My New Black Magazine - NYU Black Renaissance Noire BRN-FALL-206 ISSUE RELEASE | Page 147

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Not surprisingly, race-based
programming on public television
contributed to a backlash. In fall 1968,
some public television outlets beyond
New York City complained that net,
which developed original programs for
the educational television network,
was “heavily slanted in favor of the left”
and lacked balance. Since few local
stations had the resources to create
programming, this was a clear effort
to censor net productions. Greaves
recalled that while net’s management
was, at times, uncomfortable with the
program’s coverage of entities such
as Malcolm X or the Nation of Islam,
there were no efforts to silence Black
Journal. But now there was increasing
pressure to do so. A few months later
net officials formally disputed the
charges of bias, arguing that at the
heart of the complaints were objections
to “n.e.t.’s dealing with social problems,
changes and conflicts.” The network
chief defiantly declared that the
“obligation of n.e.t… is to report
American life as it exists.” However,
shortly after this debate the Ford
Foundation and the Corporation for
Public Broadcasting forged a blueprint
for public television that would bring
more conservative and middle-of-theroad viewpoints into rotation, especially
in public affairs. This was a harbinger
for the end of Ford’s dominance in
educational broadcasting — the cpb,
chartered by Congress, was to take
over Ford’s role. The long-range plan
was for cpb to establish the Public
Broadcasting System which would
replace net in making all broadcasting
decisions in consultation with
individual stations and producers.
This institutional restructuring, along
with the politically-charged attacks
on attention to social justice, effectively
cut the fragile safety net on which
Black Journal relied.

The staff of Black Journal used the
community mobilization tactics rooted
in the civil rights movement to rally
support for the program’s survival.
“If the black community across America
wants to maintain the show on the
air, it must demonstrate its concern
through letters, petitions, etc.,” Greaves
declared. Articles appeared in local black
newspapers and national periodicals
like Jet and Ebony proclaiming “Black
Journal Must Be Saved.” The Chicago
Defender, appealing to its readers’ racial
consciousness, asked “will the real
‘Blacks’ step forward and give financial
and written encouragement to the
producers, technicians and directors of
‘Black Journal’?” Milwaukee’s black
newspaper, and its peers across the
country, made it a matter of urgency
and encouraged readers to bombard
their local public television affiliates
with postcards expressing their concerns.
The hope was that net would use
such petitions as ammunition in their
fundraising and program planning.
Ebony went so far as to predict that
Black Journal was going off the air, and
quoted Greaves: “It’s an insult to the
black community that 10 percent of all
network budgets aren’t geared to black
programming,” he said.

This strategy encouraged black viewers
to articulate their stake in having
some ownership over public television,
and to convey to the network and
funding agencies that blacks comprised
a constituency to be reckoned with.
Black media professionals also had an
investment in Black Journal’s success —
it presaged the possibility of regular,
full-time, black-run programming and
employment. One African American
organization, the National Newspaper
Publishers Association, issued a
resolution that urged continuation of
the program. An author of the motion,
Georgia legislator and sncc veteran
Julian Bond, said “The only one-hour
Black television program is to be taken
off the air. Out of the 1800 hours of air
time per month, you would think that
Black people would have at least one
of these hours.” Similarly, the all-black
National Association of Television
and Radio Announcers signaled these
expectations when they awarded a
Golden tv Award to Black Journal at
its annual meeting. Black Journal had
literally become the “gold standard.”