New York Times TV critic Alessandra Stanley has a piece (8/31/11) about Al Sharpton's debut as an MSNBC host. It seems his show, like others on the channel, could use more of a debate: On Monday Mr. Sharpton followed the patented formula, bringing in two experts who agreed with him that recent efforts in North Carolina and other states to stiffen voter-identity requirements and restrict early voting would mostly affect the minorities and younger voters who turned out in record numbers for Barack Obama in 2008. Mr. Sharpton called it a "poll tax by another name." It's an interesting issue, [...]
Jun
02
2009
Imagine a World Where Racial Assaults by Political Leaders Are Considered News
By 1 Comment
Imagine that the executive director of Rev. Al Sharpton's National Action Network punched a woman in the head while uttering a racial epithet. Imagine further that two years after this hate crime took place, the executive director still had his job, and when Sharpton was asked about this, he speculated about why this story was "even newsworthy," and insisted that "I don't have any day-to-day control over the organization." Does anyone doubt that if such an incident happened, it would be a major national news story, and Sharpton would be facing a firestorm of criticism? Yet precisely such an incident [...]
