SHARPTON VS. JACKSON: No, Al's not feuding with Jesse again; this time it's Michael Jackson he's mixed up with. As reported yesterday, Sharpton joined Jackson at a rally on Saturday in which they called Sony Music CEO Tommy Mottola a "mean racist"- but yesterday, Sharpton did a 180, saying that "I have known Tommy for 15 or 20 years, and never once have I known him to say or do anything that would be considered racist." (Mottola's only sin, that I know of, is that he once married Mariah Carey). The statement marked the first time in Sharpton's long public career in which he has publicly declared that someone or something is not racist.
Meanwhile, Jackson's anti-Mottola campaign is clearly off to an inauspicious start- after all, it's kind of hard for a performer to blame the failure of his album on an anti-black record exec when the performer isn't actually racist and the artist isn't actually black. How long before Michael turns to Jesse Jackson? Jesse will certainly want to undermine Sharpton and besides, as evidenced by his hiring two years ago of former Congressman Mel Reynolds, Jesse's proven friendly in the past to accused child molesters.