After a lone Indianapolis TV station, WRTV, reported on Charlotte Lucas' bizarre rant against minorities on Facebook last week, other news media outlets, including the Indianapolis Star, the IBJ and all other local TV stations have been silent on it, even after Lucas issued a public apology. It's obvious that the downtown mafia put out an emergency memo admonishing the local media not to discuss the issue out of concern of the major repercussions that could arise from Lucas' imprudent comments. After all, public pressure could mount on the NFL and the Indianapolis Colts to strip Lucas Oil of its valuable naming rights of Lucas Oil Stadium. Despite the efforts of the traditional news media to suppress the story, area blogs like this one, social media and the left-leaning Daily Kos blog picked up on it over the weekend. Today, the internationally-read tabloid, Daily Mail, has picked up on the story, raising questions about how much longer the Indianapolis news media can continue to ignore this story.
The multi-millionaire owner of Lucas Oil has backtracked and apologized after she posted a furious rant to Facebook bemoaning the Muslims, atheists and minorities she claimed were 'running' the country.
Indianapolis Colts backer Charlotte Lucas, 65, who is worth $300 million and founded Lucas Oil in the late 1980s with her husband, Forrest, 69, posted the controversial message to the social network on Thursday before deleting it.
'I'm sick and tired of minorities running our country!' wrote Lucas. 'As far as I'm concerned, I don't think that atheists (minority), muslims (minority) n (sic) or any other minority group has the right to tell the majority of the people in the United States what they can and cannot do here.
'Is everyone so scared that they can't fight back for what is right or wrong with his country?'
Lucas confirmed the posting was written by her to an ABC affiliate, although the car lubricant multi-millionaire claimed that she was emotional when she let fly her invective against minorities across the country.
'I was very upset when I wrote that,' she said to ABC 6, without explaining what caused her furious attack on Muslims, atheists and other unspecified minorities.
'I will not elaborate other than to say that there are certain people who are trying to make the whole world eat what they want to eat and do what they want to do.
'I don't think it's any of their business what I put in my mouth. Thank you.'
It has been speculated that Lucas may have been referring to Michelle Obama's 'Let's Move!' health campaign in mentioning eating habits, but in the absence of a full explanation it is not entirely clear.
Taking her apology further, Lucas said that she recognized her attack could have been construed as insensitive, but she had no regrets.
'I apologize to everyone for the insensitive comments posted on my Facebook account,' she said on Saturday.
Deadspin.com would love this.
ReplyDeleteI would like to hear what she has to say about Coach Dungy.
ReplyDeleteThis is such an embarrassment and on so many levels.
The NFL simply cannot allow the Lucas name to be continued to be associated with the stadium, the team or the League.
ReplyDeleteIrsay should immediately refund the Lucas' money and find a new sponsor for the stadium.
The Indianapolis franchise is proving to be a running embarassment to the NFL.
Her husband, Forrest, is founder and chair of Protect the Harvest. I suggest this rant is directly related to the issues being addressed by this group. Go to protecttheharvest.com and see the probable source for her comments
ReplyDeleteHer rant was misplaced if we're to believe that she was just trying to stand up to the extremist element of the animal rights movement.
ReplyDeleteAfter a quick look at the group's website, I fail to make the connection between minorities and animal rights extremists. The comments she made are just inappropriate.
ReplyDeleteIt's odd that this isn't a bigger news story locally or nationally.
"Protect The Harvest" is an ultra conservative super PAC with its goal "to elect or defeat Federal candidates." It sees any restrictions on hunting (including canned "hunting") and CAFOs as an infringement on god-given rights.
ReplyDeleteI'm from Indiana--and this doesn't surprise me at all. It was--and some say is--the home of the Klan and John Birch society.
ReplyDelete