GOP Presidential Contenders Back Call for Univision Debate Boycott

....The Miami Herald on Sunday reported that network employees and staff members from Rubio’s office claimed Lee offered to soften or kill the story if the senator gave the network an interview.

Univision spokeswoman Monica Talan was not immediately available to comment Tuesday.

According to the Herald, Univision’s assistant general counsel called the reported deal absurd and stated that Lee would not step down.

In their letter, the three lawmakers state: “This attempt at extorting a respected Republican elected official like Senator Rubio, who is also a proud American of Hispanic descent, is offensive and unacceptable. The lack of journalistic integrity demonstrated by Univision Television Network must be met with consequences from our party and our Republican leaders.”

Perry communications director Ray Sullivan informed Univision of his decision not to attend the debate until the network addresses the reported “ethical breach.”

“Governor Rick Perry and our team just learned of Univision’s attempt to unethically pressure a prominent Republican elected official to provide access to the station in return for Univision spiking or softening a story about a relative,” Sullivan stated. ”Even in this time of ever-changing media techniques, Univision’s unethical tactics stand out. Univision’s heavy-handed behavior has no place in the political or public policy area.”...

Texas Chief Justice Wallace Jefferson Says Ranch [Rock] Furor an Overreaction

Rick's Rock vs. Rev. Wright

Beating the Racism Card [snip] ...."This tells us how to handle these accusations. You don't go along with the script. The script is there to humiliate and destroy, and that is all. Instead, you defy it. Stand up to the accusers and run them off. Since their only power comes from numbers, use numbers against them. The next time an attack occurs during this campaign (as it inevitably will, and probably aimed at Perry), all the candidates must stand as one against the accusers..... The candidates, through public media statements, must make clear their full support of the intended victim. No weasel-wording, no equivocation, no ambiguity. A general statement, signed by all of them, should then be released, presenting a succinct and logical argument as to why such accusations are unacceptable, with each swearing that he or she will stand by the others in any such situation, and ending with a condemnation by name of the accuser.

This can be taken further by conservative columnists, bloggers, and talk-show hosts. The accuser(s) should be keelhauled. The goal will be to make them as miserable as they intended their victims to be, which would act as a form of aversion therapy, forcing them to think twice and then three times about ever pulling the same trick again. (Need I add that the process would also prove valuable in cases involving Congress, industry, state politicians, media, and anywhere else such accusations may arise?)

What will happen is that the accusers will retreat. They are bullies, and that is what bullies do. (Even Andre Carson, a blowhard and loudmouth of the first order, has thought better of his "lynching" comment.) The media will give the GOP candidates all the publicity any pol could want. The GOP voters will go wild. Any further accusations will be unlikely, a benefit to all candidates equally. It would mean a cleaner campaign, an easier victory, and who knows? Perhaps even a step toward a more civil society.

For too long, too many blacks have wallowed in their own private sumps of self-pity, collapsing into whimpers every time somebody mentions blackmail, blackouts, or black markets. It's a pathetic epilogue to the heroism and grandeur of the civil rights movement. It's past time this adolescent posturing was put aside.

It will take some effort to accomplish this. (We'll refer only to the fact that the current incumbent has made no such effort whatsoever.) But the black grievance-hunters are no better than the Dixiecrats of old, using the same methods to keep Americans on edge, in fear, and overcome with anxiety. Using racism for political gain is a cheap and coarse tactic no matter who is involved. It needs to be ended." [end]

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