BET (Black Entertainment Television) is owned by Viacom (huge news and entertainment conglomerate). Viacom is 67% owned by National Amusements Inc. (private corporation owned by one white man: Sumner Redstone, chairman and CEO). For a full list of Viacom's holdings visit www.cjr.org/owners/index.asp The list is astounding. Prince touches on this subject on the ONA tour using video images, but doesn't directly point any fingers. He sang the line 'God bless America' and then said 'not tonight'. Now what does that mean? I think I read somewhere that people from BET were at the Celebration. If they were what did they say? I don't watch t.v. so I've not seen BET but my buddy says much of the content is negative, violent and materialistic (in the videos).

"The Revolution will not be televised. The revolution will be LIVE!"

kimmydee said:

we all are. get over it...

kimmydee said:

hip-hop videos usually show dirty image, but not all hip-hop videos do. u are acting like prince never used dirty images in his videos!n*sync was played on BET and they aren't black!

So yr saying Prince isnt materialistic and doesnt use "dirty" images in his videos? ... have I stumbled into the twilight zone by any chance?

TheSkinMechanic said:

i said a similar notation. :O

B.E.T is owned by the man

Now ain't that america

BET is owned by me!

kimmydee said:

Aaron said:

theC said:

For you and me
Ain't that America somethin' to see
Ain't that America home of the free
Little pink houses for you and me

I thought everybody knew BET was owned by a white man. The original owner(s) sold it to Viacom (MTV's daddy) a few years ago. That's why it's a little similiar to MTV now: Spring Break=Spring Bling, TRL=106 & Park, and other stuff like that. No more Donnie Simpson or Sherry Carter. I couldn't stand Sherry, but I loved Donnie and Video Soul

so is the HHIC (Head Honky In Charge) responsible for the "negative" content, or are they simply playing what other sources (labels etc) provide? and how is what BET does different that the WB or UPN is doing with their shows targeted to minorites? where's the outrage there? some of the crap they show is just plain painful to watch. i think Viacom has Paramount (UPN) under their wing, too...

"Devil, devil, you've been here since 1-9-14. Now you got to go."

Argg! The world's gone mad and only Prince cares.

kimmydee said:

Acutally Prince isn't the only one that cares. Tavis Smiley left BET after he and the former owner Robert Johnson had a failure to communicate on how the network was going. Many black organizations have boycotted BET as it's moving over to more MTV-like programming. And the programming was going to hell well before the sale to Viacom it just went there in a more constructed way now. And as someone pointed out the WB and UPN weren't much better but they have attempted to create some more positive images of Blacks on television. I don't watch either of the channels all that much because I don't think they display anything that resembles my life. Bernie Mac's show is funny as all hell though, I just forget it's on.

Not surprising isn't it???

Maybe some of the people at the celebration were just regular workers with no top positions who didn't care what Prince said about BET anyway, and it could
ve been the other way around too.

It's true about the content on BET. It's sad that they've let themselves be led that way, while still being on top also.
[This message was edited Mon Jul 8 8:05:51 PDT 2002 by Starmist7]

Funny how this hasn't really turned racial yet. If the heading had been "BET is owned by a black guy" people would have caused a big feud by now. Guess more black people then white are racial sensitive...

My point was really about control over content not black/white issues. If you actually take a close look at who owns what (clic the link) you will see that there are only two or three multinational corporations that own practically EVERY media outlet on the planet, and their power and influence is growing. Artists, in their art, have always voiced 'hey, pay attention, look at this going on here' as a way of opening discussion. The theme of freedom has been a constant in Prince's music (you know this of course) and it takes great courage to stand up against the powers that be, especially these days when the clamp is tightening around everyone's neck. Wal-Mart is notorious for censoring music, they can get away with it because they have the financial clout to do so.
In my country, a prominent journalist was fired for not having his editorial (opinion) prescreened before press release. It critisized the nations leader. When we can no longer freely discuss, or comment through art, what goes on in our society in a public forum then we are not free.
Freedom becomes an illusion, maybe it already is. Dance on.