ITS GETTING BETTER 0BAMA -- Corporations bankroll Al Sharpton’s 60th birthday bash. NEW YORK – Al Sharpton turned 60 last Friday. That’s a psychological landmark in any man’s life. But if the New York-based civil rights activist, preacher, politician and media star is feeling blue, he can console himself with the reported $1 million in pledges from corporate and other donors to his nonprofit National Action Network (NAN). Contributors Young people for traditional marriage, family are now the new counterculture, says student by The Cardinal Newman Society Bloomberg anti-gun group fakes Wisconsin ‘school shootings’ by Media Trackers Common Core fights brewing in statehouses across the country by Truth in American Education Ivy league president participates in Ferguson ‘die-in,’ offends campus police by Campus Reform Planned Parenthood gives schools ‘F’ for teaching abstinence by STOPP Reprisal: Conservative professor barred from campus by Marquette University by Right Wisconsin NEA’s ‘social justice award’ like Miley Cyrus giving a medal for modesty by Larry Sand. Corporations bankroll Al Sharpton’s 60th birthday bash Dr. Carl Horowitz is director of the National Legal and Policy Center’s Organized Labor Accountability Project. NEW YORK – Al Sharpton turned 60 last Friday. That’s a psychological landmark in any man’s life. But if the New York-based civil rights activist, preacher, politician and media star is feeling blue, he can console himself with the reported $1 million in pledges from corporate and other donors to his nonprofit National Action Network (NAN). The celebration kicked off on Wednesday with a NAN-sponsored two-day education summit at New York University. On October 1, Sharpton held a celebration at Manhattan’s Four Seasons restaurant. The crème of New York Democratic Party politics were in attendance, including New York City Mayor Bill DeBlasio, Gov. Andrew Cuomo, Rep. Charles Rangel and Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand. So were Aretha Franklin, Spike Lee and other entertainment world figures. For someone defined by his public demagoguery, Sharpton doesn’t lack for friends. National Legal and Policy Center long has been focused on Reverend Al Sharpton – and with good reason. Under the guise of promoting social justice and civil rights, for some 30 years he has been manufacturing public outrage, in his native New York and elsewhere in the U.S., against what he sees as attacks against blacks by racist whites and a white-dominated power structure. He routinely invents, embellishes or ignores facts in order to justify, if not foment, grievance and accompanying violence. Though he won’t admit as much, he operates with a double-standard: A black accused of a crime against a white deserves a presumption of innocence; a white accused of a crime against a black, even if clearly an act of self-defense (as in the George Zimmerman-Trayvon Martin incident), deserves a presumption of guilt. Back in 2009 I published a lengthy Special Report on Sharpton, titled “Mainstreaming Demagoguery: Al Sharpton’s Rise to Respectability,” explaining the activities and motivations of Sharpton, known by many as “the Rev.” Currently, I am in the finishing stages of expanding and updating this report into a full-fledged book. It should be out within a few months. One of the central points of both the original and forthcoming work is that Sharpton, however undeservedly, enjoys tremendous institutional support. National Action Network simply would not be able to do the things it does without the money it receives from business, labor, clergy and other sources of support. Ford Motor Company, Home Depot, McDonald’s, the News Corporation and Walmart are just a few corporations who have made substantial donations to NAN coffers in recent years. In the world of labor the Service Employees International Union and American Federation of Teachers have been enthusiastic contributors. Ironically, the Harlem, N.Y.-based NAN, which takes in roughly $3 million a year, is financially troubled. It doesn’t help that Sharpton, despite having a lucrative gig these past three years as an anchorman for MSNBC, avoids his creditors. He and his various for-profit entities in particular for years have owed the federal and New York State governments well over $1 million in combined back taxes and penalties. Supporters might see the need for a bailout. Last week he appears to have received one. The brochure for the big event, titled “Commemorative Journal in Celebration of Rev. Al Sharpton’s 60th Birthday,” indicates the numerous for-profit, nonprofit and individual donors who are part of the Celebration Committee. In descending order of contribution levels, they are: “Activist,” “Author,” “Preacher,” “Brooklyn,” “Hair,” “Track Suit,” “Medallion,” “Contributor” and “Media Sponsor.” The following are the listed business and union contributors: Advent Capital Management LLC AFSCME District Council 37 Alabama Power Foundation American Federation of Government Employees American Federation of Teachers Ariel Investments AT&T Calhoun Enterprises Inc. Comcast Corp. Emmis Communications Essence Communications Forest City Ratner Companies GE Asset Management Georgia-Pacific Infrastructure Engineering Inc. International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers International Brotherhood of Teamsters Local 237 Jackson Lewis PC Loop Capital Management MacAndrews & Forbes Holdings Inc. Macy’s McDonald’s MSNBC New York Amsterdam News Perennial Strategy Group Rush Communications/Russell Simmons Service Employees International Union Local 1199 TV One UniWorld Group Inc. Verizon Viacom/BET Networks Walmart The Williams Group The donors belonging to the highest dollar category (“Activist”) are as follows: AT&T, Forest City Ratner Companies, Macy’s, Perennial Strategy Group and Viacom/BET Networks. All told, Rev. Sharpton told the New York Daily News, corporate, union and other donors pledged a combined $1 million for this event, though the actual tally won’t be known for a while; fundraising had been outsourced to an event planner, and corporate checks “take 90 days” to cash. He expressed optimism that National Action Network’s financial troubles soon will be over. “We have no new liens,” he stated. “We’ll be operating in the black this year. The biggest debts have already (been) settled, and the party last night was the second biggest fundraiser.” The biggest NAN fundraisers typically are the annual conventions, which are held in April. And they’ve attracted some heavy hitters. President Obama, for example, spoke at the NAN confab in 2011 and again this year.
Posted on: Tue, 23 Dec 2014 04:17:33 +0000
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