Another Victim in the Clinton-Obama Wars– Tavis Smiley Leaves Tom Joyner Show

They have been working together for 12 years.
But the pressure from this year’s presidential campaign was too much for them.

The Tom Joyner Morning Show– From left to right: Myra J, Miss Dupree, J. Anthony Brown, Tom Joyner, Sybil Wilkes and Tavis Smiley

This weekend Tavis Smiley announced that he will be leaving the “Tom Joyner Morning Show” after the massive unhinged backlash against him for daring to speak out against Barack Obama.
Bummer.
The Washington Post reported:

One of Sen. Barack Obama’s toughest African American critics is quitting his long association with a national radio show after facing a backlash from the program’s listeners.

Tavis Smiley said yesterday he will resign in June as a twice-weekly commentator on the syndicated “Tom Joyner Morning Show” after more than 11 years with the program. He cited fatigue and a busy schedule in a personal call to Joyner on Thursday night, but Joyner indicated otherwise on his program and in his blog yesterday, writing: “The real reason is that he can’t take the hate he’s been getting regarding the Barack issue — hate from the black people that he loves so much.”

Smiley has taken on Obama in a series of commentaries that began as the Democrat from Illinois emerged as the party’s front-runner for the presidential nomination in early January. Days after Obama’s win in the Iowa caucus, Smiley warned on Joyner’s show: “Don’t fall so madly in love [with Obama] that you surrender your power to hold people accountable. . . . I’m not saying overlook Senator Obama, but you now better be ready to look him over.”

That commentary brought a hail of critical phone calls and e-mails down on Smiley, who replied two days later on the Joyner show that he stood by his criticism. “It’s all about accountability,” he said at the time.

Since then, amid mounting counter-criticism, Smiley has stepped up his critiques, contending that Obama wasn’t sufficiently attentive to issues involving African Americans.

He was also critical of Obama’s decision not to attend an annual forum, the State of the Black Union, that Smiley hosted in February in New Orleans. Obama’s rival, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, accepted Smiley’s invitation to the event. When the Obama campaign offered Michelle Obama, the senator’s wife, as a substitute speaker, Smiley said publicly the offer was unacceptable.

Tavis Smiley said he was going to start focusing his energy on different projects as the reason he was leaving the show.

But… Tom Joyner lashed out at his the hatemonger radio listeners at his website for forcing Smiley from the show:

…We all know that isn’t the real reason he’s leaving the show. The real reason is that he can’t take the hate he’s been getting regarding the Barack issue — hate from the black people that he loves so much. He needed to feel the love. We all do, whether it’s from our radio audience or from people we know personally. He wasn’t feeling any love, so he quit.

A while back, he told us that I don’t speak for him. But this morning, since he isn’t here to speak for himself, I think it’s my job as a colleague and a friend. And maybe this time, you’ll really listen to me.

Tavis truly loves black people. I tried to tell you that. The hate he’s been getting hurts. He’ll never admit that, but it’s true.

Oh well.
Pass the popcorn, Nahanni.

(On a personal note- The TJMS used to be funny until they started their brutal Bush-bashing each morning. That was it for this white listener.)

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Jim Hoft is the founder and editor of The Gateway Pundit, one of the top conservative news outlets in America. Jim was awarded the Reed Irvine Accuracy in Media Award in 2013 and is the proud recipient of the Breitbart Award for Excellence in Online Journalism from the Americans for Prosperity Foundation in May 2016. In 2023, The Gateway Pundit received the Most Trusted Print Media Award at the American Liberty Awards.

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