PrintNovember 2, 2007
Dog throws himself to the Sharptons
Nobody ever accused bounty hunter and reality TV star Duane "Dog" Chapman of having the sharpest fangs in the pack, but yesterday he proved that while this dog can certainly hunt, he can also bark too loudly, and then foolishly sit up and beg. By doing so, he treated us all like fire hydrants.
First, his popular A&E program was suspended "pending investigation" for using the "N" word during a private father-son phone call -- a recording of which found its way to the National Enquirer.
Then, during his network-forced public apology, he proclaimed the "utmost respect" for black people, after everyone not currently serving on the International Space Station heard him tell his son, Tucker, to break up with this black girlfriend,
"not because she's black, it's because we use the word n***** sometimes here. I'm not gonna take a chance ever in life of losing everything I've worked for for 30 years because some f***ing n***** heard us say n***** and turned us in to the Enquirer magazine."
The very publication Dog feared might betray his colorful vocabulary did just that. It is all very mysterious -- the actual perpetrator of the eavesdropping remains unidentified. Whoever the malefactor might be, Dog then shifted into stupid gear. He reached out to Rev. Al for forgiveness.
How amazing is that? The Reverend no longer need even demand action in order to find his race-baiting butt right in the thick of it. Unlike Imus, Chapman planned his own lynching party. That's right, Sharpton hadn't even heard the bugged tirade, much less demanded Chapman's head on the block. Pre-emptive self-abasement.
Equally disturbing was the denial of Chapman's "expectation of privacy" during a phone conversation by his employers and a portentous man whose educational creds reflect only that he "attended Brooklyn College." Nonetheless, as decreed by "Judge" Sharpton:
"While people have the freedom to express themselves in any matter in private, when those private conversations become public, it becomes our responsibility to state, as we always have, that we condemn the use of this word as racist and derogatory."
It would seem that Political Correctness gone mad has bestowed upon one Alfred Sharpton Jr. more power over media careers than even the FCC.
A worrisome turn of events, bearing ominous potential, indeed.
I’m by no means defending the despicable language of the aptly nicknamed Mr. Chapman. However, on balance, his alleged transgressions are but words, no more, no less.
And be they profound or profane, the arbiter of their proper time and place should be good old fashioned common sense, not a self-appointed thought-trooper.
And be they profound or profane, the arbiter of their proper time and place should be good old fashioned common sense, not a self-appointed thought-trooper.
