Why Did MSNBC Edit Hillary’s CFR Speech?

July 22nd, 2009 2:54 AM

On July 15, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton appeared before the Council on Foreign Relations, the much maligned organization often at the center of many global conspiracy theories.

We won’t talk about the merits of the CFR itself, here, but what made me curious is the treatment that MSNBC gave the Clinton speech. It appears that MSNBC edited out Clinton’s opening statement thanking the CFR for having her. When reading what she said at the outset of the speech one might become suspicious that MSNBC was trying to provide cover for the Secretary of State whose comments opened her up to the tongue wagging of conspiracy buffs.

Here is how Hillary began her remarks (my bold):

“Thank you very much, Richard, and I am delighted to be here in these new headquarters. I have been often to, I guess, the mother ship in New York City, but it’s good to have an outpost of the Council right here down the street from the State Department. We get a lot of advice from the Council, so this will mean I won’t have as far to go to be told what we should be doing and how we should think about the future.”

Oopsie. If one were a conspiratorial minded sort, one might find Hillary’s claim that the Department of State needs to be told what to think by the Council on Foreign Relations is a bit shocking.

The State Department has helpfully recorded the visit and the video can be seen on its website (for now that is, booga-booga). Right there on the government website, one can clearly see this opening paragraph being uttered by Hillary Clinton. Also, I embedded the video at the end of this post for your enjoyment.

A full transcript of her remarks can also be seen on the government site on which the opening segment is transcribed.

Yet, the video of Clinton’s remarks featured on MSNBC has mysteriously been cleansed of the assertion that Hillary needs to be told what to think by the CFR. Her opening remarks have been excised, struck, boldly eliminated by her pals over at MSNBC.

One has to wonder why? Why was Hillary’s praise for the CFR cut by MSNBC? Was the cable newser trying to spare Clinton the wrath of the anti-CFR conspiracy theorists out there?

Hurry over to MSNBC and watch the video before the space aliens, or the Bilderbergers erase it forever. Wait, maybe it was the Rothchilds… I always get them all mixed up with the Masons and the Jesuits. I think they started the 9/11 attacks, didn’t they?

Well, anyways, I certainly have no answer. Do you? Whatever the reason MSNBC decided to silence those CFR lovin’ words, I find it all rather amusing as well as curious behavior on MSNBC's part.