Race Issues

In just over 36 hours, the three network morning and evening shows have already devoted 70 minutes of coverage to racist comments apparently made by Los Angeles Clippers owner Donald Sterling. Yet, ABC, CBS and NBC have ignored Sterling's long history of supporting Democrats, including Senator Patrick Leahy, Bill Bradley and Gray Davis.  ABC offered the most coverage. Since Sterling was…

NPR set up a “race-sensitive” project called “Code Switch” -- poised to be politically correct on the "frontiers of race, culture, and ethnicity" -- and it’s so sensitive that project manager Gene Demby has managed to frustrate a pile of commenters who complain he bans them for the slightest pushback. It’s drawn the attention of Joel Kaplan, an ombudsman at the Corporation for Public…

In a Saturday afternoon tweet, former Bill Clinton campaign strategist and former CNN talking head Paul Begala showed that he's quite a confused guy concerning Los Angeles Clippers' owner Donald Sterling. Sterling, as noted previously (here and here), has been caught on tape chiding a person who is apparently his girlfriend for "taking pictures with minorities" and "associating with black…

On the Saturday, April 26, Melissa Harris-Perry show on MSNBC, Jonathan Capehart of the Washington Post substitute hosted a segment celebrating efforts by the Obama administration to reduce the number of convicted felons in prison in aftermath of signing a law in 2010 reducing mandatory sentences. Panel member Martin Glenn of Just Leadership USA -- who was introduced by Capehart as having a…

Last night (at NewsBusters; at BizzyBlog), I noted that Donald Sterling, owner of the National Basketball Association's Los Angeles Clippers, was allegedly caught on tape chiding a person who is apparently his girlfriend for "taking pictures with minorities" and "associating with black people." He also tells her that she is a "delicate" "Latina or white girl," and because of that doesn't…

In stunning audio posted at TMZ, Los Angeles Clippers' owner Donald Sterling chides a person who is apparently his girlfriend for "taking pictures with minorities" and "associating with black people." Sterling sees her as a "delicate" "Latina or white girl," and as such doesn't understand why she should "associate with black people." He doesn't want her bringing black people to games, including…

On the Saturday, April 26, Disrupt show, MSNBC host Karen Finney divulged her counterintuitive view that a race-neutral policy on college admissions would constitute "trampling on the rights of the minority" as she fretted over what she called a "disturbing" Supreme Court ruling that allows states to ban the use of race as a factor in admissions. [See video below.]

A search at the Associated Press's national site on the last name of Illinois Governor Patrick Quinn and "Jews" at 7:30 this evening returned nothing. That's pretty amazing, considering that Quinn's campaign enthusiastically retweeted its support for an outrageous April 17 column by Neil Steinberg at the Chicago Sun-Times. For all practical purposes, Steinberg equated African-Americans who…

For the first time on their weekday evening newscasts, the broadcast networks picked up Cliven Bundy's standoff with the federal government – but only after Bundy's racist comments went viral and his conservative supporters denounced them. Amidst what NBC called a "firestorm," the networks made sure to tie Bundy to the conservatives and Republicans who sympathized with his cause, but were…

On Tuesday's Hardball, fill-in host Joy Reid compared the Supreme Court upholding Michigan's ban on affirmative action to upholding white supremacy. "If this court has a central narrative, it could be that those who have held the advantage for most of this country's history deserve to have it back if they can find the legislative or political means to take it back. If they do, the Court won'…

In his story (saved here for future reference, fair use and discussion purposes — and in case it gets edited later today; Update: It did) on the Supreme Court's decision this morning upholding Michigan voters' 2006 approval of a ban on race-, ethnic- and gender-based preferences in university admissions, USA Today's Richard Wolf failed to identify the size of the court majority, which was 6-2.…

Shut up, Joe Scarborough explained.  That was the Morning Joe host's advice today to people in Topeka, Kansas who are concerned that First Lady Michelle Obama's visit to the city's joint high school graduation ceremony will limit seating for family members and take the spotlight off the graduates themselves. The man who makes his living offering his opinions and expressing his concerns…

The Daily Beast’s Michael Tomasky has an unfortunate habit of making outlandish statements to attack the GOP. In his latest piece, the liberal columnist used recent comments made by Rep. Steve Israel (D-N.Y.) to argue that “You’re in denial to think Steve Israel is wrong about GOP racism.” As a refresher, Congressman Israel argued that “not all” GOP lawmakers are racist but “to a significant…

Democratic Congressman Steve Israel, Chairman of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, charged on Sunday that some of his GOP colleagues, as well as a "significant extent" of the GOP base, are racist, yet none of the broadcast networks picked it up on Monday evening. On Sunday's State of the Union, CNN host Candy Crowley played a clip of House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi accusing…