FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Allison M. Stevens
(703) 854-3590
astevens@unityjournalists.org

Sign UNITY's Petition to Fox News and News Corporation

On the July 8, 2009, episode of the morning show "Fox and Friends," co-anchor Brian Kilmeade made a crude and bafflingly ignorant attempt to dismiss a study on marriage and Alzheimer's that was conducted in Sweden and Finland.

Mr. Kilmeade stated: "we [Americans] keep marrying other species and other ethnics . . . Swedes have pure genes . . . in America we marry everybody..."

We don't know where to begin. Did the study not apply to Americans because of racial intermarriage? Are racially integrated couples more likely to exacerbate the symptoms of dementia?

Mr. Kilmeade's outlandish comments were more than silly and worthy of ridicule. They validate, under the guise of light-hearted humor, the basest of white supremacist ideologies, the notion that white people and non-white people are of different species, with the white race as "pure." Without question, the comments should have been denounced immediately as racist, ignorant and bigoted.

Instead, a baffled co-host Gretchen Carlson rightly questioned Kilmeade's mental state, and someone off-camera whistled "If I Only Had a Brain." The song was well-chosen, seeing as the comments lacked intelligence, heart and courage, and should not have a home on anything resembling a news program.

UNITY: Journalists of Color, Inc., a multicultural coalition of national journalism organizations with an outreach to over 10,000 supporters, hereby calls for Fox News and its parent company, News Corporation, to:

• Issue an immediate apology for Mr. Kilmeade's offensive comments
• Enter into a serious discussion on the program regarding intermarriage and the value of diversity in our society.

(The full video can be viewed here)

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About UNITY: Journalists of Color
UNITY: Journalists of Color, Inc. is a strategic alliance advocating news coverage about people of color, and aggressively challenging its organizations at all levels to reflect the nation’s diversity. UNITY, representing more than 10,000 journalists of color, is comprised of four national associations: Asian American Journalists Association, National Association of Black Journalists, National Association of Hispanic Journalists, and the Native American Journalists Association.

In addition to planning the largest regular gathering of journalists in the nation, UNITY develops programs and institutional relationships that promote its mission. For more information on UNITY, visit www.unityjournalists.org, email info@unityjournalists.org or call (703) 854-3585.