MSNBC apologizes for comparing Romney to the KKK
By Virginia SmithDecember 15th, 2011, 4:45 pmComments (11)
Like so many of the Republican Party's current presidential hopefuls, Mitt Romney is a lot of unfortunate things. But I think we can all agree that "raging Klansman" is probably (hopefully?) not one of them. As such, MSNBC has been forced to issue an apology after daytime anchor Thomas Roberts reported on a blog item directly comparing Romney's campaign slogan to Ku Klux Klan propaganda.
"So you may not hear Mitt Romney say 'Keep America American' anymore, because it was a rallying cry for the KKK group, and intimidation against blacks, gays and Jews, and the progressive AMERICAblog was the first to catch on to that." Meanwhile, a graphic at the bottom of the screen read, "Romney's KKK slogan?"
After immediate complaints from Romney's camp over unspecified "misreporting," Chris Matthews took to Hardball to apologize on behalf of the network, citing an "appalling lack of judgment" for the "irresponsible and incendiary" report.
Some people are unsure of why the apology was actually needed, though, since Romney has been using the phrase "Keep America American" in stump speeches, and the term was, in fact, popularly used in Klan materials in the 1920s, and even before that, by the anti-immigrant "Know Nothing Party" in the 1850s. "It's not entirely clear what they're apologizing for," said blogger John Aravosis, who penned the original blog post cited on MSNBC. "The story is true. Keep in mind, that even Romney is now claiming, between the lines, that President Obama is a socialist. So why shouldn't America be asking if Mitt Romney is a Klansman?"
So really, no one here really comes out shining. For its part, MSNBC reported a story verbatim from a blog without doing any of the additional, you know, reporting, that a news network is supposed to do. For his part, Romney is kind of campaigning around a slogan linked to and popularized by the Ku Klux Klan. Ouch.
Commentarium (11 Comments)
"Keep in mind, that even Romney is now claiming, between the lines, that President Obama is a socialist. So why shouldn't America be asking if Mitt Romney is a Klansman?"
Wow... Being a socialist is on par with being a klan-member? Wow... McCarthism is alive and well in the USA.
Asking if Romney is a Klansmen is stupid and going too far. He obviously isn't. Pointing out that he shares a campaign slogan with them, however, is not.
Yep. Baby boomers will keep shitting on Socialism while clinging to their medicare and social security until they finally keel over.
Come after my Medicare-paid-for hoverchair, and I'll'"keel" you!
Teabaggers, what unbelievable hypocrites.
Romney is closer to being a Klansman, than Obama is to being a Marxist.
Have you read the Mormon book Pearl of Grate Price? Or heard of the Mormon story of how all the bad indians, who were dark skinned, killed off all the good indians, who had white skin? Thereby serving as a 19th century collective consciousness excuse for killing and stealing from Native Americans?
I heard Obama use the word "the" the other day. You know who else uses the word "the"? Me. And I'm a serial pornography user. That means Obama is one, too.
Check and mate.
I'm sure that's equivalent to a monkey randomly typing out the word " the ". Congratulations, monkey man, for coming down out of the trees and joining the neo cons in another, not so subtle, attempt at coding. I won't be cutting a neo con any slack for the next thousand years. Repubitards don't deserve the benefit of the doubt regarding a racist slogan, considering the ease of use of something called "Googling".
And it was just a coincidence.
Still waiting on evidence for the 90,000 tons of WMD in Iraq, teabaggers.
Can't believe it. Fake?
Fox says one thing and this guy complains, MSNBC says another thing and THIS guy complains. It sucks. Can anyone just report facts without the slant. I doubt it, and we wonder why politics sucks.
We're missing a crucial apology here- the one from Romney. Doubt we'll ever get it.
Now you say something