Shakedown artist Al Sharpton has now been unmasked as a shakedown artist. That’s the summation of a new report by the Daily Mail (UK), which finds that Sharpton has been “paid thousands of dollars to not cry ‘racism’ at large corporations.”
According to the National Legal and Policy Center head Ken Boehm, “Al Sharpton has enriched himself and [National Action Network] for years by threatening companies with bad publicity if they didn’t come to terms with him.”
Sharpton has routinely targeted major businesses after controversial incidents, demanding concessions from them; those businesses, rather than ignoring him as the racial arsonist he is, instead meet with him, granting him legitimacy and cash in return for him granting them absolution. At the end of the year, Sony Pictures co-chair Amy Pascal welcomed Sharpton to her studio after an email hack revealed that she had sent racially insensitive jokes to producer Scott Rudin about President Obama’s supposed preferences for movies like Django Unchained and 12 Years a Slave.
The year before, Sharpton shook down Barney’s New York after allegations that the retailer had utilized the NYPD as a sort of racial brute squad; Barney’s caved to Sharpton, offering “our sincere regret and deepest apologies.” A report from the US Commission of Civil Rights member Michael Yaki later found that Barney’s had not participated in racial profiling. But that didn’t stop Barney’s from shelling out over $500,000 in an accord reached with state Attorney General Eric Schneiderman.
Going back to 2003, according to the NLPC, Sharpton slammed Honda for not hiring more blacks but curbed his criticism immediately upon receiving a notarized check from Honda for NAN. NAN is also sponsored by Macy’s, General Motors, and Pfizer.
Sharpton routinely exploits the power of shouting “racist” in a hyperactive media world. And that shouting need not be based on fact. The accusation alone is enough to generate dollars for him, and national rehabilitation at the hands of a compliant press and an allied White House.
Ben Shapiro is Senior Editor-At-Large of Breitbart News and author of the new book, The People vs. Barack Obama: The Criminal Case Against The Obama Administration (Threshold Editions, June 10, 2014). He is also Editor-in-Chief of TruthRevolt.org. Follow Ben Shapiro on Twitter @benshapiro.
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