Re: Puterbac News Network and Political Discussion Thread
Posted: Wed Aug 24, 2016 11:52 am
From truth checker site, snopes.com
http://www.snopes.com/clinton-byrd-photo-klan/
Robert Byrd was a member of the Ku Klux Klan in the 1940s and helped establish the hate group's chapter in Sophia, West Virginia. However, in 1952 Byrd avowed that "After about a year, I became disinterested [in the KKK], quit paying my dues, and dropped my membership in the organization," and throughout his long political career (he served for 57 years in the United States Congress) he repeatedly apologized for his involvement with the KKK:
"I know now I was wrong. Intolerance had no place in America. I apologized a thousand times ... and I don't mind apologizing over and over again. I can't erase what happened."
Although this image was used to criticize the media for ignoring Hillary Clinton's connection to former KKK member Robert Byrd while simultaneously playing up Donald Trump's comments regarding former Klan member David Duke, several factors made the latter much more newsworthy in early 2016
First of all, Trump declined to condemn Duke and the Ku Klux Klan in February 2016, making the story current and newsworthy, while photograph of Hillary Clinton was taken more than a decade ago. The lack of current coverage isn't because the print media are ignoring the association, but because the photograph is a several-year-old story.
Second, while David Duke is no longer a member of the Ku Klux Klan, he is still an active member of another white supremacist organization, NAAWP: the National Association for the Advancement of White People. Duke, a prominent Holocaust denier (although he describes himself as a "Holocaust exposer"), also has a more-than-passing interest in politics: the former member of the Louisiana House of Representatives has run for the U.S. Senate, governor of Louisiana, and President of the United States. Duke has spent his life founding and supporting various white nationalist and white supremacist groups, while Byrd, by contrast, spent the majority of his life publicly disavowing and repeatedly apologizing for his early KKK affiliation.
http://www.snopes.com/clinton-byrd-photo-klan/
Robert Byrd was a member of the Ku Klux Klan in the 1940s and helped establish the hate group's chapter in Sophia, West Virginia. However, in 1952 Byrd avowed that "After about a year, I became disinterested [in the KKK], quit paying my dues, and dropped my membership in the organization," and throughout his long political career (he served for 57 years in the United States Congress) he repeatedly apologized for his involvement with the KKK:
"I know now I was wrong. Intolerance had no place in America. I apologized a thousand times ... and I don't mind apologizing over and over again. I can't erase what happened."
Although this image was used to criticize the media for ignoring Hillary Clinton's connection to former KKK member Robert Byrd while simultaneously playing up Donald Trump's comments regarding former Klan member David Duke, several factors made the latter much more newsworthy in early 2016
First of all, Trump declined to condemn Duke and the Ku Klux Klan in February 2016, making the story current and newsworthy, while photograph of Hillary Clinton was taken more than a decade ago. The lack of current coverage isn't because the print media are ignoring the association, but because the photograph is a several-year-old story.
Second, while David Duke is no longer a member of the Ku Klux Klan, he is still an active member of another white supremacist organization, NAAWP: the National Association for the Advancement of White People. Duke, a prominent Holocaust denier (although he describes himself as a "Holocaust exposer"), also has a more-than-passing interest in politics: the former member of the Louisiana House of Representatives has run for the U.S. Senate, governor of Louisiana, and President of the United States. Duke has spent his life founding and supporting various white nationalist and white supremacist groups, while Byrd, by contrast, spent the majority of his life publicly disavowing and repeatedly apologizing for his early KKK affiliation.