Robert Johnson's Legacy (or My Dad Started BET But All I Got Is This CBS T-Shirt)

Robert Johnson deserves credit for a lot of things. You have to respect the man for creating a commercially viable cable channel for Black folks.

In a world where very few Blacks have "fuck you money", it's nice to see Mr. Johnson's estate.

But I'll be honest. I am not a big BET fan. And the fact that the founder and CEO of Black Entertainment Television, is finally stepping down is not a bad thing in my book. (Of Course, what no one is saying, is that he has to step down. When he sold the company he was told he could stay for at least 5 years. Those 5 years are up.)

What is his legacy?

Slate said the following in 2000, after BET was sold to Viacom::

Black leaders and artists have repeatedly whacked Johnson for BETs dismal programming, but he is not interested in uplifting the race. If something wonderful appears on BET, fine, but no tears if it doesn't. Johnson shuttered the critically praised magazines Emerge and YSB because they were losing money. He started the "BET on Jazz" channel not because he wants to support the art form, but because he wants to profit from it. He launched a pay-per-view channel specializing in action movies and soft-core porn. BET was the only channel to accept hard-liquor ads and one of the few media companies that refused to adopt the voluntary TV ratings system. He has fought savagely against efforts to unionize his employees and has been raked for paying performers sub-union wages.

But Yemi Toure explains it best to me:

He should have taken a lesson from John H. Johnson, owner of Johnson Publishing   Co. (JPC), another Black-owned, privately held media company, which publishes Ebony and Jet magazines.   White firms have been salivating over JPC for decades, but John H. Johnson   has not sold out. Is it that JPC is too small to be bothered with? No. JPC   is larger than BET--it is the largest Black-owned private company in the   United States.

John H. Johnson has resisted offers to sell his company to Whites because   he has a greater vision and a stronger sense of the importance of Black ownership.   He also has more of a sense of legacy--he has trained his daughter, Linda   Johnson Rice, to run the business. She is president and chief operating officer   of the empire, set to take over when the old man dies. When Bob Johnson's   daughter, now in the 9th grade, gets older, can he tell her to prepare to   run his empire? No. But he can help her fill out a job application.

Comments

[Terecico]

I respect Bob J. for his business acumen and as a man. Unfortunately, his legacy will be BET. I don't hide it I am anti-BET, if you want a cable channel that propels all the black stereotypes you can find BET on your channel guide. BET is the channel that could've been...

[Terecico]

I respect Bob J. for his business acumen and as a man. Unfortunately, his legacy will be BET. I don't hide it I am anti-BET, if you want a cable channel that propels all the black stereotypes you can find BET on your channel guide. BET is the channel that could've been...

[willis A. Lee]

Bob Johnson
has money but he has lost his soul
He forgot the most important business lesson of all ,never put ambition before pride and duty before diginity.
His legacy will be that he sold the black community crack cocaine.
Thank god for Nat Turner.
Bob Johnson is a pencil dick mouth of puk whose ultimate purpose in life was to be a miscarriage.he escaped all of reality much to the detriment of all of black america.
he knows what the right thing is and he needs to do that.
he has obviously brought shame and disgrace to an entire race of people .
for this act ,there is no forgiveness

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