Conservative media use New Black Panthers case as excuse for race-baiting

More on the “New Black Panther” screed from Fox News and the right wing media machine… 

Media Matters - Right-wing media have seized on an opportunity for race-baiting with the manufactured scandal surrounding J. Christian Adams’  accusations that President Obama’s Department of Justice engaged in racially charged “corruption” in the New Black Panther Party case. 

Adams: DOJ decision not to pursue charges in New Black Panther case demonstrates unprecedented, racially charged corruption. Adams, a GOP activist, penned a Washington Times op-ed leveling accusations of a “corrupt” and racially charged dismissal of the New Black Panther Party case and appeared in a two-part interview with Fox News’ Megyn Kelly. During the interview, Adams accused the Justice Department of “a hostility in the voting section and in the civil rights division to bringing cases on behalf of white victims for the benefit of national racial minorities.” Adams further said that “the decision to dismiss this case was corrupt,” adding, “to abandon law-abiding citizens and abet wrongdoers constitutes corruption.” In a Pajamas Media post, Adams wrote: 

 If we had that frank, truthful discussion about race, we’d learn that the Obama administration doesn’t believe some civil rights laws protect every American. The Bush Civil Rights Division was willing to protect all Americans from racial discrimination; during the Obama years, the Holder years, only some Americans will be protected. Americans have a right to know and judge the racial policies of the administration they elected in 2008. 

Right-wing media jump on race-baiting opportunity

Beck accuses Obama of aligning himself with “community organizers” like the Black Panther Party. On the July 7 edition of his radio program, Glenn Beck played an audio clip of one of the New Black Panthers who stood outside the Philadelphia polling place. In the audio, which was from a 2008 National Geographic documentary on the New Black Panthers that was completed before the 2008 election day, the New Black Panther said, “I hate white people. All of them. Every last iota of a cracker, I hate it. … You want freedom, you’re going to have to kill some crackers. You’re going to have to kill some of their babies.” Beck likened the New Black Panthers’ rhetoric to “the kind of stuff” Van Jones “was holding up” with the group STORM, stating: “These are the kinds of people that our president aligns himself with. He already has Van Jones and STORM. How many people do you have to have that are community organizers? Because, really, that’s all that the Black Panthers are: community organizers.”Beck: “This administration is full of … people that will excuse” the “hatred” of the New Black Panthers. On the same edition of his radio show, Beck stated: “What everyone is leaving out is that this administration is full of radicals, full of revolutionaries, full of people that will excuse this kind of hatred.” He then played the audio clip from the National Geographic documentary and stated, “That is incredible. And talk radio is deemed hate speech. I’ve never heard anything like that. I’ve never heard anything like that on talk radio. And if I did hear that on talk radio, I would be all for turning that person off.” 

 Beck: “I’m not sure what racism is any more.” Also on the same edition of his radio show, after again playing the audio from the New Black Panthers documentary, Beck stated, “Now, some people might call this racism because he hates all white crackers.” Beck later said: “I heard this language before in the ’60s, and it didn’t end well. I think we all have to watch our language. I wonder if Nancy [Pelosi] is going to give a speech today about the watching of our cracker language. Of course not. So, I’m not sure if it is officially racism because I’m not sure what racism is any more.” 

 RedState.com accuses “African American Attorney General” Holder of “blatant reverse discrimination.” In a July 7 RedState.com post on the New Black Panthers case, Dave Poff wrote: 

 It’s impossible to believe that President Obama and his Administration actually buys in to this idea that we have moved beyond race and into a new generation of a color blind society, when you consider the blatant reverse discrimination his Attorney General (yes, his African American Attorney General) Eric Holder has been pursuing in the name of leveling the playing field in matters of Justice. Holder, it would seem, is still judging people by the color of their skin. [emphasis in original] 

Fox’s Johnson goes after Holder for being “active in black student associations” in college. Responding to a question from Megyn Kelly about “what … we know about Eric Holder and his history of prosecuting this kind of case,” Fox’s Peter Johnson Jr. stated that “[i]n college, he [Holder] was active in black student associations” who had taken over the dean’s office at Columbia. From the July 1 edition of America’s Newsroom: 

 KELLY: Now, in terms of how high this goes, this is one of the big questions of this case. Just exactly to what extent did the attorney general weigh in on this? To what extent did the top brass in the DOJ weigh in on this? What if anything do we know about Eric Holder and his history of prosecuting this kind of case? 

 JOHNSON: We don’t know at this point. We know that he was a federal judge. We know that he inserted himself in a discussion about race in America early on in this administration. 

 KELLY: And said we’re a nation of cowards – 

 JOHNSON: Correct. 

 KELLY: — when it comes to race. 

 JOHNSON: We know that at Columbia College he was active in black student associations there and at some point there had been a takeover of the dean’s office at Columbia. We know that he spoke recently at Columbia Law School and indicated there that he was grateful to the dean, Dean Henry Coleman, who is a friend of mine as well, who wrote a recommendation for Eric Holder to Columbia Law School in spite of the takeover of his dean’s office. But we know based upon Mr. Christian’s statements to you that this goes to very high echelons in the Justice Department. We don’t know whether it’s Mr. Holder or not — and we also know that people have paid the price in the Justice Department for speaking out on this particular issue. 

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