The Scott Shane Whitewash: Obama and Ayers (updated) Clarice Feldman <http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2008/10/the_scott_shane_whitewash_obam_ 1.html> http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2008/10/the_scott_shane_whitewash_obam_1 .html Today the NYT carries a <http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/04/us/politics/04ayers.html?_r=2&partner=rss nyt&emc=rss&oref=slogin&oref=slogin> report by Scott Shane which purports to demonstrate that contrary to the work of unnamed bloggers (ahem), the Ayers/Obama contact was minimal. This front page account represents the Times' acknowledgement that there has been some significant story that they've been sitting on, but the report so completely fiddles with the truth that it would made a first rate case study in a class on propaganda. Both <http://globallabor.blogspot.com/2008/09/obamaayers-update-letters-show-bill .html> Steve Diamond and <http://justoneminute.typepad.com/main/2008/10/no-yards-and-a.html> Tom Maguire bloggers who've been studying the relationship of the Democrat's presidential nominee and the unrepentant domestic terrorists weigh in. Steve notes, among other things: ...the nation's leading paper of record is basing its story on Ayers role in Obama's selection on unnamed sources when the three named sources -- who were involved personally in the discussions about Obama's appointment -- do not confirm that Ayers was not involved. And as I told the Times there is written evidence that, in fact, Ayers was involved in the selection of Board members, and, in fact, that he would have had to have been involved given his formal role in applying for and winning the grant from the national Annenberg Challenge. The Challenge Board was chaired by Barack Obama and Obama also served as President of the Challenge. (I will explore the role of Obama in those two executive positions in a later post here.) The Obama campaign and Obama himself have attempted to minimize the candidate's longstanding and close professional and political relationship with Ayers because of Ayers' authoritarian politics and past record of terrorist activities. Tom adds evidence that Obama repeatedly falsely minimized his relationship with Ayers, making us question why he did so and why the NYT somehow overlooked that in weighing the credibility of its sources for this piece. I cannot imagine another race in American history where the media has done so much to hide from the voters a critical and damaging piece of information about one of the candidates: His apparent 13 year association with a man who worked to bomb domestic targets and kill his fellow citizens. Update from Ed Lasky: The New York Times continues its record of agenda-driven journalism in a "story" about the connections between Barack Obama and unrepentant terroists (and founder of the Weathermen) Bill Ayers which the Times dismisses as inconsequential. While the Times notes that Barack Obama has "played down" his "contacts" with Bill Ayers, this is spin. Indeed just the use of the word "contacts" gives a flavor to the Times approach: to depict the relationship between Ayers and Barack Obama as episodic. Why not use a fuller term such as "relationship" which most journalists use to describe the ties between the two? The Times writes that Ayers is engaged in "school reform". That sounds nice except it certainly does not describe Ayers agenda. I guess the Times did not desire to delve further into what type of reform Ayers is advocating-which is the <http://www.americanthinker.com/2008/04/bill_ayers_and_the_subversion_1.html > radicalization of our schools and the subversion of our education. Also, have the journalists considered the fact that relying on people who know both men and Obama campaign representatives may not be the best way to uncover the truth? <http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2008/07/barack_obamas_curious_rabbi.htm l> Rabbi Wolf , for example, is not a reliable source: he is far to the left and is a die-hard Obama supporter. He describes Ayers as a toothless ex-radical. In so far as it relates to planting bombs-true. In so far as it related to trying to indoctrinate our young with far left views -- false. Nor did the Times bother to examine what sort of activities the Woods Fund supported-like anti-Israel agitprop. The Woods Fund (and its seven directors -- including Obama and Ayers -- who signed off on these grants) <http://www.jewishpress.com/content.cfm?contentid=30283> funded activities of a group that promoted harsh anti-Israel views that might be seen as countenancing terrorism. Nor did the Times bother to look at Ayers true views on terrorism. The paper quotes him: If by then the ambitious politician was trying to keep his distance, it would not be a surprise. In an article that by chance was published on Sept. 11, 2001, The New York Times wrote about Mr. Ayers and his just-published memoir, "Fugitive Days," opening with a quotation from the author: "I don't regret setting bombs. I feel we didn't do enough." Three days after the Qaeda attacks, Mr. Ayers wrote a reply posted on his Web site to clarify his quoted remarks, saying the meaning had been distorted. "My memoir is from start to finish a condemnation of terrorism, of the indiscriminate murder of human beings, whether driven by fanaticism or official policy," he wrote. But he added that the Weathermen had "showed remarkable restraint" given the nature of the American bombing campaign in Vietnam that they were trying to stop. I suppose the journalist did not have five minutes to google Ayers on the terrorism and related topics. Had he done so he would have found this relatively recent <http://billayers.wordpress.com/2008/04/06/episodic-notoriety-fact-and-fanta sy/> entry on Bill Ayer's blog. Garance Franke-Ruta of the Washington Post <http://blog.washingtonpost.com/the-trail/2008/04/17/bill_ayers_has_a_blog_a nd_regr.html> wrote of it: Nor does Ayers believe his actions with the Weather Underground were terrorism. "I've never advocated terrorism, never participated in it, never defended it. The U.S. government, by contrast, does it routinely and defends the use of it in its own cause consistently," he wrote. Ayers defines terrorism as "the use or threat of random violence to intimidate, frighten, or coerce a population toward some political end," and he cites, as examples, "an Israeli assault on a neighborhood in Gaza," the Sept. 11 attacks, and "Sherman's March to the Sea" during the Civil War. Ayers concludes his self-defense with a brief against capitalism. "Capitalism," he writes, "played its role historically and is exhausted as a force for progress: built on exploitation, theft, conquest, war, and racism, capitalism and imperialism must be defeated and a world revolution -- a revolution against war and racism and materialism, a revolution based on human solidarity and love, cooperation and the common good -- must win. _____ Palin pulls terrorist card on Obama Barbara Ferguson | Arab News <http://www.arabnews.com/?page=4§ion=0&article=115165&d=6&m=10&y=2008> http://www.arabnews.com/?page=4§ion=0&article=115165&d=6&m=10&y=2008 WASHINGTON: Republican vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin accused Democratic candidate Barack Obama over the weekend of "palling around with terrorists," in the latest sign the US election campaign is turning increasingly nasty. The comment by Palin refers to Bill Ayers, a founding member of the radical leftist terrorist group Weather Underground, which was involved in a string of mostly nonfatal bombings in the late 60s and early 70s, mainly in protest of US involvement in Vietnam. Obama was eight years old at the time of Ayers' radicalism, but the paths of the two men -- who both have become prominent figures in the Chicago area - have crossed on a few occasions in recent years. The Obama campaign quickly dismissed Palin's comment as "gutter politics." With Obama rising in polls while the country struggles in the grip of a financial crisis, the Republican candidate Sen. John McCain's camp has focused on his opponent's character, judgment and personal associations. "We are looking for a very aggressive last 30 days," said Greg Strimple, one of McCain's top advisers. Vice presidential candidates have traditionally been called upon to engage in harsher attacks on the opposing team. Palin has not disappointed in this regard, launching an assault on Obama just days after both candidates urged Congress to set aside partisan politics to pass a $700 billion financial rescue package in a bid to revive credit markets as unemployment continues to rise. Palin attacked Obama for his brief political relationship with Ayers, now a university professor. The two men have attended the same functions on several occasions since 1995 when they both worked with a nonprofit group trying to raise funds for a school improvement project and a charitable foundation. Obama and Ayers also live in the same Chicago neighborhood and have served on a charity board together. Obama has condemned Ayers' past involvement in terrorist activity. Ayers himself never faced jail time because the police tactics used was deemed excessive by the courts. Obama campaign spokesman Ben LaBolt said the two men had not spoken by phone or exchanged e-mail messages since Obama came to the US Senate in 2005 and last met more than a year ago when they encountered each other on the street in a Chicago neighborhood where both live. "Today, the McCain-Palin team took their discredited, dishonorable campaign one desperate step further, announcing that they were going to try turning a page on this financial crisis and would rather spend their time tearing down Barack Obama than laying out a plan to build up our economy," LaBolt said in a statement. Palin's remarks, however, will play well with a segment of the Republican base that has embraced the false portrayal of Obama as a foreign-born Muslim elitist with ties to terrorism. Polls have shown that voters trust Obama more than McCain to handle the economy, and the fact that McCain is running to succeed an unpopular Republican president makes his position more difficult. A survey of academic economists by The Economist finds the majority - at times by overwhelming margins - believe Obama has the superior economic plan, a firmer grasp of economics and will appoint better economic advisers. McCain and Obama will get to spar in person tomorrow when they meet for the second of three nationally televised presidential debates, this one in Nashville, Tennessee. . <http://geo.yahoo.com/serv?s=97359714/grpId=11648958/grpspId=1705447214/msgI d=74678/stime=1223409599/nc1=3848621/nc2=3848641/nc3=4990221> [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] ------------------------------------ -------------------------- Want to discuss this topic? Head on over to our discussion list, [EMAIL PROTECTED] -------------------------- Brooks Isoldi, editor [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.intellnet.org Post message: [email protected] Subscribe: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsubscribe: [EMAIL PROTECTED] *** FAIR USE NOTICE. 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