MEDIA GO NUTS OVER REV. JACKSON'S REMARK
Thursday, July 10 2008
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"Nuts" may not have been one of the words listed in George Carlin's "Seven Words You Can Never Say on Television," but most television broadcast and cable channels and many newspapers acted as if it were when reporting on Rev. Jesse Jackson's apology for remarks that he made about Barack Obama in a Fox News Channel studio in Chicago when he thought his microphone was not turned on. Prior to the apology, video recordings of Jackson's (bleeped) remarks quickly spread over the Internet and were later picked up by other media outlets. Speaking barely above a whisper, Jackson is seen remarking that he wants to cut Obama's "nuts out" for "speaking down to black people." Politico.com reported that CNN anchors Don Leon and Wolf Blitzer "danced around the issue" as they interviewed Jackson later, "daintily referring to everything from Obama's 'manhood' to 'genitals,' 'male private parts,' to 'castration.'" The New York Times called it "a crude reference" and Brit Hume on Fox News later talked about "a certain part of [Obama's] anatomy." Later, Bill O'Reilly commented on his own Fox program that his network was not airing the video to embarrass Jackson. "If we were, we would have used what we had, which is more damaging than what you have heard," O'Reilly said.
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