Jesse Jackson used N-word, Fox News says

CHICAGO (AP) — The Rev. Jesse Jackson used the N-word during a break in a TV interview where he criticized presidential candidate Barack Obama, Fox News confirmed Wednesday.

The longtime civil rights leader came under fire this month for crude off-air comments he made against Obama in what he thought was a private conversation during a taping of a “Fox Friends” show.

In additional comments from that same conversation, first reported by TVNewser, Jackson is reported to have said Obama was “talking down to black people,” and referred to blacks with the N-word when he said Obama was telling them “how to behave.”

Though a Fox spokesman confirmed to The Associated Press that Jackson used the slur, the network declined to release the full transcript of the July 6 show and did not air the comments.

Jackson — who is traveling in Spain — apologized in a statement Wednesday for “hurtful words” but didn’t offer specifics.

“I am deeply saddened and distressed by the pain and sorrow that I have caused as a result of my hurtful words. I apologize again to Senator Barrack Obama, Michelle Obama, their children as well as to the American public,” Jackson said in a written statement.

A spokeswoman for Jackson’s civil rights organization, Rainbow/PUSH Coalition, said she could not confirm that Jackson used the slur.