Pop Culture Personality Toure Headed to BET News

Pop Culture Personality Toure Headed to BET News

BET Network Adding Trio of Brooklyn-Based Intellectuals and Trend-Setters As Producers, Writers and Talent to Expanded News Production Team

WASHINGTON, Nov. 4 /PRNewswire/ -- Each one has carved a noteworthy reputation as an intellectual trend-setter and cultural expert, and they're now bringing that expertise to BET. Today BET News announced the hiring of ex- CNN pop culture correspondent Toure; former Editor-in-Chief of The Source magazine Selwyn Hinds; and writer and filmmaker Nelson George. BET President of Entertainment Reginald Hudlin describes the hiring of the Brooklyn-based trio as pivotal to the next phase of BET News and Public Affairs programming.

Roles managed by the three will touch multiple aspects of BET programming. Toure draws a multi-level assignment as host, writer and Consulting Producer for BET News, including serving as host on such specialized programming as the recent BET 25TH ANNIVERSARY POST-SHOW. Hinds will assume the role of Interim Executive Producer for the daily BET News Briefs, periodic BET News Specials and BET's soon-to-be launched Sunday news magazine show. George becomes Consulting Producer on all BET News and Public Affairs programs. All three gentlemen either hail from or reside in the New York borough of Brooklyn.

Toure joins BET with a well-established reputation as a writer and correspondent. He was CNN's first Pop Culture Correspondent and was the host of MTV2's talk show Spoke N Heard. He has appeared on many television shows including NBC's The Today Show, Fox News Channel's The O'Reilly Factor, and CNN's Paula Zahn Now, Anderson Cooper 360, and CNBC's Topic A with Tina Brown. He is also the author of a novel entitled Soul City; The Portable Promised Land, a collection of short stories; and Never Drank the Kool-Aid, a collection of his magazine works over the past 12 years. Toure has been a Contributing Editor at Rolling Stone for 10 years, and has penned articles for the New Yorker, New York Times, Playboy, Tennis Magazine, Best American Essays of 1999, Best American Sports Writing of 2001, and the Best American Erotica of 2004.

"Toure can debate the politics of race with arch-conservatives on news shows; he has written insightful articles on everyone from Lauryn Hill to Jay Z to the White Stripes; and has written brilliant surrealistic novels," said Hudlin. "He's a triple threat that will broaden and deepen our coverage of the entertainment landscape. He's a dynamic presence on screen with a strong perspective our viewers want."

Hinds is an internationally recognized expert on popular culture and urban media. As a writer, commentator and teacher, his commentary has appeared in print, television and radio, including BBC, CNN, BET, ABC, NBC, MTV, New York Times, and Los Angeles Times. He is a well-traveled lecturer, conducting forums at institutions including Princeton University, Brown University, The S.I. Newhouse Communication School at Syracuse University, and Northwestern University. Hinds is perhaps best known as the former Editor-in-Chief of The Source magazine in its late 1990s heyday, during which the publication doubled its circulation to become the top-selling music magazine in the country and the most-respected print media voice for the hip-hop culture. He also formerly served as Chief Creative Officer, Executive Vice President and Editorial Director of 360hiphop.com, the Internet firm founded by music magnate Russell Simmons which was later acquired by BET Interactive and BET.com. Hinds has two critically-acclaimed books to his credit -- the memoir Gunshots in My Cookup, Bits and Bites of a Caribbean American Life (2002), and To a Young Jazz Musician: Letters from the Road, written with Wynton Marsalis, which won a 2004 Blackboard Literary Award for Best Music Book.

"Selwyn Hinds was the defining voice of The Source magazine, and like Nelson and Toure, is equally comfortable covering both hard news and pop culture," said Hudlin. "His wealth of relationships has already expanded the reach of the network."

George is a writer, filmmaker and cultural critic with more than 25 years of professional experience, and directed the BET Arabesque Books made-for-TV film One Special Moment. While an undergraduate at St. John's University in the 1970s, he regularly wrote for the Amsterdam News and Billboard magazine, where he later served as Black Music Editor from 1982 to 1989. During that time, George published several influential music books, including Where Did Our Love Go: The Rise and Fall of the Motown Sound (1986); and The Death of Rhythm & Blues (1988). George also as an impressive film pedigree, having invested in Spike Lee's landmark film, She's Gotta Have It. He went on to become associate producer for Just Another Girl on the IRT and co-wrote the screenplays to two Hollywood features -- Strictly Business (starring Halle Berry) and CB4 (starring Chris Rock). George would later serve as consulting producer on HBO's The Chris Rock Show in the late 1990s. He also executive produced HBO's critically-acclaimed film Everyday People, which aired in June 2004 and was recently released on DVD.

"Nelson George is not only the 'Dean of Black Pop Cultural Criticism', but has been at the forefront of every important major art movement in the past 20 years," Hudlin said. "He was with Russell Simmons at the Disco Fever when Rev. Run was known as the Son of Kurtis Blow. He pulled money out of the ATM to keep the negative for She's Gotta Have It from being dumped into the street. He taught a young stand up named Chris Rock how to write a screenplay. 'The Death of Rhythm and Blues' and 'Hip Hop in America' are just two pieces of required reading that he has written. Getting Nelson on board at BET was one of my top priorities once I got this job."

Hudlin concludes, "Individually, these guys raise the level of the game at any news organization. Together, it's enough intellectual firepower to level a city. And we're just getting started."

ABOUT BET

BET, a subsidiary of Viacom, Inc. (NYSE: VIA; VIA.B), is the nation's leading television network providing quality entertainment, music, news and public affairs programming for the African-American audience. The BET Network reaches more than 80 million households according to Nielsen media research, and can be seen in the United States, Canada and the Caribbean. BET is a dominant consumer brand in the urban marketplace with a diverse group of branded businesses: BET.com, the Number 1 Internet portal for African Americans; BET Digital Networks - BET Jazz, BET Gospel and BET Hip Hop, attractive alternatives for cutting-edge entertainment tastes; BET Event Productions, specializing in a full range of event production services, including event management, venue selection, talent recruitment, sound, lighting and stage production; and BET Books, the nation's leading publisher of African-American themed romance novels under the Arabesque imprint which also publishes compelling fiction under the Sepia imprint and inspirational fiction and nonfiction under the New Spirit imprint.

-- http://www.bet.com/ --

Source: BET (Black Entertainment Television)

CONTACT: Michael Lewellen of BET, +1-202-608-2003,
michael.lewellen@bet.net

Web site: http://www.bet.com/

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