Update 10:00pm: Tons of readers are asking me why my colleagues at Fox won’t just play the entire tape and let viewers decide for themselves whether it’s newsworthy. I’m with you guys. I have no idea why they feel so compelled to cover Jesse Jackson’s backside. It’s not like he’ll ever return the favor–and judging from my e-mail, the decision to withhold the tape is annoying the hell out of Fox’s loyal viewers who have stuck with the “We report, you decide” network. I feel your pain.

Example from Jack in West Va.: “As a loyal FNC viewer, I can’t understand why Fox won’t play the entire Jesse Jackson tape in order to corroborate his use of the N-word. I feel Jackson’s hypocrisy is very newsworthy!”

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Hey, remember when Jesse Jackson called for a boycott of Seinfeld DVDs to protest Kramer actor Michael Richard’s use of the n-word? The rev-uh-rund had a conniption fit over the word and demanded that everyone refrain from using the word onstage and off.

Refresher:

In the last week, Richards has become better known for hurling the N-word at black hecklers after attempting a lynching joke during the same riff and, later, for apologizing—or trying to, anyway.

“My best friends were African-Americans,” Richards said Sunday on Jackson’s Premiere Radio Network show.

The Jackson gig was the latest in Richards’ reaching-out effort to African-American men who have run for president. Before the radio appearance, the actor was said to have placed contrite phone calls to Jackson and the Reverend Al Sharpton. There was no word if Alan Keyes, a 1996 and 2000 Republican presidential candidate, was sought out.

On his show, Jackson said he hoped the Richards “crisis” would create an opportunity.

On Monday, the civil-rights leader joined others in calling on everyone—blacks, whites, Seinfeld players, presumably included—to refrain from using the N-word, on stage and off.

“Its roots are rooted in hatred and pain and degradation,” Jackson told a Los Angeles press conference. “And whether it’s hatred toward African-Americans or whether it’s self-hatred, a concession toward it is still wrong.”

Wrong–except when he uses it himself:

JACKSON: “Barack…he’s talking down to black people…telling n—s how to behave.”

N-word for me, but not for thee, eh, Jesse?

Nuts!

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Allahpundit has your Absolute Moral Authority update.

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