AZ News bigot busted

According to his Facebook page, Cameron Ridle is "the Breaking News Reporter for Good Morning America on KTVK-TV in Phoenix, Arizona." 

Ridle also reports for 3TV's Good Morning Arizona and CBS 5 This Morning, according to AZFamily.

Ridle recently covered a pro-President Trump protest held outside Perry High School in Gilbert, AZ. That school's principal and staff had allegedly punished a student for wearing MAGA attire on an official "Spirit Day." 

The principal had claimed fear about "student safety" as justifying violation of a Trump-supporting student's Constitutional right to free expression.

Breitbart noted Ridle was picked up on an AZFamily recording (of which he was apparently unaware) talking with another man as they neared the Perry High School protest. 

"Let's say I walk right down the sidewalk next to them," Ridle speculated. "Maybe they'll call me a nigger!"

"You'll come pretty close," laughed the other man.

(I address my repetition of that noxious slur in the extended note that follows this piece.)

In a Youtube video critical of Ridle, the narrator observes "He then laughs and continues to refer to the Trump supporters using racist language." 

AZFamily initially posted the incriminating clip on its Facebook page, though Breitbart reported it was later deleted.

By his broad-brush imputation of racist inclinations to Trump backers of which he presumably had no direct knowledge, Ridle gave utterance to his own ugly prejudice. And that has made publicly evident his potentially corruptive bias.

Ridle had previously voiced insulting, unfair views of President Trump in full public display.

In a Feb. 7 Facebook post that promoted CBS 5 AZ, GMAZ, and AZFamily coverage of Michael Cohen's House testimony, Ridle wrote "He is expected to call @realDonaldTrump a 'racist,' 'con man,' and a 'cheat.'" 

That Ridle chose to banner those particular false allegations illustrated his unseemly sensibility.

In comments to that post, left after Ridle expressed his own contemptible racial bigotry prior to covering the Perry High School protest, one user remarked of the reporter "We found out who the racist punk is didn't we...resign cameron." Another user replied "You're calling others a racist? That's rich."

Important to remember is that Cameron Ridle and other reporters have as much right to private opinions as any other citizen. And they can express them in personal conversations, which is what Ridle did. (Of course, the unfounded slur against supporters of America's president was flung by him while in his professional capacity.)

It's only when personal prejudices are allowed to impact reporting and news judgement that there's a problem.

Ridle's future reporting should be monitored by local viewers. Do signs of his political and racial bigotry turn up in reportage? 

No matter what Ridle might say in future days and regarding other stories, viewers now 'woke' to his pernicious prejudices will not be able to see and hear him without knowing of the ugliness toward the patriotic that seethes in his heart.

Trump carried Arizona in 2016. He was awarded the state's 11 electoral votes. Wikipedia notes that 74.17% of Arizona's voters participated, and that Trump received 49.03% of ballots. Hillary Clinton got just 45.46%.

Which means Cameron Ridle is contemptuous of a hell of a lot of Arizonans.


Note: Typing the word "nigger" wasn't easy for me. Knowledge of its historic use as a weapon and contemporary employ toward identical end long ago put that word out of my vocabulary.

Too, I'm married to a black woman and am particularly sensitive for that reason. 

But she isn't bothered when she hears that slur. "Because it doesn't apply to me," she says, dismissively. Good for her!

That word, and the wickedness it implies, deserve sound obloquy.

I choose not to use it in personal conversation. To do otherwise would make me feel linked to past injustices. But that's the pivotal point: I choose what words I use, for reasons of my own calculation. 

I reject as inimical to personal liberty the concepts of speech codes and regulations. Let each man be his own editor. Observers can listen or leave, as they choose.

It was used here in a quote, by the subject of the piece. And one hears it frequently in select rap songs and social exchanges.

So, as vehemently as I detest that slur, I am just as strong in the belief that a word freely uttered by some must never be thought inaccessible for others. In America, men don't have greater or lesser or somehow different rights depending on which 'community' they represent. Here, we have no caste system.

I support equality of men, including speech -- whether it be pleasant or putrid.