Last updated on February 8th, 2013 at 12:44 am
Bill Maher has done something the media refuses to do. He actually looked at the images used in conservative media and called out their racism.
Here is the video from Mediaite:
Maher was talking about Gwyneth Paltrow’s N-word tweet and said, “I would just like to say the problem with racism is not Gwyneth Paltrow. The problem with racism is Matt Drudge. I picked from Matt Drudge’s website, just over a month, we monitored this. Just as a couple, show some of the pictures that were on Matt. There, Mike Tyson looking like he’s going to eat your head. Oh yes, Louis Farrakhan, because he’s so relevant now. Oh, and Marion Barry, he’s in the news every day also. Oh yes, Reverend Wright, because he matters to your life so much. This is who appears on the Drudge Report. Oh yes, and there’s Al Sharpton telling Eric Holder what he should do. And Michael Jordan angry because that’s how we all remember him.”
Hallelujah!!!! Somebody in the mainstream finally gets it. Maher used Drudge as his example, but anyone who visits conservative websites on any given day will be given a dose of this not so subtle messaging.
There was Obama’s Hip Hop BBQ from Fox Nation:
The Daily Caller with the classic, “we aren’t racists, they are” headline (complete with scary black man photo):
Breitbart’s image of Michelle Obama as the angry, threatening, black woman:
All of the photographs share some common traits. The African-Americans in each photo have their mouths open. If their mouths aren’t open, they have a look on their faces that could be considered threatening. Even the one person who is smiling (Charles Barkley) is shown at an angle where his smile could be interpreted as sinister.
The point of these photos, and the ones Maher showed, is fear. Conservative websites are spreading fear among their white audiences that, “the blacks” are taking over. Painting African-Americans in a threatening light is also a way to revive racial fissures and politically divide the country.
The mainstream media condones this imagery everyday by saying nothing. They only speak when the disrespect and racism grows too big and too obvious to ignore. For example, they notice when a conservative reporter interrupts the president in the middle of his remarks; otherwise the media is happy to pretend like this type of racist messaging doesn’t exist.
Bill Maher went to where the mainstream media won’t go, and it wasn’t difficult to do. The racism is easy to identify. The right wing media isn’t hiding it. It’s out there every day for anyone who wants to find it. All they have to do is open their eyes and look.
Awards and Professional Memberships
Member of the Society of Professional Journalists and The American Political Science Association
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