Tavis Smiley

...I've had people complain about me...

...Q: What racism have you personally experienced or observed in the media industry...

...And so, everything that this show is and does is scrutinized in a way that makes the work challenging...

...And when I get to showcase the best and brightest black Americans, I'm down with that...

...Smiley: What I like most about him is that he, more than anything else, is passionate...

...But I hope that I'll get it done...

...They need to hear it...

...It is a gap that likely falls along racial lines, since many African Americans know Smiley's slightly raspy baritone from the regular commentary he offers on the Tom Joyner Morning Show, broadcast on "urban contemporary" (read: black) radio stations across the United States...

...They write letters to underwriters and sponsors, and they have tried to get Congressional investigations of my activities...

...Sometimes I think I'm too intense for my own good, and for the good of the people around me, who work with me and support me...

...But I want to do something significant to make this place better when I leave it than when I found it, and I hope that I have time to do that...

...And I think that every day that I get up, you know, I'm trying to find ways, through the opportunities that I have been blessed with, to make a contribution to my community and to this country...

...And when I say slow up, I don't mean just in terms of my pace...

...We cannot accept arguments in a prima facie sort of way...

...Any opportunity I get to engage people, whenever that opportunity presents itself, I'll make use of it...

...Smiley was fired from BET in 2001, ostensibly for interviewing former Symbionese Liberation Army member Sara Jane Olson for ABC instead of CBS, which is owned by Viacom and had just acquired BET...

...I think I'm most afraid, not of dying, but of dying before I get it done...

...Q: What should the left be doing now...

...What do you like most and least about him...

...Q: What are you trying to do with your radio show...

...Sometimes I have to force myself to slow up...

...A leader can't practice the virtues of telling people the truth without being courageous...

...Q: You were fired from BET...

...One, because it takes hits pretty regularly from members of the Republican Party in Congress, who love to get on the floor of the House and demonize NPR...

...I mean, NPR is a network that for thirty-plus years has been about the business of enlightening persons who happen not to be persons of color...

...it's plantation politics...

...They're concerned about their careers...

...Two, because rightwing media personalities have made a sport of beating up on NPR regularly, among them Bill O'Reilly on Fox News Channel...

...Q: Who is Tavis Smiley...

...BET founder Robert Johnson said he had "a number of public and private concerns" about Smiley...

...he's a good brother...

...I got fired from BET, and I never lost a bit of sleep about it because I never wanted to be on TV to begin with...

...And third, because NPR is a news network...

...The NPR publicist who introduced us spoke of the "fame gap" dogging him as he promotes both his two-year-old NPR show and his new half-hour late-night show on PBS called Tavis Smiley...

...NPR and PBS give me a chance to moderate a different kind of conversation, giving the same old topics a different treatment...

...Most of the corrective social policies came out of left political thinking...

...And there's no way I could just do NPR if I did not have some outlets for me to express myself politically...

...Smiley: We have too many people who do what they're told...

...They don't know what they want to be...

...The success of our show will demonstrate that if you build it, they will come...

...While I really enjoy sitting behind the microphone every day and hosting the show, the struggle that I am engaged in, that my staff is engaged in, is to get this network to understand that we live in the most multicultural, multiracial, and multiethnic America ever and that we know how to do this show...

...I felt the same way when Clinton was in office...

...If you're not passionate about it, you're probably doing the wrong thing...

...sometimes they're not really seeing the light as much as they are feeling the heat-are really starting to understand, appreciate, and embrace what I call the diversity imperative...

...Sometimes it reinforces your own beliefs, and other times it challenges them...

...Has that made you more careful about what you do on NPR and PBS...

...I was a commentator before I got to NPR, and so there was some concern-and I think there always is concern [laughs]- that I'm going to say something on the air that will get the network in some trouble...

...the country didn't suddenly turn right...

...Now, before you ask me what "get it done" is, I don't know...

...I appreciate NPR and PBS for what they are, and I don't pontificate politically on public radio or public television...

...I can't say that I have any real horror stories with the experience of racism...

...How do they expect to grow in this America if they don't put different voices on...

...They know the difference between right and wrong...

...Ali was right...

...Tavis Smiley emerges from an elevator...

...We have this negative drumbeat of againstness, but America wants to know, what are you for...

...Fans joined them each evening for a combination lecture/political rally/revival meeting...

...What many might not realize, however, is that he is watching back...

...I'm still in sleep mode, even after a three-block trek in the pre-sunrise December cold, a twenty-minute commuter-train ride, and a cab driver way too chipper for this hour...

...For two weeks in December, the three men traveled to several cities on a speaking tour in which the audience did a lot of the speaking...

...Smiley: I have been fortunate to have had a number of opportunities, to have done a number of things that are firsts-first African American to do this kind of show on NPR, first African American to do what I'm doing now on PBS...

...Q: What is the media's greatest potential, and how can it achieve that potential...

...But I understand the various hats that I wear, and on NPR I'm a moderator, I'm a host...

...And that's a weird way to put it because life is a journey, so you never really get it done...

...The left has surrendered too many areas to the right...

...Even at the crack of dawn, he is a bundle of energy...

...Patriotism demands debate...

...So, my passion is probably my best character trait, and my intensity, at times, can be my worst...

...This requires a great deal of candor, and I'm not sure I want to be that candid...

...Smiley: The media's potential is to showcase different voices...

...When you have it, the Republicans castigate you, but that's to be expected...

...Tavis Smiley: In a nutshell, I want to get people to think critically about the issues of our time and reexamine the assumptions that they hold, introduce Americans to each other, introduce NPR to people of color, and introduce people of color to NPR...

...I mean in terms of my drive, in terms of my demands that I place on other people, in terms of my expectations...

...I am fortunate to live in a time where people-sometimes for the wrong reasons...

...On NPR, I'm the moderator, and while I'm not showing my own political point of view, I am bringing on a variety of views...

...If I'm not passionate about it, I won't do it...

...Fans contend that those concerns included Smiley's left-leaning political views and confrontational interview style...

...Smiley: I think I'm most afraid of-wow...

...NPR is also a favorite target because of its coverage of Middle East politics...

...Q: How politically gun-shy is NPR...

...That's just true of the left, period...

...If I do those things, people will respond...

...I'm not just saying this because the Republicans are in office...

...The consensus has to come after the questioning...

...The deal was that I would spend the day running around with Smiley as he promoted the "Pass the Mic...

...I love Bill Clinton...

...The problem is that there are not enough people with courage, conviction, and commitment...

...But even as he has moved on, Smiley knows that he is still being watched carefully, perhaps more so now...

...Once they are given options, they respond...

...I'm just trying to figure out whether I want to say it on the record or not [laughs...

...And when I had Smiley occupied, the other two would engage each other with everything from discussions about the black left to reminiscences about Isley Brothers tunes...

...it, of course, wants to be balanced and apolitical in its coverage...

...The right agenda is the antithesis of that...

...I prefer the term progressive, because progressives are people who foster an agenda in the best interests of-and not antithetical to-those who are politically, socially, and economically disenfranchised, or, as the Bible says, are "the least of us...

...America is not made better by accepting the status quo...

...There has to be a diversity of voices...

...Smiley: Very, for a couple of reasons...

...Those black progressives in the [Democratic] Party have got to get back to being progressives, but there are other folks who are not black who have to get back on the job as well...

...Leah Samuel is a Chicago-based journalist...

...I just think it's a matter of doing what you do where you're supposed to do it...

...Smiley: It's a cop-out...

...The media's responsibility is to make the airwaves look and sound like America...

...I can tell you that the most difficult thing that I have had to do is fight a culture at NPR, a culture that is antithetical to the best interests of people of color...

...Q: What are you most afraid of...

...Dylan was right...

...Smiley: I don't worry about that...

...But there are a couple of issues-welfare reform and the crime bill- on which we allowed him to slide...

...I've always believed that whatever it is that you do, you have to be passionate about it...

...But I feel like I'm just getting started...

...And they know his face from the five years he spent as host of the nightly news show BET Tonight with Tavis Smiley...

...Q: What about the argument that people won't respond, that they don't want political or racial diversity...

...Americans inherently are a fair people...

...And it really doesn't matter if people don't want to hear it...

...Smiley: First of all, there is a connotative difference between what people think of as the left-the limousine liberal, the tax-and-spend Democrat-and what the real left is...

...But I'd be lying if I didn't say it was a constant battle...

...But my dream job is not being a radio or TV host, so if I lost this, it wouldn't matter to me...

...He walks quickly and, like many professional broadcasters, manages to jam a remarkable number of words into the space of a few seconds...

...And I understand that success in life is not a destination but a journey...

...THE PROGRESSIVE INTERVIEW by Leah Samuel Tavis Smiley It's almost 6:00 a.m., and the downtown Chicago Hyatt Regency is just starting to stir, with bellhops running around and service reps prepping the reservations desk...

...They care only about the lucky and the rich...

...For some, Smiley may seem to have dropped out of the sky...

...If there's a final reason, I happen to be a personality that came to NPR having already established my political credentials, if you will...

...He has produced and written for other network news programs, and he has written several books, including Hard Left: Straight Talk About the Wrongs of the Right and the activism primer Doing What's Right: How to Fight for What You Believe-and Make a Difference...

...Ultimately, what life is all about for me is trying to make a significant contribution...

...That's not just a black thing...

...and globally...

...I want to believe that the extent to which I am going to be successful, I'm going to do it not by transcending who I am but by embracing who I am...

...tour with leftwing scholars Cornel West and Michael Eric Dyson, both regular commentators on his pathbreaking NPR program, The Tavis Smiley Show...

...That's personally and professionally...

...That means questioning authority in the tradition of the civil rights movement and the Vietnam War...

...Some on the left have lost their way...

...The thing I like least about me is that sometimes I'm too intense...

...I know the answer...

...At the end of the day, it's pretty clear to people what my intentions are, and how I intend to navigate this ship...

...Q: What do you think is happening politically, in the U.S...

...This day would find Smiley, Dyson, and West at local TV and radio stations, talking about war, celebrity culture, and corporate greed on the air and then playing around with each other like schoolboys in the car between appearances...

...Smiley's dismissal capped a contentious relationship between him and the network...

...The three had spirited debates on race and politics the way most guys talk sports...