While the entire world gets wrapped around the Don Imus situation (latest update: MSNBC has permanently dropped his simulcast after sponsors began to pull the financial plugs. Lesson – money, not the right thing to do, talks), let us examine what has transpired between white Duke lacrosse players and black female would-be victims.
The North Carolina Attorney General summed it up perfectly when he called it a “rush to accuse.” Why was everyone so quick to prejudge the guilt of three white male Duke lacrosse players? Contrary to the Sean Bell story, where a black male was shot the day of his wedding at his bachelor party by white New York City police officers, Al Sharpton sided against the police. In this case he sided with the black accusers and the police, destroying the character of three innocent young men in the process without a shred of proof beyond lies. Now that a real injustice has been done, where is Sharpton to take up the cause of the real victims in this case, the lacrosse players? If Sharpton is so opposed to prejudice, why does he not publicly demonstrate against its obvious usage in this example?
How convenient, Reverend that your alleged social principles immediately shift whenever the skin color doesn’t fit your continued use of the baiting of race relations to divide people while directly lining your pockets. What happened to a humble and distinguished life for men of the cloth? For a career of inappropriate and over the top statements, Don Imus definitely deserves the punishment he has received from MSNBC, the public verbal lashing from the Rutgers women’s basketball and team and others, but at least no one has ever died from Imus’s remarks.
Al Sharpton is the but for cause of at least 7 publicly known deaths as well as a defendant in a settled defamation suit brought by Steven Pagones of Tawana Brawley infamy.
Sunlight is the best disinfectant. Let’s examine the criminal justice process in this country; why do we rush to accuse without evidence, and what happens when the victims are not wealthy enough to seek adequate counsel? Let us thoroughly research and inspect the history of professional lowest common denominator grabbers – specifically Imus, Sharpton and the Reverend Jesse Jackson.
Mike Nifong, the politically ambitious Durham County District Attorney, should be disbarred for ethics violations, at the very least.
North Carolina Attorney General Roy Cooper was correct to label Nifong a “rogue prosecutor”.
It seems to me that Nifong’s most incriminating action, apart from making unjustified and inflammatory statements to the media, was withholding the lab test results that found no DNA from members of the lacrosse team on the accuser’s underwear or body (though semen from several other men was present).
As Attorney General Cooper said, the accuser “may actually believe” the conflicting stories she told. She seems to have emotional and mental health problems.
Duke should pay the students’ legal fees, $3 million plus, and issue a formal apology to Mike Pressler, the former team coach who was forced to resign.
One politically ambitious rogue prosecutor in this country is one too many– Nifong should be punished as vigorously as the law will allow for his morally bankrupt willingness to sacrifice the lives of these young men to his blind ambition .
I would say that the media are culprits as well in this sad tale of raw ambition and sex.
I think their propensity to sensationalize and demonize is best expressed in the Orwellian doublespeak of Fox News’ motto– “Fair and Balanced”, in the most ironic sense possible.
…..and…..as I have articulated elsewhere in these columns, Sharpton continues to walk between the raindrops. Obviously HIS network and sponsors have chosen to look the other way for the sake of profit.
I certainly decry Imus, but I will not listen to
Sharpton’s network or patronize any of his sponsors as long as he has access to that microphone.
Josh:
It is uselss to question why Sharpton does not take up certain causes. I gave that up years ago. There are certainly logical counter arguments to this man, but you might as well spit into the wind for where they will get you.
What you see manifested here, repeated across the decades, is Sharpton’s agenda,”the race card”. as it was referred to by convention watchers several years ago.
The man is a racist in his own right. He has a powerful network of supporters both moral and financial. and and is enough of a rabble rouser to continually gain notice.
He’s fully aware that he continously manages to put one over, time, after time, after time. I feel it’s safe to say that he is constantly laughing all the way to the bank.
He has yet to encounter his true Waterloo, and may never thanks to public idiocy.
The Brawley affair was no doubt a great awakening for him and he is not likely to make the same mistake twice.
Al Sharpton is a showman. It’s all showbiz, baby.
After all, not for nothing was he James Brown’s constant companion.
And his conked hair is really awful.
http://www.homestead.com/prosites-prs/The_Crimes_of_Al_Sharpton.pdf
DM: Please send that URL, and anything else you might have to Miki Turner at
dmiki@aol.com. over.
She’s a free-lance writer for MSNBC.
She views the urban culture influences in these issues as a right of free speech. I also referred her to Nigel Innis’ commentary on the same network.
In that regard, a small comment in a local newspaper’s coverage of the meeting between Moonves and Sharpton noted that, having resolved the matter of Imus’ dismissal, they turned to the urban culture issue.
Sharpton left.
copy that…
Re: Quote of the day…my last entry….and go to URL posted.
Re: “Urban culture influences.”
I wouldn’t try to defend the indefensible misogyny or homophobia in rap rhymes, but I would say this about the descriptive violence in them, which rappers will tell you represents the reality of life in the ghetto:
I don’t recall any outrage from the public or media pundits when Johnny Cash sang, “I shot a man in Reno just to watch him die”.
And where is the consternation over classic ‘cry in your beer’ country lyrics which seem to be preoccupied with cheating on your spouse, getting drunk, and shooting guns?
Interesting that you chose that line from “Folsom Prison Blues”. When Keb ‘Mo covered that song in a recent CD, he reworded that line because he found it offensive. In the original, the speaker is admitting the purposeless act which put him behind bars. In the rewrite, the speaker appears to be alleging innocence of the crime. It’s a clever and interesting departure lyrically, as well as in musical arrangement.
Turning to the remainder of your commentary,the thematic elements you refer to in paragraph three are hardly comparable in structure and content to those which you observe in paragraph one.
It is those which black community critics of the apparently negative influences of hip-hop culture,on urban youth in particular,cite in their remarks.
That is why offered the observations of Shaun Powell of Newsdays day as a rebuttal to Josh’s mosts recent “Quote of the day”. Th common denominator there is that both men are black yet express different points of view.