BET

Criticism[edit]

A wide range of people have protested elements of BET's programming and actions, including Public Enemy rapper Chuck D,^[15] journalist George Curry,^[16] writer Keith Boykin,^[17] comic book creator Christopher Priest,^[18] filmmaker Spike Lee,^[19] Syracuse University professor of finance Dr. Boyce Watkins,^[20] former NFL player Burgess Owens,^[21] and cartoonist Aaron McGruder (who, in addition to numerous critical references throughout his series The Boondocks, made two particular episodes, "The Hunger Strike" and "The Uncle Ruckus Reality Show", criticizing the channel). As a result, BET heavily censors suggestive content from the videos that it airs, often with entire verses and scenes removed from certain rap videos.^[22][23]


Many scholars within the black American community maintain that BET perpetuates and justifies racism by affecting the stereotypes held about black Americans, and also by affecting the psyche of its young viewers through its bombardment of negative images of black Americans.^[24]


Following the death of civil rights leader Coretta Scott King in 2006, BET broadcast its regularly scheduled music video programming, rather than covering King's funeral live, as was done by TV One and Black Family Channel, and by cable news channels such as CNN, Fox News Channel, and MSNBC. The network's website streamed the funeral live, while it periodically broadcast taped, 60-second reports from the funeral by senior news correspondent Andre Showell. Michael Lewellen, BET's senior vice president for corporate communications, defended the decision: "We weighed a number of different options. In the end, we chose to offer a different kind of experience for BET viewers." Lewellen also explained that BET received around "two dozen" phone calls and "a handful" of emails criticizing BET for not showing the King funeral live.^[25] On the evening of the funeral, February 7, 2006, BET broadcast the tribute special Coretta Scott King: Married to the Mission, and repeated it the following Sunday, February 12.^[26] Showell hosted the program featuring highlights of the funeral, Coretta Scott King: Celebrating Her Spirit, that broadcast that same day.^[27] In its 2007 convention, the National Association of Black Journalists gave BET its "Thumbs Down Award" for not broadcasting King's funeral live.^[28]


The New York Times reported that the Reverend Delman L. Coates and his organization Enough is Enough led protests every weekend outside the residences of BET executives against what they claim are negative stereotypes of black people perpetuated by BET music videos.^[22] Enough is Enough backed an April 2008 report titled The Rap on Rap by the Parents Television Council that criticized BET's rap programming, suggesting that the gratuitous sexual, violent and profane content was targeting children and teens.^[29]


In a 2010 interview, BET co-founder Sheila Johnson explained that she herself is "ashamed" of what the network has become. "I don't watch it. I suggest to my kids that they don't watch it," she said. "When we started BET, it was going to be the Ebony magazine on television. 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 didn't like it at 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 artists...and we had to start showing them. I didn't like the way women were being portrayed in these videos."^[30]