So let me guet this right the same man who sold out BET to white owned Viacom is now questioning Barack's past. Isnt this the same Bob(sell out) Johnson that used BET to consistently portray black people in a negative light. BOb Jonson give me a break

Johnson's irrational,ludicrously self-righteous diatribe, and subsequent "apology," reminds me of the late Ike Turner who when confronted with a memorable "failure to communicate" famously replied (apologized?), "Don mean sh*t."

I think Ike's eloquence in response to his own inappropriate "zeal" is both a qualifier and an apt description of Mr. Johnson's heartrending "apology."

Don mean squat.

I can't stand Bob Johnson.  BET is an abomination.  So the spin referring to the spin wall all spin.  Typical.

bet it smells like a stockyard in vegas with dems blowing all that bs

The damage has already been done as they say. Anyone who doesn't know that the Clintons will use divisive means to get votes, really don't know how they operate. It's unfortunate that the American voters won't look at Hillary's purpose for running for president. Who is really running for president Hillary or Bill. I really think they are using a back door approach to get Bill Clinton in the White House for a third term.

Keep those apologies coming Obama's way. Perhaps, it is high time for the Clinton machine to know that Obama is tough Teflon. He is too nice to be a politician and he doesn't engage in a politics of fist fighting.

I am proud to have Obama represent folks from my generation. I have had enough of divisive politics.

The Clinton campaign then produced a comment from Johnson saying that the media was mischaracterizing his remarks -- a response that this most recent statement now demonstrates was untrue.
Who is surprised when another Clinton lie is revealed? Only the ignorant would be.  

 

To attack and use a delayed apology further certifies the clinton's intentions.  they are bent upon bringing obama to the extent of racial level and then try to win over.  it is a sad move since; the younger generation understands all these dirty moves and it's not just an attck on obama but on all his supporters.  her tears could affect once but you can't always call wolf and get the sympathy vote, it has led me into voting for obama

Bob Johnson comments were so disrespectful.  Being the founder of BET you would think he would know better.  He isn't over the station anymore but we see how the station has been spinnig downward with reference to what african americans represent

Mr. Johnson,
Take a look at yourself before taking a swipe at another.  I am truly offended that you...a person who became filthy rich off of allowing sleeze videos to be constantly played on your television station (BET)would attack Barak for his past drug use.  

What about Bill...?  I guess while he was out being "deeply and emotionally involved in black issues" while he was not inhaling.  At least Obama told the truth of his indiscretions.

You are one(you're not alone) of the "Poverty Pimps" who needs to take responsibility for the smut you aired on your station!  

Typical Clinton, her supporters defame someone then a week later say they are sorry for it. Things like this are what have made me turn from her as my candidate.

Sure Bob we believe you. Yeah right! If it wasn't for the full court press by angry African-Americans which made you a Billionaire you would care less. Bob you now sit with Clearence Thomas. Your done in the black communnity...P.S. This isn't about black or white, its about running on issues. Yeah we are not dumb we can spot a fake anywhere.

sweet jesus. the more i see of these clowns the more i like obama. how can she let loose a baldfaced lie on 'meet the press'?

Why would he apologize if like he and the Clintons repeatedly said that he was alluding to his work as a community organizer?

I'd like to see a list of statements made by Hillary surrogates that then had to be apologized for vs the same for Obama.

Also let's see a list of Bill's most out of bounds rants, for instance everyone he blamed in the final hours before the NH votes were in.

These two candidates are light years apart in terms of integrity. Obama's heart is clean. Hillary is a
shark who believes the end justifies the means.

President Obama!

Sounds like the Clintons have a good one in their "cabin".

More deceit and spin from Clinton during Tuesday's debate.  For Hillary to stand by what Johnson said is incredulous! Shows EXTREMELY POOR JUDGEMENT ON HILLARY'S PART!  Now Johnson comes forward and apologizes to Senator Obama, about time!!!  I think Hillary, herself, should also apologize to Senator Obama! How many people from the Clinton campaign and supporters have said derogatory and shameful comments about Senator Obama?  It's all about entitlement and slash and burn tactics by Hillary (and Bill) and it's all backfiring!  Fellow Americans, please see what the Clintons are all about and recognize they DO NOT belong in the White House period.  For those of you who think and say it is not Senator Obama' time, I'd like to say to you, IT IS WAY PAST Hillary's time, therefore NOW IS NOT HER TIME.

Johnson's words were dispicable and, quite frankly, only resulted in my losing some respect for Johsnon.  The irony the tackiness and inappropriateness of his words are pretty consistent with the quality and informative programming that BET has offered for so long. (That's sarcasm in case you didn't notice).

And I think the subsequent handling of the matter by Johnson and the Clinton campaign suggesting that he was referring to his timing as a community organizer is what was truly insulting.  To use Johnson's own words...he must think we're "stupid".

I like like Obama and Clinton and have defended Clinton againt ridiculous attacks by people who seem to dislike her for no apparent reason.  However, when Clinton's campaign uses surrogates like this and handles the follow-up as irresonpsibly as they did, it makes me like her less.

It was good Johnson issued his apology.  The original statement never should have occured, but since it did, they should have apologized immediately and outright rather than hiding behind a ridiculous excuse as they initially did.  When the apology comes after excuses, it makes you wonder whether they're truly sorry or just sorry they got called on it.

Finally, Johnson apologizies....but it's too little, too late.  I hadn't realized, and I should have, how powerful the Clinton machine is.  When I watch African-American leaders praise President Clinton and Hillary, it sounds like they seem to think they're both running; and they sound like someone is holding a gun to their head; and they sound spinelss. It's really more about a generation gap, than gender or race...as a white woman over 40, I think it's high time for new blood, new fresh energies.  I want a President with a vision; I don't want a CEO; we've seen what CEO's have done to destroy America with corporate greed. CEO's know nothing about what the average American deals with, and they don't want to know.  The old guard, the status quo of the democratic party is terrified of losing power, but they've had their chance and it's been the same old, same old.  Hillary's so called 35 year experience is way over-rated....she's brilliant to be sure, but she's not enough of a visionary to arouse the American people to come out of hiding and participate in the process.  Barack is a born leader who inspires and that's the kind of energy we need.

Yawn...how long is the media going to drag this non-story out ?  Back to the issues please, kthxbye !

This is so Clintonian. First they say it. Next they deny they say it. After three or four days they apologize for saying it. This way they get three days in the news cycle to make sure their mud sticks.

The Clintons are shameless. Anybody but Hillary in 08.

Barack Obama is a better person than "uncle" Bob Johnson (and me, for that matter),undoubtebly Barack will except this pathetic and forced apology! I, however, will NOT forgive or forget.

BET(i.e. Bob Johnson)has made it's fortune on showing T&A music videos, glamorizing thug-life, etc.  And Bob Johnson has the nerve to judge...

I, a consumer, will write to advertisers on BET and share my outrage about Mr. Johnson's comments with them! I encourage other outraged citizens/consumers to do the same! Boycott BET!

From HuffPost:

'January 17, 2008
Vetting Obama
By Robert Novak

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- With Barack Obama nipping at her heels in Iowa, Hillary Clinton went on the state's public television Dec. 14 to say: "I've been vetted. ... There are no surprises."

That was the first use in presidential campaign politics of an unusual word. After losing in Iowa Jan. 3, Sen. Clinton said of Sen. Obama, "Everybody needs to be vetted." Chief Clinton strategist Mark Penn, on the way to New Hampshire, said of his candidate, "She's fully vetted ... and I don't think that process has occurred with Barack Obama." Clinton then told a rally, "Of all the people running for president, I've been the most vetted, the most investigated and -- my goodness -- the most innocent."

This frequent use of "vetted" caught the attention of the Democratic community. "Vetted," with a meaning distinct from "experienced," connotes investigating nominees for vice president, the Cabinet and the federal judiciary to uncover anything disqualifying. Its introduction in the presidential campaign by Clinton is tied to reminders -- overtly and by insinuation -- of Obama's teen-age use of illegal drugs that he confessed in his first book.

The unintended byproduct, to the dismay of Democratic loyalists, disturbs the party's racial chemistry. An assault on the qualifications of Obama, the first African-American with a chance to be elected president, could menace Democratic reliance on overwhelming support for the party's white candidates from black voters. The sudden outbreak of racial conflict in Democratic affairs, which results solely from Clinton's strategy against Obama and has nothing to do with race as such, arouses deep apprehension inside the party.

Clinton agents for many months have privately warned prominent Democrats that Obama as the presidential nominee could not withstand Republican scrutiny ("cannot take a frisk"). While denying my reports of this activity, the Clinton campaign went public when Obama's threat became real instead of merely potential. Billy Shaheen, Clinton's New Hampshire chairman, explicitly raised this long-ago use of cocaine and marijuana, and was fired.

Greg Craig, an Obama senior policy adviser, pointed out to me that the drug question was implied by two other Clinton supporters, Penn and black billionaire Bob Johnson, who were not reprimanded. As for Johnson's denial that he was talking about drugs when he said Obama "was doing something in the neighborhood -- and I won't say what he was doing, but he said it in the book," Craig told me, "I don't believe him."

On the next day, a fourth Clinton supporter, Rep. Charles Rangel, raised the drug issue by saying on black radio that Obama mentioned it in his book because "I guess he thought it might sell books."

Rangel always has seemed to be less of a black politician than a politician who happens to be black. But other African-Americans were incensed by the Clinton vetting. Donna Brazile, the national campaign manager for Al Gore in 2000 and neutral between Obama and Clinton as a CNN commentator, made the first criticism of Bill Clinton anyone had heard from her after he referred to Obama's candidacy as "a fairy tale." She said of the former president, "I find his tone and his words to be very depressing." House Majority Whip James Clyburn, South Carolina's leading black politician, was so upset that he threatened to break his neutrality until Sen. Clinton calmed him down.

Prior to Tuesday night's Democratic debate in Las Vegas, both campaigns declared an end to the "race debate" over whether Martin Luther King or Lyndon B. Johnson was most responsible for civil rights legislation. But the fight really was about the Clintons' resenting an obstacle on their return to the White House. A prominent Democrat who saw the former president this week described him as "furious, outraged, angry and utterly dismissive of Obama."

That anger was reflected by Hillary Clinton's performance on NBC's "Meet the Press" last Sunday, when she said, "When Sen. Obama's chief strategist accuses me of playing a role in Benazir Bhutto's assassination, there's silence (from Obama)." Actually, David Axelrod never made such an accusation. He said former Prime Minister Bhutto's death will "call into issue the judgment" of "taking the eye off the ball and making the wrong judgment in going into Iraq." Perhaps Hillary Clinton's comments should be vetted.

Vote hillary and get even more of this type of yellow "Attack by Proxy" cowardice. This is like the 4th or 5th time someone related to her campaign has unscruplously attacked Obama, and then weakly apologized afterward. If her campaign knew about these attacks prior, then she should not be President because she is using another model of the same Rove attack machine. If she wasn't aware these things were happening (an unlikely claim) then she shouldn't be President because she obviously has no control over her staff.

Vote hillary and get even more of this type of yellow "Attack by Proxy" cowardice. This is like the 4th or 5th time someone related to her campaign has unscruplously attacked Obama, and then weakly apologized afterward. If her campaign knew about these attacks prior, then she should not be President because she is using another model of the same Rove attack machine. If she wasn't aware these things were happening (an unlikely claim) then she shouldn't be President because she obviously has no control over her staff.

Everyone knows what was meant when it was said. It has been a common practice of the Clintons to tell the world that everybody else failed to get the meaning of their comments. And people used to give them a pass when they offered lame spins on what they really said. Bob Johnson tried to follow suit and it did not fly. He apologized  as a last resort when it backfired. He should stop taking advice from the Clintons.

Nice to see Jerry's obsession over everything Clinton has not faded.  

I knew someone big was coming out the closet for the Clintons on race and knew it would be a black man. Never would i have guessed it was Robert (hater) Johnson. To late unk tom to apologize.

Smear, create chaos and havoc, then apologize. Purely Clintonesque. It is working it looks like. How do you respond? Hit back and do exactly what you are preaching against (negative politics, the race card) or do nothing and take the beating. Tough choices to come for the Obama camp because this is not stopping, just getting started.

Shelley, VA

Why did it take this to make you realize that BET is a horrible reflection on black people?

@Kathryn in Bham
Yes he ought to apologize for that. And if you say that Obama past drug use is fair game and no apologies needed. How about if an Obama supporter makes the following remark:
Where was Hillary when Bill was having sex with all those women?
Will the person have to apologize? Is it fair? I think not.
And besides, Clinton admitted that he smoked marijuana but just didn’t inhale (yeah right Bill, just like you told the truth about Monika).

I welcome Johnsons apology it was the right thing to do.

Obama,I would take that"sorry" as a token and drop it later in the casinos; We have all recieved a fake sorry as a"politically correct"attack. But just for that!!NO HILLARY..If you don't get the dem nom then I am voting REPUBLICAN...

It is good that he has apologized. Things got a little overheated recently. Everybody should try to calm down and also calmly make a choice about who they support.

Personal attacks is just standard tactics The Clintons borrowed from Karl Rove.

Why would anyone be surprised by this?

It is too late and a disgusting shame that you bring down one of your own that is bright and highly intelligent young man.  Our children need to see more African Americans like Senator Obama and Secretary of State Rice.  I am so hurt and done with what you said up there in front of Bill and Hillary (you're nothing but a Minstrel Show Monkey).

Just because you have a little bit of money don't think your accepted as "one of them".  You're gonna fall hard too.  Watch.

BTW, Obama's not the only one that deserved an apology. What about an apology to Sidney Poitier, too?

It is the intent of some national figures to polarize this campaign on racial grounds thereby assuring a victory for the dominant culture.  Barak is a candidate for all people and has shaken-up the old guard with his ability to unite people.  The old guard has some minorities on the payroll that they call upon when it's time to get grimey and that is what Mr. Johnson did.  Apology accepted.  Damage done.  Mission accomplished.

Hi Kathryn,

If you´re going to write BS like that where people can read it, you ought to at least use fighting words.

You wanna know something - "trying drugs" is a very common thing, and you wanna know what else? There is no reason to hold that against him. What is wrong with trying drugs and then deciding to spend the rest of his life as a public servant?

Seriously, your double talk makes me sick. No, you can´t hold it against him.

By the way, did you know that watching too much television makes you frigid?

Grow up.

Like the above poster said, i don't care what bob says until he changes his cash cow. No surprise a capitalist like him would support hillary.

Well, Bob Johnson disappointed me with his comments.  Now that he's clearly admitted what he said and intended, let's move on.  YES, WE CAN!!!  OUR TIME IS NOW!!!

First comes the insult, then the denial, then the apoligy.  Anyone else see a pattern?

Why won't Obama fire the staffer who sent out the memo that fanned the flames of this issue?  He said in Iowa that he would fire anyone who engaged in these types of attacks.


http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0108/7944.html

Remarks like Johnson's are disgusting. How about the candidates focusing on the issues--there are certainly enough to discuss as we watch our country go down the drain. I'm for Obama, even more so after watching the Clinton's tactics.

We all know what Johnson meant. This is just clean up for a comment that was not necessary. Obama will be gracious enough to accept but the damage is done on their side and his apology only makes him look small and ignorant.

Will you people give it up?  The man apologized.  He said he was overzealous in his support of Hillary Clinton.  He apologized in writing to Senator Obama.  I think an apology once given needs to be accepted, and then we move on.  Some of you people seem to want to drive a stake into the heart of the Democratic Party, and you won't allow anyone to make a mistake, even though he apologizes for it.  Grow up!

Why are we even listening to Bob Johnson, the Larry Flynt of the African American community who made his money off of gloried pornography on BET.  When will African Americans stop rooting for "Tarzan and Jane" and realize that we are those Africans they were fighting? Obama is the candidate for "change" because he is a refreshing change from politics as usual.  It is time for the African American electorate to mature you put away childish things of old.

Obama has not apoligized for clling Hillary the Senator from Punjab. The media has not taken him to talk for that remark, not has he fired anyone. He finally gave some lame excuse for that "You're likeable enough, Hillary" that was so fake. He has not apoligized for his sexist comment that suggested all she did as first lady was "drink tea."

I never watched BET and will continue to have little respect for this 'Black' man. Who's coming to dinner now?!

OBAMA 2008

I am glad to see this apology, although the way this Clinton campaign is being run reminds me of those court cases where a judge instructs the jury to disregard what they just heard.  People hear the fabrications and scandal, but seldom hear the follow-up apologies and the setting straight of records.  My husband and I used to respect the Clintons, but not any more.  We overlooked the silly assertion that Bill Clinton smoked "pot" but didn't inhale.  We overlooked the fact that the Clintons are completely dysfunctional as a candidate.  We overlooked a lot, but not any more.  The Clintons are Democratic versions of the Bush family.  I hope against hope that Obama gains the nomination.

I think Bob Johnson is sensing what is happening - that Barack Obama is rapidly gaining momentum and will most likely be the nominee and the next President. He is covering himself.

Message (please, no HTML tags. Web addresses will be hyperlinked):