Hey Media! The N-Word Wasn’t The Story

screencap of ABC News White House correspondent Jonathan Karl being clueless again
ABC News White House correspondent Jonathan Karl being clueless again

It seems like most of the corporate media missed the actual point President Obama made when he used the N-word in a podcast interview that was released on Monday morning. Focusing on the word said rather than the President’s point is one more way the media avoids talking about racism in this country. It is even more ironic for white people to police the use of the N-word – and it proves the President’s point.

I watch the nightly news on ABC and their White House correspondent, Jonathan Karl, is on the same “Tool” level as NBC’s Chuck Todd. Karl is someone who gets a notion and forces his reporting into that narrative. It happened again when he was *SHOCKED* *SHOCKED* I tell you when the Marc Maron interview of the President was released and the President said *gasp* the N-word. Karl clutched his pearls on Good Morning America, at the White House daily briefing, and kept at it during his appearance on World News Tonight.

The President didn’t say the word like he was trying to be hip or cool, he said it to make the point that racism just doesn’t include if it is polite to say the n-word in public.

Here is how Michael Arceneaux wrote about it at Talking Points Memo:

During an interview on the podcast “WTF with Marc Maron,” Obama argued that while America has made some advancement in terms of race relations, “What is also true is the legacy of slavery, Jim Crow, discrimination in almost every institution of our lives, you know, that casts a long shadow and that’s still part of our DNA that’s passed on. We’re not cured of it.”

Obama added, “And it’s not just a matter of it not being polite to say ‘nigger’ in public. That’s not the measure of whether racism still exists or not. It’s not just a matter of overt discrimination.”

This is a thoughtful take on the state of racism in this country, but naturally, cable news chose instead to focus on “nigger.” Earlier today, a CNN segment weighing in on whether or not it was okay for Obama to use language that is “offensive to some.” It’s been a question I’ve since noticed has been repeated on the network. Then there is Fox News, which asked the same question with a panel of four white people. 

Context is everything. It’s not like Obama greeted Loretta Lynch as his “nigga” on stage recently. (Had he done so, I’d still stick with the belief that black people can say it and white people cannot. But he did not go there.) What Obama did was remind people—many of whom needed to hear it—that racism is not just calling someone a racial slur. It’s not just about a confederate flag, either.

The Key Thing Conservatives Don’t Get About Obama’s Use Of ‘N*****’

ABC News spent about five minutes talking about the use of the word and only seconds about the President’s actual point.

This was exactly what the President was talking about. Reducing racism to words only is worthless and doesn’t address the actual racism.

I thought it was very ironic that two white guys on ABC were concern trolling the use of the N-word for a Black president. How arrogant.

Here is short video of Jonathan Karl being clueless on Monday:

Jonathan Karl and ABC News Misses The Point