Wait? What? Tavis Smiley to Publish R. Kelly's Memoirs. What Happened to "Accountability?"
Tuesday, December 22, 2009 at 2:00PM 
In the most serious case of "Money Myopia" that I've seen in some time, Tavis "Accountability" Smiley just announced his publishing company will be using a ten-foot-pole to touch R. Kelly's upcoming memoirs and publish them.
Gushed Smiley:
“We are thrilled to be the conduit through which R. Kelly will tell his own story,” said Tavis Smiley, founder and publisher of SmileyBooks. “He has earned the right to tell his story his own way.”
Riiiiiiiiight.
Sayeth Womanist Musings quite eloquently:
Apparently, with the help of celebrity author David Ritz, Kelly will write about the loss of his mother, the creative process behind hits such as “I Believe I Can Fly” and “You Are Not Alone,” as well as discuss his six year legal ordeal. It must have been trying for him, poor baby; we will just ignore what the young girl went through. It seems that we find it easier to show sympathy for the predator, than we do the victim and only in this unbalanced state could it be possible for Tavis Smiley to believe that it is an excellent idea to offer this man a platform to tell his story.
What's, I dunno, CONFUSING about this is Tavis has been pretty adamant about holding another particular black man accountable, namely our president, who, last I checked, never went to trial for having sex with an underage girl and didn't marry any of his 16 year old proteges. You know? The O Man? Our friend Barry. The guy who seems, for all intents and purposes, to really love and respect all the black women in his life from the First Lady to the First Daughters to the First Grandmother to his Chicago homies like Valerie Jarrett and whatnot. You know, that guy. Leader of the free world and the whole shebang. As one of my homies on Twitter, Bassey, wrote: "Please critique the Prez. Please hold him accountable. But don't act like this didn't start because he wouldn't come over to play trucks."
Bassey, of course, was referring to the now legendary State of the Black Union kerfuffle in 2008 where Smiley wanted Obama to attend and he offered to send his wife Michelle instead and had Tavis REFUSED to be rebuffed in this manner and took to the airwaves of the Tom Joyner Show bitching to anyone within earshot that Barack Obama need to be watched closely. Which, as Bassey said, would be a cool thing if it weren't for the fact that Tavis is really just mad bcause "he wouldn't come over to play trucks."
I already knew the whole "accountability" kick was more about book sales than actually holding anyone accountable, but choosing to publish the book by a man who's about as skeevy as the day is long and beaming about it like it's the greatest thing since Ali-Forman is BEYOND hypocritical. Pundit, heal thyself!
I'm sure Are-ruh will have some illuminating ish to say, despite the fact that people found it more convienent to shame the girl he performed, ahem, UNSPEAKABLE ACTS on than hold HIM accountable for the fact that he seems to REALLY like them young. And this book will be just another in a long line of signifiers to perverts that you can do pretty much anything to a woman, girl, child, whatever, and someone will love your trifling ass anyway because it's our fault for having vaginas. But for Tavis, and others who claim to be holding the entire race to a higher standard, this is further proof that you never meant to hold anything to any standards ever. That "cash rules everything around you, dollah, dollah bill, ya'll" and you could seriously give two craps about the implication of being the speakerbox to a known predator. After all, freedom of speech, ya'll! And SOMEONE was going to publish his book so why not Mr. Accountability?
Pardon me while I go regurgitate something.
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Reader Comments (34)
Tavis believes he has the right to be oblivious in the name of the almighty dollar. Why should anyone begrudge him the right to be a straight up hypocrite?
EPIC FAIL Travis!
You also forgot to mention that R-ruh is proud of the fact that he CAN'T READ and he doesn't want to learn, either. If Fantasia has enough money to hire a tutor and get a GED, then I KNOW he has some funds to better himself, but he won't .
Then again, we are talking about a man who p**s on little girls on tape. Ugh.
Love the article but it's intents and purposes not intensive purposes
Tavis is so fake and hypocritical that he's beyond commenting on. The guy's a joke.
Just when you thought you've heard and seen everything....BOOM! The audacity of self serving egomaniac.
Expecting common sense from folks without any sense of self respect, integrity, critical thinking or - morality - makes about a much sense as a book from a male who proudly proclaims his inability to read. Vote with dollars and boycott the product and let the publishers of this trash know that they will feel the displeasure with this nonsense in the form of reduced sales until they get it right. The girl in this legal travesty has been exploited enough further profiteering at her expense is just plain wrong. Clearly the only accountability that matters in this case based on these warped actions is that which comes with a dollar sign.
Tavis Smiley seemed like a fairly decent human being up until two years ago.
My how the mighty have fallen.
Ok in the spirit of walking the talk. This was such a brain bending bit of insanity that a trip to What about our daughters was in order. There is information about the parent company that supports this insanity. Follow the money trail. It took some digging but here is the email list for the company in NY and Washington DC. Here is the contact information for NPR the company the broadcasts this enabler. These folks need to know that supporting and condoning this behavior with dollars is not acceptable.
What makes it worse is that the CEO of NPR is a female so much for empowering women. Feminism at it's finest. SMH
Fenton Communications
New York Office
David Fenton, Chief Executive Officer, dfenton at fenton.com
Lisa Witter, Chief Operating Officer, lwitter at fenton.com
Sharene Azimi, Vice President, sazimi at fenton.com
Sarah Bacon, Account Director, Media Relations, sbacon at fenton.com
Josh Baran, Senior Vice President, jbaran at fenton.com
Lisa Chen, Senior Vice President, lchen at fenton.com
Amanda Fox, Vice President, afox at fenton.com
John Gordon, Vice President of Online Services, jgordon at fenton.com
Lai Ling Jew, Senior Vice President, ljew at fenton.com
Jennifer Lindenauer, Senior Vice President, jlindenauer at fenton.com
Liz London, Senior Vice President, llondon at fenton.com
Kara Masi, Web Producer, kmasi at fenton.com
Steve Smith, Account Director, Media Relations, ssmith at fenton.com
San Francisco Office
Parker Blackman, Managing Director, SF Office, pblackman at fenton.com
Elizabeth Lewis Brooks, Chief Financial Officer, ebrooks at fenton.com
Eric Antebi, Vice President, eantebi at fenton.com
Ténoch Flores, Account Director, tflores at fenton.com
Erin B. Hart, Senior Vice President, ehart at fenton.com
Dean Hollander, Senior Vice President, dhollander at fenton.com
Michelle Mulkey, Vice President, mmulkey at fenton.com
Jessican Nussbaum, Account Director, jnussbaum at fenton.com
Robert Pérez, Senior Vice President, rperez at fenton.com
Mike Smith, Vice President, msmith at fenton.com
Washington, D.C. Office
Ira Arlook, Managing Director, DC Office, iarlook at fenton.com
Joel Finkelstein, Vice President, jfinkelstein at fenton.com
Timi Gerson, Vice President, tgerson at fenton.com
Doug Gordon, Account Director, dgordon at fenton.com
William Hamilton, Executive Vice President,
Michael Khoo, Vice President, mkhoo at fenton.com
Nicole Rodgers, Account Director, nrodgers at fenton.com
NPR Radio
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=99152497
Vivian Schiller
vschiller@npr.org
Let's also see if the esteemed members of the CBC will stand up and be counted. Roman Polanski has been rightly so pilloried and the courts pursued this matter with him through the years and several countries - abuse is abuse. Let's see if they walk the boycott yeilds results talk when it means policing the community or if it is all talk.
http://thecongressionalblackcaucus.lee.house.gov/member_info.html
@ ssdd
Fenton Communications is a Public Relations firm. They just write press releases, organize media campaigns and such so they don't actually control content. I know this because they do PR work for the non-profit I work for. (And I share office space with them out of the D.C. office). Meaning, if they work with Smiley that means they actually work "for" Smiley and are not financially supporting him. He's paying them to promote his stuff. I think if you wanted to get to Smiley it would just make more sense to jump on Smiley himself, PBS, NPR and whomever else actually airs a program by him.
My two cents on behalf of my office mates.
@ ssdd
Now, you COULD call Fenton and ask them to drop Smiley as a client.
I've despised R. Kelly ever since the Aaliyah debacle and try mightily not to directly give him any of my money (which can sometimes be difficult given that he writes for artists that I like). Now I know I can add Tavis to that list. The unreasonable Barack hate was one thing, but the love he's giving R. Kelly is just the last straw. Ugh and double ugh.
Eratta: Near the end of the above article the writer refers to Kelly as a "pederast", this is an incorrect usage of the word as it defines a man who loves to have sex with young boys exclusively. A pederast has sex with boys like a priest would prefer. Kelly is properly called a pedophile as he preys on little girls, and as far as I know the pedophile term is all inclusive of both boys and girls even though Kelly enjoys urinating on the latter.
@ Ira
Ah. Good point. Changed it.
@ nira
''A pederast has sex with boys like a priest would prefer''
Wow! So you have put aside the numeros pederast teachers in ours schools and the fact that most sexual abuses on childrens are done by family members. So now priest exclusively go for young boys. None of them like women. They all like boys . LOL.
Tavis should give his black card back. He has just been insulting black people to no end. The Obamas are now the sacred cows for the black community. His first mistake was dissing POTUS when he offered to send his wife--FLOTUS is a great representative for POTUS so he dissed Michelle and Barack--double mistake whammy. Then this "Accountability" crap and now offering to publish the book of a man who peed on a young girl ON TAPE. Uggh....bye Tavis, bye.
Wake up y'all...there's nothing authentic about T(r)avis(ty)...other than his craven lust for money. The day he comes out and tells the world the truth about his "relationship" with Cornel West is the day I'll start listening/watching. He's just another media hack...ill informed, lacking scholarship, research and who sucks up to guests. For God's sake, his boring rambling comments that he presumes are questions, take more time than he gives his guests opportunity to answer.
Two thoughts:
1. I wonder if Hazy Recollections of a Pedophile will have rubberized pages for reading in bed
2. Is life without Wells Fargo sponsorship really this desperate?
Ok three thoughts
State of the Black Union 2010: Eff the Union & its Promises - Get Money Bitches!!!!
Fantastic post!
So pleased that you've chosen to hold the accountant accountable. Funny, Robert has admitted to being illiterate, which on its face, is troubling enough. What's Smiley's excuse?
I don't think Tavis has all his mental faculties in order. Did anyone take note of how raggedy he looked a couple of years ago at the State of the Black Union? He looked like he hadn't washed his ass, brushed his teeth, and combed his hair in days! And I've seen him look that way since then, too.
Dear Mr. Smiley,
How long do you plan on digging your own self created hole? While getting that money is important you willingness to disregard integrity shows the glass house that you've come to dwell and thrive in a most unflattering manner. And well...that's just too bad cause you were once a promising young man. Now you're a bitter fool who let themselves be bought by a price tag. I guess the old adage is correct: Whomever calls someone a sell out has never been given an offer.
Love,
Bonnie.
Tavis could not back Obama for President. But, he will publicly enter into business with R. Kelly.
wow
@ Wenzel Dashington: Yeah, Wow!
R Kellys' Sexual Digressions ( pedophilia ) are Clear, however he is aware of them, therefore his honest approach will allow him to change if he desires.
Sexual Abuse is No joke - sad to See many males of Color have been victimized & interestingly, many in society appear to condone this preventing many to seek therapy due to shame.
It is a serious societal problem & those of you with children, watch & protect them at all times - predaotrs can not contro; their urges.
Best Wishes to those sincerely grappling with issues - May GOD guide you in the proper direction.