Media complicit in making Wright look bad [View All]

[babylonsister]

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

Media complicit in making Wright look bad

By KENNETH F. BUNTING
P-I ASSOCIATE PUBLISHER

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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.

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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.