Eds: This story runs long--986 words. There will be a brief sidebar-no more than 200 words--about this (Tuesday) morning’s “Joyner” response by Smiley to Johnson’s “BET Tonight” appearance last (Monday) night. Smiley’s initial response to the non-renewal of his contract (the day before it was cancelled altogether) is elsewhere in this packet. w/pix No Conspiracy To Silence Smiley, Says BET Founder Decision to Fire ‘BET Tonight’ Host ‘Mine and Mine Alone’ By Todd Steven Burroughs NNPA News Editor WASHINGTON (NNPA) - The founder and head of Black Entertainment Television said Monday night his decision to fire “BET Tonight” host Tavis Smiley last Friday was his and his alone, saying a “lack of mutual business respect” existed between Smiley and BET. “There is no conspiracy on the part of (BET’s owner) Viacom to silence Tavis’ voice,” said Robert Johnson. “I think it’s very disingenuous for people to try to create a conspiracy that Viacom forced Tavis off the air…That’s as far from the truth as you can get.” The decision to let Smiley go “was mine and mine alone,” Johnson said. The BET founder made a rare appearance on his network in a special one-hour edition of “BET Tonight,” the show Smiley hosted until last week, to stop the “very false and misleading information” about BET, its decision to fire Smiley, and Viacom, a White media conglomerate that owns CBS, UPN, MTV and VH-1. Mel Karmazin, Viacom's president and chief operating officer and the target of hundreds of calls, faxes and E-mails from irate Smiley supporters since last week, “had nothing to do with this decision,” said Johnson. The move comes in the wake of a nationwide stir in some quarters of Black America over BET’s handling of Smiley, a popular radio and television commentator and interviewer who in recent years has been recognized as a national media voice for Black concerns. Johnson, who sold the network last fall for $3 billion to Viacom, said he fired Smiley because the BET host did not respect the network enough to offer it an exclusive interview he did with a sought-after White radical before selling it to ABC News. Smiley had sold to ABC an independently produced interview with Sara Jane Olson, a White housewife who was known as Kathleen Soliah. She was allegedly a member of the radical Symbionese Liberation Army when they kidnapped heiress Patricia Hearst in the 1970s, causing a national media sensation. The Olson interview aired on the ABC newsmagazine "Primetime Live" on March 1, opposite a debut of a CBS series. Johnson, who repeatedly called Smiley “a talented individual,” said Smiley’s interview was the final nail in the coffin of what he called the network’s “difficult” five-year relationship with him. He said Smiley never told anyone at BET he had landed the highly competitive story. “This dispute is a simple matter between a network and a talent. It happens all the time in TV,” he said. Johnson re-affirmed his support for BET’s public-affairs programming, saying that “BET Tonight,” “BET News” and “Lead Story” would continue into the fall. Sources told NNPA last week that "Teen Summit," the network's award-winning teen program, and "BET On Jazz," a separate channel, are in jeopardy of being cancelled. A BET spokesman told NNPA it was “too early” to announce its fall lineup. The Smiley dismissal came in the wake of the layoffs of as many as 50 of its employees earlier last week. Johnson’s “BET Tonight” appearance, guest-hosted by “Lead Story” anchor Cheryl Martin and featuring call-ins from across America, brought to a head the controversy swirling around Smiley. It has also ignited discussion by Blacks in media circles about the danger of increasing corporate ownership of media. Smiley’s employment status was made public last Wednesday on “The Tom Joyner Morning Show,” Black America’s top syndicated morning radio program, when Joyner announced that BET did not renew the activist-broadcaster’s contract. Smiley, appearing on “Joyner” last Thursday, thanked BET for allowing him to have the opportunity to interview everyone "from Clinton to Castro, Cosby to Cochran, from Prince to the Pope, from Patty to Puffy, from Sharpton to Snoop." But he chided the network for its curt, faxed memo about his contract's non-renewal. "Five years, four sentences," he said of his tenure and the memo. "They say you shouldn't take these things personally," Smiley told Joyner’s seven million listeners. "But for me, it is personal. I launched, have hosted and executive produced this show since its inception. All along I have tried to maintain the integrity and credibility of our advocacy on BET against some pretty incredible odds." Smiley--who has launched several high-profile campaigns on the "Joyner" show, most recently to have Congressional Republicans explain why they were moving historically Black colleges and universities into a sub-committee which included juvenile crime and other social problems--said he would continue to be an advocate for Black people, with or without a television program. Joyner, whose work with Smiley earned the duo a NAACP Image Award, responded by announcing a campaign against Karmazin, giving out to his listeners the Viacom executive’s fax number, phone number and E-mail address. "We've got to let media giants like Viacom know that we will not accept just anything they toss out at us," said Joyner, whose show is syndicated by ABC Radio Network and Radio One Inc. A BET spokesman said later that day the network had received “several hundred” phone calls about the cancellation of Smiley’s contract. BET fired Smiley the following day. Smiley, a former aide to Los Angeles Mayor Tom Bradley, had hosted “BET Tonight” since its 1996 inception as “BET Talk.” He became a twice-weekly commentator on Joyner’s show that same year after being introduced to the Dallas-based deejay by President Clinton. The radio and television posts helped Smiley, a charismatic, fast-talking left-of-center activist, become a high-profile media personality. He has authored several books and made scores of public appearances, including the hosting of a “Black Think Tank” series of panel discussions on the state of Black America. His most recent “Think Tank” event, held in Washington, D.C. last February, drew more than 2,000 people and prominent African-American leaders and thinkers, including the Rev. Jesse Jackson. He also operates a nonprofit foundation, providing leadership training and scholarships for Black youth. Guest hosts will fill the “BET Tonight” roster until a new host is chosen for the 2001-2002 season, said BET officials. #####