News Corporation Chairman Rupert Murdoch apologized Thursday for tweeting the day before that Ben Carson would be a “real black president,” a message widely seen as a slight against President Obama.
Tweeting to his 631 million followers, the chairman and CEO of the News Corporation said Wednesday that Carson and his wife are “terrific,” and said, “What about a real black president who can properly address the racial divide? And much else.”
But by Thursday morning, he apologized and said he finds both Carson and Obama “charming.”
Apologies! No offence meant. Personally find both men charming.
— Rupert Murdoch (@rupertmurdoch) October 8, 2015
This isn’t the first time Murdoch has shown a penchant for Carson on Twitter. On Oct. 2 he wrote, “Everywhere pundits keep underestimating Ben Carson. But public understand humility as admirable, listen to the multi-faceted strong message.”
The tweet suggests that Murdoch doesn’t think President Obama is a “real black president,” and mirrors other conservative criticism that Obama has done little to successfully address racial issues that many say have become more pronounced under his presidency. Police violence against black men has sparked rioting in Ferguson, Missouri, and Baltimore, Md.
“Racism — we’re not cured of it,” the president said following a June church shooting in South Carolina that resulted in the deaths of nine black parishioners at the hands of Dylann Roof, a 21-year-old white man, who had written a racist manifesto that was discovered online.
