CNN political contributor Roland Martin had to traverse
three cities in one day to get his Broadcaster of the Year award at the
Peachtree Street Project’s “Keep Hope Alive Gala” in Atlanta. After his work
at CNN in New York, Martin took a train to Washington to tape his new TV One
program, “Washington Watch with Roland Martin,” then flew to Atlanta and
arrived at the Jesse Jackson birthday/conference/gala during dinner to pick up
his award.
After being mobbed for photographs by admirers, Martin spoke
on his career, President Obama’s controversial Nobel prize win and why he
joined TV One to host a weekly political program. –terry shropshire
President Barack Obama’s Nobel Peace Prize win even
surprised the president himself and it ignited a vicious backlash from conservatives
and extreme right wingers. What’s your take?
“First and foremost, like I said on CNN, there are some
folks who get mad just because the president wakes up in the morning. The reality
is … I listen to what the Nobel peace people said, that is they talked about
change in attitude, emphasis on diplomacy. That’s what their focus was, so I get
that. It’s their award, it’s an international award. The problem is, too many
people view the award through the prism of America, as opposed to how the world
looks at us. And that’s what we don’t take into account and we should.”
Why did you decide to become host of the TV One’s “Washington
Watch”?
We want to speak to the issues that we care about from our
perspective. We had Major General John Hawkins talking about Afghanistan and
Iraq. You don’t see black generals talking. We’re dealing with health care,
dealing with education. We’re dealing with African American journalists talking
about policy making and politicians, showing that we can speak to a wide variety
of issues. But I also believe that you have to have a voice of everyday people,
and that is utilizing video, utilizing email, utilizing questions for them. This
will be more interactive. I think the Sunday morning news shows have failed to
include the average person in any way. They talk down to folks. So we will make
it about the people and not about the policy maker in DC.
The House is sending through a health care bill without the
public option. Is this a defeat for Obama?
Well, first of all, you have two chambers of Congress. The House
version will likely have the public option and the Senate version will not. And
that’s when they have the big fight, except the Democrats have the momentum
because poll after poll states that folks want to have that level of
competition. That is important.
How did you become a contributor for arguably the world’s
most respected news organization, CNN?
Nine years ago, I was sitting at home in Dallas and I was watching
one of the debates between then Gov. George W. Bush and Vice President Al Gore. And
I was flipping through the channels because I wanted to hear what they were all
taking about after the debates. As I was sitting there, I was getting more
ticked off by the second because, first of all, I didn’t see anyone who looked
like me. Secondly, the things that I picked up on during the debate, I didn’t
hear any other analyst talking about. So I called Mark Watts, who used to be
the national correspondent for CNN. He later became an agent. I said ‘this is
really pissing me off’. That’s exactly what I plan on doing because somebody
has to speak for people who are often ignored. Somebody has to say what they
are ignoring. So we started this journey and I spent about 4 ½–5 years doing
free television. Some people say that, after they’ve done six or seven shows
for free that they need to get a check. I remind them that ‘whoa, I put in
almost five years for free for CNN, CNBC, Court TV, before the opportunity came
in 2007.’ It’s important to have someone on the air speaking our perspective,
through our prism, through our eyes.
