Points for ballsy. Check.
But seriously, Rare, if you want to deliver up the so-called rarest of red meat (or squirrel, dog or whatever you’re actually serving these days), might not want to have your newest hire, your so-called contributing editor, write the lengthy commentary piece commemorating Martin Luther King Day.
Today Jack Hunter, who last week came aboard Rare, the not-as-conservative-as-they-claim news outlet, wrote a story asserting that Martin Luther King proved NSA leaker Edward Snowden right. The former aide to Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) resigned from the senator’s staff in July of 2013. At the time, he told The Daily Caller that he didn’t want to be a distraction to the senator and wanted to clear his own name, which he argued was unfairly linked to racism. In his MLK story today, he noted that Snowden revealed mass government surveillance, and that King was the victim of it. Hunter is a contributing editor, according to his Twitter bio. But hey, why not bill him as editor? Considering the 10-month-old publication lost four editors since the dismal operation began in April, it sounds a whole lot better, right?
To be sure, there is nothing wrong or racially offensive about Hunter’s story today.
But let’s review a few things about Hunter and then readers can determine if readers might’ve been better served if the editor sat on the bench today. 1. The former radio shock jock went by the nickname “Southern Avenger.” He often wore a mask emblazoned with the Confederate flag to public events. He claims to have changed his ways, but in his Rare bio he continues to have the same motto as “Southern Avenger:” Conservative, libertarian, independent.” Quite a brand this guy has! 2. He believes the slave-holding South should still be its own country. 3. He said the assassination of Abraham Lincoln (who freed the slaves) was a good thing. He wrote that John Wilkes Booth‘s “heart was in the right place.” At one point he even made an annual, personal toast to Booth on the assassin’s May 10 birthday. (He has since changed his position.) 4. In 2008, Hunter said America’s atomic bombings on Japan to end World War II were the moral equivalent of 9/11.
In 2013, both The Free Beacon and Reason wrote pointed stories about Hunter’s beliefs. In Alana Goodman‘s piece for The Free Beacon, she explains that prior to his radio career, Hunter, while in his 20s, was chairman of the League of the South, which backs the creation of a Souther republic, although the ADL does not classify it as a hate group. In one of his radio monologues, as reported by Goodman, Hunter said, “The term ‘diversity’ has become nothing more than a code word for ‘not white,’ and it’s a shame that just because we have fair skin, we are always denied fair treatment.”
Earlier in that segment, he defended Abercrombie & Fitch for wanting to hire blonde, blue-eyed employees:
And then there are white people. Not only are whites not afforded the same right to celebrate their own cultural identity – but anything that is considered “too white” is immediately suspect. Nobody talks about rap music being “too black.” No one would dare suggest that the agricultural work force is “too Hispanic.” But let something like NASCAR, country music or the Republican party become patronized mainly by white Americans, and you can bet your ass someone is going to scream racism. You never hear about the need for “diversity” when the group in question is black or Hispanic. But when the group is white – diversity somehow becomes the number one objective. If Abercrombie and Fitch want to hire and promote only blonde-haired, blue-eyed Swedish models, what’s wrong with that?
A Rare insider tells The Mirror, “That guy has perhaps the ugliest paper trail of hateful writings of anyone on the right under 70 years old. Did Rare do zero vetting before hiring him? It’s a stunningly stupid move.” He’s clearly not widely embraced by all in conservative media. In 2009, for example, radio host Mark Levin included him in his list of “deranged bloggers” and dubbed him with the following label: “Charleston City Paper’s First Lady, Jack Hunter.” Hunter had written an anti-Levin story for Taki’s Magazine. After he landed on Levin’s deranged list, Hunter wrote a story for the Charleston City Paper sure to reignite whatever bad blood was between them with the headline: “Jack Hunter: ‘Deranged Blogger,’ Possibly Gay.”
An excerpt from Hunter’s piece in today’s edition of Rare:
The potential for abuse that President Obama and the NSA’s defenders promise won’t happen did happen to King. It happened long before we had the technology to amass everyone’s private information. It happened during a time when the President was not openly flouting the Constitution. To say that the abuse the NSA and FBI dealt King could not happen again is to ignore history and human nature. Surrendering trust to government beyond what the Constitution allows is something common sense should always forbid. As we remember Martin Luther King, Jr. for his civil rights triumphs, let us also remember his civil liberties lessons. They remain instructive, today more than ever.
Happy Martin Luther King Day folks! From your loving, completely non-racist editorial department over at Rare.
Full disclosure: Hunter has written for The Daily Caller. I have no authority over who writes for the publication in the present or the past.