Posted on 04/11/2008 8:47:37 AM PDT by AZ4ever
Where is the outrage over the racist use of the word n**** at an awards ceremony by powerful editor and owner Michael Lacey of the Phoenix New Times, who also owns at least half a dozen other weeklies across the country, including Village Voice weeklies? Other prominent persons of influence have been forced to step down for similar remarks, including Senator Trent Lott, talkshow host Don Imus, and Gov. George Allen of Virginia had to drop his presidential bid. Arguably Lacey’s remark was even more derogatory than Lott’s or Allen’s.
In his acceptance speech at the Society of Professional Journalists banquet, Lacey referred to a deceased employee of his whom he’d fired in a demeaning sense, as “my n****.” There were African-Americans present and one of them was there to receive an award for her son, the late Tribune sports writer Bob Moran.
None of the mainstream media has bothered to cover the story, except the East Valley Tribune. Billye Paulson, an African-American reporter for the Tribune, was present and sent Lacey an angry email afterwards. The Capitol Times Yellow Sheet, local Channel 3, local blogs including Arizona Majority, Red State Arizona, Lighthouse Blog, Oscar Tillman of the local NAACP and talkshow hosts like J.D. Hayworth have been the only ones calling Lacey out on this.
After they did, Lacey issued an apology - which wasn’t really an apology but mocked those who were offended by adding, “It is regrettable that any phrase of mine offended those attending a First Amendment awards banquet.”
This kind of racism must not be tolerated. Lacey needs to step down. Arizona does not need a reputation as a racist state, reinforcing old stereotypes about our state. We need to send a message to the rest of the country that Arizona does not tolerate racism.
Conservatives are racists, liberals are not. Anything a conservative says is hate speech. No matter how hate-filled liberal’s speeches are, it is only because they care. That is the MSM doctrine.
bullocks!
get over yourself
i listened to it, hes saying that guy was his pal,his mate “my nigger”
hes drunk like all journalists
Or was it “my nihgaz” or “my kneegrows”?
People should get over it.
“Lacey needs to step down.”
Disagree. Strongly. He’s a drunken bum, awash in his own sense of entitlement, but if the First Amendment is to mean anything, there can’t be this stupid sword hanging over everyone’s head who utters words. The words are offensive; not as offensive as his continued presence on earth, but still...
They’re only words. We need to be able to speak freely. At least we’ll know who the Laceys of the world are. But not only that. Meting out punishments for uttering criminal words only leads to the sort of double standard we see today. Replace it with a single standard that already exists in the form of the First Amendment. Once we began messing with that, we paved the way for the inevitable double standard. And anyone who whines about such a hypocritical standard needs only thank himself for permitting the concept of criminalizing words to continue.
"Right to not be offended"
The departure from common sense and principle, and resort to reactionary emotionalism, in the media, in politics, across the contemporary US, and even on FR, has made me view our society as the saddest of times. Hopefully this is an erroneous perception.
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