CNN: Replace Gingrich As Host of "Crossfire" Or Face Boycott of Show & Sponsors

CNN spits in the face of its African-American, Hispanic, Muslim, Palestinian, Arab and Gay viewers by hiring Newt Gingrich who deliberately and consistently used racist "code words" to attract racist voters during his long political career and, most recently, throughout the entirety of the Republican primaries of 2012.

1) Newt Gingrich has implied that there was something "inherently wrong" with being African and Kenyan by suggesting that President Obama was informed by a Kenyan heritage. With this statement, Newt Gingrich also pandered to racist so-called "Birthers" who question President Obama's "Americaness." - "What if [Obama] is so outside our comprehension, that only if you understand Kenyan, anti-colonial behavior, can you begin to piece together [his actions]? That is the most accurate, predictive model for his behavior."
http://tiny.cc/8onx1w

2) Newt Gingrich has suggested that the children of poor parents were inherently inferior by implying they were lazy and prone to crime. He was race baiting in this instance, since most Americans think the vast majority of poor Americans are African-American. - “Really poor children, in really poor neighborhoods have no habits of working and have nobody around them who works so they have no habit of showing up on Monday. They have no habit of staying all day, they have no habit of I do this and you give me cash, unless it is illegal.”
http://tiny.cc/7pnx1w

3) Newt Gingrich has slandered Palestinians by suggesting there is no such thing as a Palestinian people. - "I think we have had an invented Palestinian people who are in fact Arabs."
http://tiny.cc/vqnx1w

4) Newt Gingrich supported stripping Hispanic Americans of their voting rights by getting rid of bilingual ballots. - "I would have ballots in English."
http://tiny.cc/jrnx1w

5) Newt Gingrich implied that there was something inherently wrong with being Muslim and pandered to bigoted "Birthers" by suggesting it was President Obama's own fault that bigots think he's Muslim. - "You have to ask, why would they believe that? It's not because they're stupid."
http://tiny.cc/nsnx1w

6) Newt Gingrich implied that there was something inherently wrong with being Muslim and pandered to bigoted "Birthers" by suggesting that the media was hiding President Obama's "Muslim friends." - “It is just astonishing to me how pro-Obama they are,” he said, “Do you think you are going to see two pages on Obama’s Muslim friends?"
http://tiny.cc/etnx1w

7) Newt Gingrich deliberately catered to racist voters by stereotyping President Obama as "The Food Stamp President." Most Americans believe African-Americans are the primary recipients of Food Stamps, which is false. Gingrich was cynically exploiting this misperception for racist reasons. CNN itself posted an article on Newt Gingrich's "Foodstamp" remark titled "'Food stamp president': Gingrich's poetry of hate"
http://tiny.cc/aunx1w

8) Newt Gingrich signaled his hatred for gays by funding an Anti-Gay hate group. - "The Associated Press revealed that one of the cogs in Newt Gingrich’s vast network of business enterprises and front groups, ReAL Action, provided $125,000 to the American Family Association Action, an anti-gay activist organization that has been officially labeled a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center."
http://tiny.cc/2unx1w

It is one thing to bring racists, homophobes, and the religiously intolerant onto a TV show to air their views as guests, but it is a whole other thing to reward a race baiter like Newt Gingrich by giving him the central position as host on a TV show aired by an allegedly 'legitimate' and international cable channel like CNN.

As Conor Friedersdorf has pointed out (http://tiny.cc/30nx1w): Newt Gingrich "is so expert at signaling tribal identification with conservatives that he can seemingly say or do anything without losing the ability to be competitive." One might add, "Gingrich remains competitive thanks to cable news channels like CNN." As Joshua Holland has pointed out (http://tiny.cc/l3nx1w) "Most people understood the foodstamp president line to be a classic example of the racist 'dog-whistle' – the kind of rhetoric that has long been at the heart of the GOP's 'Southern Strategy'."

By hiring Newt Gingrich as host of "Crossfire" CNN endorses, validates, and mainstreams racism, religious intolerance, and homophobia - all in a sleazy attempt to appeal to and attract bigoted viewers. CNN is blowing its own racist 'dog whistle' by hiring Newt Gingrich.

CNN's hiring of Newt Gingrich as host of a primetime program demonstrates that the executives at CNN could care less about the feelings and sensitivities of its African-American, Hispanic, Muslim, Arab and gay viewers. CNN is also demonstrating a total disregard for the feelings and sensitivities of its African-American, Hispanic, Muslim, Arab and gay employees. This is a display of pure arrogance on the part of CNN and it provides a contemporary example of exactly how institutional racism works.

Therefore, CNN's "Crossfire" show—and its sponsors—must be boycotted until such time as Newt Gingrich is removed from his central position as host of the show.

Sincerely,

Ronald Jackson