Despite numerous run-ins with the media lately, Dr. Ben Carson hopes that the media are not going after him based on race.
In an interview that aired Sunday, Carson told Fox News’ Howard Kurtz that “I hope” there isn’t a racial aspect to the media’s coverage of him — particularly recent stories in Politico and CNN that reported details of his life as a youth.
“A couple of conservative commentators have described what’s been happening to you as a journalistic lynching,” Kurtz told Carson. “Do you think there is a racial aspect to it?”
“I hope not,” Carson responded. “I think they’re just concerned about someone who may not be controllable by them, or someone that doesn’t go along with the progressive agenda — and particularly, the secular progressive agenda.”
“So as a black conservative, you think you are perhaps being treated differently?” Kurtz followed up.
“Like I said, I hope it doesn’t have anything to do with being black,” Carson reiterated. “And it’s too bad it has anything to do with being conservative, frankly.”
“We live in a pluralistic society, and, you know, we have different points of view. Does that mean we have to try to demonize and destroy anybody with whom you disagree? Or should we be actually engaging in a conversation about the things about which we disagree?” Carson asked. “If you don’t have a good argument, i can see why you would try to demonize the other person rather than engage in the argument.”
The interview took place in Milwaukee prior to the fourth GOP debate on Tuesday — which was only four days after Politico published a story taking Carson to task for “fabricating” that he applied and was admitted to West Point, which the outlet soon backtracked from.
In addition, it also came on the heels of a CNN report that could not find anyone to corroborate Carson’s claim that he tried to stab someone during his youth, during which he claimed to have a “pathological temper.”
