It’s the biggest and most enduring social problem African Americans have yet to solve, and the one big issue the civil right’s movement failed to address other than to complain about its unfairness. (see video) The problem is the mainstream newsmedia and its inherent racial partiality. The irony is that gaining mainstream newsmedia coverage was vital to the strategy of the civil right’s movement, using marches and demonstrations to gain its attention.

Though aware of its power, black Americans were also aware that they couldn’t count on the mainstream newsmedia’s fairness, particularly when law enforcement and race was involved.

  “One More River To Cross,” is the name of the video.  As the title implies, there’s a journey to be completed by overcoming one remaining obstacle. The metaphor refers to the absence of an African American national newsmedia presence and representation.  It’s based on the premise that there are three major forces of power in society, which are, money, politics, and the newsmedia.

The dramatic advancements African Americans have made economically and politically since the civil rights movement is in stark contrast to the lack of our advancement in the newsmedia arena. This is the one area where we, as a people, seem to have been caught in a time warp in consistently complaining about a biased mainstream newsmedia and yet pursuing no alternative.

In that we have made tremendous strides economically and politically and the absence of national newsmedia representation is the remaining problem, the obvious, common sense solution would be to establish our own national newsmedia, the one remaining major development yet to be accomplished. Thus the title “One More River to Cross.”

The purpose of this article and video is to show African Americans that the solution to this longstanding problem is right here.  It’s to illustrate to those capable of financially supporting this effort that there is a real institutionalized racial bias engaged in by the police and press that allows injustice to occur even when the most powerful black man is involved.

This should make it clear that as a black person, no matter ones wealth, fame, or even power, we remain vulnerable to the whims of those forces as long as there is no apparatus in place to keep them honest and make them accountable. We show what real empowerment looks like and that we all have a stake in the launch of U.S.A. ThisWeek.

Worse than being in a gunfight and being the only one without a gun is not having a gun and not even realizing you’re in a gunfight. That’s the image that comes to mind when thinking of how oblivious and apathetic we seem to be to our vulnerability to forces in this society, which are indifferent if not downright hostile to our interests.

The video demonstrates in dramatic fashion U.S.A.ThisWeek’s ability and disposition as a news organization to dig up facts and report information that the mainstream newsmedia chose to ignore, dismiss, or minimize and in so doing forcing both the police and press to be accountable. 

The observations and points we raise are meant to demonstrate the kinds of insights that will be presented on a regular basis once the U.S.A. ThisWeek news operation is launched.
 
The plan is for U.S.A. ThisWeek, Inc to launch a national news operation that includes a 24 hour cable-news network, a national weekly newsmagazine, and an up to the minute Internet component to compete with AOL, CNN, and the other up to the minute news websites.
       
With the election of a black President it may have appeared that we, African Americans, had become fully empowered in this society. Actually, that historic development exposed how vulnerable and defenseless we are as a people, in not having our own national newsmedia presence. Not long after the election we saw a bold display of the racial bias and total domination and control by the mainstream newsmedia in full effect. And guess what? Most Americans missed it.

With less than a year in office, law-enforcement’s racial injustice raised its ugly presence and showed that even the black president couldn’t successfully confront the traditional press and police partnership that allows racial injustice to prevail in America. Mainstream newsmedia’s coverage of that incident left the whole country unaware of how the president got a first class rim job courtesy of members of the forth estate.

This widely publicized incident involving race, law-enforcement and the first black president of the United States presented us with the perfect example to show how the police and press usher innocent black people into the criminal justice system. 

In the video we show that contrary to the mainstream news media’s version of that story, it was a total fraud perpetrated on the American people by Sgt. James A. Crowley, the Cambridge police department, and most importantly with the complicity of the mainstream newsmedia. 
 
We show how members of the fully integrated mainstream newsmedia, acted in concert in ignoring information/evidence that would have shown the President was not only justified in his “stupidly” assessment of the arrest of Professor Gates, it was also an illegal arrest.

There remain numerous forms of racial discrimination that persist in our society, however, police brutality, abuse, and misconduct, against minorities are undeniable realties in America. Yet it’s one of the more prevalent and elusive injustices to expose and prove, primarily because of the sanctity assigned to police reports as factual and accurate in these encounters by the one entity situated to impose accountability--the newsmedia.

There is the general presumption that the integration of police departments and newsrooms   insures against racial abuse and misconduct by police and bias reporting by the newsmedia. That assumption fails to take into account a simple reality. In both professions it’s about individual career advancement versus being a rebel and crusading your way right out the door.

Despite his filing a false police report, Sgt. Crowley’s black coworkers spoke up on his behalf to include taking the additional step of denouncing the black president of the United States and the black governor of Massachusetts.

CNN trotted out two of their black reporters/anchors to interview the black cops and Professor Gates’ attorney, apparently attempting to give the appearance of their racial impartiality. Between the black cops and black reporters capitulating, it put in perspective why not all slaves welcomed the Union troops  

The combination of the blue wall of silence and mainstream newsmedia complicity means there is an absence of accountability at the entry level of the criminal justice system, which incarcerates African Americans and particularly black males far more disproportionately to our population numbers. 

In the video we show, an actual instance of this police officer, Sgt. James A. Crowley, taking advantage of the newsmedia free ride. In the now famous incident, Crowley filed a false police report that he presumably thought he would get away with, which he did up until the exposé’ contained in our video and this article.

The traditional accommodation to law enforcement by the mainstream newsmedia and its adverse impact on the lives of black people versus the perception left with most Americans cannot be overstated. It has created a naïve general public that believes in the unquestioned accuracy and sanctity of police reports in these matters. And guess what, black people are just as gullible in believing in the veracity of these reports as any other group.

It’s worth noting here that the disturbing revelation in the widely publicized video showing the little black girls selecting the white dolls as good and the black dolls as bad is matched in this video as we show grown-up black anchors on CNN, black reporters and spokes people appearing on cable news shows, just as naively taking positions as self deprecating to themselves as the little black girls’ self-denouncements. It shows that a variation of the Stockholm syndrome is not limited to black children and is reflected in the behavior and comments of a number of African American adults struggling to accommodate the status quo. 

Lying on police reports when minorities are involved appears to be so ingrained in cop culture that even the involvement of the black President of the United States did not discourage Sgt. Crowley or the Cambridge police department from persisting in the practice to include conducting an illegal arrest.

With the help of a hostile, biased, newsmedia toward the president’s criticism of the police department’s “stupid arrest”, a total misconception was created.  Sgt. Crowley was portrayed and perceived as an aggrieved, maligned, police officer simply doing his duty.

This newsmedia assisted farce culminated in Crowley being able to parley his false police report and illegal arrest into an invitation to the White House. Thus with the help of the mainstream newsmedia this man made a fool of the whole country and defiled its highest office.

The video will show that after inadvertently breaking the story of Sgt. Crowley’s apparent dishonesty, Anderson Cooper and CNN omitted any mention of that startling   incriminating revelation in their subsequent news stories of the incident. But before we throw Anderson Cooper under the bus, let’s make sure there’s room under there for the rest of the newsmedia.

After that shocking revelation, not one newsmedia entity, print, electronic, or multimedia, individual reporter, commentator, or organization chose to follow up on that bombshell exposed on CNN, and FOX, which all the other news shows and organizations undoubtedly witnessed. It was tantamount to a news blackout. 

There are news people and commentators with more notable images and reputations of journalistic integrity than Anderson Cooper who apparently had no problem ignoring Sgt. Crowley’s lies and did as little or as much as any hardcore racist would have done.  Forget about the Obama haters who congregate on FOX, they can stay there.

But what about Chris Mathews with the shaky leg, Keith Olbermann and his nightly sermonettes, Rachel Maddow gay rights crusader, David Gergen .the Walter Cronkite of CNN, Arianna Huffington with her millions, what does she have to fear. These were all Barack Obama supporters.  The question is, is this tribal or institutional?  Take your pick.  In the mean time the black president takes the hit and the lying cop prevails. 

The saying that “God bless a child who’s got his own,” has never been more graphically illustrated than the performance or lack of it of these Obama supporters. It shows that we need to get our own rather than being dependent on others to look out for our interest, particularly when certain forces are in play.

Let’s elaborate here, so that what took place is fully appreciated. The black president spoke up on an incident involving law enforcement that reeked of racial overtones. It was immediately denounced by the newsmedia as his first racially oriented misstep since taking office. Race and racism was the focus of the controversy.  “Is Sgt. Crowley a racist or not?”  “He couldn’t be a racist, he gave mouth to mouth resuscitation to Reggie Lewis the black Boston Celtic basketball player.”  “He conducts the racial sensitivity training program at the Police Academy.” 

The news media finally got the racial incident for which they had been waiting to test the black president and they were milking this incident for all of its racial sensationalism. It was mouth watering. They were literally salivating and loving it. It involved the hot- button issue of race and law enforcement, a white cop, a prominent black Harvard professor, and the black President. 

News coverage was wall-to-wall, twenty-four-seven. News agencies were covering each other less they miss something. And then something big surfaced. CNN’s Anderson Cooper inadvertently exposed a major discrepancy in the hero-cop’s story. Normal journalistic practices suggest a feeding frenzy would ensue with the newsmedia jumping all over this breaking-news level revelation. Didn’t happen.
 
As disturbing as it may be to face this inconvenient truth, newsrooms across America made a conscious decision not to pursue a story that would prove Sgt. Crowley was a liar and the black president was right. The revelations in this video were hiding in plain sight. 
 
As African Americans, the depth of our apathy, naiveté or ignorance, on the subject of establishing our own newsmedia is revealed in the following anecdote.  

A civil rights activist and associate, with whom I had shared this U.S.A. ThisWeek concept, gave a speech last year to the annual NABJ National Association of Black Journalist convention. My friend proudly sent me a copy of his speech in which he spoke on the history of black journalism.

It was surprising but also informative, that in the course of his speech this fellow did not see fit to mention the concept of us having our own national newsmedia to, of all people, this collection of black journalist. To make certain his omission wasn’t an oversight, I asked him why he hadn’t mentioned the U.S.A. ThisWeek, concept. His response was that he thought “community organizing” was a more effective way toward empowering us as a people. 

Wow! Maybe the solution to this whole thing is not so obvious. It was this kind of reasoning that gave impetus to our deciding to produce the video and write this article emphasizing points in the video in an attempt to make our message crystal clear.

Community organizing has its merits but it means we are right back where we started-- organizing people to march and demonstrate to, gain newsmedia attention for some issue, thus remaining dependent on an entity that does not prioritize our interests.

It’s been sixty years since the initial success of the civil rights movement. However, there has been no interruption in the effort of civil rights leaders and activist to come up with ways to move us forward as a people. Interestingly, what we consider to be a common sense solution has yet to be thought of, considered, or proposed. This speaks to the uniqueness and rarity of this U.S.A.ThisWeek opportunity.
 
 Quoting a Website devoted to black philanthropy;  “From education to health, African Americans pump billions into charities and causes, fueling their clout and mission to change the world.” That means there’s no shortage of money to implement this most significant development to advance us toward unprecedented empowerment. Certainly  no concept is more suited to change the world than one that finally provides black people with a national voice.

It’s important to note, that despite the obvious social and political appeal, this is also an excellent business opportunity, which means once launched it becomes self-sustaining.  Once launched U.S.A.ThisWeek will be recognized as the definitive national voice representing 40 million people and a one trillion dollar annual spending market, which is no longer without national newsmedia representation, clearly a concept whose time has come.

To reach the publisher--James T.A. Babington-Johnson-- email address is This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it Subject: One More River