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The network has jettisoned all of its news and public affairs shows. The latest casualty was its nightly news report.

Meanwhile, BET increasingly has catered to the lowest common denominator, accenting its popular staple of rap videos prominently featuring barely covered women's bottoms and less-than-uplifting themes.

"It is consistent with Johnson's philosophy of money first and social responsibility . . . whenever," wrote online columnist Richard Prince of the Maynard Institute.

Lee, you might recall, came to Greensboro as the keynote speaker at the 2001 NAACP Freedom Fund Banquet. A funky, rump-shaking promotional video on BET preceded her speech.

I've never seen so many black folk blush in one place at one time.
People have been complaining to Johnson about BET for years. Even Chuck D, co-founder of the rap group Public Enemy, has described BET as a "bad mark on black folks in this country."

But Johnson has complained right back. Why must the weight of all black people's expectations rest on his shoulders? he's said.
And if you're all that concerned about moral uplift and service to mankind on TV, he further snaps, then start your own cable network.
Back in the Triad, Union Baptist Church in Winston-Salem has mounted a petition drive to complain about BET's programming, specifically, promos for its popular awards show, which attracted a record 6 million viewers on June 28.

"Enough of the schizophrenia, where they show church on Sundays and depravation and dehumanization the rest of the week," Union's pastor, the Rev. Sir Walter Mack Jr., said Friday.

The petition drive thus far has attracted more than 4,000 signatures from as far away as California.

People also were grumbling two weeks ago at the National Association of Black Journalists convention in Atlanta, where BET was a sponsor.
These journalists, over the years, have had a love-hate relationship with Johnson, whom they admire for his success and vision. And whom they despise for not doing more with what he's had at BET.
Now Lee calls most of the shots.

By most accounts, she's a brilliant woman. She just hired noted filmmaker Reginald Hudlin as BET's president of programming. Still, you've got to wonder.

At the 2005 BET Awards Show it was business as usual. Singer Beyonce gave actor Terence Howard a lusty onstage lap dance. Whereupon Johnson quipped that he might stay another five years if Beyonce did the same for him. Memo to Bob: Concentrate on your NBA team.

I only hope he doesn't expect Sean May to do a lap dance.