Deggans previews tonight's race, religion and media forum on local TV and radio

WTVT-Ch. 13's Kathy Fountain was kind enough to have me, Muslim civil rights activist Ahmed Bedier and TV personality-turned-pastor Ricc Rollins on her midday show Tuesday to talk about a free public forum I'm moderating tonight on race, religion and media coverage in Tampa.

Co-sponsored by the Tampa Bay Association of Black Journalists, the Council on American-Islamic Relations, the Human Rights Council and the Hillsborough NAACP, tonight's forum features a collection of local media figures, religious figures and activists, dissecting the way race and religion surfaces in media, from the Jeremiah Wright scandal to controversies about local televangelists.

Ahmed and I will also be talking about the issue just after 1 p.m. today, on Rob Lorei's afternoon radio show on WMNF-FM (88.5). We're hoping to start a dialog with the community which can get people thinking about how the media covers these hot-button issues, and what we might do to improve our efforts.

The event gets started at 7 p.m. tonight in the Student Services Auditorium at the Hillsborough Community College’s Dale Mabry Campus, 4001 Tampa Bay Blvd., Tampa. Admission is free and all are invited to attend.

Here's a preview of the discussion, taken from Kathy Fountain's Tuesday show: