Racial Preferences

In the wake of the “big three” networks (ABC, CBS, NBC) devoting 25 minutes to the indictment of Governor Rick Perry (R-TX) in the story’s first two days, ABC’s World News with Diane Sawyer continued the network obsession with the potential 2016 presidential candidate.  On Monday, August 18, anchor Diane Sawyer introduced a report on Perry by proclaiming “back here at home to Texas and a kind…

Appearing on the Steve Malzberg Show on Newsmax TV, Reverend Jesse Jackson maintained that regardless of the events prior to Michael Brown’s death, there was no instance in which the Ferguson police officer should have shot the unarmed teen. During the contentious interview on Monday, August 18, Malzberg highlighted details in which Michael Brown allegedly attacked officer Darren Wilson,…

Following the death of Michael Brown and the ensuing protests in Ferguson, Missouri, one topic of conversation that has drawn a lot of attention is whether or not Al Sharpton can serve as both an activist and be the host of a daily MSNBC program. Appearing on CNN’s Reliable Sources, Marc Lamont Hill, CNN contributor and HuffPost Live host, defended Sharpton’s dual roles and argued that “Al…

In the wake of Ferguson, Missouri teen Michael Brown’s shooting death following a confrontation with local police, two reporters, one with the Washington Post and another with the Huffington Post, were arrested by officials for failing to follow police orders as the town continues to deal with ongoing violence and looting. Following the arrest of Wesley Lowery, an African American reporter…

On the August 11 edition of CNN Newsroom, Brooke Baldwin invited fellow CNN host Don Lemon and former NYPD detective Gil Alba on the show to discuss the latest reports of unrest in Ferguson, Mo., following the shooting of an unarmed African-American teen. While the policeman bluntly stated that “there should never be rioting,” Lemon seemed to excuse the behavior, arguing that “when people are…

Earlier this month, the 50th anniversary of the Civil Rights Act was celebrated. During the act's legislative debate, then-Sen. Hubert Humphrey, responding to predictions, promised, "I'll eat my hat if this leads to racial quotas." I don't know whether Humphrey got around to keeping his promise, but here's my question: Is it within the capacity of black Americans to make it in this society…

The Washington Post might lament the rise of extremism in politics, of bitterness and incivility, that our politics are “broken.” If they really meant that, then why promote Ta-Nehisi Coates? There he is, on the front of Thursday’s Style section, being honored for a huge article in The Atlantic magazine demanding black Americans get reparations from white Americans for ancient sins that…

June 13 marks twenty years since O.J., Simpson’s ex wife and boyfriend were found murdered outside their condo in California, and MSNBC’s Joy-Ann Reid chose to use her June 12 The Reid Report  program to discuss the O.J. Simpson and how in Joy-Ann Reid’s words “race played into that trial.”  Lisa Bloom, legal analyst for NBC News and daughter of feminist lawyer Gloria Allred, appeared with…

On the May 30 edition of ABC’s What Would You Do?, per usual, John Quiñones set out to expose Americans as racist and homophobic. The veteran reporter began by traveling to Memphis, Tennessee, a town with a “painful, lasting scar” due to its connection to Martin Luther King Junior’s April 1968 assassination. After setting up a scenario in a hair salon in which a white hair stylist expressed…

When you've saved countless lives with painstaking precision in long, intense hours of neurosurgery, being outnumbered three-to-one in a political discussion on cable TV is a piece of cake. Dr. Ben Carson appeared live in studio on the May 22 edition of MSNBC's All In with Chris Hayes with the program's host and liberal think-tank president Heather McGhee. Newly-minted MSNBC host José Díaz-…

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…

On the Saturday, April 26, Disrupt show, MSNBC host Karen Finney divulged her counterintuitive view that a race-neutral policy on college admissions would constitute "trampling on the rights of the minority" as she fretted over what she called a "disturbing" Supreme Court ruling that allows states to ban the use of race as a factor in admissions. [See video below.]

The journalists at CBS This Morning, Wednesday, highlighted the "impassioned dissent" of liberal Supreme Court justice Sonia Sotomayor on affirmative action. All three networks covered the 6-2 ruling upholding a state's right to ban race as a factor in public universities. But it was CBS's Jan Crawford who focused on the liberal anger, noting that Sotomayor "took the unusual step of reading […

After an incensed Al Sharpton led his PoliticsNation show on Tuesday portraying the day's Supreme Court ruling on affirmative action as a "devastating blow" and a "dangerous precedent," both of his liberal guests made a point of disagreeing with his over the top language. The MSNBC host began the show: