Hate in the Mainstream

"Poor people … are not poor because they lack money. They're poor because they lack values, ethics and morals."
— Cincinnati radio host BILL CUNNINGHAM, discussing black people on welfare during the Jan. 4 broadcast of Clear Channel's "The Big Show With Bill Cunningham"

"I have black people in my family tree. If I recall, they're still hanging there."
--— One of four racist jokes circulated in a Jan. 4 mass E-mail from Staten Island Community Education Council appointee SALVATORE BALLARINO that superimposed word balloons onto photos of a presidential debate between John McCain and Barack Obama

"What's the difference between a black man and a picnic table? A picnic table can support a family."
— Another joke from SALVATORE BALLARINO, who called his Jan. 4 E-mail "a political cartoon" and said he was no racist because he has "plenty of black friends" and "drove black people home from work"

"It's a class … to teach normal men how to have sensitivity to a psychopathic sex-change operative who should be in a mental hospital."
— Radio host MICHAEL SAVAGE during the Jan. 7 broadcast of "The Savage Nation," criticizing a San Francisco Police Department training program for detectives on transgender issues

"We are being told that we have to hope he succeeds, that we have to bend over, grab the ankles … because his father was black."
— RUSH LIMBAUGH, bemoaning the inauguration of Barack Obama to Fox News host Sean Hannity during an "exclusive" Jan. 21 interview on "Hannity's America"

"If Mexico collapses … does anyone think there will be a rush of people … rushing our border? … Have you heard that … they're going to reclaim California? That they're going to reclaim Texas?"
— Host GLENN BECK, referencing the racist Aztlan conspiracy theory on the Feb. 3 broadcast of "The Glenn Beck Program" on Fox News

"Homosexuality will always be a sexual perversion. … What are the morals of a gay person? You can't answer that because anything goes. … [Gays] are probably the greatest threat to America going down I know of."
— Utah State Sen. CHRIS BUTTARS, quoted in a documentary released Feb. 17, in comments that led to his being removed as chairman of the state Judiciary Committee

"White folks in America … are not responsible for the fact that African Americans commit crimes at seven times the rate of white Americans … gang rapes, gang assaults, the numbers are almost 100 to one."
— MSNBC commentator PAT BUCHANAN on the Feb. 19 edition of "Hardball" quotes on this page were compiled from media accounts, web pages, e-mail groups and Media Matters for America, a website that monitors the far right.