The Fox Smear Campaign Against Sen. Barack Obama

It's pretty interesting how little attention the mainstream media seems to pay to the ongoing smear campaign the Fox News Channel is conducting against Democratic Presidential candidate Senator Barack Obama.

On June 18th the Media Matters Website reported that Fox anchor Brit Hume distorted a transcript of an Israeli Army Radio interview with Obama's half-brother Malik Obama; Hume incorrectly quoted Malik Obama as saying Barack Obama was a Muslim. Obama is NOT a Muslim, has stated so on multiple occasions and yet Fox continues to assert that he is in an obvious effort to discredit the Democratic candidate and recklessly pander to the cultural fears and prejudices of white conservatives.

Fox has practically made a sport out of slandering Obama's wife Michelle. In a recent report they called her "Obama's Baby Mama", a derogatory slang term for the unwed mother of a man's child. It's particularly disturbing given the fact that the mother of two is a Harvard Law graduate and a distinguished attorney in her own right - and I don't think anyone thinks Fox would call a married white woman with two children anyone's "baby mama, it's racist and everyone knows it. There's hardly a television news story about Michelle Obama that doesn't refer to, or indirectly bring up her quote about being proud to be an American for the first time.

But fortunately Fox doesn't hold a monopoly on media access. The FoxAttacks.com website posted unmistakable evidence that Fox edited out a portion of an recent Sean Hannity interview with John McCain in which the Republican front-runner says he "Didn't always love America". That's right. Virtually the same thing Michelle Obama said, but you won't hear anything about THAT on Fox. In fact, use the FoxAttacks link about to see the video evidence for yourself.

Fox edited out that portion of the original interview then re-cut it entirely. They also EDITED THE ACTUAL TRANSCRIPT. Only after the video was posted online and became hit #1 on Digg did Fox quietly re-add the footage with the quote and fix the content of the transcript. Will they hold McCain accountable for HIS statement that he "didn't always love America"?

Don't hold your breath, Fox's notorious double-standard policy will not apply any criticism of John McCain; they tried to conceal that he said it - but fortunately, responsible citizens and organizations like FoxAttacks monitor this sad excuse for television journalism 24 hours a day.

People have the power to confront the lies that Fox spews out 24 hours a day. Fortunately this is the age of information and there is a growing movement of bloggers, citizen journalists and Websites who recognize that Fox is nothing more than a PR firm for the Republican Party.

More than 100,000 people have signed a MoveOn.org petition demanding that Fox stop using racism, lies and fear to smear Barack Obama - use this link to sign it and tell Fox to stop trying to use racist fear-mongering and lies to discredit a political candidate because he is black.

It's unacceptable.

Oh So Glamorous!

I was kind of musing about fashion and race over the weekend. They kind of collided together in mainstream media both in print, online and on television.

First, Naomi Campbell's mug was plastered all over cheeky television clips as well as Websites & blogs after the 38-year old anger-management dropout appeared in court at Uxbridge magistrate's court in West London, UK following her latest emotional meltdown.

Check out the facts as reported by CNN ....if you really need to that is.

After hurling cell phones at her former assistant's head for not locating a pair of jeans, her most recent hissy-fit over one of her bags not being put aboard her British Airways flight is simply business as usual for the self-described "Supermodel".

Sure she was found guilty of kicking and spitting at two policemen, you think Naomi can't do better than that? DO YOU? HUH?!?

British Airways has apparently banned Naomi for life. Ouch! I'm sure it'll be such a struggle for her publicist to rustle up a private jet for the oft-deranged diva but God help her/him if they don't...no, seriously God, please protect them.....

The woman is exceptionally beautiful and successful in the business world but clearly has some complex issues (like not hitting people...?) and likely needs some professional help to deal with her explosive temper. I wonder how Naomi's bizarre escapades impact other black fashion models struggling to make it in the industry.

Like it's not hard enough for models of color in the culturally narrow and too often superficial confines of the fashion world as it is?

Cathy Horyn wrote a really a nice piece in New York Times last Thursday that painted a somewhat bleak and puzzling picture of the way the fashion industry treats female models with darker skin and African features. A world that quietly fears that darker skin won't sell as well in front of white magazine readers.

I read a cool piece on Essence Magazine fashion market editor Zoe Washington, an African-American professional who made it in the fashion industry by following her passion and working hard. Interesting that she and many other young women of color identify CNN's Elsa Clinch as one of their inspirations.

Years ago I heard a 2nd-hand story about dear old Elsa flipping a gasket right before shooting one of her little fashion pieces because the agency had sent a black female model to the set. Elsa allegedly insisted on having a white model and the black model apparently left the set devastated.

But that's just a story I heard from someone I know with friends who work in the New York fashion scene; gossip sure, but in the fashion world gossip is an art form and it's usually based in part on truth.

I'd love to hear the real gossip on what all those "fashionistas" think about black models. From the number of photo spreads and ads in the major fashion titles, I'd say not a whole lot.

A Question of Character?

Without question race is playing a major factor in the 2008 presidential elections and the man who's elected will impact the cultural fabric of this nation in a variety of significant ways.

John McCain (pictured with second wife Cindy McCain) tends to talk in lofty non-specifics that make it very difficult to gauge where he'll stand on issues that directly impact race. But he does talk about character quite a bit.

Sharon Churcher wrote an interesting piece on the London Daily Mail Website on John McCain's first wife Carol that offers insight a real look into his character and what kind of person he really is.

She must've been in a rush to get the article finished, as most of it seems to be plagiarized from an extensive article about McCain's life on Wikipedia.org.

The mainstream media has until this point avoided any mention of McCain's first wife, whom he divorced after he returned home to the US from Vietnam to find her disfigured from a Christmas eve car accident. He met his 2nd wife, a former swimsuit model and the daughter of a politically-connected Arizona multi-millionaire who would help engineer his move into the political arena.

No wonder Cindy stays out of the media spotlight silently with that grin on her face.

I don't know Cindy McCain personally but at this point Michelle Obama comes off as more intelligent, well spoken, well educated, confident and strikes me as more in the mold of what a real First Lady is and should be.

With her secretive nature and reluctance to release her tax records for public scrutiny Cindy McCain often comes off as something of a trophy-wife living a privileged insulated life off of daddy's money.

But the facts say otherwise. She's played an active role running her father's business, a beer distributorship. She actively serves on charities that focus on clearing mines around the world and helping poor children with severe oral surgery needs; in fact she adopted a girl from Bangladesh with a severe cleft palette at the behest of Mother Teresa.

I must confess there's much more to Cindy than I thought there was and I wonder why the media seems not to report any of the positive sorts of things she's done. Or the negative for that matter.

Snopes.com reports that she became addicted to Vicodin and Percocet after two back surgeries and a DEA investigation found she used a medical charity she founded to illegally obtain large amounts under false names - she ducked prosecution by striking a deal with the Justice Department. No doubt, Senator McCain's character aided in that episode, one you probably won't hear on Fox News anytime soon.

Meanwhile Fox News trumpets the results of a recent Rasmussen Report that shows 1,000 people polled viewed Michelle Obama more unfavorably than Cindy McCain - a poll which also showed the approval rates for both women were nearly even at 49% and 48%.

Memorial Day Ku Klux Klan Defacement Condemmed by Community

Many Americans celebrate Memorial Day as an uplifting break from the routine of work that both honors those who have given their lives in service to this nation and also heralds the arrival of summer.

In one of the latest examples of a sharp rise in hate-crime activity across the nation, Medford, Oregon residents Gary David Ross, 37 and Devan Grant Klauseggar, 28 decided to express their patriotic fervor by using some kind of propellant to burn the shape of a cross on the lawn of Sol and Jonathan Whyte's home, they also took the time to spell out the words "KKK" on the lawn and ignite it as well before fleeing the scene around 11pm with a third suspect. The Ku Klux Klan is a long way from the their nightmarish hey-day in the 1920's (Klan members pictured above in the infamous KKK march on Washington in 1926) when over 4 million members were registered in the United States and brutal lynchings of African-Americans were at their peak.

These ignorant fireworks enthusiasts selected the Whyte's because they are a mixed-race couple with two young children who are multi-racial as well.

Kudos to the South Oregon Mail Tribune's Anita Burke for reporting this story; Most of the mainstream network news broadcasts were typified by familiar images of picnics, scenes from the beach and picturesque small-town parades.

Both suspects were arrested and are being charged with a variety of offenses, but to me the most important part of this story is the overwhelming response of support by neighbors.

Strangers left flowers, gifts, and notes of support. Local high school students brought letters and gifts from the student body; a landscaper stopped by and offered to repair the lawn.

The Medford City Council voted to unanimously condemn the act in a resolution.

"By making members of specific groups fearful, angry and suspicious, hate crimes polarize communities and damage the very fabric of our society," the resolution said.

That's the real America, strangers and neighbors, politicians and police all coming together to douse the flames of ignorance and bigotry. That's the fabric of the culturegeist, love will always conquer fear and ignorance no matter what some may say or write.

In the community of Medford, Oregon we've seen a true celebration of Memorial Day; one that truly honors the spirit of what thousands of veterans died fighting for.

Clint Slaps Down Spike - Courtney Hazlett Channels Her Inner Bigot

The Blogosphere is rife with commentary on the ongoing media tiff between actor/director Clint Eastwood and director Spike Lee.

Lee has made headlines before for his outspoken and at times left-field criticism of various entertainment figures on issues related to his perception of African-Americans in film and television and Hollywood's treatment of blacks in the industry.

Spike is promoting his new film about a WWII African-American Army unit in Italy, during the interview at the Cannes film festival he openly criticized Clint for not casting any black actors in either of his twin WWII films saga, 'Flags of Our Fathers' and 'Letters From Iwo Jima'.

Despite the fact the both films deal with very specific stories during WWII involving episodes that historically did not involve African-American soldiers, Spike suggested that the media had somehow ignored supposedly racist casting decisions by Clint.

In response to Spike's comments Clint suggested Spike should "shut his face" in an interview with The Guardian's Jeff Dawson.

In response to THAT, MSNBC talking head Courtney Hazlett demonstrated monumental ignorance and insensitivity by suggesting that Lee had been "uppity" in his comments to Eastwood.

How this lightweight pseudo-journalist could not be aware of the racial context of the term uppity (once frequently used by southerners to describe and denigrate African-Americans they felt were acting beyond their station) is mind boggling. As was the MSNBC producer who showed a clip of Clint from one his movies menacing an African-American character with a shotgun as Courtney unloaded here ditzy 2nd rate analysis.

She ignited a media firestorm and quickly issued an apology in an effort to cover her stupidity.

In ABCNews.com interview Spike fired back at Clint "First of all, the man is not my father and we're not on a plantation either," That's vintage Spike; use outspoken, vague and baseless accusations based on his own perceptions to simultaneously bring issues or race and film into the mainstream media discussion and promote his film.

I admire Spike as a director and filmmaker and he's altered the landscape of contemporary cinema, but it's totally inappropriate for him to make accusations about Clint being biased in his casting decisions. Clint's films have featured a range of intelligently portrayed characters of various races including African-Americans over the years - Clint was the filmmaker who made and directed 'Bird' a 1988 film about the life of black jazz legend Charlie Parker.

Just keep it in context and remember Spike has some odd ways of promoting himself and his films - this is the guy who called Eddie Murphy and Bill Cosby "Sellouts".

Frankly Spike had some balls calling out Eddie, (the highest grossing film star in history his movies have grossed over $3.4 billion...) for not giving more opportunities for actors of color despite the fact that Murphy gave roles to a number of up and coming black performers in his movies -Halle Berry in 'Boomerang'; Damon Wayans in 'Beverly Hills Cop'; Martin Lawrence in 'Boomerang'; Cuba Gooding, Jr. and Samuel Jackson in 'Coming to America' as well Chris Rock in 'Beverly Hills Cop II'

So Spike often talks with flare and good intent, but much less actual fact. I wrote a letter to Clint to show my support for him and his record as a filmmaker and to assure him that Spike's left-field accusations are just that, accusations.

A Candidate for All Americans

One of the topics for this morning’s Brian Lehrer Show on WNYC deals with how African-Americans are viewing the nomination of Barack Obama as the Democratic presidential candidate and how it’s going to impact the nation and people of color.

Of course a couple callers were already concerned that he hasn’t been on the soapbox being the champion of African-American causes. I tend to agree that in the strategic sense, Obama needs to run as the President of the United States, he’s not just a leader of the black community but of all American communities.

For the first time we have a candidate who appeals across the fabric of the mainstream and connects with a wide range of voters because of his vision and the positions that he advocates; particularly his opposition to the war in Iraq and the need for a shift in the way we perceive ourselves as a nation.

I agree with a caller of West-Indian descent from New York who felt strongly that just because Obama is running for president does not mean that he has to bear the burden of every single issue and problem faced by every single African-Americans. We should assume he is going to govern on behalf of all people and that he can do so in a way that does not make him automatically beholden to any demographic.

Interestingly, a caller from Amsterdam said that when he walks into shops he is asked who he is supporting for president. He reported that there seems to be a real sense of excitement amongst people in the Netherlands about Obama winning the Democratic primary. In fact Obama’s picture is on the front page of most newspapers on newsstands in Amsterdam.

Something is happening in this country and I think the culturegeist of our nation is going to be the better for it.

Obama Wins, Harriet Christian Rants

Senator Barack Obama has made history by securing the Democratic presidential nomination. But he's going to have to work quickly to heal some of the divisions within the Democratic party.

I'm listening to the 11pm WCBS New York news and reporter Lou Young, reporting from outside an Obama fund raiser on Manhattan's Upper East Side, suggested that Hillary Clinton is going to have to find a way to reunite the party.

Frankly she had her chance at the nomination and she lost it fair and square. Obama is the party's nominee and the responsibility to bring it into line is his.

By now thousands have seen the video clip of Clinton supporter Harriet Christian ranting like an insane lunatic in front of a phalanx of cameras. Sporting sunglasses and sounding like she's on medication, Christian calls Obama an "inadequate black male" before stalking off babbling about how she and her "group" would be voting for John McCain - out of spite it seems rather than based on any kind of political logic or loyalty to the Democratic party.

Bitter is an understatement.

Political consultant Dan Gerstein suggested one of the reasons George W. Bush won and was re-elected was because of the support he received from white women. I've got confidence that there are millions of registered white female voters who do and will support Barack Obama versus McCain based on his character and policy stances - Morons like Harriet Christian are just disenfranchised ignorant and symbolic of why this nation needs change.

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Skinheads Placing Posters in the City of Brotherly Love

The recent shooting of a white Philadelphia Police Sgt. Stephen Liczbinski in Port Richmond while in pursuit of African-American suspects in a bank robbery has received a lot of national media attention in print and online.

The loss of an officer's life in the line of duty is a tragic incident and while the shooting of Sgt. Liczbinski has brought increased attention to the violent crime rate in Philadelphia, it has also spurred action by local hate groups.

According to a May 22nd article in the Philadelphia Inquirer a racist group originally founded in Harrisburg, PA made up of a loose alliance of skinhead groups from Pennsylvania that calls itself the Keystone State Skinheads (pictured above left) claimed responsibility for putting up posters in the Port Richmond and North Philadelphia area.

The posters depict pictures of four Philadelphia Police Officers and pictures of the three black suspects and the words: "Guns don't kill police officers. Dangerous minorities do. How much longer can you ignore this?" View a PDF of the poster here.

This isn't the first time members of the Keystone State Skinheads have been involved in distributing racist literature, committing extremely violent acts of hate and violating the law. Take KSP member and repeated violent law-breaker Keith Carney; he was arrested in December, 2001 for defacing Philadelphia's Vietnam War memorial with racist literature. Click here and scroll down a couple frames to see a photo of Carney at a Mumia Abu-Jamal rally.

Other KSP members have been found guilty for a variety of violent offenses, from enticing and then beating black bar patrons and mixed race couples in Lancaster to brutal murders: Kenneth Hoover and Charles Marovskis were arrested in January, 2007 for the 1998 murder of two homeless black men in Florida - one 62 year-old victim had been severely beaten and stabbed in the eye with a tire iron before being dumped under an overpass - the other killed with an axe and dumped in the woods.

Sadly just one more example of the sharp rise of hate crime activity in the United States, until the mainstream media recognizes the danger posed by these groups mainstream America will remain unaware, or simply ignore them.

Swastikas on the Wall: This is Your Town

I read a report recently that most mainstream media stories come from AP or the other larger news organizations. Well here's a story directly impacting the culturegiest of our nation that you're not going to see on mainstream media sources.

The Beth Israel synagogue on 1406 Mound street in Madison, Wisconsin boasts a membership of approximately 300 families and was founded in 1949. The Wisconsin State Journal reports that an unknown group or individual has targeted their place of worship twice since April with anti-Semitic graffiti.

On Monday morning May 5th a member of the synagogue found a swastika and the words "Die Jew" were written on a wall in black magic marker. Back on April 25th two large swastikas were found on the front door of Beth Israel. Even though the doors have since been cleaned and repainted, it doesn't cover up the pain and outrage of seeing the place of worship defaced with such offensive symbols and words.

Madison Police have assigned a hate crimes detective to the case. In the picture above, Beth Israel Rabbi Katz shows the Torah to a group of visiting elementary school students.

Anti-Semitic acts like this are on the rise across the United States: Why don't we see these stories on mainstream network television broadcasts and Websites?

Fox News 'Rachel Ray Scarf-Gate': Arab-Bashing?

Is TV host and cook Rachel Ray in cahoots with a donut maker to inflame Islamic extremists?

Michelle Malkin and Fox News think so!

This morning AdAge.com reported that flavored-coffee and pastry behemoth Dunkin' Donuts removed an online ad (pictured above) featuring spokeswoman Rachel Ray, in response to claims generated by conservative bloggers and Fox News commentators that the scarf she is wearing in the photo looked like a kefiyeh.

Fox News commentator and frequently-creepy syndicated conservative news columnist Michelle Malkin brazenly suggested in her blog that the grayish-colored scarf was anti -American and could send a potentially dangerous message to Islamic extremists.

The kefiyeh, or keffiyeh is a Arab headdress for men comprised of a diagonally folded cloth secured to the head by an agal band.

It is worn in a variety of styles for, among other reasons, keeping the desert heat off the head and keeping sand away from the eyes and mouth.

Regardless of the fact that the scarf Ms. Ray was wearing was a paisley pattern and in fact, not a kefiyeh, nor was the scarf even made of the same material as a kefiyeh or even being worn in the style of the kefiyeh (or that it is Arab MEN who wear it) Fox News commentator Michelle Malkin suggested that the grayish-colored scarf was anti -American and could send a potentially dangerous message to Islamic extremists.

In response to Ms. Malkin's bizarre right-wing, Neo Con hysteria Dunkin' Donuts pulled the ad rather than face a firestorm of irrational backlash from outraged, misinformed Fox News watchers and conservative paranoid conspiracy theorists terrified at the thought of someone having the nerve to wear a scarf that reminded them of a kefiyeh in a coffee ad.

I read the reader comments to the Ad Age article and blogged a response.

The Boston Globe and LA Times picked up the story too. I steeled myself and read a sampling of the reader comments on Malkin's blog and many of them went easy on her, as it seems quite a few watch or have watched Rachel Ray and seemed rather puzzled at Malkin's out of left field observation.

Frankly, Malkin has been on a tirade about Dunkin' Donuts violating her views on immigration so the scarf thing seems much less about ideology or fact, than Malkin's own need to self-righteously pander to conservatives.

Oil is moving past $130 a barrel, there are food shortages around the world and President Bush and his inner circle are being confronted with former press secretary Scott McClellan's revelations that they lied to the American people about the Iraqi invasion - all Malkin can come up with is an Arab-Bashing link to a scarf?

She's Fox material all right, through and through.

Liz Trotta's Obama Gaff on Fox News Spark Debate

As if the mainstream media being all over Hillary Clinton for shooting herself in the foot yet again after invoking Senator Robert Kennedy's June 1968 assassination before the Democratic primary as justification for her continuing to stay in the race wasn't low enough, she takes the bizarre step of blaming the Obama campaign for fanning the flames in reaction to her own comments.

If THAT wasn't enough Hillary is probably relieved that the media focus on her controversial assassination comment was (temporarily at least) turned onto former Washington Times New York bureau chief Liz Trotta (pictured at left).

Trotta smugly jokes about Obama being assassinated. Look at the tape yourself, it's all over youtube.

Commenting on the implications of Hillary's Kennedy comment, she begins a somewhat typically pontificating inside-media-pundit answer, then clearly says, "...what we have here are people suggesting she wants to knock off Osama, (she recognizes she mistakingly said "Osama" instead of "Obama") then shakes her head and corrects herself, joking, "...uh, Obama, or both if we could." She laughs and the Fox commentator eggs her on suggesting: "Tell us what you really think!"

Typical fare for Fox News.

I'm not really familiar with anything Trotta has written, but you can get a glimpse of her sometimes right-wing leaning ideology from this Webpage from the Media Matters site.

Not surprising that she snidely let her take on Obama slip out on Fox, if the Media Matters page is any indication, she's just another entrenched Bill O'Reilly-like blowhard conservative spouting off and offering up muddled opinion with real facts.

Different Strokes for Different Folks?

When I was growing up there were a couple of popular mainstream half-hour television comedies that centered on cute black boys living with adopted white families.

There was Webster, starring Emanuelle Lewis but the most popular of the two by far was NBC's "Different Strokes" which aired from 1978 to 1985 and starred Gary Coleman as Arnold; he and his older brother Willis (played by Todd Bridges) were adopted by the wealthy Manhattan resident Mr. Drummond played by Conrad Bain. It was a funny show produced by Norman Lear that dealt with a range of complex racial themes and topics.

Recently there has been some media attention on transracial adoptions. The 1994 Multi-Ethnic Placement Act reflects an attempt by our government to lay out Federal standards and guidelines for the adoption of children from the foster care system.

On Tuesday the CNN.com Website reported that a group of leading adoption agency advocate groups urged changes in the Federal guidelines that specifically govern transracial adoptions in this country. The changes stem from a report released by the Evan B. Donaldson adoption institute, a group that lobbies to improve adoption laws and practices.

These groups are concerned that there hasn't been sufficient enforcement of amendments that strongly suggest proactive recruiting efforts to encourage "same race" parents to adopt African-American kids in order to more positively impact their cultural identity.

On average, black kids represent a higher percentage than white kids and also stay in the foster care system longer than their white counterparts - so I am led to wonder; what's more important?

A foster child having a parent, or a foster child having a parent of the same race and ethnicity? Should love be "color blind"?

Kudos to CNN for taking the lead in fostering dialogs about issues related to race and ethnicity in America.

McCain Parts Ways With Pastor Hagee

Back on April 25th I blogged about the mainstream media's analysis and treatment of Barack Obama's former Reverend Wright versus their examination of Pastor John Hagee; an early supporter of GOP presidential candidate John McCain.

McCain was never a member of Hagee's church in Houston, Texas but the Arizona Senator was content to tout his endorsement to score points with the millions of registered voters from "Bible Belt" regions who tend to align themselves with the Christian Coalition at election time.

Hagee is living proof that fundamentalist and evangelists Christians do not hold a monopoly on moral authority, logic or a reasoned interpretation of the Bible.

What a difference a month makes. The hornets in the nest of mainstream media were stirred up after Sam Stein penned a revealing piece on the Huffington Post Website detailing disturbing statements Hagee made in a sermon that seem to ascribe a biblical reasoning for Adolph Hitler's extermination of millions of European Jews during WWII.

Bruce Wilson first posted an audio recording of Hagee's sermon on his Talk To Action Website of the opinionated Pastor asserting that Hitler's Holocaust was a divinely inspired fulfillment of scripture.

The effect of the statements and their content were sufficient for McCain to finally cut the tether between his campaign and Hagee - and Pastor Hagee, insisting that his statements were taken out of context also withdrew his endorsement of McCain.

In the end this episode points to the power of the media to link a presidential candidate to statements made by religious leaders associated with them. Obama had nothing to do with Reverend Wright's bizarre ramblings nor did McCain have anything to do with Pastor Hagee's.

The more interesting question is the media's use of material made in the pulpit on Sunday mornings to paint a presidential candidate in a different light - even if it's not their own.

Many in the Blogosphere have all questioned why the media remained relatively hands-off on Hagee when he suggested the residents of New Orleans brought destruction upon themselves because of sin; or that the Old Testament foretold a US invasion of Iran.

Did the media storm kick in only after Hagee's bizarre assertion that the Holocaust and Hitler were fulfilling Biblical prophecy? Did the mainstream media lend equal analysis to the statements made by Wright and Hagee?

Federal Response Weighed in Wake of Sean Bell Decision

The City of New York and the NYPD may become the focus of a Federal probe as politicians step in to address the real issue of the Sean Bell case - the repeated shooting of unarmed African-American citizens by policemen.

US Rep John Conyers (pictured left) chairs the powerful House Judiciary Committee. He joined other New York politicians including Rep Charlie Rangell in filing a request for the Department of Justice to investigate civil rights violations of Sean Bell, Trent Benefield and Joseph Guzman.

In the wake of Judge Arthur Cooperman's dismissal of all charges against the three NYPD detectives who unleashed 50 shots into a car with three unarmed suspects killing one and wounding two, the civil rights division of the Justice Department and the FBI's New York field Office announced they will investigate the facts of the case.

For all of Judge Arthur Cooperman's legal interpretations, the real truth is an unacceptable trend continues. Where the New York court system routinely absolves officers of any responsibility for the use of excessive force in cases where they felt "threatened" or that "their lives were in danger" ( a definition so broad it overshadows logic and common sense) and as such felt the only option was to open fire.

It may be 2008 but it smells like 1908.

NYPD Off the Hook in the Shooting of Sean Bell

17 months after Sean Bell, Joseph Guzman and Trent Benefield were shot outside a Queens nightclub hours before Bell was to be married the State Supreme Court in Queens handed out a sentence of not guilty to the NYPD detectives who pumped 50 shots into a car full of unarmed African-American men.

Right now the Brian Leherer show is discussing the results of the trial, but in all reality what's to discuss?

The facts are now all too familiar to New Yorkers.

Once again three members of the NYPD pulled out their weapons and shot an unarmed African-American man and injured two others (one of the bullets went through the window of a local resident's home, another hit the local Air-Tran station) - and no one was convicted on any charges.

Detectives Oliver, Isnora and Cooper (Pictured above) face no charges and walk away as if nothing wrong happened. There's something wrong about this - there's something disturbing about a system that doles out acquittals to members of the "most highly-trained" police force in the world every time they shoot an unarmed back man in the city of New York.

As an African-American male I am outraged and I realize that I, and others like me, are essentially less than human in the eyes of the law-enforcement community who are supposed to "serve and protect".

Despite the fact that I pay taxes, graduated from college, am a working professional, have never been convicted of a crime or arrested and always go out of my way to assist strangers of all races - in the eyes of the NYPD I am the enemy and I am to be feared and my life means nothing.

As a human, a citizen of the United States and a resident of New York I am devastated and can only imagine what the victim's families are feeling after this perversion of justice.

Judge Cooperman, in rendering the verdict said to the packed court, “the police response with respect to each defendant was not found to be criminal.” My faith in the justice system of this city is totally shattered.

McCain Gets Tough on Katrina Response, But Will the Media Be Tough on John Hagee/

It's been interesting watching the mainstream media's reaction to John McCain openly courting the support of controversial Pastor John Hagee

In some ways, John Hagee makes Obama's former Pastor Jeremiah Wright seem tame by comparison. Hagee heads up the 18,000 member Cornerstone Church in San Antonio, Texas.

His bigoted comments are a matter of record, he believes that the Book of Esther in the Bible foretells a US invasion of Iran and the media seemed to all but ignore the fact that he blames the Katrina disaster on the city of New Orleans itself.

CNN's article talks about the media blitz of sorts McCain created when he took a 20-minute stroll/photo op through the hurricane-ravaged 9th Ward of New Orleans; part of his efforts to breech the Democratic strongholds in an effort to prove he's not just another GOP flunkie.

To be fair to McCain, he blasted the Bush administration and the Federal government for their pathetic response to the plight of thousands of impoverished citizens. But the CNN piece doesn't even mention John Hagee until the second to last paragraph!

Is that fair and balanced media analysis? Excerpts of recordings of Jeremiah Wright's explosive comments were repeatedly payed on radio, television and the Web in conjunction with links to Obama.

John Hagee is on television twice a day and what are we hearing about his views on homosexuals and immigrants, or that it's our religious destiny to invade Iran?

As Columbia University Graduate Journalism professor Thomas Edsall opined on the Huffingtonpost.com Website - the mainstream media is more focused on embracing the Clinton campaign's message that Obama can't carry the general election because of his race, than they are turning the spotlight onto John Hagee's record.

Hillary's not just openly playing the race card - she's got many members of the mainstream media playing the game too.

White Supremacist Kevin Strom Sentenced to 23 Months for Possession of Child Pornography

In his role as the leader of the white supremacist National Vanguard movement, Kevin Alfred Strom (pictured left) was widely considered one of the nation's leading right-wing Neo Nazi "intellectuals".

On April 21st a Federal Court sentenced the father of three to 23 months for possession of child pornography. Strom has been in jail since January 2007 after FBI agents raided his home and searched his home in response to allegations he'd been stalking a ten-year old 5th grade girl who was friends with his step-daughter.


Strom tried to defend himself claiming the kiddie porn was "unwillingly" downloaded onto his computer. Such statements contradicted reports by his wife Elisha who testified under oath that she secretly videotaped her hate-monger husband naked in front of his computer masturbating to child porn images on at least 25 occasions.

She noted that he had superimposed the heads of the Neo Nazi 14- year old blond-fraternal twin music duo from Bakersfield, California, Prussian Blue onto the nude bodies of adult porn images and masturbated to them.

The "stay-at-home" mother of the brainwashed young blond devotees of Adolph Hitler, April Gaede was an active member of Strom's National Vanguard movement. Her daughters were linked to the group as well.

As recently as 2005 former KKK leader and white supremacist David Duke openly gushed about this convicted pedophile on Duke's Website during an interview Strom conducted where among other things the two discussed their passion to be involved with a movement filled with people "motivated by love of their traditions and their values and their freedom."

Apparently those "traditions" include stalking young girls and trying to entice them to have sex. Fortunately Strom is "free" to think about it for the next 23 months - happily far away from pre-teen girls.

Will She Stay or Will She Go?

The world was pretty tough on Katie Couric (pictured left) last week.

From the time stories began circulating about internal rumblings over her precarious position as the news anchor for CBS News, the media wasted no time pouncing on one of their own.

After I paused to read the April 9th online article posted on TV Week's daily online feed online article about the speculation surrounding Couric leaving the news desk at CBS, I read two interesting reader comments and got sucked into the debate immediately.

I posted a first response then came back later and dropped a follow-up response after a very nice woman seemed to bristle at the thought of a group of misogynistic male bloggers picking on poor Katie.

This was by far the story of the week in New York. Rarely has the word 'Katie' been splashed on the cover of the New York Post with such abandon. Of course it was all over the Web too, I thought I the best media coverage was the WSJ online article.

We'll see how it plays out. The CBS brass aren't just going to sit there while their television news product resides in third place. Remember this is a brand journalists like Edward R. Murrow, Walter Cronkite and Dan Rather helped create.

Black Rock was quick to fire out a press release announcement on April 10th trumpeting their 'Victory' over Rather's $70 million lawsuit against CBS and Viacom. The last thing the 'Eye' network needed was any kind of spillover affecting their annual broadcast of the Master's this weekend.

The sparks should continue this week. The story has everything to do with how our culture perceives and interprets the stories and events that filter through the media pipeline.

Does it have more to do with the actual truth surrounding these events, or our emotional reactions to them?

Florida Woman & Two Mentally Disabled Friends Beaten for Refusing to Pay Money for Being White

The depraved depths of bigotry and ignorance no bounds, be they racial or moral.

On March 30th the Website of Channel 6 WKMG, in Orlando reported that four African- American men were being charged with a hate crime after a 62 year-old white woman and two mentally disabled men with her refused to pay the suspects a "fee" for being in Kaley Park and being white.

Is stupidity the only thing that's color-blind in this country?

April , 2008 Vogue Cover of LeBron James & Gisele Bundchen - Racist Imagery?

The monthly cover of Vogue magazine will never be confused with a bastion of multicultural imagery by any means, so it's hard to find fault with the world's elite fashion book when it finally puts an African- American male on the cover.

But the April, 2008 cover (pictured left) has generated a surprising amount of nationwide media coverage and public commentary; most of it negative.

The image of Cleveland Cavalier's basketball phenom LeBron James with model Gisele Bundchen cradled in his left arm continues to draw the attention of local and national media in print, on the Web and on television - where the Today Show had quite a debate.

In an article posted on the fashion industry trade magazine WWD's Website, some black editors and media critics pointed out that the picture points to the larger issue of the way mainstream media portrays African-American men in visual images. Many have even suggested it's sub-conscious reference to King Kong carting off the terrified blond female.

The Garden State's nj.com Website quotes a University of Maryland professor as saying the image only serves to reinforce long-held stereotypes of black men, particularly black athletes as savage brutes; the image depicts the laid back James with an intense, scowling open-mouthed snarl as he dribbles a basketball in one hand as he clutches the demure Bundchen with the other.

The controversial image also stirs comparisons to age old myths and hysterical fears about black men threatening white women with their sexuality - myths that once led to the lynching of thousands of innocent black men in this country.

To be fair, James himself seemed unfazed and dismissed criticism of his Vogue cover photo taken by Uber photographer Annie Leibovitz as one of many shots depicting a range of emotions. Maybe, but we see which one hit the stands.

No matter where you stand, it does illustrate an important issue that impacts our collective culturegeist - does the media intentionally manipulate images of black men to play on stereotypes?

Remember it wasn't that long ago that Time magazine presented OJ Simpson's arrest photo on the cover of it's June 27, 1994 - and editors intentionally darkened his skin color from the original photo to make him seem more menacing. Skeptical? Check it out, judge for yourself.

Or maybe people are just envious that James got to spend the day taking snapshots with one of the hottest women on the planet?

As Roy Johnson, editor-in-chief of Men's Fitness observed in the WWD article:

"It's a reminder that as African-Americans, we have come very far to have an African-American male featured on the cover of Vogue, but we have very far to go to continue to educate people within our industry regarding the power of images and the potential impact they can have on their readers."