Sign in. It’s quick, free and it’s up to you.
An account is an optional way to support the work we do. Find out more.
MEDIA MOGUL RUPERT Murdoch has come in for quite a bit of criticism online for the tweet below – with some Twitter users suggesting he meant to imply that Barack Obama was somehow NOT a real black president.
This was the initial problematic tweet, referring to Republican White House hopeful Ben Carson:
The News Corporation founder then referenced a New York magazine article about “minority community disappointment”.
Cue Twitter outrage…
A number of well-known names even piled-on, including producer Norman Lear, and Simpsons star Harry Shearer:
There were hundreds of responses, in fact – you can read the whole lot here (if that’s the sort of thing you’re into).
It’s not the first time Murdoch has indicated his support for Carson – a former brain surgeon who’s been performing well in the GOP primary polls.
Carson himself is quite a controversial figure, it should be pointed out – recently he made headlines for suggesting that Islam was antithetical to the US constitution. He added that he didn’t believe a Muslim should be elected president.
Anyway, Murdoch’s been back online since this whole thing blew up, with the following apology:
To embed this post, copy the code below on your site
Who cares what that old dinosaur thinks? He’s a few years away from shuffling off this mortal coil and spending his eternity somewhere very warm at this point. Let him insult as many people as he wants on his way out the door with his racism, bigotry, sexism, and hatred. It’s what he does sure. We can all throw a party when he is gone.
Some nasty comments here from some nasty plebs but anyway Mr.Murdoch is right, Obama has a white mother and a black father so that makes him 50% one way or the other. Allen West would have been a real black potus although his lack of experience as a looter does not endear him to many of the American electorate.
Ahhh yes Ben Carson… The man that single handedly shattered the stereotype of Brian surgeons being intelligent
Yeah, that Brian Surgeon is an idiot alright.
It turns out 100% of Brian Surgeons changed their names in order to look less stupid. Idiots.
That must hurt.
Really wish Murdoch would hurry up and just die already.
Charming.
No, he really isn’t.
The world would certainly be a better place without him.
The truth though isn’t it.
Obama was not representative of the average black American citizen who are mainly Christian.
Living standards for afro-americans have declined dramatically under Obama not to mention race relations are at an all time low on his watch. Obama has been an unmitigated disaster for blacks.
Why should he be representative of other humans that simply share his skin colour? That seems so illogical to me.
“Obama is not an arab. He is a decent man”. John McCain
@ Rad ‘Race relations are at an all time low’ Why is that a disaster for blacks specifically? Should they be thankful when race relations are good. What is really happening is the veil of political correctness is lifting. What we are seeing now is the real under belly of the US. Until they stop pretending that their not racist, they have a problem.
‘They’re’ not…. God Dammit!
Any chance the journal might do even one article on Bernie Sanders, if you haven’t heard of him he is a serious rival to Clinton for the Democratic nomination, been nothing on here about him what’s the story with that Daragh?
Quite a few people refer to Bill Clinton as the first black President, because his background had a lot in common with a lot of black people. Obama, on the other hand, has a background of private school, Harvard law, never had a real job. More typical of a born-to-rule upper-crust WASP. He isn’t even half from the same racial stock as most African-Americans, who are descended from western coastal Africans – his father is from East Africa.
yes ben, but he is the only genuine African American in the discussion. the majority who claim to be African American are just, well, American. it would be very rare to find any American who have maintained a direct link to their ancestors, without mixing with other Americans. that label is just as disingenuous as calling that kardashian baby Irish-Scottish-Armenian-Germanic-Dutch-African-American. they are all just Americans searching for some identity to escape their social issues.
He owns most of the media who’s going to sack him or not buy his newspapers or not watch his TVs channels ,IE he can say what he wants,nothing will be done about it ,shouldn’t be allowed at all but as I said what will be done nothing
Obama is half white, if he was a conservative Republican they’d be calling him an uncle Tom or a porch monkey as they did to supreme Court justice Clarence Thomas. Ben Carson is 100% black.
If we all had our DNA examined we could all likely trace it back to 30 or 40k people in Africa in the first place ffs.
Half white? Give over, if you saw him walking down the street and didn’t know who he was you would say he was black.
Colin his mother who raised him alone (surprise surprise) was white as snow.
Pointless article posted by a pointless journalist. if you are going to write something informative, please make sure it is. Absolute garbage.
Ah now I thought this was an extremely well written article for a job bridge intern, if you’re looking for quality journalism then you are in the wrong place
When he says that that the public like humility, he means they like humility in their blacks. He’s also having a sideways at Trump.
Murdoch is a horrible person. I hope he dies an extremely slow and painful death
have your say