NYT's Kristol Caught Falsely Claiming Obama Attended Controversial Sermon

The Atlantic:

Bill Kristol's New York Times column about Barack Obama this morning contains a major, prejudicial error.

Paragraph five:

But Ronald Kessler, a journalist who has written about Wright's ministry, claims that Obama was in fact in the pews at Trinity last July 22. That's when Wright blamed the "arrogance" of the "United States of White America" for much of the world's suffering, especially the oppression of blacks. In any case, given the apparent frequency of such statements in Wright's preaching and their centrality to his worldview, the pretense that over all these years Obama had no idea that Wright was saying such things is hard to sustain.

Read the whole story: The Atlantic

Comments

[damnadamson]

yes but by then the damage is already done and that is the routine policy of most politicians. state falsehoods then backtrack knowing full well no one reads apologies on page 29 after the fact. kristol is an intelligent wingnut and it's sad he has a voice.

[VoteOnPaper]

When Senator Obama's preacher thundered about racism and injustice Obama suffered smear-by-a­ssociation­. But when Religious Right leader Francis Schaeffer -- denounced America and even called for the violent overthrow of the US government, he was invited to lunch with presidents Ford, Reagan and Bush, Sr.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/frank-schaeffer/obamas-minister-committe_b_91774.html

[BeyondGoodAndEvil]

At least Jayson Blair wrote his own fabricated stories. All Kristol does is cut and paste someone else's fabricated story without even bothering to fact check.

He should be fired. He's been a joke from his first column which also had a glaring error.

The NY Times has become a Clinton/McCain lovefest.

[MaureenS]

Oh Oh....where is the left wing radio announcers? Why arent they yelling , calling for the boycotting of The New York Times..

yep .....MORE EVIDENCE OF HOW "LUCKY BARACK OBAMA IS TO BLACK"!!!

[ChimesOfFreedom]

Kristol's article is still there:

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/17/opinion/17kristol.html

Anybody reading the column is still going to see that original fifth paragraph which contains the erroneous information. It's easy enough to miss the new disclaimer at the top.

Let's see what else Wild Bill has to say...

The column as currently seen in the online NY Times still attempts to make the point that "it’s becoming clear that Obama has been less than candid in addressing his relationship to his pastor," although the lone piece of evidence for this that Kristol cites has now been proven false. Kristol goes on to say "Obama seems to have seen, early in his career, the utility of joining a prominent church..." This is pure conjecture. For all we know, Obama joined the TUCC because he liked the Friday night barbecues, but Kristol's implication is made. Obama joined TUCC as a political expediency.

This completely unfounded implication is made even clearer by the next line: "now he sees the utility of distancing himself from that church." This isn't simply conjecture without foundation. It is a lie. Not only has Obama not distanced himself from the TUCC - he is still an active member - but also he has not distanced himself from Jeremiah Wright. He has voiced his unequivocal objections to certain statements Wright has made, but he most certainly has not abandoned his old friend and former pastor.

What next ... Kristol asserts that Obama "often voted 'present' in the Illinois State Legislature for the sake of his future political viability." We know from the record that Obama did indeed vote 'present' on more than one occasion. We also know that this is an utterly mundane and common occurrence in any political body. What we don't know, and what Kristol fails to substantiate in any manner, is why Obama voted that way on those few occasions. Again, pure conjecture from Kristol.

He goes on to complain about the use of the term "Generation Obama" on the campaign web site - which, lo and behold, turns out to be true! The Generation Obama concept is an organizing tool, but Kristol in his singularly small-minded way calls it a "remarkable conceit" that the campaign attempts to label the "next generation" with such a proprietary term. Oh my goodness, that's not what they're doing at all, but we'll let Bill have that one. He deserves some credit, after all, for managing to include one fact-based item in his anti-Obama diatribe.

[sbennett53]

For the sake of accuracy, Obama voted "present" about 130 times. That's one hundred-thirty out of over 4000 votes cast in the Illinois State House. Fifty of those were done at the behest of party leadership. The NY Times has an article about Obama's "present" votes and how it is commonly used in the Ill legislature for a variety of reasons.

Steve

(www.nytimes.com/2007/12/20/us/politics/20obama.html?ei=5088&en=8385d348acbab84e&ex=1355806800&adxnnl=1&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss&adxnnlx=1205813658-ZXXGKAHjk9U+PxEd2n8XVg)

[sammy333]

is if it is the first false claim of Bill-the-s­miling-mur­derer-Kris­tol. Have people forgotten about the WMD and the Iraq cakewalk and the cheap oil promise. He is a professional liar, that is why NYT employed him.

[Caramba]

Billy!

SO WHAT!

He attended or NOT attended the Church or Rev. Wright is IRRELEVANT.... GET to the Issue.... This is not the kind of journalism or reporting NY TImes readers do expect.

Ask Hillary when she is going to return her TAX RETURNS!

[bossjimgettys]

The column now bears a retraction before the first graph, but the column, which is based on a discredited lie, is still up for all to see. Is there an alternate journalistic universe where this makes sense? Oh wait, the NYT has endorsed HRC... so they should let a slanderous column run if the object of the slander is Obama... Jesus. What a disgrace.

[Zhonni]

You just have to wonder why the Clinton camp was so confident that she would be the nominee. It seems to me that what they have been screaming and hollering about is these video tapes.

She is in for a surprise because Obama is a biracial raised by his white parents so you can't say he is a racist. Core Obama supporters are not swayed by little distractions.

If this was there smoking gun then they have failded miserably. Obama will be the nominee and go on to become president.

[mouselion]

The full text of The Audacity of Hope sermon:

http://andrewsullivan.theatlantic.com/the_daily_dish/2008/03/for-the-record.html

Actually, a pretty inspirational message. Also, the quotes of Wright's from Kristol's article are a whole lot nicer than what I've read by some blog posters commenting about America (and which many would agree with, if not parse the sentiments in the exact same way). You've got to admit. . .

[Ratso]

More evidence why Gore should have been the Democratic nominee. He could have won. Draft Gore, and we might have a chance. Obama is unproven and Hiliary is perceived as untrustworthy.

[BeyondGoodAndEvil]

Don't be so easily influenced by the MSM spin cycle. Obama has proven himself:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/01/03/AR2008010303303.html

http://www.raisingkaine.com/showDiary.do?diaryId=12761

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2008/2/21/164117/783/290/461422

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2008/2/20/201332/807/36/458633

http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5hF21X4euXTnoLZk5sNoBd9NVtcRQD8V1SV980

http://www.boston.com/news/local/articles/2007/01/28/at_harvard_law_a_unifying_voice/

http://www.newsweek.com/id/84756/output/print

http://politicalmaelstrom.blogspot.com/2008/01/actual-differences-between-barack-and.html

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2007/03/30/politics/p132303D74.DTL&type=politics

http://firedoglake.com/2008/01/28/barack-obama-statement-on-fisa/

http://nj.nationaljournal.com/voteratings/

[ChimesOfFreedom]

You're contending that Kristol's largely fabricated hit piece on Obama is evidence that Obama is "unproven"?

[BoulderSue]

How is it that this guy is allowed to get away with this stuff> Is the NYT that desperate just to fill up space? Editor, please!

[CheshireCat2]

Censured again! What is up with the censuring. DO I have a better chance at changing nicknames once a week here or what. I have seen out and out cussing with anger and hatred here, outright attacks at other people and it get''s posted. Please read every post that I have in my profile. See how much name calling there is...........C'mon this is supposed to be a blog with ideas exchanged.

[BeyondGoodAndEvil]

Maybe you should figure out the difference between censor and censure first. Otherwise, your post is going to seem as irrelevant as your conservative spin.

[HumeSkeptic]

There were two very active posters last night, cmcrinc and Independentjunkie, who were spreading the rumor wildly on that thread about ".Obama's Church Accuses Media Of Character Assassination"

Seems to me that newsmax has reps here. Of course, other posters did a quick check and found out that Obama did not attend Church that day.

[BeyondGoodAndEvil]

When is Kristol going to be fired? His column is a joke. It was all over the internet last night that this was a false story as Senator Obama was in Florida on July 22nd.

http://www.nclr.org/content/news/detail/47475/