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Obama Campaign Denies Michelle Obama Used “Whitey” Word: Sets Up Website To Battle Internet Smears

June 12th, 2008
By JOE GANDELMAN, Editor-In-Chief

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Democratic presumptive Presidential nominee Barack Obama’s campaign fired a double round at Internet partisans who spread unsubstantiated information about him: it flatly denied his wife Michelle ever used the word “Whitey” at a church — and it has set up a website to directly answer Internet and media allegation mongering usually spread by websites and operatives who have political axes to grind.

It’s an impressive response since Democrats are traditionally accused of being political wusses who let negative stuff linger “out there” until it’s too late and has become cemented in the national psyche as conventional wisdom. At the root of it are several political and journalistic issues: (1)the use of sensationalistic allegations spread via political operatives, emails and on weblogs until the allegations snowball, are parroted by talk show hosts and then re-parroted by partisans and partisan blogs until the national media has to pick them up, (2) whether weblogs will continue to evolve as essentially extensions of political candidates used to promote and undermine candidates.

A fact of life: some weblogs often contain allegations that would NEVER survive vetting on a daily newspaper, newsmagazine, or in a broadcast news meeting for even five minutes. But because weblogs are independently owned and operated, in terms of journalistic ethics it’s the wild west and any reputation is a target. AP’s Nedler Pickler writes:

Democrat Barack Obama’s campaign said Thursday that Michelle Obama never used the word “whitey” in a speech from the church pulpit as it launched a Web site to debunk rumors about him and his wife.

The rumor that Michelle Obama railed against “whitey” in a diatribe at Chicago’s Trinity United Church of Christ has circulated on conservative Republican blogs for weeks and was repeated by radio talk show host Rush Limbaugh. The rumor included claims of a videotape of the speech that would be used to bring down Obama’s candidacy this fall.

“No such tape exists,” the campaign responds on the site, http://www.fightthesmears.com. “Michelle Obama has not spoken from the pulpit at Trinity and has not used that word.”

And, indeed, the new website is quite specific in meeting rumors head on. Here’s a list of links where it lists the politically motivated “Smear” with specific (naming names of bloggers, activiests and talk show hosts who are spreading the allegations) charges and “Truth” (which in each instance debunks the allegations being spread):
–The allegation that Michelle Obama uses the word “whitey” on a tape.
–The truth about Obama’s birth certificate.
–The allegation that Obama is a Muslim.
–The allegation that Obama’s books contain racially inflammatory material (detailing qutoes taken out of context and “quotes” that are made up).
–The allegation that Obama won’t say the pledge of allegiance or put his hand over his heart.

Reading through this site, an independent voter is again struck by how American politics has nurtured and grown a segment of partisans who seem uninterested in truth or specific policies. Their main goal seems to be to try and discredit the character of the person daring to challenge their chosen candidate at the ballotbox. It’s the angry, rage-filled battle attacking someone and raising that person’s negatives that counts, rather than actual policy issues.

Will Obama’s website matter? Yes, for media types and those voters who go on the Internet and research issues.

But it’s notable that many of these false allegations appear in emails or on websites and even if they’re disproven, the sources that spread them will not usually run corrections. They move onto the next allegation that can be thrown out there and spread.

Which is what they’ll likely do.

The issue here isn’t Obama, but the 21st century’s evolving politics and the role the new communications plays in it.

If nothing else, the new Obama site lifts a rock and shines a light under it.

And what you can feel and smell crawling out from underneath the rock isn’t pretty.

UPDATE: The anti-smear site is being accused of smearing an alleged smearer.



This entry was posted on Thursday, June 12th, 2008 at 6:52 pm and is filed under Journalism, Internet, MSM, Newsweek Blogitics, Negative Campaigning, Demonization, Raging Blogs, Media, Barack Obama, 2008 Elections, Politics, Media Criticism, Internet News Media, Republicans, Democrats, Blogging. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

Viewing 4 Comments

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    Good for the Obama campaign to fight these rumors head on. I'm not surprised they're being attacked for fighting back. I really loved this one:

    "Sen. Obama should get used to the many questions about his background given how little is known about him," said Stone. I assume really meant to say, "We'll be back with another smear soon."
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    circulated on conservative Republican blogs for weeks

    Gandelman, stop calling yourself "independent" if you don't admit that the one blog which was circulating these rumors the most often and most effectively was "No Quarter," Larry Johnson's pro-Hillary blog which was anything but. "conservative republican."

    I guess you are guilty of the very same hyperventilating nonsense that the silly purveyors of an "anti-smear" website are putting forward----that any charge against Obama is automatically a smear, even if there may be evidence that it occurred. I remember seeing in the comments to the Johnson website that the "whitey" comment did not take place in the Wright racist-hate den that Obama "worshipped" at every Sunday, but in a local public TV forum in the late '90s. So in effect, the "anti-smear site" is issuing a non-denial denial when it says “Michelle Obama has not spoken from the pulpit at Trinity and has not used that word.”

    And BTW, I listen to Rush Limbaugh occasionally and have never heard him talk about the Michelle "whitey" allegations, so until Nedra or you come up with the tape of Rush, I'm not going to believe her allegations & your passing them on unchallenged---just as I'm not going to believe in the tape itself until I see and hear it for myself.

    At the end of the day, conservative blogs may have mentioned that the tape was being bruited about, but the main thrust came from pro-Hillary bloggers.

    So why don't you occasionally pretend to be independent and moderate instead of uncritically quoting an AP partisan like Pickler & thereby appearing to be another Obama sock-puppet?
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    Dave,
    "circulated on conservative Republican blogs for weeks" is a true statement..
    It doesn't encompass the origin of the rumor or who else may have echoed it.

    Having read quite a few conservative blogs, I know abslolutely that the above statement is true.
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    It should be mentionned that larry johnson is a rabid clinton fan abd is supporting the vague hope that something nasty will arise before denver for hillary to get the covet nominee title
    alll is fair in war as they say and HRC by suspending only her campaign allows this guy to carry on his personal vendetta
 
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