Cameron distortion: Sotomayor claimed "that her sex and her ethnicity makes her somehow wiser than others"
July 13, 2009 2:20 pm ET
From the July 13 edition on Fox News' Happening Now:
Expand All
Expand 1st Level
Collapse All
Palin's book and Obama's bow: a media week to forget
Media Matters: The Palin chronicles
The Friday Rush: A series of conflicts
I don't agree that with the characterization of Sotomayor by the Republicans. If you read the entire speech you would feel silly saying that she believed she was wiser than a white man... her speech is elegant, and complex and nuanced... but the right only takes the polarizing clip that they keep repeating.
But anyhow, my point was that Cameron never said what the headline of this piece claims he did... at least not in the clip that is posted hear.
"Here's a little bit of Lindsay Graham taking issue with Sonja Sotomayor's assertion that her sex and her ethnicity somehow makes her wiser than others. "
Now those are Carl's words, he doesn't seem to be characterizing Graham's words but saying Sotomayor asserted that she was "wiser" than others, which is untrue. If he was talking about Graham or paraphrasing Lindsay, it wasn't clear to me.
What Cameron said was far less egregious then most Fox reporters who make things up and attribute fictional sources to make a point.
I guess I attributed Cameron's comments to Graham because Graham did essential say the same thing. Anyhow, if the right is going to use that speech as their basis for racism... someone should use quote other parts of that same speech and see what they say about racism in this country....
In 1992 when I joined the bench, there were still two out of 13 circuit courts and about 53 out of 92 district courts in which no women sat. At the beginning of September of 2001, there are women sitting in all 13 circuit courts. The First, Fifth, Eighth and Federal Circuits each have only one female judge, however, out of a combined total number of 48 judges. There are still nearly 37 district courts with no women judges at all. For women of color the statistics are more sobering. As of September 20, 1998, of the then 195 circuit court judges only two were African-American women and two Hispanic women. Of the 641 district court judges only twelve were African-American women and eleven Hispanic women. African-American women comprise only 1.56% of the federal judiciary and Hispanic-American women comprise only 1%. No African-American, male or female, sits today on the Fourth or Federal circuits. And no Hispanics, male or female, sit on the Fourth, Sixth, Seventh, Eighth, District of Columbia or Federal Circuits.
Sort of shocking, isn't it? This is the year 2002. We have a long way to go. Unfortunately, there are some very deep storm warnings we must keep in mind. In at least the last five years the majority of nominated judges the Senate delayed more than one year before confirming or never confirming were women or minorities. I need not remind this audience that Judge Paez of your home Circuit, the Ninth Circuit, has had the dubious distinction of having had his confirmation delayed the longest in Senate history. These figures demonstrate that there is a real and continuing need for Latino and Latina organizations and community groups throughout the country to exist and to continue their efforts of promoting women and men of all colors in their pursuit for equality in the judicial system.
Well, Cam, wiser than YOU, maybe {not that that's especially difficult} . . .