Organizing for America | Carolyn Carrier's Blog: Morning Joe Shows its True Colors, Again

Morning Joe Shows its True Colors, Again

By Carolyn Carrier - Oct 28th, 2008 at 12:25 pm EDT

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Once again, in an effort to make this race more interesting (i.e. closer than the polls indicate) and hold onto ratings by interjecting a "scoop" the reporters of Morning Joe have distorted the facts of history. This morning they began by going on and on about how the media has made a mistake by being biased in favor of Barack Obama! Imagine my dismay after having lived through the repeated Reverend Wright videos! Then there was the New Yorker Cover. I could go on. Then they crossed the line. They actually said that in 2001 Barack Obama stated that one of the tragedies of the Civil Rights Movement was that the courts came up short on redistributing the wealth! Of course, now the Republicans will have an ad on the air before this can be debunked. The correct quote is: "One of the, I think, the tragedies of the civil rights movement, was because the civil rights movement became so court focused, I think that there was a tendency to lose track of the political and community organizing activities on the ground that are able to put together the actual coalitions of power through which you bring about redistributive change, and in some ways we still stuffer from that." "..so court focused..." is the tragedy, not the court's refusal to redistribute wealth. In fact, he wasn't even talking about taxes. This is actually an example of how the media is not only not biased in favor of Obama but is actually biased against Obama. That is the true "Bradley effect." The media wants to be perceived as being tolerant and racially evolved. They are not. Yes, some individuals are very liberal just as there are some radical right wing "lunatics" but there are also those who consciously or subconsciously select their stories or slant their coverage so that it does not favor Senator Obama. They have done it for years before this election and many will do it after this election. Tom Joyner calls it "Hidden Racism." He invites listeners daily to phone into his radio show and report perpetrators. Some get away with it because they are respected as main stream media. Today's program is another example of reporters using their status to push their own agenda. I was disappointed by the commentary this morning but not surprised. Morning Joe often smiles while he delivers his punches. This is one of the reasons I seldom watch. I was only watching this morning hoping to see Spike Lee.

Reporters and pundits should be held responsible for reporting the truth. There should be some mechanism in place to verify the facts of a quote before it is attributed to someone. Even if there is a retraction, we know that the McCain camp never pulls an ad even when it's proven to be based on a lie. Furthermore, fewer folks always see the retraction than see the original statement.

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