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Nationally syndicated radio host Michael Baisden has been blasting Color of Change and suggesting they misappropriated funds raised for the Jena 6.
From the Chicago Tribune:
Just weeks after some 20,000 demonstrators protested what they decried as unequal justice aimed at six black teenagers in the Louisiana town of Jena, controversy is growing over the accounting and disbursing of at least $500,000 donated to pay for the teenagers’ legal defense.
Parents of the “Jena 6″ teenagers have refused to publicly account for how they are spending a large portion of the cash, estimated at up to $250,000, that resides in a bank account they control.
Michael Baisden, a nationally syndicated black radio host who is leading a major fundraising drive on behalf of the Jena 6, has declined to reveal how much he has collected. Attorneys for the first defendant to go to trial, Mychal Bell, say they have yet to receive any money from him.
[]
Only one national civil rights group, Color of Change, has fully disclosed how the $212,000 it collected for the Jena 6 via a massive Internet campaign has been distributed. The grassroots group, which has nearly 400,000 members, has posted images of cancelled checks and other signed documents on its website showing that all but $1,230 was paid out in October in roughly equal amounts to attorneys for the Jena youths.
Yet that transparency did not halt acrimony over the fundraising from breaking into public view on Baisden’s popular radio show this week, when Baisden invited Bell’s father, Marcus Jones, to accuse Color of Change founder James Rucker of misapplying the donated funds.
Jones offered no evidence for his assertion. But Baisden told his listeners that Rucker “sounds shady to me,” before promoting his own fundraiser, scheduled for this weekend, which aims to collect at least $1 million for the Jena 6 and other black defendants across the country.
You view the cancelled checks here. According to emails and letters released by the Color of Change folks, Baisden knew all of this before he launched his attacks.
You can send an email demanding Baisden and ABC Radio retract their baseless attacks and set the record straight here.
40 Comments
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me me me?
Jane!
Jane!
Snarky gets the Zed
Hey Cassie:
Congrats. Beat me to the punch…
hi JANE! The right wing just likes to make stuff up.
What time is Naomi on?
PeteCO @ 7
Naomi will be here at 2pm PT.
Hi Cassie!
Jane Hamsher @ 8
10/4. I’ll try and think of something smart to say.
Naomi made a peek appearance in the last thread…*g*
naomi wolf @ 132
it still surprises me, but these guys will say just ANYTHING… anything that pops into their tiny little heads…
gaw!
I don’t get why Bell’s dad is doing this. I would think he’d be glad he’s not saddled with a slew of legal bills.
Rovian projection seems to know no color.
Without baseless attacks, wingnut radio would be all dead air.
Before you know it, reich wing radio will be attacking 9 year olds! So, be patient. This newest attack will blow over soon. *sigh*
Badwater @ 14
Exactly.
OldCoastie @ 11
Any statements that pushes the agenda is a victory for these operatives. A lie told often enough is reality in the wingnut bizarro world.
KayInMaine @ 16
I thought they skipped attacks on nine year olds and went from 12 to 2 year olds?
Thank you, Jane. I’d wanted to talk about this last week but kept getting sidetracked by other happenings.
dakine01 @ 18
They’re hard to keep track of! From one day to the next it could be a 2 year old who gets in the cross-hairs or it could be a 12 year old. It’s really a toss up. Something tells me it will be a 9 year old next time! Hey, the republicans don’t like beating up people their own size. They like going after the weak, cinchy ones!
KayInMaine @ 20
Like the Bullies always do.
dakine01 @ 21
…yep, and it’s why Bush chose to go into Iraq first, because they were pretty weak military to defend themselves against us. This kind of behavior feeds the bully’s ego for sure. Beating up a 12 year old does it too. ;-)
Hi Teddy.
Getting increasingly disappointed in Sestak. As is everyone I’ve talked to here. AND I’ve heard from 2 unrelated sources that he does not treat his staff well—to say the least. It’s a revolving door.
Not the kind of dem I want to support.
RevDeb @ 24
That’s a shame, it was so nice to Weldon get kicked to the curb.
Millineryman @ 25
We may need to contemplate doing the same to Joe. Primaries are good things.
Baisden sees a way to turn a buck, is all I can think.
I so miss Steve Gilliard’s voice in writing about stuff like this.
RevDeb @ 26
With the netroots getting stronger everyday it presents all types of opportunities to keep their feet to the fire.
RevDeb @ 23
Hiya Rev! Tell me about disappointments in representation…. bad enough ours hardly ever votes and won’t listen to her constituents about impeachment, but she’s failing our entire country as well!
Here’s Joe’s response to the Preznit’s radio address today
The uninvited guest: Chinese sub pops up in middle of U.S. Navy exercise, leaving military chiefs red-faced
….The lone Chinese vessel slipped past at least a dozen other American warships which were supposed to protect the carrier from hostile aircraft or submarines.
And the rest of the costly defensive screen, which usually includes at least two U.S. submarines, was also apparently unable to detect it.
According to the Nato source, the encounter has forced a serious re-think of American and Nato naval strategy as commanders reconsider the level of threat from potentially hostile Chinese submarines.
It also led to tense diplomatic exchanges, with shaken American diplomats demanding to know why the submarine was “shadowing” the U.S. fleet while Beijing pleaded ignorance and dismissed the affair as coincidence.
Analysts believe Beijing was sending a message to America and the West demonstrating its rapidly-growing military capability to threaten foreign powers which try to interfere in its “backyard”.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pag…..ge_id=1811
Well, where did everyone think those american dollars for “made in China” were going? Hell, Pres. Clinton handed over the keys of American Industry in signing the China Trade Agreement. And Georgie Boy told them to turn off OUR lights when they were done emptying the country.
BTW, China is the 2nd largest holder of US Debt.
Retract? That’s kids stuff.
Write ABC and demand that Baisden account for HIS funds. Why? Because if he’s accusing someone of misappropriating, it’s more than likely to divert attention from his own crimes.
RockPS -
If you read the article, you’ll see it notes the Chinese subs were running on electric engines. This is hardly high-tech stuff; the US and USSR had equivalently quiet electric boats 20 years ago. Yeah, the Chinese are catching up, but this is hardly proof that they’ve achieved anything like parity.
. . . should fuck in the basement.
Pachacutec @ 32
In the whine cellar.
It just shows how the scent of big money just corrupts everything it touches.
That’s without making any judgment about who is right or wrong here, just makin the observation.
RockPaperScizzors @ 29
Also makes one wonder if this cloaking technology has been passed on to Iran for use in their Nahang (”whale”) and mini-class submarines. Both of these are more designed for stealth rather than speed…and for territorial defense rather than attack. They can sit or move slowly in areas where enemy fleets might penetrate and then serve as “weapons platforms” to attack from below…the most vulnerable spot for many surface ships.
jjcomet @ 31
But that’s not the point, is it. The point is that the Chinese sub, using this fairly old-school technology, was able to penetrate an American flotilla. The point isn’t that the US and Russia would be unable to penetrate a Chinese naval flotilla. BOTH sides can do so (and apparently so can the Iranians).
Margot @ 26
This guy does a pretty successful radio show for ABC radio, and he has a show on the TV One cable outlet. I think this is more about his ego than it is about money (although he still should be asked to account for the funds he raised). In any case, he did a very foolish thing in slandering Color of Change. He obviously didn’t know how respected they are.
This guy does a pretty successful radio show for ABC radio, and he has a show on the TV One cable outlet. I think this is more about his ego than it is about money (although he still should be asked to account for the funds he raised). In any case, he did a very foolish thing in slandering Color of Change. He obviously didn’t know how respected they are.
I’m sure he know exactly who Color of Change is.
The man works for the same company the employs Melanie Morgan, Sean Hannity, and just about the entire right-wing radio machine. This attack on Color of Change was designed to provoke a response, and to generate controversy. This is nothing about telling the truth, or demanding accountability. This is solely about stirring shit up.
Pachacutec @ 32
707
Baisden says he wants to raise another ONE MILLION DOLLARS! My question is FOR WHAT? The legal defense to my knowledge has been provided for so tell me what the Jena 6 has done to warrant $1 MILLION DOLLARS? Um anybody? This wasn’t the LOTTERY! Y’all weren’t in a car wreck. Nobody went to jail except the person who violated probation for previous crimes. Nobody has been kept out of college. Nobody rescued a cat from a tree or a baby from a burning house. Nobody discovered a cure for cancer. The only thing the Jena 6 did was jump a boy and beat him unconscious. For that, you do not get $1 MILLION. What you get is a lucky star, which you need to be thanking that folks were willing to raise pure unadulterated hell on behalf of your ungrateful lot.
To the families of the Jena 6, seriously, go sit down somewhere. Get your kids off red carpets and awards show stages, keep them out of after parties sponsored by liquor companies, make them take down, MySpace, YourSpace, TheySpace, pages, stop going on the radio. Just keep your head low until your children are completely out of legal peril because quite frankly, you are not helping your case. YOUR FAMILIES are not HEROES. But for the idiot hapless DA in your tiny Louisiana backwater, nobody would know your names. the only thing you did was raise some kids who thought 6 on 1 was a fair fight. Seriously, you and your families have done nothing to be proud of or famous for. Go. Sit. Down. and PRAY for the liberty of your children.
Michael Baisden MUST invite Color of Change onto his show.
* He MUST apologize like the man he “purports” to be.
* He needs to drag Michael Bell’s daddy on the show to apologize as well
* AND He needs to do all this with the same BOLDNESS he used to savage Color of Change in the first place.
If he doesn’t, then the Black blogosphere needs to be prepared to ask each and every ABC radio affiliate to preempt Baisden’s show to run a response from Color of Change. I mean flood the station managers’ phones from coast to coast. Baisden ain’t THAT big. If they won’t, then the Black blogosphere needs to launch a nation campaign to DEFUND HIS SHOW. I mean “Greasy Jerry’s Check Cashing Chicken N’ Waffles” ought to be scared to purchase space on Baisden’s show.
Gina from What About Our Daughters?