Posted by Jed Lewison on Tue Jun 5, 2007 at 12:57 PM Pacific

Brit Hume: "Spear chucker" is a racist epithet

On Sunday, Brit Hume used the racist slur "spear chucker" on the nationally broadcast Fox News Sunday program.

I think he should be fired by Fox News for his comment, but many people disagree, arguing that Hume must have been unaware that "spear chucker" is a racist epithet used to demean blacks.

But Brit Hume is completely aware of the term's meaning. As duha at Daily Kos points out, Hume wrote an article about the phrase last year.

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.

So Brit Hume says -- in his own words, not mine nor anybody else's -- that "spear chucker" is a "racial epithet."

And he uses that very same racist epithet on the air to describe a political opponent.

I know it is hard to believe that Brit Hume would use a racist slur on national television, but arguing that "he wouldn't say that" is a difficult task when in fact he actually did say that -- and he knew what he meant.

Fox News is an overtly racist network. We shouldn't let Brit Hume off the hook.