Fla. black-owned media pledges tougher scrutiny of Dems

During a recent gathering in Orlando, black media outlet owners from across the Sunshine State candidly expressed their concerns about local, state, and national politics. The group reached an overwhelming consensus: the Democratic Party takes African American voters and black-owned media organizations for granted.

Roosevelt Wilson, a retired FAMU journalism professor and publisher of the Capital Outlook, was selected to articulate the group’s position.

From the column “No more free rides”:

One of the disturbing things about last year's presidential race is that while all of the black-owned media supported then candidate, Barack Obama, the black-owned media had become so predictable that Republican opponent, John McCain said he conceded Florida to the Democrats because of the heavily anticipated African-American turn out.

For the Barack Obama supporters, perhaps that was good news. But Barack Obama won't be running for president but one more time, at most.

Florida black-owned media believe it is an insult to the integrity and intelligence of the African-American citizenry of Florida to make an assumption that simply because there has been a history of supporting the philosophical position of the Democratic Party, that African-Americans are forever tied to Democratic candidates.

So as candidates come and go, as elections come and go, the black-owned media have made a commitment to stand back, evaluate the candidates on all sides, whether it be a Democrat, Republican or Independent, truly evaluate what they have to offer as compared to what our community and our people need and then make our recommendations and throw our support behind those we think best live up to those qualities.

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