An Interesting Racial Divide Among Beltway Journalists

While many white Beltway journalists are claiming that Hillary needs to apologize to the campaign that never apologizes for telling the truth about the racism at the heart of the Trump campaign, it's no surprise that one group of Beltway insiders are not falling for this: journalists of color.

Dylan Scott:

"Notable difference between how white journalists and non-white journalists are reacting to #basketsofdeplorables. Maybe worth pondering."

https://twitter.com/dylanlscott/status/774619137402363904

Jamelle Bouie:

"Too many white reporters, it seems, are in denial about what the Trump movement is."

https://twitter.com/jbouie/status/774621030862192640

Another really good Jamelle Bouie point:

"I will also note that we didn't see this outrage when Trump described black voters as guileless dupes living in filth and violence."

https://twitter.com/jbouie/status/774604008854024193

"Trump's description of black Americans was false. Clinton's description of half of Trump backers, while artless, fits the facts."

https://twitter.com/jbouie/status/774604668613910529

This is totally true. It's been almost predominantly white journalists who have hyped up Emailgate to such absurd proportions.

http://lastmenandovermen.blogspot.com/2016/09/chris-cillizza-is-not-going-to-like-this.html

We saw the same dynamic while Trump was doing his fake black outreach. The media didn't make much of a big deal out of how insulting he was being to the audience he allegedly was 'reaching out' to.

But when Hillary called out Trump and his Alt Right supporters the media shrugged helplessly after Trump with no logical explanation behind it simply declared 'Hillary is a bigot.'

'Wow, both candidates are calling each other racists. Isn't it sad how low our politics are descending?'

'Why can't both sides stop the name calling?'

In other news, I concur with Josh Marshall:

"This Is Critical: Hillary Can't Back Down

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/edblog/this-is-critical-hillary-can-t-back-down

Agreed. It's amazing when you consider comments like this from John Podhoertz:

"Now I'm not going to cut you slack. I've spent a year fighting them, you blithering excuse for an illiterate moron."

https://twitter.com/jpodhoretz/status/774624983796645888

It was actually addressed not to Hillary but to Christina Sanders. Putting aside the vile invective-this guy runs the NY Post!-why is that now that Hillary is fighting the same racists he says he has, he's scandalized?

UPDATE: Hillary has apologized for using the word 'half'-though it's not like there has been any empirical proof that the number of deplorable racists who support Trump are under 50%. About 60% are birthers.

Josh Marshall:

"Statement from Hillary Clinton"

“Last night I was ‘grossly generalistic,’ and that's never a good idea. I regret saying ‘half’ -- that was wrong. But let's be clear, what's really ‘deplorable’ is that Donald Trump hired a major advocate for the so-called ‘alt-right’ movement to run his campaign and that David Duke and other white supremacists see him as a champion of their values. It's deplorable that Trump has built his campaign largely on prejudice and paranoia and given a national platform to hateful views and voices, including by retweeting fringe bigots with a few dozen followers and spreading their message to 11 million people. It's deplorable that he's attacked a federal judge for his ‘Mexican heritage,’ bullied a Gold Star family because of their Muslim faith, and promoted the lie that our first black president is not a true American. So I won't stop calling out bigotry and racist rhetoric in this campaign. I also meant what I said last night about empathy, and the very real challenges we face as a country where so many people have been left out and left behind. As I said, many of Trump's supporters are hard-working Americans who just don’t feel like the economy or our political system are working for them. I'm determined to bring our country together and make our economy work for everyone, not just those at the top. Because we really are ‘stronger together.’”

"More "regret" than I'd have liked and think is wise. But I think she does use it to move off the "half" line and then double down on the larger point. So not all bad. I hope they continue pressing this broader argument."

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/edblog/this-is-critical-hillary-can-t-back-down

If anything, this might be good long term. The Trump campaign's faux outrage has actually put the question of 'How many Trump supporters are really racist?' back at the center of public discussion.