Talk:Sheila Johnson

message: For those who would revert my edit stating this in the article, here’s my response with sources.
First, the Forbes list is not definitive. Even Forbes does not presume the list is definitive, therefore neither should Wiki editors. In fact Forbes calls its list “our estimates”, and writes in its Methodology, “Are there really exactly 400 billionaires in America? No. By our count there are a few more.”
http://www.forbes.com/2006/09/21/forbes-400-methodology-biz_cz_mm_06rich400_0921methodology.html
So Forbes is an excellent source, but not the only excellent source. The Forbes methodology also focuses on individuals and does not really acknowledge couples. But there are multiple other published sources stating not only that the Johnsons were the first, but specifically stating that Sheila Johnson achieved the distinction of being the first African-American female billionaire before Winfrey. Even Forbes acknowledges the distinction of "first African-American billionaire" as attributed not to Winfrey, but to the Johnsons:
Forbes.com – “Robert L. Johnson”. 2005.
“Founder of Black Entertainment Television became the nation's first African-American billionaire after selling the cable channel to Viacom for $3 billion in 2001. Still in 10 digits even after paying estimated $400 million divorce settlement to ex-wife Sheila in 2002.”
http://www.forbes.com/finance/lists/54/2003/LIR.jhtml?passListId=54&passYear=2003&passListType=Person&uniqueId=VYCO&datatype=Person
In 2003, the Forbes 400 ranked Johnson at 179 with 1.3 billion, and Winfrey at 224 with 1.1 billion.
http://www.forbes.com/lists/results.jhtml?passListId=54&passYear=2003&passListType=Person&searchParameter1=5Str%7C%7CPatCS%7C%7CMedia%2FEntertainment&searchParameter2=&resultsHowMany=25&resultsSortProperties=%2Bnumberfield1%2C%2Bstringfield1&resultsSortCategoryName=rank&fromColumnClick=&bktDisplayField=&bktDisplayFieldLength=&category1=Industry&category2=&passKeyword=&resultsStart=26
Multiple other sources list Johnson as the “co-founder” of BET with his wife, Sheila Johnson and also note her status as the first female African-American billionaire. I have included 26 of the many diverse and reputable sources below that state this point. And as long as the list is, even it is not exhaustive:
1) The Washington Post – “Sheila Johnson, Marrying Well” – Sept. 25, 2005
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/09/24/AR2005092401710_pf.html
2) The Washington Business Journal – “A conversation with BET Co-founder Sheila Johnson - 1/21/05 http://www.bizjournals.com/washington/stories/2005/01/24/story8.html 
3) Ebony Magazine – “Sheila Johnson: America’s first Black female billionaire – Biography” - Sept. 1, 2003
http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1077/is_11_58/ai_106700553
4) HotelChatter.com – “BET Co-Founder Sheila Johnson is Keeping Busy in the Hospitality World” - 8/10/2007
http://www.hotelchatter.com/tag/Sheila%20Johnson
5) Interview in Cosmo Girl. A Hearst Communications Publication. “Billion dollar lady” - 5/6/2007
http://www.cosmogirl.com/lifeadvice/project-2024/sheila-johnson-may06
6) Essence Magazine - “Sheila Johnson, BET’s Other Billionaire” – 2005
http://www.essence.com/essence/workandwealth/atwork/0,16109,1045632,00.html
7) USA Today – “BET billionaire Sheila Johnson: Hillary's terrific, but Obama's her man” - 6/12/07
http://blogs.usatoday.com/onpolitics/2007/06/bet_billionaire.html
8) The Washingtonian – “Sheila Johnson Transports Violins to Illinois” – 12/1/06
http://www.washingtonian.com/articles/people/2905.html
9) National Public Radio – “American Billionaire Tackles Global Poverty” – June 14, 2007 –
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=11044100
10) AOL Black Voices – “Move Over Oprah: Meet the Other Black Woman Billionaire” – 9/14/05
http://blackvoices.aol.com/workmonmain/workmonmain_canv/wmart/_a/move-over-oprah-meet-the-other-black/20050803171309990001
11) PRN Newswire – USNewswire – “Sheila C. Johnson Honored for Role in 'Breaking Barriers' at Special USTA Opening Night Celebration” – Aug. 23, 2007.
http://www.prnewswire.com/cgi-bin/stories.pl?ACCT=ind_focus.story&STORY=/www/story/08-23-2007/0004650404&EDATE=THU+Aug+23+2007,+10:07+AM
12) Black Athlete Sports Network – “Sheila Johnson, Robert’s Ex” – 7/22/05.
http://www.blackathlete.net/Blackbox/blackbox072205.html
13) American University Radio – “Sheila Johnson” – 6/23/05.
http://wamu.org/programs/kn/05/06/23.php
14) Old Town Crier. “Sheila Johnson”.
http://www.oldtowncrier.com/feb07/personalityprofile.cfm
15) University of Illinois Alumni Assn. “Alumni Profile.” Nov/Dec 2004. 
http://www.uiaa.org/Urbana/illinoisalumni/utxt0406e.html
16) Black Digital Network – “African American Women Leading World Philanthropy” - 9/3/07
http://blackdigitalnetwork.com/articles.asp?id=4&art=752
17) ESPN. “Mystics Owner Gives Back” – 2/22/07.
http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/blackhistory2007/news/story?id=2775013
18) BlackGivesBack.com – “Q & A with Sheila Johnson” – 9/9/07.
http://blackgivesback.blogspot.com/2007/08/q-with-sheila-johnson.html
19) Biography.com – “Sheila Crump Johnson Biography - Concentrated on Music, Co-founded BET, Turned to Equestrian Lifestyle, Generously Gave Away Millions” – 2007.
http://biography.jrank.org/pages/2418/Johnson-Sheila-Crump.html
20) Black Enterprise – “Keeping Up with the Johnsons” – 7/31/07.
http://www.blackenterprise.com/cms/exclusivesopen.aspx?id=3332
21) Associated Press – “Sorensen Inst. For Political Leadership. University of Virginia”. 1/9/06.
http://blog.sorenseninstitute.org/blog/StateandRegionalBoards/BoardMemberProfiles/_archives/2006/1/9/1632989.html
22) Cornell University School of Hotel Administration – “Dean’s Distinguished Lecture Series”. Aug. 25, 2006.
http://www.hotelschool.cornell.edu/academics/lectureseries.html
23) Tennis Magazine. – “Gibson’s impact measured by those she inspired.” – 8/24/07.
http://www.tennis.com/news/news.aspx?id=100430
24) Women’s Leadership Exchange. – “Atlanta Conference”. 9/19/06.
http://www.womensleadershipexchange.com/index.php?pagename=atlanta2006
25) CBS Sports – “Tennis trailblazer Althea Gibson's impact measured by those she inspired.” 8/25/07.
http://www.sportsline.com/tennis/story/10317860
26) Hire Strategy. “Richest Residents” 8/14/07.
http://www.hirestrategy.com/articles/feature_content.asp?id=513
If someone can find a quote from Winfrey claiming she is the first, please post it here. Or even a source that says she achieved the distinction before the Johnsons. It is not a claim that I’ve found that she or any other reputable source has ever made. And again, every source stating that she is the lone or first, or first female African-American billionaire appear to be extracted solely from the Forbes methodology which again, appears to exclude equal partner couples from its estimates.
Second, even with Forbes Winfrey was not listed as a billionaire until 2003. However Robert L. Johnson and his then wife Sheila Johnson became billionaires with the sale of BET to Viacom in 2001 for $3 billion. Again even Forbes acknowledges this. But Sheila Johson was not simply "the wife”. She was an equal equity partner in the business with Johnson, and a corporate executive officer. Additionally according to several of the sources above, it was her bank loan of $500,000 that financed the start up that became BET. The articles all suggest they were equal business partners not just a married couple where he did built the business and she was some inactive agent in the success of the business.
So to be accurate - with the 2001 sale, they both became the first male and female African-American billionaires respectively. Then with the equal division of their assets following their divorce in 2002, both briefly dropped off the list of billionaires, but that does not change the fact that before the divorce divided their assets, united they were still the first African-American billionaires. And Winfrey joined them in 2003.
Third, according to the sources above, Sheila Jackson quickly diversified her portfolio with numerous holdings after her divorce, and not only restored her position as a billionaire in her own right, but again did so predating Winfrey’s 2003 entry the following year. Therefore, despite Winfrey's substantial notoriety as an African-American female billionaire, ultimately she was not the first to achieve this distinction. End of story.
So please let’s stop any nasty edit war before they begin. And if anyone is inclined for whatever reason, to still not accept these findings, kindly do your own research and post your own results here before arbitrarily doing a revert. And then we can discuss them, and if necessary, submit the results of both findings to consensus according to WP:CON. X4n6 11:34, 10 September 2007 (UTC)
thread_title:  Sheila Johnson was the first female Mulatto-American billionaire.

message: Your contention that Sheila Jackson has never been a billionaire, and is "described as a billionaire only loosely because she was married to billionaire" is nothing but your own unsourced speculation. It is certainly not supported by either link you submitted. Your USA Today article only cites the  Forbes list and does not offer independent analysis. It certainly does nothing to refute all the sources I provided. Nor does it even address or contradict the USA Today source which I cited. In fact, my source is actually 2007 while yours was back in February of 2003! The MSNBC link also simply states that Winfrey is the first but offers no sourcing at all, nor a date of reference to review. Also your argument that no credible business magazine calculated Sheila Johnson's net worth in the billions suggests that you did not read the Washington Business Journal, Black Enterprise, NPR, Ebony, Essence and Washington Post articles, all of which call her a billionaire in her own right, and several which specifically reference that she predated Winfrey in becoming one. Those sources, in addition to the AP, CBS, ESPN, Cornell University, the University of Illinois and the University of Virginia are each independently and collectively unquestionably credible sources. And since you categorically state that Winfrey was the "first and only black woman billionaire", you need to source that claim. Because you haven't so far. You've given just two sources that reference "first", but neither ever mentioned "only". Or how about a source that specifically addresses and dispels Sheila Johnson's "claim" of her billionaire status?
Furthermore, your argument regarding the Johnson billions ignores logic, and is also unsourced. If they were equal partners, as all the sources I provided indicate, then if he was a billionaire, so must she be as well. You can't co-own something equally with another partner with one partner taking 100% benefit and the other taking zero, but that's what you seem to suggest. And especially in this case, where they shared equally the profits and proceeds of the Viacom sale, as all my sources indicate. Plus I quoted Forbes directly which said that he eventually recovered his billionaire status after the divorce and holds that position today - with the additional sources beyond Forbes that say she did exactly the same. Her diversified holdings today, far exceed the amount she acquired in the division of the marital assets. She owns a stake in three sports franchises, a resort that she just acquired valued at over a quarter billion dollars and other holdings, all completely sourced by the links I provided.
As to the question of Forbes acknowledging Johnson alone where you say they acknowledged the GAP co-founders, that's also unsourced, so I don't know where you got that from. Provide the link and I'll look at it. But I also go back to my original Forbes links, and Forbes own admissions that their list is only "our estimate", and that it also omits several billionaires. That Forbes credits Johnson alone but offers no basis in fact for that conclusion renders it nothing more than an editorial call on their part, with no weight of substance or proof in fact. And again, every other credible source disagrees with their bias.
In addition to the many mainstream sources I referenced I would especially recommend that you take note of the many legitimate African-American business sources which credit Johnson and not Winfrey as the first African-American female billionaire. The major ones include Black Enterprises, Ebony & Essence. Each one is long and well established as reputable publications of record in the African-American community. It seems highly unlikely they would each and independently make the exact same claim and reach the exact same conclusion, especially over the iconic Winfrey, on a whim.
But since you are clearly interested in Forbes re: the Johnsons, you may find the link below interesting. It is about a Forbes senior writer who wrote a book about the Johnsons back in 2004, and discloses among other things:
Brett Pulley, a senior editor at Forbes magazine, says that "black businesses are not used to being scrutinized like this," and that it is "extremely tough to do these tough stories on African American businesses." I'm not sure what that means really, but it seems to suggest some admission that it is quite likely that Forbes got this one wrong - or at minimum, less than completely right. Also in the Q & A that accompanies it, he notes that each had "individual fortunes in the neighborhood" of approximately $750 million after the division of the BET assets in the divorce. So with their additional holdings since then, a billion really doesn't appear to be much of a logical stretch at all. And again, that estimate was back in 2004!
http://www.forbes.com/ceonetwork/2004/04/08/0408chat_transcript.html
In the interim, I recommend that you review the sources I posted, and perhaps even do more research on your own. If we cannot agree as I said, I have no problem with submitting the issue for consensus. X4n6 15:06, 10 September 2007 (UTC)
thread_title: Where are the sources?

message: I work for Rubenstein Communications and Sheila Johnson is a client of ours.  There are several stated redundancies and factual inaccuracies that should be removed per Wikipedia’s policy on  WP:BLPs and  WP:NPOV.  To mitigate any potential conflict of interest, I will vet only instances of factual inaccuracies that are not sourced, incorrectly cited, and/or the citation reference is no longer valid.  My intention here is not to rewrite the article, but rather, clean it up per Wiki standards and offer a more balanced article structure.  If there are any questions/concerns/edits to my proposed actions, please discuss on my talk page. // Brycetom (talk) 19:48, 18 November 2008 (UTC)
thread_title:  Article Inaccuracies