Imus Slur: Jackson Says MSNBC “Practices The Discrimination That Imus Peddles”

In today’s Chicago Sun-Times, Jesse Jackson continued to criticize MSNBC’s diversity.

“There are no — zero — African-American hosts on MSNBC. The network practices the discrimination that Imus peddles,” he wrote. As if that’s not enough, he added: “MSNBC clearly has no sense of common decency. We should recognize them for what they are. There is no reason for any African American or any person of conscience to listen to MSNBC.”

On Today, Jackson made similar comments: “This is NBC’s standard. The same station that has no black hosts on MSNBC, no black hosts on CNBC, this is their standard. It says an awful lot about this station… Can we use this moment to desegregate the media?”

> An e-mailer wonders: “Does Jesse Jackson know that Imus’s Executive Producer at MSNBC is Tom Bowman, who is black?…”

> Also: “As an African American, I must state that I am embarassed by Mr. Jackson’s claims that MSNBC lacks diversity,” a second e-mailer says. “As David Gregory correctly pointed out, Allison Stewart is the host of The Most. MSNBC has launched the careers of several journalists of color, including Soledad O’Brien, Lori Stokes, Lester Holt, Carl Quintanilla, and Omar Wasow just to name a few…”