It would appear that the Reverend Al Sharpton is tired of taking a publicity backseat to the Reverend Jeremiah Wright…

Barack Obama made a call for nonviolence in the aftermath of the Sean Bell verdict – infuriating the Rev. Al Sharpton, who accused the presidential candidate of trying to “grandstand in front of white people,” sources told The Post.

During what a source described as a “heated” phone call yesterday, Sharpton told Obama he was disappointed with the Illinois senator’s words on Friday, when Obama said “resorting to violence to express displeasure” was “completely unacceptable and counterproductive.”
— New York Post, 4/29/08

An incendiary comment, to be sure.

But did the New York Post take the Reverend Al “out of context”? That’s the excuse he’d likely use should a backlash develop, thus my skepticism…

An aide to Al Sharpton on Tuesday denied a report that the reverend accused Barack Obama of trying to “grandstand in front of white people” by suggesting that New Yorkers should not get violent over the acquittal of three police officers who shot an unarmed man last year.

The story, which appeared in Tuesday’s New York Post, is an “outright falsehood,” said Charlie King, acting national director of Sharpton’s National Action Network.

“Everything stated in the New York Post regarding yesterday’s conversation between Senator Obama and Reverend Sharpton is false, and is either a fabrication of the Post journalists who wrote the story or the supposed unnamed source for the story. In my view, there is a big difference between tabloid journalism and shoddy journalism. This story is clearly the latter and is unacceptable,” King said.
— Fox News, 4/29/08

So, did Al say it?

Sure sounds like something he would say.

BTW – Read about Rev. Sharpton and his National Action Network’s outrage of the shooting of Sean Bell, and when you’re done, “Join the Network Today, CLICK HERE and Get Into the Action” (give them some money).

This entry was posted on Tuesday, April 29th, 2008 at 5:22 pm and is filed under Bob Parks, Politics, Vox Populi. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.