Media proves Alan Keyes' accusation that they are racist

By Mary Mostert
web posted December 6, 1999

If I were going to do a poll about who won last week's debate among the Republican candidates, there would be only one question on it: When you decided you wanted a snack, during which candidate's comment did you run to the refrigerator? George W. Bush probably would have the most votes. The best that was said about George Bush's performance, by media commentators who are pushing his candidacy, was that "he didn't make mistakes" in his first debate with the other Republican candidates.

Based on the Fox News internet poll following the debate, those watching the debates appeared to feel that that wasn't quite good enough. The first-ever poll of the people watching clearly surprised the pundits. The first results showed George W. Bush the winner by 58 per cent, a result that suggests many of his supporters were urged to call in early with their vote. By 3:00 AM Bush's 58 per cent had shrunk to a 24 per cent, and Alan Keyes was the run-away winner of the debate with 50 per cent of the votes. John McCain came in third with only 18 per cent.

However, since that did not coincide with what the media had in mind for the debate, there was no suggestion that Alan Keyes might be, if you will pardon the expression, a dark horse candidate. As a matter of fact the poll, which obviously was intended to find out what the public thought of George Bush's performance, was quickly discounted by those who created it when Alan Keyes moved ahead of him.

Yet, immediately following the debate, the Fox News commentators simply ignored Alan Keyes, not once mentioning him in their analysis, while concentrating entirely on the other five candidates, all of whom just so happen to be white. They promptly announced that the debate had made the race entirely between George W. Bush, and John McCain. George W. attempted to convince the listeners that he was the only one who had any real leadership experience, and John McCain sought to convince the listeners that eliminating private money contributions from political campaigns will solve all problems.

While George W. tried to verbally convince the public that he had leadership qualities, the one who clearly demonstrated strong leadership was Alan Keyes. Considering the very first rather contentious question asked Alan Keyes, and his answer to it, I would have thought Fox News would have been extra careful to not simply ignore him, as other news sources do. That question, asked by Karen Brown of WMUR-TV was: "Mr. Keyes, in October you accused the media of being racist for their apparent disinterest in you during a press availability. Is that racism or is it a reflection of your standing in the polls?"

Responding to the comment about his standing in the polls, Alan Keyes said,

"I don't see how that could be. I think the polls are phony, to begin with. They are manipulated results aimed at trying to usurp and pre-empt the choice of the American people. But, there have been some of these phony polls lately that show me ahead of people you have given more attention to, including folks that are standing right next to me right now.

"So, by the criteria of the phony polls the folks in the media use, you are violating your own criteria. And, I have to look around for another explanation when that happens and I have known that explanation from the time I stepped forward. When I first stepped forward (as a presidential candidate) the ONLY thing that the people in the media wanted to ask me about was race. I used to wonder why because I was speaking to an issue far more important than that in my opinion which is the root, in fact, of our racial difficulties, the decline of our moral character, principle and decency; the abandonment of the basic premise that our rights come from God, not from our mother's choice, not from the Constitution's choice, but from the will of God.

"You want racial justice, you want ANY kind of justice? That's the foundation we need for it in this country. And the press refuses to ask me about anything but racial issues.

Karen Brown, clearly annoyed at his answer, said, "Well, to accuse anyone of racism is a pretty strong statement. After all, you are here tonight for all the world to see and hear. So, do you have any regrets about what you said?"

Keyes shot back:

"Well, absolutely not! As a matter of fact I think it is persistently still true. Polls came out in the past couple of weeks - your own phony poll shows me third in this race. And, suddenly I found that people, in the face of those polls, were acting as though it has become a two man race, because they wanted to continue the black-out, which means you keep the black out.

"I'm sick of it! I think the America people need to be given an opportunity to demonstrate what the folks in Alabama demonstrated, when I won the Republican state-wide straw poll in Alabama. But, that's a thing of the past, for a lot of Americans. They are looking at me in terms of the stands I take on the important moral issues and other issues that confront this country, because they know that the moral crisis of nation's life is in fact the top challenge we face and it ought to be the top priority of our national life right now, and that's what I stand for."

In one of the rounds of questions, Brit Hume, to his credit, asked Alan Keyes the toughest Foreign Policy question asked all evening, "Ambassador Keyes, you've been elected president and you wake up one morning to find two things: Taiwan has formally declared independence from China and the Chinese have begun to fire missiles towards those offshore islands. What do you do?"

Keyes responded, without hesitation,

"Well I think we have to make clear to the Chinese throughout that we intend to make good on our pledges to safeguard the security of Taiwan. I would presume that a move like that is not going to happen without a preceding crisis in which I would have HOPED to have acted in such a way as to demonstrate through the placement of our forces that we intended to make GOOD on our commitment to Taiwanese security.

"I would also have been working during my administration to put in place the kind of anti-missile defenses that can be extended as an umbrella to protect people like the Taiwanese when they come under such threats.

"I think it is terribly important in order to avoid that eventuality, however, that we stop sending confusing signals such as the Clinton Administration has been sending about our resolve in respect to Taiwan. The business of self-determination, of allowing people to decide their own destiny has been fundamental to American foreign policy for decades. We have had people dying on foreign battlefields for the sake of just that truth and we should certainly stand for it where the Taiwanese are concerned."

Bush's foreign policy question, also asked by Brit Hume, was how his foreign policy would differ from his father's, who had personal relationships with many world leaders. George W. didn't answer the question, saying merely that he was "overwhelmingly elected because the people of my state realized I know how to lead," mentioned working with the president of Mexico, and observed that Texas would be the 11th largest country in the world were it independent. That, of course, was to convince us that he had leadership ability.

While the commentators again lamented the fact that there were no sparks flying between the candidates, making the debate, again, in their eyes rather boring, they simply proved Alan Keyes' point about media racism. They totally ignored the fact that the only demonstration of leadership among the six and the only real fire last night was when Alan Keyes was speaking.

Karen Brown, in a second question to Alan Keyes said to him, "Mr. Keyes, America intervened in Kosovo when it became apparent that innocent civilians were being slaughtered. Now the same is happening in Chechnya. What should the United States do about Russia's military crackdown on Chechnya?"

Keyes responded:

"Well, first of all I think the first part of your statement is not true. Over the course of the last several months they've learned a lot of information that suggests that the propaganda that was unhappily spread throughout the media about atrocities in Kosovo were greatly exaggerated. The Pentagon has admitted it, news sources have admitted it; (Forensic) Teams have been in now and have discovered that a lot of these things did not have foundation. I think that was a propaganda war. I think we were manipulated into supporting the violation of a fundamental principle of non-aggression and that OUR aggression in that case was more dangerous than what was happening in Kosovo itself.

"I think we have to be very careful when we start invoking some abstract notions of globalism and global sovereignty in order to violate fundamental principles of NATIONAL sovereignty which in fact are very important to safeguarding the regional peace around the world. I think it is better than invading other countries to control our own behavior; to make sure we don't provide the resources to these oppressive regimes, that we are doing in places like China as well as Russia when they are oppressing other people."

Still not getting the point, Karen Brown asked, "Do we ignore what's happening in Chechnya or do you advocate - if not engaging troops - something like withholding loans from the International Monetary Fund?"

Keyes responded:

"I think that's what I just said! I think it is important that we distinguish between a policy of globalist interventionism that has us acting as the policeman of the world and that I think will foment violence and fear and resentment everywhere. It would be a policy that would basically say, 'Look! We are not going to try to control YOUR country. But, we will control our own actions. We will control our own associations. We will control our own trade. We will see to it that if you are a brutal regime, like the Communist dictators in China, we will not have most favored nation status, business-as-usual with you.

"'If you are a regime of thugs and kleptocrats such as now plague the Russian people, we will not provide hard-earned American capitol to support you in that kleptocracy. I think those are things we can do that could have a beneficial influence without undermining the peace of the world with globalist, interventionist policies that could become a pretext for aggression by others.'"

The next question asked Keyes, also by Karen Brown, followed a discussion of tax reduction plans by George W. Bush and Steve Forbes and others candidates. Her question was: "The cost of prescription drugs is escalating. Many New Hampshire residents will board a bus to ride to Canada where it is cheaper to buy their drugs. What specifically do you propose to make those drugs more affordable for senior citizens who are on Medicare?

Keyes responded,

"Carrying with them prescriptions written by doctors who came down from Canada in order to practice medicine because they couldn't do it properly up there!

"I will have to take a privilege here, though, that was offered to us at the beginning of the show, because I've been listening to this tax discussion and I have GOT to say a word! It seems to me a lot of posturing is going on here overall on this issue. We have all these plans! Mr. Bush's plan may be this, or it may be that. It has us running to the calculator to figure out how much YOUR family of four is going to get. So, what are we supposed to do? Get down on our knees and thank Massa Bush now because HE'S going to let us keep a little bit more of our money. And we'll thank Massa So-in-so when they do it!

I think its time we realize that kind of thinking is for slaves. My ancestors were slaves. I abhor to think like one today. The tax system for a free people is not a tax that gives the government a preemptive claim to a single penny of your income. And, the right reform of the system is to get rid of the Sixteenth Amendment, abolish the income tax and return to the original constitution of our country and fund the government with tariffs, duties and excises taxes."

Karen Brown responded in an annoyed tone of voice, "Ok. NOW would you answer my question about the prescription drugs?"

Keyes answered:

"I'm anxious to address this whole question, you addressed the question a minute ago, about the HMOs and you are asking us, as politicians, as if we are supposed to go to Washington and sit down like the commissars and plan from on high what happens to America's health system! I don't want to do it that way and I promise you I won't.

"I think what we need to do is to do everything possible to put the consumer back in the driver's seat to allow folks to be masters of how they spend their medical dollar so they can then enforce the same kind of quality control that they enforce in all the other areas of our economy.

"And, if they are not happy with the HMOs and the way they are doing business, then take your business to a group of doctors who have organized themselves differently, so they will provide you with the service you want. And we should have a system whether it is insurance or government care that gives PEOPLE the power to make those choices.

Alan Keyes also addressed the issue of the World Trade Organization, pointing out that we are allowing an unelected group of people take over our sovereign rights to commerce. "You won't be able to kick them out in the next election" he warned, if they come up with plans you don't like.

True to the media's racism, the only Fox News comment about Alan Keyes positions was his comment about the media being racist for only asking him about race. The New York Times this morning only has one sentence about Alan Keyes - and that sentence pertains to his comment about the media being racist. To its credit, and probably because someone actually listened to what Alan Keyes said, the Washington Post's excerpt was Keyes' comments about Kosovo.

We still have almost a year before the election and anyone who thinks its results are already settled are deceived. The big fear all the other candidates, but especially George W. Bush, need to worry about is whether or not Alan Keyes is going to attract a sizable portion of that non-voting 50 per cent plus of each election cycle. If the younger traditional non-voters react as my 22 year old friend, Lara, did to the things Alan Keyes is saying, the other candidates, but especially the media, could be in for a real surprise.

After hearing his responses, she went to the computer, found his website, and immediately volunteered to help in his campaign.

Mary Mostert is an analyst and runs her own web site at Original Sources. She can be reached at mmostert@originalsources.com




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