Ben Stein is "absolutely right" about the collapse of the American black family — and CNN's attempt to smear him for his view is "characteristically stupid" of the network, Canadian conservative commentator Mark Steyn says.
Stein — an actor, economist and former speechwriter for Presidents Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford — made waves Monday when he told
Newsmax TV's "The Steve Malzberg Show" the nation's "black underclass" can't escape "the scourge of drugs and the scourge of gangs."
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"You would think, if you read the liberal mainstream media, that the main problem with race in America was poor innocent black people being set upon and mistreated by the police. That’s just nonsense," Stein said.
Stein was quickly attacked by left-leaning news outlets including CNN — attacks that were completely uncalled for, according to Steyn.
"There are problems with American policing in general. I don't think it's a race issue, I don't like the idea of people accidentally winding up shot when they're pulling over for speeding offenses and things," Steyn told Steve Malzberg on Tuesday.
"But putting that aside, the reaction of CNN to what Ben Stein said … is fascinating because that is the characteristically stupid parameters in which we are allowed to talk about race.
"[Attorney General] Eric Holder and everyone is always pawing for national conversations on race, by which they mean people like [CNN's] Erin Burnett get to beat up on anyone who actually says anything honest or truthful or refreshing or anything that does not prostrate itself before the pack of the usual grievance mongers like the disgusting Al Sharpton and the disgusting Jesse Jackson."
Steyn said America is filled with "stupid political discourse" thanks to the attention paid to "these phony racism conversations" such as those on CNN.
"If you take all the space on CNN or MSNBC that is devoted to racism and you just go to the other side of the world and switch on the television there, all that space that they spend essentially prostrating themselves, kissing Al Sharpton's ring," he said.
"Ben Stein is absolutely right. The collapse of the American family, the black American family, basically at the hands of the great society is one of the great tragedies of all time.
"And this idea that somehow you're not allowed to talk about it, you're not allowed to mention that, you're not allowed to go on about black kids being raised in fatherless homes that severely impact their opportunities in life because it's somehow offensive to the official version peddled by the NAACP or whatever — enough of that!"
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