CNN's John Roberts Declares "Wright-Free Zone" For Obama Interview

NEW YORK -- CNN's John Roberts declared his interview with Barack Obama on Monday a "Rev. Wright-free zone" to telegraph he wouldn't ask the Democratic presidential contender about the controversy over his former pastor.

The reference was flip, but Roberts primarily talked about Iran, the gas tax and the economy during a six-minute interview with Obama that aired at 6:20 a.m. EDT.

During appearances last week at the National Press Club and elsewhere, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright repeated his beliefs that the U.S. government may have developed the AIDS virus to infect the black community and that the U.S. had invited the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. Obama denounced the remarks.

The first 11 questions that NBC's Tim Russert asked Obama on "Meet the Press" on Sunday were about the Wright matter.

Roberts said it was clear that nothing new had been said about the issue for a week, and that many of his viewers believed it was time for CNN to move on.

"Rather than spend one second of time on an issue that isn't really relevant to people because there's been no news on it, I thought I'd spend the time talking to these candidates about issues that really matter to people," he said.

Roberts, co-host of CNN's morning program, interviewed Hillary Clinton an hour after talking to Obama. He didn't ask her about Wright, either.

The veteran anchor said he made the decision on his own, and has since received about 100 e-mails, all overwhelmingly positive, about it.

The declaration of a "Wright-free zone" wasn't done to telegraph to Obama that he was going easy on him, Roberts said. Rather, he was trying to tell viewers it was going to be a substantive interview, he said.

"All of the questions that are currently out there on this have been asked and answered," he said.

It doesn't mean he's closing the book on the issue, Roberts said. If Obama becomes the Democratic nominee and Republicans criticize his relationship to Wright, he'll likely return to it, he said.

Comments

[NCMan]

The reason that Rev Wright is still an issue and is still discussed is because voters who are not already supporting Obama do not believe Obama when he claims that he was not aware of Wright's opinions over the last 20 years.

Obama didn't leave the church years ago because membership there was politically advantageous in Chicago and for hil ILL State senate career. It also wasn't a problem for him to run for the US Senate.

We all knwo that Obama was aware of the danger Wright posed for his presidential campaign because he tried to keep him under wraps over a year ago. But, if Obama has quit the church in preparation for his presidential campaign it would have caused many questions and it waould have caused him trouble with religious voters. He ttok a gamble that it wouldn't be as damaging as it has been and he lost the gamble.

He is lucky that it didn't come out early enough to have effected the Super Tueday primaries and the 11 primaries afterward that he won.

It likely won't cost him the nomination, but it may well cost him the general election.

[nerakami]

Why are we so blinded to the fact that we judge a man by his own words and deeds and NOT those of another??

Go back and review Obama's voting records, his old speeches, his life as a husband and a father.... those are indicative of who this man is !!! and NOT the words or beliefs of another person.
This is SO ridiculous. Why don't you tell millions of Catholics to walk out of their Church and denounce and reject the Pope who for many years harbored priests who molested children by the thousands.

Get real people and stop this non-sense.­..

[Oldchef]

Thank you. All this guilt by association crap is distracting people from their real problems, which is just what the Republicans want and Mrs. Clinton is enabling all that. The revelations that her husband and two chief advisers were in the pay of the Colombian government got hardly any coverage because the multi national corporations who own the news outlets want the "free trade" deals to go through, so no "guilt by association" there. Ignore that person behind the curtain, look at this rev. wright, he's a different color than you and he dresses funny and says outrageous things, so anybody who went to his church is different, must be unamerican. But pay no attention to that hand in your pocket stealing your wallet and passing it to the oil company and the insurance company and the credit card bank.

[cam737]

Thank you John Roberts. A "Wright-free zone" was the most refreshing thing I heard all week from a journalist.

I agree nerakami. I don't think Obama really has a big problem. Wright's words were not Obama's words. What if we held all the candidates responsible for all the words and actions of those they knew? We'd never get to the issues.

[booker52]

Thank God someone said that. Enough of this joker. How about the rest of the media putting a ban on this guy as well??

[ObamaCanada]

John Roberts is a Canadian journalist and a good one he sure has come far from doing Muchmusic rockstar interviews.

[deweshk]

What about not mentioning the Reverend's name at all. Hypocrites !

[Benton]

The moment I hear Rev. Wrights name mentioned or posted on the television screen I change the channel. At this point to even mention this so-called issue is to disrespect my intelligence.

[belief08]

People, give me a break; you know this is a republican tactic to throw the campaign back into their miserable hands. They want to run this country for another 8 years. You see what they had done so far. Do you want it to deteriorate further. Think of your kids and what they will have to look forward to. We have a problem with Social Security, will your kids have that when it time. Will we have it when it is time?

We heard those type of remarks and worse all our lives from your parents, your parents; parents and their parents and their parents. So, don't act like his words disgusts you, because it disgusts us when it was used against us by your people. It's out there and it continues to be out there, just look at the blogs. It's like the resurgents of the KKK and neo-nazism. So, your disgusts is our disgusts; just let it alone.

[Grannysue]

I watched the interview, but he just couldn't help but to slip in a little of Wright, like asking how that contraversey has affected his campaing, so don't applaud him just yet, it's still the Clinton News Network and they are having a really hard time trying to not focus on slamming Obama, but at least this guy tried!

[jah2008]

I agree. At least, Roberts did try. I have stopped watching CNN and MSNBC precisely for this reason.

To Tim Russert, Chris Matthews, Abrams, & Stephanopoulos: Take note from Roberts.

[oldrwsr]

It's about time someone in the MSM is actually talking about issues.

[Mrwilliams2u]

It's about time we started taliking about the issues as much as I dissagree with Billo on fox. I have to say that interview he conducted with Hillary Clinton was very informative and stayed on the issues other anchor's should take note.

[Obamlatina]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UBuuR62hVAs&feature=related

[robynuva]

yesterday Joe Scarb said "Obama hasn't answered all the questins about Wright" HOW IS THAT POSSIBLE? He has answered, by my count, 1,258,368 questions about the lunatic.

AA church's, it seems to me, have a southern strain, and in the south we don't lock our crazy folks up in the attic, we let come down to the parlor. The Rev was just O's crazy uncle. END OF STORY.

Good for CNN, and I never thought I would utter those words.

[BDunne]

Ditto -- but my praise for CNN starts and ends right there.
Joe is a joke. He no longer gets under my skin -- just look at him -- listen to him.

His fits are full of frustration and envy at Barack Obama. He wishes his "input" made a difference to the campaign. He wishes he had the ability to raise as much money as Obama and inspire a nation.

[booker52]

Morning Joe should be change'd to another host all together. I myself like Willey Giest.

[zanngra]

Good for him.. NBC/MSNBC has really lost me. They used to be my station of choice. I think they might have topped Fox in their Rev Wright coverage. Chris Matthews justifies by saying their ratings are up. Well at least he admits they have no ethics and it's all about ratings. Their dream is that this goes to the convention and all their coverage is programmed to achieve that goal.

[Anonani]

And I quote my favorite singer, Etta James: "At Last......­.."

[ggmome]

Good for this Newscaster! Now as for Tim Russett, Mrs Obama would have put his questions to rest, with a repeated, 'It's over"....

[duffman209]

well what did they discuss? anyone have a link?

[indiethinker]

Gee, how can we possibly decide who to vote for without having Jeremiah Wright shoved in our faces every 5 minutes? Oh sure, there's that Iraq thing, the tanking economy, global warming, but who needs to focus on those trivialities? I watched Russert interview Obama on Sunday & was disgusted that the first 15 minutes were spent rehashing the Wright questions again. Even if this were a legitimate issue (& I don't for a minute believe it is), the questions have been asked & answered dozens of times already. The same pinheads who voted for Bush because of gay marriage & the swiftboat crap will now vote for Clinton because of this nonsense & if there are enough of them, our country will be screwed for another 4-8 years. Wake up people & use your minds - don't just gobble up whatever distracting garbage the media feeds you...

[Countdown09]

Well that's all good and fine, to bad it's a week and 3 days late. They kept that Wright story going for a month -- now the damage is done and suddenly the media finds it's integrity 24 hrs until people vote in Indiana and NC. Go to hell.

[NightRider]

I am with you on that.