*Byron Allen is known for being the CEO of Entertainment Studios as well as a critic of the Rev. Al Sharpton.
But from an interview he gave to CNN’s “Reliable Sources,” Allen’s credibility may have taken a big hit. According to Mediate.com, Allen passed up a golden chance to go in on Sharpton regarding the discrimination lawsuit he and other black media owners have brought against Comcast and Time Warner Cable for $20 billion.
Over the years, Sharpton has garnered criticism from white critics who question everything from why he remains on the air despite horrible ratings to why he keeps getting invites to the White House in spite of owing millions in taxes to why the media continues to give him a platform after every racial controversy.
With Allen being African-American, this cuts deep into Sharpton playing the race card. Soooo…Rather than taking Sharpton to task for “being used for cover by Comcast and TWC by employing him and providing him a national platform,” Mediaite noted how Allen needlessly resorted to bringing race into the conversation with the following quote:
“[Comcast] don’t do business with real African-American-owned companies, just give him [Sharpton] $50,000 and a bucket of chicken and we’re good.”
Although he challenged Allen’s labeling of Sharpton as the “least expensive negro,” “Reliable Sources” host Brian Stelter warned his guest regarding the risk of being inflammatory. Allen quickly cut that off as he asserted “the numbers are actual” before chatting for another few seconds. Not one for confrontation, Stelter ended up letting Allen have his say without challenging him.
“In the end, Allen hurts himself in exploiting the double standard around racial references (think of the reaction if George Allen or Tim Allen had made such a comment),” Mediaite pointed out. “Consequently, nobody is talking about Byron Allen’s assertion of the industry spending “$50 billion a year licensing cable networks in which 100 percent African American-owned media receives less than $3 million per year in revenue from that 50 billion stream of money that is spent to acquire content,” as he laid out nicely in a HuffPost Live interview two days prior.
“Instead, it now comes down to shock value via Allen, a CEO who should know better and one who can’t make an argument without evoking the word “negro” or insulting his own race in turning chicken into currency,” the site continued while mentioning that Allen’s “credibility just dropped a few notches in getting down into the swamp with Sharpton.”
Ultimately, Mediaite believes Allen should go about hiring a PR coach while rethinking his strategy in light of his CNN interview doing nothing to further his “actual premise: Major companies ignoring African-American audiences and by extension, African-American media properties when it comes to where they spend their money.”
To see Allen’s interview, check out the video below, via CNN:
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