Sam Rubin, entertainment reporter for KTLA in Los Angeles, is being ridiculed far and wide for “mistaking Samuel L. Jackson for Laurence Fishburne – while interviewing Jackson on live TV!”
Bulletin: That’s not what occurred.
Jackson was wrong, Rubin was correct, and Jackson’s long riff, funny as it was, about how white guys can’t tell black actors apart was both a cheap shot and viciously unfair. Rubin made no such mistake. Jackson owes him an apology. Watch this trailer:
Did you see that black actor in two places in the video? That was Samuel L. Jackson, not Laurence Fishburne. That video di run during the Super Bowl, and was obviously what Rubin was referring to when he began his question with “You’re working for Marvel…” Marvel Comics, the creators of Captain America, in which Laurence Fishburne has no role.
Maybe Jackson wasn’t aware that the trailer ran, but that’s no excuse: he essentially implied Rubin was a racist, unprepared, incompetent, and should be fired. Rubin was unprepared, all right—he was unprepared for a classic Jackson rant that he didn’t deserve. Rubin didn’t get Jackson mixed up with another black actor; Jackson jumped to an unjustified conclusion and unfairly made Rubin look like an idiot.
And what did our crack news media do, Rubin’s supposed colleagues? Yhey immediately presumed that Jackson had a racial “gotcha,” and mocked Rubin—for doing nothing wrong!
Rather than letting Rubin point out that Jackson was being a race-baiting jerk, KTLA made him apologize, which he did, in a classic “I’m apologizing but I have no idea for what but I’m going to say I did something wrong anyway” statement, saying…
“We start right now with the beauty and the occasional pain of live television. First and foremost, I do know who Samuel L. Jackson is. I’ve interviewed him several times over the years, but never quite like the conversation we just had. I indicated to Samuel that I’d seen him during the Super Bowl, and he thought that I had confused him with the commercial Laurence Fishburne had done for a car company. Of course a “Captain America” ad had also run during the Super Bowl, but I immediately felt so dumb, I didn’t bring that up — and he gave me the shellacking that was well deserved. I pride myself on the fact — that unlike a lot of people who do this kind of work — more often than not, I really do know what I’m talking about. But I didn’t 30 minutes ago, and I’m really embarrassed about it, and I very much apologize to Samuel L. Jackson and anyone else who was offended for what was a very amateur mistake.”
Huh?
- How was he unprepared for the fact that Jackson had Fishburne on the brain?
- What was “amateur” about what he did?
- What justification did anyone, including Jackson, have to be “offended”?
- Why did Rubin deserve a shellacking because his guest didn’t know that a trailer of his own film, with him appearing in the trailer, had aired during the Super Bowl?
- Why is Rubin responsible for what Jackson mistakenly thought, when there was no reason for him to think it except his own bigotry, which obviously causes him to be ready at the drop of a hat to assume that white people think all blacks look alike?
- Why didn’t a single news, web or broadcast outlet (that I can find—there are hundred of links to sources saying that Jackson ripped a news anchor who mistook him for another black actor) have the integrity to point out that Jackson was mistaken and completely out of line? Or did none of them watch the beginning of the interview before piling on Rubin?
If a black celebrity says a white reporter is a racist, then he must be a racist, and it’s wrong, or at least perilous, to challenge him, I guess.
Samuel L. Jackson, and every lazy, gutless reporter and writer that blatantly misrepresented the incident because of their own biases owes Sam Rubin an apology.
[Further Ethics Alarms analysis of the Rubin-Jackson incident is here]
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Sources: USA Today 1, 2
Ethics Alarms 
Because melanin trumps truth every day and twice on Sundays.
Hell, he owes us an apology for being involved in the Robocop reboot, too.
“Of course a “Captain America” ad had also run during the Super Bowl, but I immediately felt so dumb, I didn’t bring that up…”
Translation, “He was off and running calling me a racist and saying I thought all blacks looked alike. History shows that defending yourself against accusations of racism just makes you look like a sneaky denying racist, so I panicked and apologized as fast as I could flap my pie hole.”
Note: It’s not just the mention of “Marvel,” either- the lead in to the interview is HIGHLIGHTS FROM THE CAPTAIN AMERICA TRAILER, It wasn’t an incidental mention on his part, the station was doing a planned lead-in to a bit about Cap! Damn, I would KILL to see an alternate version of this where he says “What super bowl commercial? The one where you play Nick Fury. You know, where you work for Marvel? Moving on…”
Translation, “He was off and running calling me a racist and saying I thought all blacks looked alike. History shows that defending yourself against accusations of racism just makes you look like a sneaky denying racist, so I panicked and apologized as fast as I could flap my pie hole.”
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Yep.
The fact that Samuel l Jackson continued and continued despite Rubin attempted to move on, reveals more about Jackson’s heart and motivations than anything. It must be a severely handicapping burden to walk around life looking for opportunities to claim victim-hood, even to the point of manufacturing it.
Jackson was ready, READY, instinctively, to HEAR something offensive where nothing existed.
There was a racist involved in that interview.
Jackson knew the ads ran – he was live-tweeting the damned game.
You aren’t daring to question the authenticity of an angry black man, righteously representing the aggrieved black “race”? Are you?
I find you guilty, I sentence you to visiting the Museum of Tolerance.
They don’t let me in there any more…
Scott setting foot into a museum of tolerance is rather like shoving a fistful of antimatter into, well, any sort of matter. Let’s say, a museum of tolerance.
I find myself respecting Mr. Jackson less and less.
I think Fishburne is the one who deserved the apology.
-Jut
Jack,
So, really it was Jackson who confused himself with Fishburne.
-Jut
YES!!!!!
Just don’t bring up Star Wars, or he will think you are confusing him with Lando. Delusions of Grandeur, to be sure!
-Jut
In Samuel L. Jackson, we now have a personification of “robojerk.”
Occam and Scanlon are fighting again. If Jackson was live-tweeting the Super Bowl, he MUST have known his commercial for the Marvel flick aired… and the interviewer clearly said “So you’re working with Marvel…” Could he have been off on the rant just because he knew the odds of getting called on it were astronomical, and he felt like it? No misunderstanding required?
Scanlon?
I think you were malicious by typing it that way.
Yeah, you know, Scanlon’s razor, the axiom that states that you should never rely omn gmumble bmuadn….
shut up.
Gillete’s razor: the only way to prove a design is add one more blade.
I thought that one proved that the way to fix a problem is to add a razor blade. It’s served me well so far.
You guys. It’s worse. If you look up the longer form of the bit than is posted here, they are literally talking about Jackson playing Nick Fury, and how the first trailer for the new Avengers movie is cool, and Jackson says he isn’t willing to drop any spoilers about the movie, and THEN we get “So you’ve been working for Marvel, how about that super bowl commercial…”
Absolute idiocy, or absolute race baiting malice. This wasn’t a little whoopsy.
Wow, I finally had the stomach to watch the whole video. I’m reminded again, why I avoid Hollywood/Celebrity news at all costs. While Jackson comes off as kind of a jerk, Rubin virtually suckered him into extending his rant by immediately apologizing. Wait, apologizing doesn’t begin to describe the festival of stammering ass kissery that he engaged in. Another thing: Mr. Fishburne’s commercial was much more focused on him (or on his iconic character) and seems more obviously designed to be one of the Super Bowl commercials expected to create “buzz”. Jackson’s was pretty much a run of the mill movie trailer. I can see him “confusing himself with Fishburne”, lol, simply because Fishburne’s commercial is likely the one people were talking about. So, its possible, he assumed Rubin was talking about it too. Add that to the fact that Samuel Jackson has talked in the past about people mixing him up with Lawrence Fishburne and I don’t think he was that out of line, especially given that Rubin immediately admitted that he did it. And, I can’t tell, either from his litany of Kramdenian humina huminas during the video, or from his written apology, whether or not he really was talking about the movie trailer.
Using the phrase “We don’t all look alike” in an exasperated tone of voice is not tantamount to crying racism. I’ve heard it from black friends in similar circumstances and I’ve never taken it to mean they thought I was a racist. I don’t think Jackson reacted to what he perceived to be a racial slight, I think he reacted to yet again, in his mind, being mixed up with Lawrence Fishburne. And, to top it off, by an entertainment reporter?
Wow. That made no sense at all. The reporter never admitted that he mixed the two up—he just reflexively apologized because Jackson seemed offended, the classic liberal’s reaction: if you’re offended, I’m at fault. It was 100% clear which commercial Rubin was referring to—the Marvel reference made it clear. Who cares what Jackson expected or was thinking? He was wrong, and yet his impugning the professionalism and the preparation of the reporter was allowed to stand, was relayed, and has now become “fact”. Should Rubin have defended himself against this celebrity bully display? Sure, but he was shocked. He was the victim.
Not distinguishing among minority individuals as a marker of marginalization and racist attitudes–“They all look the same to me!”— is a classic. Of course it’s an accusation of racism.
Why are you—is anyone—making excuses for Jackson?
Damn right. Builshit on Jackson and bullshit on KTLA writers and researchers for a) calling the trailer a commercial in his copy which had that word been correct the whole tirade would not have happened and b) for not fact checking and calling Sam out live on the air. That was probably Mark fucking up.
The trailer is an ad, which qualifies as a commercial, but I wondered about that too: was that what confused Jackson? And he obviously should have been called out on the air. But actors carry the characters they play with them…he’s an intimidating presence.
Yeah, I can almost see a bit of confusion over the commercial/trailer distinction, but glaring, demanding “What Commercial” and going off on a tirade about not being able to tell black people apart stripped him of any high ground. Especially since they had been talking about the Marvel movie seconds before, I don’t see how he could not have realized. “Commercial? Do you mean the trailer? You know, an entertainment reporter usually knows the difference” lets him lead into a rant yanking the reporter’s chain without having to default to flinging race around.
I can completely understand where Jackson got confused also. But a person with *class* who doesn’t spend all day with a chip on his shoulder looking for opportunities to be offended, would NOT have gone off like that. Would have taken it with grace and would have assisted, with assumptions of GOOD FAITH and no malice, in figuring out what the interviewer was asking.
But no, this is Signature Significance on Jackson’s part.
Yes. SS. Definitely.
Gosh Jack, I’m feeling marginalized, Ethics Alarms is just not a safe place for me to comment, because when I do, you always disagree with me! Wait, wait, just kidding, I love your analysis and am almost always in agreement or at least enlightened by your take on events. Sorry, I had to get that out of the way.
In this case though, I think the reporter exacerbated the misunderstanding by saying, “My mistake” as soon as Jackson looked at him funny. You call that reflexively apologizing, I call it admitting to mixing up the two commercials. I don’t think there’s much of a difference. I could never do what you do. You, I’m assuming, based on the prodigious output of your blog, have the ability to examine an issue and quickly dash off a cogent and thoughtful analysis. I, like most people have to think carefully about what I say to make sure I say what I mean. When there’s a misunderstanding, I clear it up, I don’t just blather random apologies. And I’m not, unlike Rubin, a communications professional. Jackson clearly, to me at least, was assuming that Rubin was referring to the Matrix themed commercial starring Fishburne rather than the 2 1/2 minute movie trailer in which he barely appeared. Rubin could have cleared up this misunderstanding by saying “Did I offend you?” or some such. Instead he apologized without knowing what the misunderstanding was, which Jackson took as admitting that his assumption was valid. Now, even aside from the fact that Jackson has talked in the past about people mixing him up with Fishburne, this is a huge mistake by an entertainment reporter and would be a blow to Jackson’s ego. Hence his rant.
You and I are going to have to disagree about the “we don’t all look alike” in this context. There’s a big difference between that and “They all look alike” coming from a white person. I can’t imagine the latter statement ever being used in a non racist context. The former, I have heard used many times as hyperbole or humor without the implication that the person being spoken to was a racist. Merely that he was an idiot.
Dude. He specifically says “We don’t all look alike- rich black men.” In what universe is he not directly accusing the poor schlub of taking the attitude “they all look alike?”
And of course the reporter was an idiot for reflexively apologizing, but when you’ve got a huge star staring you down and leveling charges of racism, you damn well better. Try and dig your way out of it and the story isn’t “Sam Jackson riffs on stupid reporter!” it becomes “Racist reporter denies racism to black superstar!”
Oh, I’m positive that Jackson thought Rubin was referring to the Matrix ad. Thus he was in the wrong. Thus he should have apologized for impugning Rubin’s intelligence, professionalism, preparation, and yes, I think, character by mocking him. Of course, if everyone from Professor Ann Althouse to CNN to Fox to the Daily Beast to the Blaze hadn’t failed to actually watch the clip because the narrative of a white anchor mixing up two prominent (and not at all similar in appearance, roles or style—Fishburn must have 50 pounds and six inches on Jackson—and anyone who confuses Al Pacino with Dustin Hoffman also confuses Derek Jeter with Dustin Pedroia (as in, they are culturally ignorant)) black stars was too juicy to resist, (and so what if it unfairly scarred a blameless colleague’s career?) it would have been an easily-fixed gaffe by Jackson, who could weather it with class if he wanted to. Instead, the guiltless Rubin (guilty of being afraid of getting “capped” by one of Jackson’s mean motherfucker characters, I suppose) had to make a bizarre apology, and as far as I can see, this blog is the only online source that appears to care about the truth about who was really at fault.
Jack,
Get on board. The whole white ‘race’ is at fault. You are a racist and you deserve the self-righteous indignation of every black person you meet. Deal with it. All black people are entitled to their anger towards all white people.
In defense of the apology, it isn’t as though the two were on equal stsus footing, either. Your producers land you a spot with Mr. Jackson, you toe the line. He was likely already in a mindset of submission when the interview started – no suprise then, that a swift apology would be near instantanious.
I sometimes wonder if things like this happen just to test how far raaaaacist ridiculousness can go. There seems to be no limit.
Jackson – self-professed fan of the original – didn’t even get the name of the director right. It’s “Paul” Verhoeven, not “Peter Verhoven”.
http://www.cbc.ca/news/arts/samuel-l-jackson-mistaken-for-laurence-fishburne-during-interview-1.2531778
In an April 2013 interview on George Stroumboulopoulos Tonight, Fishburne also acknowledged that people have been mixing him up with Jackson for decades. He has even played along, he admitted.
“I was doing an interview in New York almost 20 years ago,” Fishburne told Stroumboulopoulos.
“A woman from Texas came up and interrupted the interview: ‘I don’t mean to bother you, but can I have your autograph Mr. Jackson?’
“And so I wrote blah, blah, blah, Sam Jackson. So Sam and I have this running gag about it…. Once upon a time people used to confuse Al Pacino and Dustin Hoffman. It’s not a bad problem to have.”
Which of course implies that it’s easy to distinguish LF from SJ. Laurence isn’t a jerk to people on this topic…
I don’t disblieve you, but my jaw is on the floor that anyone could ever confuse those two. They are nothing alike in any way other than “black movie star.” Sam Jackson and Denzel Washington are more alike…
Let me know if anyone reads a report or sees one that actually points out what this post does. I have yet to see any. Apparently nobody cares what really happened, or who was at fault, or who should be apologizing. But then, this is an ethics blog, so its perspective is, you know, weird…
A guy on twitter, I think @TexAgg04, confronted @SamuelLJackson about it. He never got a response.
Thank that guy for me.
You should review @Samontv (Sam Rubin) twitter account. History re-written by mass hysteria. His supporters have wholeheartedly congratulated him for owning up to his mistake.
So many arguments can be won by blustering someone to where they are emotionally on their heels and can’t do a damn thing to clear the record.
I don’t think I could stand it. Have you ever seen such a pure example of unfair and wrong reporting across the media at all levels? Am I going crazy? I find this incredible. It’s like mass hypnosis.
It is. And Sam Rubin should never have apologized. That automatically ‘verifies’ all the false reports. Hell, at this point he’s probably convinced he made the mistake and he’s a closet racist.
Let me know if anyone reads a report or sees one that actually points out what this post does. I have yet to see any.
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Yesterday, I sent this post to the news station in question.
They have not emailed back so far.
Maybe they don’t care what I think since I don’t live in their viewing area.
Also, it took about 8 minutes of searching on their web site to find out where to email them.
Not exactly user friendly.
I’ve also been ruminating on this, not that it hasn’t happened before, but because it is highly representative of the bigger picture.
My disgust over it is making me never want to watch another Samuel Jackson movie again.
Here is the link to KTLA’s email for typos and “errors”:
http://ktla.upickem.net/engine/YourSubmission.aspx?contestid=76033
And here is the link to all of their email:
http://ktla.com/about/contact-us/#axzz2t2iBGuWW
Just in case anybody gets bored. 🙂