Journalism magazine saying Trump should be labelled 'racist' raises fiery debate

Fox News, however, disagreed. Obviously.

On September 25, Columbia Journalism Review’s Pete Vernon wrote that “it’s time for reporters” to label President Donald Trump’s words as ‘racist’. "Dancing around it with euphemisms like 'racially charged' does a disservice to the cause of reporting accurately in consideration of the full context of Trump's words," he wrote. Vernon added, "Opinion writers and columnists have long felt free to label Trump's words for what they are. Given the surfeit of evidence, of which his castigation of NFL players is only the latest piece, it's time for reporters to do the same."



The New York Times has also done this in the recent past – they referred to the 45^th president as a ‘racist’. An opinion piece in the Washington Examiner showed support for the cause and lauded CJR’s vocalisation of social issues. However, Fox News brought a different perspective to the argument.

The news organisation compiled viewpoints of all those who opposed the stance and claim that Trump is not a racist and thus can’t be labeled as one. Not everyone agrees with the CJR’s assessment and Media Research Center vice president Dan Gainor told Fox News that Pope’s operation is “simply an extension of unhinged liberal thought but with a veneer of legitimacy.” Gainor continued: “If journalism is ever to be fixed in the US, it needs to be repaired at every level, starting at biased educational institutions like in Columbia.”

Editor-in-chief of The Daily Wire Ben Shapiro didn’t appreciate the firing of National Football League (NFL) players who kneel during the national anthem, but that it doesn’t make him a racist. “When I think that President Trump has wrong footed on racial issues, I’ve been very clear about it, but I don’t see the racist intent here,” Shapiro told Fox News' Dana Perino Monday night. “This isn’t about race.”

The story’s headline was “'Objective' major media outlets under fire for calling Trump 'a racist'” attempted to advocate in favour of the president and claim that even though he can be termed a ‘liar’, the term ‘racist’ was taking it too far. The author claims that The Times calling Trump a liar was a very calculated decision and was made keeping multiple incidents in mind. However, he stated that “being called a ‘racist’ is different from being painted as a liar”.

“There is an unmistakable racial element at play, since he is targeting prominent black players,” CNN Brian Stelter wrote. MSNBC’s Joy Reid took things a step further on Twitter Monday afternoon. “Trump thinks of these black NFL players as little more than gladiators -- enslaved meat and bones who need to do what their ‘owners’ say,” Reid wrote.

“But now the head of Columbia Journalism Review and many other high-profile members of the mainstream media want the President of the United States to be labeled a racist in print, as if it’s a fact, over rhetoric regarding football,” the author wrote pointing out that the CJR and other members of the media are ‘wrong’ to call Trump a racist because the case at hand is regarding football.



Denying many 'racially charged' remarks made by Trump in the past, Fox News further quoted former House Speaker Newt Gingrich as saying, “He talked about defending, you know, our national anthem. Now, how you take that and translate it into a racial attack tells you everything you need to know about the sickness of the modern left and the sickness of the Democratic Party.”