KCOL's James: If Clinton “panders in Selma,” will she “pander to the Chinese” and “Iranians?”

Written by Media Matters Staff

Published

Fox News Radio 600 KCOL's Scott James echoed a conservative talking point during the March 5 broadcast of his show when he suggested Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-NY) “pander[ed]” to an African-American audience. Further, he appeared to agree with a caller who suggested Clinton would do the same in dealing with Iran if she were president.

On the March 5 broadcast of Fox News Radio 600 KCOL's Ride Home with The James Gang, host and KCOL program director Scott James echoed a conservative talking point about Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton's (D-NY) March 4 speech commemorating the 1965 civil rights march in Selma, Alabama, when he asked a listener, "[I]f she panders in Selma, Alabama, if she is elected president, will she pander to the Chinese, to the Iranians?"

James apparently was referring to Clinton's speech addressing the congregation of the First Baptist Church in Selma in which she supposedly “pander[ed]” to the African-American audience by adopting, in the words of Fox News Live host E.D. Hill, a “Southern drawl.” As Media Matters for America noted, Matt Drudge's right-wing gossip website, The Drudge Report, posted a link to the clips of Clinton's speech with the headline "KENTUCKY FRIED HILLARY: NY SENATOR ADOPTS SOUTHERN DRAWL IN CHURCH SERVICE," prompting a slew of conservative attacks.

However, James failed to note that Clinton was directly quoting the vernacular of Rev. James Cleveland's hymn “I Don't Feel No Ways Tired” during her speech:

CLINTON: I don't feel no ways tired. I come too far from where I started from. Nobody told me that the road would be easy --

Additionally, James appeared to agree with a caller who seemingly affected an ethnic accent and claimed that if Clinton “was talking to the Iranians” she would vote against a war in Iran “so that they can relate to her.”

From the March 5 broadcast of Fox News Radio 600 KCOL's Ride Home with The James Gang:

JAMES: [Caller], let me ask you this question: If she -- if she panders in Selma, Alabama, if she's elected president, will she pander to the Chinese --

CALLER: Well --

JAMES: -- to the Iranians?

CALLER: -- I would -- I would think so. I would think that if she was talking to the Iranians she's gonna say, “Oh, [inaudible] mad at me. That what mad at me. That's why I voted, that's why I voted against the war in Vietnam -- in, in Iran.” So see? She -- you know, so that they can say, “Oh yeah, she's one of us,” and so that -- so that they can relate to her.

JAMES: Just bending to the audience, huh?

CALLER: That's right. Just like anybody who's smart would do.

JAMES: Fair enough.