I think he meant to say that the majority of the victims were predominantly black. It just came out wrong.
I don't think we should give Wolf a free pass on this just because he's purportedly a liberal. And I think if the liberals on this board give him a free pass it is pretty hypocritical. Imagine if O'Reilly or Hannity (or Rush!) said something like this. His career would be over.
I'm not giving him a free press. I'm just saying that in my opinion, judging by the context, that's what it sounded like he meant. I couldn't care less about defending a liberal. Everyone speaks for themselves. This gang mentality is ridiculous.
Blitzer is not necessarily liberal or conservative.....just as his former employer AIPAC is neither full-bore Democrat or Republican...
If not a liberal, definitely a Democrat. I'd lay my life on the line that he voted for Carter, Mondale, Dukakis, Clinton, Clinton, Gore, Kerry. Then again my life ain't worth too much.
Carter I'm not so sure about, taking into account his administration's lack of full cooperation w/ Israeli interests....therefore I wouldn't be surprised if Blitzer voted for Reagan's first term.......likewise, I would not be surprised if he voted for Bush Jr's second term due to his administration's strong pro-Israel stance (although definitely not for Daddy Bush in light of the Jonathan Pollard incident)... the others I would probably agree with you though, especially Gore, who is well-known to have had his first bid in the '88 campaign for the primaries almost entirely financed by AIPAC..
Actually no. They say stuff like that probably daily and are never held accountable. They get to spew their lies daily and never have to answer for a single inaccuracy in their statements. Saying they are poor and black is largely an factual statement. Why is that racist?
I still listen to O'Reilly sometimes and catch Hannity a little and NO - they do not say stuff like that. If they did - they would be lambasted and I'm sure you would be leading the charge. "Oh look at those tsunami victims! Devastating. so poor, so yellow. gee - i don't which one is worse - the yellow or the poor."
I listen to them semi-regularly because I guess I like to irritate myself. I find myself constantly being surprised by the things they get away with saying. They get away with it because they are not journalists. It is entertainment ONLY. They would not survive in the general media outlets. Oh wait, Rush had one of those gigs with football and he couldn't keep is trap shut. So back to his little radio hole he went. Context langal. Its all about context. That is why Americans suck at being politically correct because so many can't figure out when and where to say something. People in the area where the tsunami hit were ALL of asian decent so why is it relevant to make a reference about race? Besides, calling asians "yellow" isn't exactly common practice. Here, not all Americans are black and it IS common practice to refer to this group as "black." And in this instance, many people didn't understand to the degree of how poor they were.
Well. I suppose we'll just have to agree to disagree. Some white liberals can be racists too. It's a different sort of racism. Rednecks usually just yell at me to "go back to China you chink!". They actually hate me. Some high-minded, PC, progressive white liberals have this mentality of "it's not his fault, he's Asian" or "he needs extra help because he's Asian". They just think they're better than me and treat me in a subtly condescending, patronizing manner that is usually undetectable. Deep down, they believe that whites are superior - but it is their job as the superior race to help the less fortunate (in my case, me since I'm Asian). To me, Wolf Blitzer's little slip up reveals to me that he may fall into that second category (just substitute black for Asian). He seemed to lump "poor" and "black" together as traits that deserve pity. It was very hard for met not to get that. All the people I've told this quote to seem to feel the same way. Some of them, of course, change their mind after they find out it was CNN's esteemed Wolf Blitzer. After all, Wolf can NEVER say anything racist.
langal, Blitzer isn't of part any broad white race like you're saying. he's Jewish, meaning he himself has likely endured discrimination in his lifetime from the very same groups that you claim to have encountered, albeit in different ways maybe. but this is especially likely in his case since he wrote a scathing book attacking the US govt over the Jonathan Pollard case back in the 80's and then got a lot of flack for it from white-supremicist groups...
Gosh, regardless of whether it was a racist comment or not (which I don't think it was), that was TERRIBLE! You'd think a major news reporter like Wolf Blitzer would be able to come up with something better than that to fill some airtime. And his voice was so sympathetic too, "so poor, so black." Jeez.
