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

[JavaCityGal]

A real journalist on CNN --- who woulda thunk it?

[doc1400]

I'm beginning to like John Roberts. NBC, although much better than CBS and of course ABC with Snuffaloughagus is really no great shakes Except for Kieth.

[AjicNYC]

oh so wright is not news????

how come no one is questioning OBAMA on this issue

look up why obama denounced wright

1)aids comment , hmmm obama knew that a year ago
2) farrakhan hmmm obama knew that a year ago too

wright calling OBAMA a typical politician , OH NO HE DIDNT lol

you guys are suckers!!! talk about being bamboozled

[KQuarksSuperKollider]

He already answered the Wright question 100 times. Final questions about issues. How original.

[iPolitics]

You can't be this unintelligent. Do you pay attention to politics? This is all we heard about for a month. Russert spend his entire Meet the Rev Wright show Sunday on Wright.

[SouthFloridaDem]

Get out of your cave very much in the past month or so? I didn't think so.

[zull2]

How many times were you in church??? How many times did you hear him say stuff??? How many times did you smoke pot??? Who were you with that night??? What were you doing behind that door???

You wind up the Republican, and that's the kind of stuff that comes out. Not real questions about real issues like the Iraq occupation, health care, the environment. No, your head is stuck in tabloid politics and that's as far as the 2 synapses left in your head can go, because they're still arguing over whether or not Obama's name makes him good enough to be president.

[Countdown09]

Perhaps it would be a concern if Wright was the person running for President, as he's not running for President it's not an issue.

[JamieStarr]

It's all they've got to talk about.

They can't find issue on anything policy-related. I have yet to cast my vote based on a nominee's pastor.

[ErnestineBass]

WOW! When did CNN start hiring adults?

[4wehttam]

It would have been better for him not to say anything at all or say it before Obama came on to just his viewers, so that way people wouldn't fault Obama for it (although I know some will fault him regardless).

But much appreciated John, thank you.

[SCCavie93]

THANK GOD!
The entire subject is rather old already.

[Cogs]

Chris Matthews on MSNBC this evening claimed the public is demanding that the media continue to focus on the Rev. Wright. I've always viewed Matthews as a loudmouthed gasbag but wonder what poll he can cite that backs up his claim. MSNBC dumped the Tucker show and needs to show Matthews the same exit door.

[TheAdviceWeAllNeed]

First lets start with that Morning jJoe Show and on to Race to the White House

[ErnestineBass]

Tweety's no mockingbird. He's only got the one song.

[plainsman]

I think he meant that Fox news and dittoheads demand that the focus continue on Rev. Wright. It astonishes me how they could not think they are being manipulated by the right wing's Operation Wright. I can't think of one sensible person I know who isn't sick of the Wright issue.

[Countdown09]

I for whatever reason kept a mental note of which political commentator and show did their best to get miles out of the Wright story. Chris Matthews wins that prize hands down. One of his shows last week even when he wasn't talking about Wright he kept his picture up in the background. That was the day I stop tunning into to Chris Matthews.

[TexasNewsHound]

Way to go, John! Thank you!

[bison2]

Do political pundits have advance degrees in political science? What are the qualifications to become a political pundit?

[oldrwsr]

I think you just have to say you are one and your are one.

[Sardonica]

Okay - that's just an obnoxious spectacle. CNN et al hyped this fucking story for two months. Must we now endure them congratulatng themselves for suddenly taking the high road?

[Countdown09]

Last week on this site I asked all Obama supporters to refrain from making any comments on any article regarding Wright and to my surprise it worked!! 2 days later nothing on Wright was to found. Just goes to show the monster will die if you stop feeding it. Chris Matthews still won't let go of this Wright thing so I will again ask Obama supporters to slay this monster as well -- boycott Matthews show.

[Testtubebaby]

Ha, I bet it was only the morning show that didn't engage. Cnn can't help itself.

[drzoon]

Bloomberg News in the morning. You actually know what is going on in the world instead of a rabid ratings hype job from msnbc and cnn

[Msohio]

Thank you John Roberts. Rev Wright is not affecting my life, at all. I am dying to hear the issues. But, I am inundated with untruths and twisted lies. There is no way that the Clintons can heal this party after these primaries and the convention are over.

[TheAdviceWeAllNeed]

This so cool

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a8lvc-azCXY

[ssg13565]

Unless you have watched the full videos of all the Rev Wright incidents that have been in the news recently, then you are getting your impression of Rev. Wright from the same news people who are trying to make this a big issue.

Why do you assume that they are telling you the truth about what they say of Rev. Wright?

I know, you have seen the snippets with your own eyes. Well, if you saw all of the videos, you would be utterly amazed at how they managed to select snippets to convince you of the opposite of the truth.

If you have ever wondered how propaganda manages to fool so many people, view the complete Rev. Wright videos. You will be amazed at what the press can do with well chosen clips, repeated big lies, and unanimity among all the commenters. Of course many of the commenters have no more knowledge about Rev. Wright than what they picked up from the other lying commenters.

Because of this unanimity, you naturally assume that they must all be right. The other possible logical conclusion is that they are all wrong. In this case, you'll see that they are all wrong.

Even Obama himself has probably not seen the video of Wright's three recent appearances. I wouldn't be surprised if he has been fooled too. I almost bought it myself, until I looked at the original source material.

[TheAdviceWeAllNeed]

I have seen the entire video of the snippets of the Fool. Now neither the snippets nor the video bothered me, I knew what the media was trying to do but when this attention whore got on national TV and made a fool of himself he lost me for good. There are just no excuses for this, none at all.

[4wehttam]

Yeah he lost me when he came out at the press club and made a laughing stock of the whole situation. I actually liked his interview with Moyers, but the others were intended to do more harm than good.

[mrpalba]

Thank God someone at CNN is in touch enough with their viewers to know that many of us are sick of everything being focussed around the Rev. who loves too much the sound of his own voice.
Another who is too much in love with himself is Wolf Blitzer, who every evening on the Situation Room keeps asking the same question of his panel "Is Rev. Wright harming Obama?" - every day for over a week - to the point that Jack Cafferty remarked on Blitzer's lack of originality.
Wolf, you're being very boring and feeble-minded - think of something new and original to say, instead of indulging your petty, peevish, politics (with a very small 'p').