New York Times Plays Race Card to Raise Circulation
The New York Times' non-story about Obama's casual relationship with Bill Ayers is their version of the odiously unfunny New Yorker cover of Obama dressed like a terrorist and Michelle Obama like a Black Panther. By screaming "Obama and '60s Bomber" on their front page they were parroting a desperate, right-wing talking point grounded in good ol'fashioned race hatred.
According to a recent Pew Research Center poll, 13% of Americans still think Obama is a Muslim. How many others suspect -- purely because of the color of his skin -- that he is a one-man sleeper cell, a Black Panther in Brooks Brothers clothing.
The New York Times article and the New Yorker cartoon recklessly flirt with that meme. They irresponsibly revive the irrational suspicions trumped up by the Rev. Wright controversy (and laid to rest by Obama's soaring Philadelphia race speech).
And in the Wright controversy Obama really did have a relationship with that nutjob that he had to sever. While the Ayers connection is billed as "Rev. Wright II," the Times story itself concludes that the two are no more than passing acquaintances.
John McCain has not offered a single substantive prescription for our ailing economy or how his foreign policy would differ from the train wreck of the Bush Administration's. Instead, it seems his only hope is capitalizing on the worst in us. His "Country First" and "The American President Americans have been waiting for," slogans are offensive not just to every minority in America but to the hundreds of millions of Americans who are children of immigrants.
The question for the TImes is why this old, non-news now? Why did the Rev. Wright scandal bubble up from the pit of the right-wing echo chamber into the MSM just as Obama was breaking away from Hillary?
I think I know why. The media is selling the race for the White House like a telenovela. I don't write soap operas. I write novels and movies, but in all these forms you don't put your big, climactic scene twenty pages from the end. Hey, it's called a finale for a reason.
As Obama continues to open up his lead in every major poll, this nail-biter of an election is beginning to look like a blowout. A blowout would mean an enormous loss of revenue to the media corporations, akin to everyone knowing Michael Phelps had already won his eight golds after just the third day of NBC's broadcast.
Market forces are the only logical reason I can see why our most important news outlet would place on their front page an article linking the possible future President of the United States to a terrorist (and then concluding inside the article that the two have nothing to do with each other at all).
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I was doing some web surfing today and I came across the web site of “European Americans United”. If you are of European ancestry and racist, this is the site for you. I cannot, in good conscience, provide the URL, for I cannot stand racists.
I was looking for information about the story of Mark Essex, who if you do not know, was a brown man who decided he was fed up with “white” people and he took the lives of innocent (?) police officers in a shooting spree in New Orleans in the 70s. Very much like Colin Ferguson did in New York. The article I read on this site was about the recent Missouri killing involving a black man who too had reached a point of no return and decided that murder was his best political statement. The author sought to suggest a propensity for this behavior in “brown” America.
As is the American way, let us look calmly and honestly at cross-ethnic murder as a contest or as a competition. If we were to look at it that way, then surely the “blacks killing whites” team would be down in the fourth quarter by millions of points to the “whites killing, raping, and stealing from blacks” team. However, this site of proud European Americans fails to cite the statistics concerning which group is more prone to bestial behavior.
Ignorance breeds fear, which breeds more ignorance.
Maybe there is something I am missing but...I read the NYT article. It caught my eye because I have heard or read so many people invoke the names of Ayers and Rezko but didn't really have any understanding of what that was all about. After reading the article, I was relieved to discover that Ayers is in fact a non-issue that has been made an issue with Rovian panache. I then went on to research the other so called shady connection in Obama's past and learned there's not much of a tale there either, just an opportunity for the right wing to create an appearance of impropriety, a master Republican skill. I wanted this information to appease my own mind and so I can counter the concerns of any of my friends and community on these topics and even to occasionally talk down some of these rabid right wing nuts who post on sites across the internet.
I thought the video was astounding. Moving. A must see for everyone..
I agree. The Ayers story was pointless. And over the course of the last 3 weeks the nytimes online has had McCain front and center on its home page almost every day...more than once a day. They've had Obama's photo just 2 or 3 times. Their coverage has been bewilderin
The NY Times knows well enough that a big headline and a big picture of Ayers might well be all some people choose to look at. That's exactly how Sarah Palin used it. Watch now how the Times will try to weasel out of their sliminess by pointing out that the true nature of their relationship was described down in the fine print.
They did a similar job on McCain during the primaries. Who can forget the gripping tale of how Mcain's advisors said they might have advised him about an alleged woman lobbyist that might possibly be interpreted by some as perhaps inappropriate? All if it done with anonymous sources. The worst thing of all was, even if it was true, the Times did ot so incoherently that no one believed it.
This PALES in relevance if you look at McCain's circles of influence in regard to Russia and Montenegro. That trumps any of this garbage instantly.
Or would - but for the race card.
Well, the McCain Campaign has been been working the ref, complaining that the Times is in the tank for O. Maybe the Times got intimidated into doing this scholck job.
Don't be a lefty hysteric.
The Times ran a run of the mill story about Obama's non-relationship with ex-loonie Ayers. Palin pretended, i.e., lied that it is something else.
That is all.
Powerful stuff.
An injury to one is an injury to all.
The article about Obama & the "terrorist" was online, front and center for a couple of days. I'm very disappointed in the NYTimes for doing this. Who's running the show over there that this non-story even made it onto the front page? That's as irresponsible as 90% of what FOX "News" runs as news.
And today, Palin is trying to use it to her advantage. It's disgusting.
Well gosh darnit, I liked that speech, you betcha.
The man spoke the truth. May that truth go out all over the land to rest in the minds and hearts of all Americans. We have not time for the ignorance that has shackled this country for far too long. The hour gets late for America on the question of racial plurality acceptance -- forget racial tolerance for within racial tolerance is the very idea of racism, in that a “superior” group is tolerating something they fell is lesser, like I would tolerate a roach or rat infestation until an exterminator arrives. The truth is hard to swallow when ego is in the throat, arrogance is in the esophagus, and hate is in the belly.
sherbug, may we all get a clue.
Why are those words so much easier to take when a white man says it? Didn't Rev. Wright say similar things? Jesse Jackson, Al Sharpton, Farrakhan? All have said the same things and whites acted like they were calling for armed revolution. Interesting.
You're sooo right robXdion. The reason white people have so much trouble with those words is that it plays into a fear they have of being overthrown by the very people they've screwed with. I don't get how people can think anyone should have to be treated like second class citizens or have to put up with it. What I really don't understand though is how one minority treats another even worse than the majority. I guess it's just pie and there's only so much of it..
Mr. Trumka and Mr. Ellis...th
You guys are all right with me.
Can't we form The More Perfect Union?
The video is wonderful, brings tears that are real. Race is not an issue
it's about renewing our country. And I think the Times is smart to do this
as they head off the spin. After all we've been doing this routine since
Reagan, that is enough.
I read the times story and i my thoughts were, OK, there are these rumors out there and the Times is trying to validate them. In doing so, they contacted several persons and none was able to validate these rumors.
At what point does the paper make the decision to publish the article and not be a part of the rumor mill?
What was the objective here? I think the writer construct and de-construct itself and the baseless rumors and article should not have been published.
You made my point exactly. You can bet that story will be skewed into an attack ad against Obama and it will be attributed to the NYT. The average working person does not read the NYT, so they won't read the actual article themselves. They''ll accept the McCain version of it.
I saw this video the other day and was moved to tears.
I keep hearing that McCain is announcing he is going fiercly negative. How much more negative can he be? The only thing I can think is they are announcing they are going balls out racist. They want to win so bad that they are willing to appeal to the worst in us. I am sickened. I can't believe that they would risk our progress as a nation. My hope is that the progress we have made is not fragile. My hope turns to this new generation. A generation that does not understand what we talk about when we speak of racism. My hope is if this issue is raised, the new generation will rise up and fiercly reject it. Not only not vote for McCain, but, make it clear to everyone that we will not go back.
Remember Harold Ford and the recent Tennessee senate race. I fully expect some evil accusation against Obama that includes some impropriety with a White woman. That is one tactic that never fails.
Even that accusation doesn't have the weight that it would have in the past. Harold Ford was a bad candidate in a backward state. The fact is that Ford was dating a woman that looked just like the girl in the ad. He married her less than a year ago. He may have suffered because he seemed to be hiding what was an open secret in Tennessee.
By the way that ship has already sailed. I saw that accusation about Obama in a post here on Huffpo a couple of days ago. Unsubstantiated of course, but an accusation none the less. Look for it again and again. There's nothing McCain or Palin won't say or do to win. Nothing.
As much as I hate McCain and racism, think about it, what can he change? It's not like Obama's race is a secret. I understand McCain's reminding people, as if they need to be snapped to their senses. Everyone knows it and the ones who hate him for it were already not going to vote for Obama. The only thing I can think of is that he'd truly play the racism game and tap into the scum of the earth who resent that a man like Obama is not a stereotype. Again, those wastes of space weren't going to vote for him anyway.
I think people see the election as being between a black man and Sarah Palin. Those are the polarizing elements to some people.
To my mind, it looks like a choice between a high-minded, highly educated, and extremely capable man (who just happens to be half black) who always takes the high road instead of stooping to questionable tactics, and Sarah Palin, who is not highly educated, who simply talks about something else or makes things up when she doesn't know the answer, attacks her opponent personally, or acts like she thinks sex appeal or "cuteness" can make up for her obvious deficiencies. Not only that, but she is so far to the right that she could be described as fascist.
High-minded person with Harvard law degree vs. unqualified, uninformed fascist. Are we so racist that we will choose the fascist, the person who would perpetuate the failed policies of the last eight years? I sincerely hope not. If there was ever a time to judge someone on the content of their character instead of the color of their skin, it is now.
Holy Cow that was a wonderful speech!
Passion and fire and truth. Awesome.
GREAT VIDEO....a
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