You know liberals are desperate if they’re playing the race card so early in the 2012 campaign cycle. The latest edition of MRC’s Notable Quotables is now out, and this week’s collection was heavy with media quotes attacking both Republican voters and their presidential candidates as racist.
Among the lowlights: NBC’s Ann Curry accusing Newt Gingrich of “intentionally playing the race card” when he talked about President Obama’s dismal economic record, and ex-CNN correspondent Bob Franken nastily asserting that conservative voters harbor “a real resentment against blacks,” and “would love to see us return to the good old days of Jim Crow.”
The worst quotes are below the jump; the full issue can be read at www.MRC.org. (PDF version)
Juan Williams
By Rich Noyes | January 23, 2012 | 9:15 AM EST
By Brent Baker | January 22, 2012 | 7:21 AM EST
Newt Gingrich wouldn’t have won the South Carolina primary if not for two journalists who served as his perfect foil at two debates in the days before Saturday’s contest, Juan Williams and Charles Krauthammer contended Saturday evening on FNC.
“I was expecting a check,” quipped Williams who had challenged Gingrich Monday night about comments “intended to belittle the poor and racial minorities.” Williams suggested he and CNN’s John King, “the guy who asked him about his problems with his second wife,” split the check 50-50.
By David Limbaugh | January 20, 2012 | 3:37 PM EST
I wish Republican politicians would have faith in the largely conservative electorate and not behave as though they'll make themselves unelectable unless they pander to Generic Moderate. Who is that guy, anyway? Have you ever met him?
Recently, we've seen a few examples of the liberal narrative's rearing its oppressive head and starkly different reactions to it. The first was Mitt Romney's reportedly telling The Wall Street Journal that as a wealthy person, he thinks he lacks the credibility to aggressively push tax cuts. Mitt is also looking timid about releasing his tax returns. He needs to fight back — consistently — instead of surrendering to the liberal narrative that success is evil. Mitt should take a lesson from Newt Gingrich on counterpunching against false liberal charges and innuendo.
By Tim Graham | January 19, 2012 | 8:31 AM EST
While several media liberals have praised Juan Williams of Fox News for pushing around Newt Gingrich with the idea that his campaign rhetoric is at best insensitive to black Americans, Chauncey DeVega at the Daily Kos is sticking to the theory that Williams is a tool of racist Republicans: "Juan Williams is an object of abuse, a means to prove a point. Juan Williams is a paid pinata for white conservatives."
Or Williams is a toilet: "Juan Williams is/was a repository for the fecal matter of white conservative bigotry, and a need to maintain superiority over negroes who dare not to step off of the sidewalk when white folks pass." Or Williams is actually "coprophagic," he eats feces:
Matthews: Gingrich Is Race-Baiting Calling Obama Food Stamp President - 'He Ought to be Ashamed of Himself'
By Noel Sheppard | January 17, 2012 | 7:10 PM EST As NewsBusters previously reported, MSNBC's Chris Matthews has been making the rounds accusing everyone associated with Monday's Republican presidential debate of racism.
On Tuesday's Hardball, the host finished the program by claiming former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich was race-baiting by calling Barack Obama The Food Stamp President (video follows with transcript and commentary):
By Ken Shepherd | January 17, 2012 | 4:30 PM EST
Appearing on colleague Andrea Mitchell's eponymous 1 p.m. Eastern program today, MSNBC Hardball host Chris Matthews to viewers that last night's South Carolina GOP presidential debate was chock full of "dog whistles" and racially-tinged "code words." What's more, according to Matthews, there's no point trying to argue with him on this because "you either see it or you don't."
Perhaps Matthews's dopiest claim was that Newt Gingrich calling Fox News debate panelist Juan Williams by his first name was a thinly-veiled way to attack Williams's ethnicity before a "conservative white" audience in the South:
Racist Republican Debate Audience 'Chilling' on Martin Luther King Day? (Updated! Writer Admits Error)
By Tim Graham | January 17, 2012 | 7:10 AM EST
The liberal media have returned to assaulting the crowd reaction at Republican debates. Ken Tucker, a TV critic at Entertainment Weekly (a sister publication of Time magazine), suggested the “mob” was “heavy with malice.” He thought Jon Huntsman would find relief "he didn’t have to stand on-stage Monday night to face the most raucous, roused-rabble audience of any Republican debate held thus far."
Tucker strongly suggested the audience was racist in reaction to a Juan Williams hardball question to Newt Gingrich: “The jeers that erupted the second Williams uttered the phrase ‘black Americans’ was chilling on this Martin Luther King Day.” But not only was there no outcry as Williams used the words “black Americans” early in the question, but the outburst of noise didn’t really erupt until Gingrich said “No” to the Williams question. [MP3 audio available here; video follows page break]
Gingrich to Juan Williams: 'I Know Among the Politically Correct You Are Not Supposed to Use Facts That Are Uncomfortable'
By Noel Sheppard | January 17, 2012 | 12:34 AM EST Republican presidential candidate Newt Gingrich had a rather testy exchange with Fox News's Juan Williams during Monday's debate in South Carolina.
After Williams accused the former Speaker of the House of being racially insensitive when referring to Barack Obama as "The Food Stamp President," Gingrich said, "The fact is that more people have been put on food stamps by Barack Obama than any president in American history. Now, I know among the politically correct you are not supposed to use facts that are uncomfortable" (video follows with transcript and commentary):
Juan Williams on Belafonte and West's Attacks on Herman Cain: 'They Really Can't Stand Black Conservatives'
By Noel Sheppard | October 11, 2011 | 5:21 PM EDT As NewsBusters reported, singer Harry Belafonte and Princeton professor Cornel West took some cheap shots at Republican presidential candidate Herman Cain on Monday.
On Tuesday, former NPR political analyst Juan Williams told Fox News's Martha MacCallum, "They really can’t stand black conservatives. They think anybody who’s a black conservative is totally inauthentic" (video follows with transcript and commentary):
By Brad Wilmouth | August 28, 2011 | 11:49 AM EDT
Friday's The O'Reilly Factor on FNC gave attention to New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg's decision to exclude all clergy from taking part in the upcoming commemoration of the 9/11 attacks. Substitute host Juan Williams introduced the segment.
By Tim Graham | July 11, 2011 | 12:31 PM EDT
Julie Moos at Poynter.org reported Monday that reviews are “mixed” for the forthcoming Juan Williams book on his firing from National Public Radio (title: Muzzled: The Assault on Honest Debate, due July 26). But the only review Moos cited was Kirkus Reviews, which hammered at the Williams book as a step backward in the debate: “In the end, about the last thing the civil-discourse cause needs, namely more self-interested preaching to the choir.” The unnamed Kirkus reviewer was snarky:
Karl Rove Asks Juan Williams: How Can an Obscure Guy Who Did Diddly Squat in the Senate Become President?
By Noel Sheppard | June 25, 2011 | 4:32 PM EDT Karl Rove and Juan Williams had quite a lively debate Friday evening about politics, the economy, and who can beat Barack Obama in 2012.
With Williams acting as substitute host on "The O'Reilly Factor," guest Rove asked the question that has been plaguing conservatives for approaching three years - "How can an obscure United States senator from Illinois who had done diddly squat in the senate become the nominee of the Democratic Party and the President of the United States?" (video follows with transcript and commentary):