Jennifer Harper at the Washington Times has an excellent recap in today’s paper on the controversy brewing between me and Kate Zernike.
Zernike, recall, is the hack reporter for the New York Times who accused me of
engaging in “racial stereotypes” during my CPAC speech. The content of my speech
was on my forthcoming book Obama Zombies: How the Liberal Machine Brainwashed
My Generation, and the racial tone Zernike claims to have heard was my Brooklyn
accent. Yes, apparently northeastern speech patterns are now taboo in Obama’s
post-racial America.
From Ms. Harper:
An appearance at CPAC launched a battle for Jason
Mattera, spokesman for Young
America's Foundation and author of the forthcoming book
"Obama Zombies: How the Liberal Machine Brainwashed My Generation."
He offered a spirited address before the conservative gathering last week,
parsing out the disconnect between liberals and the youth vote.
But his words and style did not resonate much with New York Times writer Kate
Zernike, who titled her review of his discussion "CPAC Speaker bashes
Obama, in racial overtones," suggesting the Brooklyn native - who is of
Latino descent - used the ethnic cadence of black comedian Chris Rock.
But Mr. Mattera was just sounding like, uh, a typical Brooklynite, he says.
"Kate Zernike should be fired immediately. She has no business
being in a newsroom. Her allegation is absurd and flatly not true," Mr.
Mattera tells Inside the Beltway. "The racial stereotyping she speaks of
was nothing more than my Brooklyn accent,
something she could've figured out by doing a quick Internet search of me. Is
it now the policy of the New York Times to allow its reporters to just make
stuff up without any evidence? I bet Zernike's journalism role model was Jason
Blair."
Follow the link to read Zernike’s tepid response. She’s
starting to backtrack, as she should. But that's not enough. She should be fired for such a bald-faced lie.
