Sharpton Defends Dual Roles as TV Host, Activist: I ‘Talk to the People’

After a lengthy discussion with the mother and widow of Eric Garner, Al Sharpton took a minute to defend his role as both a host on a national cable news network and an activist, taking shots at TV pundits who never venture beyond the comfort of their studios.

For his years as an MSNBC host, Sharpton has been criticized for talking on television about certain issues while also being an activist on those causes. For example, Sharpton was one of the biggest names speaking out in the cases of Trayvon Martin and Michael Brown, while also discussing those cases on PoliticsNation.

And Sharpton took a minute today to explain that just because he’s a TV host, he’s not going to stay inside his studio:

“I’m a minister, but I don’t stay inside the pulpit. I’m a TV host. I don’t stay in the studio. I go out there and talk to the people. It’s easy for people to sit up in comfortable studios or in big cathedrals and lecture people. It’s different when you’re on the ground, I’m on the ground. And that’s why I can tell people let’s do this the right way.”

Watch the video below, via MSNBC:

[image via screengrab]

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Follow Josh Feldman on Twitter: @feldmaniac

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