Fact Check

Charlie Daniels -- The Press and Paula Deen

Country singer Charlie Daniels authored an opinion piece about press coverage of the Paula Deen racial controversy?

Published July 8, 2013

Claim:

Claim:   Country singer Charlie Daniels authored an opinion piece about press coverage of the Paula Deen racial controversy.


CORRECTLY ATTRIBUTED


Example:   [Collected via e-mail, July 2013]


The was attributed to Charlie Daniels about Paula Deen. Did he write it?
 

I think that if anything exemplifies the overt prejudice and determination of the American media to report only the news that suits their social and political interests and concept of what does and does not fit their agenda, it's the totally overblown coverage of something Paula Deen said 20 years ago, and some party she planned that she wanted to resemble a plantation scene featuring black male waiters in period dress.

If Hollywood plans a movie featuring black waiters in a plantation scene or portray women as prostitutes or cast minorities in caricature roles does the media get upset and start calling the movie moguls racists?

Is there any grown person who could truthfully declare under oath that they have never uttered something that someone might find personally offensive?

"Let he who is without sin cast the first stone."

Do the twenty-year-old words of a lady with a television cooking show trump the lie an Attorney General told Congress, or officials at the IRS usurping the rights of the American public and pleading the fifth amendment when confronted about it or the hiding of the facts surrounding the murder of four Americans at a Consulate in Libya or the incredibly shabby image of a president taking a one hundred million dollar vacation in this economy while closing down tours of the White House or the NSA invasion on the privacy of millions of unsuspecting citizens?

[Rest of article here.]


 

Origins:   Grammy award-winning singer/musician Charlie Daniels regularly writes and posts opinion pieces about current political topics to the "Soapbox" section of the Charlie Daniels Band web site. As he notes in his periodic explanations of his efforts:



From time to time in this column I feel somewhat obligated to explain myself, what I am, what I believe and what I am attempting to do by writing the things I write.

It seems that as we acquire new readers there is some misunderstanding of what the soapbox is all about, so here we go again.

First of all, this column is a series of essays made up of my personal opinion, my experiences and my beliefs.

I don't claim that the essays in this column represent anybody but myself.

As far as the intellectual content is concerned it is being written by a man with limited formal education and the grammar, punctuation and spelling may from time to time leave something to be desired, but I will however, get my point across.

I happen to believe very strongly in the things I write about, from the point of a private citizen who happens to love his country and its people and wants what he considers best in the national interest.

My articles will range from the profound to the ridiculous, the sad to the humorous, the informative to the inane. It is not meant to be a news column and I'm not good at remembering dates and names.


This above-quoted "The Press and Paula Dean" article was published by Charlie on 1 July 2013 in response to a racial discrimination controversy involving celebrity chef Paula Deen that broke in June 2013, stemming from a lawsuit filed by a former employee of restaurants owned by Deen and her brother, Earl "Bubba" Hiers.

Last updated:   8 July 2013

David Mikkelson founded the site now known as snopes.com back in 1994.

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