Chinaman? Racial Hate?

The other day, media mogul and philanthropist Ted Turned used the term "Chinaman" during an live interview in front of thousands of people in San Francisco. In his words,
"The Chinese are very smart. Just think: Have you ever met a dumb Chinaman?"
Turner claims to not have known that "Chinaman" was a deragatory term towards Asians.
When I tried to find more information on it, it was funny how very few websites in America reported this incident. However, I found strings and strings of links written in Chinese. Of course, the Chinese are sensitive because they are Chinese. I am Chinese, too and was a bit shocked when I saw this on a Chinese television channel and his use of this term. But I do suspect that he didn't know it was a deragatory term because this could affect him negatively, and potentially as a racist. So it makes me wonder, about how people who oppose to certain words, acts, behaviors, seem to always have sensitivity and want to be responsive. Living in America seems like you have the freedom to do or say anything that you want. But that's not the case, because if you did or say what you want.. you'll be in hot water. This turns to the recent case about a column writer for AsianWeek who wrote a piece on "Why I Hate Blacks." This was definitely an uproar. I visited some websites to get more information about it:

http://blogher.org/node/16195

http://www.hyphenmagazine.com/blog/archives/2007/02/asianweek_takes.html

I was shocked how AsianWeek allowed this to be published. I believed it caused a lot of hurt and misrepresentation for all Asians.