Harlem Network News founder Terry Wisdom calls for immediate ethnic media investment

And the first person is Terry Wisdom.

Thank you, Terry Wisdom.

Okay.

Yes.

Good morning.

Good morning, everyone.

I'm Terry Wisdom.

I am the CEO and founder of Harlem Network News.

And I just want to really show my gratitude to Gail Brewer, our councilwoman, Gail Brewer,

former Manhattan borough president, and also to our speaker, Julie Minin.

Column Network News started at the onset of COVID.

I have a background in media, 30 years.

I am in several unions, a video editor.

I've worked at every network that you can think of from ABC to NBC to CBS, local news, network news.

Worked at CNN when they first started.

I was up in Connecticut.

So I know this media world.

I have worked in feature films.

I am trained.

I have a degree in media from Fordham.

University, went to Lincoln University, and was part of PBS program that they had for media.

And I started my career at Sesame Street and Electric Company.

So I am a media person.

I live, sleep, and breathe it.

I'm also a Harlem entrepreneur.

At the onset of COVID, my partner had been encouraging me to start a network.

But at the onset of COVID, when I saw Black people walking around Harlem thinking,

that they could not get COVID because they did not see their images.

And we know that there are certain diseases that, you know, affect other and certain communities, like a sickle cell mainly impacts people of color.

So they were thinking they were immune.

But part of it was they were not part of the media conversation.

And because of things like the Tuskegee experiments, they really didn't trust the medical community.

So I had to jump in the deep water and start Harlem Network News.

I am proud to say that then our president, Gail Brewer.

Your time has expired.

Okay, so what I want to say is it's critical with this ethnic media that money be infused.

I'm part of the ethnic media team.

I've been asking for a whole year.

I do get me and Mondani's press, you know, thing every day, but I did not know who was ahead of it.

Now I know we need to be on the planning committee.

We are media people.

We can turn this thing around in a day.

I'm used to coming to an NBC at three o'clock and being on the air at six.

So there's no reason with all the money that there is that we can't gallop and get this thing going.

It's disparity, particularly in Harlem and Harlem's of the world.

We are suffering, suffering, suffering, suffering.

And most media that looks like it's black, it's not.

It's a to be who is owned by Fox News and they're getting our advertising dollars for our.

our eyeballs looking.

So I'm here, I'm willing to participate to help this thing get boots on the ground so that there can be equity in media.

And media is a message, the message is media, and it's more critical than ever in the political climate that we are in.

And half of my community has no idea what's going on.

And mainstream media does not cover things that are happening in Harlem.

And they will tell you, oh, you know, send us some B-roll and we'll put it on.

They never do.

So I'm ready to stand up and fight back for this.

And it's unacceptable from this administration that has taken this long.

For us to get ahead of ethnic media.

It was a mystery.

This is insane, especially in a time where we have access to everything.

So thank you very much, and I yield my time.

Thank you very much.

Thank you, and I do need to get contacts for the head of the ethnic media so that we can connect, and I appreciate greatly.

This is a breakthrough thing that's happening.

So I love it.

Thank you.