I guess saying the N word is Ok for Jesse, but no one else.

CHICAGO - For decades the Rev. Jesse Jackson has rallied against the use of the N-word — an ethnic slur he has repeatedly told the American public is hateful and degrading. But the longtime civil rights activist used the term in what Jackson thought was a private conversation during a break from a TV interview.

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Jackson has already come under fire this month for crude off-air comments he made against presumptive Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama that were recorded during a taping of a "Fox & Friends" news show.

In additional comments from that same conversation, obtained by the blog TVNewser and published Wednesday, 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."

Fox News did not air the comments, taped for a July 6 show, but a spokesman confirmed TVNewser's account to The Associated Press.

Jackson — who was traveling in Spain to attend an interfaith conference on Wednesday — apologized in a statement 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 Barack Obama, Michelle Obama, their children as well as to the American public," Jackson said in a written statement. "There really is no justification for my comments and I hope that the Obama family and the American public will forgive me. I also pray that we, as a nation, can move on to address the real issues that affect the American people."

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

For more than 100 years, the N-word has been used against blacks and is a potent symbol of racism. Last year, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People held a symbolic funeral for the word, similar to one the civil rights organization held in 1944 for Jim Crow laws.

At the same time, blacks also use the term when referring to other blacks, a practice both Jackson and the Rev. Al Sharpton have fought. Both have called on the entertainment industry, including rappers, actors and studios to put an end to its use.

They renewed their efforts in 2006 when actor Michael Richards was taped using the word during a rant at a Los Angeles comedy club.

At the time, Jackson called on the public to boycott purchasing DVD copies of the TV sitcom "Seinfeld," which starred Richards as the goofy friend Kramer.

Sharpton said Wednesday he wanted to hear the comments for himself and declined to discuss Jackson specifically.

"I am against the use of the n-word by anyone and I think we must be consistent," he told The Associated Press. "We must not use the word."