No. It is your belief that it is a fact. You can’t read his mind. You cannot truthfully say “This guy is a racist.” You can truthfully say “I believe this guy is a racist,” or “This guy has convinced me that he is a racist,” but that’s all.
You bring up a good example. If people were debating whether the person was a dentist (a good chunk saying yes, a good chunk saying no), then what you wrote would be appropriate. Same for ‘root canal’ and ‘mayor’ and ‘dentistry.’ Usually that doesn’t happen. But it would certainly be news if there was someone performing possible ‘root canals’ that people weren’t sure was even a dentist!
On the other hand, describing someone as a racist in news, when there are all too many people debating it (wrong or not) just drags the reporter into the debate. Better to just list all the reasons people think he is a racist (which is might be more damning than just calling him one) and stay above the fray. Yeah, it might seem a distinction without merit, but journalists debate and take the distinction seriously.
You can see a fire. You can see a duck. You can truthfully say that you see them so you can truthfully say what they are. You can’t see inside another man’s head. You can state very, very strongly that you believe he has proven he is a racist, and IN TRUTH, that is the farthest you can go. Why do you think that when a witness gives testimony in a trial, he isn’t allowed to say “I know X is a racist”? Because that would be a belief, not a fact. The witness can truthfully say “X said he is a racist,” or he can truthfully say “X did things that I think a racist does,” but he cannot TRUTHFULLY say what X is really thinking. “Everybody know” is bullshit.
At what point does it become okay to call someone a racist, though? Where is the line, in your view? If someone regularly advocates for racist public policies, states things like his sympathy for and believe in white supremacy, etc, at what point do we take that person at his or her word? Never, unless we can read his or her mind?
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If they never settle on the word racist for racist behaviour, then they give the false impression that no racist behaviour exists in our world, ever.
That’s what happened with reporting on climate change.
There were tons of people who happily debated Obama’s birth location. Are you saying a reporter should give every naysayer the benefit of the doubt?
A reporter could make “dentist” seem to be a term that is eternally debatable. I say they don’t exist! Is it “disputed” now?
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Isn’t that just solipsism? We don’t know what anyone really thinks or feels, but if we’re going to privilege that fact over what they say or do… there is nothing to say about anything anyone says or does ever and nothing can ever be stated except that we are all experiencing our own consciousness. That’s… just pointless. Being a racist isn’t about who you truly are like in the “eyes of God” or deep at the root of your self. Being a racist is about concrete things you say and do that are racist things.
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You can’t say “It is your belief that it is a fact.”
You have to say "It is my belief that it is your belief that it is a fact.
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I think I believe that one of you believes in facts but I don’t know, all I hear is the howling void of one isolated human mind. I’m blind, deaf, incapable of reason… I only know that I have feelings. Let’s live like this forever! Perhaps I only believe that I believe I need to believe and therefore it appears that I believe but who knows if I really do or not! No one… ever. It’s not possible to know. You also can’t trust anything I say. Perhaps you only believe I said it. We can never know for sure.
Terrence this is stupid stuff… I’m to sober for this.
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I don’t know if you wrote this comment or if I did…and I don’t know who I can ask!
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Steve King’s remarks are racist, by definition. This is what the NBC memo addresses…
“Be careful to avoid characterizing [King’s] remarks as racist,” reads the email, which two NBC News staffers shared with HuffPost. “It is ok to attribute to others as in ‘what many are calling racist’ or something like that.”
It’s up to you to decide is King making racist remarks makes King a racist. (It does.) NBC is pretending the racism of King’s remarks is subjective despite the objective reality that they are. It isn’t debatable. It’s a stone cold fact. Arguing against a strawman will get you nowhere.
I’m going to give this one last try, not so much for your benefit, but because your post-factual position is nihilistic and corrosive to the acknowledgement of objective reality.
White supremacy = racism.
White nationalism = racism.
I gave you a sliver of benefit of the doubt. That was a mistake. Sell your alternative facts somewhere else.
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But how many viewers even understand there is a difference any more, let alone have any ability to spot it when they see it?
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If no one calls it racist, it can’t be racist?
Is that you, Mom?
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Yep, I was agreeing with you – and just putting another take on it.
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Nah, racism is an objective thing. When you act like a racist for several decades, that makes you a racist unless you do at least as much work to prove that you aren’t.
Racism isn’t just an opinion in your mind. It’s objective because it’s also comprised of the concrete things you do.
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I have no interest in reading his mind, but one could certainly say with a great degree of objectivity that Steve King SAYS and DOES racist things with great regularity. That’s the part that matters, not the inner workings of his psyche.
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No. It’s not about giving the benefit of the doubt. It’s about reporters avoiding becoming part of the story by appearing to be partisan. They have to make a judgement call based on professional standards and organization guidelines. This gives them gravitas and a lot more impact when they do start calling someone a racist. And there is nothing stopping them from laying out the evidence of racism before then.
If I recall, there are even studies showing this is more persuasive in the long run.
Yes, actually. I can.
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Let’s hope they do something funny with it, like roll out the new NBC logo:
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