Michael Baisden is a popular radio show host. I’ve listened to his show once or twice while driving from the airport or something. It’s your standard love and relationships thing, complete with all the gross generalizations about men and women that you can imagine. It’s not my thing. However, he has done a lot of work for the Jena Six, and for that he should be commended.

Well now, it turns out that he has attacked the reputable online advocacy group Color of Change, calling James Rucker, the founder, “shady,”and bringing Mychal Bell’s father, Marcus Jones, on air accusing them of not giving the money they’ve raised to the Jena Six. Fortunately, Color of Change is on top of their game and were quick to provide proof that they have been nothing but honorable in their handling of Jena Six donations.

Here are the facts:

• ColorOfChange.org has disbursed $210,809.90 of the $212,039.90 collected as of the last reporting period (October 4th). These distributions cover all invoices we’ve received from the young men’s legal teams to date. $33,150.00 was sent to Louis Scott, Marcus Jones’ son’s lawyer on October 7th (Scott was able to request $35,339.98 but only provided an invoice for $33,150).

  Here are images of the deposited checks to the defense teams, proving they received the funds.

• The Jena 6 families are all aware of how we raise money and how we distribute it. We make payments to their attorneys at the families’ sole direction. Within 24 hours of receiving written authorization from the family, along with an invoice from an attorney, we send checks for up to 1/6 of the total amount donated.

  Here are the authorizations signed by the families, starting with Marcus Jones’.

• Michael Baisden claims to have a letter signed by all the Jena 6 families that implies that ColorOfChange.org is acting against the wishes of the families. This is false. One parent who signed the letter says that it made no mention of ColorOfChange whatsoever. Two families say they did not sign the letter at all.

  Here is an email sent to Michael Baisden’s team by one of the parents who did not sign the letter, asking to see a copy of the letter.

• ColorOfChange.org is known by all the Jena 6 families. Our executive director, James Rucker, has met with the families on at least five occasions in Jena and has positive relationships with all of them, with the exception of Marcus Jones.

  Michael Baisden’s staff know this, because we put them in touch with Jena 6 families with whom they had no relationship.

• Michael Baisden and his staff know the facts. James Rucker has talked with Baisden directly, as well as Pamela Exum and Yvonne Gilliam who work for Michael Baisden. From the start, we have explained our procedures to Baisden and his staff; we had them verify payments were received by lawyers; we had them verify our process with the lawyers and families–it was in response to an inquiry they started, driven by Marcus Jones’ accusations almost two months ago.

  In mid-October, Yvonne Gilliam, who works for Baisden indicated by phone that every lawyer she’d contacted had received their checks.

• Marcus Jones stated that David Bowie contributed $10,000 to ColorOfChange.org’s fund and Baisden let the accusation stand. Bowie’s contribution was made to the NAACP for Jena 6 legal defense and was widely reported–ColorOfChange.org never came in contact with this donation. A link to the NAACP’s press release about that donation is here: http://www.naacp.org/news/press/2007-09-18/index.htm.
   
• Michael Baisden has shown a reckless disregard for the truth. Marcus Jones has been making false allegations about us for months. However, responsible journalists check facts and then report accordingly. We’ve fielded inquiries from CNN, the Tom Joyner Morning Show, Black America Web, and others, based on Marcus Jones’ allegations–they all concluded the claims were without merit and refused to give him a stage to speak.

  Despite knowing the reality of how ColorOfChange has managed the fundraising and distribution process, Baisden has joined with Jones in launching baseless attacks.

• ColorOfChange.org exists for one reason: to organize and amplify the political voice of Black America and our allies. Michael Baisden claims to share this goal but he is using his show to recklessly attack an organization that has a clear record of doing the real work he claims is important, in Jena and beyond.

Unfortunately, Michael Baisden has yet to apologize or invite the Color of Change on air to clear this mess up. [Edit on 10 November 2007: Michael Baisden has offered an apology to the Color of Change. It's a weak apology, in my opinion, and doesn't even begin to address the full extent of the harm he has caused, but I'm going to give him credit for at least acknowledging that he spread information that was not true.]

My question is why? Why is this type of slander even necessary. Why damage the movement that so many people have worked so hard to build by throwing around baseless accusations? I think that Andre Banks is on to something here. I like what he has to say:

For weeks Baisden has been baiting listeners with a salacious “breaking news” story about the thieves of the Jena 6. He billed the whole thing like he was breaking “Jena Gate”: “Tune in tomorrow. I’m gonna name names!” (I bet the advertisers and up and ups at ABC Networks who distributes the show nationally just loooved that shameless ratings grab).

But what held him up? He said on Monday’s show he’s been talking to Jones for months. Why hold this story? Why not bring the vigilantes to justice? Of course, it was the facts that actually slowed him down. All the documentation I mentioned above was available to Baisden and the show’s producers. They had the paper trail and other family members tried to talk to them and dispute the claims. They knew Jena-Gate was a lie when they let Jones on the air this week. But they simply didn’t care. This isn’t Black politics. On “Love, Lust and Lies” it’s all Black entertainment.

When I listened closely, I realized that Baisden never actually verbalized the accusations himself. While he spoke in vague condemnations, he let Marcus Jones actually do the naming of names he’d talked up. So, while the ethics department may be out to lunch, we can rest assured that the lawyers at ABC radio are paying enough attention to make sure that Baisden didn’t get slapped with a libel suit. At least not right away…

This is a bit of a rant, but I think it’s important to make this story clear because it actually isn’t only about defending Color of Change. I do support their work around Jena and beyond and think they’re serious about building a base of engaged Black people with a progressive vision. Much more so than the usual civil rights suspects. But I also hear the bell tolling around a larger fight: Through Baisden, the corporate media is pimping a fake scandal for ratings at the expense of a serious, progressive Black political agenda – all while claiming to be the authentic, if not only, voice for the community.

This story is about corporate media, fronted with Black faces, undermining not only an organization, but a successful attempt to change the conversation about race, criminalization and Black communities. Baisden is exploiting Black peoples’ reasonable skepticism around institutions – every one in this country has hustled us in one way or another – to make us feel like when we stood up for something profound and won a real victory, we’d simply been had. Our contribution made in vain. So when the next campaign comes around and legal defense is needed, he’ll have helped turn the bit of optimism generated by Jena to a jaded, empty cynicism. And for what? A larger share of the drive-time audience?

Thankfully, Baisden does have a solution. You can give him your money. Next week he’s setting up a fund so his one million listeners can raise $1,000,000 in one day to go into his own coffers.

I’ll be surprised if we can view his canceled checks online…

Chris Rabb nails what is really at stake here as well:

Many entrenched Negroes who have poo-pooed those of us in the Black netroots community as lap dogs of “white liberal activists” (read: MoveOn.org), are afraid that they will have to become accountable to the rhetoric they have almost begun to believe after all these years without the antiseptic of transparency.

The reality is, Afro-Netizen need not name names in this regard. But toward interested readers doing their own research on who’s promoting whose agenda, as my late hell-raising activist maternal grandmother (inspiring the moniker “Geronimo” by Baltimore politicos) liked to remind me sternly: “Consider the source!” (Not unlike the ever sanguine pearl: “Follow the money.”)

This is why media literacy is so important to disadvantaged communities who do not genuinely control their own media. Because if we knew who owns what and what they are are about, the current and future Baisden-like fiascoes would be taken for what they are: distractions from the much larger threat of media consolidation at the expense of widening and amplifying the diverse, autonomous voices of communities color.

And for all the good things Baisden may have said or done around Jena and other salient issues, if you haven’t heard him mention “media literacy”, “media consolidation” or “media justice”, now you know why.

See also:

Eddie G. Griffin
Jack and Jill Politics
Friends of Justice
Exodus Mentality
African American Political Opinion
Dallas South Blog

Send an email to Baisden’s producers and ABC Radio asking him to be held accountable for his baseless accusations.

Color of Change’s letter sent to all members:

Dear ColorOfChange.org member,

A national Black radio host is making reckless and false allegations that threaten to undermine the credibility of ColorOfChange.org. We want you to know the facts. And then we need your help to stop this attempt to defame what we’ve built together.

Over the last few months, radio personality Michael Baisden has repeatedly implied that ColorOfChange was improperly handling money collected for Jena 6 legal defense. On Monday and Tuesday he outright attacked us.

Baisden’s claims and suggestions are completely false, and he and his staff know it. After you’ve read the facts below, can you take a moment to send Michael Baisden and his producers an email asking that he publicly apologize for slandering the movement we’ve built together?

You can listen to the damaging segments of the show, review the facts, and send him a message here:

http://colorofchange.org/baisden/

The real story about your donations

Since July, 17th, ColorOfChange members have donated $212,039.90 for the legal defense of the Jena 6, six Black boys being unjustly railroaded by the criminal justice system in Jena, Louisiana. ColorOfChange has already sent $210,809.90 to the six legal teams defending these young men. You can view the cancelled checks here:
 
http://colorofchange.org/jena/baisden/documentation/checks.html

On Michael Baisden’s show this week, Mychal Bell’s father, Marcus Jones, made allegations on air that the Jena 6 families have had no contact with ColorOfChange and that we do not have their authorization to collect money. It’s simply not true. ColorOfChange has had contact with all of the families for several months. A member of each family has signed a letter authorizing the payments from our defense fund to their attorneys. This includes Marcus Jones. Marcus also asked us on air to stop fundraising for the Jena 6, and implied that he speaks for all of the families, but he does not – none of the other families have said they want this. All but Marcus are thankful and appreciative. Michael Baisden knows all this, yet he provided a forum for this attack and backed it up. You can view the authorization letters, and the full details, here:

http://colorofchange.org/jena/baisden/facts.html
 
ColorOfChange has not taken a single penny of these funds, not even for overhead or administrative costs. We absorb all the fees from every transaction, ensuring that every dollar donated goes directly to legal defense. Aside from the latest donations that are still being processed, every penny that has come in to help these young men is in the hands of lawyers who have been fighting hard to achieve justice.
 
Baisden has the facts, so why is he on the attack?
 
Michael Baisden and his staff know the facts. As early as September, we explained our procedures to Baisden and his staff. In October, we helped them contact the families and lawyers so that they could verify for themselves that the money was being distributed. By mid-October, Yvonne Gilliam, who works for Baisden, indicated by phone that every lawyer she’d contacted had properly received their checks from us.
 
So why does Baisden resort to slandering us on the air now, after seeing for himself exactly how funds were managed? He’s promoting his own fundraising effort this week and is trying to position himself as the only trustworthy source for fundraising around the Jena 6. He’s stated explicitly that he started his fund because he thinks other efforts are untrustworthy. Discrediting us is a great way to promote himself and his fund.

But there is no excuse for his behavior, especially from someone who claims to be part of a movement.

We hope Baisden can raise a lot of money for the Jena 6. The families need all the help they can get. But when someone with his reach builds himself up by spreading slanderous accusations about an organization doing innovative and powerful work on behalf of the Jena 6, it damages the entire movement. And it must be called out.

Defending the movement you’ve built
 
ColorOfChange.org started in 2005 with outrage, tears and a laptop computer. Our hearts were broken by what was happening in New Orleans and the Gulf Coast. So we set up a website and emailed a petition to our friends. We realized we had struck a chord, so we decided to keep going. And it’s a good thing we did. Because in just two short years, ColorOfChange.org has become a powerful tool and resource — the largest Black-led online advocacy organization in the world, with nearly 400,000 members. And its because of your voice that we are here today, stronger than ever.

Never before have Black people and our allies had the ability to aggregate our power and our dollars online in such a powerful way. By mobilizing your concern and your dollars when the justice system attacked Black children, we have demonstrated conclusively that all of us working together can impact the courtroom – and the court of public opinion. By flexing our collective power, we have sent a clear message that it is a new day for racial justice in this country.

Baisden’s baseless attack could harm our ability to do this work. We need your help now so that we can continue to be effective advocates for the Jena 6, and for other issues important to Black America.

You can help, here:

http://colorofchange.org/baisden/

Thank You and Peace,

— James, Van, Clarissa, Gabriel, Mervyn, and the rest of the ColorOfChange.org team
   November 8th, 2007