CNN camerawoman taunted at RNC because she is black?
Republican vice presidential candidate, U.S. Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI) does a soundcheck during the third day of the Republican National Convention at the Tampa Bay Times Forum on August 29, 2012 in Tampa, Florida.
A Black CNN camerawoman was harassed at the Republican National Convention ahead of the 2012 elections on Tuesday. Was racism behind the African American worker being pelted with peanuts and subjected to offensive language?
August 29, the Hollywood Reporter called the RNC incident "ugly," saying that the alleged racist acts from a pair of convention-goers led to their ejection by convention authorities.
Sources say a CNN camerawoman was taunted by the pair, who yelled, "This is how we feed animals" while pelting her with peanuts at the Republican National Convention.
Later, the GOP released a statement that read:
"Two attendees tonight exhibited deplorable behavior. Their conduct was inexcusable and unacceptable. This kind of behavior will not be tolerated."
Obviously, the alleged racism and taunting towards the CNN camerawoman couldn't have come at a worse time. To its credit, the GOP has worked so hard to repair its stereotypical image of being the party of exclusion that largely caters to big business and rich Americans.
Ironically, the same night the alleged racist acts took place, Governor Nikki Haley (Indian descent) from South Carolina, Florida Senator Marco Rubio (Cuban-American) and ex-Alabama Congressman, Artur Davis (African American) were scheduled speakers at the 2012 Republican Convention.
Unfortunately, the matter has not been given much attention in the media, as many consider race-relations a "soft-issue" during an election year.
What's more, issues like abortion, healthcare and the economy are typical town hall meeting topics that both sides seem eager to talk about.
Nevertheless, the taunting of the CNN camerawoman, who happens to be African American, sheds light on the fact that Blacks, Whites, Latinos, Asians, Jews, Muslims, and others are not yet on even playing fields. And while it is likely not a Republican-sanctioned act, racism is alive and well in this country.
GOP convention attendees ejected after harassing black camerawoman
Photo courtesy of Shutterstock.com
Two attendees at the Republican National Convention were tossed from the Tampa Bay Times Forum after an apparently racist incident directed at a CNN camerawoman.
The attendees threw nuts at the woman, who is black, and said "This is how we feed animals," according to multiple sources. Police and convention security removed the two men.
"Multiple witnesses" saw the incident, CNN reported. In a statement, convention organizers said, "This kind of behavior will not be tolerated."
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Posted Wednesday, Aug. 29, 2012, at 9:10 AM ET
New Jersey Governor Chris Christie speaks at the Tampa Bay Times Forum in Tampa, Florida, on August 28, 2012
Photo by Stan Honda/AFP/GettyImages.
Here's a story from last night's GOP convention that Republicans could no doubt live without as they make their pitch to the American public this week.CNN reports: "Two people were removed from the Republican National Convention Tuesday after they threw nuts at an African-American CNN camera operator and said, 'This is how we feed animals.'
"Multiple witnesses observed the exchange and RNC security and police immediately removed the two people from the Tampa Bay Times Forum."
The cable news network isn't giving the story a lot of play this morning, and only posted an item on it afterTalking Points Memo first reported the news last night. Nonetheless, it is probably worth pointing out that the CNN post makes no effort to soften its lede with "allegedly" or anything similar.
The official statements coming from RNC organizers and the CNN brass last night provide only vague details of what happened.
Convention organizers: "Two attendees tonight exhibited deplorable behavior. Their conduct was inexcusable and unacceptable. This kind of behavior will not be tolerated."
And CNN's statement: "CNN can confirm there was an incident directed at an employee inside the Tampa Bay Times Forum earlier this afternoon. CNN worked with convention officials to address this matter and will have no further comment.”
The first account of the incident, unsurprisingly, came via Twitter in the form of a tweet from former MSNBC and Current anchor David Shuster: "GOP attendee ejected for throwing nuts at African American CNN camera woman + saying 'This is how we feed animals.'"
RNC attendee tossed for harassing black CNN camerawoman
Tuesday night in Tampa, an attendee at the Republican National Convention was escorted out of the building for allegedly harassing an African American woman.
Talking Points Memo reported that a man threw nuts at a black CNN camerawoman while saying, “This is how we feed animals.”
“CNN can confirm there was an incident directed at an employee inside the Tampa Bay Times Forum earlier this afternoon. CNN worked with convention officials to address this matter and will have no further comment,” the network said in a statement.
Bill Maher: Is the GOP made up of ‘magical thinkers’ who mistake ‘superstition for science’?
HBO’s Real Time host Bill Maher ended this Friday night episode with a “New Rules” segment that argued that Republicans positioned issues so that they were easily understood by “children” instead of an epistemology understood by adult, critical thinkers.
The grown-up answer to our massive national problems is “Identify them scientifically and prioritize.” The Republican answer is “There isn’t a problem, and anyone who tells you different is a liar who hates America. We don’t have to make hard choices. We just have to ignore science and math. That’s why God gave us values.”
Bill Maher: ‘Republicans don’t like it when single women have sex’
On Friday night’s episode of HBO’s Real Time, host Bill Maher took Missouri Senate candidate Todd Akin to task.
Maher’s guests predictably denounced Todd Akin’s idiotic statement that “women don’t get pregnant from legitimate rape.” But it was host Maher who made clear the link between Akin’s mouth-diarrhea and Republican vice-presidential candidate Paul Ryan’s (R-WI) voting record.
This is not a new theory he just made up. This idea has been on [cross-talk] …there’s a whole list of people who have said this before …What he said was, “I used the wrong word when I said ‘legitimate.’ What I meant to say was ‘forcible’ … because that’s the word that Paul Ryan used. Nobody ever refudiated the other part, the part about the ‘magical spermicide.’”
POLL: Was this racism and part of the RNC's agenda or is this a matter about two people and two people only?
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