Tavis Smiley in the Bulleye's of McCarthyism

Never. Ever. Never.PBS launched a so-called investigation of me without ever informing me. I learned of the investigation when former staffers started contacting me to share the uncomfortable experience of receiving a phone call from a stranger asking whether, I had ever done anything to make them uncomfortable, and if they could provide other names of persons to call. After 14 seasons, that’s how I learned of this inquiry, from the streets.Only after being threatened with a lawsuit, did PBS investigators reluctantly agree to interview me for three hours.Indeed, I learned more about these allegations reading the Variety story than the PBS investigator shared with me, the accused, in our 3 hour face to face meeting.My attorneys were sent a formal letter invoking a contractual provision to not distribute my programming, and that was it.Put simply, PBS overreacted and conducted a biased and sloppy investigation, which led to a rush to judgment, and trampling on a reputation that I have spent an entire lifetime trying to establish.This has gone too far. And, I, for one, intend to fight back. Tavis Smiley