MSNBC Links Newt Gingrich To The Murder Of Stephen Lawrence

SharpshooterTom

http://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2012/01/06/bashir_ties_gingrichs_food_stamp_rhetoric_to_1993_murder_of_black_teen.html

MARTIN BASHIR: It's time now to clear the air. And I wonder if you'll indulge me just for a moment, because I want to focus our attention on the issue of race as it effects the 2012 campaign by starting overseas. In London's central criminal court, two men were found guilty on Tuesday for the notorious killing of a black teenager called Stephen Lawrence. Stephen was actually murdered in 1993 at the age of just 18, but it has taken almost exactly the same amount of time to prosecute his killers. Now, there were a number of early police investigations, but they were sloppy, badly handled, and unprofessional. As a result, the British government in 1999, ordered a public inquiry into why, despite all of the evidence the police had, they failed to secure a single prosecution. The inquiry produced a damning report, accusing the police and other agencies of being institutionally racist. It also showed how political leaders could be responsible for either encouraging better race relations or making matters a whole lot worse by using cheap and nasty slurs. Now, listen to some of the things that are being said by these Republican candidates.

NEWT GINGRICH: President Obama is the most effective food stamp president in American history.

RICK SANTORUM: I don't want to make [blah? black?] people's lives better by giving them somebody else's money, I want to give them the opportunity to go out and earn the money.

BASHIR: There's nothing subtle about Newt Gingrich or Mr. Santorum. Their comments are clearly targeted at the President, who's black, and at other members of society, who haven't made millions of dollars from lobbying. But while sticks and stones may break your bones, the public inquiry into the life and death of Stephen Lawrence shows that words can and do cause irreparable damage to a culture and a society. Newt Gingrich is never going to win the Republican nomination, but he could badly damage race relations in the process. So here is a simple plea: Let's cut out the food stamps rhetoric right now before things get any worse.

Now don't me wrong I don't think some of these Republican clowns do themeselves any favours when it comes to race relations or the Republican party in general, but this is surely insane??

I'm no fan of the Republicans like I say, but calling Obama a food stamp president, is that actually racist?? Now understand that I think Newt Gingrich is a complete dickhead anyway but Bashir's implying that he's leading to/inciting murder??

I used to watch MSNBC a bit, but they've gone down hill quite a bit for me now. The only quality news anchor they have is Rachel Maddow, the rest of them shout and scream too much and come up with weird stuff like this. Keith Olbermann quit and they replaced them with people like Al Sharpton LOL.

Jon Stewart pointed out they've seen the Fox model, and want to copy it to compete in the ratings war which means they've become less of news channel and more of controversial/outrageous news channel, hence hiring Al Sharpton.

Cable news really sucks in America and its becoming a contest of who has the biggest idiots. I'm glad this stuff doesn't ever get brought over here.

amacachi

That's the trouble now. In America certain quarters make it a race thing when it suits them when it's really a class thing. The status quo is to have an underclass, government spending maintains this status quo, Democrats believe government spending can end it, Republicans believe it keeps them and their friends sitting pretty.

Sad state of affairs really.

Memnoch

Is Newt a racist? I don't know. I wouldn't be surprised if he was revealed to be one.

The food stamp comment is interesting. While on the surface it is obviously a swipe at Obama's economic policies and an attempt to highlight what republicans feel/claim is his failure in that regard, it is also, in my view the kind of comment that would appeal to the significant chunk of actual racists that make up the hardcore wing of the republican base.

The subtext being... Look at this black president who is using your tax dollars to help out his worthless and lazy race brothers and handing out food stamps rather than forcing/encouraging them to do an honest days work like you hardworking white folks.

This is what the racists see from a comment like this, and it's right up their alley.

RichieC

OP; you clearly do not understand how dog whistle politics works.

Its about time the media calls these sleveens out.