Our political Quote of the Day comes from “The Morning Joe’s” Joe Scarborough, on how the conservative (political entertainment) media seems determined to chase away African-American and other groups from the GOP:
“Why is it that Republicans, certain elements of our party, seem to go out of their way to inflame minority voters?” Scarborough asked his panel Tuesday morning. “I know I can count on conservative outlets to have a one-sided view, and to talk about how a dead boy had it coming, and he was on marijuana, he was on pot, he was this, he was that…I would like in my lifetime for the Republican Party to get more than six percent of the African American vote.”
There’s more to the discussion — including former RNC chair Michael Steele noting how hard it would be for Republicans to get more voters from black voters, and his argument about racism and over the top rhetoric on both sides.
But that clouds the immediate issue Scarborough(who conservative talker Mark Levin calls “The Morning Schmo”) raises: it’s like some of these pundits are going out of their way to insult African Americans and Hispanics. Then these little political riffs:
But conflict and making it personal — whether personal with a person or a group — and whipping up an audience attracts audience share and readership. The roots for this go way back.
Joe Gandelman is a former fulltime journalist who freelanced in India, Spain, Bangladesh and Cypress writing for publications such as the Christian Science Monitor and Newsweek. He also did radio reports from Madrid for NPR’s All Things Considered. He has worked on two U.S. newspapers and quit the news biz in 1990 to go into entertainment. He also has written for The Week and several online publications, did a column for Cagle Cartoons Syndicate and has appeared on CNN.