Robert Johnson's nasty comments about Barack Obama earlier this week caused a huge stir in the media. Johnson issued a less-than-convincing clarification and then apologized to Obama on Thursday.

Yet few of the stories on Johnson, the founder of Black Entertainment Television and a top surrogate for Clinton in South Carolina, noted his controversial standing in the African-American political community. Johnson has been one of President Bush's top black allies, lobbying for the repeal of the estate tax and the privatization of Social Security, as Jonathan Chait of The New Republic reported in a 2001 profile of Johnson.

Johnson also has a history of opposing unions that makes Clinton's allies in labor quite uncomfortable. Back in 1993, workers at BET voted to join the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW) and the Writer's Guild. According to an article in the Washington Afro-American, a historically black newspaper, AFL-CIO organizer Ed Feigen alleged that "during and after the election, BET violated the workers rights by offering them raises and promising benefits if they didn't join the union in."

"Employees were also threatened with job loss if they did vote the union in. A total of 13 employees were laid off after the election, hours were cut back, and two lead organizers with the Writer's Guild were fired, according to reports issued by the AFL-CIO. Mr Feigen told the AFRO that Mr. Johnson had stated to his workers that their actions were an act of disloyalty and that BET would never have a union."

One BET employee, Kimberlyn Dickens, said management had a "plantation attitude." Another BET employee, Samone Lemieux, said Johnson "promised us increased benefits and improved working conditions if we stopped our union organizing activity. However, after the election Mr. Johnson threatened us with discharge because of our union activity. He told us he had taken a $15,000 investment and turned it into a $400 million company, and that he was not about to start giving his money away."

There's little evidence that Johnson's opinion of unions has changed since then. Keith Boykin, host of the BET show My Two Cents, writes on his blog:

In May 2000, BET made the AFL-CIO's list of notorious anti-union companies, and the year before, 120 comedians, including Richard Pryor, bought full-page newspaper advertisements to complain that Johnson refused to offer union wages to performers on its "Comic View" show. Three years before that, Johnson was reprimanded by the National Labor Relations Board for BET's interference with the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers' organizing efforts, a case that BET later appealed and won. But in February 2000, Johnson told USA Today, "We don't need a union. They're only money-making machines."

Johnson is not the only controversial figure within labor circles to play a high-profile role in Clinton's campaign. I reported last May that the PR firm of Clinton's chief strategist, Mark Penn, maintains an active union-busting division.

The actions of Johnson and business of Penn tell a different story than Clinton's advocacy for labor. Clinton may not share these views, but as she courts union workers in Nevada and elsewhere, it's fair to ask why she deploys anti-labor individuals on behalf of her ostensibly pro-labor campaign.

Comments (26)

1. Again, more evidence that Clinton says ANYTHING she thinks will help her win.

   Her commitment to unions is superficial, and like Edwards, only wants to use unions to help get her elected and then abandon union issues once in office.

   Posted by Metteyya at 01/18/2008 @ 6:11pm

2. Posted by METTEYYA 01/18/2008 @ 6:11pm

   How do you know Edwards would abandon unions? Just curious?

   Posted by Cccomfo1 at 01/18/2008 @ 6:58pm

3. I do agree on one point: Unions are only money-making machines. They're a far cry from what they initially started out as.

   Posted by ACook at 01/18/2008 @ 7:07pm

4. Now, now, I'm sure FRANKGRITS will have a logical explanation for all this.

   (I believe this IS the 20th time I've posted that...and should be shortly, the 20th that FRANK shows up with a talking point within 24 hours....heheh)

   Posted by Mask at 01/18/2008 @ 7:19pm

5. Oh frank will show up try to defend it get shot down but never back down from fanatical love for hillary for sure.

   Posted by Cccomfo1 at 01/18/2008 @ 7:21pm

6. According to him Hillary can do no wrong. She could probably walk out on stage and eviscerate an infant and he would somehow defend it as being an ok thing.

   Posted by Cccomfo1 at 01/18/2008 @ 7:22pm

7. Posted by CCCOMFO1 01/18/2008 @ 7:22pm

   I said the same thing yesterday...She could call Obama the N-word and FRANK would find some way to explain it.

   It's beyond just "support" for the woman as a candidate...it's literally cult of pesonality...bordering on apotheosis.

   Posted by Mask at 01/18/2008 @ 7:36pm

8. Posted by MASK 01/18/2008 @ 7:36p

   It's kinda scary I think we might need to check him in for some help.

   Posted by Cccomfo1 at 01/18/2008 @ 7:39pm

9. It's just so hard for me to imagine a black entrepreneur who started w/$15k in 1980 and built his fortune to 10-figures, can be anti-union and pro-privatizing Social Security.....

   Doesn't he know that will cost him his membership as a black, in the eyes of Libs and by-the-number Dems?

   Posted by Happy at 01/18/2008 @ 7:48pm

10. Posted by CCCOMFO1 01/18/2008 @ 7:39pm

    We do have a tendency to revoke the membership cards after comments like that.

    Posted by Cccomfo1 at 01/18/2008 @ 8:23pm

11. Posted by HAPPY 01/18/2008 @ 7:48pm

    That was directed at that post.

    Posted by Cccomfo1 at 01/18/2008 @ 8:23pm

12. I do agree on one point: Unions are only money-making machines

    this is why i'm not reading these pages so much these days.

    Posted by darladoon at 01/18/2008 @ 8:45pm

13. Posted by CCCOMFO1 01/18/2008 @ 7:39pm

    FRANK has already said if Obama (and Edwards too, I guess) wins the nomination....he'll vote Republican!

    That's nuts.

    Posted by Mask at 01/18/2008 @ 8:48pm

14. http://www.thenation.com/blogs/action/ignore.mhtml?who=darladoon

    Darl, she's a retard. stick around.

    Posted by johannesrolf1 at 01/18/2008 @ 10:53pm

15. privatizing social security is a scam. they want to privatize it so that they can steal it from you. just like the housing scams.take out the equity in your house. translation pawn your house.

    Posted by johannesrolf1 at 01/18/2008 @ 10:55pm

16. we need unions now more than ever. the working man is really hurting. who's gonna stand up for him? the dept of labor is really the dept of screwing the help.

    Posted by johannesrolf1 at 01/18/2008 @ 10:57pm

17. Posted by JOHANNESROLF1 01/18/2008 @ 10:53pm

    OK, who are you? You should be ashamed of yourself for using JR's moniker.

    Posted by ACook at 01/18/2008 @ 11:17pm

18. Posted by ACOOK 01/18/2008 @ 11:17pm

    He's BRANNIGAN, MCQ, MASK2, BIG JAKE, JR, & JR1! Likely to be all of us2....Invasion of the Handle Snatchers!

    Posted by Happy at 01/18/2008 @ 11:49pm

19. privatizing social security is a scam. they want to privatize it so that they can steal it from you. just like the housing scams.take out the equity in your house. translation pawn your house.

    Posted by JOHANNESROLF1 01/18/2008 @ 10:55pm

    As far as I can tell, I believe that it was LBJ who opened up SS for "other uses" about 40 years ago. They've been stealing from us this whole time. It's the people who are "stealing from us" who have the better privatized accounts.

    we need unions now more than ever.

    Which union have you belonged to...and what were your experiences there?

    Posted by Sliver at 01/19/2008 @ 08:48am

20. You should be ashamed of yourself for using JR's moniker.

    Posted by ACOOK 01/18/2008 @ 11:17pm | ignore this person

    I'm so ashamed. I won't do it anymore. wait, maybe I'll use yours next.

    Posted by johannesrolf1 at 01/19/2008 @ 09:42am

21. Posted by HAPPY 01/18/2008 @ 11:49pm | ignore this person

    you left out Hondo.

    Posted by johannesrolf1 at 01/19/2008 @ 09:42am

22. Which union have you belonged to...and what were your experiences there?

    Posted by SLIVER 01/19/2008 @ 08:48am | ignore this person

    I have not held a job since 1977.

    Posted by johannesrolf1 at 01/19/2008 @ 09:45am

23. Posted by JOHANNESROLF1 01/19/2008 @ 09:42am

    Don't forget "Hellfighters" and "The Green Berets"!

    (BTW, glad you're not JOHANNES...that guy was a monumental egotist and completely insufferable....where as you're only 35.5% insufferable..heheh)

    Posted by Mask at 01/19/2008 @ 09:58am

24. (BTW, glad you're not JOHANNES...that guy was a monumental egotist and completely insufferable....where as you're only 35.5% insufferable..heheh)

    Posted by MASK 01/19/2008 @ 09:58am | ignore this person

    I'm working on it, give me time.

    I was working with movies that had a name as a title.

    incidentally, folks who have multiple e-mail addresses could be posting here as several individuals. You could be Mask and Acook for example. and some of the dear departed could be lingering incognito.

    anyway I'm done with that Kraut's handle, so stay tuned.

    my intent was to try to let my posts be read for their substance rather than their source.

    Posted by johannesrolf1 at 01/19/2008 @ 10:04am

25. I can see you're still carrying a torch for that German fellow.

    Posted by friehiet at 01/19/2008 @ 10:39am

26. Anyone But Clinton. Clinton is the worst of both worlds, Republican substance and Democrats get the blame. I have said that Clinton would make a good president, I now admit I was wrong. If Clinton is the nominee, I might vote for her, then again I might cast a protest vote - not for Nader the liar (bush=gore) - but for one of the other protest candidates. Possibly the Greens, possibly the Natural Law Party.

    Posted by conshame at 01/19/2008 @ 11:55am