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June 18, 2008
Reverend Al: Condemnation and Resurrection
This weekend, the Atlantic Yards story took an interesting detour when a NY Post article questioning Reverend Al Sharpton's fundraising strategy included developer Forest City Ratner. Here are two more responses, one criticizing Sharpton's tactics and the other offering a detailed rebuttal of the entire article.
Family Security Matters, Exclusive: Sharpton: More a Shakedown Artist than a Civil Rights Activist?
[I]t is his clear pattern of using protests, boycotts and media attacks to blackmail his targets into sudden racial sensitivity or generosity that is most bothersome.
Companies like PepsiCo, GM, Forest City Ratner, MGM Mirage, American Honda, Chrysler, Colgate Palmolive and Macy's made sudden contributions to Sharpton's National Action Network either as a response to a direct Sharpton threat or in response to such protests. Some of these companies even employed Sharpton briefly for a while as some sort of a diversity advisor.
At the very least, such conduct smells like street shakedowns where a tough guy promises to "protect" various businesses or even homes against things that "could happen." People donate to such shady causes because they understand the donation to be protection money and nothing else.
Rev. Al Sharpton has released a statement condemning the New York Post for publishing articles that accuse him of shaking down corporate CEOs through threats of boycotts.
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[T]he Post, in its typical fashion, omitted facts that contradicted the article's shakedown premise. Most notably, Ms. Vincent did not include one example of when Reverend Sharpton and NAN spoke out critically against companies after they had contributed to NAN....
Fact 5. Forest City Ratner. Ms. Vincent misleadingly writes that, 4 years after Reverend Sharpton blasted Forest City Ratner for "low wages," he made a "dramatic flip flop" and supported them. Rather than stating the objective facts that Forest City's practices have changed dramatically, she resorts to using subjective quotes by Reverend Sharpton to defend the shift, which obviously could be interpreted as self serving, and therefore a weaker defense.
NoLandGrab: From our point of view, it is worth noting that Forest City Ratner has a pattern of financially supporting groups and individuals who might prove to be formidable adversaries.
Posted by lumi at June 18, 2008 4:41 AM