The 
2008
The Black Press and Obama
Obama och den svarta pressen
Published in my column in:
Osterbottens tidning (The Finnish Daily Swedish language Newspaper of this region)
www.deplicque.net
22 januari 2009
Barack Obama’s election as President is prompting major changes out nation’s Black press, ushering in a series of firsts that editors say will reshape print, Internet, radio and television coverage aimed at African-American audiences. Essence, the top-selling magazine among black women in America , will have a full-time White House reporter for the first time. Ebony magazine will add a White House reporter, either full time or as needed. Its sister publication, Jet magazine, will have a weekly two-page Washington report in every issue.
And Black Entertainment Television is scrapping its usual fare of videos and sitcoms for a four-hour live broadcast of Obama’s swearing-in — just as the leading cable network in black households did for both party conventions last summer, and on Election Day. TV One will do the same, airing 21 hours of inauguration coverage throughout the day.
In some ways, the moves mark a return to a time when the black press — particularly magazines — were newsier. Jet first published photos of the battered and swollen body of Emmett Till in 1955, sparking outrage and galvanizing a still-young civil rights movement.
The latest issue of Essence (another Black magazine) , which reaches 8.5 million readers a month, has two different covers — Barack or Michelle — and features famous African-Americans, ruminating on the moment.
Ebony named a person of the year for the first time in its 63-year history, dedicating its entire January issue to the president-elect.
But all the coverage won’t be like that, one editor said.
“We’ll be asking what he is going to do on specific issues that African-Americans are interested in — unemployment, AIDS, housing, health we are going to be following all of those things,” said Tatsha Robertson of Essence. “It is historic but we are going to take him to task.” Robertson said Essence will use its website to break news, and its Obama watch section is one of the most popular features on the website.
The moves are also an indication of the deep ties Obama formed with the black press — and by extension, the black community — over the course of the campaign. Black support for the president-elect was 95 percent, a record.
BET, which will host an inaugural ball for the first time in the network’s history, ran 10 hours of Election Night coverage and reached 10.7 million viewers, topping CNBC’s coverage. Correspondents, who were spread out in cities across the country, were expected to reflect on the moment as well as to report the news.
BET, long criticized for running too many booty-shaking music videos, is in the process of expanding its news coverage beyond the current 25 hours a month. The directors said that people are demanding change and accountability and they want to know what’s happening and they want people who they trust to break it down and help them understand it. He went on to say that they have a very key role in doing that. Sometimes the most traditional way isn’t the most effective, but it’s going to be grounded in solid reporting.
Personally speaking, the night Barak won, I had goose bumps all over as I sat alone in my home in Karleby Finland... I wanted to run out in the streets screaming for joy, but had to keep my controlled finnish-feeling limiter down to a quiet: "Ja!"
As a mulatto boy growing up in Dallas, being the first Black boy to be the only Afro-American student, at a previously all white school in Dallas in 1965, and having seen Kennedy 30 minutes before he was assasinated; living through the assasinations likewise of Robert Kennedy and Martin Luther King as well... well believe me, I never thought I would see the day when in my life time, a Black man would lead America. Just goes to show that miracles still happen.
I have grown up having to sit at the back of the bus with my french white grandmother. Having to go to the back door of an all white restaurant to get take away food because I had no right to go inside and sit down like a normal person. But today, thank God, things are changing. Not just for Blacks; not just for other minorities too, but for all people, no matter what the color. And that is a reason to sing that Negro Gospel song: "Oh Happy Day!" This historical event is something one can really to take to the Press!
Christian-Charles de Plicque, Freelance Journalist/Missionary/Evangelist
Angel House International Missions Ministries r.f.
Karleby Finland
www.deplicque.net
