Ebony magazine apologized to the Republican National Committee Friday for disparaging tweets about an RNC staffer and African-American Republicans by one of its senior editors.
On its website, the venerable African-American-oriented publication apologized for heated tweets written by Ebony com senior editor Jamilah Lemieux on her personal Twitter account about Raffi Williams, an RNC press secretary, and other African-American Republicans.
'EBONY acknowledges Senior Editor Jamilah Lemieux's lack of judgment on her personal Twitter account and apologizes to Raffi Williams and the Black Republican community,' the post on the website said.
The Twitter incident started when Lemieux criticized plans by The Washington Times and Ben Carson, an African-American conservative, to start a publication aimed at black conservatives.
Williams responded to the tweet, saying 'hoped you would encourage diversity of thought.' Lemieux tweeted back 'Oh great, here comes a White dude telling me how to do this Black thing. Pass.'
Williams, the son of Fox News analyst Juan Williams, is African-American. After becoming aware of Williams's race. Lemieux later tweeted: "I don't care what race you are. I don't know why you GOP folks troll on here.'
That was too much for officials at Ebony. 'EBONY strongly believes in the marketplace of ideas,' the publication said in its statement. 'As the magazine of record for the African American community, Lemieux's tweets in question do not represent our journalistic standard, tradition or practice of celebrating diverse black thought.'
RNC Chair Rance Priebus. who's been courting African-American voters, wrote a letter to Ebony demanding an apology. The RNC, is a press release, said it appreciates Ebony's response and that Williams accepted the publication's apology.
'Despite the actions of one editor, we're glad to see EBONY embracing a higher standard of journalistic integrity,' the RNC statement said.
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