Byron Allen
Byron Allen, the CEO of Entertainment Studios, is continuing his attacks on Al Sharpton in light of a discrimination lawsuit that he and other African-American media owners have filed against Comcast and Time Warner Cable. That suit alleges that despite calling itself a diverse company, Comcast and TWC carry only one black-owned channel, and that Sharpton’s role is to "whitewash Comcast’s discriminatory business practices,” in exchange for compensation.
Byron Allen contends that Comcast has given Sharpton a primetime TV show on MSNBC — “despite notoriously low ratings,” in exchange for Sharpton’s public support for Comcast on issues of diversity, an area where Allen says the company has a very poor record.
Allen went off on CNN’s Reliable Sources with Brian Stelter on Sunday, March 1st, calling Sharpton both a “shakedown” and a “sham.” Allen charged that AT&T spent more money on Sharpton’s 60th birthday party than they spent on Ebony Magazine. He also claimed that companies like Walmart, Chrysler, and McDonalds do not do business with Allen and other African-Americans, because Sharpton is the “least expensive Negro”
According to Allen, companies like Comcast have the following mentality (an assertion that went unchallenged by Mr. Stelter): “Don’t do business with real African-American-owned companies, just give him 50,000 and a bucket of chicken and we’re good. We won’t have any problems with real African-American-owned media.”
Mr. Allen also told Brian Stelter that Sharpton doesn't speak for him or for black people in general, claiming it’s racist to even think of Sharpton as the “go-to person” for African-Americans. He also went after Sony for supposedly believing that their sit-down with Sharpton “negated” their employees’ racist emails uncovered last December.
Allen also excoriated Barack Obama, “President Obama has been bought and paid for. He has taken donations from Comcast. Comcast is his biggest contributor. AT&T is one of his biggest contributors. Listen, Obama, your own FTC is investigating AT&T for throttling. How can you even consider them to buy DirecTV when you’re suing them?”
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