Media focus on sideshow controversy
Enough already about the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, the former pastor of Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Barack Obama’s Chicago church. Listen to some people – especially the TV talking head crowd – and you’d think it was Wright, not Obama, running for president. Although I personally favor Sen. Hillary Clinton over Obama, I also detest the “guilt by association” tactic that is turning Wright into Obama’s version of Willie Horton. Do you remember Horton?
He’s the convicted murderer who, on a weekend pass from a Massachusetts prison, fled and wound up stabbing a man and raping his wife. This happened while Democrat Michael Dukakis was governor of that state – and it became an issue during the 1988 presidential campaign. It was used by Republican candidate George Bush Sr., with great success, to portray Dukakis as soft on crime.
In today’s Internet marketplace, video snippets of some of Wright’s sermons can and have spread like wildfire. In the one that ignited the current controversy, Wright proclaimed, “God bless America … No! … God Damn America … for killing innocent people … for treating her citizens as less than human.” He’s also suggested that the U.S. government invented the AIDS virus to destroy “people of color,” and had provoked the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks.
Suddenly, Obama’s fitness to be president has been redefined by his association with a preacher who’s said some pretty controversial, even whacko, things. That’s patently unfair. Who among us wouldn’t or couldn’t be shamed by something one of our friends, or family members, or even ourselves, has said or done?
Wright’s megachurch has 10,000 members. Are all of them to be castigated, or criticized, or have their own lives defined, in the wake of ongoing publicity about Wright’s remarks? But in the world of U.S. politics, partisans latch on to something like Wright’s comments with the determination of a pit bull who hasn’t eaten in a week.
Wright hasn’t helped his own cause, choosing to go on TV and before the National Press Club to reiterate and expand on his controversial views. But that should have no bearing on Obama, who has condemned the “divisive and destructive” remarks, in effect dissing a pastor he’s known for 20 years.
We’d all be much better off if the television media would focus on dissecting Obama’s – and the other candidates’ -plans for things that really matter, such as health care, avoiding recession, job growth, trade, the erosion of the middle class and our nation’s standing in the world.
But gaining a thorough understanding of those issues take time, skill and hard work. The cheap-and-easy format used by most TV talk show hosts and guests isn’t conducive to any in-depth understanding of such issues. And even if those factors didn’t exist, the attention span and interest level of the average American, unfortunately, often doesn’t rise above a sound bite or two.
The Associated Press reports that black voters say Obama is not responsible for what Wright says, while many white voters are deeply troubled and baffled by Obama’s association with Wright.
So therein develops a deep fissure in the Democratic Party, on a make-believe issue that really won’t have any bearing on Americans’ lives should Obama become president. Do you really think he’d nominated Wright for Secretary of State, or make him chief of staff?
But the seed has been planted, and it’s being watered and nourished daily, enough that a white North Carolina resident says of Obama, “I’m afraid of his radical connections,” while a black resident says, “Obama is not responsible for what his preacher says.”
Obama may blame the Clinton camp for fueling this controversy, but in truth he could deal with it now, or deal with it later against Republican nominee John McCain. Such is the sad state of American politics, where real issues get glossed over in favor of sideshow controversies.
Paul Sunyak is editorial page editor of the Herald-Standard. He can be reached at 724-439-7577 or at psunyak@heraldstandard.com