Megyn Kelly’s interview with Tavis Smiley about race relations under President Obama was interesting and if you didn’t know her long record of racial attacks on Obama, she’d deserve props for it.
Kelly acknowledged some racial criticisms of Obama that she has showcased on The Kelly File, especially around Black Lives Matter protests.
KELLY: The president’s tried to walk a line on that by saying we honor law enforcement and the jobs they do but Black Lives Matter, we gotta stop seeing this and many of his critics, we’ve noted here on this show …there’s a lot more attention paid to one of those arguments than the other and they feel that he’s diminished law enforcement which makes some people feel upset.
However, this is a whitewashing of how Kelly has handled racial issues involving President Obama. In reality, Kelly has repeatedly exploited racial issues for the express purpose of race baiting him.
- Before she became a prime time host, Kelly orchestrated a series of bogus accusations – over at least 45 segments - that Obama’s then-attorney general, Eric Holder, had refused to prosecute some members of the New Black Panther Party for voter intimidation out of racial preference for African Americans. Even though no voter intimidation had occurred. The accusations were discredited but Kelly continued to rely on that same “whistleblower” to make later racial attacks on Holder.
- When white Kate Steinle was killed, allegedly by an undocumented immigrant with a criminal history, Kelly used that to deliberately suggest President Obama is overly partial to black thugs.
KELLY: A stark contrast to what we saw after Michael Brown was killed in Ferguson, Missouri. A man we now know was attacking a police officer at the time of his death. His funeral saw three Obama officials in attendance, his death drew comments from President Obama, personally. And the administration also sent in the DOJ and 40 FBI agents dispatched to Missouri after Michael Brown was killed. Where is the swarm of agents in San Francisco?
… Then there was Freddie Gray in Baltimore, a repeat drug offender who was killed in police custody. Here again his funeral was attended by three Obama administration officials and again the President spoke personally to Freddie Gray’s death. And again, sent the DOJ in to investigate. When Trayvon Martin was killed in Florida, the President spoke to his death, which was later ruled to be in self-defense. But Kate Steinle? Nothing. No comments, no swarm of FBI agents, no DOJ investigation, nothing. Why?
… There’s no excuse for it. He picks and chooses the victims he wants to highlight and apparently, this victim wasn’t deemed worthy.
- Just last week, Kelly attacked President Obama for not treating the shooting of a Philadelphia police officer by a Muslim who claimed to have acted in the name of Islam as “the latest terror attack on American soil.” In case anyone missed the dog whistle, she later complained that he and the Democratic mayor of Philadelphia are “so focused on protecting Islam and its reputation.”
Even the premise of the Smiley interview was a racial setup against Obama: polling that shows race relations have deteriorated during his presidency.
I’ve got to put some of the blame on Smiley for not recognizing (or else not caring) that he – who has criticized Obama for not doing enough on behalf of African Americans – was being used to further Fox’s bigoted antagonism toward Obama.
“I think ultimately the president missed a moment,” Smiley said, as he argued that President Obama was both not bold enough on behalf of race and had been obstructed with “a headwind like no president’s ever had.”
I agree with Smiley I think his criticisms are totally legit and I’m sympathetic to his feelings but why on earth make that argument on Fox News – while giving the network a pass on its own relentless race baiting? There are no African Americans in the audience, to speak of. Does Smiley really think anyone viewing this segment will think, “Gosh darn it, our next president needs to be more concerned about black folks?”
If he does, he hasn’t watched much Fox.
Watch it below, from the January 11 The Kelly File.
Of course fox news has an agenda, as all the networks do. This interview was a black man offering a an opinion that is reasonable and thoughtful. It is an honest testimony. This is rare in the world of 24hr news networks. I respect that he included fox, amongmany other networks he appeared on, to voice his concern. We have to start acknowledging each other as fellow Americans and show respect to opinions and people even no matter how polarized they are. Black ,white conservative or liberal, we are all American and that’s something that should unite us not divide us.
Kevin Barrett, I’m an admirer of Smiley and I said in my post that I agree and sympathize with his sentiments. I just think that Fox News is not the place for that discussion. Also, I’m not criticizing Smiley for saying there’s racial discrimination. I’m criticizing him for criticizing Obama for not doing enough about it. In my view, Smiley was being used by Fox to promote its anti-Obama agenda and should have called them out on it.
Also, while I’ll acknowledge that there may be some in the Fox audience sympathetic to Smiley’s viewpoint, I’m pretty certain this is a small minority. How do I know? Because Fox would not incessantly race bait and harp on black racism, while ignoring white racism, so much if they didn’t know it resonates with viewers.
Fox wouldn’t provide a platform for racist Kevin Jackson if they didn’t think he appealed to viewers:
http://www.newshounds.us/one_day_after_calling_for_a_white_republican_mayor_of_baltimore_kevin_jackson_gets_some_megyn_kelly_love_060315
(That’s short for “Attention Whore.”)