More on that Jesse Jackson Tape: Barack Obama "Telling N*ggers How to Behave"

But this went unreported, except by vaguest allusion.

Seems relevant to me.

This seems to dove-tail with the New Yorker Cartoon thing. The use of this word in regard to Barack Obama (even if not directed at him personally as a slur) brings up, vaguely, the issue of race. So the media embargoes it. Including Fox News, of course, which knows how badly it will be pilloried for being the lone media outlet to report on it.

It's unobjectionable that the media should avoid getting into irrelevant racial controversies as regards Obama. It's another thing entirely to suppress otherwise-newsworthy stories, just because they believe the public is stone-cold retarded and will suddenly realize Obama is black if they hear the n-word in a sentence about him.

This isn't a big story. But it does reflect poorly on Jackson, and generally, quotes that reflect poorly on prominent political figures have been considered news. Fox (and no one else) made hay of Robert Byrd's notorious "white niggers" comment. Why the double-standard here?

Thanks to CJ.

posted by Ace at 03:14 PM

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