BREAKING: Al Sharpton Is Not a Civil-Rights Hero.
A few years ago, progressive reporter Wayne Barrett dug up a detail worthy of Bonfire of the Vanities. He found that Comcast had paid Sharpton’s outfit, the National Action Network, some $140,000 as it was preparing to buy NBC/Universal. By remarkable coincidence, Sharpton gave his blessing to the merger, which was being opposed by black leaders such as Jesse Jackson on diversity grounds. By a still-more amazing coincidence Sharpton was, after the merger, given his own hour-long talk show on MSNBC, though today he is merely a frequent guest on the news network. Stuart Stevens at The Daily Beast wrote, “Sharpton is hardly alone in having spent decades vomiting hate, leaving innocent victims in his wake. What distinguishes Sharpton is the willingness of powerful people and organizations to look past the hate when they believe it may benefit them.”
Al Sharpton is a not a leading voice of anything except anti-Semitism. He seeks only to leverage racial resentment to advance the interests of Sharpton, to go “as far as his bullhorn audacity will carry him,” in the words of the New York Post columnist Bob McManus, who took Sharpton out to dinner once but drew the line at paying for the $350 glass of cognac Sharpton indicated he wanted. Making a career out of lies and hate has worked nicely for Sharpton, but only because the media and the Democratic party have served as his public-relations team.
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