Appearing on the “All-Star Panel” on the April 10 edition of Fox News' Special Report with Brit Hume, Weekly Standard executive editor Fred Barnes said that the Rutgers University women's basketball team “acted like victims” during their April 10 press conference responding to radio host Don Imus' statement that members of the team were “nappy-headed hos.” After telling Barnes, “That sounds correct,” Roll Call executive editor Morton M. Kondracke added, "[T]hey do live in a culture where a 'ho' is a commonly tossed-around term ... [b]y the rap music industry, by black men, largely."

After saying that “this is really a wonderful basketball team” and that Imus' comment, “as bad as it was, it can't ... take away their achievement,” Barnes added, “I think they make one huge mistake, and that is going to meet with Don Imus. They don't need to meet with him. They ought to flick him off like a mosquito and move on and be proud, instead of acting as they did today. They acted like victims. They're winners. They should act like winners.”

Responding to Barnes, Kondracke said, “That sounds correct. On the other hand, they live in a -- they do live in a culture where a 'ho' is a commonly tossed-around term. ... By whom? By the rap music industry, by black men, largely.” Kondracke's statement echoed Imus' own non-defense of his comments that the phrase “nappy-headed hos” “originated in the black community” and that “I may be a white man, but I know that ... young black women all through that society are demeaned and disparaged and disrespected ... by their own black men and that they are called that name.”

Later, Kondracke acknowledged that Imus' comments about the Rutgers team were “racist” but added, “I don't know that he has a record of a being a racist.” Host Brit Hume responded, “I've seen efforts to try to construct a racist background, and it's a little skimpy.” Media Matters for America has documented (here and here) the lengthy history of racially charged comments on Imus in the Morning.

From the April 10 edition of Fox News' Special Report with Brit Hume:

BARNES: The Rutgers basketball team -- and I watched them at their press conference and their coach and whoever that guy was, who was acting as the emcee. Who was that? The college president or something? But anyway, whoever it was, I watched them and, you know, I thought, “This is really a wonderful basketball team.” They have every right to be proud of what they did.

You know, they beat Duke. I think Duke was unbeaten. Everybody expected it was going to win the women's national championship and they went on -- Rutgers went on to win the Final Four. I mean, they have every right to be proud of their great achievement, and then, yet, their coach said they were physically, mentally, and emotionally spent by what Don Imus said. My reaction was, “For Heaven's sakes, why?” You know, these -- it's not as if the president of the United States or some House speaker made these remark -- this remark about them.

HUME: Or another coach or players on another team, or the head of the NCAAs.

BARNES: He's a shock jock. This guy is a shock jock. I mean, he does this for a living. He's made racist remarks before. One of the players said she was scarred for life. By something that Don Imus said?

Look, I don't care what he said. As bad as it was, it can't, you know, take away their achievement. It doesn't taint their team at all. And I think they make one huge mistake, and that is going to meet with Don Imus. They don't need to meet with him. They ought to flick him off like a mosquito and move on and be proud, instead of acting as they did today. They acted like victims. They're winners. They should act like winners.

KONDRACKE: That sounds correct. On the other hand, they live in a -- they do live in a culture where a “ho” is a commonly tossed-around term.

HUME and KONDRACKE (in unison): By whom?

KONDRACKE: By whom? By the rap music industry, by black men, largely. Now, if Al Sharpton really wants to change things in this culture, what he should really do is go after the recording industry and go after [cable channel] BET, which plays a lot of those videos, as I gather it, you know, instead of just concentrating on Don Imus.

[...]

KONDRACKE: Look, he's on probation, and he should be on probation with everybody. If he continues this potty-mouthed, insulting, you know, semi-racist stuff in the future, then people should get off.

LIASSON: No, not semi-racist, it was racist.

KONDRACKE: Well, this was racist, but he -- I don't know that he has a record of a being a racist.

HUME: I don't -- his record -- I've seen efforts to try to construct a racist background, and it's a little skimpy.

LIASSON: Although, Gwen Ifill, I think. That was pretty racist. That was pretty bad.

HUME: The Gwen Ifill thing was pretty bad. He said of Gwen Ifill, our colleague Gwen Ifill, that when she was with The New York Times was covering the White House, that "The New York Times, what a great newspaper, it has the cleaning lady covering the White House."

LIASSON: I mean, that's awful. That's just simply awful.

HUME: That's on a par with this, I suppose.

LIASSON: Yeah.

As Media Matters for America has noted, Imus now disputes that account of his alleged comments about Ifill. However, a May 26, 2000, Washington Post article reported that “sometime around 1995, when the New York Times hired black journalist Gwen Ifill to cover the White House, Imus reportedly said: 'Isn't the Times wonderful? It lets the cleaning lady cover the White House.' ” The article stated that Imus “doesn't deny the Ifill comment, but says he can't find a record of it,” and added, “Whether he said it or not, Imus apologized to Ifill on the air after he was criticized.”