say, you have lived in the diaspora of the African-Americans through slavery, then you're all black. So there's a black term.
Speaker 2:But in many things, especially this day and time, we self-identify. So I think, trick Daddy and others and all of us, it's up to us to find out what we want to be called. Years ago, what's colored was acceptable. Now, if you refer to somebody as colored, even when you try to articulate the name of the NAACP or the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, it may not be as politically correct saying colored and then black is very general and then African-American is a bit more specific. But in a country where we kind of minimize the gravity and diversity of Africa by saying lumping all Africans or African immigrants as African Americans as well, when really they're peoples from individual one of the 50 or so countries in Africa.
Speaker 2:So we have a lot of work to do when it comes to identifying Black people in America. We're a lot more diverse than people know and I think a lot of us, like Trick Daddy, have different ideas of how we like to be identified, and I think that's valid and I think it's cool for him to step up and say, as an African-American, how he feels. A lot of us, our culture, begins here, you know. Our history begins here, you know we don't care about the implied history, which is very painful in some ways. We care more about our great-great-grandmama, who helped to get our first relative to elementary school and to buy that first piece of land and to get the family house and to make those good meals to sustain us. So there's a lot of pride that we should have as African-Americans. But then also we need to be careful to highlight the diversity of African-Americans or Black people in America. So I think maybe there is room for some type of debate or discussion about how we properly label Black people in America.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I think there definitely should be some debate, because we have to remember that Negro was popular, colored people was popular, but now instead of colored people, we're people of color. I remember correcting a Cuban friend of mine not too long ago, maybe two years ago, when she said used the term colored people and I said, well, we don't really use that term anymore. She's like I thought we did. No, no, no, it's not colored people, but we are considered by white communities as people of color and I think that that's not a term I like to use. I think that we're also wrestling with even that term now, because we're lumped in, where you have those who are of various ethnicities or backgrounds lumped in with black Americans, even though they may have a very different experience.
Speaker 1:One of the things I highlighted with that interview with Vivek Ramaswamy and Don Lemon, where it was very combative. This was the interview that Don Lemon had with Ramaswamy shortly before his ouster and it was slightly combative, and I think that Lemon took umbrage to the fact that Ramaswamy was saying that he was a person of color, which he would be considered a person of color because he has an Indian background, but comparing his experience to the Black experience which, as we already highlighted, is different. But then you have the term African American, where, as Trich Daddy says, I've never been to Africa, I don't have any ties to Africa, so why is that prefix in front of how I identify? At the same time, though, that's the distinction that separates him from someone who is white American, who would have historically a different background, a different experience, have different challenges in the way that he navigates the country. And so we, again, we would have to come up with maybe a different term or a different way of describing ourselves, and we've heard this too.
Speaker 1:Some people refer to themselves as Nubians, some people describe themselves as just straight African, even though they are from the US and have been born in America, they still say listen, my lineage goes back to the motherland, so I'm just African, right? So you know, there's even a difference of opinion within our society, and that's why I call it a society, a society of Black Americans, different pockets of communities, in how we define ourselves and how we want to be framed, and I don't know if there's a universally accepted way, except for maybe saying Black American. But even within that, you have those who might come from other countries, who do have a different experience than Black Americans, who might have been descendants of enslaved Africans, rather than Black Americans who were born here as first generation or second generation, with ties to other countries within the diaspora, whether it is Africa, the Caribbean, brazil, the Dominican Republic would be in the Caribbean but all the countries that were part of the diasporic experience.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and I guess sadly in America, as we've seen recently with some of the stories we hear coming in the week of the Trump presidency, where people are more emboldened with their racism we're all treated the same, whether you have the nuances of being Ghanaian American or an African American or a black American. In many ways we face the same amount of racism and that common bond sadly brings us all together into one group because America just sees you as a certain way and that's maybe. I don't know. I don't know how close we are to the idea of the post-racial America where we no longer see color, but there's some truth to be said. You are how you're treated. It's interesting to see. And then, as communications professionals, what is the PC term to use? What's the appropriate term to use in an era again where people self-identify? So you have to be very careful when even describing someone that they describe themselves as something other than African American or Black, because you can't assume that anymore.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's true too. Well, we're running out of time. I know that you had a fake news story of the day DK that you wanted to introduce. What do we have this week? Fake news story of the day.
Speaker 2:Oh wow, another video involving Haitians.
Speaker 2:There was a Haitian immigrant, apparently. There was a video during the election that was purportedly manufactured by Russians again Crazy From the Associated Press that shows a Haitian immigrant voting multiple times, and it was established as something that's clearly fake. It purportedly seemed to have happened in Georgia, but it was found to be fake and false and not true. It's another example of why we need to be very thoughtful when we look at social media and we ingest or we take in all these news items or this information from online and then share them as if they're true. We don't always know if they're true or not, and some of the ones that are the most salacious and that reinforce some type of internal biases that you may have or internal beliefs you're more likely to believe is true, but it's really, really important to make sure that you're not sharing fake news, and by fake news I don't mean things that certain people don't believe are favorable to them, but news that is really in his heart, has nothing to do with the actual truth of what happened or associated with real activity.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's why you always have to verify. It's very important that when you're learning new pieces of information, that you learn how to also confirm and verify that information. Otherwise, if it is truth and it's not, you will be misinformed, which was the overall purpose for some of this disinformation that is put out into the Zeitgeist. Purpose for some of this disinformation that is put out into the zeitgeist. So with that, we're going to end our episode 24 of the Capital Press Club Legacy Podcast. I want to thank my man, derek Kenney, and we'll see you next time. And if we don't see you in the next two weeks, happy holidays and we'll catch you on the next one.