DUANE 'DOG' CHAPMAN STILL APOLOGIZING

Duane "Dog" Chapman continues his tail-between-the-legs apology tour for saying the N-word repeatedly during a phone call to his son that leaked to the public.

"I've been here several times [before]; tonight it felt like I was coming to the electric chair," Chapman, 54, told CNN's Larry King Wednesday night.

Chapman, who visited FOX News' Hannity & Colmes one night earlier, said, "I need to get a greater vocabulary than what I have and when I get mad and my brain searches for a word. I have to find different words and to do that you need to have more of an education."

The bounty hunter told King he left school after the 7th grade. Later in the broadcast, Chapman listened and winced when King played the tape of his N-word-laced phone conversation.

"Every country, every station [has this]. I'm getting flogged," he said.

As for the fate of his A&E reality show "Dog the Bounty Hunter," which the network suspended last week, Chapman says: "I'm in the judgment seat now. It's up to America."

*Meanwhile the person who could end up being Chapman's future daughter-in-law, Monique Shinnery, has told the Natiional Enquirer that she intends on suing the now infamous bounty hunter for slander. She, of course, was the object of Dog's racial epithets. "I want justice," says Shinnery. "He has slandered me, stated that I have bad character and repeatedly lied about me on national television."

The Hysterical Defense of Dog the Bounty Hunter Tells Much about America's Racial Backslide.

THE HUTCHINSON POLITICAL REPORT

By Earl Ofari Hutchinson

"I am sick and tired of people like you and the phony and fake Al Sharpton who go after white people who say something you don't like and then using the excuse ... it degrades black women, etc."

That was one of the tamer emails I got when I called for A&E Television to cancel outright the Dog the Bounty Hunter show. We all know by now what round em' up and bring em' back alive Duane Chapman aka the Bounty Hunter did to get the temporary ax. He let fly a "B" and "N" word laced rant and borderline threatening oaths at his son for having the temerity to date a black woman. A&E "suspended" production of the show. That was a weak, tepid, and vacillating response. And I told why.

Dog's comments about black women are more than just gender and racially demeaning and hurtful to black women. They are a vicious attack on and call to end interracial relations, as well as an incitement to violence. Dog the Bounty Hunter's' statement was far more damaging than shock jock Don Imus'.

I frontally challenged A&E and said that suspension of the show is not enough. A&E can send the strong message that the sentiments he expressed will not be tolerated by immediate cancellation of the show.

But the hysterical defense of Dog and the bile emails this writer got has nothing to do with A&E ... (READ MORE)

Earl Ofari Hutchinson (hutchinsonreport@aol.com) is an author and political analyst. His new book: The Latino Challenge to Black America: Towards a Conversation between African- Americans and Hispanics (Middle Passage Press October 2007).

SHARPTON RESPONDS TO 'BOUNTY HUNTER'

Al Sharpton released a letter to Duane "Dog the Bounty Hunter" Chapman via his National Action Network organization responding to the reality star's apology for repeatedly using the N-word in a phone conversation and request for a meeting with the activist to address the situation.


As previously reported, Chapman's phone conversation with his son Tucker, in which he used the racist term in reference to his son's African American girlfriend, was secretly recorded and leaked anonymously to the National Enquirer.


In the conversation, Chapman used the offensive word six times, ironically in a discussion about how using the N-word would destroy his television career if ever exposed. Chapman urges his son to break up with his girlfriend and also expresses concern about the girlfriend going public about his use of the N-word. (Hear excerpt of tape here.)

Once the tape leaked and flooded the Internet over the past two days, the star of A&E's "Dog the Bounty Hunter" issued a statement apologizing for his comments.



Duane 'Dog' Chapman



In his remarks, Chapman said he is meeting with his spiritual adviser, Rev. Tim Storey, who is black, and hopes to meet with other black leaders, "so they can see who I really am and teach me the right thing to do to make things right, again."


Sharpton responded in a letter Thursday that appeared on the Web site of his National Action Network. Here it is in its entirety:


November 1, 2007


Dear Mr. Chapman:


I received your call while on the road promoting a March I am leading on the United States Justice Department on November 16th in Washington, DC, along with Martin Luther King, III, and other leaders in the community against hate crimes and racial attacks around the country. The revelation of your conversation came at a time that is most frightening to a lot of people because we are in a state of crisis with the proliferation of racial attacks, hate crimes, and bias incidents in the United States and abroad. In fact, Abraham H. Foxman, the Executive Director of the Anti-Defamation League and I released an unprecedented joint statement today because of this climate. Even more concerning to me though is that the Justice Department and the federal government have failed to intervene in cases all over the country of racial bigotry and hate which is the reason we are having our march on Nov. 16th in front of the Justice Department.


As a Minister I would be inclined to meet with you despite the racist and grotesque things I heard you say, but I am not willing to rearrange my schedule around the country building up for this march to do so. If you wish to meet with me somewhere on the road that is fine, but be assured that I will not sanitize the kind of hate language that leads to the hate action that has left so many people vulnerable in America today. The company that airs the show has the right to take steps by any means when there is a public display of a character of bigotry. We did not call on your company’s action but we will not call against your company’s action, because what was said in private is now public, and they have a right to deal with their public perception.


If you are sincere that this does not reflect you, you should not only meet with us, but you should march with us on November 16th and call on the government of the United States to protect people, that unlike you don’t have publicist, don’t have lawyers, and don’t have any protection. They used to have the protection of the United States government.


In Progress,


Reverend Al Sharpton

President of National Action Network

REALITY SHOW STAR BIT BY HIS N-WORD BOMBS

After being busted red handed for using racial slurs, Duane "Dog" Chapman finds himself in deep doo doo today. Production of Chapman's Hawaii based reality show, "Dog the Bounty Hunter," has been suspended because he repeatedly dropped the N-word in a tape-recorded phone conversation.

As a direct result, the A&E television network said it stopped production while it investigates the comments by Chapman, who runs Da Kine Bail Bonds in downtown Honolulu and whose appeal as a folk hero has been heightened by the three-year-old show.

The tape was obtained by the National Enquirer and published on its Website on Wednesday. On the tape, an enraged Chapman uses profanities and the racial slur while talking to his son, Tucker about his girlfriend, who is African American. It's not known how the Enquirer obtained the tape.

Chapman berates Tucker for his relationship with Monique Shinnery out of concern that Shinnery will set him up because of the language he (Dog) uses.

In a statement released late Wednesday, Chapman didn't dispute the authenticity of the tape and apologized for his use of what he called "a hateful term."

"My sincerest, heartfelt apologies go out to every person I have offended for my regrettable use of very inappropriate language. I am deeply disappointed in myself for speaking out of anger to my son and using such a hateful term in a private phone conversation. It was completely taken out of context. I was disappointed in his choice of a friend, not due to her race, but her character. However, I should have never used that term. I have the utmost respect and aloha for black people, who have already suffered so much due to racial discrimination and acts of hatred. I did not mean to add yet another slap in the face to an entire race of people who have brought so many gifts to the world. I am ashamed of myself and I pledge to do whatever I can to repair this damage I have caused."

Ironically, Chapman's pastor, Tim Storey is an African-American. He was contacted by TMZ.com and told TMZ that he spoke with Dog, who cried for 30 minutes.

"I'm shocked, I'm wrong, I repent. Can you believe, Tim, that I'm going to be put in the same category as (Don) Imus'" is what Storey told TMZ that Dog said.

And what does Storey think of Chapman's comments? He says he's shocked.

"I don't know that to be Duane. I felt that he had to be accountable to what he said. When I asked him what took place, why he said it, he said that he was angry with his son about many things."

Meanwhile, since he now finds himself in the same category as Imus, it looks like Dog has taken a page from Imus' book, so to speak. According to TMZ he has already contacted Rev. Al Sharpton, hoping to explain the racist telephone call he made to his son. However, based on the tepid response from Sharpton's National Action Network, it's not immediately clear that he will get involved: