The Southern press snarking on Abraham Lincoln
Welcome to the land of stunning revelations. CNN has noticed that the right wing press coordinated on beclowning themselves on the Tucker Carlson/Drudge “OBAMA TAPE RELEASED!!!!” attack last night. Will wonders never cease?
Conservative media coordinates on release of old Obama
CNN’s Ashley Killough
October 3rd, 2012 07:46 AM ET(CNN) – On the eve of the first presidential debate, conservative media outlets seized on footage of a five-year-old, widely covered speech by then-presidential candidate Barack Obama, who argued at the time that the federal government discriminated against Hurricane Katrina victims.
The June 2007 speech at Hampton University in Virginia was widely covered by CNN and other news outlets, as Obama was already well into his presidential campaign, running alongside then-Sen. Hillary Clinton at the front of the polls.
However, the conservative news outlets that pushed the video Tuesday night argued the media skipped over portions of the speech.
Of course, you’ll have read the entire article to find anything that matches the headline. Because there isn’t.
It just sort of notices that the tape is not really news. The ever-compliant frauds at CNN even fail to note that Tucker Carlson (whose Foster “Aspirin Knees” Friess -financed The Daily Caller “broke” the video with heavy pre-promotion by Drudge) was AN MSNBC TALKING HEAD AT THE TIME!!! The story continues (emphasis added) :
Speaking to a largely black audience, Obama in the video made the case that race relations still had a long way to go in the United States, claiming the divide most severely has an impact on impoverished parts of the country.
The 2007 event was open to the press, and CNN affiliate WAVY recorded the full speech. The crux of his speech was reported by CNN at the time on air and online.
The speech was reported on or discussed multiple times on CNN over a three day period.
Segments aired on the “The Situation Room” and CNN’s “Lou Dobbs Tonight” on June 5, 2007, which was also the day of a CNN Republican presidential debate.
The next day, CNN anchor Paula Zahn noted in her program, “Because of the Republican debate, you might have missed a new controversy involving Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama.” Her program, “Paula Zahn Now,” included a report on the comments and a panel discussion. A report by CNN Correspondent Mary Snow on the racial aspect of the comments also ran on CNN that day.
Clips of Obama’s speech also aired on CNN “Newsroom” at least twice on June 7, 2007.
“This was hardly a secret tape,” he said. “It’s in the tape library of most of the networks, including CNN. It was a publicly covered event. It was discussed not only with [Fox News commentator and conservative] Tucker [Carlson] but on Fox. ABC talked about it.”…
Carlson had been dumped by CNN in 2005 after years of blather and turned up with a new show on MSNBC by June. It ran until 2008. But that’s OK, CNN makes NO CONNECTION between Tucker Carlson, CNN Talking Head, MSNBC Talking Head — weirdly attributing him to Faux Nooz™ — and Tucker Carlson who BROKE THE SUPPOSEDLY BOMBSHELL VIDEO.
Were CNN Rush Limbaugh, I would have to believe that CNN was back on the Oxycontin.
Tucker Carlson, pre-Dorian Gray face
But, while inadequately played, the blatant attempt at coordinated media manipulation was KIND OF noticed by CNN, which suggests that they are not as entirely comatose as they’ve appeared over the past several years. (See “The Corruption of CNN Continues” March 16, 2010 and “The Most Busted Name In News” July 19, 2010).
I’ve been writing about this for a while not, this year beginning with Memorial Day’s ” Blog about Brett Kimberlin” calisthenics and continuing through “Blog about the Empty Chair Day” as the setup to EXACTLY what the coordinated Rightie “media” just tried to pull and inadvertently let slip the mask over.
Tucker Carlson, mid-Dorian Gray
Of course this is what I wrote in September 7th’s “This Week in Agit-Prop“:
This is a coordinated and intentional gaming of the Memeorandum robot, and it’s been taking place for a long time now.
This is ALSO the antithesis of a free press, and is nothing less than a fascist attempt to control information and bully the so-called mainstream press, aided and abetted by the craven and ignorant stenographers who have supplanted actual reporters in our American newsrooms. And, while I believe I’m probably writing a one-way ticket to the eventual gulag here, it needs to be said, and nobody’s saying it. This week it has NEVER been so clear or apparent.
Guess where the story of President Obama’s nomination speech sits, in contradistinction to the “spin” that “only” creating 96,000 new jobs as opposed to the 125,000 “expected” by the disreputable soothsayers (economists examining turtle entrails) is AWFUL AWFUL?
Halfway down the page, with plenty of phony spin about what an AWFUL AWFUL speech it was, how the pundits are “divided” on the speech, etcetera.
Now, in the real world, is what the American Enterprise Institute says about the August Jobs Report (that 96,000 is disastrous as compared to 125,000 ??!?!) MUCH more important than the renomination of the President of the United States of America?
Hell no. And if you think that it is, please stop reading right here and now, and call your ward nurse for more antipsychotic medication. The sane among you are invited to continue reading.
Here is what Abraham Lincoln said in his “House Divided” speech of June 1858. See if it rings a bell for you (emphasis added):
We cannot absolutely know that all these exact adaptations are the result of preconcert. [planned and coordinated manipulation] But when we see a lot of framed timbers, different portions of which we know have been gotten out at different times and places and by different workmen, — Stephen, Franklin, Roger and James, for instance, and we see these timbers joined together, and see they exactly make the frame of a house or a mill, all the tenons and mortises exactly fitting, and all the lengths and proportions of the different pieces exactly adapted to their respective places, and not a piece too many or too few, not omitting even scaffolding — or, if a single piece be lacking, we see the place in the frame exactly fitted and prepared yet to bring such piece in — in such a case we find it impossible not to believe that Stephen and Franklin and Roger and James all understood one another from the beginning, and all worked upon a common plan or draft drawn up before the first blow was struck…
Our house is divided and this milled lumber from the blockheads bears a suspicious resemblance to the congressional manipulation that Lincoln was talking about.
So, congratulations for catching up, CNN. The intentional deep-sixing of the Democratic National Convention all week didn’t faze you, but at least you’re starting to notice.
Courage.
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A writer, published author, novelist, literary critic and political observer for a quarter of a quarter-century more than a quarter-century, Hart Williams has lived in the American West for his entire life. Having grown up in Wyoming, Kansas and New Mexico, an honorary Texan, Clown (ditto) and a veteran of Hollywood, Mr. Williams currently lives in Oregon, along with an astonishing amount of pollen. He has a lively blog His Vorpal Sword. This is cross-posted from his blog
A writer, published author, novelist, literary critic and political observer for a quarter of a quarter-century more than a quarter-century, Hart Williams has lived in the American West for his entire life. Having grown up in Wyoming, Kansas and New Mexico, a survivor of Texas and a veteran of Hollywood, Mr. Williams currently lives in Oregon, along with an astonishing amount of pollen. He has a lively blog, His Vorpal Sword (no spaces) dot com.