Jeremiah Wright

David Corn on Ben Carson: 'There Are Serious Issues About His Faith'
By Mark Finkelstein | October 27, 2015 | 7:51 PM EDT

David Corn claims that there are "serious issues" about Ben Carson's Seventh Day Adventism faith. Great point, David. After all, for twenty years, Carson sat in the pews of a preacher who spewed "God damn America" hatred, a pastor that Carson chose to officiate his marriage and baptize his children.

Oh, wait: that wasn't Carson. It was Barack Obama, who chose Jeremiah "Chickens Coming Home to Roost" Wright as his personal pastor and faith guide. Never mind. On this evening's Hardball, Corn--an MSNBC analyst and head of the DC office of Mother Jones--claimed that Carson's religion needs to be investigated because it professes an end time. Guess what, David? All the Abrahamic religions do: Christianity, Judaism and Islam. It's not a question of if, only when. So take your religious bigotry elsewhere, Corn.

ABC, CBS, CNN Ignore Radical Politics of Speakers at Million Man March Anniversary
By Matthew Balan | October 12, 2015 | 3:59 PM EDT

On Sunday, ABC's Good Morning America and CBS's Sunday Morning followed the lead of the New York Times in omitting the extremist history of Louis Farrakhan in their coverage of the "Justice or Else" rally marking the 20h anniversary of the Million Man March. The Big Three programs also failed to mention that former pastor to then-Senator Barack Obama, Rev. Jeremiah Wright, spoke at the event and claimed that "Jesus was a Palestinian" during his speech.

On Trump, Obama, Rev. Wright, and the Media's Double Standards at Work
By Jeffrey Lord | September 19, 2015 | 9:09 PM EDT

I like the Washington Post's Erik Wemple. Even when he goes after me in his column, because, hey, it wonderfully illustrates the liberal media's double standard.

Juan Williams: There Are 'Elements of Racism' in Today's Constitution
By Tom Blumer | February 23, 2015 | 4:10 PM EST

In a discussion with plenty of other objectionable elements on Sean Hannity's Fox News show Friday, Juan Williams asserted that "There's no question that if you look at our Constitution, there are elements of racism right in it." Note his use of the present tense.

The version of this country's founding document Williams was referencing must be 147 or more years old, because the only element of the original Constitution which was arguably racist — the inclusion of non-free persons as three-fifths of a person for the purpose of allocating House seats in Article I — went away when the 14th Amendment was ratified in 1868. Even that argument ignores the existence of white slaves at the time of its adoption.

WashPost, PBS Boost Obama Faith Director's Book Without Asking About His Urge to Mislead on Reverend Wright
By Tim Graham | October 26, 2013 | 9:56 PM EDT

When George W. Bush's faith-based initiative staffer David Kuo came out with a book whacking away at Bush, the media were enthralled (excerpted lovingly by Time magazine and interviewed on 60 Minutes). Now under Obama, they're helping former faith-based initiatives director Joshua Dubois sell his new book "The President's Devotional." In Saturday's Washington Post, religion reporter Elizabeth Tenety asked questions that made it sound like Dubois wrote his own questions: "Let’s talk about your work with the Office of Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships. What are you most proud of from your time there?"

On the PBS NewsHour Wednesday, anchor Gwen Ifill danced politely around Obama's rare church attendance (especially compared to his golf course time), and raised Rev. Jeremiah Wright just as a time when prayer helped Obama, not as a time Dubois admitted in his book that he wanted to spin around the whole truth:

Salon.com Story Lamely Claims 'Gross Exaggeration' In MRC Research on Obama, Reverend Wright
By Tim Graham | April 27, 2013 | 6:19 PM EDT

Sometimes, the left simply can’t argue against hard facts. In a book excerpt warning of the “resurgent right” on Salon.com, leftist Lee Fang accused Brent Bozell of “gross exaggeration” in describing media apathy on Obama scandals.  

Fang reported that in a speech at the Council for National Policy in February 2009, Bozell claimed by the time the national networks ran "a single story on Reverend Wright, 42 states and the District of Columbia had voted." Dear Mr. Fang: please identify the exaggeration in that fact.

Surprise: New York Times Actually Takes Seriously Obama 2007 Video Praising Rev. Wright (With Caveats)
By Clay Waters | October 4, 2012 | 5:03 PM EDT

In a bit of a surprise, New York Times reporters Jeremy Peters and Jim Rutenberg filed a longish article on a recently unearthed Obama video from 2007 showing the president in a fiery, racially charged mode and praising his anti-American pastor Jeremiah Wright, a video downplayed or ignored by most of the mainstream media: "Race at Issue for Obama As Right Revives '07 Talk."

Less surprising was the snotty text box: "New fodder for a favorite topic in conservative circles." And the reporters took care to trace the tape's provenance down the conservative media food chain.

NBC Dismisses Obama Video as Old News, Edits Out Jeremiah Wright Comments
By Kyle Drennen | October 3, 2012 | 12:20 PM EDT

In a stunning omission on Wednesday's NBC Today, brief coverage of a 2007 video of Barack Obama completely ignored the then-Senator praising his controversial pastor Jeremiah Wright as a "great leader, not just in Chicago, but all across the country." The NBC morning show adopted a dismissive attitude toward the video, with co-host Savannah Guthrie leading off the broadcast: "Conservatives circulate a five-year-old video, in a move the Obama campaign calls desperate." [Listen to the audio or watch the video after the jump]

In the report that followed, chief White House correspondent Chuck Todd further quoted Obama talking points: "In a transparent attempt to change the subject from his comments attacking half of the American people, Mitt Romney's allies re-circulated video of a 2007 event that was open to and extensively covered by the press at the time."

WashPost Unloads Both Barrels on Ed Klein's Anti-Obama Book
By Tim Graham | June 21, 2012 | 9:03 AM EDT

The Washington Post suddenly discovered Ed Klein’s best-selling anti-Obama book The Amateur on the front page of Thursday’s Style section. Reporter/book blogger Steven Levington announced the book "contains scenes that did not occur or that were vastly misconstrued, according to those who Klein says were present."

Levingston completely ignored the most headline-grabbing allegations in the book, that in a recorded interview, Rev. Jeremiah Wright said Obama pal Eric Whitacre tried to buy his silence in 2008. Instead, Levingston went on a tear against Klein’s 2005 book about Hillary Clinton.

NYTimes Religion Writer Baselessly Accuses Conservatives of Taking Rev. Wright's Rants 'Out of Context'
By Clay Waters | May 29, 2012 | 3:54 PM EDT

Mark Oppenheimer's latest bimonthly "Beliefs" column for the New York Times accused conservatives like Jonah Goldberg of misunderstanding Marxist "liberation theology" in using Rev. Jeremiah Wright to attack Barack Obama: "A Campaign Pitch Rekindles the Question: Just What Is Liberation Theology?"

The year 2012 looks a lot like 2008: high unemployment, a candidate named Obama promising to do something about high unemployment, and the Giants beating the Patriots in the Super Bowl. And one more thing: conservatives are still ridiculing liberation theology. With the complicity of clueless pundits and incurious journalists, they are reducing an important theological movement of the past 40 years to an abusive sound bite.

Was Rev. Wright Offered Hush Money? Nobody In The Media Cares
By Tim Graham | May 23, 2012 | 6:56 AM EDT

When the New York Times warned it had been handed a “super PAC” memo suggesting someone, somewhere might plot to make a “hardline attack on Obama” with Wright sermon soundbites, MSNBC expressed outrage hour after hour.  But scandalized liberal journalists had no appetite for a different behind-the-scenes Reverend Wright narrative. In Ed Klein’s new book “The Amateur,” he interviewed Rev. Wright on tape for three hours. The most shocking revelation: suggestions that Friends of Barack were trying to suggest Wright take some “hush money” to shut up for the rest of the 2008 campaign. Media interest? Pretty much zero. 

Let’s imagine for two seconds what would happen if a friend of George W. Bush – even a disgruntled ex-friend of Bush – gave an interview to an author charging that Team Bush offered him money to shut up and go away during the 2000 campaign. Who would not expect that would have been screaming-siren top news? 

 

Bob Schieffer Scorns 'Race-Baiting' Rev. Wright Attack; Obama Not a 'European Socialist'
By Matthew Balan | May 22, 2012 | 4:44 PM EDT

"Face The Nation" host Bob Schieffer spotlighted the left's talking points on two issues in the presidential race on Tuesday's CBS This Morning. Schieffer tried to play it down the middle when he stated, "I think most people understand that Mitt Romney is not the robber baron that the Democrats would have you believe." But he immediately added, "Nor is Barack Obama the European socialist that the Republicans would have you believe."

The CBS journalist also contrasted the Obama campaign's line of attack on Romney regarding his leadership with Bain Capital, which was ripped by Newark, New Jersey Mayor Cory Booker; with how many Republicans condemned "a plan that some Republicans had to launch this race-baiting campaign, trying to tie the President, once again, to Jeremiah Wright."