Brit Hume has crossed a line that no network news anchor should be allowed to cross: he used a racial slur to describe a political adversary of Senator Fred Thompson.
On June 3rd's FOX News Sunday, Hume called former Senator John Glenn a "spear chucker" which the Urban Dictionary defines as a synonym for the N-word. Here are first two Google links for the epithet:
Spear chucker: A derogatory phrase for a black male...
Spearchucker: a black person, aluding to native hunters in Africa
This is an open and shut matter. It is completely unacceptable for a news anchor to use this kind of derogatory language, especially when his network has a track record of overt racism.
Please contact FOX News and ask for Brit Hume's immediate dismissal.
Here's an example of FOX's outrageously racist programming:
Update: A friend just e-mailed me asking whether I thought the fact that Glenn is white mitigates what Hume said. My answer was no -- imagine if Hume had said "You wouldn't normally expect Duke Cunningham to be a Willie Horton, but he did get sentenced to 8 years in jail." It's also true that Hume's statement does not make a whole lot of sense, but that is pretty typical for him.
Update II: Brit Hume is completely aware of the meaning of the phrase. In 2006, he wrote a column about the phrase, calling it a "racial epithet." (Courtesy of duha at Daily Kos.)
Columnist Creates Uproar With Racial Epithet to Describe Colin Powell
Monday, May 15, 2006
By Brit Hume
A newspaper columnist in Ohio has created an uproar among readers who objected to his use of a racial epithet to describe former Secretary of State Colin Powell.
In a column attacking Republican gubernatorial candidate Ken Blackwell, The Cleveland Plain Dealer's liberal Metro columnist Sam Fullwood wrote that Powell "flamed out after his ego no longer allowed him to be an unquestioning spearchucker in Mr. Bush's war."
Fuller, who is himself black, admits that he deliberately used "provocative, incendiary — but not hurtful — language" to "get people engaged," but says he doesn't consider the term to be offensive.
© Jed Lewison