He Bowed out of control of BET content recently but not before turning it into what someone else called it the "pimp and ho" channel. Craven and despicable content that objectifies black women and glorifies Gangsta culture
From Wikipedia
In 1998, Johnson took the company private, buying back all of its publicly traded stock. In 1999, Viacom bought BET for $3 billion. Johnson's 63% stake made him worth over a billion dollars after taxes, making him the richest African-American until surrendering the title to Oprah Winfrey, when then-wife Sheila Johnson claimed much of his billion in divorce. Johnson continued to be the company's chairman and CEO for six years. In 2005, Johnson turned over the titles of President and Chief Operating Officer of BET to Debra L. Lee, a former BET vice president.
Other ventures
Johnson also serves on the boards of General Mills and Hilton Hotels. He is the first African American to be the principal owner of a North American major-league sports franchise: he leads the group that acquired the Charlotte Bobcats NBA expansion franchise, which began play in the fall of 2004. Until December 2006, he also owned the Charlotte Sting of the WNBA. However, he gave up his ownership of the Sting; when the WNBA was unable to find a buyer, the team folded on January 3, 2007. Johnson is also the founder and chairman of RLJ Companies Inc.
In 2006, Johnson became a staunch advocate of phasing-out the Estate tax. He went so far as to call the tax racist, although relatively few black people will have to pay this tax. <4>In late 2006, Johnson founded Our Stories Films, a Los Angeles-based film company. His partner is Harvey Weinstein, whose own new enterprise, the Weinstein Company, will serve as his distributor. JPMorgan Chase invested $175 million into Our Stories.
His private equity fund is financed partly by the Washington-based Carlyle Group, while his hedge fund has backing from Deutsche Bank.<5>
In 2007, Johnson was so inspired by new Liberian President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf that he and a delegation of several African-American leaders toured Liberia and committed to revitalizing the historic relationship between African-Americans and the war-torn country. This led to the creation of the $30 million Liberia Enterprise Development Fund.<6> Months later Johnson wrote a controversial letter to the Washington Post advocating that the new AFRICOM Military Command be based in Liberia. Johnson has also called for "African-Americans to support Liberia like Jewish-Americans support Israel".<6>
and more
Many prominent media critics, including Public Enemy rapper Chuck D,<1> journalist George Curry,<2> writer Keith Boykin,<3> comic book writer/artist/editor Christopher Priest,<4> filmmaker Spike Lee<5> and writer/cartoonist Aaron McGruder, have protested BET's programming and actions. One of the most commonly-heard complaints is the fact that BET's programming is mostly geared towards ad sponsorship and does not focus on the public affairs of the black community.
The channel has been criticized by members of the African-American community who feel that the channel perpetuates harmful black stereotypes by primarily airing hip-hop videos that often have misogynistic, materialistic, and/or violent themes.<6> As a result, BET heavily censors suggestive content from the videos that it airs, often with entire verses removed from certain rap videos. Detractors also point out the irony they see in the network's choice to show strong religious (primarily Christian) programming. Not long ago, people began referring to the acronym BET as standing for "Black Exploitation Television."<7> Many critics consider BET to be a modern-day "minstrel show".
BET has been criticized by some Christian evangelicals not only for its music & programming content, but for its morning religious lineup. Each morning, BET broadcasts evangelical TV shows, and hosts include Robert Tilton Don Stewart, and Peter Popoff, all of whom have been criticized, proven to be heading fraud ministries, and who have had run-ins with the law. In Popoff's case, his ministry's tax-exempt status was recently revoked in Canada; also, skeptic scientist James Randi notoriously debunked Popoff on The Tonight Show in 1988.<8>
Protests against BET, for the above reasons, have taken place.<9> The most recent campaign against the stereotypes on BET is called the "Enough is Enough Campaign.<10>
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This guy should never have been on the same stage as a presidential candidate, except maybe a republican/neocon.
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