Credit Where It's Due: KTVI Fox 2 Covers Black Conservative Conference

Move-On-Up.org, the conference for the much persecuted black conservative, did not receive much press in its local media market of St. Louis. In fact, the organizers were attacked by the alterna-weekly right before the conference by writers who I’m told did not bother to contact the conference’s organizers for response or show up to the event to interview the people about whom they were writing.

One media outlet did give the conference coverage, and that came from KTVI Channel 2.

African Americans who share conservative views on society and politics gathered in St. Louis this weekend to talk about building a grassroots organization. It was the first national convention for Move-On-Up.Org, a group that began as an electronic social network connecting blacks who felt big government was heading in the wrong direction.

The meeting drew people from six or seven states as well as Missouri politicians including Republican Lt. GovernorPeter Kinder.

Nationally known conservatives Andrew Breitbart, known for his blog Big Government and Star Parker, a syndicated columnist, author and network TV commentator were among the speakers. Parker runs a think tank which promotes market based pubic policy to fight poverty.

The first African American chairman of the St. Charles CountyRepublican Party, Eugene Dokes credited Move-On-Up with encouraging his interest in politics and challenging him to improve his education. A Navy veteran, Dokes now runs his own real estate agency and is working on his PHD in business. He said the convention showed participants “you’re not a bad African American for being a conservative.”

Betsy Bruce was the reporter for this segment; she also did the segment which exonerated the St. Louis Tea Party after Congressman Russ Carnahan made up a story about the group trespassing on his private property and leaving a coffin on his yard. He attempted to use the story to stoke emotional support during a contentious election cycle and had his story blown by Bruce’s report. Imagine! Journalism done from the street, not from the lap of congress!

The event was a great success and the evening’s banquet was in honor of Republican State Rep. Sherman Parker who died in 2008 from a brain aneurysm. A scholarship was established in his name and Saturday evening’s banquet, held by Move-On-Up.org, was to raise funds for the scholarship. Star Parker was the night’s keynote speaker and delivered one of the most inspiring speeches I’ve ever heard. As soon as video is available (I ran out of memory on my SD card) I will add it to this piece.

Imagine how much more would have been raised for black American students in the St. Louis area if other media outlets did as KTVI had done and covered the conference!

More on the evening from Jim Hoft.