Right-wing financial analyst Porter Stansberry is the founder of an investment research firm that's promoted in the conservative media despite its history of defrauding investors. Stansberry also fashions himself as an astute commentator on social issues, complaining on a recent episode of his online radio program that it's “fucking bullshit” that people get upset at him for using slurs like “nigger” and “fag” when he's “not the least bit bigoted.”
As Media Matters previously reported, Stansberry & Associates has been fined $1.5 million for engaging in “deliberate fraud” and profiting from “false statements.” Stansberry's business model preys on right-wing audiences by invoking fears of President Barack Obama assuming a third term, and claiming the government will collapse and institute martial law.
Despite the firm's ludicrous claims and shoddy history, Stansberry is ubiquitous at the murky intersection of the right-wing media and financial punditry. Numerous conservative outlets and personalities such as Newt Gingrich, Mike Huckabee, Newsmax.com, Townhall.com, and The Washington Times have sent sponsored emails from Stansberry & Associates to their mailing lists. Fox Business also recently hosted an analyst for Stansberry & Associates and promoted the firm, while Glenn Beck and Alex Jones have hosted Porter Stansberry -- who is a sponsor -- and portrayed him as a financial guru. Dick Morris, the conservative huckster exiled from Fox News, has done paid video reads for the firm and its “important information that I think could really affect your future.”
In addition to using the conservative media to promote his apocalyptic anti-Obama financial messages, Stansberry writes a column for WND, and hosts his own online radio program. On a recent edition of the program's “premium” “black label show,” which was brought to Media Matters' attention by an unhappy Stansberry subscriber, Stansberry discussed race, sexual orientation, and slurs in society.
Stansberry began the April 30 discussion by saying some people have a problem with him using the anti-gay slur “fag” and “that's so ridiculous because I'm friends with lots of gay people and they have no problem with the word 'fag.' But it's probably like if you're a black person, then you're allowed to say the word 'nigger.' But if you're not a black person [you can't] ... that is a bunch of fucking bullshit.”
Stansberry explained that “you can totally tell when someone is using the word 'fag,' in terms of hate, and you can totally tell when someone is using the word 'nigger,' in terms of joy or friendship.”
As an example, Stansberry said he grew up with an “Asian kid” whose “nickname was nigger,” and “everyone called him nigger ... It was hysterical ... I still call him nigger to this day.” From the April 30 broadcast of Stansberry's radio show:
STANSBERRY: So let's get onto something a lot more interesting, which is the weird world of homosexual pro athletes. Now, listen. We got so much heat from my fellow colleagues --
AARON BRABHAM (CO-HOST): We got zero heat from our subscribers. But lots from people who work in the building.
STANSBERRY: Subscribers have no problem with -- if I say the word “fag” is that absolutely a no-no?
BRABHAM: Yeah, it's a no-no. We can't say that.
STANSBERRY: But that's so ridiculous because I'm friends with lots of gay people.
BRABHAM: I am too.
STANSBERRY: And they have no problem with the word “fag.” But it's probably like if you're a black person, then you're allowed to say the word “nigger.” But if you're not a black person -
BRABHAM: You can't say it.
STANSBERRY: You're not.
BRABHAM: But it's hypocritical, but you can't.
STANSBERRY: I would like to go on the record as saying that is a bunch of fucking bullshit.
BRABHAM: Mmhmm.
STANSBERRY: OK? It's ridiculous.
BRABHAM: Agree.
STANSBERRY: You can totally tell when someone is using the word “fag” in terms of hate, and you can totally tell when someone is using the word “nigger” in terms of joy or friendship. For example, a guy we grew up with -- I don't want to use his name on the radio -- his nickname was nigger.
BRABHAM: Oh, I know exactly who he is.
STANSBERRY: And everyone called him nigger.
BRABHAM: Yeah, it was weird how - I don't even know how he got his nickname, but everybody called him that.
STANSBERRY: Well, he was an Asian kid.
BRABHAM: Yeah, I know. That's what made it weird.
STANSBERRY: It was hysterical. And, by the way --
BRABHAM: That's funny. I didn't even know you knew him. That's funny 'cause it was a big high school.
STANSBERRY: He's a big trader now.
BRABHAM: I think he's a big trader in Houston.
STANSBERRY: Yeah, big dog.
BRABHAM: Probably should look him up while we're down there.
STANSBERRY: While we're there, we should invite him to dinner.
BRABHAM: We should invite him out to dinner 'cause he'd be a great guy. He's a great guy.
STANSBERRY: And I still call him nigger to this day.
BRABHAM: Right, I don't know - I forgot his real name.
STANSBERRY: There's no way I'm saying that because I don't like black people or because I'm a racist and I think that the white race is superior. I mean it's all nonsense. Language has all kinds of iterations and all kinds of subtleties. And a lot of it is done for humor, right? And guess what? I am not the same as a fat lesbian woman.
BRABHAM: No.
STANSBERRY: And the differences between us are funny.
Stansberry later insisted he's “not the least bit bigoted” and that's “what allows me to be so comfortable about talking about the differences” between people:
STANSBERRY: I'm telling you the truth. I do not see how -- and as Aaron knows, and as all of you should know, I'm not the least bit bigoted. We employ people of all shapes, sizes, denominations, creeds, sexual orientations. I don't care at all what color you are. I don't care what you do in your bedroom. It makes no difference to me. And I think that it makes no difference to me is what allows me to be so comfortable about talking about the differences.
Stansberry's co-host, Aaron Brabham, related that people “pound on me all the time for stereotypes” since he's a “short redhead,” but “I stereotype everybody. It's the best - stereotypes are fun to me.”
Stansberry later said that when he was growing up in the 1970s and 1980s, people were very tolerant of races and sexual orientation so “I can't figure out, amongst my own employees and amongst the broader society, in general, what is the obsession with color, with creed and with sexual orientation?” Stansberry concluded it was because Democrats are “enslaving” minorities and then giving them “a handout”:
STANSBERRY: So, anyway, I can't figure out, amongst my own employees and amongst the broader society, in general, what is the obsession with color, with creed and with sexual orientation?
BRABHAM: I would personally like to blame the liberal Democrats because these are the people that beat the drum the hardest and suppress all of these minorities over and over and over, because that is a story -
STANSBERRY: They're enslaving them.
BRABHAM: -- that they want to tell. It's their story.
STANSBERRY: Yeah. You can't succeed in life. Let me give you a handout.
BRABHAM: That's exactly right.
STANSBERRY: And, by the way, vote for me.
Stansberry also complained that people get offended when he asks, “What's up with the black people in Baltimore?” even though “every frickin guy that breaks into your car or asks you for money or is obviously drunk and in the corner is a black guy.”
STANSBERRY: So, Aaron and I, this is the way we grew up. And so we can't understand all the affirmative action nonsense. We can't understand all the welfare, all the handouts. We can't understand why, when we live in the Baltimore City, and every frickin guy that breaks into your car or asks you for money or is obviously drunk and in the corner is a black guy. We can't understand why people get so offended when we say, “What's up with the black people in Baltimore?” What's up with the black guards at the prison, who are all having sex with the black inmates?
BRABHAM: The Black Guerillas.
STANSBERRY: The Black Guerilla gang.
BRABHAM: The head of the Black Guerillas, which is a serious gang in Baltimore, a serious gang.
STANSBERRY: And so we say - we ask the obvious question. “What's up with the black people in Baltimore?” Does that make us racist? No, it just means that we're capable of looking and seeing what's going on in our community, and saying, “Why is this?”
Stansberry wrapped up the discussion by saying, “I guess the message of this Black Label show is peace and tolerance. And how about, you know, having some consistency in the things that you purport to believe in, just as a favor to me.”
Listen to Stansberry's discussion on race here: