The Times is loathe to bring up hatemonger Al Sharpton's incendiary past - the paper's preferred [1]title [1]is "civil rights leader" - and political reporter Patrick Healy avoids the issue entirely in Friday's"Sharpton [2]Goes to Washington To Talk to Party's '08 Hopefuls [2]."
"The Rev. Al Sharpton, a man who says he knows a well-tailored suit from a fake, went to the United States Senate on Thursday to do some comparison shopping, meeting separately with four Democrats who are seeking the 2008 presidential nomination to discuss civil rights."
That's the most relevant detail Healy could come up with? How about the fact that Sharpton doesn't know a real rape from a fake, and didn't care?
As TimesWatch has pointed out before, the Times has a long pattern [3]of ignoring Sharpton's racistpast [4], including his spread of the Tawana Brawley rape hoax and calling Jews "diamond merchants" during the racial disturbance in Crown Heights. In Harlem in 1995, Sharpton cursed the white Jewish owner of Freddy's Fashion Mart as a "white interloper" in a protest that escalated when a protester entered the store, shot four employees and set the building on fire, killing seven.
Sharpton met with Senators Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton, as well as Christopher Dodd and Joe Biden, but don't expect the liberal media to penalize those Democrats for meeting with the inflammatory Sharpton.