Crumpton blames media overreaction
Of the St. Louis American
Anyone who thinks former KTRS radio host David Lenihan should have been fired for calling Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice a “coon” last week is misguided, according Harold Crumpton, NAACP city chapter president.
In fact, Crumpton and the chapter have authored a letter to KTRS requesting they re-hire the conservative talk show host immediately because the situation “was blown completely out of proportion” by the media.
Lenihan, Crumpton, NAACP Region 4 director Gil Ford and other members were joined by Lenihan and his wife, Karen, at a press conference at the NAACP Region office on Wednesday morning.
Lenihan said he and his wife had joined the NAACP minutes before the press conference. He also said he would be working with the “411 On The FIVE-0 Program,” which will educate people as to why they should not flee police if stopped while driving.
Lenihan said he received “compassion, support and hugs” from Crumpton and NAACP members he met with on March 27. He said he had no understanding of what the NAACP stood for and that is why he had not joined the organization in the past.
Lenihan still insists that his racist gaffe was a slip of the tongue and not a slur at Rice.
Rice has since forgiven him, using the incident to make a peculiar plug for the War on Terror. She argued that continuing violence in Iraq and Afghanistan is understandable, given that a miscue like Lenihan’s can happen in a mature democracy like the U.S.
Crumpton has made a 180-degree turn on the subject in less than seven days.
He said last week that he was disturbed that the word could be uttered “at a first-class news outlet, and home of the St. Louis Cardinals. The Cardinals don’t act like that. They’re a first-class operation.”
He said station general manager Tim Dorsey took the right action, adding it should send a message to other stations to do a better job of judging the character of on-air personalities.
He said he changed his mind “after I got the facts.”
NACCP member Sam Moore said he and others “are in the forgiving business.”
“We know we are going to take a lot of hits in the (black) community for this. Many are going to wonder why (we would forgive and support Lenihan).”
Gentry Trotter, a former national NAACP board of directors member and member of the city chapter, called Crumpton’s action “outrageous.”
“I’m just outdone,” Trotter said. “Anyone who knows what the NAACP is about who has passed away must be rolling in their graves.”
Many blacks are already wondering why the NAACP would come to Lenihan’s defense, when it was silent following the dismissal of two black radio hosts last summer for making controversial comments involving a fair fight with a police officer.
Crumpton and Ford said the NAACP did not come to the defense of DJ Kaos and DJ Silli Asz “because no one asked us to.”
Ford said it would be “ambulance chasing” for the NAACP to contact people and ask them if they needed the organization’s help. He said the organization is also legally bound to not act in that fashion.
A white member of the NAACP, Ed Hermann, contacted Crumpton to arrange the meeting with Lenihan and NAACP representatives.
Lenihan is a self-proclaimed conservative. Lenihan had been at KTRS only two weeks, moving over from afternoon drive at WGNU where he spent three years.
While he wrote in a Post-Dispatch column on Tuesday that he did not personally think that Lenihan was purposely trying to be racist in making the comment, Sylvester Brown called the NAACP’s latest move “questionable.”
“I was not speaking for all black people, just myself,” Brown said.
“If Crumpton or the others want to forgive him, that’s one thing. For them to speak for the entire organization is questionable.”
Crumpton believes Lenihan’s statement that he simply made a mistake and that his intent was not to be racist toward a woman he admires. Crumpton thinks the black community should agree to forgive Lenihan because “it’s a waste of time to keep washing over this issue.”
The Lenihans will be attending Washington Metropolitan A.M.E Zion Church on Sunday, they announced.
“We’re just trying to make a positive out of this horrible situation,” said Karen Lenihan.
She was almost reduced to tears when a reporter asked if their joining the NAACP was “a publicity stunt.”
“One of the things I found truly amazing was the support these gentlemen have given me,” David Lenihan said of Crumpton and others at the press conference.
