The Jesse Jackson Steal Deal

This past week while in New York, I was carrying a copy of Ken Timmerman's sensational new book, "

"I just heard the author on the Bob Grant program last week," the man said, referring to the talk show host who airs on New York's WOR.

In conversation, the man – I'll call him Joe – quickly informed me he was an executive close to the Budweiser corporation. He said he could vouch for the accuracy of the account of Jackson's "shakedown" of Budweiser.

As Timmerman writes, Jackson discovered that Budweiser had a poor record of having minorities head its distributorships.

Jackson used his standard tactics to get the beer company to give his son a lucrative beer distributorship on the outskirts of Chicago.

(At one point, to hurt Budweiser, Jackson had encouraged African-Americans to quit drinking alcohol because of the harm it had done to the black community. But that stopped once his family got the distributorship.)

Joe told me there was a lot more to the story. Jackson had actually been angling for a much bigger, more profitable distributorship in the New Jersey suburbs just outside New York City.

Budweiser cleverly maneuvered another minority into that position. Jackson was left with the Chicago outlet.

Joe, a Hispanic, noted that Jackson had a legitimate grievance about Budweiser. He added that Jackson, however, had little interest in making Budweiser actually reach out to minorities or create a real plan to fix its problems.

Instead, Jackson used his position and title to have Budweiser pay off his family to keep him quiet.

And that's the real story of Jesse Jackson.

As Timmerman so powerfully documents, Jackson is not interested in improving or correcting the racial problems that may affect government or big companies. (Even conservatives need to admit there have been problems.)

As long as Jackson receives his keep-quiet money, he's more than happy to choose another target.

But the most astounding aspect of the Jesse Jackson story that Timmerman details is Jackson's ability to get away with the most outrageous tactics, behavior and even criminal ties, without any major media comment.

When was the last time you saw Mike Wallace on "60 Minutes" do an exposé on the minister?

Indeed, one of the most revealing sections of "Shakedown" is the explanation of how Jackson works the media.

In the small universe of African-American media, Jackson is worshipped as the heir to Dr. King. The reason is simple: Jackson has made several African-American media owners very wealthy.

He has gone after big companies to make sure they spend advertising on these media outlets.

And when major media organizations seek FCC approval of a major merger or acquisition of companies, Jackson is there screaming racism, claiming minorities are not getting a fair share of the deal.

This means minority-run broadcasters get fast-tracked for FCC licenses. Or, to get the support of Jackson and the minority media before the FCC, big media companies will offer them media properties on the cheap.

Timmerman notes that some media companies, like Viacom, have also just shelled out direct donations to Jackson to buy his support.

Of course, the big media companies would be deathly afraid of raising Jackson's ire. After decades of Jackson's shenanigans, the media will not report any of the facts about him.

Finally, Timmerman has done the job. Americans should take notice of this book and note how the media can cover up a major story for decades.