Former CNN anchor Soledad O’Brien appeared on Sunday’s Reliable Sources to add her name to the list of liberals who argue that calling the rioters in Baltimore “thugs” is just “a proxy, is a word we use instead of the N-word.” O’Brien asserted she “can't think of a situation where there's ever been a headline or someone has called a white young person who is in the middle of a violent protest demonstration, whatever, a thug. We use it all the time when we're talking about people in the inner city.”
Racial Preferences
By Jeffrey Meyer | May 3, 2015 | 10:01 AM EDT
On Saturday’s Today, fill-in host Thomas Roberts interviewed Baltimore state attorney Marilyn Mosby about the recent charges filed against 6 Baltimore police office for the death of Freddie Gray and actually pressed her on the case as well as her qualifications to lead the investigation.
Starbucks, USA Today Claim Their 'Race Together' Intentions 'Are Pure,' But Their Race Knowledge Test Isn't
By Tom Blumer | March 21, 2015 | 11:49 PM EDT The Associated Press's most recent story on the controversial Starbucks USA Today "Race Together" campaign came out Wednesday evening.
In that story, AP Food Industry Writer Candice Choi quoted Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz at his company's annual shareholders' meeting predicting that "Some in the media will criticize Starbucks for having a political agenda," but that "Our intentions are pure." Perhaps they are, but I suspect that certain materials company and USA Today have produced in connection with the campaign won't pass any readers' "pure intentions" test. Take USA Today's "How Much of What You Know About Race Is True?" test. Full contents follow the jump.
By Tom Blumer | February 23, 2015 | 4:10 PM EST
In a discussion with plenty of other objectionable elements on Sean Hannity's Fox News show Friday, Juan Williams asserted that "There's no question that if you look at our Constitution, there are elements of racism right in it." Note his use of the present tense.
The version of this country's founding document Williams was referencing must be 147 or more years old, because the only element of the original Constitution which was arguably racist — the inclusion of non-free persons as three-fifths of a person for the purpose of allocating House seats in Article I — went away when the 14th Amendment was ratified in 1868. Even that argument ignores the existence of white slaves at the time of its adoption.
By Ken Shepherd | February 13, 2015 | 5:18 PM EST
To Yesha Callahan of The Root, actor Vince Vaughn's critique of affirmative action -- which is rooted in his libertarian political leanings -- is not worth engaging on an intellectual level as a debatable philosophical proposition. It's just straight-up invalid because Vaughn is "tall," "rich" and "white."
By Mark Finkelstein | January 20, 2015 | 11:37 AM EST
Tuning into the middle of a Morning Joe segment today, at first I assumed that MSNBC's Ari Melber was chatting with the Oscar nominees. But no, turns out Melber had scored interviews with President Obama's SOTU speechwriting team. You'll excuse my confusion. As you'll see, just like the Oscar hopefuls, the SOTU writers appear to be a panorama of people of pallor.
By Jeffrey Lord | December 27, 2014 | 12:53 PM EST
Happy New Year, Comcast. Now do yourself and your company a favor and fire the man identified by Mediaite as ..really…””the most powerful man in America.” Who would that be, exactly? “Outside of the president, Al Sharpton might possibly be the most powerful man in America right now.”
By Jeffrey Meyer | December 7, 2014 | 10:33 AM EST
Conservative radio talk show host Rush Limbaugh made a rare TV appearance on Fox News Sunday with Chris Wallace to discuss a variety of topics including the state of race relations in America following two grand jury decisions in Ferguson, Missouri and Staten Island in which police were not indicted following the deaths of two African American men. Speaking to Wallace on the “hands up don’t shoot” protests in the wake of the Ferguson decision, Limbaugh argued that “what most of the media is describing did not happen in Ferguson, Missouri. There was no hands up, don't shoot. It didn't happen. And that's tearing this country apart. We have people to whom the truth is relative.”
By Jeffrey Meyer | November 25, 2014 | 4:13 PM EST
On Tuesday afternoon, MSNBC host Al Sharpton conducted a news conference with attorneys for the family of Michael Brown. Immediately following the news conference, MSNBC host Ronan Farrow expressed his outrage at the lack of charges brought against Ferguson police officer Darren Wilson for the shooting death of Michael Brown. Speaking during his Ronan Farrow Daily program, the MSNBC host proclaimed “Reverend Al Sharpton along with attorneys for Michael Brown’s family, Benjamin Crump and Anthony Gray, giving their first remarks since the incendiary announcement in Ferguson last night.”
By Jeffrey Meyer | November 24, 2014 | 11:06 AM EST
On Sunday morning, a heated debate broke out on NBC’s Meet the Press between former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani and MSNBC’s Michael Eric Dyson surrounding a grand jury in Ferguson, Missouri’s eventual decision on whether or not to bring charges against Officer Darren Wilson for the shooting death of Michael Brown. During the combative segment, Mayor Giuliani argued that with regards to Ferguson “93 percent of blacks in America are killed by other blacks. We`re talking about the exception here.” Dyson, who is a frequent fill-in host on MSNBC, took particular offense to Giuliani’s comments and insisted that “ this is a defensive mechanism of white supremacy at work in your mind, sir.”
By Jeffrey Meyer | August 24, 2014 | 3:15 PM EDT
With MSNBC’s Al Sharpton controversially playing the dual roles of television host and activist surrounding the events in Ferguson, Missouri, NBC’s Meet the Press felt the need to promote the liberal activist even further.
On Sunday, August 24, fill-in moderator Chris Jansing, NBC’s Chief White House Correspondent, concluded her moderating duties by giving Sharpton 4 minutes and 30 seconds of unchallenged air time to promote his involvement in the Ferguson protests following the death of Michael Brown. [See video below.]
NBC’s Chris Jansing Hits Missouri Gov. From Left on Ferguson, Ignores His ‘Vigorous Prosecution’ Comments
By Jeffrey Meyer | August 24, 2014 | 1:41 PM EDT Chris Jansing, NBC News Chief White House Correspondent, filled in as moderator on Meet the Press and did her best to hit Governor Jay Nixon (D-MO) from the left over his handling of the ongoing violence in Ferguson, Missouri.
Speaking on Sunday, August 24, Jansing promoted liberal talking points surrounding the police tactics used to stop the violent protests in the Missouri town. Furthermore, the NBC reporter ignored Governor Nixon’s recent controversial comments in which he called for a “vigorous prosecution” of the police officer who shot and killed Michael Brown. [See video below.]