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NAACP chairman Julian Bond and Fayetteville State University are disputing WorldNetDaily's account of Bond's FSU speech last week, which we noted Friday. From an FSU press release:
"I didn't say these things I'm alleged to have said," Bond told FSU. "There is no one in the audience who can say I said them. The reporter from the Fayetteville newspaper did not report I said them. I have denied I said them and refuse to engage in a back and forth about what I did say. This is an irresponsible attack by a right-wing blog--a partisan blog--and these kinds of attacks should be expected and dismissed for what they are."
FSU officials reviewed a tape of Bond's speech to verify the alleged comments. Based on the review, it was determined that nowhere during Bond's speech was reference made to the Nazi Party, nor was the word "token" used.
"We received numerous calls and emails from concerned individuals about Mr. Bond's presentation, so we felt compelled to review the tape in an effort to address their concerns," said Jeffery Womble, director of public relations at Fayetteville State University. "After a close review, we have concluded that the comments attributed to Mr. Bond about the Republican Party, Dr. Rice, and Mr. Colin Powell were not made."
We phoned Mr. Womble this morning, and he told us that FSU disputes the WND account only on these two points. That means the following elements are undisputed:
• "Calling President Bush a liar, Bond told the audience at the historically black institution that this White House's lies are more serious than the lies of his predecessor's because Clinton's lies didn't kill people."
• "He referred to former Attorney General John Ashcroft as J. Edgar Ashcroft."
• "He compared Bush's judicial nominees to the Taliban."
• "_'The Republican Party would have the American flag and the swastika flying side by side,' he charged."
Womble confirmed the accuracy of that last quotation, but said FSU disagrees with WND's interpretation of the remark as "equating the Republican Party with the Nazi Party." Perhaps Bond meant to equate the GOP to Hindus?
On only one point there is a factual difference between WND's and FSU's accounts: Womble told us Bond not only did not call Colin Powell and Condoleezza Rice "tokens" but did not say anything disparaging about them. Who's right? We don't know! We asked Womble for a copy of the tape, but he said it is "the property of Mr. Bond," who is not releasing it.
In any case, all of this reinforces the point we made on Friday, which is that the so-called mainstream media were at best negligent in their coverage of the speech. Bond said quite a few partisan and inflammatory things that no one disputes, yet the local media characterized him as having a "positive attitude" and being engaged in a "fight for equal rights." Were it not for WND, we would not know that Bond had anything harsher to say than, "We have a president who talks like a populist and governs for the privileged."
Most telling of all, Bond is expressly citing the local media's silence as if it were exculpatory. In fact, it is incriminating--not of Bond, but of those journalists who respond to his divisive rhetoric with an indulgent wink. If the press won't report what a prominent and respected black leader says to a mostly black audience, how can the public develop informed views on issues of race?
"Used with permission from OpinionJournal.com, a web site from Dow Jones & Company, Inc."
(And JB wonders why Bush did not accept his invitation to speak at the NCAAP Convo.)
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