Free Republic

Want to influence a casino bid? Polish your corporate image? Not be labeled a racist? Then you need to pay Al Sharpton. For more than a decade, corporations have shelled out thousands of dollars in donations and consulting fees to Sharpton’s National Action Network. What they get in return is the reverend’s supposed sway in the black community or, more often, his silence. Sony Pictures co-chair Amy Pascal met with the activist preacher after leaked e-mails showed her making racially charged comments about President Obama. Pascal was under siege after a suspected North Korean cyber attack pressured the studio to...

Al Sharpton is being paid thousands of dollars to not cry 'racism' at large corporations, it is claimed**SNIP** For more than 10 years, firms have reportedly handed over enormous donations and consulting fees to the activist preacher's National Action Network (NAN) In return for their cash, they have received Sharpton's supposed influence in the black community - or more often, his silence on the matter, it is reported. 'Al Sharpton has enriched himself and NAN for years by threatening companies with bad publicity if they didn’t come to terms with him,' said Ken Boehm, chairman of the National Legal &...

The family of Garner, along with Sharpton, led a moment of silence at the National Action Network in Harlem on Christmas for Officers Wenjian Liu and Rafael Ramos. The tribute occurred during an event to feed the homeless and senior citizen.The family of Eric Garner joined the Rev. Al Sharpton for a Christmas Day moment of silence honoring two cops murdered by a deranged killer out to avenge the Staten Island man’s death. Garner’s mother, Gwenn Carr, and his widow, Esaw Garner, paused for the moment of silence at the National Action Network headquarters in Harlem, where they were helping...

At a Christmas dinner at his National Action Network headquarters in Harlem, the Rev. Al Sharpton spoke of "doing something big" with Cardinal Timothy Dolan next year to unite New York City in the wake of divisions over the NYPD. "I talked with Cardinal Dolan yesterday, and after the first of the year we're talking about doing something big to bring the city together," Sharpton said to a packed audience of hundreds.

Here is a letter I sent today to C. Douglas McMillon, Walmart President and CEO: We ask that Walmart end its financial support of Al Sharpton and his organization, the National Action Network (NAN). The cold-blooded murder of two New York City police officers, Rafael Ramos and Wenjian Liu, follows weeks of Sharpton's vilification of law enforcement personnel. As you know, Walmart has helped bankroll Sharpton for years. Most recently, the company was a sponsor of Sharpton's 60thbirthday party in New York City, which reportedly was a fundraiser for NAN that raised a million dollars. We have repeatedly raised...

If the Rev. Al Sharpton, the bigoted, anti-Semitic, non-tax paying race-hustling poverty pimp, had any credibility left, it just vanished. The beneficiary of a lifetime of passes from our race-conscious mainscream media, Sharpton ran into an outlet not afraid of him — The Smoking Gun. They obtained material that exposed Sharpton as an FBI “informant.” Sharpton, of course, denies that this constitutes “snitching.” No, he says he “volunteered” to “cooperate” with the FBI — and for the most honorable of motives. Why would the government-hating “civil rights” leader cooperate with the feds? Sharpton told Joe Scarborough, co-host of MSNBC’s “Morning...

It was disappointing the other day to see President Barack Obama embracing the vulgar race hustler Al Sharpton. President Obama once eloquently confronted race in a memorable speech in Philadelphia in 2008. That speech was remarkable and honest and, to borrow a favorite word of the political left that still fawns over him, it was nuanced. But there was nothing particularly remarkable about Obama standing next to the preening Sharpton, speaking in New York to his National Action Network. Except that Obama expertly used a message of victimization to begin energizing black voters, who provide the electoral foundation for the...

Last Friday, in a speech at Al Sharpton’s National Action Network conference, President Obama proudly announced that the Justice Department had taken on more than 100 voting rights cases since 2009. The problem with that claim is that, since 2009, the Justice Department has taken on only 39 voting rights cases—and as former Voting Section lawyer Christian Adams points out, only 13 were related to protecting minority voting rights. And, with respect to some of the cases in which the department has been involved, it lost spectacularly—such as its false claim that South Carolina’s voter ID law was discriminatory. Perhaps...

Last week, the president's lap dog blew his dog whistle. In case you didn't know, in politics a "dog whistle" is coded language that has a superficial meaning for everybody, but also a special resonance for certain constituencies. Using dog whistles lets politicians deny they meant to say anything nasty, bigoted or controversial. Speaking to the National Action Network the day after a testy but racially irrelevant exchange with Republican members of a House panel, Attorney General Eric Holder said, "The last five years have been defined ... by lasting reforms even in the face of unprecedented, unwarranted, ugly and...

President Obama is lending his political support to fellow community organizer Al Sharpton by headlining the MSNBC host’s National Action Network (NAN) conference this week in New York. Obama’s choice to headline the conference underscores the close ties of the two leaders and provides an increased sense of political legitimacy to the controversial leader and his much-maligned organization. Sharpton’s conference is held in April "not just to commemorate the anniversary of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s assassination, but to honor his legacy by proactively engaging in dialogue that will spawn change." The NY Daily News reports that along with President...

Former Miss New Jersey USA Janaye Ingram has been appointed acting national executive director of the Rev. Al Sharpton’s National Action Network. Ingram, 33, has been in charge of the NAN’s Washington bureau and spearheaded the group’s historic 50th anniversary March on Washington. “I am deeply impressed with the leadership shown by Janaye Ingram,” Sharpton said Thursday Ingram, who was Miss New Jersey USA in 2004, said she was “honored” by the appointment. She’s taking the place of Tamika Mallory.

Al Sharpton's newest role - full-time anchorman - is now a reality. The New York City-based black activist, preacher and former presidential candidate launched his MSNBC-TV talk show, "PoliticsNation," on Monday, August 29, six days after the network tapped him for the 6-7 P.M. (EST) weeknight slot vacated in July by Cenk Uygur. The announcement wasn't unexpected. Sharpton frequently had substituted for Uygur. And MSNBC's parent company, Comcast Corp., for years has been a generous donor to Sharpton's nonprofit group, National Action Network (NAN). The elevation of Sharpton, with a long history of demagoguery and financial chicanery, to top-tier...

"Al Sharpton, anchorman" - the phrase has an undeniably odd ring. Yet on MSNBC it's already a part-time reality. And his close relationship to MSNBC's parent, Comcast Corp., may enable him to become full-time permanent host of the cable network's 6 P.M. news slot. If Sharpton gets promoted - the announcement could come any day - it would be the ultimate coup in his ongoing campaign to obtain respectability to cover a long history of racial incitement. It also might be a conflict of interest. Comcast, the nation's largest cable owner-operator, this January completed a $30 billion purchase of...

Barack Obama appears at hate group that inspired arson and murder at a Jewish-owned storeNew Tone? President Obama Kisses Sharpton's Ring reports, President Obama, embroiled in a furious battle over the federal budget, swept into New York last night for a star-studded celebration of the Rev. Al Sharpton's National Action Network and gave the beaming civil-rights leader a rousing slap on the back. Let's review the background of Al Sharpton and the National Action Network: the same racist and anti-Semitic hate group that inspired a deranged individual to set fire to a Jewish-owned store and kill seven of its employees.

Keeping the Dream Alive: President Obama's Work with the African American CommunityPosted by Michael Blake on April 08, 2011 at 10:30 AM EDT On Wednesday, April 6th, the National Action Network kicked off its 20th anniversary convention, celebrating "20 years of struggle, 20 years of progress, 20 years of shaping history." During the day, four Cabinet members--Education Secretary Duncan, Attorney General Holder, EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson and HUD Secretary Shaun Donovan--spoke to convention attendees about how the Obama Administration has been working with the African American community. That night, President Obama spoke at the Keepers of the Dream Awards Gala....

NEW YORK — The Rev. Al Sharpton is marking the 20th anniversary of his Harlem-based organization by teaming up with President Barack Obama and top White House officials to grapple with issues affecting black Americans.

I imagine these are dark days in the tastefully decorated offices of our congressional representative and speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi. Republicans only need to pick up 39 seats in the House of Representatives in order to be back in the majority, and pundits estimate that the Grand Old Party is poised to win 45 to 50 seats. A landslide for the Republicans would be a serious humiliation since a large but unofficial part of the speaker’s job is to keep the party in power. What will Pelosi do if Dems lose the majority and she loses her position...

  By any reasonable standard, Reverend Al Sharpton is the most powerful black civil-rights leader in New York City, if not the entire nation. So why are the finances of his nearly two-decade-old nonprofit organization, National Action Network (NAN), in such apparent shambles? A number of people, including the IRS, a prominent New York accounting firm and the management of Memphis' finest hotel, would like to know. Ironically, the group's troubles, highlighted in a recent investigative report appearing in the New York Post, have occurred despite an infusion of more than $100,000 from a philanthropy driven by one of...

Yesterday, Dr. Carl Horowitz of the NLPC staff spoke at the Colgate-Palmolive annual meeting in New York City in support of our resolution asking the company to disclose its charitable contributions. In the past year, Colgate had both ballyhooed and denied that it supports Sharpton’s group, the National Action Network (NAN). Horowitz forced CEO Ian Cook to admit that the company is a donor to NAN. Cook did not explain why the company denied it in October 2009. Here are Horowitz’ remarks:                 I’d like to focus on recent donations by Colgate-Palmolive to National Action Network, headed by Rev. Al Sharpton....

If Reverend Al Sharpton was radioactive to future President Barack Obama during the 2008 presidential campaign trail, he's become a virtual shadow member of the Obama's cabinet. The close working relationship between the radical black civil right leader and leading administration officials was very much in evidence last week at the Sheraton New York Hotel and Towers where Sharpton's nonprofit group, National Action Network (NAN), held its 12th annual convention. Obama cabinet members such as Health & Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius and Education Secretary Arne Duncan spoke at the heavily corporate-bankrolled four-day event, which featured top-echelon personalities drawn from...