When does Megyn Kelly like President Barack Obama and Baltimore Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake? When they use the word “thug” to describe the black looters during the Freddie Gray protests.
Last night, Pastor Jamal Bryant, of the Empowerment Temple, tried his best to explain to Kelly about the objectionable double standard of terminology applied to white protesters or rioters and those who are African American.
But Kelly was too busy beefing up her conservative, white cred for her aging, white viewers to pay any attention to what Bryant was trying to say.
BRYANT: When you put in perspective that on April 12, at the Pentagon, Donald Rumsfeld said you cannot charge U.S. armed forces for lawlessness and for looting, that is the cost of freedom that comes with it, coming out of a dictatorship.
KELLY: So you’re kind of dodging. I don’t know why we’re talking about Donald Rumsfeld.
BRYANT: He exonerated them. …I’m saying that we colorize the word "thug." …Thug behavior, by virtue of the definition, you don’t want to apply it to lawmen, breaking through Baghdad and, in fact, arresting black people in Baltimore as thugs. We have colorized the word thug.
Bryant was correct about Rumsfeld, though the phrasing was a bit inapt. On April 12, 2003, CNN reported, “Declaring that freedom is “untidy,” Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said Friday the looting in Iraq was a result of “pent-up feelings” of oppression… “Stuff happens,” Rumsfeld said. …”And while no one condones looting, on the other hand one can understand the pent-up feelings that may result from decades of repression and people who’ve had members of their family killed by that regime, for them to be taking their feelings out on that regime.”
Bryant also cited rioting after the NCAA basketball championship final. Fox’s sister media outlet, New York Post reported on “rowdy” and “unruly” fans without using the word “thug,” at least not in this report. He could have also noted that when white lawbreaker Cliven Bundy and his militia pals threatened federal law enforcers with armed insurrection, Fox made him a hero. We can just imagine the disparity in treatment if a group of African American protesters decided they didn’t recognize government ownership of some public property, holed up somewhere with guns and dared the police to come after them.
Kelly not only didn’t see Bryant’s point, she didn’t even want to hear it. She repeatedly interrupted to make such statements as, “I’m thinking 'thugs' is not far off the mark.” She also sneered sarcastically, “So the mayor of Baltimore and Barack Obama, they’re racists” because they used the 'thug' description, too."
Ironically, this may be the one time Kelly and Fox News did not paint Obama as a racist.
Watch it above, from this Thursday's The Kelly File.
Crossposted from News Hounds.
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