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MSNBC Host Under Fire Over Herman Cain Interview

Oct 10, 2011  •  Post A Comment

An MSNBC host is under fire over an interview in which he grilled presidential hopeful Herman Cain about his role in the Civil Rights movement, according to The Hollywood Reporter’s The Live Feed blog.

After reading a passage from Cain’s book in which Cain wrote that he was "too young to participate when they first started the freedom rides and sit-ins" and followed his father’s advice to go to school, MSNBC host Lawrence O’Donnell asked the Republican candidate: "Where do you think black people would be sitting on the bus today if Rosa Parks had followed your father’s advice?," according to the story.

Cain replied that O’Donnell was distorting the facts with the question, noting that his father wasn’t giving Rosa Parks advice, the story says.

"I was a high school student. The college students were going to the sit-ins. If I had been a college student, I probably would have been participating," Cain replied. O’Donnell continued to press Cain, asking him whether he regretting "sitting on the sidelines" during the movement.

The Atlantic’s Conor Friedersdorf called the interview "offensive," while John King of CNN called the interview a "character assassination," the story notes.

3 Comments

  1. Our local NBC affiliate had technical problems and shunted MSNBC on air while they fixed the problem. I got to hear about 20 minutes of the interview, and I have to say that Lawrence O’Donnell was very offensive. Shouldn’t he be on Fox?

  2. This loser o’donell will end up in o kans land like Keith Olbermann

  3. Lawrence O’Donnell has history of being nasty to guests who are not part of his political ideologies. He is also an admitted socialist and many forget a plagiarist. I do not understand how a respected news outlet like NBC abd Brian Williams allow them selves to be associated with MSNBC

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