But when GMA aired a clip this morning of Al Sharpton expressing his outrage over Don Imus' recent comments about the Rutgers women basketball players, not a discouraging word was heard about Sharpton's history of racially-charged statements and actions that go far beyond the former senator's gaffe.
View video here
GMA CO-HOST CHRIS CUOMO: Now leaders in the African-American community are targeting Imus as a racist.
SHARPTON: I am not one that feels this can just go away, without establishing a serious precedent that enough is enough.
If Sharpton feels Imus should be fired, as his words and the GMA graphic seemed to imply, that is certainly his right. But how could ABC have given Sharpton such a platform without mentioning the Rev's own run-ins on matters racial? This is, after all, the man who burst onto the national scene as propagator-in-chief of the Tawana Brawley hoax, perpetuating the worst kinds of stereotypes. The man whose "white interloper" remark in the infamous Freddy's affair ended with a mass shooting and store-burning in which seven people died. The man who in the midst of a racially-charged atmosphere in Brooklyn leading to riots in which a Chassidic Jew was stabbed to death, referred to Jews as "diamond merchants." Jeff Jacoby, columnist at the Boston Globe, details the Rev's controversial past here.
But again, ABC referred to Sharpton only as an African-American community "leader," with nary a word suggesting that the man casting stones at Imus is hardly without sin when it comes to slinging racial epithets and stereotypes.
The MSM's double-standard strikes again.
Aside: In a now well-established ritual for people on a contrition tour for racial miscues, Imus will actually be appearing on Sharpton's radio show today.
Contact Mark at mark@gunhill.net
