Pounding The Podium

Dear Mr. Murdoch:

On July 28th, Glenn Beck said that President Obama has a “deep-seated hatred for white people or the white culture,” and went on to call him a “racist.” These statements were indefensible, angering and offending not only Black Americans, but Americans of every color. They led more than 285,000 people to call on sponsors to pull their support from Beck’s show. And more than 80 advertisers of conscience have done just that.

On Friday, November 6th, you endorsed Glenn Beck’s statements, saying “if you actually assess what he was talking about, he was right.” We would like you to explain yourself. Do you really think President Obama is a racist? What part of Beck’s statements do you agree with, and why?

It has been an open question as to whether or not News Corporation or FOX News would rein in Glenn Beck. It seems that we may now have our answer. Since his attack on the president, Beck’s pattern of race-baiting has continued unabated. Perhaps he feels so secure spouting this outrageous rhetoric, Mr. Murdoch, because you personally agree with his most inflammatory statements.

While Beck is the worst offender on the Fox News Channel, your network has a long, deep history of engaging in inflammatory racial rhetoric: attacking black leaders, black culture, and black institutions. And a number of your recent business decisions suggest that you’re consciously building a media empire — at Fox News and elsewhere — that attracts viewers by appealing to racial fear and paranoia.

A month ago, you put Don Imus back on television on the Fox Business Network. Days later, the New York Post fired a Latina editor, Sandra Guzman, apparently as retaliation for her public criticism of the Post’s notorious ‘chimp’ cartoon. And a few weeks ago, you personally fired Marc Lamont Hill — one of Fox News’ few black commentators — in response to a racially charged smear campaign led by a News Corp shareholder.

It’s becoming increasingly clear that Fox News and News Corp have a problem with race. It is also becoming clear that the problem starts at the top with you, Mr. Murdoch. Are we missing something, or do your words indeed speak for themselves?

James Rucker
Executive Director, ColorOfChange.org

Okay James, just out of curiosity, how is your criticism of Glenn Beck or Fox News any different from their criticism of President Obama?  How is Glenn Beck saying “I think President Obama is a racist” attacking President Obama?  It’s an OPINION, you don’t have to agree with it, you don’t have to boycott it, you don’t have to even listen to it.

If what Glenn Beck does is “race-baiting” what in God’s name is it that you do?  At least Beck {unlike yourself} has a website that you can contact him on.  Your’s or should I say Color of Change’s website has no place for contact information, just a place for donations.  You are hardly inviting debate there are you James?

Anyone who did not know better would think that this was your first attack on Fox News, but thats hardly the case is it?  In 2008 the Black Congressional Caucus was planning on having one of the Presidential debates on Fox, which immediately launchedyour organization Color of Change into action.  The organization gathered ‘articles’ from (seriously) Media Matters and News Hounds to show how Fox was a racists news organization – apparently Keith Olberman was too busy to be a material witness for you.

These are the “racist” incidents that you apparently found offenseive and worthy of having Fox boycotted:

• Commenting on Hannity & Colmes about the speakers at Coretta Scott King’s funeral, featured guest Mary Matalin said, “I think these civil rights leaders are nothing more than racists” who are keeping “their African-American brothers enslaved.”
• Jesse Lee Peterson, a regular guest who is Black said: “Kwanzaa is a racist, pagan, Marxist holiday” and then claimed that the “so-called seven principles of Kwanzaa are socialist, Marxist, separatist ideas… ^if a white man started a white holiday, seven-day white holiday, black folks would be burning down America.”
• Erik Rush, another Black guest, labeled Sen. Obama’s church as cultish and separatist for espousing values of black unity and black empowerment (Fox regularly selects Black guests it knows will undermine Black causes). Rush said he replaced the word “black” with “white” in the church’s mission statement and “Suddenly, I was looking at this really scary doctrine. You know, it was something that you’d see in more like a cult or an Aryan Brethren church… I would go beyond saying they’re Afrocentric. They’re African centric. They refer to themselves as an African people and that somewhat disturbs me from the viewpoint of well, do they consider themselves Americans? Do they consider themselves Christians?”
• On Hannity and Colmes, David Horowitz said: “The only lynch mob in America that is allowed to exist in America is a black lynch mob

Mary Matalin in criticising the speakers at Coretta Scott King’s funeral was actually responding to the anti-Bush rhetoric that was being espoused by some of the speakers “The achievement gap between the white and black students at a high, closing, narrowing. I mean, you know, I think these civil rights leaders are nothing more than racists. And they’re keeping constituency, they’re keeping their neighborhoods and their African-American brothers enslaved, if you will, by continuing to let them think that they’re — or forced to think that they’re victims, that the whole system is against them. Articulate it better, Sean; it’s so sad to me.

Matalin is far from the only one to have that opinion Mr. Rucker.  I am the farthest thing from a racist that you could ever want to meet, and I have often felt this way, and expressed this OPINION.  In fact if you read Ann Coulter’s book “Guilty” (unless of course Ann is a racist also) that predominent theme of the book is the politics of being a ‘victim’.

In regards to Erik Rush and his statements on “Sen. Obama’s church” are we talking about the Reverand Wright?  Do you think I could come up with more than four bullet points on controversial things that the Reverand Wright said?   So because Erik Rush expressed his concern about the church he is a Black guest that Fox’s knows will undermine Black causes? When did Jerimiah Wright’s church become a ’cause’ and not a ‘church’?

Jessie Lee Peterson is accused (much like Colin Powell and Condi Rice) of being ‘Uncle Tom’s” which again James as hateful a description as that is, it is an opinion unless there is some definative test that determines if someone is an Uncle Tom or not.

In any event these were the events that you utilized to convince the Black Congressional Caucas to forgo Fox News and get the debate switched to CNN (no bias there).  You even managed to get Gwen Ifill of PBS as mediator, Ms. Ifill who wrote that nice book “The Breakthrough:  Politics and Race in the Age of Obama”.  No bias there either I suppose.

It would seem to me Mr. Rucker that you basically equate ‘racism’ with not agreeing with you, and I am not sure that is a fair use of the term.  Glenn Beck did say that he thought that President Obama was a racist, just like many individuals called President Bush a racist about Katrina, a stance that your organization seems to support.  So should Color of Change be boycotted?   Rather than say that Beck continues to ‘race-bait’ how about some examples?  You had no problems with finding his initial quotations.

Additionally, it would seem that your initial ‘get rid of Beck’ movement was based in part upon Beck’s investigation of Van Jones the co-founder of your organization and the subsequent investigation of the Apollo Alliance, although I doubt the individuals who called on companies and demanded that they boycott the Glenn Beck show mentioned that.  In all of your articles accusing Glenn Beck and Fox News of a ’smear campaign’ against Van Jones, you never once mentioned the fact that Beck’s claims about Van Jones were 100% correct, as was subsequently borne out by various speeches given by Van Jones himself.  Beck accused him of being a ’self proclaimed communist’ which Van Jones Wikepdia page acknowledges.  In fact, you never contested anything that Beck said, you merely lumped it under the umbrella of smear campagn.

American has grown so tired of the race card being thrown by anyone, your organization included.  The fact that Color of Change despises people of color who dare to disagree with their radical beliefs does nothing to prove those radical beliefs are right it merely serves to paint you with the same racist brush that you paint others.  Disagreeing with you or President Obama is no different than disagreeing with President Bust or Pat Robertson, and Americans are famous for disagreeing.  Your “agree with us or else” act is growing old and tired.   Just yelling “RACIST” anymore is not working, and let’s hope that it never does again, because people could just as easily yell the same about you.