Comments on: Dear BET

By: Paige Price

Paige Price — Sun, 20 Jun 2010 17:31:15 +0000

oh yeah! black music is the best.:;,

By: Doyle L. McDaniel Jr.

Doyle L. McDaniel Jr. — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 21:52:15 +0000

Great job Shawn Scott. You represent your family well as you do your race. It is about time that we as a race stand up for family values. It is no wonder that we see all of our young black males either being incarcerated at an alarming rate or taking each others lives at the same pace. Most of what comes on T.V. these days under the genre of entertainment just promotes the negative stereotypes associated with our culture. I am sure there are many whose shoulders we have been standing on for years are very disappointed in what is happening to our youth.

I am proud that we have the same blood running through our veins and I can proudly call you my nephew. Your commentary should be on the National News. Unfortunately that might never happen because the powers that be continue to turn a deaf ear or remain blindfolded to our protestations of outrage and insult. All young people do not appreciate all of the vulgarity that seems to be pervasive on BET. We are going backwards as far as reaching our God given potential.

By: Stephanie

Stephanie — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 19:12:11 +0000

Very well written letter! I have not watched a BET awards show since Mo’Nique hosted and I believe that was about 4 years ago. I like Jamie, don’t get me wrong, but sometimes his ADD acts up something terrible and he can get off course (or maybe it’s just the nerves). To say that mess was dedicated to the King of Pop was just disgraceful! There were wonderful parts (Ne-Yo, Maxwell, Jay-Z, the O-Jays) but on a whole..it was terrible. Now if they get bad reviews they can just blame the time costraints. Maybe they should take a cue from the host and blame it on the a-a-a-alcohol…SMH…

By: Twitted by topnotchtutor

Twitted by topnotchtutor — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 18:56:01 +0000

[...] This post was Twitted by topnotchtutor [...]

By: Nanea

Nanea — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 18:51:49 +0000

Great Letter Shawn! I watched most of the end and will catch up with the whole thing online or when it re-airs? Lil Wayne was a trip!!! I sat there thinking…He’s really out there and than it just kept going and going, lol…It was nice to see Janet show up and say something. I thought that was very touching They didn’t do a great job with the Tribute, but something had to be done…So I think what little was accomplished was just enough considering the time limit they had…I also think someone will do a proper Tribute to him at a later date too…But you like you mentioned, BET had that big chance to really make a huge impact on everyone watching and they missed the mark!

By: Mona

Mona — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 17:10:12 +0000

Thank you for this letter. I think people need to speak out about this. What the CEO was really doing was trying to get higher ratings. This never was about Michael Jackson. You can see clearly where BET went wrong from the days of Teen Summit etc…, they started chasing money only. Last night was a great example of the kind of product you get when you relinquish all values, all standards and ethics. BET stands for Black Entertainment Television. Although Bob Johnson was once quoted as saying the they entertain not educate, I suggest that they take the “black” out of the name since they don’t represent ALL black entertainment. Let us call BET or write and let them know we are not having this. 202-698-2000. If you look at all major news channels, they appear to be praising the show. Which is fitting because this is apparently what they expect from BET. Or perhaps they are afraid of being called racists if they say anything negative about the show. We need to let BET know since on their website they only highlight the inarticulate praises that their teenage audiences have sent. When you email them, they have an error message. Well, I guess we can see what a great organization the CEO is running.

By: Sharon

Sharon — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 16:01:30 +0000

I am so glad I was not in the presence of the show. BET Awards show actually lost me years ago as a viewer. I saw bits and pieces and I thought it was ragedy to say the least. To here that “Lil Wayne” would carry on is such a manner is appaulling to say the least. One thing is for sure if you are not going to do it right don’t do it at all!

By: Kevin Walker

Kevin Walker — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 14:49:29 +0000

Shawn, I totally agree with your sentiment. I will say that Ne-Yo, Maxwell, the OJays, and even Jay-Z were class acts. Debra Lee has got to go!

By: Gee

Gee — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 13:55:59 +0000

Wow, that is right on point— I was totally horrified at the BET awards, I truly thought that they could and would have done it better. It was horribly put together, some of the musicians kept missing their marks, dancers were out of sync and then the worse was the Lil Wayne fiasco. I am from New Orleans and he is truly not representing our city well…. shirt off, cursing, having all his cousins on television while he is rapping about fucking every girl in the world. I was appalled at the end of his performace at how he kept saying Mike Jack, Mike Jack…. I felt like if you cannot say this man’s name correctly then you need to shut the f up. Thank you so much for this letter, it needs to be sent and someone at BET make a note because the viewership has just got smaller. I had my children watching it tonight, and everytime it would get bleeped they would turn around and ask what was wrong with the television which is horrible, because they wanted to watch the show. I think next year we will just skip the BET awards altogether. One more thing, if BET wanted to honor Michael Jackson, they should have had performers tell their memories of him, and then have a two hour tribute, when they are prepared… cuz honestly it looked like the production was put on by five year olds!

By: geekycyberdad

geekycyberdad — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 05:40:58 +0000

Mark,
Like they have always said, if you’re not gonna do it right don’t do it at all. It would have been much better to just have a regular awards show and save the “tribute” for when they were better prepared. This was a huge disservice to the legacy of the network.