The Politico Claims Wright Story Is Old News

From our media masters at the Politico:

The story behind the story: Obama’s pastor

By: Mike Allen
March 15, 2008

Politicians know a troublesome story has “broken through” the Eastern media echo chamber when Jay Leno is laughing at them.

In the case of the Rev. Jeremiah A. Wright Jr., retiring pastor and outgoing spiritual adviser to Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.), it took less than 48 hours.

The fracas started Thursday morning, when ABC’s “Good Morning America” ran a Brian Ross expose on Wright that included old video of him saying: “The government gives them the drugs, builds bigger prisons, passes a three-strike law and then wants us to sing ‘God bless America’? No, no, no. Not God bless America. God [expletive] America.”

On Friday night, there was Leno on NBC’s “Tonight Show” joshing: “McCain was running so fast from President Bush, he ran into Barack Obama, who was running from his minister.”

The story had burst onto the radar screen of average Americans with as much velocity as any other story during the 2008 campaign.

Political reporters and editors were inundated with e-mails from red-state friends and relatives wanting to know why the brouhaha wasn’t getting more instant and constant coverage from every news outlet.

To reporters who had followed the campaign, it was an old, oft-written story. But this time it had video of Wright saying things like “U.S. of K.K.K.A.,” available on YouTube and played endlessly by cable news channels…

And it revived conservative chatter about Obama’s patriotism that has been fueled by rumors he does not put his hand on his heart for the Pledge of Allegiance (false) and stopped wearing a flag lapel pin (true).

Wright has been the minister to Obama for more than 20 years and gave him the title of his second best-seller, “The Audacity of Hope.” Wright married Obama and his wife, Michelle, and baptized their two daughters.

Wright is pastor of Chicago’s Trinity United Church of Christ, which on its website calls itself “Unashamedly Black and Unapologetically Christian,” and lists “a non-negotiable commitment to Africa” as part of its “10-point Vision.”

The minister’s controversial history has been written about countless times throughout the campaign. Wright has ties to the Rev. Louis Farrakhan, the black supremacist leader of the Nation of Islam — a fact that has been noted in more than 100 news stories just in the past few months, according to the Nexis database of news coverage.

Opponents of Obama have constantly pushed reporters to write about the minister, which these critics considered a ticking time bomb for his campaign.

On Feb. 20, after a fiery guest sermon by Wright in Little Rock, the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette ran an article that said: “On Tuesday, Wright criticized the U.S. invasion of Iraq and likened the insurgents to the Israelites under Babylonian rule.”

At 9:20 that morning, Obama opponents were already trying to get Politico to link to the story.

That’s why many news outlets — including Politico — did not initially pile on with rehashes after Ross’s story on “Good Morning America.”

But that was a reminder that it’s possible for regulars on the trail to be too familiar with the material. With the video widely available in the heat of the race, readers and viewers were thirsty for coverage…

Of course in a sense what the Politico claims is true. This is an old story. A story that our media has kept from the citizenry for more than a year.

We here at S&L were the first to uncover many of scandalous things now known about Mr. Wright more than a year ago.

Indeed we were usually the first to report on Trinity’s “black values” tenets, Mr. Wright’s outrageous hatred of the US, his ties to Mr. Farrakhan, and even the church’s tax problems.

And for more than a year we have found it next to impossible to get anyone in the mainstream media to pay any attention to any of this news, despite Mr. Wright being Mr. Obama’s “spiritual mentor” and “moral compass.”

The Politico and the rest of the “mainstream media” studiously refused to publish anything on the subject. We were only able to get Sean Hannity and John Gibson to take notice. (And now Mr. Gibson is without a television show, as a reward for his troubles.)

Among the “mainstream” news networks, only the “maverick” Brian Ross finally sat up and took notice after all these months.

But now we have the Politico claiming that the Wright story is old news that has been written about “countless times.” And of course they didn’t want to “pile on.”

Moreover, they seek to portray this flap as just another false internet canard.

You see, the Wright story is just like the “rumor” about Mr. Obama not putting his hand over his heart during the “Pledge Of Allegiance.”

Never mind that the Politico and the rest of the media once again purposefully misrepresent this incident, which is very easily verified. (Hint: it’s on videotape.)

And never mind that Mr. Obama did neglect to cover his heart, albeit during the playing of the “National Anthem” rather than the reciting of the “Pledge.” Such fine distinctions are obviously vital to our media watchdogs.

And do note that the Politico isn’t worried about “piling on” when they repeat the oft-told lie that this charge is false.

But this is your media at work, gentle reader.

These are “journalists” who are actually proud that they won’t cover a story even when it is handed to them on a platter. Even when it will get them ratings and make them a lot of money.

They simply will not report anything that goes against their agenda. That is their only job, pushing their agenda.

They have nothing to do with wanting to get out the truth. And they will have nothing to do with anything that does not advance their cause.

And yet they wonder why a recent Harris poll shows that no one trusts them anymore.

Which, by the way, is another story the media somehow forgot to report.

Of course it really is old news.