Over the past few days, Sykes has been besides himself. First, he shows his hypocrisy by condemning former New York Governor Elliot Spitzer for his extramarital dalliance. As if Sykes would have the right to criticize anyone on that account.
Yesterday, on his show, he continued his diatribe against Senator Barack Obama. First he condemns Obama for not distancing himself from Reverend Jeremiah Wright, for what some on the right are trying to say is racist and anti-American speech. He seems to forget that the right have more than their fair share of crackpot religious leaders.
Then, when Obama did criticize the "hate speech", and removed the Reverend from his campaign committee. Sykes criticized him for throwing the Reverend "under the bus." Sykes is so vain that you know he's just has to have a mirror near him at all times, but does he ever really look at himself?
The local right wing media has more than their fair share of racism as well. Sykes' own brand of racism has been noted when he compared Jews to Nazis, and how he railed against people that asked him to remove his offensive post. Who can forget Belling's comment that got him suspended only after a hard long fight by community activists, as well as his racist smears against McGee and Lena Taylor? And there was McBride who was released from her radio show just after mocking the death of little girl, and after she made some offensive statements based on racial stereotyping after the death of a up-and-coming R & B star.
Given this repeated pattern of racist and hateful statements and attitudes of the local media, I demand and expect that Scott Walker, Michael Gableman and Bill Gleisner would condemn and distance themselves from these people immediately and their attitudes.
The amount of nuance and depth in Obama's speech seems to have caused several neocon noggins to implode. Condemning the words and sentiments without disowning the person? Unthinkable!
ReplyDeleteBut then, these are often the same folks who would rather disown their own children than deal with them being, say, homosexual. So I guess I shouldn't be too surprised. Still, it's pretty sad.
I am still confused about the whole "coexist" issue...
ReplyDeleteBut, I respect Obama more that he did NOT throw his pastor under the bus. What in the world is Sykes talking about? Is he making things up now?
Let's throw in while we're at it the crazy uncle in the attic John McAdams, who has been desperately trying to deny that there is racial disparity in incarceration.
ReplyDeleteThat's funny- krshorewood- where did McAdams say that? I think the right is doing what any political group would.... pulling out anything they can to try and disgrace the opposing candidate. Obama has given his feedback to the typical whites comment but it did not seem to clarify anything: "The point I was making was not that my grandmother harbors any racial animosity. But she is a typical white person. If she sees somebody on the street that she doesn't know. . .there's a reaction in her that doesn't go away and it comes out in the wrong way."
ReplyDeleteI would guess though that McCain has some pretty stereotypical feelings and thoughts about other racial/ethnic groups (particularly the Vietnamese) but maybe is not as vocal about it. I guess I appreciate that Obama is straight forward. Depsite all of the attempts to cut him down, he has just grown in popularity for is candor and different view.