Tavis Smiley is a hard-left talk show host on PBS. (He should admit that, since he authored a book called Hard Left.) You might remember him as the man that proclaimed that Christians "blow up people every day" in America. On his Facebook page today, Smiley promotes an interview he gave to one Myron Mays, where he talks about how he does "the Lord's work" on PBS:
PBS is a network that is watched by movers and shakers and by people who run the country, power players and other influencers. It's a great platform for us to try to empower them and try to enlighten them and quite frankly try to expand their inventory of ideas. It's a great platform to try to get them to reexamine the assumptions they hold. I think we're doing the Lord's work.
When Smiley talks of America's movers and shakers needing to "expand their inventory of ideas," he means expand it leftward. Smiley has gained a reputation as a "nitpicker" against Obama for not spending enough on African-American needs. He told Mays:
Black folks don't have the luxury of focusing on just one thing at the moment. The thing that is obviously important in Black America right now is jobs. We're being left behind in this economy and I have been very vocal in the fact that I don't believe the president is doing enough to focus on the poor, to focus on the weak working class and to focus on African Americans that are triple and in some cases quadruple the national unemployment average. So the first thing is full employment.
Smiley also displayed in this interview just how full of himself he is, touting how everyone will be celebrating his broadcasting anniversaries:
In November, PBS is doing a primetime special celebrating our 20 years in the business and also in August they are doing another primetime special to celebrate my 8 years on PBS. We have a new book coming out in May that talks about my 20 years in the business. The book is called "Fail Up: 20 Lessons on Building Success From Failure." The book is centered around my 20 biggest mistakes I made in my career and how I learned from those mistakes. I argue the point that everyone has the potential to "fail up". We all make mistakes and we all fail at times but it is possible to fail up.
In addition to the book, were doing a seven city tour connecting to public television and radio stations around the country for "An Evening With Tavis Smiley." On everyone of these tour stops, the tables get turned on me so that I am the one being interviewed. One of the local television or radio personalities will be interviewing me about my book and about my career. Then there will be some audience Q&A and a reception before or after the event where I get a chance to meet some of the people in attendance.
