Slur against Obama 'too crude' for TV

JESSE Jackson, a prominent US civil rights leader and failed Democratic presidential candidate, has apologised to Barack Obama for a "hurtful, crude" remark that was picked up by a TV microphone - but which one network has said is too off-colour to broadcast.

Reverend Jackson, a minister from Senator Obama's home town Chicago, said he made the comment in a private conversation with a fellow guest on a Fox News program after taping had finished, not realising microphone were still on and that his remark would be recorded.

Fox has said the comment was made to one of the network's reporters. An item on its website claimed Rev. Jackson's comment was: "I want to cut his nuts off", although another report puts it differently.

A Chicago newspaper columnist reported Rev. Jackson told him he had been talking about Senator Obama's speeches to black churches across the US about personal morality, then said: "The senator is cutting off his you-know-what with black people".

CNN later broadcast an interview with Rev. Jackson but said the remark itself was "too crude" to broadcast.

The comment is due to be broadcast on another Fox program. But Rev. Jackson sought to pre-empt that embarrassment to the Obama campaign with his apology.

"I was in a conversation with a fellow guest at Fox. He asked about Barack's speeches lately at the black churches. I said it can come off as speaking down to black people," Rev. Jackson said on CNN.

"And then I said something I felt regret for it was crude. It was very private, and very much a sound bite - and a live mike. I find no comfort in it, I find no joy in it.

"So I immediately called the senator's campaign to send my statement of apology to repair the harm or hurt that this may have caused his campaign, because I support it unequivocally."

He later told the Associated Press that he did not remember "exactly" what he said. He is due to hold a full press conference, at which the precise wording and intent of his remark might become clearer.

Obama campaign spokesman Bill Burton said the senator accepted Jackson's apology. "(Barack Obama) will continue to speak out about our responsibilities to ourselves and each other."

Rev. Jackson was an associate of civil rights icon Martin Luther King and ran for the Democratic nomination in 1984 and 1988. Last year he wrote a newspaper column questioning the commitment of the candidates - including Senator Obama - to the needs of black voters.

That even earnt him a rebuke from his son, who is now an Illinois state politician. Today, he earnt another family dressing down. "I thoroughly reject and repudiate his ugly rhetoric," Jesse Jackson jnr said.

http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/story/0,21985,23997815-5005961,00.html