Jeremiah A. Wright

Press Still Unhinged Over Walker's Refusal to Say Whether He Knows Obama Is a Christian
By Tom Blumer | August 2, 2015 | 11:48 PM EDT

One of the more outrageous chapters during presidential campaign season so far, the press harassment of 2016 GOP candidate and Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker in February over his statement that he "doesn't know" whether President Barack Obama is a Christian, is back.

Nobody in the press seems interested in asking Obama himself how he can still profess to be a Christian and support homosexual marriage, especially when he referenced his Christian beliefs as a basis for his stated opposition to it in 2008. Nor are they curious in learning how Obama can square his self-professed Christianity with his support for abortion at every in utero stage — and arguably beyond that. And of course, nobody is asking Hillary Clinton to declare whether she believes any of her potential November 2016 opponents is a genuine Christian. Yet here was Philip Elliott, who recently left the Associated Press for Time.com, getting a case of the vapors on Saturday when Walker, asked again, basically said, "I don't know, but I presume he is":

AP Hit Piece on 'Dominionism' Tries to Tie in Perry, Even With No 'Direct Link'
By Tom Blumer | October 17, 2011 | 11:52 PM EDT

This afternoon, Associated Press Religion Writer Rachel Zoll devoted over 1,600 words to "dominionism," spending much of it attempting to cast Rick Perry as their guy, even though, as she admitted, "Perry has never said anything that would directly link him to dominionism." Oh, but he's sorta said some things that might hint at such sympathies, and he's been on stage with people who are supposedly "dominionists." Zoll even cited MSNBC's Rachel Maddow as a supposedly authoritative source.

Don't even ask if there's any mention of Barack Obama and Jeremiah "God D**n America" Wright. You know better. Here are several paragraphs from Zoll's barrel of blather:

Journolisters' Plot to Stifle 2008 Rev. Wright Coverage Not the First Example of Proven Media Coordination
By Tom Blumer | July 20, 2010 | 9:21 AM EDT
Earlier this morning, NB's Tim Graham put up an excellent post on the Daily Caller's revelations that members of the Journolist listserv group "Plotted to Bury the Jeremiah Wright Story in 2008."

Though perhaps more blatant, the Journolist effort is not the first example of acknowledged coordination on the part of key members of the establishment press. In fact, an arguably more influential example of media coordination was exposed during the summer of 2005. At the time, it was known to have gone back well over a decade. It could still be active.

The arrangement's exposure seems to have been inadvertent. It was noted in what came across as a bit of a puff piece in Editor & Publisher. The item has long since been archived, but I excerpted key paragraphs from it at my own blog in July 2005:

CBS’s Rodriguez Pushes McCain to Do More to Ban NC GOP Ad
By Kyle Drennen | April 25, 2008 | 11:38 AM EDT

NewsBusters.org | Still Shot of Maggie Rodriguez and John McCain, April 25 On Friday’s CBS "Early Show," co-host Maggie Rodriguez interviewed John McCain and asked about the recent ad put out by the North Carolina Republican Party that criticized Barack Obama’s relationship with his pastor, Jeremiah Wright: "The Republican Party of North Carolina is planning to run an ad bashing Senator Obama. I know that you oppose that ad, but they're running it anyway. So what does that say about you, that you haven't opposed it strongly enough or that your own party is blatantly disregarding your wishes?"

McCain replied by once again denouncing the ad:

It means that the Republican Party of the state of North Carolina is dead wrong. They are an independent organization. I'll do everything in my power to make sure not only they stop it but that kind of leadership is rejected. And the overwhelming majority of Republicans in North Carolina share my view.

However, that was still not enough for Rodriguez, who followed up with: "But as the Republican nominee for president, couldn't you pick up the phone and call the head of the North Carolina GOP and say, don't run it?"

NY Times: Obama’s Speech Raises Discussion to Higher Plane
By John Stephenson | March 18, 2008 | 11:09 PM EDT

Its been a rewarding yet predictable day as one liberal after another have fallen all over themselves to praise Obama's speech. One of the more outrageous ones was Chris Matthews stating the speech went beyond the "I Have a Dream" speech, and compared it Lincoln. Now the NY Times bows down to Obamessiah as he rises from the ashes.