I finally made it all the way through the William Bastone Sharpton piece for The Smoking Gun. It was like living the 1980’s over again. I am not quite sure why so much time was devoted to digging up dirt on Al Sharpton, but it at least makes for interesting history.
For those of us who had to suffer through the Tawana Brawley affair in the New York media market, there is no love lost for the 1980’s version of Reverend Sharpton. At the time, he was a thoroughly disreputable individual, as Mr. Bastone documents thoroughly.
I just don’t think very many people care about it anymore. For some, Sharpton can never atone for the Brawley affair. I felt that way myself for about twenty years, but I got over it.
My main reaction to reading the piece is concern that Sharpton’s life might be at risk now that everyone knows he was an FBI informant who helped bring down some La Cosa Nostra figures.
But that Al Sharpton doesn’t exist anymore. He’s matured. When he was coming up, the world he operated in was filled with mafiosi and hustlers. Now his world is filled with corporate executives and high-powered politicians.
The nature of the hustle has changed, and so has the hustler.
When he was coming up, the world he operated in was filled with mafiosi and hustlers. Now his world is filled with corporate executives and high-powered politicians.
You say ‘tomato’, I say ‘tomato’…
Yes, n1cholas!!!
Sharpton has climbed up the glitz ladder and now deals only with the really effective criminals. They’re all “respectable” now, don’tcha know. I was on the black and latin music scene in NYC from the ‘late ’60s right through the ’80s and beyond. Still am. I saw what was going down, including “Reverend Al’s” nasty mob connections. Up close and personal. Bet on it. “Reverend Al” my ass. Zebras and tigers don’t change their stripes, but humans can get a new haircut, lose some weight, go to better barbers/tailors and pass as “changed.” I’ve never believed it. Not in Sharpton’s case, and not in the cases of many others, either. Crooked is as crooked does, especially when they get away with it. Lifelong crooked. Bet on that as well.
AG
P.S. Same thing with the cases of the Gigante brothers or the Bulger brothers either. The “good” guys… Louis Gigante and William M. Bulger served as fronts for the bad guys. Sharpton too. Who’d doubt a priest, a “reverend” or the Massachsetts Senate Majority Leader/President of the University of Massachusetts.
Who.
Only those in the know. On the ground, in the trenches. On the street. Everybody else? Eyes wide shut by the
complacent,,,errr, ahhhh… complaisant media, they take glitz and fame as respectability.Sad but true.
Ain’t just the U.S., either. Not by a long shot. It’s human nature.
For dummies.
I’m one of those who will never forget Tawana Brawley. Yet, in the 2004 debates, Sharpton was the one I most agreed with. As a master hustler, did he just know which buttons to push?
A good summary of the visceral hatred Sharpton stirred up.
These things have consequences. In Connecticut in 2006 Dems had 1%er liberal Ned Lamont as the candidate for US Senate. He won the primary against out-of-favor incumbent Joe Lieberman, who you may remember assisted the Supremes in awarding the 2000 election to GWB.
On the victory platform later that night, Lamont lost the upcoming November election by presenting Al Sharpton. Only a 1%er could be so dense.
Lieberman, switching to Independent, won, and GWB had another ally in the Senate.
For those too young for Tawana Brawley. this Wikipedia account will give a timeline of the disintegration of a horrible rape case into a screaming, mud-slinging festival.
I don’t care. Rev. Al is Rev. Al.
The article lost me at the first sentence, but I tried to read more. I honestly didn’t get the purpose of the first sentence.
Is it supposed to be a shock? There are all types of people in DC who had earlier careers doing all kinds of things, including many related to law enforcement. Hell there are a few former mass murderers and traitors, but they won’t get an article.
So right away this looked to be a smarmy piece written for the RW who would love to see alternate descriptions like “high-profile Obama supporter” and “former mob snitch” applied to the subject. It creates a neat equivalence in their minds and lends some support to RW memes about Obama and his terrorist/mob associates from Chicago.
In order to milk the pretentious drama, it isn’t until paragraph 7 that we get Sharpton’s name and paragraph 9 that we get the dates for all this “undercover activity”. But by then the author has set the “context” he wanted. It’s about highlighting a period of Sharpton’s life 25 years ago and doing a fast forward to link it to Obama today. That there may have been decades of a man honorably serving his community for much of that 25 year period is of no relevance. That wormhole in spacetime is the important foundation apparently.
I say apparently because after a trashy start, I’m not going to continue. How can I believe anything that follows?
As for the Tawana Brawley affair, all I remember was the girl’s violent parents and the obvious racial tension. By then I had lived in Chicago 5 years and had gained some important lessons about the lack of justice for black people and I didn’t pay close enough attention to the details to have an opinion about the incident other than it was another tragedy. We were still grieving the loss of Mayor Harold Washington at the time and anxiously watching to see who would establish himself/herself in the office.
Perhaps that is to be expected. Because by highlighting a period of Sharpton’s life 25 years ago and doing a fast forward to link it to Obama today is the important “context” the author is obviously working on here. That there may have been decades of a man honorably serving his community for much of that 25 year period is of no relevance.
I don’t need this trash, but it’s interesting to see a smarmy piece targeted to the RW.
Exactly how and why did Sharpton become an FBI informant? Surely all that FOIA’d information had those details. Would be interesting for some enterprizing journalist to FOIA the information from the FBI about Catholic priests who were also informants.
Would also be interesting to find out the relationship with the FBI around the time of the Tawana Brawley case in Wappinger Falls, which seems a long way from Sharpton’s home turf.
What hasn’t changed is the Hoover-haunted FBI. Hoover could play his role for perks for himself, a restaurant guest at Dorothy Lamour’s table, a friendship with Walter Winchell. Wonder how deep that runs still.
There’s something very quaint about the Sharpton-FBI story even though it is intended as a take-down to pry him out of the media, an interesting gambit in itself. Who cares enough about Sharpton to try to Eliot Spitzer him?
Do they ever have enough scalps from evil, liberal types to hang on their wall? They do this kind of thing for sport, to keep their skills honed. Just like a bird dog, you have to periodically do a field training refresher to make sure everything is still in peak working order. If the order goes out, then eventually Rev. Al’s head would be on a pike outside the Conservative Clubhouse.
Sharpton is one of the biggest ratings getters at MSNBC and even without MSNBC, his NAN (of which Obama will be headline speaker this year) is very active and effective. MSNBC needs Sharpton more than Sharpton needs MSNBC.
The reason to go after Sharpton is simple, he’s a Obama advocate with a platform that reaches millions and still demands attention aside from his MSNBC gig.
“My main reaction to reading the piece is concern that Sharpton’s life might be at risk now that everyone knows he was an FBI informant who helped bring down some La Cosa Nostra figures.”
That was my thought, at well. Someone who would expose your for that is not your friend.
And even thought I can never let pass the Brawley affair, I would never have done such a thing to him.
This may not mean much to many here, but somewhere along the way “Rev.” Al got saved. I remember him from the 80s and I’ve heard him in person in the 00’s – he’s a completely different person.
I recall rumors about Reverend Al and other parts of the permanent government. It’s been a long time though.
The majority of the people who still hold the Tawana Brawley affair against Sharpton are primarily white. Sharpton has always been a thorn in the side of white folks on both sides of the aisle. Dems because he’s still a big deal to a large Dem constituent and millions of Afr Am still listen to Sharpton on his radio show and follow him and his NAN, so Dems, particularly white Dems don’t want to be on Sharpton’s bad side.
Republicans hate Sharpton, because of his advocacy on civil right for minorities and his refusal to bow down in the presence of his alleged white betters.
some folks have gone over the bend about this
just think about it…they’re mad that Rev. Al informed on THE MOB.
THE MOB.
What the fuck did the Mob do that was ever positive for our community?
See, how absolutely absurd this is?