Beneath the Spin * Eric L. Wattree
HOLD YOUR NOSE - HERE COMES REV. CORNEL WEST AGAIN, FOLKS
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Tavis Smiley and Cornel West traveled all across the country on a bus under the pretext of being so passionately concerned about poverty in America that they just HAD to do something about it - but of course, that was BEFORE the election, and when they had books to sell. But now that the election is over, and they don't have any books to sell, they couldn't bring themselves to walk down the street from Tavis' office to support the Black Friday demonstrations taking place all across the country against Wal-Mart - Tavis' major sponsor, a member of ALEC, and the biggest abuser of the working class in America today. .
And not only did they fail to attend ANY of the demonstrations taking place across the country against Wal-Mart, they didn't even issue a comment of support. All we've heard coming from the Smiley/West camp are crickets - and as everyone knows, that's extremely uncharacteristic of Cornel West, who would trade a kidney for a sound byte. So I'd say that just about says it all about those two - Tavis Smiley and Cornel West are two of the biggest hypocrites that the Black community has ever suffered. Yet West recently had this to say:
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"The kind of courage that these brothers had in 1971 is in short supply," said Dr. West. "It’s in short supply. Because when you bring together the national security state and the military industrial complex, when you bring together the prison industrial complex and all the profits that flow from it, when you bring together the corporate media multiplex that don’t want to allow for serious dialogue unless we got sister Amy (Goodman) or brother Tavis (Smiley) and some others, and then when you bring together the Wall Street oligarchs and the corporate plutocrats and they tell any person or any group, ‘if you speak the truth, we’ll shoot you down like a dog and dehumanize you the way they typically the brothers in Attica’, the only thing that will keep you going is you better have some love in your heart for the people."
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Tavis Smiley is in direct violation of the Code of Ethics of the Society of Professional Journalists, which states the following in part:
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Act Independently
Journalists should be free of obligation to any interest other than the public's right to know.
Journalists should:
—Avoid conflicts of interest, real or perceived.
— Remain free of associations and activities that may compromise integrity or damage credibility.
— Refuse gifts, favors, fees, free travel and special treatment, and shun secondary employment, political involvement, public office and service in community organizations if they compromise journalistic integrity
— Disclose unavoidable conflicts.
— Be vigilant and courageous about holding those with power accountable.
— Deny favored treatment to advertisers and special interests and resist their pressure to influence news coverage.
— Be wary of sources offering information for favors or money; avoid bidding for news.Yet, Cornel West recently said in another forum:
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“The kind of courage that these brothers had in 1971 is in short supply,” said Dr. West. “It’s in short supply. Because when you bring together the national security state and the military industrial complex, when you bring together the prison industrial complex and all the profits that flow from it, when you bring together the corporate media multiplex that don’t want to allow for serious dialogue unless we got sister Amy (Goodman) or brother Tavis (Smiley) and some others, and then when you bring together the Wall Street oligarchs and the corporate plutocrats and they tell any person or any group, ‘if you speak the truth, we’ll shoot you down like a dog and dehumanize you the way they typically the brothers in Attica’, the only thing that will keep you going is you better have some love in your heart for the people.”
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NICE SERMON, REV. WEST, BUT WE’D PREFER YOU LIVE US A SERMON INSTEAD OF ALWAYS PREACHIN’ US ONE.
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1). If you have so much “love for the people,” why is it that you’ve never taught at a school that the average Black student can get into in your ENTIRE career?
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2). And where was your "love for the people" when you sat back and watched your “Brother Tavis” Smiley be paid by Wells Fargo to Judas-Goat over 30,000 minorities into being swindled out of their homes and life savings in the Wells Fargo “Ghetto Loan” scam?
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3). And why doesn’t your “love for the people” inspire you to encourage Mr. Tavis ‘Accountability’ Smiley to be “accountable” and return the money he made off the scam to the people who lost their assets?
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4). And why doesn’t your “love for the people” inspire you to encourage Mr. Tavis ‘Accountability’ Smiley to speak out on the atrocious way that his Walmart road dawgs treat it’s workers?
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UNTILYOU DO THESE THINGS “BROTHER” WEST, YOU AND THE “HONORABLE” MR. TAVIS SMILEY HAVE ABSOLUTELY NO CREDIBILITY IN THE BLACK COMMUNITY.
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RELATED ARTICLE
http://wattree.blogspot.com/2013/01/a-question-for-both-tavis-smiley-and.html
Eric L. Wattree
Citizens Against Reckless Middle-Class Abuse (CARMA)
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Religious bigotry: It's not that I hate everyone who doesn't look, think, and act like me - it's just that God does.