On the Stump – Jackson Uttered N-Word, Fox Says

CHICAGO – Jesse Jackson used the N-word during a break in a TV interview where he criticized presidential candidate Barack Obama, Fox News confirmed Wednesday.

Jackson was already under fire for crude off-air comments he made against Obama in what he thought was a private conversation during a taping of a “Fox & Friends” news show.

In additional comments from that same conversation, first reported by TVNewser, Jackson is reported to have said Obama was “talking down to black people,” and referred to black people with the N-word when he said Obama was telling them “how to behave.”

Though a Fox spokesman confirmed to The Associated Press that Jackson used the slur, the network declined to release the full transcript of the July 6 show and did not air the comments.

Jackson apologized in a statement Wednesday for “hurtful words” but didn’t offer specifics.

“I am deeply saddened and distressed by the pain and sorrow that I have caused as a result of my hurtful words. I apologize again to Senator Barack Obama, Michelle Obama, their children as well as to the American public,” Jackson said in a written statement. “There really is no justification for my comments and I hope that the Obama family and the American public will forgive me. I also pray that we, as a nation, can move on to address the real issues that affect the American people.”

A spokeswoman for Jackson’s Rainbow/PUSH Coalition said she could not confirm that Jackson used the slur.

Jackson has called on the entertainment industry, including rappers, actors and studios, to stop using the N-word. He also urged the public to boycott purchasing DVD copies of the TV sitcom “Seinfeld” after co-star Michael Richards was taped using the word.

McCain speaks to NAACP meeting

CINCINNATI – Republican John McCain told the NAACP on Wednesday that while he hopes to be the next president, he recognizes that his rival, Democrat Barack Obama, “has achieved a great thing.”

“Whatever the outcome in November,” McCain told the crowd Wednesday, “Senator Obama has achieved a great thing, for himself and for his country, and I thank him for it. … Don’t tell him I said this, but he is an impressive fellow in many ways.”

At the NAACP’s 99th annual convention, the Arizona senator seemed to acknowledge his standing as underdog in this particular audience and the fact that the November election will mark a historic opportunity for African-American citizens to cast presidential votes for a black candidate.

McCain recalled that it was an “outrage” to many Americans when President Theodore Roosevelt, a Republican, invited black educator Booker T. Washington to dine with him at the White House in 1901, and said America is “a world away from the cruel and prideful bigotry of that time.”

He spoke of the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. 40 years ago, and said “struggle is rewarded in God’s own time.”

“I am a candidate for president who seeks your vote and hopes to earn it,” McCain said. “But whether or not I win your support, I need your good will and counsel. And should I succeed, I’ll need it all the more.”

Originally published by From Our Press Services .

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