Roland Martin debuts 'Washington Watch' on TV One Sunday, Sept. 27

By Dave Walker
The Times-Picayune
(September 24, 2009) A fixture on the cable news spectrum for years -- recently as a prominent member of CNN's election-analysis team -- Roland Martin now enters the Sunday morning public-affairs-show scrum. "Washington Watch" debuts on at 10 a.m. Sunday, September 27 on the digital cable network TV One.

"We're calling it 'Washington Watch' for a couple of reasons," Martin said over the summer during the Television Critics Association TV Tour in Hollywood. "I believe that the other Sunday morning shows, frankly, are arrogant. And that is, when you watch Sunday morning television shows, in essence, they're saying, 'We are the smartest people in the world telling all of you at home what is going on.' That's not how we're going to approach this.

"Sure, we're going to have people from Congress on the show. We're going to have policymakers. "We're going to have people who are state legislators, people who are mayors, people who are operating from around the country. See, I don't live in the Beltway. I can't stand the Beltway mentality. We need to have people who are talking about the issues that we care about who are not from Washington, D.C., saying, 'This is what we care about in Greensboro, North Carolina; in Columbus, Ohio; in Houston, in Oakland, and all around the country.'

"It is quite offensive that in 2009 when you say that we can look at the first family, a black family in the White House, but we are virtually nonexistent on Sunday morning. That is offensive, and it is as if (Sunday morning bookers) can't find black talent."

Speaking of talent, "Washington Watch" will also tap politically-involved entertainers who otherwise haven't found a platform for their causes, Martin said.

"I am sick of the notion that somehow Angelina Jolie, Brad Pitt and George Clooney and Bono are the only people who are in entertainment who are involved in public policy, " he said. "When Gabrielle Union comes to Washington, D.C. to testify about increased funding for rape crisis centers -- because she was raped years ago -- she gets no love on any of these shows. When Don Cheadle was there talking about Darfur, and when you have other folks who are on Capitol Hill talking about education, talking about crime, they are not covered.

"They are going to be covered on this show. We will provide a voice not only for policymakers, not only for African Americans who were in Congress on Capital Hill, but also African Americans who are in entertainment who are doing some amazing things in America and across the globe who are ignored every single day by all the other news shows in this country."


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