Cornel West

Cornel West: Obama Doesn't Deserve To Be Sworn In On Martin Luther King Jr's Bible
By Noel Sheppard | January 23, 2013 | 11:44 AM EST

While the rest of the media were gushing and fawning over the idea that Barack Obama was going to be sworn in on Martin Luther King Jr's bible during his second inauguration Monday, a surprising voice spoke about the hypocrisy involved.

On Tuesday, PBS's Tavis Smiley aired a discussion on poverty originally broadcast on C-SPAN Thursday wherein black philosopher and activist Cornel West spoke at length about why he "got upset" when he heard Obama was going to do this (video follows with transcript and commentary, photo courtesy UPI):

CNN's Jeffrey Toobin: Obama Wins 'Comfortably,' and 'Absolutely,' Hurricanes Should Be Politicized
By Tim Graham | November 6, 2012 | 6:50 AM EST

CNN legal analyst Jeffrey Toobin appeared on the public-radio talk show Smiley & West over the weekend and gave his election pick: "You know, I don’t think this election is going to be all that close. I’m sorry, you know,, in my newsman hat, you know, we always want drama, we always want chaos and good stories. I think Obama is going to win this election narrowly, but comfortably. I don’t think we’re in for a long night."

When co-host Tavis Smiley asked about the talk of Superstorm Sandy being politicized, Toobin insisted "Absolutely, we should politicize them" to smack those people who think government is evil, and those global-warming skeptics should not be given equal time:

NPR Stations Air Poison: Pro-GOP Women are 'Battered,' Romney's 'White Supremacist Ticket'
By Tim Graham | October 29, 2012 | 12:42 PM EDT

When conservative tax dollars support public radio stations across America, what kind of programming gets aired? One radical show is “Smiley and West,” which is distributed by Public Radio International. This weekend, PBS star Tavis Smiley was too busy, so they replaced him with Julianne Malveaux – the loud-mouthed wacko who infamously announced on the PBS show To The Contrary that someone should feed Clarence Thomas a lot of cholestrol so he dies young.

So much for civility. It was a freaky show, with Malveaux not only emitting the usual charge that the polls are only close because of racism against Obama, but that white women have “battered women syndrome” if they’re picking Romney. A guest added Romney-Ryan was a “white supremacist ticket.”

Romney Got Off Easy - Bush Was Accused of the "Niggerization of the American People"
By Rusty Weiss | August 18, 2012 | 9:46 AM EDT

There was, understandably, plenty of outrage this week upon hearing MSNBC host Touré accuse Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney of what he called the "niggerization" of President Obama.  

On Thursday's The Cycle, Touré responded to Romney's charge that the President can "take [his] campaign of division and anger and hate back to Chicago” in the following unhinged manner:

Roseanne Barr Loses Green Party Nomination, Along With Her Mind
By Jack Coleman | July 18, 2012 | 9:11 PM EDT

Roseanne Barr made me laugh. Alas, it was 20 years ago. It was while she was a guest on Arsenio Hall's late night show and decided to rib the host. It's not often you meet a black nerd, Barr told Hall. Most nerds are white -- like you.

If Barr has said anything as piercing since, it's passed my attention. And what she said on the most recent Smiley & West radio show demonstrated how Barr has crossed the line from funny to delusional.

James Earl Jones, Voice of Darth Vader, Loves MSNBC And Knows the Tea Party Is Racist
By Tim Graham | July 10, 2012 | 11:24 PM EDT

Actor James Earl Jones appeared on the public-radio show Smiley & West last weekend and discussed how he stuttered as a teenager. “There’s a certain terror I still have about confronting people.  I can’t debate, I can’t argue, I fall apart...I cannot be an activist, for instance, because of that.”

But as Brian Maloney reported, host Tavis Smiley wanted to draw his politics out. Jones quickly obliged by saying he simply cannot get enough of watching MSNBC, even though he is the voice of CNN, and agrees with the MSNBC notion that the Tea Party must be racist to oppose Obama (audio and transcript below):

Lefty Comic David Cross Declares He 'Would Like to See Bill O’Reilly and Sean Hannity Off the Air'
By Jeff Poor | October 2, 2010 | 8:44 PM EDT

What – was Janeane Garofalo busy this week? If not, she has some real competition in the "lefty comic making outrageous statements" category.

On HBO’s Oct. 1 “Real Time with Bill Maher,” during the “Overtime” segment available on HBO.com, left-wing comedian David Cross of “Arrested Development” fame appeared to offer his view on issues of the day. This segment of the program is produced generally to answer viewer emailed questions. One of those questions was if people in the media “should be held more legally accountable for presenting false or misleading information.”

The host, Bill Maher likened that scenario to the system in place in the United Kingdom. However in the United States, Americans are protected by the First Amendment and he explained the legal implications of speech in the U.K. compared to the U.S. But in Cross’ estimation, that protected right is somehow wrong. He named two Fox News Channel hosts, Bill O’Reilly and Sean Hannity, and declared he would like to see them taken off of the airwaves although he wasn’t clear about what “false or misleading information” they may have presented that would warrant this action.

“I think so, absolutely, and I say that as somebody who would like to see Bill O’Reilly and Sean Hannity off the air, you know,” Cross declared with an approving response from the audience. “So, I think to -- it’s just part of the job. It should be part of the job, you know, if you knowingly do that, then absolutely you should lose your job. We don’t get to, you know, lie and make up things in our jobs, you know. And nobody really does.”