When this originally hit the media last week, I was more than a little unimpressed by the whole thing. Breitbart.com had acquired a tape of then-law student Barack Obama praising Harvard Law professor Derrick Bell. Bell is the originator of Critical Race Theory which posits basically that the white man, in league with the Jew, is out to get the black man.

People who read the right-leaning blogs know Obama is a radical. They know that the media abdicated its responsibility to vet Obama in 2008. This isn’t news to us. As for the larger American body politic, this is little more than a distraction. This isn’t going to move the American electorate to toss the bum out—his record of (poor) performance in office is what the focus needs to be on. This is interesting in a historical context. It’s interesting in a media criticism context. It’s irrelevant politically.

Last week, CNN’s Soledad O’Brien, allegedly a journalist, interviewed Joel Pollack of Breitbart.com regarding this tape that professor Charles Ogletree had admitted hiding from the public during the 2008 election. When Pollack described Critical Race Theory as holding that the “civil rights movement was a sham and that white supremacy is the order and it must be overthrown.”

O’Brien interjected and said Pollack’s characterization was a lie. When challenged, she struggled to find an alternative definition before a CNN producer apparently fed her one through her earpiece—sans the white supremacy bit.

Tom Maguire helped settle the issue by consulting an unimpeachable source—the ever-sympathetic New York Times.

I'm going to take a chance and score this for Pollak.  The final score, based on thirty years of NY Times coverage: Pollak 6, O'Brien 0.

So her statement about critical race theory - “There is no white supremacy in that" - is either woefully misinformed or a lie.  And since she has claimed to be re-reading a book books by Derrick Bell, I think she knows darn well she is lying.

If you watch the above video, make sure to check out has-been actor Jay Thomas accuse Pollack of being a racist, then admire Pollack’s restraint in not pointing out that his wife is black.

Now we come to this week. And O’Brien is doing damage control, not making a correction like an honest reporter would do.

O’Brien brings on Emory University professor Dorothy Brown to rebut the claim that Critical Race Theory is based upon the view that “the system” is pro-white and anti-black.

This is apparently the same Dorothy Brown who published this article (via The Right Sphere) which includes this line:

Although CRT does not employ a single methodology, it seeks to highlight the ways in which the law is not neutral and objective, but designed to support White supremacy and the subordination of people of color.

To recap, CNN’s Soledad O’Brien last week either lied or was ignorant of the definition of Critical Race Theory last week. This week, to save face, she invited on Emory University law professor Dorothy Brown who purposefully lied on CNN.

If there was a responsible adult journalist at CNN, O’Brien would be suspended, if not fired. The depth of the dishonesty is mind-blowing.

Most of journalists give the rest a bad name.