Bill James slammed on Fox News’ “Hannity & Colmes”

Commissioner finds ‘double standard’ at work

By: Jamie Dean

Charlotte--- Bill James has hit the big time. And the big time has hit him back. The Mecklenburg County commissioner, who unleashed a firestorm of controversy last year by saying urban blacks live in a “moral sewer,” appeared on national television on Jan. 11 as a guest on Fox News’ “Hannity & Colmes.” The four-minute segment turned ugly fast.

Conservative commentator Sean Hannity and liberal counterpart Alan Colmes normally thrive on disagreeing about social and political issues on their nightly talk show. But the two were united in their disapproval of James’s recent comments, with both co-hosts repeatedly calling on the commissioner to apologize.

“There is a way as a leader in your community to discuss serious social issues, and there is a way that is callous, harsh, unfair and insensitive, and you’ve chosen the latter,” Hannity told James during the segment.

“Why don’t you just apologize, why don’t you admit this could affect all races?”

James, who remained calm during the interview, said he could “perfectly agree that there is a problem in all communities,” but said the high dropout rate among urban blacks, and the high number of black men in jail, point to problems in the urban black community.

Neither Hannity nor Colmes were swayed. Hannity repeated his disdain for James’s style, and called his comments “absolutely over the top.”

Despite the on-air beating, James said he doesn’t regret his guest appearance, and that he “would do it again if it would continue to raise the issue.”

James said he was a bit surprised at the course the on-air interview took in light of the invitation he received from the show. A week before the segment aired, the commissioner said he received an email from the show’s producer with this invitation to appear on the program: “The subject would be your work on improving the structure of African-American families in the Charlotte area.”

“That wasn’t what happened, of course,” James told The Charlotte World.

James also said he was surprised particularly by Sean Hannity’s fierce reaction to his comments. The commissioner cited Hannity’s recent endorsement of a book called “Scam” by Rev. Jesse Lee Peterson, a black man who works in the inner city of Los Angeles. Peterson uses undeniably strong language to describe problems among urban blacks. In one passage he calls black men who father children out of wedlock “wild beasts in heat.”

Peterson’s writing has garnered bitter criticism from black leaders in the civil rights movement. But in the front cover of the book, Sean Hannity calls Peterson “a man of conscience with a bold prescription to make America a better place.”

James said Hannity’s denouncement of his comments alongside his ringing endorsement of Peterson “clearly would seem to be a double standard of sorts.”

Hannity could not be reached for comment for this story. (1/20/2005)

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