Letter to the editor submitted by Benji Irby
My message to the Greenwich Time is, it’s time to cut the crap! The October 3rd, 2019, front-page, partisan hit piece on Greenwich RTM Candidate Carl Higbie, written by Ken Borsuk was beyond shameful and reeked of Democrat desperation.
As usual, with the left-leaning media industrial complex, any mention of Carl would have to be dutifully proceeded by mentioning the foolish, racially insensitive stuff he said several years ago in a failed attempt at being a shock jock (something which he has apologized for too many times to count) as a way to smear him and all Republicans as intrinsically racist. This tempest in a teapot would be a little more believable to fair-minded folks if stories about Democrats like Joe “They gon’ have ya’ll back in chains…” “Poor kids are just as bright as white kids…” Biden were as equally prefaced by mentions of his racially insensitive and downright insulting comments from as soon as a few weeks ago. But we all know that won’t happen to #QuidProJoe Biden, right Ken?
In the remainder of the piece, continued on page A8, Borsuk published an oh-so-conveniently cropped picture of Carl and fellow conservative political commentator Tom Borelli from the America’s Voice Network Town Hall Carl held and taped at the Greenwich Town Hall back in January. The picture is captioned as follows:
“Tom Borelli, at right, one of THREE panelists…”
And guess who the cropped out third panelist was, sitting to the right of Tom and Carl, me, Benji Irby. I’m also a conservative political commentator, a friend of Carl and a black gay man. Oh yes, Carl Higbie, the so-assumed racist and homophobe has a black gay friend from one of the poorest sections of the South Bronx. Shocked!?!
Not only do I know Carl Higbie, as I’ve appeared on his show at least thirty times and have been to his Greenwich home for dinner several times with his lovely wife and children. I can say that there is not one person on Earth who has been as consistently helpful and encouraging to me than Carl Higbie has since I entered the world of conservative political commentary a little over a year ago. In a lot of ways you can say that he “discovered” me, if you will.
Now, any actual mention of me in Borsuk’s story would have killed its underlying narrative of “Carl Higbie is a racist homophobe” and we couldn’t have that could we, Ken? Hence why I was surgically cropped out the story.
As a person who knows Carl Higbie today, I say don’t believe everything you read. Sure Carl said some dumb stuff before, haven’t we all? But I thought the point of liberalism and progressivism was to change minds, to celebrate people who have evolved beyond racially insensitive and homophobic views from their past. You’d think that, right? Unfortunately, the left-leaning media only reserves its forgiveness for Democrats, for Republicans and conservatives, routinely dredging up one’s past is mere political strategy.
So now that we know that Carl Higbie isn’t a racist homophobe… CAN WE TALK ABOUT THE ISSUES FACING THE PEOPLE OF GREENWICH, CONNECTICUT PLEASE?
PS: Just in case you think I’m a Russian (or Ukrainian) bot, see how real I am on Twitter: @realbenjiirby