Media Matters confronts Rupert Murdoch about Obama's supposed "very racist comment"
November 19, 2009 2:24 pm ET by Karl Frisch
Last week we learned that Rupert Murdoch, chairman of News Corp., the parent company of Fox News, agreed with Glenn Beck's assertion that the President was a "racist", because, in Murdoch's words, Obama made a "very racist comment." Of course, no one knows what "very racist comment" Murdoch was talking about.
Fox News was then forced to clean up the boss's mess issuing a statement saying that Murdoch "does not...think the president is a racist" regardless of what he may have otherwise said.
Statements and spin aside, we still don't know what "very racist comment" Murdoch was talking about. Perhaps if he was just asked directly, Murdoch would be able to clear up the confusion.
In an effort to do just that, Media Matters confronted Murdoch today on Capitol Hill for a little chat.
We are through the looking glass people. Murdoch isn't even spinning what he said about the president, now he's denying it outright. And to think we sometimes wonder where the folks at Fox News get their ethics from. Sigh.
I didn't think he would after all the innocent people he let Bill-O the Clown Harass.
It seems Mr. Murdoch can dish it out but he can't take it?
Way to go MMFA, keep the pressure on & make them all have a Fit.
Speak truth to power.
Mr. News
When Murdoch said, "But he did make a racist comment..." he wasn't talking about Obama. The "he" is actually Glen Beck.
Glad we can finally put this controversy to rest.
If I say that the KKK is racist, am I racist, or would I only be racist if I suggest that militant black organizations spouting conspiracies like "whites created AIDS to kill blacks" are racist?
Such mental jujitsu.
Personally I do not care one way or the other if Beck is indeed a "racist" or not. I think most of Beck's comments and views on "race" are very ignorant (along with most of his views on everything else) to put it mildly.
Don't be hatin' girlfriend!
People who say "can someone clear this up for me" don't want any help clearing anything up.
These people are often trolls who are trying to derail threads.
And I know that trolls hate having their trollish behavior pointed out. Too bad, so sad.
I DID discuss both what you brought up, but I also brought up the underlying issue in the way that you did it.
You aren't a victim here. You were trying, and in some ways succeeding, in making us YOUR victim, because you didn't really want anything cleared up, despite your request that we do so. And I know that trolls like you don't like having their demands for us to 'clear stuff up' for them called out for the dishonesty that hides under the surface, but again, too bad, so sad.
Hating non-whites is what makes Beck a racist.
"I can no more disown him than I can my white grandmother – a woman who helped raise me, a woman who sacrificed again and again for me, a woman who loves me as much as she loves anything in this world, but a woman who once confessed her fear of black men who passed by her on the street, and who on more than one occasion has uttered racial or ethnic stereotypes that made me cringe."
And his "explanation"...
"The point I was making was not that my grandmother harbors any racial animosity, but that she is a typical white person. If she sees somebody on the street that she doesn't know - there's a reaction in her that's been bred into our experiences that don't go away and sometimes come out in the wrong way and that's just the nature of race in our society."
Nothing racially divisive about that, right?
And even so, its hardly a secret - as has been shown by hundreds of empiracal studies - that the typical white person does indeed react differently to black people than to white people, all else equal. A dozen 20/20 and Dateline hidden camera shows, all sorts of studies of people's reactions to people's faces and naegative words across a screen, people's reactions to otherwise identical resumes and transcripts with pictures of different raced people attached, etc.
In fact there has never been a study on the topic that did NOT find that race plays a factor in people's snap judgments. Ever.
It works both ways.
We're talking about Rupert Murdoch here. We want to know what very racist comment the president made that led this elitist jackass owner of Fixed News to agree with Glenn Beck that the president is a racist.
Like most conservatives, he runs and hides under the kitchen table when the heat is on.
I posted two comments MADE BY OBAMA that can be considered racist, and if NOT racist, they are at LEAST racially divisive.
You win the false equivalence of the decade award.
Can you put your hatred of Murdoch aside for a second, and tell me whether or not Obama's statements are problematic?
Typical has more than one sense. It can be derrogatory, in some cases, but it can also be a neutral word (like Obama seems to have used it) - as in today was a typical fall day. That does not mean it was a terrible day. Sweet Jesus!
Perhaps it is the quote that Murdoch was referring to, but the point is we don't know because MURDOCH WON'T SAY.
If you are really an honest person, you know DAMN WELL that if a conservative let the words "typical black person" come out of his mouth, he would be called racist. Honestly.
But it certainly is a phrase that can be totally blown out of context if one is desperately looking for ammunition to call a person a "racist."
All I'm saying is that I can understand how some people could hear basically "my grandmother is a typical white person who gets scared when she sees blacks on the street," and have some reservations about the comment.
"He gave a great speech, so never mind that one ridiculous line in it."
Really?
Your argument gets weaker with each passing post.
You need to look at the context of what Obama was saying. He meant "typical" in the sense of "ordinary" or "regular". Conservatives are changing the context to make it seem cynical - which it was not.
Obama was talking about his grandmother - who he loved. Only someone who was being deliberately dishonest would take his comments the way conservatives have.
Personally, I am a typical white person in many ways and I was once afraid of black folks as I was raised in a white monoculture. So I can confirm Obama's statement.
YOU must be the ONLY African American in America that needs an explanation for what Obama said!
They weren't racist comments, first off.
And secondly, Murdoch is trying to claim that Obama could have said a racist thing but still not be a racist.
Because, don't you know, non-racist people say racist things all the time - NOT!
All's fair eh mmfa?
More than fair. There's something delicious about seeing a bully get a dose of his own.