Obama Media

Obama’s Pastor Responds to “Duplicitous” NYT

Via MyDD comes word from Skeptical Brotha that Obama’s UCC pastor Rev. Jeremiah A. Wright is not happy with the New York Times article earlier this month reporting that he was “disinvited” from the campaign kickoff in Springfield. Wright’s letter has been picked up by bloggers as evidence that political journalism has gone overboard. Skeptical Brotha quotes from a letter Wright sent Jodi Kantor, the article’s primary author.

Thank you for engaging in one of the biggest misrepresentations of the truth I have ever seen in sixty-five years. You sat and shared with me for two hours. You told me you were doing a “Spiritual Biography” of Senator Barack Obama. For two hours, I shared with you how I thought he was the most principled individual in public service that I have ever met….I told you how idealistic he was. We talked about how refreshing it would be for someone who knew about Islam to be in the Oval Office. Your own question to me was, Didn’t I think it would be incredible to have somebody in the Oval Office who not only knew about Muslims, but had living and breathing Muslims in his own family? I told you how important it would be to have a man who not only knew the difference between Shiites and Sunnis prior to 9/11/01 in the Oval Office, but also how important it would be to have a man who knew what Sufism was; a man who understood that there were different branches of Judaism; a man who knew the difference between Hasidic Jews, Orthodox Jews, Conservative Jews and Reformed Jews; and a man who was a devout Christian, but who did not prejudge others because they believed something other than what he believed.

out of two hours of conversation I spent approximately five to seven minutes on Barack’s taking advice from one of his trusted campaign people and deeming it unwise to make me the media spotlight on the day of his announcing his candidacy for the Presidency and what do you print? You and your editor proceeded to present to the general public a snippet, a printed “sound byte” and a titillating and tantalizing article about his disinviting me to the Invocation on the day of his announcing his candidacy.

I have never been exposed to that kind of duplicitous behavior before…There is no repentance on the part of The New York Times. There is no integrity when it comes to The Times.

The Daily Squid adds that Rev. Wright’s “sentiments can easily be expanded to refer to political reporting as whole.”

Matt Stoller adds

There’s a lot of anger among black leaders in this country over Barack Obama because he isn’t showing enough deference to their place in the political system. At the same time, this leadership is struggling to remain relevant in the face of a serious disconnect between younger African-Americans and an older generation. It’s partially a class issue, with upwardly mobile blacks, poorer disempowered blacks, and a new class of wealthy blacks detached from the Civil Rights era leadership. If these groups are responsive to Obama’s message, it means that the older leadership is losing its base.

Normally I’d say that there is something to the rumor that Obama rubbed his pastor the wrong way, but this letter is incredibly passionate about the New York Times. It is not a non-denial denial, it is an aggressive statement that the NYT made up this story. The sensationalism of the New York Times and political journalism has been so pronounced for so long that the newspaper no longer has the credibility to do reporting like this and get away with it. If the NYT cared about credibility the editors would ask Jodi Kantor and Patrick Healy to put their audio of the two hour interview with Obama’s pastor online so people could see for themselves what he said.

Barring that, I’d say that the New York Times took yet another hit today.