Contact with Viacom and Black Entertainment Television Part 2 - 7.11.2007.2

Continued from Contact with Viacom and Black Entertainment Television Part 1...

• 4. Why do several divisions of the company promote programs that display little or no positive benefit in the portrayal of African Americans? I submit as examples VH1 – Flava of Love and all it’s spin-offs, BET – the abovementioned Hot Ghetto Mess, Uncut.
  
• 5. Given that African Americans, directly or indirectly have contributed to the positive earnings of Viacom, which in the Media networks division (of which BET is a part) was an increase of 10% to $1.73 billion, why has Viacom not used it huge network of resources to provide original or re-run programming the equivalent of other divisions of the company?
  
• 6. Considering that 1/3 of the movies released in the first quarter of 2007 seem to directly target African Americans (Norbit and Black Snake Moan), and that these same movies contributed to the 62% increase in revenues vs. 2006, without including the positive contribution of other movies release prior to 2007 (Dreamgirls), it can be surmised that African Americans are a strong source of a portion of the revenues for Viacom. Why then would this revenue source be seemingly neglected in a division that directly targets African Americans? I site the strong dependence of the programming on music videos, discussion of music videos, and B or less quality movies (ie. Soul Plane, Leprechaun: in the Hood) on BET.
  
• 7. Why is a division that seeks to target a seemingly lucrative consumer segment of the company, dedicated to programming that is and may be considered insulting to that audience. I cite the large number of African Americans that have crusaded (for over a decade) against the violence, misogyny, and promotion of drugs that music videos (particularly hip hop and gangsta rap) focus on. In addition I site the over a dozen blog sites and articles written denouncing the proposed Hot Ghetto Mess program, its logo, its stated content, the description of that content, and the loss of advertisers to the BET website page promoting this program.
  
• 8. I ask Mr. Redstone, Mr. Dauman, and all other executives responsible for programming at BET and the other divisions of Viacom, why there is such a vast difference in programming when comparing BET to any other divisions. I state that there is no comparable program to the Blade series, as an example, on BET.
  

I hope we can get a response to these questions from BET and Viacom. I feel we have been neglected and used for the monetary gain of Viacom. I believe that Viacom can provide quality programs that do not infer or actively promote insult to African Americans. I further accept that they chose not to do so with the one division of the company that solely targets us.

Whether that is due to the inefficient nature of the corporate structure of the company, as observed by my attempts to get comment from BET and/or Viacom, or because of the seemingly laissez faire attitude of executives responsible for programming (those executives ultimately being Mr. Redstone and Mr. Dauman) I do not know. But I do know that it can be changed. I submit that if shareholders of Viacom are holding onto a stock that is losing profits because of protests against the actions of the company, change will be swift. Protests may happen, especially if Hot Ghetto Mess is the insult that is inferred by the description provided on BET’s website and the logo chosen to symbolize the program.

This is what I think, what do you think?