Tavis Smiley was lambasted over the weekend, rightfully in my opinion, for calling President Obama’s Friday impromptu comments on race weak. But instead of making a salient critique of Smiley’s comments on Meet the Press, MSNBC pundit Touré took issue with why Smiley was even invited on the program.
Touré tweeted: “Tavis gets value out of being the Prez of the Black Haters of Obama Club. Example: without that he wouldn’t have been on MeetThePress today.
But couldn’t I make the point about Touré? That he only has his job at MSNBC because he’s a black Obama supporter? Neither Smiley nor Touré have any substantive political experience that I’m aware of, but it would behoove Touré to recall that Smiley made himself a household name with his wildly popular 90′s talk show, BET Tonight, where Smiley regularly discussed political issues important to the black community.
Prior to Obama’s election, however, Touré was a music writer and MTV regular. How’d he make his comeuppance? What signaled his rise other than his unyielding support for Obama?
Touré then tweets: ‘Tavis is stuck in ‘Must Criticize Obama No Matter What’ land. It’s not a pretty place.”
Maybe. But isn’t Touré, the man who supports drones, and is stuck in “Must Support Obama No Matter What” land?
I’m fine with Touré criticizing Smiley on the issues. That’s valid. But if he’s going to ask how Smiley gets on Meet the Press, he should take a moment to consider how in the world he ever got a regular gig on MSNBC’s The Cycle.
Yvette Carnell is a former Capitol Hill and campaign staffer turned writer. She is currently an editor and contributor to Your Black World and Founder of BreakingBrown. You can reach Yvette via Twitter @YvetteDC or on Facebook.
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