# Obama and Reverend Wright? **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [November 21, 2011, 2:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obama-and-reverend-wright/603641 "2011-11-21T14:03:16Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Ludovic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7ab992/32.png) [@Ludovic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ludovic)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2011, 2:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obama-and-reverend-wright/603641/41 "2011-11-22T14:41:09Z")
> [@Hamlet](#): > > If only we had heeded the advice of the right wing … Then we would have kept the suspected terrorists locked up instead of loosing them on the streets of America. We would have increased our deportations of illegal aliens instead of pushing to give them the vote and tear down the border fences. Heck, we might have even gotten bin Laden. ---
**Author:** ![Euphonious\_Polemic](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/euphonious_polemic/32/3002_2.png) [@Euphonious\_Polemic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Euphonious_Polemic)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2011, 2:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obama-and-reverend-wright/603641/42 "2011-11-22T14:47:57Z")
And many of you would still have guns today, instead of having them taken away by the government. ---
**Author:** ![yorick73](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/b5a626/32.png) [@yorick73](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yorick73)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2011, 4:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obama-and-reverend-wright/603641/43 "2011-11-22T16:06:06Z")
> [@tomndebb](#): > > There was no Obama story until it was invented by Fox. > The Perry story pretty much wrote itself. Invented by Fox? Please. Fox was the only outlet to report on the story. The rest finally reported on it when they could no longer ignore it. If Fox had created the story then **that** would have been the story…“Fox trying to destroy Obama”. The fact is Obama knew exactly what Wright was preaching. The church practiced liberation theology. This is political by its very nature. To suggest that the pastor merely said a few political things over the years is to misrepresent the situation. Like many things in Obama’s past and present, the media actively tried to ignore the story due to that thrill running up their collective legs every time Obama spoke. ---
**Author:** ![Euphonious\_Polemic](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/euphonious_polemic/32/3002_2.png) [@Euphonious\_Polemic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Euphonious_Polemic)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2011, 4:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obama-and-reverend-wright/603641/44 "2011-11-22T16:21:17Z")
> [@yorick73](#): > > If Fox had created the story then **that** would have been the story…“Fox trying to destroy Obama”. This is not a story in the same way that “dog bites man” is not a story. ---
**Author:** ![Lightnin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lightnin/32/180_2.png) [@Lightnin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lightnin)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2011, 4:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obama-and-reverend-wright/603641/45 "2011-11-22T16:25:27Z")
> [@yorick73](#): > > The fact is Obama knew exactly what Wright was preaching. The church practiced liberation theology. This is political by its very nature. To suggest that the pastor merely said a few political things over the years is to misrepresent the situation. Like many things in Obama’s past and present, the media actively tried to ignore the story due to that thrill running up their collective legs every time Obama spoke. Is it your contention, then, that Obama hates America? ---
**Author:** ![Frylock](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/ce7236/32.png) [@Frylock](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Frylock)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2011, 4:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obama-and-reverend-wright/603641/46 "2011-11-22T16:34:36Z")
> [@yorick73](#): > > Fox was the only outlet to report on the story. Can this be verified? ---
**Author:** ![Jas09](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/d07c76/32.png) [@Jas09](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jas09)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2011, 5:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obama-and-reverend-wright/603641/47 "2011-11-22T17:01:09Z")
> [@Frylock](#): > > Can this be verified? The “God Damn America” and “Chickens coming home to roost” sermons were unearthed and initially reported by ABC. So at least as far as the most damning quotes go, it was not Fox News that reported the story. ---
**Author:** ![yorick73](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/b5a626/32.png) [@yorick73](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yorick73)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2011, 5:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obama-and-reverend-wright/603641/48 "2011-11-22T17:13:17Z")
> [@Frylock](#): > > Can this be verified? Sean Hannity broke this story and had Rev. Wright on his show (Hannity and Colmes at the time) in Feb. of 2007…more than a year before ABC picked up the story. Here is a timeline that leaves Fox out altogether. [http://www.cbsnews.com/elements/2008/04/30/in\_depth\_politics/timeline4058186.shtml](http://www.cbsnews.com/elements/2008/04/30/in_depth_politics/timeline4058186.shtml) ---
**Author:** ![Frylock](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/ce7236/32.png) [@Frylock](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Frylock)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2011, 5:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obama-and-reverend-wright/603641/49 "2011-11-22T17:56:59Z")
> [@yorick73](#): > > Sean Hannity broke this story and had Rev. Wright on his show (Hannity and Colmes at the time) in Feb. of 2007…more than a year before ABC picked up the story. Here is a timeline that leaves Fox out altogether. > > [http://www.cbsnews.com/elements/2008/04/30/in\_depth\_politics/timeline4058186.shtml](http://www.cbsnews.com/elements/2008/04/30/in_depth_politics/timeline4058186.shtml) Is [this](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aNTGRL0OJWQ) the interview you’re talking about? ---
**Author:** ![yorick73](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/b5a626/32.png) [@yorick73](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yorick73)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2011, 5:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obama-and-reverend-wright/603641/50 "2011-11-22T17:57:32Z")
Remember JournoList? Here is a story about reporters trying to bury the Rev. Wright story. [http://dailycaller.com/2010/07/20/documents-show-media-plotting-to-kill-stories-about-rev-jeremiah-wright/3/](http://dailycaller.com/2010/07/20/documents-show-media-plotting-to-kill-stories-about-rev-jeremiah-wright/3/) ---
**Author:** ![yorick73](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/b5a626/32.png) [@yorick73](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yorick73)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2011, 6:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obama-and-reverend-wright/603641/51 "2011-11-22T18:00:31Z")
> [@Frylock](#): > > Is [this](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aNTGRL0OJWQ) the interview you’re talking about? Yes. The day before they interviewed Erik Rush who wrote a story in the Rolling Stone (i believe) about Obama’s church. ---
**Author:** ![Frylock](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/ce7236/32.png) [@Frylock](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Frylock)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2011, 6:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obama-and-reverend-wright/603641/52 "2011-11-22T18:11:44Z")
> [@yorick73](#): > > Remember JournoList? Here is a story about reporters trying to bury the Rev. Wright story. > > [http://dailycaller.com/2010/07/20/documents-show-media-plotting-to-kill-stories-about-rev-jeremiah-wright/3/](http://dailycaller.com/2010/07/20/documents-show-media-plotting-to-kill-stories-about-rev-jeremiah-wright/3/) I’d advise anyone following the thread to read the whole article in order to understand just how misleading **Yorick** ’s summary is. Sure enough, in the article, there are some reporters (exactly two are referred) who advise some other reporters not to report on Wright. The reasons given by these reporters do not center on liberal politics, and it is not at all clear that advising someone not to report on a subject is tantamount to “trying to bury a story” but anyway, there it is. ---
**Author:** ![Frylock](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/ce7236/32.png) [@Frylock](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Frylock)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2011, 6:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obama-and-reverend-wright/603641/53 "2011-11-22T18:13:07Z")
> [@yorick73](#): > > Yes. The day before they interviewed Erik Rush who wrote a story in the Rolling Stone (i believe) about Obama’s church. They didn’t break much of a story, did they? Hannity accused Wright of being seperatist, and Wright ably (though belligerently) and with quite a bit of prompting from Colmes explained why the accusation doesn’t stick. If a story was broken, it seems to have basically ended there. ---
**Author:** ![Shodan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9f8e36/32.png) [@Shodan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shodan)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2011, 6:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obama-and-reverend-wright/603641/54 "2011-11-22T18:21:51Z")
> [@Frylock](#): > > I’d advise anyone following the thread to read the whole article in order to understand just how misleading **Yorick** ’s summary is. The answer to the question of “how misleading is **yorick** ’s summary” is “not particularly”. > [@](#): > > Sure enough, in the article, there are some reporters (exactly two are referred) who advise some other reporters not to report on Wright. So what he said was correct. > [@](#): > > The reasons given by these reporters do not center on liberal politics He didn’t say it was. > [@](#): > > ..it is not at all clear that advising someone not to report on a subject is tantamount to “trying to bury a story”… Of course it is. Regards, Shodan ---
**Author:** ![Frylock](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/ce7236/32.png) [@Frylock](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Frylock)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2011, 6:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obama-and-reverend-wright/603641/55 "2011-11-22T18:35:47Z")
> [@Shodan](#): > > The answer to the question of “how misleading is **yorick** ’s summary” is “not particularly”. > So what he said was correct. He didn’t say it was. > > Of course it is. > > Regards, > Shodan For me to bury a story, I must attempt to have it not reported even though I believe that it would be good reporting to do so. So if I advise people not to report something because I don’t think doing so would be good reporting, then I am not trying to bury a story. **Yorick’s** summary is misleading because it is strictly accurate yet tends to imply many things which are not true. To pull out an old but useful parallel example, It would also be misleading for me to say “I never stopped beating my wife”–for though the sentence is strictly accurate, my writing it also tends to imply that there was a time when I _did_ beat my wife, and that implication would be false. So you’re right to say **Yorick** “didn’t say” that the reasons given would center on liberal politics. But the context of the conversation makes that a clear _implication_ of **Yorick** ’s post. If he genuinely didn’t mean to imply it, then he needs to learn better how to anticipate the natural flow of conversational implication that most of us pick up on without explicit training. ---
**Author:** ![yorick73](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/b5a626/32.png) [@yorick73](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yorick73)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2011, 6:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obama-and-reverend-wright/603641/56 "2011-11-22T18:48:01Z")
> [@Frylock](#): > > They didn’t break much of a story, did they? Hannity accused Wright of being seperatist, and Wright ably (though belligerently) and with quite a bit of prompting from Colmes explained why the accusation doesn’t stick. > > If a story was broken, it seems to have basically ended there. You fail to understand that Hannity stayed on the (then developing) story for over a year. The mere fact that Obama attended a church that preached liberation theology is newsworthy. ---
**Author:** ![Frylock](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/ce7236/32.png) [@Frylock](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Frylock)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2011, 6:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obama-and-reverend-wright/603641/57 "2011-11-22T18:54:09Z")
> [@yorick73](#): > > You fail to understand that Hannity stayed on the (then developing) story for over a year. The mere fact that Obama attended a church that preached liberation theology is newsworthy. I don’t understand why it’s _particularly_ newsworthy. It’s not nothing. But Watergate it ain’t. ---
**Author:** ![yorick73](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/b5a626/32.png) [@yorick73](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yorick73)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2011, 7:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obama-and-reverend-wright/603641/58 "2011-11-22T19:00:41Z")
> [@Frylock](#): > > For me to bury a story, I must attempt to have it not reported even though I believe that it would be good reporting to do so. > > So if I advise people not to report something because I don’t think doing so would be good reporting, then I am not trying to bury a story. > > **Yorick’s** summary is misleading because it is strictly accurate yet tends to imply many things which are not true. To pull out an old but useful parallel example, It would also be misleading for me to say “I never stopped beating my wife”–for though the sentence is strictly accurate, my writing it also tends to imply that there was a time when I _did_ beat my wife, and that implication would be false. > > So you’re right to say **Yorick** “didn’t say” that the reasons given would center on liberal politics. But the context of the conversation makes that a clear _implication_ of **Yorick** ’s post. If he genuinely didn’t mean to imply it, then he needs to learn better how to anticipate the natural flow of conversational implication that most of us pick up on without explicit training. Do you think they actually have to come out and say that they want to bury it because they are actively rooting for Obama? Just read the quotes: > [@](#): > > Hayes urged his colleagues – especially the straight news reporters who were charged with covering the campaign in a neutral way – to bury the Wright scandal. “I’m not saying we should all rush en masse to defend Wright. If you don’t think he’s worthy of defense, don’t defend him! What I’m saying is that there is no earthly reason to use our various platforms to discuss what about Wright we find objectionable,” Hayes said. > [@](#): > > “Part of me doesn’t like this shit either,” agreed Spencer Ackerman, then of the Washington Independent. “But what I like less is being governed by racists and warmongers and criminals.” > [@](#): > > Ackerman went on: > > I do not endorse a Popular Front, nor do I think you need to. It’s not necessary to jump to Wright-qua-Wright’s defense. What is necessary is to raise the cost on the right of going after the left. In other words, find a rightwinger’s [sic] and smash it through a plate-glass window. Take a snapshot of the bleeding mess and send it out in a Christmas card to let the right know that it needs to live in a state of constant fear. Obviously I mean this rhetorically. > > And I think this threads the needle. If the right forces us all to either defend Wright or tear him down, no matter what we choose, we lose the game they’ve put upon us. Instead, take one of them — Fred Barnes, Karl Rove, who cares — and call them racists. Ask: why do they have such a deep-seated problem with a black politician who unites the country? What lurks behind those problems? This makes _them_ sputter with rage, which in turn leads to overreaction and self-destruction. I wonder how much outrage this group displayed when McCain was accused of infidelity with almost no evidence? ---
**Author:** ![yorick73](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/b5a626/32.png) [@yorick73](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yorick73)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2011, 7:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obama-and-reverend-wright/603641/59 "2011-11-22T19:03:48Z")
> [@Frylock](#): > > I don’t understand why it’s _particularly_ newsworthy. It’s not nothing. But Watergate it ain’t. Is it any less newsworthy than a preacher who introduced Perry claiming Mormonism is a cult. How about McCain’s pastor problem? The only difference is Obama sat in this church for 20 years. ---
**Author:** ![Frylock](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/ce7236/32.png) [@Frylock](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Frylock)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2011, 7:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obama-and-reverend-wright/603641/60 "2011-11-22T19:05:19Z")
> [@yorick73](#): > > Is it any less newsworthy than a preacher who introduced Perry claiming Mormonism is a cult. How about McCain’s pastor problem? The only difference is Obama sat in this church for 20 years. If a preacher introduced Perry by claiming that Liberation Theology is a cult, that would be newsworthy. I don’t know what McCain’s pastor problem is. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obama-and-reverend-wright/603641.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obama-and-reverend-wright/603641.md?page=4)