Riding the Waves: Soledad O'Brien and Warren Ballentine

I’m generally not a big follower of TV and radio news personalities but two stories this week have caught my eye.

CNN's Soledad O'Brien

First I learned here that Soledad O’Brien’s morning show on CNN is being canceled. I didn’t even know she had a morning show so what troubles me is not that she lost it [the ratings were pretty low, it seems] but that the big shots at the network were upset that too many of her viewers were ethnic. 

Don’t you just love this post-racial America?

Hey, if they don't want people of color to watch their network I'll be glad to help spread the word.

"The People's Attorney"

The second news personality, Warren Ballentine, not only lost his nationally syndicated radio show, but also may be on a fast track to lose something of far greater value: his freedom. It seems that Ballentine, an Illinois attorney, was indicted last week in connection with what federal officials are calling a ”$10 million mortgage fraud scheme.” Source

Chicago feds seem to think “the people’s attorney”, as Ballentine refers to himself, conspired with others to obtain nearly 30 bogus mortgage loans via fraudulent documents between December 2004 and May 2006.

Ballentine, 41, is scheduled to appear at a US Courthouse in Chicago on Feb. 5 on six counts of bank fraud, false statements and mail and wire fraud. He has proclaimed his innocence on Facebook and elsewhere.

I wouldn’t ordinarily have paid much attention to this except that Ballentine was a featured speaker last year at a Cleveland State University program I attended. He professed a fondness for our fair city and I think he professed Ohio roots. I hadn’t heard of him before that appearance but discovered he had a fair number of local listeners. I listened to his show once or twice and moved on.

Here’s hoping "the people’s attorney" does not represent himself.

Short-Haired Meteorologist fired in Louisiana

HAIR TODAY, GONE TOMORROW

Roiling around the net these days is the saga of Rhonda E. Lee, the gorgeous meteorologist fired by her employer after she responded to racist comments on Facebook from a viewer unable to get past the sister’s short hair style.

Lee was fired from KTBS-TV, an ABC affiliate in Shreveport, LA after she replied to a Facebook post that read in part:

 “the black lady that does the news is a very nice lady.the only thing is she needs to wear a wig or grow some more hair. im not sure if she is a cancer patient. but still its not something myself that i think looks good on tv. what about letting someone a male have waist long hair do the news.what about that (cq).”

Lee answered the same day, saying:

“Hello Emmitt–I am the ‘black lady’ to which you are referring. I’m sorry you don’t like my ethnic hair. And no I don’t have cancer. I’m a non-smoking, 5’3, 121 lbs, 25 mile a week running, 37.5 year old woman, and I’m in perfectly healthy physical condition.

“I am very proud of my African-American ancestry which includes my hair. For your edification: traditionally our hair doesn’t grow downward. It grows upward. Many Black women use strong straightening agents in order to achieve a more European grade of hair and that is their choice. However in my case I don’t find it necessary. I’m very proud of who I am and the standard of beauty I display. Women come in all shapes, sizes, nationalities, and levels of beauty. Showing little girls that being comfortable in the skin and HAIR God gave me is my contribution to society. Little girls (and boys for that matter) need to see that what you look like isn’t a reason to not achieve their goals.

“Conforming to one standard isn’t what being American is about and I hope you can embrace that.

“Thank you for your comment and have a great weekend and thank for watching.”

Lee was first reprimanded and then fired. She has since appeared on numerous radio shows, and may appear soon on the nationally syndicated "Tom Joyner Morning Show." And last week CNN drove her to its Dallas studios to appear on an episode of "Starting Point with Soledad O'Brien" that aired this morning.

[O’Brien, incidentally, hosted the special, "Who Is Black in America?" this past Sunday evening. The show will repeat this Saturday on CNN at 8 p.m. and 11 p.m. EST and Sunday at 2 a.m. EST.]

Lee claims her firing was the result of racism. She says the station could cite no official policy she had violated.

But the station’s news director, Randy Bain, told Journalisms’ Richard Prince that Lee was fired for repeated violations of the station’s social media policy, and that she had been warned to mend her ways.

Yesterday Bain issued the following statement:

"Typically this station does not comment on personnel matters, but due to the publicity and interest about this issue, the station has included the following statement.

"On November 28, 2012, KTBS dismissed two employees for repeated violation of the station’s written procedure. We can confirm that Rhonda Lee was one of the employees. Another employee was a white male reporter who was an eight year veteran of the station. The policy they violated provided a specific procedure for responding to viewer comments on the official KTBS Facebook page. Included is an email that was sent to all news department employees informing them of this procedure. This procedure is based on advice from national experts and commonly used by national broadcast and cable networks and local television stations across the country.

"Unfortunately, television personalities have long been subject to harsh criticism and negative viewer comments about their appearance and performance. If harsh viewer comments are posted on the station’s official website, there is a specific procedure to follow.

"Ms. Rhonda Lee was let go for repeatedly violating that procedure and after being warned multiple times of the consequences if her behavior continued. Rhonda Lee was not dismissed for her appearance or defending her appearance. She was fired for continuing to violate company procedure."

More details on this story can be found on Journalisms here. We offer a hat tip to Cleveland’s “Web Lady”, Anita Carter, for being the first to bring this story to our attention.

*Updated at 3:55PM.