Counterspin today takes issue with The Daily Rant for calling NPR Host Tavis Smiley "divisive" and cynically comparing him to Rush Limbaugh because Smiley "once called President Bush a 'serial killer'."

We take issue with the comparison as well. The quote at issue was made by Smiley on Rivera Live, October 24, 2000--the subject was whether there was a difference between Bush and Gore on issues of importance to minority voters, particularly African-Americans.

Tavis was answering a question from Geraldo referencing a comment made earlier in the show by Arianna Huffington, also a guest on the show. Tavis had been stuck in traffic and arrived late on the set. Geraldo recapped her comments to him. Here are the remarks in context.

Ms. HUFFINGTON: [Ralph Nader] really, genuinely believes that it doesn't really make any difference to the country whether Gore or Bush is president, and I, frankly, completely agree with him. In the end, when it comes to major issues, Charlie, things that you care about, like the war on drugs, like incarceration rates, like 1,400,000 African-American men disenfranchised because of felony convictions. On all these issues, it doesn't matter. They're absolutely similar; so they are when it comes to corporate takeover.

[Later in the show, after Tavis' arrival]

RIVERA (to Smiley): But Arianna suggests that neither of these candidates [Gore or Bush] is making the minority vote or minority issues, whether it's housing, you know, this ridiculous failed war on drugs, any--any issue you want to think of impacting poor folks, many of them black and brown, n--neither candidate's making that a big priority. Do you agree?

Mr. SMILEY: I think she's right about that to a certain extent. There are--there are some issues on which, if you are a--a voter of color, certainly if you're an African-American, you have a hard time choosing. For example, both of these guys support the death penalty. As far as I'm concerned, Bush in Texas is nothing more than a serial killer.

RIVERA: Whoo! Whoo!

Mr. SMILEY: But we can't expect that much more out of--out of Gore because this guy supports the death penalty as well, and indeed, the Democrats, when they came here to LA, increased the penalties for which the death penalty can apply in their platform. So if you--if you believe in the--that the death penalty is disproportionately applied to African-Americans, how do you support...

RIVERA: I do.

Mr. SMILEY: ...I do--I do, too--how do you support either one of these guys? On the other hand, there are some clear distinctions, and for me...

RIVERA: Like? Like?

Mr. SMILEY: For example, the issue that I've been talking most about on radio and television--I cannot abide the thought of having three more Clarence Thomases on the Supreme Court. If Bush gets elected, by his own words, his two favorites on the bench now are Scalia and Thomas. If this guy gets a chance, he's going to put three more Clarence Thomases on the bench, and for all this diversity on display that we saw at the convention in Philadelphia, people are talking the talk, but nobody's walking the walk.

And this surplus that we keep talking about spending, who's talking specifically about how this surplus is going to be spent to help those who are economically, politically and socially disenfranchised? And so, you know, you can look at these guys, as Arianna says, and not see much difference between the two of them.

But for me--and I'm not--I'm not typically a one-issue voter--I'm voting Supreme Court. We screw up, we pick the wrong guy to run the White House, we can ostensibly straighten that mess out in four years. You pick the wrong guy to run the White House and he stacks the bench for the next 30, 40, 50 years, you can't straighten that out.

Source: Lexis

Tavis was expressing his opposition to the death penalty and correctly pointed out that under Bush's stewardship as governor, Texas executed more people than any other state. Bush maintained during his presidential campaign that the 143 executions in Texas while he was governor were "fair and just."

Tavis was not being divisive--nor was he inciting viewers or promoting extremist views, as Limbaugh does. He was pretty accurate on all accounts.