African-American Issues Are All-American Issues

Last night I had the opportunity to view one of the best presidential candidate forums that I've seen in quite awhile. Yet strangely the post debate/forum coverage of the "All-American Presidential Forum" moderated by Tavis Smiley and aired on PBS is today being dismissed by most of the major media outlets as simply the candidates pandering to black voters on black issues. I don't get it since when are the issues of healthcare, AIDS, education, poverty, rebuilding the Gulf Coast, outsourcing, and foreign trade just issues of concern to the black community?

Yes, this was the first debate which address many of the aforementioned domestic issues. And yes many of the issues are critical to the lives of African-Americans but for news venues like CNN to dismiss the forum as primarily an event for a black audience is misleading and unacceptable.

In case you missed the broadcast you can view the video at:

http://www.pbs.org/kcet/tavissmiley/special/forums/?
campaign=pbshomefeatures_1_allamericanpresidentialforums_2007-06-29








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Posted By Pamela Lyn to Get the Facts & Get Involved at 6/29/2007 04:38:00 PM