PBS released a new America Reframed documentary of Monday about reparations and the taxpayer-funded network went all in with the bad faith smears, strawmen burning, and stereotyping of those who oppose such measures.
They even found Father Brian Paulson of the Jesuit Conference of Canada and the United States to claim that reparations are something “sacred.” Paulson was shown asking, “What are we up against as we undertake this sacred mission?”
A montage of reparations critics intermingled with reparations supporters to add what the critics really mean then began with Sen. Mitch McConnell claiming, “Yeah, I don't think reparations for something that happened 150 years ago for whom none of us currently living are responsible is a good idea.”
Sarah Eisner, a descendant of slave owners and currently of the Reparations Project, claimed it is actually, “Fear. ‘What are you going to take from me?’"
Sen. Tommy Tuberville was next, “They want to take over what you've got, they want to control what you have. Bull[bleep]. They are not owed that.” Against the backdrop of old Civil War photographs, the previous Paulson clip resumed, “Mistrust, all too often an unwillingness to face the truth of history.”
Conservative commentator Ben Shapiro was next and he was seen on Fox declaring that, “It is impossible to come up with a fair metric for recompensing slavery ten generations after slavery's end.” With more historical photographs, Paulson proceeded, “A lack of faith and a lack of imagination that deep healing of racial divisions and inequalities could ever happen in many places in America.”
PBS may think that is clever, but Shapiro just said that reparations would destroy racial healing and PBS wants to make it seem like he thinks racial dealing is impossible, but PBS’s dishonesty was just getting started.
Next on the opponents list was Deroy Murdock, a black man, also on Fox, “You want total acrimony and racial strife and tension like we've never seen before, you make white folks who had nothing to do with slavery give money to Black folks—” The white Paulson rebutted “They underestimate the value of the privilege of being white in the United States.”
Larry Parsons, who was identified simply as a “Michigan Republican,” echoed McConnell’s sentiments, “I just don't see how you could hold modern-day Americans responsible for atrocities 150 years ago.” Paulson continued, “How long, O Lord, how long must we live with these extreme racial disparities in these United States of America.”
Another Jesuit priest, Tim Kesicki, then tried to tie opponents to people who forget about the Holocaust, “In the United States, we've never formally reconciled with slave holding, nor do we choose to remember it. I've been to Germany. The one word they say is ‘Remember.’ Remember this happened.”
As Kesicki was speaking, PBS not-so-subtly implied critics are like Stalin as they showed the slave in the Bélizaire and the Frey Children painting getting airbrushed out a la Nikolai Yezhov.
On-screen text then reported that Germany will pay out more than $1.4 billion to Holocaust survivors and their heirs, but of course that is to survivors. Of course, it also leaves out what American reparations supporters are proposing. For example, just San Francisco was talking about $175 billion.
Additionally, the idea that Americans who oppose reparations just forgot about slavery is simply not true no matter how many priests PBS cites.
Finally, founding President of the National Black Farmers Association John Boyd Jr. stereotyped all critics and rural Americans as people who admire the Confederacy as he drove up to some Confederate flags, “Hot damn, welcome to rural America. Man, I'll tell you, when I talk about my history, it's offensive, nobody want to hear about slavery, but they want to hang them [bleep]damn flags up there”
After setting the straw man up the only thing left to do is set him on fire and that is exactly what PBS did.
Here is a transcript for the January 8 show:
PBS The Cost of Inheritance: An America Reframed Special
1/8/2024
10:44 PM ET
JOSEPH STEWART: My mom and dad both had third grade educations. That was because they had been deprived of the equal opportunity in a nation that promised them that. And we're still talking about those challenges. It's time we do something.
BRIAN PAULSON: What are we up against as we undertake this sacred mission?
MITCH MCCONNELL: Yeah, I don't think reparations for something that happened 150 years ago for whom none of us currently living are responsible is a good idea.
SARAH EISNER: Fear. "What are you going to take from me?"
TOMMY TUBERVILLE: They want to take over what you've got, they want to control what you have. Bull (bleep). They are not owed that.
PAULSON: Mistrust, all too often an unwillingness to face the truth of history.
BEN SHAPIRO: It is impossible to come up with a fair metric for recompensing slavery.
MARTHA MACCALLUM: Yeah.
SHAPIRO: Ten generations after slavery's end.
PAULSON: A lack of faith and a lack of imagination that deep healing of racial divisions and inequalities could ever happen in many places in America.
DEROY MURDOCK: You want total acrimony and racial strife and tension like we've never seen before, you make white folks who had nothing to do with slavery give money to Black folks—
ROLAND MARTIN: You keep saying slavery, but you can't ignore Jim Crow.
PAULSON: They underestimate the value of the privilege of being white in the United States.
LARRY PARSONS: I just don't see how you could hold modern-day Americans responsible for atrocities 150 years ago.
PAULSON: How long, O Lord, how long must we live with these extreme racial disparities in these United States of America?
TIM KESICKI: In the United States, we've never formally reconciled with slave holding, nor do we choose to remember it. I've been to Germany. The one word they say is "Remember." Remember this happened.
ON SCREEN TEXT: From 1945 to 2018, the German government paid almost $87 billion in compensation to Holocaust victims and their heirs. In 2024, the German government will pay more than $1.4 billion to Holocaust survivors.
PAULSON: If we really remember it, how can we not want to respond
JOHN BOYD JR.: Turn that camera around, look at that. Hot damn, welcome to rural America. Man, I'll tell you, when I talk about my history, it's offensive, nobody want to hear about slavery, but they want to hang them [bleep]damn flags up there.
