On CNN last Thursday morning, this happened:
Click here for my reaction. I tried to be as thorough as possible about everything Soledad O’Brien and Jay Thomas did wrong, but I did miss one crucial mistake they made: choosing a career in punditry.
Today, rather than apologize to Joel Pollak and his wife for allowing one of the show’s other guests to call him a racist, and rather than admit that she didn’t know what she was talking about and tried to win a debate by having an intern read a Wikipedia definition into her earpiece, she doubled down:
(Video courtesy of The Blaze) No, Soledad didn’t touch the Wikipedia entry for Critical Race Theory. She just parroted the first sentence.
Well, guess the story’s over now. Soledad O’Brien said so, and she brought on a guest who agreed with her. How can she be expected to conduct a debate if you keep telling her she’s wrong? Argument from authority is invalid unless you’re as much of an authority as Soledad.
By the way, here’s one of the “crazy tweets” she keeps getting:
Update: Jeff Poor has more. And it just occurred to me: If Derrick Bell would be so happy that people are talking about his theories, why are Soledad and all these other lefties trying to stop us from talking about his theories?
Update: Ben Shapiro at Big Government: Critical Race Theory Explained.
Update: Soledad invited Emory University professor Dorothy Brown to talk about Critical Race Theory because she’s written about it: Fighting Racism in the Twenty-First Century. Here’s an excerpt, courtesy of Rightsphere:
Although CRT does not employ a single methodology, it seeks to highlight the ways in which the law is not neutral and objective, but designed to support White supremacy and the subordination of people of color.
Which I’m pretty sure was Joel Pollak’s definition as well. The one Soledad kept sputtering about, to stall for time while her intern Googled it. And yet this morning, Brown said CRT had nothing to do with that stuff.
O’Brien: One of the things you heard Mr. Pollak say, he said that Critical Race Theory is all about white supremacy… So you’re a professor, you teach this theory, you’ve written a book about it. Is it all about white supremacy?
Brown: No, it’s nothing about white supremacy. When I hear “white supremacy,” I think of the Ku Klux Klan. Critical Race Theory is the opposite of that. So, honestly, I have no idea what he was talking about.
Perhaps, Professor Brown, he read what you wrote.
Update: The page in question from Fighting Racism in the Twenty-First Century:
As a guy I used to know used to say: “It’s the Internet, and we can fact-check your ass.”
Update: Sure, Soledad, you’re imploding right before our eyes, but look on the bright side: We’re the only ones paying attention.
Update: Apropos of nothing, here’s a blast from the past: CBS Defends Bush Memos.
Update: Well, at least she knows we’re willing to do what we’re told.
Update: Wikipedia editor responds to Critical Race Theory edit war. And I suppose it’s fitting that there’s not a word about any of this on Soledad’s Wiki page.