the pastor wright video: lying by ommission.

now a few disclaimers before i post this. firstly, i’m obviously not a christian and i’m definitely not a supporter of Obama and his kinder friendly capitalism, but i think this story is important regardless because it shows pretty blatantly how the media framing of issues distorts their meaning.

Fox news, and the rest of the media along with it, has been going on and on and on about what horrible things Mr. Wright said about America, but what they forgot to say is that when he said (most of) them it wasn’t the anger of a black militant civil rights preacher, it was him quoting a white US ambassador who had been interviewed on fox news the day before. which would explain nicely why Obama can look straight at the camera and say that that’s not the kind of preaching he’s used to hearing in his church. If you listen to the video and analyze what he’s saying, the argument he’s actually making is this:

[youtube QOdlnzkeoyQ]

a) the cycle of violence where hatred of military enemies leads to hatred of civilians is sick and un-christian. No christian should ever rejoice in the slaughter of others children, and yet that’s exactly what we do when we glorify warfare. He characterizes this cycle of violence and de-humanization of “enemies” as a form of insanity.

B) as evidence of that cycle of violence, he first cites a passage from the bible and then cites the things the ambassador said about US military brutality and support for dictators around the world, followed by a few examples of what that support has meant for ordinary people. Actually, the pastor dramatically under-states the case here – focusing on military interventions that harmed black people and neglecting to mention the US support for dictators in places like Spain and Greece where it would be hard to argue that the support was a manifestation of white supremacy. then again, dude is fairly clear about being afro-centric and if he went down the whole list he’d have been at it for hours so it’s not surprising.

c) he then points out – again quoting the ambassador – that people in these places who are most affected by our governments actions do not have conventional militaries with which to wage war against us, but they do have individuals willing to kill themselves in order to strike back at us through suicide attacks. And, because of the cycle of violence that he mentioned in point A, they see their enemy as all of us – men women and children – not just the government; and have no qualms about murdering us or our children. He does not say that they are right to do so, only that if we want to stop it from happening we need to understand why it is happening.

d) he then argues that instead of taking the september 11th attacks as a call to go murder other peoples babies and invade iraq (remember this speech was given before the invasion) we should see the attack as a wake-up call, not only about our foreign policy but (ands this is where he loses me) as a wake-up call that forces us to re-examine our relationship with God.

Now obviously I think focusing on one’s relationship with a god who doesn’t exist is a waste of time, but Wright is a minister so it’s about what i’d expect. As for the rest of the sermon, Americans may not want to be reminded of the horrible things our government has done, but closing our eyes and pretending they didn’t happen is not a particularly effective way to deal with them or the blowback that they generate. In that context, Wrights sermon is newsworthy only in that it helps us understand why Obama, a man who has been a member of Wright’s congregation for 20 years, would have opposed the Iraq war from the beginning. Seeing as how having opposed the war is constantly cited by Obama’s people as evidence of his good judgement, one wonders why he wouldn’t have taken this opportunity to argue that his opposition to the war was rooted in his christianity and faith, and finally annihilated the clinton/republican rumor-mongering about him being a closet Muslim.

As for the other videos, where wright claims HIV was invented by the US government and things like that, the man is clearly operating in the realm of faith and not facts; but then he’s a minister. what did you expect? sure it’s a bit nutty, but it’s certainly no more offensive then right-wing christians who proclaimed that september 11th was god’s punishment on the USA for being too tolerant of gays and feminsim. frankly, the idea that sept 11th was a punishment from the creator of the universe against the United States does far more to legitimize terrorism and the murder of innocents then anything Wright said. And yet the right-wing media completely failed to be outraged over such statements. is anyone really surprised?

now, like i said, I’m not posting this here because I want ya’ll to vote for Obama. I’m certainly not going to. I’m going to do what I do every election – vote on the ballot initiatives (the things where i get a direct vote) and when it comes to the list of candidates I’ll check “other” and write in “none of the above”. I’m posting this because this is just one of countless examples of how the corporate media constantly LIES through the use of selective editing and blatantly dishonest framing of quotations. And you can bet your ass that if they’ll lie so brazenly about a rich liberal like Obama they won’t hesitate to lie about anarchists and people like me. remember that next time you see a bit on the news about “violent protests” and “dangerous radicals.”

Posted: March 21st, 2008 under politrix, race & racism.
Comments: none