Hollywood screenwriter (and occasional NPR commentator) John Ridley takes after Al Sharpton today on the Huffington Post for his “Mormons don’t believe in God” gaffe:
Lemme be real clear about something. There are no tears shed in the Ridley household over the loss of Don Imus from waves of either radio or TV. However, ‘nappy headed “hos”’ sounds nearly genteel in the echo chamber of Al’s religious fanaticism.
Ridley also adds that he further embarrassed Sharpton during his temporary stint as an MSNBC morning show sidekick for Joe Scarborough:
See, Al, according to Al, wasn’t really talking about Romney when he used the phrase ‘the one Mormon running for office.’ Al was actually contrasting himself with Christopher Hitchens. Interesting. I spoke with Chris Hitchens when I was co-hosting the MSNBC morning news today (in Imus’s old slot, I sweetly say). Though Hitchens could be confused for many things, as a devout atheist a Mormon ain’t one of them.
By the way, Ridley wasn’t always delighted in his Scarborough-sidekick duties yesterday. First, it came here as free-wheeling Joe hailed his own diversity-seeking tendencies:
Joe Scarborough: “Let me tell you, Amy [Robach], so we get this guy, John, a lot of people think, ‘Oh, we’re getting him because we’re MSNBC and we have to actually start letting black people in the building. No.’” John Ridley: “Oh, God, no.”
And just seconds later, it happened again:
Scarborough: “I try to bring up the HBO chief? No, you can’t bring up the HBO chief. And Willie Geist and I wanted to bring that HBO story up, because, you know, Willie, if you can’t beat up girlfriends these days and, and keep your job at HBO, what’s America coming to?” Ridley: “I’m over here. There’s a reason I’m over here.”
Scarborough also added:
Let me tell you, I’m, I’m going to defend Barack Obama, because as John Ridley told you, I support the downtrodden…The poor guys that struggled throughout their whole lives after they got out of Harvard and are editors of the Harvard Law Review, get millions and millions of dollars for writing a book, which nobody’s ever paid me millions of dollars to write a book, because my book sucked.