Suit Says Sharpton Got Paid for Silence

The National Association of African-American Owned Media has filed a lawsuit claiming that Al Sharpton and his National Action Network were paid to remain silent about the lack of black TV programming. The suit claims that Sharpton has stayed quiet in exchange for $3.8 million from Comcast and Time Warner in “donations” and a promise from Comcast “to maintain his hosting position [on the Comcast co-owned MSNBC] for more than three years in exchange for Sharpton’s continued public support for Comcast on issues of diversity… despite the notoriously low ratings that Sharpton’s show generates,” according to the suit. On Monday, Sharpton dismissed the suit, which seeks $20 billion in damages, as “frivolous at best.”