Every time I think the National Association of Black Journalists (NABJ) cannot become any more irrelevant, they prove me wrong.
I have been a member of the organization for decades, despite many temptations to cancel my membership because their leadership has made a conscious decision to become an "unofficial” part of the Democrat Party and no longer a "professional” organization.
If you need any evidence of my assertion, one need only look at the debacle that took place at their national conference in Chicago last week.
NABJ has a new president, Ken Lemon. I do not know him and since he is new to his position, I will reserve judgement of him at this time. But I will give him a great deal of credit for displaying wise leadership for inviting presidential candidate Donald Trump to address their convention, as he did Kamala Harris, the Democrat candidate. Trump accepted and Harris declined. So much for Democrats valuing radical liberal Black voters like members of NABJ.
The mere fact that inviting Trump caused so much controversy within the group shows their radical liberal bias! Despite the loud protest from its radical liberal Democrat members, Lemon stood his ground and the Trump invitation was not rescinded.
But where Lemon did show his radical liberal bias was how he structured the meeting with Trump. He was pressured into being soooooo politically correct that he chose three Black female reporters to do the interview: Rachel Scott from ABC News, Harris Faulker from FOX NEWS, and Kadia Goba from Semafor.
The continued marginalization of the Black male, by a group led by a Black male. Go figure!
How do you justify not having any male reporters participating, but I digress? As of this writing, NABA has refused to confirm what the agreed upon terms of the panel discussion were.
Trump has said one thing and NABJ has said another. Neither side has shown anything that could be confirmed; thus, the event continues to be a royal mess.
For those who have yet to see the event, you can watch on C-SPAN. Do not use any other source as it
will most likely be edited to reflect certain political bias. Rachel Scott, from ABC News, thoroughly embarrassed herself and the profession of journalism with her "sista” girl tactics.
She was totally rude and disrespectful to Trump right out the gate. You do not have to like Trump, but he is still a former president. She was attempting to make her bones off Trump and he totally destroyed her like he did Kaitlan Collins from CNN a couple of months earlier!
One of the oldest unwritten rules of journalism is that the reporter should never become part of the story. Unfortunately, in today’s world, journalists seek to be not just a part of the story; they now want to be the story. This is why most Americans do not trust or respect the media.
This was Trump’s "Sister Souljah” moment on steroids!!! A Sister Souljah moment is simply when you go to a group’s convention and denounce a prominent member of their organization to curry favor with another demographic group that has no affiliation with the group you are speaking to.
So, in 1992 presidential candidate, Bill Clinton, attended Jesse Jackson’s Rainbow Push’s annual conference and denounced rapper Sister Souljah to curry favor with white moderate Democrats; and it got him elected president in 1992!
In this instance, Rachel Scott was Sister Souljah and got her butt wiped across the floor by Donald Trump. Unfortunately, most Black professional groups have all decided to be a part of the Democrat Party versus a professional group.
This explains why they are all hurting for money and have little to no influence within the industries they are supposed to be a part of. NABJ absolutely does not represent the rank and file in the Black community and are in constant violation of the Society of Professional Journalist’s code of ethics (SPJ).
SPJ is the governing body for all things journalism. Their code of ethics has been considered the Bible of journalism for decades.
If NABJ were lawyers or certified public accountants (CPAs), they would lose their license because they
are in constant violations of their own code of ethics. Many NABJ members call me when they cannot get Republicans to return their calls when they are working on stories.
When Republicans get calls from Black reporters, whether they work for Black or mainstream media, their default position is that it is going to be a hit piece; therefore, they are reluctant to return the call. This view by Republicans is not without merit! I think NABJ and many Black reporters have definitely earned this reputation.’
As I am wont to say, radical liberal groups like NABJ and radical liberal Democrat operatives like Roland Martin, Joy Reid, April Ryan, Laura Coats, and Abby Phillip, etc., do more harm to the Black community than anybody with a white hood over their face.
NABJ constantly plays the race card and constantly complains about the lack of "diversity” within mainstream media and their executive suites; yet they are guilty of doing the same thing they accuse the big boys of doing.
Where is the "ideological” diversity within NABJ?
Why are all their national, regional, and local conferences all stacked with 99% radical liberal Democrat speakers and panelists? A couple of years ago, they allowed Planned Parenthood to sponsor a panel at their national convention in support of abortion. Yes, you heard me right!
NABJ pushes a radical liberal agenda and I have talked with their leadership incessantly, to no avail.
Their leadership is very well aware of my connections at the highest levels of the Republican Party, but leadership never comes to me for input as they are planning their conferences. But they demand from white folks what they are not willing to give to Black folks.
This is why industry executives do not take them seriously as an organization and why they are totally irrelevant to the Black community.
These radical liberal Democrat groups like the Black Journalists, the Black Accountants, the Black MBAs, the NAACP, the National Urban League, the Black Economic Alliance (BEA) etc. cannot be reformed or refined, but rather they must be rebuilt from the ground up.
Radical liberal Democrat members of these groups must be rooted out and replaced by people who are capable and willing to put their personal politics to the side in order to promote the mission of said group.
I am speaking about radical liberal Democrat operatives like Roland Martin, Joy Reid, April Ryan, Don Lemon, Marc Morial, Al Sharpton, Derrick Johnson, Samantha Tweedy, and Angela Rye. You know, the usual cast of characters.
Even though the focus of this column is the NABJ, you can replace their name with any number of other so-called Black professional organizations whose leadership has turned many of these organizations into sycophantic bases of support for the Democrat radical leftist agenda.
I would welcome the opportunity to host a series of town hall meetings across the country so we can discuss these issues in a public setting.
I can most assuredly say in advance that I do not believe I will have any takers because radical liberal Democrats and their organizations are afraid of being publicly challenged and rarely, if ever, want to debate their position in the marketplace of ideas.
This is why the NABJ and other Black organizations have proven to be irrelevant to both the Black and white communities simultaneously!
Raynard Jackson is a Pulitzer Award nominated columnist and founder and chairman of Black Americans for a Better Future (BAFBF), a federally registered 527 Super PAC established to get more Blacks involved in the Republican Party. BAFBF focuses on the Black entrepreneur. For more information about BAFBF, visit www.bafbf.org.
You can follow Raynard on Twitter @RealRaynardJ or Gettr @RaynardJackson
