Prometheus 6

DISCLAIMER: The closest I get to Fox News is Newshounds.

It seems the New Black Panther Party is frequently called on by Fox News, which frankly isn't a good sign. And their leader, Malik Shabazz, was on Hannity and Colmes yesterday discussing the NBPP endorsement that was rejected. It seems Mr. Shabazz was ready for Mr. Hannity.

“Why won’t you acknowledge the brilliance of Barack Obama’s speech? Why won’t you accept his call to come out of the divisive throngs of racism?” Shabazz asked.

Hannity praised Obama as a very effective politician. Then Hannity added, “What I don’t think you’re understanding here, Malik, is that when you hear the minister of him for 20 years, when you hear the associations with Louis Farrakhan, one of the biggest racists and anti-Semites in the country, what you’re not understanding is, America hears extremism at its worst.”

Shabazz responded, “Let me ask you this. Are you to be judged by your promotion and association with Hal Turner?”

Hannity waved his arm around. “I don’t know anybody named – this is nonsense. I don’t…” Then Hannity changed his tune. “Sir, sir… That was a man that was banned from my radio show ten years ago, that ran a Senate campaign in New Jersey.”

Then, as Shabazz refused to stop talking or back down, Hannity, in a tacit admission, said, “I’m not running for president.”

At this point, because I am a Black partisan rather than a Democratic, Liberal or Progressive partisan (though the confusion is understandable) I would like to suggest to any white liberal or progressive inclined to feel smug about Mr. Hannity's plight that they think of their friend who is a good guy, he just doesn't like Black people, or Mexicans (ALL Latinos are Mexicans now, I think). You know you have that friend. Probably more than one.

Anyway, there was a whole thing in The Nation a while back about Hannity, how he came up through WABC radio in New York City (Hate Radio), replacing Bob Grant (who may have been the most hateful of their hosts) and was connected with this neo-Nazi Hal Turner. But it was a typical Crossfire-style shouting match for the most part. And when Kirsten Powers chimed in with

“First of all, the Obama campaign says it doesn’t want your endorsement… You were just saying to Sean how Barack Obama wants to move past all this racial divisiveness.” Smiling scornfully, she continued, “I mean, I’ve read some of the stuff that you’ve said about white people and about Jews. Do you think that that’s moving past racial division?”

He missed his chance. His response should have been, "No, but then I wasn't trying to move past racial divisions, I was trying to show you all where they were. Obama got everyone to look at it, something we couldn't do. He's convinced us to at look at our tactics. No promises, but we will consider if they have been as effective as possible. One thing is our name...it sets up expectations in the mainstream mind. We are considering changing our name to..." ANYTHING without Black Panther Party in it.

I didn't talk to a whole lot of the original Panther crew and their associates, but none of those I did speak to were happy about that name being appropriated (some used stronger terms...).