Documents: What Press Knew and Hid about Obama and Jeremiah Wright

You were outraged about Obama's connections to Jeremiah Wright. I was outraged. Everyone I knew was outraged that Obama and his family spent 20 years sitting in a church known to be a follower of Black Liberation Theology - and a pastor who would ask the Almighty to "damn America," and the press wouldn't talk about it. This comes from Journolist, a listserv of "several hundred liberal journalists, activists and academia. These freakin liberals were communicating back and forth about how to keep Wright respectable, no matter what he said by attacking conservatives. The conversation ranged form burying the story to an all-out defense. See a video below.

Barack Obama and Jeremiah Wright

From The Daily Caller, more at The Lonely Conservative.

According to records obtained by The Daily Caller, at several points during the 2008 presidential campaign a group of liberal journalists took radical steps to protect their favored candidate. Employees of news organizations including Time, Politico, the Huffington Post, the Baltimore Sun, the Guardian, Salon and the New Republic participated in outpourings of anger over how Obama had been treated in the media, and in some cases plotted to fix the damage.

In one instance, Spencer Ackerman of the Washington Independent urged his colleagues to deflect attention from Obama’s relationship with Wright by changing the subject. Pick one of Obama’s conservative critics, Ackerman wrote, “Fred Barnes, Karl Rove, who cares — and call them racists.”

Michael Tomasky, a writer for the Guardian, also tried to rally his fellow members of Journolist: “Listen folks–in my opinion, we all have to do what we can to kill ABC and this idiocy in whatever venues we have. This isn’t about defending Obama. This is about how the [mainstream media] kills any chance of discourse that actually serves the people.”

“Richard Kim got this right above: ‘a horrible glimpse of general election press strategy.’ He’s dead on,” Tomasky continued. “We need to throw chairs now, try as hard as we can to get the call next time. Otherwise the questions in October will be exactly like this. This is just a disease.”

Katha Politt at the Nation believed burying the story was not the right thing to do but is quoted saying:

I hear you, but I am really tired of defending the indefensible. The people who attacked Clinton on Monica were prissy and ridiculous, but let me tell you it was no fun, as a feminist and a woman, waving aside as politically irrelevant and part of the vast rightwing conspiracy Paula, Monica, Kathleen, Juanita..."

The controversy raged within this group which released a statement on April 18th 2008 saying the attacks against Wright and Obama was:

"a revolting descent into tabloid journalism and a gross disservice to Americans concerned about the great issues facing the nation and the world." 

We knew the media was hiding and maliciously and falsely debunking the story about Obama and Jeremiah Wright, but we couldn't prove it. Today, for posterity - assuming this report is true, the cover-up is documented.




Jeremiah Wright Background:

Jeremiah Wright's Peaceful Ministry



Jeremiah Wright on Martin Luther King's call for Non-Violence - Not Wright's Cup of Tea
Jeremiah Wright Accepts ONLY a God of White Destruction
Jeremiah Wright Publishes CAIR Founder's Manifesto
Transcription of "Hamas' stand" on Jeremiah Wright's "Pastor's Page"
Jeremiah Wright Connects with the Hamas Charter



Jeremiah Wrights Controversial Statements (video)