CHICAGO - The Rev. Jesse Jackson
used the N-word during a break in a TV interview where he criticized
presidential candidate Barack
Obama, Fox News
confirmed Wednesday. The longtime civil rights leader already came under fire this
month for crude off-air comments he made against Obama in what he thought was a
private conversation during a taping of a "Fox & Friends" news
show. In additional comments from that same conversation, first
reported by TVNewser, Jackson is reported to have said Obama was "talking down
to black people," and referred to blacks with the N-word when he said
Obama was telling them "how to behave." Though a Fox spokesman confirmed the TVNewer's account to
The Associated Press, the network declined to release the full transcript of
the July 6 show and did not air the comments. Jackson — who is traveling in Spain — apologized in a statement Wednesday for
"hurtful words" but didn't offer specifics. "I am deeply saddened and distressed by the pain and
sorrow that I have caused as a result of my hurtful words. I apologize again to
Senator
Barack Obama, Michelle Obama, their children as well as to the
American public," Jackson said in a written statement. "There really
is no justification for my comments and I hope that the Obama family and the American
public will forgive me. I also pray that we, as a nation, can move on to
address the real issues that affect the American people." A spokeswoman for Jackson's civil rights
organization, Rainbow/PUSH Coalition, said she could not confirm
that Jackson used the slur. Jackson has called on the entertainment industry, including
rappers, actors and studios, to stop using the N-Word. He also urged the public
to boycott purchasing DVD copies of the TV sitcom "Seinfeld" after
co-star Michael Richards was taped using the word during a rant at a Los
Angeles comedy club in 2006. The Rev. Al Sharpton, who has joined Jackson in
opposition of the word, said Wednesday he wanted to hear the comments for
himself and declined to discuss Jackson specifically. "I am against the use of the N-word by anyone and I
think we must be consistent," he told The Associated Press. "We must
not use the word."