When is it okay for inflammatory rhetoric to be included in an otherwise serious and thoughtful news story about the future of a major political party?
A Sunday story by the Associated Press’ Steve Peoples is apparently a case where it’s appropriate.
The story, headlined “GOP puts up a bigger tent for minority challenge,” focuses on the ethnically diverse field of potential 2016 Republican presidential candidates. It also examines whether leadership made up of different races is enough to capture a larger share of minority voters, as Democrats have been able to do.
But in the report is a quote by former NAACP head Benjamin Jealous, widely known for divisive, controversial comments on politics, like when he recently said the relationship between blacks and police in America is similar to that of colonists and occupying British Redcoats during the Revolutionary War.
“They’re [Republicans] going to have to make a decision about whether they’re going to build a meaningful multiracial coalition by respecting and defending the rights of all people in this country,” Jealous says in the story, “or whether they’re going to continue to play this dog-whistle politics that have besmirched the Republican Party since the days of Barry Goldwater.”
The term “dog-whistle” refers to supposed code-language used in politics that intends to evoke racial prejudice without explicitly stating it. Republicans who campaign for welfare reform or a decrease in unemployment benefits are sometimes accused by Democratic opponents of using “dog whistles” to tap into the racial animus of white voters.
Jealous’ quote is used in the AP story as though it were an authoritative analysis on politics rather than controversial commentary more suitable for a primetime cable news show.
Peoples, the author of the story, did not return a request for comment.
