Former Newsday foreign editor Peter Eisner reveals a truth about "King Al: How Sharpton Took the Throne."
While the title is fully about Sharpton, the book is largely about late twentieth-century New York newspapers.
It was that platform, especially the tabloid versions, that turned Sharpton into the controversial media figure he was -- and the wealthy, influential cable news host he is today.
Back in the early-mid-1980s, when Peter was AP's editor in Mexico City, he hired me an hour after I had knocked on his door, unannounced, seeking a job.
As fate would have it, we both later were hired at Newsday, where hotshot editor Les Payne became a mentor and booster to us both. (Our beloved Les Payne this year was posthumously awarded the Pulitzer Prize for his biography of Malcolm X, "The Dead are Arising," written with his daughter Tamara Payne.) Chapter 2 of King Al is devoted to Les: "Les Payne Sounds the Death Knell on the Tawana Brawley Story."
Had there been no Peter Eisner (and Les Payne), I would not have had the chance to spend months in Cuba as a correspondent for Newsday; and I would not have become the first reporter to interview Assata Shakur (wanted by the FBI in the 1973 killing of a New Jersey state trooper) and reveal she was living in Cuba under a grant of asylum from Fidel Castro.
That story led me to write another piece. It cited U.S.-based Black radicals who believed Sharpton had been trying to get them to reveal what they knew about Assata, with the intention of informing the FBI of her whereabouts.
In my book, Sharpton denies he was trying to do that. But the book also quotes those who maintain, to this day, he was trying to do just that.
Had there been no Peter Eisner and his beloved Les Payne in my life, there would be no "King Al."
Peter emailed this photo to me, saying he was deeply touched by the reflections in the book.
"I went to Politics and Prose (in D.C.) and bought the book . . . I had known about parts of the book that you shared with me, but had no idea of what you would write about me, you and Les (Payne)... It was a great run for the three of us and beyond. I'm very proud of what we did, and who we were and are, and hope that I can continue to serve the legacy."
Fordham University Press asked me to inform that it's giving holiday discounts. I was told a buyer can enter code - GIFT2021 - at checkout.
"The Dead are Arising," by Les Payne and Tamara Payne.
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