By: E&P Staff The National Association of Black Journalists (NABJ) is firing back at former vice presidential candidate Geraldine Ferraro, saying she showed "unapologetic bigotry" in remarks over the Memorial Day weekend that suggested black journalists were shills for Barack Obama.
In an interview on Fox News Channel, Ferraro suggested that black journalists were "surrogates" for the Obama presidential campaign.
Ferraro, the first female vice presidential candidate, told Shepard Smith: "Well, yeah, I think, you know all the surrogates that they had out there from the black journalists ...
"If you have conference calls with these people every week and you give them your message and they put your message in the paper, that to me is a campaign," Ferraro added.
She cited New York Times columnist Bob Herbert in particular in arguing that the news media have shown "sexist behavior" in their coverage of Hillary Clinton, whom she supports.
"Have you read Bob Herbert recently in the past six months? There wasn't one column that had anything decent to say about Hillary," said Ferraro, the 1984 Democratic vice presidential nominee.
"NABJ is outraged that a former vice presidential candidate would suggest that all black reporters are mouthpieces for the Obama campaign," NABJ President Barbara Ciara, an anchor for WTKR-TV in Norfolk, Va., said in a statement. "To suggest this shows not only a stunning lack of judgment but also her unapologetic bigotry. Ms. Ferraro used her appearance on Fox News to reinforce stereotypes that suggest that black reporters can't be trusted to cover another person of color without bias and favoritism."
NABJ's vice president for print, Atlanta Journal-Constitution reporter Ernie Suggs, called the remarks a "direct attack" not only on the integrity of black journalists, but "the integrity of all journalists who work every day to provide good, honest journalism."
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