An Open Letter to Jeff Bezos: How You Could Provide Support to Black Media
From The G-Man Provides Four Simple Steps
After $100 Million Donation to CNN’s Van Jones
Greetings, Mr. Bezos.
How are you? We hope you and your loved ones are well and will remain so during these extremely challenging times. In July of this year, news organization all over the world reported on your monumental $100 million donation to CNN’s Van Jones. Five days ago, Forbes reported that you gave nearly $100 million to help the homeless. As this letter is being typed, the Washington Examiner is reporting that you unexpectedly awarded a $100 million donation to the Obama Foundation. From The G-Man suspects your charitable contributions will provide must needed assistance to many, especially those looking for a place to call home. Thus, we applaud and salute you for your incredible generosity.
That said, we were wondering if you were aware of the fact that Black media organizations in America are not faring as well as those that are (predominately) white-owned. In fact, the problem is so bad that business mogul Byron Allen recently issued a challenge to corporate America to step up and offer as much support as possible. You appear to be in very giving mood as of late, so this independent news and information site would like you to consider the following steps in order to help news outlets of color, be they small publications or digital platforms, to continue serving their communities.
Step 1: Watch the video of Byron Allen to truly understand how and why Black media in America is struggling to survive.
Step 2: Review this groundbreaking report with your team of advisers.
Step 3: Consider launching a major campaign to assist the Center for Community Media (CCM) in its effort to provide support and resources to many of the Black news outlets listed in its Black Media Directory. Many of the outlets need financial assistance and you or your company could provide substantial funding to the CCM, which would be unprecedented and serve as confirmation that you and your company believe…. Black media matters.
Step 4: From The G-Man urges you to contact Ms. Cheryl Thompson-Morton to obtain detailed information CCM’s Black Media Initiative.
We hope that you’ll strongly consider these requests, Mr. Bezos. Doing so could prove instrumental in the dissemination of news and information in communities of color for generations to come.
“I’d rather go down in history as one lone Negro who dared to tell the government that it had done a dastardly thing than to save my skin by taking back what I said.” – Ida B. Wells