I wonder if most African-Americans would say that he is, or think him to be “exempt?”
Of course they will.
Don't matter.
African Americans are NOT in charge of the news or editorial departments at the top media outlets of America.
Without the second-day, third-day, fourth-day, repeat, repeat, echo effect as practiced by AP, Reuters, Knight-Ridder, PBS, BCC, and CNN - a story that is bad for a liberal will simply die on the vine, as they say.
As someone who worked at two fairly large daily newspapers, I can categorically say that mainstream disseminating news outlets, such as the AP and Reuters, will NOT pick up stories that are damaging to Democrat/liberals.
And if a story fails to get repeated on the wire, it goes no where.