The Media as Corrupt Kingmaker

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It appears that in 2008 there was considerable collusion among journalists to ensure that Barack Obama’s relationship with the Reverend Jeremiah Wright did not receive serious attention. Be sure to read the piece at the link. I feel sure that there are numerous people who voted for Obama who would not have done so had this matter been properly covered. But these journalists–who no doubt consider themselves Your Moral and Intellectual Superiors, as Glenn Reynolds puts it–did not want you and other Americans to have and consider this information, but arrogated to themselves the power to decide what voters should see and should focus on, based on their own views of which candidate should win the election. Morally at least, what these journalists did is analogous to selling stock in a company while hiding material adverse information about the company…except that the stakes in this case were much, much higher.

More recently, 60 Minutes performed what PowerLine calls “a  classic hit job on Israel ,” alleging that Israel is responsible for the exodus of Christians from the West Bank and Jerusalem. PowerLine notes that:

The story was short on facts and context, particularly the context of the assaults on Christians and Christian sites in the Muslim Middle East. Anyone who has ever been to Israel knows that the authorities treat all religious sites as a sacred trust. At the American Spectator, Aaron Goldstein asks: “How many Christian churches have been burned down by Israelis? How many Christians have been murdered inside Israel?” Simon failed to “report” the answer to that question, but I’m pretty sure Power Line readers have a good bead on it.

Watch the CAMERA video at the PowerLine link, which shows that CBS News made false statements about Bethlehem and the Israeli security fence. CAMERA also says that CBS, even after being advised of its error, has thus far failed to correct the misinformation it has propagated.

 

11 thoughts on “The Media as Corrupt Kingmaker”

  1. My dental hygienist was talking to me about politics last month. I noticed she has a bit of an accent and asked where she was from. She said, “Guess.” I guessed either Jamaica or Africa. She said I was right bout Africa but where ? I said she looked like a student of mine from Eritrea. Close,” she said. “Ethiopia.” But she said, “I grew up in Israel.” How many remember the Ethiopian Jews rescued by Israel ? She is one.

    She is married to a white man and lives in Irvine. She does get dirty looks, she told me, but from blacks. She agreed with me that American born blacks labor under a handicap because of the victim complex.

  2. I had known for quite some time that the establishment media was somewhat biased – and I also had realized that they deeply disliked GWB – but I did not realize that they were so far in the tank for Obama that they needed a deep-diving suit and someone passing them air through a hose until the Reverend Wright story essentially died. That should have killed Obama as a candidate right there, as it certainly would have killed any other candidate (especially a person of pallor) regularly attending services where the minister essentially preached the vilest kind of hatred. Finding out about ‘Journolist’ – explained it all very well, though. A large element of the established press was essentially serving as Obama’s public relations office.

    So, I was only a little bit surprised at how vicious the establishment press and public intellectuals were and continue to be about Sarah Palin.
    The press hit-jobs on the Tea Party, though. That has done incalcuable harm to the nation, painting Tea Party supporters as violent, ignorant racist whackjobs just for having strong opinions and excercising their rights as free citizens. My own consolation over it is that the press did just as much damage to their own credibility in doing so – but half my own family believes the media distortion regarding the Tea Party, so discussing politics with them is impossible.

  3. I find that if you think of The Left, and the Democratic Party especially, as a crime family, like the mafia, their behavior makes a lot more sense.

  4. I attended, or tried to, a rally by Tea Party folks in Orange County at the federal building in Laguna Niguel, where I live. When I got there, I found the rally in front of the building at the formal entrance, not the employee entrance, and they were being ordered away by uniformed officers. They were told they had to hold the rally at a remote corner of the enormous, half emopty parking lot where it would not be visible from the street.

    I spoke to an officer in a uniform hat looked like the local deputy sheriff’s. He ordered me to park in the “designated” spaces or be arrested. The rally was effectively disrupted.

    I wrote to the County Sheriff, a woman appointed by the board and subsequently elected. I had been friends with the acting Sheriff before her but he was not appointed. His elected predecessor had a scandal and is in jail. I got a call back from the undersheriff for Laguna Niguel. These small cities almost all contract with the Sheriff for police. He told me that the uniformed guy were not deputies and he didn’t know who they were.

    Probably DHS or IRS security officers who threatened me with arrest if I did not park in the “right place.”

    Orange County is a sort of symbol of the immigration bill. Solidly Republican except Santa Ana which elects Loretta Sanchez every two years with a Hispanic majority.

  5. For further information on Christians in the West Bank:‘Not a single Christian’ in birthplace of Christ
    Muslim; intimidation could make ‘land of Jesus’ barren in 15 years

    In “Schmoozing,” Klein first talks with Bethlehem-area Christian leaders and residents, most of whom spoke on condition of anonymity, who said they face an atmosphere of regular hostility and intimidation by Muslims. They said Palestinian armed groups stir tension by holding militant demonstrations and marches in the streets. They spokes of instances in which Christian shopkeepers’ stores were recently ransacked and Christian homes attacked.

    The Christian leaders said one of the most significant problems facing Christians in Bethlehem is the rampant confiscation of land by Muslim gangs.

    “There are many cases where Christians have their land stolen by the [Muslim] mafia,” said Samir Qumsiyeh, a Bethlehem Christian leader and owner of the Beit Sahour-based private Al-Mahd (Nativity) TV station.

    Qumsiyeh was one of the few Christians who spoke openly in “Schmoozing.”

    “It is a regular phenomenon in Bethlehem. They go to a poor Christian person with a forged power of attorney document, then they say we have papers proving you’re living on our land. If you confront them, many times the Christian is beaten. You can’t do anything about it. The Christian loses and he runs away,” Qumsiyeh said.

    One Christian Bethlehem resident told Klein her friend recently fled Bethlehem after being accused by Muslims of selling property to Jews, a crime punishable by death in some Palestinian cities. The resident said a good deal of the intimidation comes from gunmen associated with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas’ Fatah organization.

    Samir Qumsiyeh has a cousin, Mazin Qumsiyeh,who has spent a has spent a considerable amount of time and effort in the US and other places denouncing Israelis’ alleged unfair treatment of the Palestinians. Yet Mazin never says anything about Muslims’ unfair treatment of Christians in the West Bank.

    This is ironic, because Mazin’s grandfather told his children to get out of the West Bank. Muslims will never let Christians get promoted above Muslims. As he worked in the Jordanian Civil Service,he knew very well what he was talking about.

  6. “She is married to a white man and lives in Irvine. She does get dirty looks, she told me, but from blacks.”

    I’ve known two African blacks who said similar things. Both commented on the degree of racism in the American black community, mainly directed at whites, but including anyone who wasn’t black.

    You can thank people like Al Sharpton, Jesse Jackson, Rachel Maddow, Joe Biden, Chris Mathews, – the usual crowd of lying, manipulative leftists – who’re constantly fanning the flames of hatred and resentment in order to financially or politically (but I repeat myself) benefit.

  7. “More recently, 60 Minutes performed what PowerLine calls “a classic hit job on Israel ,” alleging that Israel is responsible for the exodus of Christians from the West Bank and Jerusalem.”

    Just out of curiosity, I just looked to see who are the executives at CBS, since I suspect they have to at least head-nod approve stories like this.

    Per Wiki & Google:

    President and CEO: Leslie Moonves – Moonves is a great-nephew of David Ben-Gurion, the first Prime Minister of Israel
    CBS Entertainment president: Nina Tassler – Tassler was born to a Jewish father and a Puerto Rican mother who converted to Judaism.

    Interesting that these folks would green light a hit piece on Isreal. Nothing in writing of course, that gives them deniability. But why?

  8. I doubt if specific 60 Minutes programs are individually approved by Moonves. Also 60 Minutes appears to be under the jurisdiction of CBS News, which I would guess is a parallel organization to Entertainment rather than subordinate thereto.

    I think it’s mainly about groupthink. If you want social acceptance in media circles, there are certain views to which you are strongly influenced to adhere, and the critique of Israel is one of them.

    In fairness it should be noted that Sharyl Attkisson, who actually did some serious journalism re Benghazi, works for CBS. Not clear to what extent her work has bee supported by management, but at least they did pay a consultant to find the hacking into her computer.

  11. The media goes beyond journalistic malpractice – look at the LA times withholding this story

    http://newsbusters.org/blogs/john-stephenson/2008/10/25/la-times-witholds-video-obama-toasting-former-plo-operative-jew-bas

    Turn things around – if this had been a Republican President how animated these papers – and news media would become – pick your subject – Fast & Furious, Jeremiah Wright, Benghazi, even the doubling of fuel prices.

    Of course, Sarah Palin’s wardrobe deserved dozens of reporters.

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