Rice pulled from AETN panel

Northwest Arkansas Times reporter Maylon T. Rice won’t be appearing on “Arkansas Week” anymore.

On the Arkansas Educational Television Network’s July 7 program, Rice made comments that caused his employer to pull him off the air.

Times Executive Editor Ritta Martin Basu sent a letter to Steve Barnes of “Arkansas Week” on July 19 saying Rice is no longer authorized to appear on the news show as a representative of the newspaper because his comments “may have been considered racially offensive to some of your viewers.” Basu included an apology from the newspaper that she asked to be read on the air, but AETN chose not to read it.

Referring to the race for Congress in Arkansas’ 4th District on the program, Rice said the two candidates “need to quit playing the race card.” He added, “This race is not about watermelon, fried chicken and moon pies.”

On Aug. 30, seven weeks after the show aired, Dale Charles, state president of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, sent a letter to AETN’s headquarters in Conway saying the comments were “highly inflammable racial slurs.” Charles said AETN needs to have a more diverse panel for its weekly news shows. Charles expressed concern because Barnes and the other panelists didn’t object to Rice’s remarks. The letter arrived late because NAACP leaders were out of the state.

Susan Howarth, executive director of AETN, sent a letter to Charles saying that, in context, Rice’s comments “were not understood by the host or other panelists to be offensive or inappropriate.”

Howarth said AETN felt Rice was “chastising” the candidates for “allegedly appealing to the minority (black) vote in a way that might be perceived by African Americans as offensive and pandering.”

“That was Mr. Rice talking,” Charles said in a Sept. 12 interview. “It’s my opinion that he was not chastising Rep. Jay Dickey or candidate Mike Ross.”

Arkansas Business Publishing Group President and Publisher Jeff Hankins, one of the panelists, said Howarth didn’t contact him before speaking on behalf of the panel. Hankins said he thought the remarks were inappropriate, and told Rice so following the broadcast.

In her letter, Howarth said AETN had received no complaints about Rice’s comments other than the one from Charles. She encouraged Charles to recommend panelists for the show.