Left to right, Dr. U. A. Thompson Sr., Pastor Mark Burns, Hogan Gidley, Stephanie Grisham, and author Raynard Jackson. IMAGE CREDIT: SHUTTERSTOCK
The author — a prominent columnist in the African-American community — shares good news about a meeting last week at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.
Last week Pastor Mark Burns, a Trump family confidant,
and I facilitated a meeting at the White House for members of the executive
board of the National Newspaper Publisher Association (NNPA).
NNPA is a trade
association of more than 200 black-owned newspapers from across the United
States.
The group has been around for more than 75 years.
Today, these 200 black newspapers reach more than 20
million black readers each week. Many of these newspapers have active websites
and social media presences as well.
To be sure, certain publishers were skeptical about
anything substantive coming out of such a meeting at the White House — yet the
skepticism all but disappeared by the end of it.
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When we called the Trump White House to gauge the
openness to meeting with these newspaper owners, the answer was an unequivocal
“yes.” Staff went on to ask, in fact, how soon we could organize this meeting.
We responded that the publishers were already in town for
another conference, so we could facilitate asap. The White House seemed to moved
heaven and earth to accommodate our meeting request.
Right about now, you might be asking, “Who in the White
House would show this level of interest in meeting these influential newspaper
publishers?”
The answer is that Stephanie Grisham, Hogan Gidley, and
Darin Miller hosted the meeting with us.
Grisham is the White
House press secretary; Gidley is the White House principal deputy press
secretary; and Miller is deputy press secretary for Vice President Mike Pence.
This shows the level of seriousness given to this
meeting. These three senior aides have the ear of the president and vice
president; and we were told that both President Donald Trump and Vice President
Pence would be briefed on our meeting and that the three individuals we met
with would communicate how pleased they were with the dialogue that took place.
Oh, and did I tell you the White House thought enough of
this group that the meeting didn’t just take place in just “any” of the meeting
rooms in the White House — it took place in the vice president’s ceremonial
office? This office is an ornate, historic room that is typically reserved for
special occasions. Based on this, I will let you draw your own conclusions!
Grisham, Gidley, and Miller expressed great appreciation
the group had made the time to get-together. The show of humility was very
moving.
The aides asked the publishers to speak up about any
concerns they might want or need addressed. The biggest concern by far was a
lack of access to the White House and various administration officials.
The group was given an ironclad commitment this would no
longer be an issue. They vowed to assist the publishers with access to various
administration officials they were trying to reach for stories they were in the
process of working on and reporting. Their job is to serve all of
the American people, they stressed — not merely those who support the
administration.
The aides indicated they wanted to have an ongoing
dialogue with this group so that they could continue to build better relations
with America’s black press.
There are about five follow-up items Pastor Burns and I
will be handling; everyone involved thought this was a great first meeting.
The final thing Grisham, Gidley, and Miller said that
left a good impression was that they were not necessarily expecting glowing
stories about the administration — though they would welcome that. Rather, they
felt it critical the administration was given an opportunity to present its
side of whatever issue the media might be addressing. That’s all most people
can ask.
The Trump administration has a great story to tell
relative to the black community. It now has a chance to be heard directly by
over 20 million blacks every week.
The Democrats’ biggest fear, it seems, is that the Trump
administration will speak directly to the black community in a substantive,
meaningful way without political input from the Left.
Yet Pastor Burns and I are committed to working with the
Trump White House to share the administration’s message of hope and progress
directly with the black community throughout the U.S.
After all, what do we have to lose?
Raynard Jackson is a Pulitzer
Prize-nominated columnist as well as founder and chairman of Black Americans for a Better Future (BAFBF), a
federally registered 527 Super PAC that aims to get more blacks involved with
the Republican Party. BAFBF focuses on the black entrepreneur.
