The Price of Sharpton's Exit
Here at Vision Circle, we've known for sometime that Sharpton was a hustler, and that his run for the White House was a thinly veiled attempt to become HNIC. What we didn't know, was his price. Jackson got a plane, and egress into the Clinton White House. Years before that, he got Ron Brown into the DNC's head spot.
So what was Sharpton going to get?
Now HE'S said all along that the goal was policy. But WHAT policy? What policies has Sharpton outlined during his run that no other candidate has addressed? Getting MLK Day recognized in the North Carolina town that sponsored one of the debates? Getting Howard Dean some black staffpersons? What?
Thanks to Prometheus I know Sharpton's fee. If Kerry pays off the $600,000 debt that Sharpton has accrued, Sharpton will leave the race.
Norman Kelley's book on HNIC's can't come out quick enough.
Posted by at March 6, 2004 09:22 PM
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"Sharpton's Next Role: Talk Radio? Reality TV?"
[...] But, perhaps unsurprisingly for a man who is running for president, Mr. Sharpton's media ambitions do not stop there. He has already had an informal discussion with Fox Television Studios about a possible reality television show, officials there said on Friday. And he recently met with Sid Ganis, the Hollywood producer who included Mr. Sharpton in the 2002 remake of "Mr. Deeds,'' to discuss future roles.
"For months they were saying to me from various parts of the media world that they wanted me to do a syndicated radio show, a syndicated TV show, and now these guys with a reality show,'' Mr. Sharpton said. "I said I wanted to wait for the end of the campaign. Now that we're halfway through, I told William Morris to go and complete some deals.''
Mr. Sharpton acknowledged that his attempts to become a media star could draw criticism that his presidential race was more about his own ambition than it was about his causes. But, he said, any such accusations would be unfair: his first priority was to use daily radio and television talk shows to further awareness of his civil rights causes in a media environment that he said is far richer in outspoken right-leaning hosts than it is in left-leaning ones.
"What the left has missed that the right understands is you need a mixture of policy and personality, because people tend to view and listen to people as well as to policy, and we have not developed the personalities,'' Mr. Sharpton said.
He added, "I don't think anyone denies that I have built a national personality.'' [...]
Oh My God.
So is any black politician with guts going to give Sharpton a verbal beatdown, or are all of them equally in thrall to the media powers that be?
Wait. I just realized what this means. Tavis Smiley in 2008.
Is that good or bad, Cobb?
Tavis gets more face time doing what he's doing rather than running for President.
"Sharpton's Next Role: Talk Radio? Reality TV?"
[...] But, perhaps unsurprisingly for a man who is running for president, Mr. Sharpton's media ambitions do not stop there. He has already had an informal discussion with Fox Television Studios about a possible reality television show, officials there said on Friday. And he recently met with Sid Ganis, the Hollywood producer who included Mr. Sharpton in the 2002 remake of "Mr. Deeds,'' to discuss future roles.
Posted by: George at March 8, 2004 02:11 AM"For months they were saying to me from various parts of the media world that they wanted me to do a syndicated radio show, a syndicated TV show, and now these guys with a reality show,'' Mr. Sharpton said. "I said I wanted to wait for the end of the campaign. Now that we're halfway through, I told William Morris to go and complete some deals.''
Mr. Sharpton acknowledged that his attempts to become a media star could draw criticism that his presidential race was more about his own ambition than it was about his causes. But, he said, any such accusations would be unfair: his first priority was to use daily radio and television talk shows to further awareness of his civil rights causes in a media environment that he said is far richer in outspoken right-leaning hosts than it is in left-leaning ones.
"What the left has missed that the right understands is you need a mixture of policy and personality, because people tend to view and listen to people as well as to policy, and we have not developed the personalities,'' Mr. Sharpton said.
He added, "I don't think anyone denies that I have built a national personality.'' [...]