CNN Host Tricks Opponent of Women in Combat

... into agreeing with segregationist text
By Kevin Spak,  Newser Staff
Posted Jan 25, 2013 3:22 PM CST

CNN host Soledad O'Brien pulled a fast one on noted gender equality foe Kingsley Browne, tricking the professor and author into agreeing with a 1941 quote supporting racial segregation in the military, in a clip spotted by Think Progress. The quote was:

  • "The army is not a sociological laboratory; to be effective it must be organized and trained according to the principles which will ensure success. Experiments to meet the wishes and demands of champions of every race and creed for the solution of their problems are a danger to efficiency, discipline and morale and would result in ultimate defeat."
But O'Brien skipped past the reference to "race and creed," with a quick "blah blah blah." When she had finished, Browne replied, "I think that's true," saying that while he didn't think the military would suffer total defeat, "people are going to die." When O'Brien revealed what she'd done, Browne protested that it was "a pretty weak analogy," because "race and sex are different." To which O'Brien replied repeatedly, "It's the same argument." (More Soledad O'Brien stories.)

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