Last month, sports broadcaster Bob Costas set off a controversy when he read a pro-gun control column by Fox Sports columnist Jason Whitlock during halftime of NBC’s primetime broadcast of “Sunday Night Football” after the tragic murder-suicide of Kansas City Chiefs linebacker Jovan Belcher.
Whitlock went on to make a series of controversial statements, likening the National Rifle Association to the Ku Klux Klan and then implying that Fox News host Bill O’Reilly was a “slave overlord.”
On Wednesday, Whitlock took to his Twitter account, which has a following of over 155,000, to liken Hoover Institution senior fellow Thomas Sowell to Samuel L. Jackson’s “Django Unchained” character Stephen, the “house negro.”
Thomas Sowell RT @wozzletof: What columnist would you say is closely related to the character portrayed by Sam Jackson in Django?
— Jason Whitlock (@WhitlockJason) January 2, 2013
Whitlock later responded to his critics on Twitter by saying that the 82-year-old Sowell is only highly regarded because he “tells you what you want to hear.”
Becuz he consistently tells u what u want to hear. Same reason Django’s Stephen brilliant RT @kickazzkurtz: Thomas Sowell is a brilliant man
— Jason Whitlock (@WhitlockJason) January 3, 2013
Too many of you base your “brilliance” on whether someone tells you what you want to hear. Thomas “Django Stephen” Sowell is Exhibit A.
— Jason Whitlock (@WhitlockJason) January 3, 2013
Later, Whitlock likened Sowell to Sean Hannity, Ann Coulter and O’Reilly.
He’s brilliant @ telling right wing what they wanna hear. Same as Hannity, Coulter, O’Reilly RT @mjv1230: are you saying he’s not brilliant?
— Jason Whitlock (@WhitlockJason) January 3, 2013
Asked to name a black conservative who he respects, Whitlock named former Republican National Committee chairman Michael Steele — now a MSNBC contributor — and CNN contributor David Frum, who Whitlock noted is “not black.”
I actually kind of like Michael Steele. Not black but I LOVE David Frum. RT @johnbday: Who’s a black conservative you respect?
— Jason Whitlock (@WhitlockJason) January 3, 2013