NLPC today released a special report titled Mainstreaming Demagoguery: Al Sharpton’s Rise to Respectability. It is a thorough examination of the character, career and impact of the controversial Reverend by Dr. Carl Horowitz of the NLPC staff.
Click here or on the cover to the right to download a 50-page pdf version.
Sharpton has been the subject of extensive media coverage and criticism in the past. But nothing so far has delved into Sharpton’s beliefs and tactics the way this report does. In particular, the report seeks to set the record straight, with details of Sharpton’s history, which includes anti-Semitism and incitement to violence.
The report also analyzes why, despite this well-documented background, Sharpton is treated as a respectable figure, with presidential candidates seeking his endorsement, George W. Bush welcoming him to the White House, and most recently, New York mayor Michael Bloomberg calling him a “calming influence.”
Read about these points, and many others:
“The Boy Preacher” is ordained by age 10.
Slumlord father provides middle-class existence — until dad marries his stepdaughter.
Mentor in corruption: Rep. Adam Clayton Powell (D-NY).
Sociopathic singer James Brown becomes surrogate father.
On Jesse Jackson: “I became his protégé.”
First big taste of publicity: vilifying the “Subway Vigilante.”
Plays Howard Beach whites “like a fiddle.”
Tawana Brawley hoax: “I still don’t apologize.”
Wilding of Central Park jogger: “The boyfriend did it.”
His own brush with death in Bensonhurst.
Inciting anti-Jewish rage in Crown Heights.
Words turn to violence: 8 dead at Freddy’s Fashion Mart.
Competing shakedowns: Burger King boycott creates rift with Jesse Jackson.
Rips off the presidential matching funds system — with the help of a Republican.
Off-the-books presidential campaign leads to $285,000 fine.
Democrats genuflect, George W. Bush honors at White House.
Racial preference: Feds cut $1.8 million tax bill in half.
Imus pays homage, plays into Sharpton’s hands.
The Jena Six: perpetrators become victims.
Sugar daddies: PepsiCo, Colgate-Palmolive, Wal-Mart, Ford Motor Co.
Obama: “Rev. Sharpton is a voice of the voiceless, and a voice for the dispossessed.”
NLPC is more than a Sharpton critic. President Peter Flaherty has directly confronted the CEOs of corporations bankrolling Sharpton at the annual meetings of PepsiCo, Anheuser-Busch, and Colgate-Palmolive.
NLPC’s Complaints to the Federal Election Commission have resulted in huge fines and other sanctions for Sharpton. Last month, Sharpton and his group, the National Action Network (NAN), were fined $285,000 by the FEC for violating a host of election laws during Sharpton’s 2004 presidential campaign.
Previously, the FEC ordered Sharpton to return $100,000 in taxpayer matching funds, and denied him an additional $79,000 for which he qualified.