During the September 21 broadcast of his nationally syndicated Fox News Radio show, while discussing recent events surrounding the so-called Jena Six with the show's executive producer, known on air as “Angry Rich,” John Gibson asserted that the demonstrators who gathered last week in Jena, Louisiana, only “wanna fight the white devil.” Gibson aired news coverage of the Jena 6 protests and challenged protestors' claims that the incidents in Jena are representative of ongoing racism in this country. He said: "[W]hat they're worried about is a mirage of 1950s-style American segregation, racism from the South. They wanna fight the white devil. ... [T]here's no -- can't go fight the black devil. Black devils stalking their streets every night gunning down their own people -- can't go fight that. That would be snitchin'."
From the September 21 edition of Fox News Radio's The John Gibson Show, which included an audio clip of a news report of the Jena 6 demonstrations by Tim Tooten, an education reporter at Baltimore station WBAL-TV:
GIBSON: But I have been trying to point out the last couple of days that people have been loaded on buses to go to Jena to protest the racial injustice there -- you know -- and be told that slavery still exists and that segregation still exists across the country; that there are -- being told there are schools where principals allow white students to segregate themselves from black and won't let the black students sit under their tree. Tell -- they tell them that. I bet they can't find one other example of it. But they're being loaded on buses from cities where black people are being killed every day, at an astonishing rate, by black people, and no one's saying a word.
[begin video clip]
TOOTEN: Protestors wore black to symbolize their support for six high school students they say were targets of racism. And some in the crowd hope the outcry over Jena Six is a starting point for a new generation to help raise the banner for justice.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Young people are picking up. We're getting sensitive; we're moving on. It's a wonderful time.
CROWD: What do we want? Justice! When do we want it? Now! What do we want? Justice!
TOOTEN: There was a similar protest across town at Morgan State University.
CROWD: (singing) Free the Jena Six.
GIBSON: What is it -- Jeena or Jena?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It's not an isolated incident. Things like this happen all over the United States --
GIBSON: Where?!
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: -- whether they go reported or unreported --
GIBSON: Where?!
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: -- or publicized or not.
GIBSON: Where do they go?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: So, it's our job to make everyone accountable for what's going on.
GIBSON: Where?!
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE #2: Racism is not confined just in Louisiana, and we have to confront it everywhere, but racists feel --
GIBSON: Where?!
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE #2: -- ashamed at being racist. That's not acceptable here.
GIBSON: Where?! Where is this going on? I'll tell you where it's going --
TOOTEN: As Morgan students hold their protest --
GIBSON: Why didn't that rep --
TOOTEN: -- they also pledged to help Jena 6 families pay their legal bills.
[end audio clip]
GIBSON: Why didn't that reporter challenge that? Why did he just let them say that?
ANGRY RICH: Political correctness.
GIBSON: He's from Baltimore. What's the murder number in Baltimore right now? Just up the road.
ANGRY RICH: It's hard to tell, because there are two or three more every night. I think it's hovering around 160.
GIBSON: And they're all young black men -- right?
ANGRY RICH: For the most part.
GIBSON: Who are being killed by young black men.
ANRGY RICH: That's right.
GIBSON: So, this is -- what they're worried about is a mirage of 1950s-style American segregation, racism from the South. They wanna fight the white devil. I -- you know, there's no -- you can't go fight the black devil. Black devils stalking their streets every night gunning down their own people -- can't go fight that. That would be snitchin'.
ANGRY RICH: New benchmark in Philly last night.
GIBSON: Philly hit 300.
Anne Smith is an intern at Media Matters for America.