Santana GoneGreen

Stephen A. Smith Sat Down With President Trump at the White House, for His Own YouTube Show

Stephen A. Smith

Photo: Straight Shooter with Stephen A. / YouTube (@MrStephenASmith)

The biggest name in sports talk went to the White House on Thursday, sat down with the president for about 40 minutes, and did it for a channel he owns. Stephen A. Smith interviewed President Donald Trump in the Roosevelt Room on November 12 for “Straight Shooter with Stephen A.,” his own YouTube show, and the episode went up on his channel the same evening. Whatever anyone thinks of either man, the booking itself is the story: a presidential sit-down, granted not to a network but to a sports commentator’s independent platform.

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Santana GoneGreen

Yella Beezy Convicted in Mo3 Murder-for-Hire Case, Sentenced to Life Without Parole

Yella Beezy performing on stage

Photo: @Saybrea / Radio One (97.9 The Beat)

Six years to the day after Dallas rapper Mo3 was shot and killed on Interstate 35, a Dallas County jury decided who set the killing in motion. On Wednesday, November 11, jurors unanimously convicted Markies Conway, the 35-year-old Dallas rapper known as Yella Beezy, of capital murder, finding that he hired the man who killed Melvin Noble. Judge Chika Anyiam sentenced Conway to life in prison without the possibility of parole that same day.

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Santana GoneGreen

El Salvador’s Troops Are Fighting Haiti’s Gangs. Turning Point, or a New Foreign Intervention?

Aerial view of neighborhoods in Port-au-Prince, Haiti

On Tuesday, November 10, the president of El Salvador posted a video to social media showing attack helicopters circling a large house in Haiti and firing on it, over and over, while people ran from the property. Nayib Bukele said his troops had destroyed the home of one of Haiti’s most powerful gang leaders, along with the gang’s headquarters. Haiti’s prime minister thanked him for it. And just like that, a question that has followed Haiti for more than a century was back on the table: is this the turning point Haitians have been waiting for, or is it a new form of foreign intervention wearing a different uniform?

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Santana GoneGreen

He Kept the Keys: Joe Budden Brings His Network to REVOLT — Without Selling It

Podcast hosts silhouetted at a studio table with microphones, seen through a television control-room window.

This is an analysis and opinion piece based on the reporting cited in it. Statements of fact are sourced in the text; interpretations are the author’s own.

The podcast-to-TV pipeline just ran in reverse, and the TV network didn’t buy the show. It rented the audience.

On Tuesday, November 10, REVOLT and Joe Budden announced a multi-year partnership that brings the Joe Budden Network to national television. The vehicle is a new weekly series, Joe Budden Network Presents, premiering this Friday, November 13, at 10 PM ET on REVOLT TV, with streaming following Saturdays at 5 PM ET on the REVOLT app and website. But read the structure before you read the headline: per the reporting on the deal, this is a licensing arrangement. REVOLT airs selected conversations and segments from Budden’s network. Budden keeps the intellectual property, the catalog, and creative control. The financial terms were not disclosed, and for once, the money isn’t the story. The terms are.

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