On Fox News Watch over the weekend (12/24/11), supposedly objective host Jon Scott glossed over the very disturbing racial content in a series of old Ron Paul newsletters. One such newsletter, for example, gave tips on how to get away with shooting and killing an African American “animal.”  But Scott suggested that CNN’s aggressive questioning of Paul about the letters was little more than liberal media bias. During much of the discussion, a banner on the screen “asked,” Press Pounding Paul?

Another newsletter was described by Think Progress as claiming that “roving bands of African-Americans are trying to give white people HIV.”

But Scott made the newsletters seem like old hat. He introduced the discussion by saying, “Gloria Borger of CNN asked Ron Paul some questions about some newsletters that he produced back in the 1980’s and 90’s.”  Scott went on to play a contentious exchange between Paul and Borger. He followed the clip by downplaying their explosive content. “Some of the content apparently, some questionable items about racism. Is CNN making a mountain out of a molehill?”

Scott called on panelist Jim Pinkerton first. Pinkerton went along with the “old hat” meme by saying the newsletters have been discussed for 20 years. He likened them to Obama’s relationship with Bill Ayers and Tony Rezko, saying that any reporter asking Obama about them would be ejected by the Secret Service. Except that Obama never had much of a relationship with Ayers and Ayers was an upstanding citizen during any relationship they had. Obama’s relationship to Rezko was over the purchase of a piece of land adjacent to his own property that Fox News made a mountain out of a molehill over.

Scott did not note the differences.

Fortunately, conservative Cal Thomas got past the “liberal media” distraction to the heart of the matter about Paul's newsletters: “If you put your name on something or allow it to be put on something and it goes out with racist and anti-Semitic and conspiratorial stuff on it, the thing to do is say, ‘You know, I wasn’t paying proper attention. I should have paid more attention to this. It was wrong. I reject the ideas in there. Now can we move on?’ He needs that kind of definitive statement.”

Panelist Kirsten Powers noted that Paul seemed “more irritated he’s being asked” about the newsletters than “outraged these comments were made and they are pretty heinous.”