Reading The Pictures: New York Times Plays The Ayers Card

Records of a school reform project suggest Barack Obama has played down contact with Bill Ayers, a founder of the Weathermen, but they do not seem to have been close.  -- NYT article caption

With Obama opening up a strong lead in the polls, it's hard not to feel the Times is either taking it upon itself to make the race more competitive, or adhering to some juvenile rule of parity in which each candidate gets whacked in turn, even if a front page article -- raising all kinds of long hashed-over and discredited innuendos -- ends with the conclusion there is nothing there to speak of.

Friday afternoon's NYT.com front page features an image and article resuscitating feeble allegations -- all then discounted -- of some kind of professional, philanthropic or even political collaboration between Barack Obama and Bill Ayers, the article serving little more than a re-introduction of Ayers -- and, by association, questions about Obama's character and patriotism --  into the media sphere.

If you can hold your nose long enough to read the article, you'll also notice how the author -- by way of an interview with a Chicago Tribune columnist -- also manages to reference Obama's relationship with Jeremiah Wright, including the '"God damn America" sermon."' (But then, given the specter of a less competitive election in comparison to the orgy the media had over Reverend Wright, why should all the election fireworks fizzle out now?

Given the power of images to create connotations well beyond the most qualified of words, the New York Times dug up this 2001 image of Bill Ayers and Bernardine Dohrn to slap on the front of the on-line edition.  (I'm more than half expecting to see it on the front of Saturday's print edition, as well.)  Besides offering you a screen grab of the digital lead, the image above is the expanded version of the pic from the article.  Not only are the former Weathermen staring down at us with self-righteous expressions, but Ayers could be seen as flipping us the bird.

I am typically a lot more high-minded in my conclusions, but frankly, this is right-wing enabling crap.

Update 1:  Well, whaddya know.  Here's the front page of Saturday's NYT print edition.  Check top of the fold, accompanied by a 26-year-old shot of the long hair.

Update 2: After the jump in the print edition, page A14 is full of large, accompanying images including the shot above, BA's FBI wanted poster, and two screen shots from political ads by independent fly-by-nights attempting to tie Obama to Ayers.  (Click for larger size.)

Obama and '60s Bomber: A Look Into Crossed Paths (NYT)

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(image: Todd Buchanan for the New York Times, 2001)

Comments

[mrseth]

really though? Ayers actual comments - http://www.gelfmagazine.com/archives/notes_from_the_weather_underground.php

[Gardinia]

They are trying to change the subject as they stated

[Gardinia]

I hope the GOP disparate machine does not pay this Ayers guy to spread falsehoods about obama.
Is this another swift boat? I like to believe that the american people do not buy the GOP dirty tactics anymore, but some people will buy it. Obama camp need to bring up the keating five crooks

[littlebuddylouie]

I read the Times article online in its entirety, and I don't see it as an attack piece at all.
I think I get the author's point about the power of the images they chose to use, but those images are quite likely going to be used to attack Obama anyway, (if they aren't already). Perhaps the use of those images now could lessen the potential negative impact when they are used in attack ads, a sort of inoculation against the inevitable right wing slime virus.
I think the timing of the article is good, considering that the McCain campaign has stated it's intent to step up the attacks in the next 30 days. Sarah Palin mentioned the connection to Ayres in a campaign appearance today.
In recent months, the Times has written extensively about McCain's lobbyist connections, his connection to gambling interests, and his personal affinity for gambling. I don't always agree with the Times, but for the most part, I still respect them. When they set out to attack someone, it's usually a bit more obvious than something like this. I think those subliminal messages are in the eye of the beholder, and in this case, I don't see them.

[annis]

I beg to differ. I saw that this morning in the print edition. It was not only an entirely useless exercise, it was completely pointless. More than that - it is very definitely an attempt at damaging the reputation and tarnishing the record of Barack Obama. Bringing up something already noted as untrue and spurious months ago in and of itself is a sneaky and underhanded way of prolonging
suspicion.

[deb123]

My guess is that since McCain has said his campaign is going negative for the remaining days of the campaign, the NYT is setting the record straight on the smears that are on their way. I find it rather helpful and timely that I have the whole story with which to defend my candidate from McPalin attacks.

[Skrammd]

Obama needs to confront McCain DIRECTLY at the debate Tuesday night:

"Senator McCain, is your vice presidential candidate accusing me of being a terrorist ?"

No retaliatory ads, no anger, no negativity - just confront the "honorable" John McCain on national television in front of a town hall crowd.

[scrappy41]

My friends in Chicago tell me that it's nigh impossible to participate in the political or humanitarian life of the citiy without bumping shoulders with Mr. Ayers. In fact, one of these friends, a special needs teacher, took a class from him. Does that make her a terrorist?

Plus, isn't the idea of redemption a Christian thing? Do we go on judging a man decades past his crimes? And how does another man, a child at the time of the acts in question, get tarred with the same brush? What's wrong with this country? Has everyone gone mad?

This is a non-issue!

[SpaceCadet]

I wish the NYT would run an article about McCain's _close_ relationship with the convicted felon and Hitler admirer G. Gordon Liddy. In the Chicago Trib article by Steven Chapman, McCain strongly indicated he shared Liddy's beliefs -- a stark contrast with Obama, who has never given any indication that he shared Ayers' radicalism and in fact explicitly denounced it. ¨¨

Saying that, I thought the NYT article on Ayers was objective. The article indicated that the only shared belief that Obama has with Ayers is in improving education.

[ResearchGuy]

I read the article in the print edition. I thought it was a debunking, not a whacking. But the right-wingers will believe what they want to believe notwithstanding.

[princeinpurplrayn]

im glad this ayers guy has stayed mum, and i hope he continues to

[PulSamsara]

Palin - Americans aren't going to play your Bush/Rove fear games this time !
You're growing Desperate and lashing out in desperation !
Dang Gummit' Palin - you're about to LOSE !

-------------------------------------------------------------------------
Why would America REWARD complete Republican failure ?

We wont.

[CaptainStormfield]

Im hoping that the more they use Palin as the attack dog the more it will backfire on them.
What is needed are letting writing campaigns. I think there is a link on the Obama web site for doing that.

[guitravis]

What about McCain's friendship with G.Gordon Liddy. Liddy is the man who broke into the Watergate hotel to plant wire taps to spy on the DNC. The guy who was convicted of conspiracy, burglary, wiretapping. And was sentenced to 20 years in federal prison for crimes that subverted the US government and led to the impeachment of Nixon. Liddy has had fund raisers for McCain at his home. McCain has called Liddy "A dear old friend" and "Some one I admire greatly" McCain even said "G.Gordon Liddy personifies what makes America great" In 07 McCain went on Liddys talk radio show and had great praise for Liddy, a bonafied enemy of the state and government subversive. Liddy also has contributed over 5000 dollars to McCains campaigns including 1000 dollars for this years election. Liddy is also a special to Fox news. This seems to me to be a much more disturbing relationship than Obama raising money for poor people and schools while crossing paths with Ayers.

[ConcernedVoterII]

Mr. Biden and Mr. Obama,

Today, the smear against you has begun, what do you intend to do about the smear. White middle class voters have short attention span and sometimes unfortunately they will believe anything they see or hear. I know the both of you are against smear campaigns but you have to fight back. Fighting back with asking voters not to believe the smear is not enough. The both of you are going to have to point out problems with McCain and Palin's associations with problematic characters even though you may not want to.

Remember what happen to Kerry and Gore and it happen just weeks before the end of the election and they waited too long to react. Please do not assume that this will be any different if you do not do something in response and every day. Too many of us have so much to lose over the next four and or eight years if you lose because you refused or waited to long to act.

Mr. Obama remember what happen during the primaries. You had a very big lead and it evaporated real quick. If you do not think the media will play all the smear all the time even if you respond you are kidding yourself and hurting the rest of us. Please act now and act every day until the election is over.

Anyone else reading this please pass this on.

[UrbanInterloper]

How are Obama's barely-there ties to Ayers worse than McCain's ties to Bush, or for that matter, the entire GOP? If voters are worried about ties to violent radicals, they ought to reject Republicans completely.