Shabazz calls Malkin political prostitute

This is a good example of Cable news shows and the cable talk format that has developed . Lets walk through this step by step. I want to clearly point out that this clip is in the middle of a longer conversation that I do not have information about.

Malkin starts off by insulting Shabazz and his party with the lines, "your so called party" and "how many members do you have now, 15?".

While I can't speak to the truth of his career being built out of racial hatred or not, the tone in her voice is a tone of attack. This statement implies that he creates racial hatred, as an excuse to exist. Later she makes this point more clear.

Her tone even in calling him "SIR" is far less than polite in the sense that you would expect the word to be used.

Next she asks what could be a legitimate question about a statement that was made by a member of his party. However since he was not the one that made the statement, he isn't the one that should be apologizing.

Shabazz responds with an attack, attacking Malkin and Bill O'Reilly, but does address the question that was asked except in a passing tone. Granted he was not the one that made the statement, but he should have addressed the issue.

Malkin offended by the comment (does she have the right to be?), turns the comment back on him, "there is only one whore on this split screen and that is you". In not choosing to rise above the comment, and focus on the issue, she allows the show to slide further away from real discussion.

Shabazz, continuing on the attack of O'Reilly claims that as a womyn of colour she should be ashamed to work on The Factor. At this point whatever discussion was attempting to be moved forward by either one of them has been lost.

They talk over each other for a while, Shabazz ranting about what a racist O'Reilly is. Then Malkin attempts to bring up the OJ Simpson case as a way of attacking Shabazz. She asks him if he is still supporting OJ? How does this relate to the issue being discussed, what is being discussed?

Shabazz turns her attack around on her, saying there was no apology that was made by O'Reilly when Simpson was released from the charges of the murder. This does relate directly to the point that Malkin attempted to make when it seems she was asking about the Duke Case.

She attempts to bait him into making an anti-semitic comment, as a way of backing out of her comment about Simpson. If it is the point that Sharpton and Shabazz should be apologizing about the statements made about the Duke players, there are plenty of people who should apologize for comments made about Simpson. It could be said that while some believe Simpson is guilty, some no doubt believe that Duke boys are guilty.

She returns to the issue of the Duke players, insisting that they are owed an apology from this man for the actions that have taken place. I think that the whole case was a mess, an insane waste of time, but how Shabazz should make a statement about the case of regret I don't understand.

I think she over speaks when she says that the rape accuser has been debunked and exposed. The case was bad, and the case was not strong enough to continue that charges. While that does point to the innocence of the Duke players, it is not a clear victory. It could still be that this womyn is a victim. Asking if this womyn is still being protected by Shabazz is a strange question, if she is in danger - she should be protected, liar or not.

Shabazz asserts that the womyn is a victim and attempts to shame Malkin for not supporting the victim as a womyn. While Shabazz makes a point about how this will make other womyn afraid to come out about rape, that does not mean that the crime was committed. Shabazz blames the prosecutor in this case.

Malkin claims that this case has done damage to all true rape victims is true as well. If it is widely believed that this case is groundless, then it will be harder for the next victim to be heard. If this case is groundless, it is a crime against rape victims themselves.

The piece ends with Shabazz making an absurd comment about all racial injustice being addressed. Truth is that is not going to happen.