This probably won't surprise anyone, but it should be noted for the record: As of 3:45 p.m. today, almost 72 hours after the related story broke, the Associated Press has not reported on new revelations about the clear influence radical, racist professor Derrick Bell had on now-President Barack Obama 20 years ago -- so influential that Obama "routinely assigned works by Bell as required reading" in his University of Chicago law classes. The AP has also not told its subscribing outlets and news consumers about how many of its colleagues in the press withheld information on the relationship between the two during the 2008 presidential election campaign. A search on Bell's name (not in quotes) at the AP's main site returns nothing relevant, even though it has been shown that Obama told a Harvard audience that people should "[O]pen your hearts and open your minds to the words of Prof. Derrick Bell."
However, there has been no shortage of coverage at the AP and elsewhere of what Mitt Romney did with his dog 29 years ago. But of course, the dog story is far more relevant to Mitt Romney's governing philosophy than Obama's love of a professor whose core life contention revolves around insurmountable white racism (/sarc). The AP's cover-up treatment of Bell has been consistent, as seen in the first three paragraphs of its brief write-up after the professor's death in October 2011 (bold is mine):
A civil rights scholar who became the first tenured black professor at Harvard Law School has died. Derrick Bell was 80.
Bell's wife, Janet Dewart Bell, says he died Wednesday night of carcinoid cancer at a New York City hospital. He'd taught at New York University's law school since 1990.
Bell was long dissatisfied with the progress of race relations in America. He urged that laws, including civil rights laws, be examined for racism embedded within them.
Bell was really just another guy who wanted everyone to get along. There's nothing controversial here.
Uh, no.
There's so much important damning info on Bell that it's hard to know where to start. This excerpt from Dan Webb at Red Alert Politics crystallizes many important points (links are in original; bolds are mine):
Bell wrote in a piece in Human Rights in 2009 that “a democracy was more of a hindrance than a help in the lives of minority people,” showing his lack of faith in the United States government.Bell was the father (of) “Racial Realism” which posits that whites conspire to oppress blacks and racism in America is “integral, permanent and indestructible.” We can see how this view so thoroughly drove many of Bell’s controversial statements and actions.
In addition to the racialism Derrick Bell has so brazenly stood for, his actions also reveal where his values are. Of particular importance: He was on the legal team to provide research for Angela Davis, a former Communist Party vice presidential candidate, member of the Black Panther Party and suspect involved with the Soledad brothers abduction and murder of a South Carolina judge.
Two things must not be forgotten in all of this: One is that President Obama revered this man and viewed him as a mentor. And two: President Obama’s other mentor, Charles Ogletree, set out to actively conceal the video the late Andrew Breitbart was eventually able to procure.
As the Beaufort Observer notes in an editorial, Bell's core philosophy on race relations known as "critical race theory," is far more relevant than Mitt Romney's treatment of his dog, because "it (Bell's philosophy) explains more, perhaps, about what has been happening in this country over the last three years than anything else."
Which is why the Associated Press seems quite uninterested in exposing it, explaining it, or investigating the clear attempt to hide the full truth from voters in 2008.
Cross-posted at BizzyBlog.com.
