First the full video of the speech Barack Obama gave in 2007 at a ministers conference at Hampton University, a historically black school in Virginia, then a couple notable issues about Jeremiah Wright and the racial divisiveness heard throughout the speech, from Obama's deliberate adaption of a fake accent to his constant references of us vs them type rhetoric. Liberals respond predictably with a meme they created and implemented in 2008.
[WATCH] - (Via The Daily Caller)
Starting with Jeremiah Wright because it is important to remember not just the controversy but the coordinated decision, caught in leaked emails, from liberal journalists at major news outlets and blogs, to ignore the Wright controversy and label anyone that brought it up a racist.
From the transcript of Obama's remarks, prepared for delivery, which he deviated from considerably at points during his speech, he starts out with a shout-out to Rev. Jeremiah Wright and Trinity United Church of Christ.
It was also there – at Trinity United Church of Christ on the South Side of Chicago – that I met Rev. Jeremiah A. Wright Jr., who took me on another journey and introduced me to a man named Jesus Christ. It was the best education I ever had.
Via The DC, more on Wright from Obama:
....To the audience at Hampton, Obama describes Wright as, “my pastor, the guy who puts up with me, counsels me, listens to my wife complain about me. He’s a friend and a great leader. Not just in Chicago, but all across the country.”
Soon after the Hampton speech Obama stopped referring to Wright, withdrew from the Trinity United Church of Christ, where he had been attending for almost two decades, and stopped using Wright as part of his campaign because audio and video was released of Wright saying "No, no, no, not God Bless America, God Damn America" and asserting that 9/11 was America's chickens "coming home to roost" and accusing the U.S. government of “inventing the HIV virus as a means of genocide against people of color, among many other controversial statements made during his sermons.
Flashback
At the time these statements were released, liberal members of the now defunct "JournoList" list serv, liberal bloggers, media personalities and writers, via leaked emails from that list serv, plotted to spike the Wright story by creating racist memes.
Via DC, who obtained these leaked messages to and from the hundreds of JournoList members, at the time:
Others went further. According to records obtained by The Daily Caller, at several points during the 2008 presidential campaign a group of liberal journalists took radical steps to protect their favored candidate. Employees of news organizations including Time, Politico, the Huffington Post, the Baltimore Sun, the Guardian, Salon and the New Republic participated in outpourings of anger over how Obama had been treated in the media, and in some cases plotted to fix the damage.The email:
In one instance, Spencer Ackerman of the Washington Independent urged his colleagues to deflect attention from Obama’s relationship with Wright by changing the subject. Pick one of Obama’s conservative critics, Ackerman wrote, “Fred Barnes, Karl Rove, who cares — and call them racists.”
I do not endorse a Popular Front, nor do I think you need to. It’s not necessary to jump to Wright-qua-Wright’s defense. What is necessary is to raise the cost on the right of going after the left. In other words, find a rightwinger’s [sic] and smash it through a plate-glass window. Take a snapshot of the bleeding mess and send it out in a Christmas card to let the right know that it needs to live in a state of constant fear. Obviously I mean this rhetorically.
And I think this threads the needle. If the right forces us all to either defend Wright or tear him down, no matter what we choose, we lose the game they’ve put upon us. Instead, take one of them — Fred Barnes, Karl Rove, who cares — and call them racists. Ask: why do they have such a deep-seated problem with a black politician who unites the country? What lurks behind those problems? This makes *them* sputter with rage, which in turn leads to overreaction and self-destruction.
Page two of that DC article:
The letter caused a brief splash and won the attention of the New York Times. But only a week later, Obama – and the journalists who were helping him – were on the defensive once again.
Jeremiah Wright was back in the news after making a series of media appearances. At the National Press Club, Wright claimed Obama had only repudiated his beliefs for “political reasons.” Wright also reiterated his charge that the U.S. federal government had created AIDS as a means of committing genocide against African Americans.
It was another crisis, and members of Journolist again rose to help Obama.
Chris Hayes of the Nation posted on April 29, 2008, urging his colleagues to ignore Wright. Hayes directed his message to “particularly those in the ostensible mainstream media” who were members of the list.
The Wright controversy, Hayes argued, was not about Wright at all. Instead, “It has everything to do with the attempts of the right to maintain control of the country.”
Hayes castigated his fellow liberals for criticizing Wright. “All this hand wringing about just
how awful and odious Rev. Wright remarks are just keeps the hustle going.”
“Our country disappears people. It tortures people. It has the blood of as many as one million Iraqi civilians — men, women, children, the infirmed — on its hands. You’ll forgive me if I just can’t quite dredge up the requisite amount of outrage over Barack Obama’s pastor,” Hayes wrote.
Hayes urged his colleagues – especially the straight news reporters who were charged with covering the campaign in a neutral way – to bury the Wright scandal. “I’m not saying we should all rush en masse to defend Wright. If you don’t think he’s worthy of defense, don’t defend him! What I’m saying is that there is no earthly reason to use our various platforms to discuss what about Wright we find objectionable,” Hayes said.
JournoList members at it again
So, although portions of the Hampton speech were previously reported, it was during a time where, as shown above, members of JournoList, coordinated a response of no response, changing the subject to racism, and to ignore Wright, so what we see today, is some of those very JournoList members, still attempting to do the same.
Example: Jonathon Cohn, The New Republic, member of JournoList (#30 on the list here), today headlines under the discussion of the full video above from DC, "Thank You, Daily Caller, for Your Dud of a Story."
Example: Ed Kilgore, Washington Monthly, member of JournoList (#26 on this list), headlines today with "Barack Obama: Bigger and Blacker Than Ever!"
Just a couple examples of the actual journoList members, although out of about 400, less than 200 names became public at the time.
The meme though, is still alive.
Anyone listening to the 30+ minute speech above will notice a very obvious fake accent from Obama in 2007 at Hampton, that no one ever hears in his speeches now, but mentioning it brings on the coordinated racism meme that the liberal media used to "deflect" the conversation as they did back during the 2008 campaign season.
If Conservatives dare mention the obvious fake accent he used and the divisive rhetoric of us (meaning blacks) against them (meaning whites) to capitalize on his race, or his relationship to Wright, then liberals deflect from it and his relationship with Wright, by calling conservatives racist or downplaying the full video as "been there, done that" without acknowledging that yes, "been there" but they refused to "do that" by reporting it back in 2008.
Examples from Memeorandum discussions and headlines from deflecting liberals:
Racism Meme
Jack and Jill Politics: "The Niggerization of Barack Obama"
Howard Kurtz, The Daily Beast "RIGHT HYPES OBAMA ‘RACE’ VIDEO"
John Cole, Balloon Juice "Barack Obama, Racist Monster"
Wonkette "Tucker Carlson Wants You To Enlist In Race War Against Jive-Talking President"
No More Mister Nice Blog "JOE RICKETTS GETS THE CAMPAIGN ATTACK HE WANTED" (meaning the Wright controversy that liberals buried in 2008 by "deflecting with charges of racism)
Rumproast "Battle of the Doughboys: Hannity and Carlson Criticize Obama for Pretending to be Black"
The the "Pretend it was all fully covered before, so nothing to see, move along folks," crowd:
The Atlantic Wire "Tucker Carlson Already Reported on That Tucker Carlson Exclusive"
The Caucus "Obama's Wright Ties Highlighted Again"
New York Magazine "Conservatives Reveal October Surprise: Another Old Obama Video"
Guardian "Conservative media release old video of Obama in failed ‘explosive’ exclusive"
TPM "Drudge-Hyped Obama Video Turns Out To Be Publicly Covered 2007 Speech"(Publicly covered? How about very publicly ignored in a coordinated attempt by liberal media and bloggers, to "deflect" as evidenced by the emails from the JournoList list-serv)
Business Insider "The Obama Video That Drudge And Others Are Freaking Out About Has Already Been Extensively Covered" (See comment in parenthesis above- DITTO)
rubber hose "reruns again? — i think the latest drudge “bombshell video” … "
Gawker "Drudge, Hannity Hype Five-Year-Old Video of Obama That Was Extensively Covered in 2008"
The video above shows Obama mimicking Jeremiah Wright's racially divisive rhetoric that he spent almost two decades sitting in a church listening to, learning from and agreeing with and in 2008, when the story broke, liberal media members coordinated a deflection campaign, ignored the story and now they pretend it was covered extensively.
It worked in 2008, but the jig was up as soon as those leaked emails came out showing how they colluded on messaging to protect Obama, yet here they are, trying to do it again.
[Update] I see I am not the only that notices the rerun of the liberals playbook here.
Via Matthew Boyle:
Now that The Daily Caller has uncovered and published video of President Barack Obama’s “other race speech,” liberal media figures are once again trying to quell coverage of the Rev. Jeremiah Wright story — just like in 2008.
Records obtained by TheDC in mid-2010 showed that “at several points during the 2008 presidential campaign a group of liberal journalists took radical steps to protect their favored candidate,” after ABC News’ Charlie Gibson and George Stephanopoulos asked then-Sen. Obama about his controversial reverend during an April 2008 debate.
