The progressive group Media Matters has taken aim at various figures in the conservative spectrum. In particular, they have launched a campaign to take down various hosts and contributors on Fox News. And, sadly, their tactics have absolutely no limits.
On Tuesday, the group posted an article on their website, claiming radio host Larry Elder said "black families were better off as slaves." The claim was based off a discussion Elder had on "Fox & Friends" about reparations.
Even more proof that @mmfa is a disgusting rag. pic.twitter.com/5K0rR6AbKV
— Beth Baumann (@eb454) April 9, 2019
What's even more shocking is the progressive group shared a transcription of the conversation and absolutely nowhere in the discussion.
AINSLEY EARHARDT (CO-HOST): Larry, Cory Booker wants to be president. And he is introducing a Senate bill on slavery reparations. You're shaking your head no. Why?
LARRY ELDER (TALK RADIO HOST): Slavery reparations in my opinion is the extraction of money from people who were never slave owners and given to people who were never slaves. It was just too long ago. Slavery ended 150 years ago. The parallels might be the reparation paid to Japanese-Americans put in relocation camps in World War II. But those monies were paid to them who were victimized or to their legal heirs. Same thing with respect to [the] Holocaust. It's just too long ago.
And what about intermarriage? What about people like [Sen.] Kamala Harris [(D-CA)]? Her father is from Haiti, and he has admitted that in his family, his family owned slaves. So does Kamala Harris pay a check, or does she receive a check? What about Obama? Obama's mother -- her ancestors owned slaves. His father is from Kenya. That area of Africa was a hotpoint for slave trading on the part of Africans enslaved by other Africans, and then sold to European and Arab slavers by African chieftains. Does Obama pay a check, or does he get a check? I mean, the whole thing is absolutely absurd.
And look, think tanks on the left and on the right have pretty much said the same thing about how one escapes poverty and gets to the middle class. Finish high school, don't have a kid before you're 20, and get married before you have a kid. You follow that formula, you will not be poor. And they don't say -- that formula does not apply to Blacks, it does not apply to people who used to have ancestors who were slaves. This is America for crying out loud. This is the greatest country in all of human creation. You can go from nothing to something faster than any other country in the world. And we ought to be taking advantage of the opportunities that we have right now instead of fighting old battles. It is divisive. Even Obama opposed reparations in 2016 when he was asked about it, primarily because he thought it would be politically too divisive. And he's right. It is unpopular. Only about 26% of Americans support reparations. Let's knock it off and let's move on.
BRIAN KILMEADE (CO-HOST): Well Al Sharpton, at his convention, got almost every candidate, I think -- outside Bernie Sanders, I don't even know if he showed up -- says they're for reparations and would support legislation. Real quick, what do you say about the inequity in society, that racism exists, and this is one way to equal the playing field?
ELDER: Look, in 1940, 87% of Blacks lived below the federally defined level of poverty. Twenty years later in 1960, that number had been cut to 47%. A 40 point drop in 20 years. The greatest 20 year period of economic expansion for Blacks in history. This is before the welfare state, before race-based preferences. My point is, the real problem right now are left-wing policies that have made things worse. The welfare state has incentivized women to marry the government and allow men to abandon their financial and moral responsibility. And Obama said a kid without a father is five times more likely to be poor, nine times more likely to drop out of school, 20 times more likely to end up in jail. Let's talk about what the welfare state has done to destabilize the Black family. During slavery, a Black kid was more likely to be born under a roof with his biological mother and biological father than today. That's the problem, let's deal with that.
Elder called out the group for their blatant lie:
Media Matters: "Fox & Friends guest Larry Elder--Black families were better off as slaves"
— Larry Elder (@larryelder) April 9, 2019
I...SAID...NO...SUCH...THING!!!! WATCH/LISTEN FOR YOURSELF:https://t.co/HmEfJrDAcW#FakeHeadline
There are so many points wrong with what Media Matters is trying to push. For one, they're putting words in Elder's mouth. You know why? Because he's a black man who bucks their narrative. He doesn't follow the stereotypical liberal agenda. And he's bringing up valid points about how reparations would work, should the bill magically become law.
Not once did Elder say blacks were better off as slaves. What he did say is blacks were better off before government had their hands in every aspect of our lives. The poverty level dropped when blacks were given the opportunity to live up to their full potential. The welfare state didn't exist. And once the welfare state came into play, that's when things were back to being an issue for minorities.
If anything, Media Matters needs to change their headline to "Fox & Friends guest: Black families were better off before the welfare state."
Shame on Media Matters for trying to shame a black man for disagreeing with their policies. If anything, they must feel threatened by what Larry Elder is saying because they know it's the truth. If it wasn't, they wouldn't work so hard to discredit him.