Challenging the audience Tavis Smiley promises to shake things up (PBS)

[RamboLiberal]

http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/headline/entertainment/2332641

Tavis Smiley, PBS' first West Coast-based talk show, will be fast-paced and aimed at drawing a younger, more ethnically diverse audience than typically watches public television, its host said.

Smiley, whose punchy, baritone delivery and pointed questions are familiar to his growing National Public Radio audience, is ready to get back on the tube. (His radio program will continue.)

Bill Cosby, Democratic presidential contender Wesley Clark, Newt Gingrich and Magic Johnson are among the first week's scheduled guests. The series begins at 12:30 a.m. Tuesday on Channel 8.

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Recently, Smiley examined heavy opposition by black Americans to the war in Iraq.

"The reason is that black people, disproportionately, make up the Armed Forces ... so folks are concerned about those lives," he said. "It's not just what many people describe as dislike or disdain of George Bush. It's deeper."