The Rev. Al Sharpton is officially the first no-show of the 2008 Television Critics Association summer press tour.
But don't blame Sharpton, who apparently couldn't make it. He's part of a glorious history of luminaries "scheduled" to appear during the cable network portion of the tour, a two-week extravaganza of press conference, parties and gabfests that got under way in Beverly Hills about 40 minutes ago.
It can be hard to draw a critical mass for some of the smaller cable networks, so advertising a quotable guy like Sharpton for a 9 a.m. session is one way to populate the room.
TV One's bait and switch was in the service of a documentary series, "Murder in Black and White," which he'll be hosting. And with the daughter of one of the victims of a race-based slaying on the panel, along with filmmaker Keith Beauchamp and civil rights activist Lawrence Guyot, it could be argued that Sharpton wasn't much missed.
And yet every time it happens, the network involved loses a little bit of credibility with the people its executives are trying to get to write about it.
(See "Sharpton update" for an excuse that might get this network, at least, off the hook.)
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