C-SPAN reaffirms non-censorship stance after on-air caller refers to President Obama using the N-word

By RYAN GORMAN

A C-SPAN caller referred on-air to President Barack Obama using the N-word, but the cable network refuses to consider even the most basic of censorship measures.

The Thursday morning call came as people continued to discuss the results of this week's midterm elections, and a spokesperson for the cable network insisted it will never put calls on a delay or use a so-called kill-button.

Anthony, from San Diego, began his call as most other C-SPAN callers do, talking about policy and expectations.

"I would just like to say, that the Republicans -- and I'm a Republican -- please do not overreach," said Anthony. "I know they're going to overreach but I'm telling you, if you advocate for the repeal of Obamacare and you get too extreme, then Hillary Clinton will be elected President in 2016."

Things then took a turn for the worse.

"This is about race," he added. "The Republicans hate that n****r Obama."

Host Steve Scully quickly ended the rant and moved to the next listener

"Okay, I'm gonna stop you there," said Scully. "We're not gonna use that kind of language.
"You can certainly make your point, but you cross the line when you use language like that," he continued. "And so to our viewers and listeners, I want to apologize."

But the damage was done.

C-SPAN communications director Howard Mortman, though, sees no harm in allowing these types of calls to continue.

"It's just not in our nature," Mortman told AOL News. "We've been taking calls for 30 years ... It's been a live town hall kind of format, sometimes these kind of calls get through.

"When you try new tech or advanced methods to block out objectionable calls, callers just find ways around them," Mortman insisted. "We just maintain our open forum."

The network has never used delays and never will, he explained, adding that it has nothing to do with cost.

"It's not our role to smother the speech of Americans."

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