OH PLEASE - AT 6:42 P.M. ET:  Do we laugh, or do we cry?  From CNN:

WASHINGTON (CNN)– Reverend Al Sharpton and his lawyers say they are preparing to file a defamation lawsuit against conservative radio host Rush Limbaugh for an op-ed published Saturday, which Sharpton alleges "erroneously" characterizes his (Sharpton's) role in a string of violent incidents in New York in the early 90's.

Rev. Al filing a defamation suit?  Didn't he lose a libel suit filed against him by a law-enforcement officer in New York?  I don't think he ever paid up.

In the op-ed published in Saturday's Wall Street Journal Limbaugh writes Sharpton "played a leading role in the 1991 Crown Heights riot (he called neighborhood Jews ‘diamond merchants’) and 1995 Freddie's Fashion Mart riot."

I don't recall the exact facts, but Sharpton's comments were inflammatory. 

The Crown Heights riot began after a Hasidic Rabbi accidentally struck and killed an African American boy with his car. The boy died from the injuries–sparking four nights of riots. The Rabbi was not charged, but Sharpton played a large role in rallying on behalf of the young boy’s family and the African American community.

The story doesn't point out that a Hasidic man was murdered, and identified his killer before his death.  The killer was acquitted by a racially charged jury, but later admitted his guilt.  Nothing like leaving out a critical fact.

Sharpton, on an anniversary of the riots, said publicly that African-Americans should only mourn the black child accidentally killed, not the Hasidic man intentionally murdered.  Real good will there.

Sharpton was also at the center of the Tawana Brawley hoax, in which a black girl falsely claimed she'd been raped by white men. 

According to a statement put out by Sharpton’s media consultant, a study New York Governor Mario Cuomo commissioned showed Sharpton was not involved in the Crown Heights incident until after the rioting concluded.

Doesn't cut it.  Sharpton's inflammatory past is clear.  It's amazing he'd attempt a lawsuit against Rush, unless of course he could find an O.J. Simpson jury.  Maybe he could find those same jurors.

October 17, 2009