I sent the following letter to the editors of MSNBC this morning. Did anyone else see Pat Buchanan on MSNBC yesterday (4-12) giggling about Barack Obama being shot in the back by a disgruntled PA deer hunter, ha ha?
Letter to the Editors at MSNBC,
I am a very busy person and have better things to do than spending time writing you a letter on a precious Sunday morning. But I saw something on your channel so egregious and sickening yesterday I had to take the time to express my outrage.
I have been concerned for a long time as I have witnessed the anti-Obama rhetoric on your channel, particularly coming from Pat Buchanan. He has an obvious agenda that is hell-bent on using his position to make sure Barack Obama does not reach the white house. With a straight face he compares the racism blacks have faced in our country’s history to whites being outraged at being called "typical." His racist screed on his website legitimizing white hatred of blacks was so over the line I thought for sure you would fire him as you did Imus (which I believe was absolutely the right thing to do and long, long overdue).
A Brief for Whitey by PJB
I was watching, jaw dropping, when he told a black female commentator to "shut up" and thought that might open the eyes of the powers that be at MSNBC to what a hate-filled and angry man this is, threatened by fear of a changing world. But every morning, there he is again with his privileged white homogeneous 1950s worldview professing to be speaking for the underprivileged, working class, "salt of the earth" white folks living in places like the Rust Belt. This guy is completely out-of-touch with the real people in this country who struggle to pay their bills and fear losing their jobs and health care and lives as they know them. And not all "real" Americans are white by the way. Pat Buchanan is the mouthpiece for the fear-of-a-black-planet crowd.
Instead of constantly blathering on and on about how Barack Obama can’t win whitey's vote, why don't Pat and Morning Joe talk about the fact that Hillary Clinton can’t win the black vote because of the way she and her husband have run their campaign? Can Hillary win in the general election if all the black voters (and kids and people with principles) stay home? Why don’t they talk about that? It is just as legitimate a topic of discussion about electability as "Barack can’t win the white vote" but is not the narrative Pat and Joe want to push.
All this is bad enough, but yesterday (Saturday, April 12) what I saw/heard Pat Buchanan casually say on the air was so appalling, racist, and inciting of violent behavior that I could not believe what I heard, even coming from Pat Buchanan.
When discussing Barack Obama's comment about small town America to supporters in San Francisco, Pat Buchanan, who was making the point ad nauseum about how elitist and out of touch with white voters Barack Obama is, actually said this (not an exact quote but very close):
"He'd better watch himself in deer hunter country, talking like that, heh heh heh."
Yes, he actually snickered and laughed like it was the funniest thing in the world that some white, "salt of the earth," Pennsylvania deer hunter would feel entirely justified in shooting Senator Obama in the back, ha ha, being such an elitist from the big city and out of touch with real Americans and all. Alek Witt and the other pundit-on-duty laughed right along with it, "Oh Pat," she said, "You boys are my favorites, ha ha."
What is the matter with these people?!?!?!?!?!
They are sick. This is not funny. Pat Buchanan should be fired immediately for recklessly justifying and inciting the assassination of Barack Obama and laughing about it. I am not kidding. This is not mainstream! This is dangerously sick talk and Pat Buchanan and MSNBC should apologize to Barack Obama and all the good white folks in PA who like to hunt deer and not black people.
We have the possibility of having the first truly transformative president of my lifetime (I am 50), a real leader who could change this country into one that actually cares about and answers to all its people, not just the powerful and wealthy. I'm not naïve enough to expect a corporate media entity such as MSNBC to objectively report what is happening when so much of the status quo they are a part of is at stake. But is it too much to ask that you not encourage overt racist hate speech and blatant incitements to violence? I don’t know any other way a reasonable person could interpret Mr. Buchanan's casual, light-hearted comments about shooting Barack Obama. Do you really want to be implicitly responsible for encouraging the murder of this man who is the only hope for many of us? If Barack Obama is killed by some maniac, there will be no hope for the future of this country. Tell Pat Buchanan it isn’t funny. Tell him what he said is not acceptable in a civilized country. Tell him he is no longer welcome in America’s living rooms or in your studios. Thank-you.