Great read in the Seattle PI - Media complicit in making Rev. Wright look bad

Media complicit in making Wright look bad

By KENNETH F. BUNTING
P-I ASSOCIATE PUBLISHER

"Here endeth the lesson."

Sean Connery's memorable line in the 1987 movie "The Untouchables" followed sage advice to Kevin Costner character Elliot Ness that had nothing to do with politics or image rehabilitation.

But, oh how I wish those four words had come to mind for the Rev. Jeremiah Wright last week when he concluded taping his memorable, but now forgotten, interview with PBS journalist Bill Moyers.

But then we would have all missed last weekend's attention-grabbing flurry of activities. None of us would know that the good reverend could do a pretty good imitation of a drum major for a soulful college marching band. Or that he is capable of pretty bad impersonations of Presidents Kennedy and Johnson.

Nor would we have heard his scholarly explanation of how culture and ancestral roots affect musical styles, tastes and traditions. And, of course, there were his flippant and dismissive responses to questions posed to him at the National Press Club event.

But couldn't we all have lived just fine without any of that? I know I could.

To be so deprived would have been just fine, first of all, because it would be more likely that the Wright distraction was behind us.

Barack Obama's forceful denunciation and disavowal of his former pastor doesn't change the fact that it is an irrelevant distraction entirely created by cable television pundits using out-of-context and skewed sound bites.

Yes, Wright himself sought the spotlight last weekend, with the Moyers interview followed by the NAACP speech and then the Press Club fiasco. When TV pundits wondered aloud why he would seek the spotlight and opined that bringing attention to himself would hurt Obama, I essentially agreed with them.

But their supposedly innocent analyses and sanctimonious scolding of Wright ignore the salient fact that it was a media obsession, preoccupation and dishonest portrayal that made him a story in the first place.

The same media that vow every four years not to let swift boat-like, dishonest or phony issues dominate campaign coverage is at it again. When the inevitable quadrennial hand wringing again takes place, there's a key difference that media scholars and critics should notice. This wasn't a case in which political operatives with malicious intentions created a phony issue and spread it with campaign dollars and all the viral means at their disposal until the media took notice. In this instance, the media created a phony issue, and remained obsessed until it provided adequate fuel for the swiftboaters.

Moyers' illuminating interview with Wright didn't fit the narrative that portrays Wright as an unpatriotic hatemonger with outrageous views. Moyers played longer excerpts of the very same sermons of which the seconds-long snippets had been aired over and over.

Wright, responding in the Moyers interview in a conversational style, came across as a reasonable man, hurt by what he felt were unfair portrayals, but not immodest. He and Moyers talked about his scholarly influences and his impressive 36-year ministry at the Chicago church where he met Obama.

At the end of it, I wondered if the pundits who had been so obsessed with Wright and so determined to define him had watched it and how they would treat it. For the next 30 hours I flipped repeatedly between CNN, Fox News and MSNBC.

Nothing. It was as if Wright's first extended interview hadn't taken place. Even on networks that had teased the Moyers interview repeatedly, using excerpts from the two-minutes of it that PBS had posted in advance on its Web site, there was no comment, no analysis, no report about what had been said in the interview.

But then on Sunday, CNN decided to show Wright's speech to the Detroit branch of the NAACP live and in its entirety. We all got to see Wright singing, dancing, preaching and signifying in front of a friendly and receptive crowd that no doubt encouraged the tone and tenor of his performance at the National Press Club the next day.

He preached that "different does not mean deficient," urging Americans to respect cultural differences to foster greater understanding.

Had he heard and heeded his own message, I suspect he would have chosen a different communication style, and perhaps a less defiant message, in his disastrous appearance before the Press Club.

It is unfortunate that Wright, no doubt a man of considerable accomplishment, has now helped to write his place in history as that of the crazy preacher who derailed, or significantly affected, Obama's presidential campaign.

He deserves better. Obama deserves better. America deserves better. Here endeth the lesson.

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/opinion/361449_bunting02.html

The MSM owns this one. When Barack Obama is elected president, I want him to send Kevin Martin packing and put Michael Copps in charge. These are our airwaves and it's time to threaten to revoke some licenses if the networks continue to abuse the public trust.