Editing Tavis Smiley (section)

===Radio commentator===
[[File:Television personality Tavis Smiley (left) appears on scholar Jon Wiener political podcast entitled Start Making Sense.jpg|thumb|right|Smiley with historian [[Jon Wiener]] on his [[political podcast]] entitled ''Start Making Sense'' in 2015]]
Campaigning for a seat on the [[Los Angeles City Council]] in 1991 against incumbent Ruth Galanter, Smiley finished fourth among 15 candidates. He became a radio commentator, broadcasting one-minute daily radio segments called ''The Smiley Report'' on [[KYPA|KGFJ]] radio.<ref name="CBB"/> With Ruben Navarrette Jr., Smiley co-hosted a local talk show in Los Angeles where his strongly held views on race and politics, combined with his arguments regarding the impact of [[institutional racism]] and substandard educational and economic opportunities for inner-city black youth, earned him attention at the ''Los Angeles Times''. His commentaries focused on local and national current-affairs issues affecting the African-American community.<ref name="LA Times 1994">{{cite news|last=Puig |first=Claudia |title=What's The Frequency, Gen X? |url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1994-11-06-ca-59273-story.html |work=Los Angeles Times |access-date=July 17, 2010 |date=November 6, 1994 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120111165008/http://articles.latimes.com/1994-11-06/entertainment/ca-59273_1_talk-radio |archive-date=January 11, 2012 }}</ref> For six months, Smiley worked on a community news program on a local cable network, and spent six more months working on television in [[Montreal, Quebec]], Canada.<ref>{{harvnb|Smiley|2006|pp=214–215}}</ref>
From 2010 to 2013, Smiley and [[Cornel West]] worked together to host their own radio talk show, ''Smiley & West''. They were featured together interviewing musician [[Bill Withers]] in the 2009 documentary film ''[[Still Bill (film)|Still Bill]]''.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/27/movies/27still.html |title=A Documentary Looks at Bill Withers |first=Mike |last=Hale |date=January 26, 2010 |work=New York Times |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151218161250/http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/27/movies/27still.html |archive-date=December 18, 2015 }}</ref> He was the new host of ''Tavis Talks'' on BlogTalkRadio's Tavis Smiley Network.

In 1996 Smiley became a frequent commentator to the ''[[Tom Joyner Morning Show]]'', a nationally syndicated radio show broadcast on black and urban stations in the United States.<ref>{{cite web|title=Tavis Smiley|url=http://www.tavistalks.com/CONTENT/About_Tavis_Smiley/index7.html|work=Current Biography|publisher=TavisTalks.com|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060516175753/http://www.tavistalks.com/CONTENT/About_Tavis_Smiley/index7.html|archive-date=May 16, 2006|year=2003}}</ref> He developed a friendship with host Joyner.