Sorry, @AnandWrites this is very much NOT TRUE. We have never sat next to each other on TV. I joined @CNN in 2007. Seven years earlier, my appendix ruptured at the @DNC convention. Spent five days in the hospital. Had no health insurance. Car was repossessed at the airport 1/6
In 2004, I got a home foreclosure notice. Filed bankruptcy. So @AnandWrites, in 2007 and 2008, as we discussed the financial crisis, I was LIVING it. In 2009, @CNN worldwide CEO Jim Walton asked me my thoughts on our healthcare coverage on air. I said I hated it because 2/6
It was all process. I said, “put folks like me on the air who filed bankruptcy due to healthcare.” @AnandWrites, I knew the personal struggles of many of my Black and brown on-air folks. We were never in the $2M, $5M, $10M pool. We don’t get the $50K speeches where they send 3/6
Private jets to scoop you up. We don’t get invited to sit on @Davos panels. Few of us even get invited to speak at @AspenInstitute or some of these other high-profile places. In fact @AnandWrites, I’ll be curious as to what Black & brown folks will be given Viceland shows 4/6
Bottom line @AnandWrites, the folks you describe don’t look like me. Or @TiffanyDCross. Or @Maria_Hinojosa. Or @DrJasonJohnson. Or @ElieNYC. Maybe @MorganHH Hertzan should call us. Hell, I’ve built a digital show that speaks to these issues DAILY. Has had 140M views. 5/6
If Viceland and @MorganHH wants to reach an alternative audience @AnandWrites, there are a host of Black and brown voices who feel like aliens sitting on @MSNBC @CNN @FoxNews. We are living a reality far different from our white cable news counterparts. 6/6
This is not piling on to @AnandWrites, but I just want folks to understand that what Black and brown media folks go through to get on TV is real. Just the other day I found my bankruptcy discharge paper. Payment: $94,750. instagram.com/p/B8hIrgDgRAZ/…
facebook.com/rolandsmartinf… 1/6
facebook.com/rolandsmartinf… 1/6
And sprinted out the door. While I was hustling, I didn’t always have fulltime employment. But I didn’t stop grinding. We would be discussing joblessness, wealth inequality, lack of healthcare, and I would be incredulous listening to folks say stuff that was BS. 3/6
There were white execs at @CNN who felt I was too raw and real. But guess what? The audience research would show major spikes in the minute-by-minute ratings because the people desired AUTHENTICITY. There were other white execs who said, “Give him a show!” 4/6
Look, I’m happy for @AnandWrites that he got a show from @MorganHH on @vicenews Viceland. Too much of this crap on cable news isn’t grounded in hard core truth. Man, I remember a hurricane bearing down Houston and me sprinting out of @CNN to send money home for my parents 5/6
All I’m trying to say is that I know a LOT of Black folks RIGHT NOW who y’all think are being paid on TV and they are not. I did that shit for free for a LONG tine. Please don’t assume you know their story. They look good, but you don’t know all it took to get them there. 6/6
