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L.A. Times Holding Back Obama Video
pjalive21
St. Louis, MO Posts: 2,818
October 29, 2008, 1:26 pm
McCain Accuses L.A. Times of Holding Back Obama Video
Laura Meckler reports from Miami on the presidential race.
John McCain and his running mate, Sarah Palin, today accused the Los Angeles Times of withholding a videotape of an event that he asserted was attended by both Barack Obama and 1960s-era radical Bill Ayers. The campaign has repeatedly argued that Obama has not been straight about their relationship.
The videotape, described in an April L.A. Times story, was of a 2003 banquet honoring Rashid Khalidi, a leading Palestinian activist and scholar. At the dinner, Obama spoke of their friendship and how much he had learned from him.
On Tuesday, a McCain spokesman first called on the newspaper to release the videotape, saying it would shed light on the relationship between Obama and Khalidi. Today, McCain repeated the call in an interview with a Cuban radio station, accusing the newspaper of bias and asserting that Ayers was at the event as well—a point that has not been reported anywhere. Palin made the same points from the stump.
The newspaper said it had promised the source who provided the video that it would not publish it.
McCain accused the Times of covering up the information.
“We should know about their relationship including, apparently, information that is held by the Los Angeles Times concerning an event that Mr. Ayers attended with a PLO spokesman,” he told WAQI, also known as Radio Mambi. “The Los Angeles Times refuses to make that videotape public. I’m not in the business about talking about media bias but what if there was a tape with John McCain with a neo-Nazi outfit being held by some media outlet, I think the treatment of the issue would be slightly different.”
In Bowling Green, Ohio, Palin issued a blistering attack on the newspaper, the latest charge of media bias from the McCain campaign.
“Maybe some politicians would love to have a pet newspaper of their very own,” she said. “In this case we have a newspaper willing to throw aside even the public’s right to know in order to protect a candidate that its own editorial board has endorsed. And if there’s a Pulitzer Prize category for excelling in kowtowing, then the LA Times, you’re winning. But it’s not too late, and if there is an ounce of credibility there, if the newspaper wants to keep that shred of credibility, let alone its dignity, than I say the public has a right to know. Let’s go to the videotape, LA Times.”
In a story published today, the newspaper said it did not publish the tape itself because it was provided by a confidential source on condition that it not be released. “The Times keeps its promises to sources,” said the newspaper’s editor, Russ Stanton.
Jamie Gold, the newspaper’s readers’ representative, said in a statement: “More than six months ago the Los Angeles Times published a detailed account of the events shown on the videotape. The Times is not suppressing anything. Just the opposite — the L.A. Times brought the matter to light.”
McCain also used the matter to bring back his charges about Obama’s relationship with Ayers, which Obama has said is casual. “It’s not that Barack Obama was 8 years old when Mr. Ayers was committing acts of terror,” McCain said. “It’s all about the long relationship on foundations…launching his political career in Mr. Ayers’s living room.”
It was not clear whether Ayers was actually at the dinner. Asked for evidence that he was, McCain spokesman Michael Goldfarb pointed to a 2005 New York Sun story that mentioned that Ayers had offered a testimonial to Khalidi that was included in a book created for the farewell event, held to mark his departure from Chicago to take a job in New York, where he is a professor at Columbia University.
Asked whether that story really shows that Ayers was at the dinner, Goldfarb said: “We want to know what happened at the dinner–you all need to report the answers.”
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McCain Accuses L.A. Times of Holding Back Obama Video
Laura Meckler reports from Miami on the presidential race.
John McCain and his running mate, Sarah Palin, today accused the Los Angeles Times of withholding a videotape of an event that he asserted was attended by both Barack Obama and 1960s-era radical Bill Ayers. The campaign has repeatedly argued that Obama has not been straight about their relationship.
The videotape, described in an April L.A. Times story, was of a 2003 banquet honoring Rashid Khalidi, a leading Palestinian activist and scholar. At the dinner, Obama spoke of their friendship and how much he had learned from him.
On Tuesday, a McCain spokesman first called on the newspaper to release the videotape, saying it would shed light on the relationship between Obama and Khalidi. Today, McCain repeated the call in an interview with a Cuban radio station, accusing the newspaper of bias and asserting that Ayers was at the event as well—a point that has not been reported anywhere. Palin made the same points from the stump.
The newspaper said it had promised the source who provided the video that it would not publish it.
McCain accused the Times of covering up the information.
“We should know about their relationship including, apparently, information that is held by the Los Angeles Times concerning an event that Mr. Ayers attended with a PLO spokesman,” he told WAQI, also known as Radio Mambi. “The Los Angeles Times refuses to make that videotape public. I’m not in the business about talking about media bias but what if there was a tape with John McCain with a neo-Nazi outfit being held by some media outlet, I think the treatment of the issue would be slightly different.”
In Bowling Green, Ohio, Palin issued a blistering attack on the newspaper, the latest charge of media bias from the McCain campaign.
“Maybe some politicians would love to have a pet newspaper of their very own,” she said. “In this case we have a newspaper willing to throw aside even the public’s right to know in order to protect a candidate that its own editorial board has endorsed. And if there’s a Pulitzer Prize category for excelling in kowtowing, then the LA Times, you’re winning. But it’s not too late, and if there is an ounce of credibility there, if the newspaper wants to keep that shred of credibility, let alone its dignity, than I say the public has a right to know. Let’s go to the videotape, LA Times.”
In a story published today, the newspaper said it did not publish the tape itself because it was provided by a confidential source on condition that it not be released. “The Times keeps its promises to sources,” said the newspaper’s editor, Russ Stanton.
Jamie Gold, the newspaper’s readers’ representative, said in a statement: “More than six months ago the Los Angeles Times published a detailed account of the events shown on the videotape. The Times is not suppressing anything. Just the opposite — the L.A. Times brought the matter to light.”
McCain also used the matter to bring back his charges about Obama’s relationship with Ayers, which Obama has said is casual. “It’s not that Barack Obama was 8 years old when Mr. Ayers was committing acts of terror,” McCain said. “It’s all about the long relationship on foundations…launching his political career in Mr. Ayers’s living room.”
It was not clear whether Ayers was actually at the dinner. Asked for evidence that he was, McCain spokesman Michael Goldfarb pointed to a 2005 New York Sun story that mentioned that Ayers had offered a testimonial to Khalidi that was included in a book created for the farewell event, held to mark his departure from Chicago to take a job in New York, where he is a professor at Columbia University.
Asked whether that story really shows that Ayers was at the dinner, Goldfarb said: “We want to know what happened at the dinner–you all need to report the answers.”
Permalink | Trackback URL: http://blogs.wsj.com/washwire/2008/10/29/mccain-accuses-la-times-of-holding-back-obama-video/trackback/
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http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/10/28/mccain-funded-work-of-pal_n_138606.html
McCain Funded Work Of Palestinian His Campaign Hopes To Tie To Obama
The latest guilt-by-association target that the McCain campaign is using to hit Barack Obama could carry some collateral damage for its own candidate.
As Politico's Ben Smith reported on Tuesday, the McCain campaign is demanding that the Los Angeles Times release video in its possession of a party attended by Barack Obama and Columbia University professor Rashid Khalidi.
"A major news organization is intentionally suppressing information that could provide a clearer link between Barack Obama and Rashid Khalidi," said McCain spokesman Michael Goldfarb, citing Obama's friendship with Khalidi, who is now a professor at Columbia University.
The McCain camp gambit comes after conservative writers have repeatedly pressed for media outlets to write about the rather tenuous connections between Obama and Khalidi, an outspoken advocate for Palestinian rights.
Specifically, National Review writers want much more attention paid to the association, given that the LA Times has reported that Khalidi lavished praise on Obama at a farewell party in Chicago at which Bill Ayers was also present. (Other writers have accused Khalidi of being an aide to Yasser Arafat, a claim which Marc Ambinder and Ari Berman have suggested is not credible.)
In regards to Khalidi, however, the guilt-by-association game burns John McCain as well.
During the 1990s, while he served as chairman of the International Republican Institute (IRI), McCain distributed several grants to the Palestinian research center co-founded by Khalidi, including one worth half a million dollars.
A 1998 tax filing for the McCain-led group shows a $448,873 grant to Khalidi's Center for Palestine Research and Studies for work in the West Bank. (See grant number 5180, "West Bank: CPRS" on page 14 of this PDF.)
The relationship extends back as far as 1993, when John McCain joined IRI as chairman in January. Foreign Affairs noted in September of that year that IRI had helped fund several extensive studies in Palestine run by Khalidi's group, including over 30 public opinion polls and a study of "sociopolitical attitudes."
Of course, there's seemingly nothing objectionable with McCain's organization helping a Palestinian group conduct research in the West Bank or Gaza. But it does suggest that McCain could have some of his own explaining to do as he tries to make hay out of Khalidi's ties to Obama.
"I don't believe in damn curses. Wake up the damn Bambino and have me face him. Maybe I'll drill him in the ass." --- Pedro Martinez
I'm also wondering how widespread this whole "Obama's a terrorist" thing really is. I was with nearly twenty people that were positive he was a terrorist (or at the least, a Muslim terrorist sympathizer), and I was wondering, if I'm looking at twenty people, maybe there are alot more of that kind of person than I originally thought.
i dont support Obama, but i do not think he is a terrorist sympathizer
Newspapers protecting sources. It's not a new story.
My intention wasn't to say you did think that, but we all know that these stories and everything has been building into this narrative that Obama is at worst, a terrorist and at best a terrorist sympathizer. It started with that viral stuff nearly a year and a half ago, and so on and so forth. I mean, I understand questioning associations, although I think it's kind of slimy. What I mean to say is that anyone who didn't think Ayers was coming up in this election was fooling themselves. I'm just shocked by the sheer amount of people who think Obama is a Muslim, or a terrorist, or both (since they seem to equate the two). It was my first time seeing it up close and personal.
It's just it annoys me to hear soundbites and talking points from people I know. "He doesn't say the Pledge of Allegiance!" "His wife isn't proud of her country!" "He hates America!", and so on and so forth it went. I'm just nervous to hear Sean Hannity coming out of so many people's mouths.
This continuous stirring of hate and fear can only lead to violence eventually. This bullshit has got to stop, I honestly don't care about this election anymore. People are acting like fools.
Could not agree with you more!
As individual fingers we can easily be broken, but together we make a mighty fist ~ Sitting Bull
damm no one around here has said it better i once too had respect for McCain but it all wen't down the toilet with this campaign and i agree we will see blood spilled because of this election ....
The McCain campaign seems to do this pretty often now don't they!
Doh!
It doesn't seem to be stopping Palin from bringing it up though.
Well she has shown the American public several times though that she is not the sharpest knife in the drawer ...
I think she's working on her own political future. She said today that she wants to be involved heavily in the republican party in the future, and esp. if McCain loses.
I think she knows they have a long-shot at this point so she's covering her ass for the future.
Well if she is trying to look good and distance herself doing this at the end of the campaign itsn't really the best way to do it... I think, but then what do i know about how politicians weave their way in....
She probably figures Bush got "elected" twice; why not me.
pathetic
I have grown to expect nothing less from the GOP.
I agree here. Of ALL the questions brought up on Obama this one is among the weakest. I work for a ultra wealthy Jewish family the kind of folks like last year wrote a check for some Israel Fund for half a million and so on. Most of them are ALL voting for Obama some have already voted for him in that they're Florida residents.
They know about this story and think nothing of it along with their other Jewish friends people with power and influence in the Nations' capital.
Where this one goes nobody knows.
Peace
*MUSIC IS the expression of EMOTION.....and that POLITICS IS merely the DECOY of PERCEPTION*
.....song_Music & Politics....Michael Franti
*The scientists of today think deeply instead of clearly. One must be sane to think clearly, but one can think deeply and be quite INSANE*....Nikola Tesla(a man who shaped our world of electricity with his futuristic inventions)
I hope her political future plays out like year 2000's "shining star," Katherine Harris.
Vegas 93, Vegas 98, Vegas 00 (10 year show), Vegas 03, Vegas 06
VIC 07
EV LA1 08
Seattle1 09, Seattle2 09, Salt Lake 09, LA4 09
Columbus 10
EV LA 11
Vancouver 11
Missoula 12
Portland 13, Spokane 13
St. Paul 14, Denver 14
Come now. They're all jokes. It wouldn't be a presidential race otherwise.
Another intellectual from the right!
Vegas 93, Vegas 98, Vegas 00 (10 year show), Vegas 03, Vegas 06
VIC 07
EV LA1 08
Seattle1 09, Seattle2 09, Salt Lake 09, LA4 09
Columbus 10
EV LA 11
Vancouver 11
Missoula 12
Portland 13, Spokane 13
St. Paul 14, Denver 14
Feel free to explain your position.
It appears he's a U2 fan so that person should be an intellectual. I gather he think he's an insider for Al Qaeda and he'll let terrorists in to destroy America?
Peace
*MUSIC IS the expression of EMOTION.....and that POLITICS IS merely the DECOY of PERCEPTION*
.....song_Music & Politics....Michael Franti
*The scientists of today think deeply instead of clearly. One must be sane to think clearly, but one can think deeply and be quite INSANE*....Nikola Tesla(a man who shaped our world of electricity with his futuristic inventions)
Getting 4 more years of the same policies will be a sad... and we all know who would give us more of that now don't we? :cool:
because the left is fully of brainiacs???
come on, get real and put down the kool aid
more 30 min informercials stroking his ego..thats what we have to look foward too
and 6 trillion dollars of spending in the next 4 years and thats WITH removing troops from Iraq
his spending will make Bush's seem like pennies on the dollar
and linking McCain to Bush all the time has to be the weakest of ALL arguements you guys can give...when has Obama crossed party lines? nonetheless even show up for a vote????
Yes, the next president of the USA.
naděje umírá poslední
ahem.
http://blog.washingtonpost.com/capitol-briefing/2007/04/mccain_most_absentee_08_senato.html