A number of mainstream journalists plotted during the 2008 presidential campaign to shut down coverage of the outrageous comments by Rev. Jeremiah Wright and his close ties to then-candidate Barack Obama, according to a new report.
Jonathan Strong of the Daily Caller reports obtaining records of exchanges on a listserv called Journolist, which includes several hundred liberal journalists, activists and like-minded professors.
The comments included a suggestion from Michael Tomasky, a writer for the London Guardian, who appeared outraged over an ABC interview that questioned Obama about the Wright statements, such as “God d— America,” and the close links between the two men.
“We need to throw chairs now, try as hard as we can to get the call next time. Otherwise the questions in October will be exactly like this,” Tomasky wrote. “This is just a disease.”
The journalists’ attempt to stifle questions directed to Obama was paralleled just this year when a substantial list of “media stars” criticized a book exposing Obama’s record – without reading it.
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In that case, members of the news media, including from publications such as Time and Newsweek, reacted harshly to the announcement of the No. 1 nonfiction book in America, with multiple reporters sending expletive-laden e-mails to the author’s publicist saying they did not want to receive a copy.
“The Manchurian President: Barack Obama’s Ties to Communists, Socialists and Other Anti-American Extremists” is a new title from WND senior reporter and WABC Radio host Aaron Klein. With more than 800 citations, the book bills itself as the most exhaustive investigation ever performed into Obama’s political background and radical ties. Klein’s co-author is historian and researcher Brenda J. Elliott.
As is customary in the run-up to the release of a new title, Klein’s publicist, Maria Sliwa, sent a press release to key media contacts.
 Jeff Kluger |
Sliwa, who has represented dozens of best-selling titles, has cultivated a list of reporters to whom she regularly sends releases.
Sliwa, however, said she was stunned by what she described as “unprecedented” e-mail replies she received regarding the “The Manchurian President” announcement.
“Ridiculous crap,” retorted John Oswald, news editor for the New York Daily News.
“Never, ever contact me again,” wrote Time Magazine senior writer Jeffrey Kluger.
Newsweek deputy editor Rana Foroohar quipped, “This is sensational rubbish that is of no interest to any legitimate publication.”
“Absolute crap,” replied Evelyn Leopold, a Huffington Post contributor who served for 17 years as U.N. bureau chief for Reuters until recently.
Nancy Gibbs, editor-at-large for Newsweek, fired, “Remove me from your list.”
The comments came before the e-mail authors had read the book.
The Daily Caller reported that in the ABC interview, Charlie Gibson and George Stephanopoulos asked Obama why it had taken him nearly a year to separate himself from Wright’s remarks and, “Do you think Rev. Wright loves America as much as you do?”
The “Journolist” exchange featured writers from Time, Politico, the Huffington Post, the Baltimore Sun, the Guardian, Salon, New Republic and others, according to the Daily Caller.
The report said Spencer Ackerman of the Washington Independent urged his colleagues to deflect attention from Obama’s relationship with Wright by changing the subject. He said one of Obama’s conservative critics should be targeted.
“Fred Barnes, Karl Rove, who cares – and call them racists,” he wrote.
Tomasky said, “We all have to do what we can to kill ABC and this idiocy in whatever venues we have.”
This week, Tomasky, defending his position to the Daily Caller, called the ABC interview shoddy journalism.
The report said Thomas Schaller, who writes for the Baltimore Sun, urged the journalists to conduct a coordinated expression of “disgust” toward ABC. That would, he said, “be a warning against future behavior of the sort.”
Ultimately, the members released a statement calling the debate “a revolting descent into tabloid journalism.”
In the similar attack on “Manchurian President,” David Knowles, AOL’s political writer, responded, “Seriously, get a life.”
Ben Wyskida, publicity director for the Nation, claimed Klein’s book is “so offensive” and “so far afield,” even though he, like the others, had not yet received review copes of the title.
 David Knowles |
Sliwa noted that when reporters are not interested in her releases, they normally do not reply. She said in her 10 years of working in public relations, she never has received the kind of response from reporters provoked by publicizing “The Manchurian President.”
Sliwa, who identifies herself as liberal, teaches journalism at New York University and lists Robert Thurman, Gandhi and Malcolm X as her heroes. From 1999 to 2005 she publicized the genocide and slavery in Sudan. In 2005, she started her present company, M. Sliwa Public Relations.
She said her goal in publicly exposing the e-mail responses to “Manchurian” was not to embarrass the journalists, but she believes it is important to “call them out on their duty as members of the press to leave their biases where they belong – at the door.”
Klein, the book’s author, said he is not surprised by the emotional response.
Stated Klein: “Future historians will have to grapple with the fantastic phenomenon of the U.S. news media’s having, as a class, almost completely abdicated their traditional responsibility when it comes to investigating Obama’s background.
“Despite an astonishingly radical first year in office,” continued Klein, “which has awakened unprecedented voter outrage and caused Obama’s popularity to plunge, the news media largely continue to ignore the reality of who Obama is, what he really stands for and who influences him.”
“The Manchurian President” contains potentially explosive information not only about President Obama but also concerning other officials in the White House, including top czars and senior advisers Valerie Jarrett and David Axelrod.
The book also includes an extensive investigation into Obama’s own background. The work uncovers, among many other things, Obama’s early years, including his previously overlooked early-childhood ties to a radical, far-left church. The book provides copious new details about Obama’s deep ties to the unrepentant Weatherman Underground terrorist group founder William Ayers and about the president’s boyhood years in Indonesia, the world’s most populous Muslim nation.
Klein began investigating Obama during the 2008 presidential campaign and broke major national stories. He first exposed the politician’s association with Ayers in a widely circulated WND article.
That story prompted the Nation magazine to lament, via the CBS News website, that “mainstream reporters now call the Obama campaign to ask about Klein’s articles.”
It was in a WABC Radio interview with Klein that Ahmed Yousef, chief political adviser to Hamas, “endorsed” Obama for president, generating world headlines and sparking controversy. Republican presidential nominee Sen. John McCain and Obama repeatedly traded public barbs over Hamas’ positive comments.
Klein was among the first reporters to expose that Obama’s “green jobs” czar, Van Jones, founded a communist organization and called for “resistance” against the U.S. government. The theme was picked up and expanded upon by the Fox News Channel’s Glenn Beck, leading to Jones’ resignation last September.
Co-author Brenda J. Elliott is a historian, author and investigative researcher known for her blogging during the 2008 presidential election about Ayers, Tony Rezko and other controversial figures linked to Obama. Since 1988, Elliott has been responsible for a number of historical projects, has won an award by Project Censored for her work and has been named “One of the Intriguing People” by Central Florida magazine.
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