Race Issues

As the broadcast network evening newscasts on Tuesday gave attention to Vice-President Joseph Biden asserting that Mitt Romney, by "unchaining" Wall Street would effectively "put y'all back in chains," only CBS's Bob Schieffer informed viewers that about half the audience in Danville, Virginia, was African-American, thus suggesting the Vice-President was making an embarrassing pander to black audience members who likely have ancestors who used to be "in chains."

On the CBS Evening News, as he set up a soundbite of Biden, substitute host Schieffer related:

On Tuesday's Anderson Cooper 360, substitute host Soledad O'Brien made the argument that Vice-President Joseph Biden's "chains" gaffe in Danville, Virginia, was "racially coded language," as she rejected the Obama campaign's spin that the comment was not meant to be a reference to the enslavement of African-Americans in the past.

After relating the Obama campaign's explanation, she shot it down:

NewsBusters reported Friday that Politico's Roger Simon, appearing on PBS's Inside Washington, accused the Romney campaign of employing a racist "dog whistle" in its anti-Obama welfare ad.

Also appearing on the program was syndicated columnist Charles Krauthammer who scolded, "Any time a real issue is brought up here, all of a sudden it’s a silent dog whistle that only liberals hear...Clinton’s the guy who passed the law in the first place. Was that a dog whistle? Was he a racist?" (Video follows with transcript and commentary).

Everyone knows that politics can be an ugly business, but MSNBC’s Chris Matthews sunk to a new long on his Hardball program Tuesday night.  Matthews’ outrage came from an ad put out by the Romney campaign suggesting that President Obama, "announced a plan to gut welfare reform by dropping work requirements," which, his administration most certainly did.

Since there's nothing factually assailable about the ad, Matthews decided that the best approach for criticizing the spot was claiming it was "Willie Horton stuff." Of course, the 1988 Willie Horton ad was also 100 percent factually unassailable, which is why that ad resonated against then-Gov. Michael Dukakis (D-Mass.).  The issue at hand isn’t the accuracy of the ad but rather Matthews' insistence that racism is at play.  [Video follows page break;  MP3 audio here.]

CNN associated a white supremacist neo-Nazi band with the political right-wing as it labeled the punk rock band of Wisconsin shooter Wade Michael Page as "far right."

CNN had reported Page's band named "End Apathy" as "white supremacist," "neo-Nazi," and as a "hate group." Yet it also repeatedly labeled it "far right" on Sunday and Monday. [Video below the break. Audio here.]

CNN stoked fears that new voter ID laws might hearken back to the days of Jim Crow. Monday marked the anniversary of the Voting Rights Act, and CNN's Zoraida Sambolin used that to discuss whether the new laws might "suppress the minority vote."

"Do you think that having an African-American president is actually reigniting some of these old prejudices?" she asked former Ambassador Andrew Young who helped draft the 1965 Voting Rights Act. [Video below the break. Audio here.]

On the Saturday Washington Post “On Faith” page, columnist and Newsweek religion editor Lisa Miller insisted it was not a news story that black ministers came to the National Press Club and insisted Obama’s support for gay marriage “might cost him the election.”

It’s not a story, Miller insisted, because Rev William Owens is “enough to make a cynic blush...He’s a figurehead in what political operatives call an ‘Astroturf’ campaign...and his threat is not a threat.” Miller complained about the news sites that somehow found this “nearly empty” press conference newsworthy:

Is CNN equating racism with a store owner refusing to bake a wedding cake for a gay couple? In its "controversial marriage news" on Monday, CNN reported both a church refusing to let a black couple marry in its sanctuary and a bakery refusing service for a gay couple's wedding reception.

Back in May, anchor Don Lemon compared Mitt Romney defending traditional marriage to infamous Alabama Governor George Wallace touting segregation, so this isn't the first egregious smear by the network that loves to promote the gay agenda. [Video below the break.]

On her 1 p.m. et hour show on MSNBC on Tuesday, host and NBC chief foreign affairs correspondent Andrea Mitchell decried Mitt Romney labeling President Obama's big-government philosophy "foreign" to American capitalism: "...he is still using the term 'foreign' and I'm telling you, this is happening every day, it is a dog whistle." [Listen to the audio or watch the video after the jump]

Chief White House correspondent Chuck Todd attempted to talk Mitchell down: "...to take him [Romney] at face value – it's about trying to paint the President as out of touch, that he doesn't have the experience....out of touch about the American economy, that he doesn't understand how capitalism works." Mitchell refused to accept that explanation: "Out of touch is out of touch....Foreign is suggesting somebody who grew up in Indonesia....I'm telling you....words matter."

Of all the political angles that might be played in connection with the Aurora theater shooting, surely racism would be a card too far, right?

Wrong. Subbing for Ed Schultz on MSNBC tonight, Michael Eric Dyson managed to suggest that James Holmes would have attracted the attention of the authorities earlier had he been, yup, "a Muslim or another minority."  Until he twisted her arm, it was too much even for Dyson's super-lib guest, Illinois congresswoman Jan Schakowsky.  View the video after the jump.

UPDATE AT END OF POST: O'Donnell responds.

It's really becoming difficult keeping track of all the things the liberal media claim are code for racism these days.

On MSNBC's The Last Word Monday, host Lawrence O'Donnell accused conservative talk radio host Rush Limbaugh of being racist for saying Barack Obama smoked weed and snorted coke (video follows with transcript and commentary):

Appearing as a panel member on Friday's Inside Washington on PBS, Bloomberg View's Margaret Carlson - formerly of Time magazine - asserted that Mitt Rommey "wanted the boos" he received as he delivered his speech to the NAACP.

She went on to say the GOP presidential candidate is "taking those boos to his fund-raiser with Dick Cheney," and that "he's so proud of them."

On Thursday's edition of the New York Times's daily TimesCast, liberal columnists Charles Blow and Bill Keller discussed Mitt Romney's appearance at the NAACP convention (which Keller, the paper's former executive editor, found condescending).

They took on the issue of voter ID laws in various states. Over a montage of still photos of blacks in line to vote, Keller called voter fraud "kind of a tiny problem comapred to voter participation." Blow one-upped Keller, saying "not just a tiny problem I mean, it's minuscule."

Left-wing author Touré Neblett wildly accused Mitt Romney of playing the race card in a Thursday item on Time's website, claiming that Romney "went to the NAACP's National Convention planning to get booed," so he could "elicit an emotional reaction from white voters. Romney's performance wasn't intended to win more black votes, it was intended to help win more white votes."

Touré, the resident 9/11 truther at MSNBC, ranted that "when Romney called the Affordable Care Act 'Obamacare,' he purposely used a term that would not work with the audience in the room. When he said, 'If you want a President who'll make things better in the African-American community, you are looking at him. Take a look!' he was virtually taunting them the way a pro wrestler who's playing a villain eggs on the crowd saying things he knows will elicit boos."

During a panel discussion on Thursday's NBC Today about Mitt Romney's NAACP speech, advertising executive Donny Deutsch gave credit to the Republican presidential candidate for making the appearance, but proclaimed: "...this is going to be what I'll call the demographic election, women, Latinos and African-Americans are going to cost him the election."

Co-host Savannah Guthrie began the discussion by noting audience reaction to Romney at the event: "...he, on a few different occasions, got sustained boos from the audience, but also later some applause....Did you guys think it was rude that they're were boos?" Deutsch chimed in: "No, I think that's what people do, you know?"

Republican candidate Mitt Romney received a predictably mixed reception at the NAACP's annual convention in Houston on Wednesday, giving New York Times reporter Ashley Parker an easy target: "To Boos and Polite Applause, Romney Speaks to the N.A.A.C.P."

Parker emphasized the "cackles and boos" he received for his criticism of Obama-Care, and even used Romney's father, the late Michigan Gov. George Romney, to dismiss his record on "civil rights and diversity."

Actress and singer Queen Latifah made a racially-insensitive remark on CBS's Late Show Tuesday that might raise a few eyebrows.

Talking about the pool at her house, she said there's a section for people to go "If you can’t swim, or if you’re hammer-wasted...Hammered or a white girl, whichever you prefer” (video follows with transcribed highlights and commentary):

Filmmaker Spike Lee said Monday that if Barack Obama loses his reelection bid in November, "I will be dead before" there's another black president.

Lee also said during an interview with entertainment website Vulture that Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney's religion is going to play a huge factor in the upcoming election:

On Tuesday, Tom Brown at Reuters (HT CounterContempt.com aka "Republican Party Animals") wrote about the case of Quartavious Davis, a 20 year-old sentenced to life (and then some) after being "convicted of participating in a string of armed robberies in the Miami area in 2010."

In the process, Brown, whose column title was inadvertently humorous ("Insight: Florida man sees 'cruel' face of U.S. justice"), demonstrated his lack of knowledge and failure to confirm through research by asserting that "United States ... prisons house fully one-quarter of all the prisoners in the world, most of them black." As David Stein at the linked blog noted, this statement isn't merely untrue, it's most sincerely untrue (link was in original):

As NewsBusters reported Saturday, Politico has officially cut ties with White House correspondent Joe Williams for saying presumptive Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney is more comfortable around "white folks."

Throwing caution to the wind, Salon editor at large Joan Walsh on Thursday doubled-down on these caustic comments writing, "It’s almost certainly a fact that Mitt Romney is more comfortable around white people":

Let's call a spade a spade: the arrogance, hypocrisy and racism of Salon's Joan Walsh knows no bounds.

On PBS's Tavis Smiley Show Monday, this so-called "editor at large" had the nerve to depict some Republicans as "a white, older base that doesn’t quite understand the way healthcare works" (video follows with transcript and commentary):

The hosts of Good Morning America on Monday fawned over Congressman John Lewis, who once compared Republicans to Nazis. GMA co-anchor Robin Roberts gushed that the liberal Democrat is a "living legend." Weatherman Sam Champion described him as a "true hero." [See video below. MP3 audio here.]

Lewis appeared on the show to promote his new book on the civil rights era, but at no time did he face any tough questions. Roberts ignored the issues of the day, such as Eric Holder (who the Congressman has been vocal about). Some parts of Roberts' interview didn't even qualify as questions: "You write, 'Don't give in, don't give up.'"

Politico announced Saturday that recently suspended Romney-trashing White House correspondent Joe Williams is leaving the organization.

The following statement was released moments ago:

Recent job cuts at Alabama newspapers have been steep. The Birmingham Business Journal, which (ahem) apparently is not among the participants, reports that "Three of Alabama’s largest daily newspapers, including the Birmingham News, will lay off about 400 employees as they cut back their printing schedules and increase their focus on digital." The other affected publications include the Huntsville Times and the Mobile Press Register. The job cuts are on the order of 50%-60%.

Across the Alabama border in Florida at the Pensacola News Journal, cartoonist Andy Marlette did not handle the layoff news well, as will be seen after the jump.

On Thursday, at the Washington Examiner, Byron York concentrated on Obama's clear antipathy towards business as described in David Maraniss's recent book about President Obama (Barack Obama: The Story) relating to Dear Leader's brief stint at a company called Business International.

Though that's obviously a critical point to make during the 2012 campaign, a more foundational one is that this mindset, as well as most of Obama's stream of "embellishments" (most people would call them "lies") about his time at BI, were known or knowable well before the Illinois senator decided to run for president in early 2007 -- even the one that has the folks at Michelle Malkin's Twitchy.com all atwitter, namely that Obama didn't, as he claimed, have a secretary.

As NewsBusters previously reported, Oscar-winning actor Morgan Freeman said Tuesday, "We’re going to be in a lot of trouble if we don't reelect [Barack Obama] because people on the other side of the fence scare me."

In the second part of his Tavis Smiley Show interview aired Wednesday on PBS Freeman said, "Women, Hispanics, blacks, there is a large attempt, a great attempt, at disenfranchisement" (video follows with transcript and commentary):