Carolina Peacemaker editorial on Tea Party challenged

An editorial published in a recent issue of the Carolina Peacemaker contains explosive revelations about an April 15 Tea Party event that the rest of us in the news media appeared to have overlooked.

“If you were brave enough to go over to the plaza, last Thursday, you would have heard words that would turn any decent person’s stomach,” read the piece attributed to the newspaper’s editorial board, comprised of Editor Afrique Kilimanjaro, columnist Bill Howard and copy editor Gabriel Fraire. “Chants of White Power, the N-word, and threats could be heard from the stage and others among the audience. The only thing missing were the white sheets. One person noted, ‘At least I didn’t see any nooses.’”

I was in the midst of the audience working as a reporter for all but the first 5 to 10 minutes. YES! Weekly Art Director Devender Sellars was present for the vast majority of the event taking photographs in a separate area from me. We met up at the end and compared notes. Neither of us recall hearing any chants of “white power” or the N-word. The Tea Party event was the primary scene for my cover story about the movement of the same name. If I had heard such epithets, I don’t mind saying that I would have reported them with relish.

I did hear someone yell, “Kick his ass,” while the police hustled away an anti-Tea Party demonstrator, but I also heard someone else yell, “Let him speak.”

It seems that no one else heard the chants and racial epithets except Peacemaker columnist Bill Howard, not News & Record reporter Dioni Wise, not bloggers Roch Smith Jr., Samuel Spagnola or Joseph Guarino.

Will the Carolina Peacemaker recant its editorial and publish a retraction?