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Lance Fairchok
The Media & Race: Getting It Wrong
September 25, 2008
“Welcome to the murky world of modern racism, where most of the open
animus has been replaced by a shadowy bias that is difficult to
measure.”
– Charles M. Blow, in The New York Times
Our unelected press elites, the ones who
shape the opinions and convictions of millions, cannot conceive of Obama
losing this election purely because of his far left politics. In the
editorial echo chambers of our biggest newspapers and news networks, the
“murky world of modern racism” is a forgone conclusion. It must be the
ominous specter of racism, after all, reasonable and intelligent people
vote for leftists. But Mr. Blow is correct; it is difficult to measure,
because it’s mostly fiction. The “shadowy bias” he senses and
misidentifies is against the undercurrent of anti-Americanism and
socialism the citizen’s see in the Democrat nominee and his sycophants.
Despite the media working overtime to hide the man behind the curtain, a
sizable number of the electorate from both parties is uncomfortable with
the obvious image manipulation. A vote for McCain is not a vote for an
old white guy against a young black guy. It’s a vote for an experienced
conservative legislator and veteran against a far left junior Senator
with a nice speaking voice.
The legacy press is in the tank for
Obama, and their push-polls and commentary are as unbalanced as the
propaganda of the cold-war totalitarian states. They cannot let go of
their ideology, their stereotypes or their incredible arrogance. The New
York Times, The Washington Post, Time Magazine, Newsweek, and a host of
others are so chock full of leftist elites they are congenitally unable
to understand the values of the majority of people in this nation. Their
readership reflects it. Hollywood, from the Daily Show to the View
reinforce the fact that humor or public discussion need not possess or
rely on truth, critical analysis, or honesty. In fact, some very
ignorant people get paid allot of money to entertain other very ignorant
people, and in the process dumb down the whole nation.
It was inevitable that the party of
entitlements and victimhood would ramp up the race card. So far it’s
been through surrogates and cut-outs, but for the thinly veiled
insinuations made by Obama during his rallies. I had expected it sooner.
Now we have “advocacy journalists” such as Jack Cafferty and Keith
Olberman calling race the reason Obama is not leading by wider margins
in the polls, and painting average Americans as racist. Insert
“propagandist” for “advocacy journalist” and you have a picture of what
the Cafferys, Olbermans and Matthews of the press have become, the
advocates and apologists of one party, propagandist‘s, devoid of ethical
standards and disdainful of fact based analysis.
It is a leftist canard that America is
filled with racists, that the heartland hates minorities and deep inside
we are all white supremacists’. They use it to encourage the societal
guilt complex that has ensured social entitlements become
institutionalized funding conduits for leftist causes. Demanding justice
for injustices real or imagined is the starting point; then they
manipulate popular perceptions and sensitize the public to their agenda
by wrapping it in moral arguments that are designed to be difficult to
dispute without being painted with usual accusation of “racism.” The
word is a weapon, a bludgeon to silence dissent in the PC gulag and it
has been successful for many decades, intimidating those who would point
out the hypocrisy, corruption and racism of those who profit from it.
Americans of African decent have been the target of this effort as much
if not more than whites, it has sapped their entrepreneurial energy,
destroyed their work ethic and encouraged the victimhood that keeps
large minority populations in thrall to handouts they have come to
expect and the promises of liberal and leftist politicians that seldom
come true.
Black America is an indelible part of
the American soul, a part that a majority of Americans respect and even
admire. The push polls on racial attitudes aside, urban problems are
American problems and they respond to American solutions, not welfare
handouts. Yet entitlement politics are the political heart of most
Democrat run cities in this nation. They never succeed in alleviating
the problems they adopt as causes and their populist campaigns hit the
same themes election after election. You would think that the problems
of education in Chicago, employment in Michigan, and crime in St Louis
would have made great strides forward after all the enlightened leftist
advocacy and billions of tax payer dollars. Not so. Most of the money is
funneled to corrupt politicians and leftist groups whose activity is
disguised as social work; Obama’s participation in Bill Ayers Annenberg
Challenge is a case in point. Five hundred million of taxpayer dollars
down the Chicago rat hole with no appreciable improvement in education.
That this country has in large measure
been successful in moving beyond the ghosts of its past and bringing
opportunity and equality to most of its citizens does not support the
leftist grievance entitlement mantra. It is seldom heard. Instead we
hear that we were and are a racist nation, and for that reason alone, we
owe Obama the presidency.
The history of racism and slavery has
been made preeminent in the education of our children, its crimes the
central focus of American history classes in every school in the nation.
Martin Luther King is more familiar to American children than Abraham
Lincoln or George Washington. A man to be revered, he was nevertheless
part of greater national tapestry, one that has lately become more
diverse, largely due to a misrepresented and demonized Republican
president. As is ever the case Democrats are full of words about their
intentions, yet it is the Republicans that take action.
But race is not the problem. Had Colin
Powell made a different decision in1996 he may well have been president,
his accomplishments and demeanor are eminently presidential and he was
and still is widely popular. Black Americans can be found in leadership
positions throughout government, military, business and cultural
structures, not just sports and entertainment. Race does not put people
off Obama, his politics does. Most Americans consider themselves
conservative, according to the bipartisan Battleground Poll, which in
August of 2008 revealed that 20% of Americans considered themselves to
be very conservative, 40% of Americans considered themselves to be
somewhat conservative, 2% of Americans considered themselves to be
moderate. Contrast that with the 27% of Americans who considered
themselves to be somewhat liberal, and the 9% who considered themselves
to be very liberal. The missing 3% of Americans did not know or refused
to answer. These numbers have been within a few points for well over a
decade.
Pushing race into the debate does not
change that Obama is a confirmed leftist, however much he spins and
distorts his record. The press is comfortable with him because they
spring from the same socialist leaning institutions, the world of
academia where reality seldom intrudes. He is our most left leaning
senator, a party line voting ideologue with no history of
bipartisanship, and he has a very short history indeed. His impressive
speaking voice does not change his alliance with the most anti-American,
divisive and destructive people and political groups in our country,
from ACORN to Media Matters to Bill Ayers and Jeremiah Wright. His
associations have not been representative of what American looks like,
white, black or otherwise. He does not inspire confidence when one sees
how narrowly focused his painfully brief career has been, he does not
inspire hope for change when one sees how he rose to this nomination
using all the corrupt traditions of the Chicago political machine. His
specialty of funneling millions of taxpayer dollars into leftist causes
should concern all of us. For all the glitz and showmanship of his
campaign, it is obvious he is much more comfortable with a well
rehearsed script, a teleprompter and a fawning crowd than he is with
honest interviews, the issues and the truth about his own convictions.
Following the far left progressive script, he’ll say anything to get
elected; because once you have power you can go back to your radical
roots. |
