|
|
|||
|
|||
|
|
Sharpton Defines Chutzpah Arnaud de Borchgrave Google Al Sharpton and to his critics, he is known as "Al Charlatan" or "Rev. Sound bite," a rabble-rousing racial ambulance chaser who never met a video camera he didn't like. To his admirers the Reverand is a voice that people listen to — even if they don't like what they hear. Already a Pentecostal minister at 13, his stock in trade is boisterous, flamboyant, inflammatory rhetoric which he uses like grapeshot to plunge into New York City's latest racial incident before it hits the front pages — thus ensuring the avenger's name in media coverage, along with his signature rap, the 10-second hyperbolic sound bite. On Jan. 12, 1991, as he was about to lead a protest march through a white neighborhood in Brooklyn, Sharpton was stabbed in the chest. The next morning, in only stable condition, he held a news conference. Mentored by Jesse Jackson, Adam Clayton Powell, soul-singing giant James Brown and boxing promoter legend Don King, Rev. Sharpton soon learned the meaning of "location is everything." He was ringside at all major prizefights. Sharpton has raised chutzpah to an art form. And this week he raised the bar on the pot calling the kettle black. Part shock jock, part comedian, part rude and crude newsman, Don Imus' inexcusable, over-the-top slur about the hair-hooker morals of the almost-all black female Rutgers basketball team pales next to what one hears on Comedy Central and from rappers' sexist, racist views of women. The hip-hop culture, including gangsta rap, enjoys sacrosanct immunity. For some TV comedians on late night HBO, the F word is as common as prepositions. Whites are the targets of supposedly humorous insults that reflect on their sexual performance, or lack thereof. White faces in the audience laugh along at shopworn tacky jokes, though understandably wanly next to the belly laughs of the blacks. It is all good, unclean fun, part of the dumbing down of the electronic media, which has, in turn, dumbed down America. For more than a week, Sharpton managed to refocus the nation's spotlight from Iraq and Afghanistan to Imus, whose ribald blankety-blank patter earns him $10 million a year. Story Continues Below
Most journalists held their fire. Book promotion appearances on Imus spawned book sales and the kind of lecture fees that prove that in America, speech is still free but listening can get kind of expensive. But Sharpton led the black charge with outraged sound bites against Imus, demanding MSNBC cancel his morning news show and CBS Radio end his contract. Imus' groveling apology and his two-week suspension weren't good enough for Sharpton and countless panderers whose cries of outrage called for his scalp. Advertisers obliged by yanking their commercials — and Imus was toast. Sirius satellite radio now beckons where Imus can join fellow shock-jock Howard Stern whose five-year contract is worth $500 million (and personal wealth is estimated at $1 billion). Sharpton frequently has an attack of amnesia when the facts contradict his staccato verbal attacks that shoot first before asking questions about what really happened. His sanitized autobiography is replete with omissions about incidents that Mayor Rudy Giuliani said produced "racial powder kegs." Sharpton says he was never guilty of inciting violence, "but I was guilty of not upholding the standards of my speech." Only the pandering phenomenon protected Sharpton from the most shameful hoax since desegregation. On Nov. 28, 1987, Tawana Brawley, a 15-year-old black girl missing for four days, was "found" by Lorenzo Lloray, inside a large trash bag several feet from an apartment she had once lived in, clothing torn and burned, body smeared with feces. Lloray's wife, Joyce, had witnessed Tawana wriggling into the bag unassisted. Tawana wouldn't speak to Mr. Lloray. Police were called and took Tawana to a hospital in Wappingers Falls where she refused to talk to a black officer who had been summoned from Poughkeepsie. With a few gestures and written notes, Tawana suggested she had been raped "a lot" by five white policemen "in the woods." The racial ambulance chasers flocked to upstate New York — with Sharpton in the lead. For seven months, while a grand jury was investigating, protesters were bused in to shout slogans outside the courthouse. Soon, Sharpton and his attorneys had muscled out the NAACP and taken over the representation of Tawana and her family. Sharpton ratcheted up the horrific racist attack to a coverup by "state government." But it soon became clear to the grand jury from the results of the "rape kit" there had been no sexual assault. Despite Tawana's claim she had been held captive for four days, she was not suffering from exposure, had eaten normally and had even brushed her teeth recently. Clothing charred, but not a trace of a burn on the body. A shoe she was wearing was cut through but there were no injuries on the foot. Testimony from her school classmates said she had attended a local party during the time she was supposedly abducted. And a former boyfriend said Tawana had admitted making the whole thing up. Tawana and her mother, Mrs. Brawley, ignored subpoenas to testify before the grand jury and moved hastily to Virginia, along with the "defense fund" of $300,000 contributed by Sharpton's appeals for solidarity. A warrant against mother and daughter is still outstanding in New York for ignoring the summons. In 1997, Mrs. Brawley changed her name to Maryam Muhammad. The 6,000 pages of testimony, which included 180 witnesses and 250 exhibits, also determined that the "unsworn public allegations against Dutchess County Assistant District Attorney Steven Pagones," which originated in the Sharpton camp, were false and had no basis in fact. Sharpton had accused Pagones of being the perpetrator. He sued Sharpton and his team for defamation of character and demanded $150 million. Sharpton was found guilty for making seven defamatory statements about Pagones, who was awarded $345,000. He also sued Mrs. Brawley, who was a no-show at the trial. The judge ordered her to pay Pagones damages of $185,000. Sharpton's 2004 presidential campaign lost out to John Kerry. The 53-year-old, lightning rod predicator has now failed in four attempts to gain public office. With support from blacks, Hispanics, gays and lesbians and the working class, Sharpton may be the carnival barker selling snake oil, but he is convinced the country is ready for a swing — to the left. Spotted at New York's ultra "in" Swifty's restaurant chatting up two prominent Republican women, he explained, "Mine is a big tent." Editor's note:
|
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||
Print Page 
Forward Page 
|
| All Rights Reserved © 2008 NewsMax.Com |