Racism

The establishment media has treated the story of despicably racist basketball owner Donald Sterling as if it is a world crisis, but it has given full credibility, with no context at all, to one of Sterling’s chief detractors, NBA Players Association adviser and Sacramento Mayor Kevin Johnson – even though Johnson himself has a terribly tawdry past involving both financial and sexual…

Donald Sterling, the beleaguered owner of the Los Angeles Clippers, has been banned from the NBA for life. But for some in the media, the league's disciplinary action is something that should be pursued against socially conservative owners by virtue of their political beliefs. [Video below. MP3 audio here.] Take Esquire political blogger Charlie Pierce, for example. Appearing as a guest on…

Did you know that many conservative commentators are also consummate ventriloquists? Or so Ed Schultz seems to believe. Schultz, who loves going out on a limb that invariably collapses under the weight of his hypocrisy, is blaming "right-wing talkers" such as Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity, his two favorite targets in the genre, for racist remarks made by LA Clippers' owner Donald Sterling…

James Taranto of the Wall Street Journal ably summarized the "hindsight and hypocrisy" of the New York Times editorial page. "Perhaps the most disturbing aspect of the Donald Sterling scandal is that virtually no one in the sports world was surprised to hear that Mr. Sterling, the owner of the Los Angeles Clippers, may have been caught on tape spewing racist sentiments," the Times proclaimed…

On NPR’s race-matters talk show “Tell Me More” on Monday, host Michel Martin discussed the Donald Sterling scandal with New York Times sports columnist William Rhoden, announcing he had written the book "Forty Million Dollar Slave: The Rise, Fall, And Redemption Of The Black Athlete." Rhoden used the Sterling scandal to thump a tub for racial quotas in journalism. He claimed that every time…

MSNBC guest Dorian Warren thinks that racism is behind the GOP's opposition to Medicaid expansion, affirmative action, and a minimum wage hike. Warren is a professor of political science and public affairs at Columbia University. "There's a distinction we should make between racist words and speech, and racist practices and policies. We should be focused on the policies and the racial impact…

Appearing as a guest on Tuesday's All In on MSNBC to discuss the controversy over Donald Sterling's racist comments, HBO comedian Bill Maher managed to make a crack about Rush Limbaugh. He answered a question from host Chris Hayes about whether there would be an increase in the number of people defending Sterling in the aftermath of his punishment. Maher said Limbaugh will "find a way to say…

As the political firestorm surrounding Nevada rancher Cliven Bundy’s racist remarks have been replaced by the racist remarks of Los Angeles Clippers owner Donald Sterling, The Washington Post felt it appropriate to ask if conservative principles are inherently racist. In an online piece in The Washington Post’s “Politics” section written on April 29, reporter Wesley Lowery ponders “Does small…

Leave it to MSNBC’s Chris Matthews to use the controversy surrounding Los Angeles Clippers owner Donald Sterling as the perfect opportunity to attack prominent Republicans.  Appearing on his nightly Hardball program on Monday, April 28, Matthews claimed that Sterling’s racist comments was the “worst such case of verbal self-destruction since Mitt Romney`s 47 percent debacle.” [See video below…

Demonstrating once again that Israel remains a favorite whipping boy of the liberal media, there was John Heilemann of New York magazine on today's Morning Joe defending John Kerry's grotesque claim that Israel risked becoming an "apartheid state." According to Heilemann, Kerry's ugly accusation was "not actually an unreasonable statement."  To his credit, Joe Scarborough promptly riposted,…

On the Monday, April 28, The Ed Show, MSNBC host Ed Schultz devoted the first segment of nearly 15 minutes of his show to trying to link prominent conservatives like Paul Ryan to the racist views of people like Cliven Bundy and Donald Sterling, whom the MSNBC host failed to label as a Democratic donor.  Schultz charged that Ryan and other GOPers "support policies that attack minorities" and…

Amidst the controversy surrounding Los Angeles Clippers owner Donald Sterling’s racist remarks, MSNBC’s Toure used the opportunity to conflate these comments with NBA owners who support conservative causes. Appearing on The Cycle on Monday, April 28, Toure argued that “Some of them are not the most savory folks. Some of them are bank rolling anti-gay marriage initiatives. Some of them got…

Politico's David Nather must have thought he was so clever. Here's how he opened a recent column: "It can happen to anyone, right? You rally behind a guy ... and suddenly he’s spewing racist bile and boy, does it splash on your face." Yes, I left out a few words, and I'll get to that. But before providing them, the quote just rendered would apply to how those at Los Angeles branch of the NAACP…

On the Sunday, April 27, Melissa Harris-Perry show, during a discussion of new laws restricting abortion in Mississippi and Texas, guest Chloe Angyal of Feministing.com ridiculously saw "white supremacy" in Republican state legislators who had worked to reduce abortion, and asserted that these GOPers should be "ashamed of themselves." Marcus Mabry of The New York Times stated the legal…