Erik Wemple of the Washington Post reports that the New Haven Register “has apologized to Fox News for suggesting that its views on race in America draw their inspiration from the heritage of the Ku Klux Klan.” Except they really haven’t.
In its apology, the paper does it again.
On Monday, in an editorial titled “The KKK, Ted Nugent and ‘mainstream’ racism,” the Register ripped into Fox News, claiming…
Meanwhile, though, the same basic message that the KKK has promoted for 148 years is embraced by the likes of Ted Nugent, Fox News, Ann Coulter, a burgeoning array of fringe “conservative” media and members of our own community commenting on stories on the New Haven Register’s website.
Nugent will be in New Haven Aug. 6 with prominent billing for a concert at respected local music institution Toad’s Place. He has brought the KKK’s traditional message to the mainstream — to the point of being embraced by the leaders of the Republican Party during the last presidential election campaign (against the re-election of a black president, it should be pointed out).
That message includes black people being an inferior race (note Nugent’s blanket statements that black people don’t work as hard as white people, are criminals, etc.), a fear of and opposition to immigration and expressions of disgust and hatred toward gay people.
The KKK has historically billed itself as a vigilante group, a concept that the gun-glorifying Nugent and supporters of George Zimmerman, “stand your ground” laws and the profiling of young black men in hoodies embrace as well.
Yikes.
Apparently the Register missed Alec Baldwin being given a pass by all of the mainstream media after he openly called for violence against a gay man and hurled more anti-gay slurs than the staffers at BuzzFeed.
The Register also must not know about CNN star, Nancy Grace, using her primetime HLN program to accuse a Hispanic man of spending all day at Taco Bell eating churros.
Fox News is guilty of only broadcasting opinions that make the left uncomfortable, not spewing open racism or covering up for someone on their side who is guilty of spewing homophobic threats.
At any rate, the Register “apologized” Thursday by… once again comparing Fox news to the KKK:
It was a poor choice of words that created an unfortunate comparison between Fox News and the KKK. We’re sorry for that. We did not intend to make any such comparison. This comparison should have been more specific to Nugent’s and Coulter’s views and statements about people of color, immigrants and gay people, and to be clear, was relating that to the ideology of the KKK, not its abhorrent history of violence.
Well, okay then.
Wemple notes that O’Reilly ripped the Register Wednesday night:
…they know they cannot defend that vile, libelous piece of garbage. The “New Haven Register” should be ashamed. The paper has lost all credibility and it had better apologize in writing by the end of the week. I’m not going to let this go.
Follow John Nolte on Twitter @NolteNC
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