Ben Carson Hammers Media: They Attack Me Because I’m a Black Conservative

Renowned neurosurgeon-turned-Republican-candidate Dr. Ben Carson scolded the media for twisting his words in pursuit of “ratings” and “conflict.”

“I think that they’re looking for ratings, they’re always looking for conflict,” Dr. Carson said in a radio interview with his longtime friend and business manager Armstrong Williams. “Conflict gets them more ratings than peace and joy.”

Carson’s contention came after a Bloomberg Politics breakfast on Wednesday where he said Williams is “not necessarily the epitome of truth,” according to POLITICO.

“I heard about your press conference this morning,” Williams said to his friend of 20 years. “I don’t know why people get a kick out of taking your words and interpreting them for you.”

In the short span since Carson’s comments became public, the media have used the GOP contender’s words to bludgeon him.

“The sinking of Ben Carson,” was the headline that the Washington Post’s Jonathan Capehart ran with, writing, “The Iowa caucuses are just four days away. Four days from when the people of the Hawkeye State do for Carson what he won’t do himself: pull the plug on his campaign.”

“Campaign Collapsing, Carson Slams Adviser as ‘Not Epitome of Truth,’ read The Wall Street Journal.

“Ben Carson’s Campaign Beset With Frustration, Disappointment and Grief,” is how The New York Times summed it up.

“Many people in the media have predetermined that if you’re black and you’re conservative that you’re bad,” Dr. Carson said. “If I were a white conservative, they wouldn’t be concerned.”

Politics is not beanbag. And certainly not presidential politics. But, given the headlines above, you get the sense that there are many in the media who take joy in seeing Carson’s campaign suffer.

To be clear, I’ve called the press’s combative covering of Carson’s campaign a “Liberal Media Lynching.”

Carson, for his part, would still much rather talk about how his philosophy and policy can help address the diminishing “spiritual life, patriotism, and morality” in America that has hurt blacks the most.

“Those are the things that got the black community through slavery, through Jim Crow, through segregation and racism,” Carson said on Williams’ radio show. “As those things began to unravel, look at what happened to the black community.”

Follow Jerome Hudson on Twitter @jeromeehudson.