Media turn on Obama by scapegoating his pastor, Rev. Jeremiah Wright (updated)

Hillary Clinton has played every race card in the deck in a futile effort to derail Barack Obama’s audacious candidacy. Therefore, it’s ironic that the media she once accused of coddling him are now doing more in this respect than she could have ever imagined.

Specifically, there seems to be an open media conspiracy to tar Obama with the Afrocentric rantings of his pastor, Rev. Jeremiah A. Wright Jr. Indeed, the media have been streaming clips of this reverend’s more inflammatory sermons so much in recent days that you can probably recite them verbatim.

Nevertheless, here, for the record, is a sample of his black-power rhetoric that is stirring up so much racial strife – courtesy of ABC News:

But, at the risk of being pilloried along with Rev. Wright, I don’t see what is so wrong with these homilies. In fact, everything cited here is the gospel truth. And I defy anyone to refute this assertion. After all, who among the reverend’s critics is prepared to say “God bless America” for instituting slavery and for its legacy of racism…?

(Incidentally, please do not ignore the limited context in which he intoned “God damn America…”)

That said, I readily concede that preaching about America’s chickens coming home to roost – just five days after 9/11 – was grossly insensitive, politically incorrect, and even incendiary. But this does not vitiate it’s essential truth. Indeed, nothing betrays the ignorance of the criticisms being hurled at Rev. Wright quite like the fact that he is the man who provided the inspiration for Obama’s critically acclaimed bestseller, The Audacity of Hope, which, after all, is a veritable homage to the glories of America.

Therefore, I can only surmise that there’s a willing suspension of all objectivity in the media where this reverend is concerned. Perhaps this is their way of redeeming themselves in the eyes of the Clinton campaign for “giving Obama a free ride” for so long. And boy are they making him pay now:

Rev. Wright is like an old uncle who says things I don’t always agree with … everyone has someone like that in their family.

[Obama after the videos of Rev. Wright first broke early last week. It is notable that he performed Obama’s wedding ceremony, christened his children and held a largely ceremonial role on his campaign committee – until Obama had to ex-communicate him in the wake of this media feeding frenzy.]

I categorically denounce any statement that disparages our great country or serves to divide us from our allies…. I also believe that words that degrade individuals have no place in our public dialogue, whether it’s on the campaign stump or in the pulpit. In sum, I reject outright the statements by Reverend Wright that are at issue.

[Obama on Friday a few days after the media began hanging Rev. Wright’s sermons around his neck like an albatross.]

Whatever their motivations, however, the media are elevating style over substance by scapegoating Rev. Wright and then forcing Obama to denounce and reject him…too (i.e., the way Hillary prevailed upon him to denounce and reject Minister Louis Farrakhan during one of their recent debates).

It’s no accident that some commentators have even mistaken Rev. Wright for Minister Farrakhan – a man I’ve condemned as not only a racist anti-Semite but also an incorrigible thief. Because I suspect this stems from a visceral reaction to his sermonizing style, which smacks of trademark Farrakhanisms. Whereas, based on the substance of his message, Rev. Wright is no more anti-white than Geraldine Ferraro is anti-Black.

But frankly, I feel obliged to remind these fickle media hounds that America was founded on the principles of freedom of speech, freedom of religion and the separation of church and state. Moreover, Americans should be far more troubled by the latter-day McCarthyites now condemning Rev. Wright than by the provocative things he laces throughout his sermons.

Alas, we’re in a surreal world now in which every presidential candidate is being held accountable for the things their surrogates say – no matter how tangentially associated that surrogate is with his or her campaign. Therefore, I understand why Obama had to deny Rev. Wright the way Simon Peter denied Jesus Christ, and more than thrice….

(Incidentally, like every other preacher in America, Rev. Wright has undoubtedly said some pretty indefensible things from his pulpit. But no parishioner of any church, synagogue, or mosque should have to answer for the things his or her pastor, rabbi, or imam says. And this is especially so if that parishioner is poised to become the first black president of the United States!)

Meanwhile, the black media seem every bit as clueless as the white media are fickle.

Because, on Wednesday, Hillary went before the National Newspaper Publishers Association, a group of more than 200 black community newspapers across the country, and apologized for the way she and her husband have played the race card repeatedly against Obama. Her apology was belated, but fair enough.

Except that, with equal sincerity and contrition, she then apologized for the way the Bush Administration treated poor black folks in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina….

Now, am I the only one who finds this inherently insulting? Hell, why didn’t she just apologize for slavery, racism and the menace of black on black crime while she was at it?!

Yet no black journalist at this press conference challenged her to explain why she rendered meaningless her apology
to them for the racist things she did by apologizing for the racist things Bush did….

NOTE: Just to punctuate the fact that nothing can thwart Obama’s rendezvous with destiny (at the White House), reports are that he picked up seven more pledged delegates from the Iowa Caucuses yesterday. This is because the delegates John Edwards won in that race have now pledged to support Obama instead of Hillary.

He also picked up three (net) delegates from the California primary after that state’s Democratic Party finalized the count from Super Tuesday on February 5.

Related Articles:
Geraldine Ferraro damns Obama with blackness
Minister Farrakhan’s millions more (dollars) march

*Published originally yesterday, Sunday, at 8:49 am.

Obama Rev Jeremiah Wright