Senator Tim Scott of South Carolina is probably tired of questions about being a black man in the Republican Party. The liberal media that continues to ask him about it can’t hide their own racism — as if Scott is too stupid to think for himself and doesn’t want to join others on the Democratic Party plantation.
But the journalists are oblivious to their own racist attitudes. They believe they occupy a position of moral supremacy over Republicans despite all the evidence to the contrary.
NBC’s Craig Melvin of the network’s “Third Hour” of the “Today Show” apparently just couldn’t help himself.
The moment occurred during an interview with NBC’s Craig Melvin, who pressed Scott to respond to a number of questions about the senator’s efforts toward criminal justice reform and the White House’s response to the national debate surrounding the wrongful death of George Floyd.
“Senator, you have faced a fair amount of criticism,” Melvin said, “especially over the past few days, because you are the only black Republican senator.“
Now, one would think that because there are so few blacks in the Senate, Scott’s position alone would be cause for celebration. Not so. And if he is the only black Republican senator, why should that be a cause of criticism?
The NBC anchor, who is black, added, “Some have said that your party is using you, they’ve even thrown around the word ‘token,’ as well. Your response to that criticism?”
“Some people say” or the ubiquitous “studies show” are code words for, “I say” and “This is what I think.” It’s rank dishonesty that lazy reporters who don’t want to prepare for an interview with an intelligent man fall back on to make themselves sound knowledgable and urbane.
So, to maintain the appearance of objectivity, and to dodge being held responsible for stating their own controversial thoughts, reporters often couch their questions in terms of a shadowy “they” who are saying something. The extra pathetic thing in the specific case of Melvin’s interview with Scott is that the NBC anchor does not quite seem to believe that the senator is a “token.” Melvin does appear to believe, however, that there may be merit to the criticism, so he goes so far as to give airtime to nameless persons — remember, the anchor offers no citation for the slur against Scott — who say the senator is a puppet of his mostly white overlords. This is only one step below Melvin himself outright calling Scott a “token.”
It doesn’t matter if the reporter is black, white, red, yellow, green, orange, or pink polka-dot. Melvin’s smug superiority stems from bias so profound that he’s oblivious to his own partisan viewpoint.
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