ABC Gives Sharpton Platform to Opine on Imus; No Mention of Rev's Racial Controversies

NewsBusters ^ | Mark Finkelstein

[governsleastgovernsbest]

If George Allen turned up on Good Morning America to protest an incident of alleged anti-white bigotry, what are the odds the GMA host wouldn't mention Allen's macaca moment? I'd say they'd be a Dylanesqe "Love Minus Zero."

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.

Contact Mark at mark@gunhill.net

[advertising guy]

just for the record, I have more respect for the brown stuff on toilet paper than anything Marvin Kalb says or does..........a true socialist/marxist is he

[Polyxene]

Yes, but you see, that’s different, because, uh, because . . .

Selective forgetting. Anyone remember TAWANA BRAWLEY??

[advertising guy]

but the point is ,besides ABC throwin’ Imus under the bus,they would hire him in a NY second

[justiceseeker93]

This little media circus resulting from the Imus-Sharpton affair is exactly what both Imus and Sharpton want. To them, any publicity, no matter how inane, is good for business.

[Jrabbit]

yep....this has been the Fox talking point all day....can’t judge a person by just one, eensy, weensy, tiny, itty-bitty “mistake”....oh! And it has been deemed by Fox that Imus’ apology was “sincere”....how nice.

[VOYAGER]

Imus is a rearend Sharpton is a rearend Jesse "knock um up" Jackson is a rearend so why should anything but the smell of sewer gas come from their pie holes.

America get a life and quit acting so insulted when these rearends rear up and let their filth flow freely into your "sanctimoniousness"!

Get over it!

[capt. norm]

This is all Al has going for him right now.

Barak Hussein Obama wouldn't play ball with him....he's gotta get some attention right now and he has found his new "cause".

He will find a way of lining his pockets from this. If not, the publicity value is still an asset.

[Sam Ketcham]

He's a flippin' rocket Scientist

[CaliGirlGodHelpMe]

Well, not THIS Freeper.

[Txsleuth]

LOL..I knew there were some sane Freepers left.

[onyx]

so basically if you give enough money .. you get a pass and can say anything you want and get away with it?

Absolutely, Mo, unless you're a Republican.

[sappy]

just imagine a world in which al “not so” sharpton would have to have an actual skill and make himself employable.

[katieanna]

Imus should have been fired by MSNBC long ago. He is neither smart nor funny and it galls me to no end that he name-calls the way he does seeing as he’s a recovering drug addict. Really-what credentials does this guy have to be on radio?

[ozzymandus]

A pompous drunken old bum grovelling to a pompous riot-inciting criminal, and both of them getting paid for it. Good ol’ USA!

[katieanna]

“have to have an actual skill and make himself employable.”

I’ve said that of Imus for years. I see no skill at all.

[katieanna]

OK. I need y’all to explain this one for me. I’m not getting the humor here. And why is NASA spelled with 2 S’s. Unless I’m missing something, this is not funny.

[Gator113]

Many are both.