Media Advisory: Ashcroft Quizzed About Southern Partisan Endorsement\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\nFAIR-L<\/b>\r\n
Fairness & Accuracy in Reporting<\/b>\r\n
Media analysis, critiques and news\r\nreports<\/b>\r\n\r\n<\/p>
MEDIA ADVISORY:<\/b>\r\n
ASHCROFT QUIZZED ABOUT\r\nSOUTHERN PARTISAN ENDORSEMENT<\/b>\r\n
Attorney general nominee\r\nrefuses to condemn white supremacist magazine<\/b>\r\n<\/p>
January 19, 2001<\/b>\r\n<\/p>
John Ashcroft, George\r\nW. Bush's nominee for attorney general, was questioned during his Senate\r\nconfirmation hearing about his on-the-record endorsement of the white supremacist\r\npublication Southern Partisan.<\/b>\r\n<\/p>
Sen. Joe Biden (D.-Del.)\r\nasked Ashcroft to respond to a series of quotes from the magazine, each\r\nof which had appeared in FAIR's January 12 media advisory on Ashcroft and\r\nSouthern Partisan (http:\/\/www.fair.org\/press-releases\/southern-partisan.html).\r\nThe statements included claims that David Duke represented the \"American\r\nideal\"; that slave-owners were concerned about the \"peace and happiness\"\r\nof slave families; that ethnic groups from outside of Northern Europe \"have\r\nno temperament for democracy\"; and that only \"Italians, Jews and Puerto\r\nRicans\" live in New York, not \"Americans.\"<\/b>\r\n<\/p>
In response to this questioning,\r\nAshcroft responded: \"On the magazine, frankly, I can't say that I knew\r\nvery much at all about the magazine. I've given magazine interviews to\r\nlots of people. Mother Jones has interviewed me. I don't know if I've ever\r\nread the magazine or seen it. It doesn't mean I endorse the views of magazines.\r\nIt's a telephone interview. And I regret that speaking to them is being\r\nused to imply that I agree with their views.\"<\/b>\r\n<\/p>
Of course, it is not his\r\nspeaking with Southern Partisan that implies that he agrees with its ideas,\r\nbut his telling the magazine: \"Your magazine also helps set the record\r\nstraight. You've got a heritage of doing that, of defending Southern patriots\r\nlike [Gen. Robert E.] Lee, [Gen. Stonewall] Jackson and [Confederate president\r\nJefferson] Davis. Traditionalists must do more. I've got to do more. We've\r\nall got to stand up and speak in this respect, or else we'll be taught\r\nthat these people were giving their lives, subscribing their sacred fortunes\r\nand their honor to some perverted agenda.\" Presumably, he did not make\r\na similar statement to Mother Jones.<\/b>\r\n<\/p>
Given several chances\r\nto explicitly distance himself from Southern Partisan, Ashcroft declined,\r\nsaying carefully, \"I condemn those things which are condemnable.\" When\r\nasked directly whether he thought the magazine was racist, he said, \"I\r\nshould probably do more due diligence on it. I know they've been accused\r\nof being racist.... I would rather be falsely accused of being a racist\r\nthan to falsely accuse someone of being a racist.\"<\/b>\r\n<\/p>
Biden suggested that Ashcroft\r\nmust have been briefed on the content of the magazine for the confirmation\r\nhearings, given that his association with it was an obvious topic to come\r\nup. Ashcroft responded, \"I don't want to be disrespectful, but for you\r\nto suggest that I was told that all these things that you've alleged are\r\ntrue, I wasn't told that. And, frankly, I have been told that some of them\r\naren't true.... And I don't know the source of your things.\"<\/b>\r\n<\/p>
That a nominee for U.S.\r\nattorney general would endorse a magazine that he knew celebrated the Confederacy\r\nis troubling in itself. That he would make no effort to check whether he\r\nhad in fact promoted a racist magazine, even after his endorsement became\r\na national issue--or would lie under oath about not having done so--is\r\ndeeply disturbing.<\/b>\r\n<\/p>
* * *<\/b>\r\n<\/p>
Columnist Bob Herbert\r\nof the New York Times discussed Ashcroft's dodging of the Southern Partisan\r\nissue in a column that cited FAIR. See: http:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2001\/01\/18\/opinion\/18HERB.html\r\n(registration required)<\/b>\r\n
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E-mail: fair@fair.org<\/b>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<\/p>\n","contact":"fair@fair.org","link":"www.fair.org","address":"","phone":"","parent_id":0,"mime_type":"text\/html","summary":"John Ashcroft, George W. Bush's nominee for attorney general, was questioned during his Senate confirmation hearing about his on-the-record endorsement of the white supremacist publication Southern Partisan.... That a nominee for U.S. attorney general would endorse a magazine that he knew celebrated the Confederacy is troubling in itself. That he would make no effort to check whether he had in fact promoted a racist magazine, even\r\nafter his endorsement became a national issue--or would lie under oath about not having done so--is deeply disturbing.","numcomment":0,"fileurl":"\/uploads\/2001\/01\/fair_keegph.htm","filesize":"7.9 kibibytes","article_url":"\/news\/2001\/01\/5190.php"},"attachments":[],"comments":[]}