The Daily Beast caught up with Sheila Johnson, co-founder of BET this past week during the Tribeca Film Festival and she shared her thoughts on the network since selling it to Viacom in 2000.
"Dont even get me started, I dont watch it. I suggest to my kids [a 20-something daughter and a college-age son] that they dont watch it Im ashamed of it, if you want to know the truth. t wasnt always that way. When we started BET, it was going to be the Ebony magazine on television, Johnson tells me. We had public affairs programming. We had news I had a show called Teen Summit, we had a large variety of programming, but the problem is that then the video revolution started up And then something started happening, and I didnt like it all. And I remember during those days we would sit up and watch these videos and decide which ones were going on and which ones were not. We got a lot of backlash from recording artistsand we had to start showing them. I didnt like the way women were being portrayed in these videos. I just really wish, and not just BET, but a lot of television programming that they would stop lowering the bar so far just so they can get eyeballs to the screen. I know they think thats whats going to keep programming on the air; thats whats going to sell advertising. But there has got to be some responsibility. Somebody has got to take this over. Because with all the studies that are out there, this is contributing to an atmosphere of free sex, I dont have to protect myself anymore."
Interesting article. Sheila & Bob Johnson started the network 3 decades ago with $15,000 in seed money and $500,000 from an investor. When they sold the company to Viacom in 2000, they pocketed 1.3 billion making them the first African American billionaires in the nation.
Dear Sheila DON'T complain because its your fault. What did you think selling the company to Viacom was going to do?? She saw those billions and SOLD OUT!
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