Leftist news groups denies if this was reversed it would be playing across the national media.
FOX News deliberately stirred up racial tensions again last night (5/3/07) on Hannity & Colmes. This time, they re-aired a cell phone video of a black-against-white fist fight in a high school, then allowed a radio show host (with no evident connection to the incident) the opportunity to opine that he “knew” it was a hate crime against the white student because otherwise “Jesse and Al” would have been complaining about a hate crime against blacks. “And that is what is the biggest problem in this country.”
For once, I have to give commend both Sean Hannity and Alan Colmes for their fair-minded treatment of the incident and their refusal to sensationalize it. However, there was simply no excuse for FOX News to re-air the amateur video which had been shown the night before, much less bring on a radio show host rather than an educator, a parent, or an expert in school violence or race relations to discuss it. Chuck Booms’ only “expertise” seemed to be his enthusiastically bigoted convictions.
Booms told Hannity, “There’s no question about it and the question that I have and that I’m more than willing to talk about and noone in the country seems to talk about is why is this not a hate crime? It’s obvious we have a white student who’s being attacked by two African Americans. If this is reversed, we know what we get on the national media.”