For Immediate Release: Keith Appell (703) 683-5004 - Thursday, October 28, 1999
Vol. 3, No. 40
On Monday, CBS Begins Assaulting Morning Viewers with Bryant Gumbel's Bias on The Early Show
Gumbel: America is Hopelessly Racist
Bryant Gumbel begins a new career as a morning
show host with the Monday debut of The Early Show on CBS. The Boston Globe
reported, "Gumbel demanded and received assurances from his bosses that he
wouldnt get called into the principals office every morning for
speaking his mind." When Gumbel used NBCs Today to speak his mind on
race, he often found America was hopelessly racist, especially conservatives:
- "Blacks have looked at the past
eight years and seen this administration retreat from civil rights, retreat from
affirmative action, make South Africa no priority, continue to see a greater disparity
economically between blacks and whites, foster a spirit of racism that hasnt been
seen in 20-plus years." To Bush campaign manager Lee Atwater, January
19, 1989 Today.
- "This test is not going to tell
you whether youre a racist or a liberal." Previewing his prime-time
special The Racial Attitudes and Consciousness Exam (RACE), September 5, 1989 Today.
- "George Bush has been at the
focal point of incidents that have exacerbated race relations in this country....the
Willie Horton affair, for example. Making affirmative action a front-and-center proposal.
Constantly discussing welfare as a problem in this country. Things that really separate
the races rather than bring them together." May 18, 1992 Today.
- "If Im a young black man
in South Central L.A., where poverty is rampant and unemployment is skyrocketing, I see
that Washingtons promises of a year ago have gone unfulfilled, I see that perhaps
for a second time, the courts inability to mete out justice in a blind fashion, why
shouldnt I vent my anger?" To U.S. Rep. Maxine Waters
(D-Calif.)
on the Los Angeles riots over the first Rodney King verdict, April 15, 1993, Today.
- "Gumbel opposed the violent
reaction [the L.A. riots], but would not condemn it. Everyone is quick to want you
to condemn them, but some of us that are sitting in this position feel uncomfortable being
asked to do that, he said. When the violence was being perpetrated on these
people on an ongoing basis, did America see it? Certainly not, he said. Black
people are being killed by the handfuls in that area on an ongoing basis, and basically
America doesn't care." From a Knight-Ridder news story by Marc
Gunther, May 13, 1993.
- "Its been written that
being black in America is like being a witness at your own lynching. Why didnt your
experience make you more resentful than you are today?" To
criminal-turned-Washington Post reporter Nathan McCall, March 22, 1994 Today.
- "Youre aligned to a party
which owes many of its victories to the so-called religious right and other conservative
extremists who are historically insensitive to minority concerns. That doesnt bother
you?" To U.S. Rep.-elect J.C. Watts (R-Okla.), November 9, 1994 Today.
- "I dont know if I have a
liberal bent...But it is fair to say its very difficult for a black man in this
country to be of a conservative bent. Thats a fair statement. Its very
difficult to be an African-American male, and have an African- American son who is going
to be 18 years of age, and hear things like cops want to crack down and send more to
prison, to hear calls for tougher statutes, less welfare, less programs for the poor, and
less things for people of color. If that says Im not conservative, so be it."
In the January 2, 1997 USA Today, a day before his last morning at Today.
- "I said to somebody that if
O.J. killed his first wife, Marguerite [who is black], and her friend, then do I think
George Will and William F. Buckley would have written about it? No way. Not on Gods
green earth. They wouldnt have even noticed." In a Los Angeles
Times Magazine profile, January 12, 1997 (Brackets theirs). --
Tim Graham
L. Brent Bozell III, Publisher; Brent Baker, Tim Graham, Editors;
Jessica Anderson, Brian Boyd, Geoffrey
Dickens, Mark Drake, Paul Smith, Brad
Wilmouth, Media Analysts; Kristina Sewell, Research
Associate. For the latest liberal media bias, read the
CyberAlert at
www.mrc.org. |
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