The NY Post's big cover story is a look at the corporations who donate money to the Reverend Al Sharpton's National Action Network.
Sharpton's organization, a non-profit founded to promote black civil rights, holds a yearly, influential conference in April (last year a who's who in the Democratic party attended, from former President Bill Clinton to Senator Barack Obama, from Senator Hillary Clinton to DNC chair Howard Dean) and attracts corporate sponsorship. However, the Post questions whether Sharpton shakes down companies:
Terrified of negative publicity, fearful of a consumer boycott or eager to make nice with the civil-rights activist, CEOs write checks, critics say, to NAN and Sharpton - who brandishes the buying power of African-American consumers. In some cases, they hire him as a consultant...
A General Motors spokesman told The Post that NAN had repeatedly - and unsuccessfully - asked for contributions for six years, beginning in August 2000.
Then, in December 2006, Sharpton threatened to call a boycott of the carmaker over the closing of an African-American-owned GM dealership in The Bronx, and he picketed outside GM headquarters on Fifth Avenue.
That resulted in a $5,000 donation in 2007, then another $5,000 in 2008 (a spokesperson told the Post the NAN is "worthy"); the Post has some other examples in this graphic, including Forest City Ratner, Pepsico, and Anheuser-Busch, which donates at least $100,000 annually to the group. In the caste of FCR, Sharpton once decried how little workers were paid at the Atlantic Mall; now Sharpton believes FCR's Atlantic Yards is a great boon for the community.
Sharpton denies the shakedown charges, telling the Post, "That's the old shakedown theory that the anti-civil-rights forces have used against us forever. Why can't they come up with one company that says that? No one has criticized me." Instead, an associate (who happens to be in jail for bribery) argues that Sharpton is simply skillful at pointing how African-Americans wield $738 billion in buying power.
The National Action Network's finances are currently being scrutinized; the AP reported the group owes at least $1.5 million in back taxes. Sharpton has characterized the inquiry as intimidation from the government.
