Tavis Smiley's show is on PBS. It's an eclectic interview/discussion format with guests who range from blues guitarist Kenny Shepherd; politico Colin Powell; Actor Anthony Hopkins; and Harvard Prof. Henry L. Gates, Jr.
His views are left-of-center, but I don't care. Mr. Smiley's rapid fire delivery, disarming charm, and insightful questions make many of his shows outstanding television. He's 'Charlie Rose' with soul - and more energy. But, like C. Rose, Tavis Smiley's midnight airing is on much too late for this early riser. And since I'm too lazy & cheap for TIVO, Sunday re-broadcasts are my friend.
Which ledes us to Mr. Smiley 'going it alone'. Longer than he's been on PBS, he's been an 11 year regular on the syndicated "Tom Joyner Morning Show" radio broadcast. Now he's leaving.
He cited fatigue and a busy schedule in a personal call to Joyner on Thursday night, but Joyner indicated otherwise on his program and in his blog yesterday, writing: "The real reason is that he can't take the hate he's been getting regarding the Barack issue -- hate from the black people that he loves so much."
Apparently, Tavis Smiley has been critical of the obamanator, and a detractor of the swooning 'obamamania' which doesn't lend itself to clear thinking and reasoned discussion of what, exactly, are the obamanator's politics?
On the Huffington Post Web site yesterday, author and political analyst Earl Ofari Hutchinson suggested that Smiley was the victim of "the black Obama thought police," which had subjected him to "a verbal public lynching" for comments that ran counter to mainstream black opinion.
All of which simply goes to prove the very critical point about
'obamamania' that Mr. Smiley has been making all along. And, once again, this vociferous visceral response against Tavis Smiley highlights another fatal flaw in democratic socialist politics - eating your own for the sake of group identity & class warfare.
TY GP
