I was checking mail on Yahoo when I noticed the headline Obama dismisses conservative criticism. When I clicked through, I found... omigod, real journalism!
The story, by AP reporter Liz Sidoti, opens with
DAYTON, Ohio - Democrat Barack Obama batted away conservative criticism Friday over a comment he made about Americans' lack of foreign language skills.
OK, we're accustomed by now to Obama's aggressive fightback. What threw me was the following passages (emphasis mine, of course):
"The Republicans jumped on this. I said, absolutely immigrants need to learn English, but we also need to learn foreign languages," the likely Democratic nominee said as the 1,000-plus crowd in a school gymnasium cheered. It's a position he long has held.
...
The Americans for Legal Immigration PAC said in a statement, "Barack Obama has stepped on a political land mine by stating Americans should be forced to learn to speak Spanish." But that's not what Obama said.
After the media paroxysms over Obama's "refining" his Iraq withdrawal strategy and the absolutely stupid "Obama flip-flopping" media narrative, I was almost floored to see a reporter actually use context instead of the usual ridiculous "he said-she said" storyline.
If only the rest of the media worked like this. Kudos to Ms. Sedoti!