Special-interest groups have injected the issue of race heavily into the high-profile Florida death of Trayvon Martin and the pending trial for suspect George Zimmerman. In fact, a recent poll revealed 6 of 10 say "race activists" are exploiting the tragedy.
But there apparently will be no more comment from the White House on the trend, as Press Secretary Jay Carney declined to allow Les Kinsolving, WND's correspondent at the White House and the second-most senior reporter on the beat, to inquire.
At the daily briefing today, nearly two dozen reporters were not allowed to ask any questions, including Kinsolving. Instead, CNN was given seven and CBS and Fox six each.
Kinsolving wanted to ask if the president had any response to columnist Walter Williams' recent revelation about how race is an issue only some of the time.
"Does the president have any response to Dr. Williams' as he did about the death of Trayvon Martin?" Kinsolving wanted to ask. He also wanted to seek comment about a Kansas City child who was murdered by attackers who said, "You get what you deserve, white boy."
The columnist talked about a Tulsa, Okla., case where "a white couple suffered a home invasion by Tyrone Woodfork, a 20-year-old black man. Ninety-year-old Bob Strait suffered a broken jaw and broken ribs in the attack. His 85-year-old wife, Nancy, was sexually assaulted and battered to death.."
Williams, whose writing focused on media dishonesty and race hustlers, also explained in Kansas City, Mo., "two black … youths doused a 13-year-old boy in gasoline and set him on fire, telling him, 'You get what you deserve, white boy.'"
He also cited a Knoxville, Tenn., case where "a young white couple was kidnapped by four blacks. The girl was forced to witness her boyfriend's rape, torture and subsequent murder before she was raped, tortured and murdered."
"None of those black-on-white atrocities made anywhere near the news the Trayvon Martin case made, and it's deliberate," Williams wrote. "Editors for the Los Angeles Times, the New York Times and the Chicago Tribune admitted to deliberately censoring information about black crime for political reasons…."
Barack Obama, meanwhile, was among the first to link the Martin case to race, saying even as the case developed that if he'd had a son, he'd look like Martin.
Williams noted the violence is itself a tragedy.
"Even if the president and his liberal allies in the media and assorted civil rights hustlers don't care much about blacks murdering whites, what about blacks murdering blacks?" he noted. "During a mid-March weekend in Chicago, 49 people were shot, 10 fatally, including a 6-year-old black girl, making for more than 100 murders this year. Philadelphia isn't far behind, with murders clipping along at one a day since the beginning of 2012."
He said only white-on-black crime fits the political narrative at hand, and so only that gets attention.
He said the media is obvious sometimes, citing NBC's use of audio from the Martin case. In that clip, the suspect was reported to say, "This guy looks like he's up to no good. He looks black."
However, the actually 911 recording revealed the statement was: "This guy looks like he's up to no good or he's on drugs or something. It's raining, and he's just walking around, looking about." Only when a 911 officer specifically asks, "OK, and this guy – is he black, white or Hispanic?" Zimmerman states, "He looks black."
The poll said a large majority of registered voters say that "race activists" are responsible for exploiting the Florida shooting tragedy that left teenager Martin dead.
And 45 percent of the respondents to the WND/WENZEL poll conducted exclusively for WND by the public-opinion research and media consulting company Wenzel Strategies say that activist Al Sharpton should give up his cable news channel program while he's involved in the case.
The results come from a scientific national telephone poll conducted April 9-12 with a margin of error of 3.42 percent.
Nearly 60 percent of the respondents, including 34 percent of Democrats, agreed that the Florida case has been "exploited for political purposes." That included 8 of 10 of the GOP respondents and 63 percent of the independents, in addition to the 34 percent of Democrats. About 27 percent said the case has not been exploited politically, and 14 percent were unsure.
Respondents who describe themselves as moderate saw the least exploitation. Thirty-eight percent of that group said it is happening, while 43 percent of the very liberal and 40 percent of the liberal agreed. Among those who call themselves conservative, 78 percent saw exploitation, the same figure as the group described as very conservative.
"There is … clearly a national cynicism building about this case, and building against race activists, in part because this single case is trumpeted while so many more heinous crimes are ignored by the media and activists," said Fritz Wenzel, president of Wenzel Strategies.
"Nearly 6 in 10 said they believe this case has been exploited, and among those who said as much, 65 percent said it was the race activists who were engaging in the exploitation," he said.
On the issue of Sharpton and his demand that Zimmerman be arrested, while a slight majority said Sharpton should continue his MSNBC program "even while he is actively involved in a high-profile controversy," a full 45 percent said he should be off the air.
That 45 percent segment of voters included 27 percent of Democrats, 55 percent of Republicans and 55 percent of independents.
The responses generally followed political persuasions, but even 34 percent of the "very liberal" and 32 percent of the "liberal" said Sharpton should "give up" his show.
Previous reports:
6 of 10 say 'race activists' exploiting Trayvon
Americans unload on Hollywood in Trayvon case
Look who's really guilty in Trayvon Martin case