Obama and his past…
Howard Kurtz in the Washinton Post writes about the controversy that erupted Friday over a story that Barrack Obama was sent to a “predominantly Muslim school”…
On the morning show “Fox & Friends” on Friday, co-host Steve Doocy said that madrassahs are financed by Saudis and teach a radical version of Islam known as Wahhabism, though he said there was a question whether that was the curriculum in the late 1960s, when Obama attended the school. Another co-host, Gretchen Carlson, said that those on the show weren’t referring to all Muslims, only “the kind that want to blow us up.”
After the show, Obama aides complained to Fox about what the campaign deemed inflammatory language.
Bill Shine, Fox News’s senior vice president for programming, says the “Fox & Friends” hosts “did say repeatedly, over and over, that they were getting this from Insight magazine.” He says the show will provide a “clarification” today by including the comments of Obama campaign spokesmen. He says the morning program is “an irreverent show” on which the hosts sometimes express their opinions.
Actually, the phrase “predominantly Muslim school” comes straight from Obama’s book. That’s how he described it. I also find it strange that Insight and the Washington Times get attacked as “Moonies” (as if that proves anything about the story in question) in this case, and Kurtz makes a story out of it. But when they ran items that are negative to the current Bush administration, you’ll find Olbermann citing them as gospel and using them on his show. I know of at least four occasions when he’s cited Insight articles that were somehow embarrassing to the Bush administration. Oddly enough, he never called them Moonies and Howard Kurtz never saw fit to write a column (or four) about Olbermann relying on a Moonie publication.
Comment by johnny dollar — January 22, 2007 @ 2:34 am
love to see oboma show up on fox and friends and slap the crap out of doocy and kilmeade, their both sorry excuses for journalists and they have the nuts to slap dan rather around.
Comment by sam — January 22, 2007 @ 9:12 am
Yeah and fox and friends brian kilmeade on their early morning program (which assured the least amount of viewers} made a statement claiming he/they had nothing to do with statements they made about oboma, which must have been their way of apologizing to oboma, these three are the arm pit of cable news.
Comment by ted — January 22, 2007 @ 9:23 am
Johnny, I can’t believe what I’m reading… Are you telling me that Kurtz is biased, Olbermann is a no-talent hack, and that both feel it necessary to attack FNC in a desperate attempt to stay relevant? I’m shocked…
Comment by Caufield — January 22, 2007 @ 9:43 am
His middle name is “Hussein”, last I checked that was a dead Islamic Caliph’s name.Certainly not Christian!
He’s probably a closet Muslim just like many northern Masai herders.
Comment by Macjoubert — January 22, 2007 @ 10:08 am
Is this Obama’s first “I want my blankie” moment?
Get over it, Obama, and buckle up!
Comment by cella — January 22, 2007 @ 10:36 am
This isn’t F&F’s finest moment. If I were them I would be embarrassed about reporting a story that was based out of Insight Magazine. Really not top notch journalism there.
JD, I see your point completely and agree. I don’t think and serious journalist should be reporting out of Insight Magazine.
Comment by jerziegrl — January 22, 2007 @ 12:13 pm
They aren’t journalists..they are HOSTS! There’s a difference. Obama doesn’t need to go on f and f, that’s all they are looking for, to get a fight going on. I think all democrats ought to boycott fnc as it’s clearly the republicans campaign headquarters.
Comment by Big Dave — January 22, 2007 @ 12:52 pm
Not the best I’ve seen you write Dollar. You defended FNC by attacking the guy who wrote it and tossed in Olbermann as well instead of actually addressing the issue the story is written about. And the issue isn’t whether Obama went to a Muslim school or not since as you note Obama addressed that in his own book.
Comment by Spud — January 22, 2007 @ 3:20 pm
Well I’m not sure what the point of the story IS, other than to take a shot at Fox. They weren’t the only ones who picked up on that Insight story, and my earlier post was intended to ask why the “Moonie” label gets thrown around when Fox picks up a story from them. But when somebody else does, not only are there no pejoratives–nobody even takes notice!
Kurtz’s article, further, is inaccurate. The quote from Gretchen Carlson wasn’t a reference to “those on the show”. It was something she said after a caller made a rather generalized remark about “Muslims”; in order to correct the false impression left by the caller, she was differentiating most Muslims from the violent few. But funny, it doesn’t come out that way in Kurtz’s piece.
This whole kerfuffle was started because of piece of propaganda from Think Progress, which used heavily edited video to give an almost wholly false impression of how the original discussion went. So I have an axe to grind about this, because nothing that fraudulent should be permitted to poison the debate. Kurtz’s article is nowhere near as bad, but neither is it good. IMNSHO.
Comment by johnny dollar — January 22, 2007 @ 4:21 pm
What the story is about is how FNC, and other right-leaning news outlets & commentators are going to do their best to make sure and tag Obama with terrorism….and play to the fears of uninformed America.
His middle name is Hussein….he has Muslim in his background…..America, run for your lives, the man’s gonna be soft on radicals and terrorism.
Its no different than the bigoted rant the right tried to perpetrate about Keith Ellison and the Quoran.
Comment by Bill — January 22, 2007 @ 5:34 pm
Big Dave… you’re kidding, right? Ok, Fox is the RNC headquarters and ABC, CBS, NBC, MSNBC, CNN, AND PBS are the headquarters for the DNC. If you claim the first is true, the second must be as well.
Comment by Olivia — January 22, 2007 @ 5:36 pm
“Actually, the phrase “predominantly Muslim school” comes straight from Obama’s book. That’s how he described it.”
There’s a difference between a ‘predominantly Muslim school’ and a madrassah, as I suspect you very well know. It’s as much a difference as between a Catholic High School and a monastery.
The FNC story was an attempt to get both Clinton and Obama and it was pretty pathetic.
Comment by Arthur — January 22, 2007 @ 6:14 pm
I don’t usually watch CNN, but I have to give them credit on this story today. Instead of repeating rumors from a fringe magazine, or just mentioning the flap and moving on, they actually sent a correspondent to the school in Jakarta and spoke with a former classmate of Obama’s and found out that the story is absolute b.s.
It’s nice to see actual journalism in this day and age rather than 3 jerks just talking about the news.
Comment by Steve — January 22, 2007 @ 6:57 pm
#14 - ah, but they actually HAD a correspondent in Jakarta. Whereas FNC would have had to send somebody and it’s so much cheaper to just sit in the studio and guess…
Comment by Arthur — January 22, 2007 @ 7:32 pm
Faux and Friends is for uninformed Right Wing Clowns - bullies who like to “kick Libs to the curb” so-to-speak so they can “feel their oats” and make it into their day and their daily routine…LOL
Comment by Maria — January 22, 2007 @ 7:43 pm
Maria… that’s why their ratings are good. PULEEEZE.
Comment by Olivia — January 23, 2007 @ 11:12 am
There ratings are good because Conservative have limited outlets - interests. They like “political food fights” and the red meat served up daily on Talk Radio, and Fox offers the same in the cable news medium.
Liberals share different interests, we tend not to like the political food fights akin to a wrestling match, although I do, but most on my side of the aisle really don’t. I am not the first to say it is sometimes very hard to tell the difference between a Vince McMahon or a Rupert Murdoch production. You all love that red meat and you all tend to watch that kind of thing 24/7.
Liberals do not neccessarily relish that kind of mean behavior. We have other outlets, we just do not choose to park ourselves in front of the boob tube listening to Shannity & O’Lielly…LOL. I personally like a good political fight, although Fox always pads it to favor the Conservative which taints the debate and takes the honesty out of it, which makes it nothing more than a form of verbal WWE.
In addition Conservatives need to be reassured on a daily basis by their demagogues and idealogues, they need to “kick their adversaries to the curb” in other words to feel self worth. They feel this is their right since they have been kept down for so long - the odd balls out who don’t really fit into what mainstream America really is.
They also need to be able to invoke damination to all who disagree misquoting the Bible at every chance.
Liberals do not do this, we think for ourselves, we do not band together in a “drunken orgy of group think”. We are free thinkers and could care less who knows, it doesn’t really matter to us.
We do not need to watch 24 hour Cable News and listen to Talk Radio to be reassured, to feel alive and whole.
Comment by Maria — January 24, 2007 @ 12:43 am
Liberals do not do this, we think for ourselves, we do not band together in a “drunken orgy of group think”. We are free thinkers and could care less who knows, it doesn’t really matter to us.
Unfortunately it’s my experience that that is not true. I know plenty of liberals who do the group think thing. My mom is one. I think maybe that you need to differentiate between idealogues and non-idealogues. Liberal idealogues do do the group think thing. Liberal non-idealogues do not.
Comment by Spud — January 24, 2007 @ 1:29 am
Spud - Let me clarify. Conservatives tend not to speak ill of each other, i.e. they heed Reagan Commandment of never speaking ill of another Conservative - Republican. On the Left this is seldom the case, there is infighting among the ranks and people will not deny it. Your mother is one person and the only person you seem to be basing your analysis on. I am speaking broadly about the player on the Democratic side of the aisle. Regarding infighting on the Right, that very seldom happens. Last year it happened when a few Conservative Bloggers took issue with Ann Coulter’s insane remarks when her silly book came out. But most Conservative would not condemn her, they remained silent. The only person who seems t be condemned by all on the Right is Michael Savage, Rush, O’Reilly, Sean Hannity all think he’s a wingnut loon.
Conservatives tend to take no hostages, they never give second chances and they are fiercely loyal to their own.
Comment by Maria — January 24, 2007 @ 3:29 am
“Conservatives tend not to speak ill of each other, i.e. they heed Reagan Commandment of never speaking ill of another Conservative”
This is an Urban Legend…not the Reagan Commandment but the notion that it’s heeded. Just spend any amount of time on Free Republic and you’ll see what I mean. It’s only applied to “certain” conservatives. If you don’t measure up, if you differ your opinion on certain issues…regardless of how conservative you are with everything else you’ll get flamed. Why do you think the term RINO exists, even though it violates the commandment. See what I mean?
And the infighting happens a lot more than you realize apparently. The paleo-cons war with the neo-cons. The libertarians war with the social conservatives. The anti-drug crowd wars with the libertarians. They’re all conservatives of one stripe or another but they don’t get along.
So don’t tell me that it’s one big happy family that doesn’t speak ill of each other. Because that’s bunk.
Comment by Spud — January 24, 2007 @ 10:40 am
Point taken, Spud - I don’t go into Free Republic, I’ve heard it’s a wingnut cestpool….I guess I was talking more about the posters at Hotair and RedState, and the bloggers on the Right. They are all supportive of one another and have a tight network.
Comment by Maria — January 24, 2007 @ 11:38 pm
Maybe I should have said - appear to be supportive of one another and appear to have a tight network.
Comment by Maria — January 24, 2007 @ 11:52 pm