Last night the Daily Show w/ Jon Stewart devoted a large amount of their headline coverage to how the news media is devoting a large amount of their coverage to Reverend Jeremiah Wright day-in and day-out.

It's a pretty well done segment complete with priceless phrases like "Wright... who has been dominating cable news like a missing white girl." While some might wish the Daily Show would focus their attentions elsewhere I disagree - this is what the Daily Show is, a mockery of the news networks. This is precisely why the Daily Show exists - to call out the news media for their stupidity, obsession and shallow coverage.

I've been watching so much Wright nonsense on TV over the past week or so that I find this kind of spoofing very cathartic.

First, I'm glad he wants to see the good in all of us. He wants to give the benefit of the doubt that we are people of our word and will work for the common good.

Unfortunately, that's not how the Hillary Clinton supporters (Bill Moyers and Rev. Dr. Barbara Reynolds) think. Did you miss that Hillary Clinton connection? A supporter of Hillary got Rev. Wright into the Nat'l Press Club. So perhaps we now know why she did not issue a statement yesterday - she was behind this media circus. It's time for democrats of sound mind to defeat Hillary and Bill Clinton for President. It's not just that Wright wanted to respond. It's that the Clinton's put him up to it.

In case you went looking for this today, you reached a dead link. Or a blank page. Or maybe you got crafty.

Earlier today Reverend Jeremiah Wright spoke at the Press Club where he touched on many different issues. The role of the black church, racism, Barack Obama, sound bites in the media etc. etc.

For those who had never seen Jeremiah Wright outside of his sound bites it was probably an interesting and eye-opening experience. The guy actually holds his own quite well, even when being asked some pretty hard questions about past statements and so forth.

I've decided to share the Question and Answer segment of the coverage to let everyone here see for themselves. While I may not agree with everything that Wright does, I respect him for his honesty and conviction. The only thing is that this will probably hurt Obama who I am supporting for President. Hmmm

Start here.

Trinity United Church Of Christ
info@tucc.org

This list ncludes some media contact information, because I've been hearing some want to let it be known how they feel about how the media has handled this issue. It is far from complete, of course. More a sample of what is out there.

The biggest offense in the Wright tapes - when played in longer segments than Fox or ABC (which supposedly played it before Fox or CNN) or any other outlet has played them - is no one has captured the sentiment around the words beyond the Noise Level. Wright is talking to a community that feels like America has left them behind - economically, politically, socially, demographically. As Jimmy Boegle put it, "Why do you think it's impossible to love your country, yet still be ashamed of it?" Which a poster on Reddit added "I remember Trent Lott saying something like "It's possible to support troops while opposing the president." Which are variations of exactly what Wright was saying in the 'God Damn America' speech. Using the quote of a Reagan appointee.

This is my first diary, and it is really just a question.  Is anyone else getting robocalls from Trinity United Church of Christ?

Update below

On the anniversary of Martin Luther King's assassination, I want to address another assassination, this one by youtube, our new smart bomb.

I'm talking about the assassination of Pastor Jeremiah Wright. Like MLK, Pastor Wright is a preacher in the prophetic tradition. As MLK did,he preaches equality and non-violence. And much like MLK, he has become the target of a concerted campaign to discredit and defame him. Nothing personal. It's not about him. It wasn't about MLK either. In the virtual world we live in, we can blow up hope and goodness with the click of a mouse.

Before Obama surged to a lead over Clinton, most Americans knew next to nothing of Pastor Wright's 36 years at Trinity Church. They didn't know and they didn't care that Wright had increased the congregation to bursting, opened up 70 ministries, and saved the poor from starving, the homeless from dying on Chicago's cold streets.
On the verge of retirement, Pastor Wright could look back on the kind of life most of us wish we had, but are too self-centered to have earned. His was a life of service and inspiration. His huge flock loved him; his pastoral peers respected him; his sermons were legendary.

I believe the Reverend Wright remarks that were publicized some weeks ago will be used extensively by 527 groups in the run-up to the general election. These can cause untold damage to Barack Obama's campaign unless we are able to neutralize their effects. One first step is for us to know more about Trinity and about Reverend Wright so that we can put the remarks into the larger context and give the true interpretation of their meaning.

I intend to write a series of diaries in order to focus resources on the issue and provide arguments and footage for ads and vote canvassers that might need to address the matter. You might want to subscribe if you are interested in the topic.

Please send me any information or links that you believe might help, and your comments and suggestions. I start off by reporting on the press conference that Trinity United Church of Christ held last Thursday. There are several important elements there that I think it's important we are aware of.

At last someone has the cajones to write a balanced piece about Jeremiah Wright.

There's a post I spotted today at MSNBC which if it's true, presents another problem brewing for Hillary. Especially since she's revisiting the whole Wright issue.

It ranks with not knowing if she corkscrewed her way to just taking that cute little girl's "stuff" and then leaving back there in Bosnia.

Barack Obama makes me think.  

Not just in a passing, superficial manner, but rather in a more contemplative, searing fashion--which I've done quite a bit in the past two days; at least as as much as the old bean will allow.  Every once in a while "words" can have that type of transcendent effect.  And I've come to the conclusion that I have just been made a witness to something historical; something transformational.

I hesitate to write the previous few sentences due to their self-evident ridiculousness.  In fact, I wanted to wait a while to digest things a bit.  Generally, I tend to avoid hyperbole by throwing up my semi-detached retro-ironic shield.  Usually, it's OK for me to like something; even to think that something portends greatness.  It gets a bit trickier if I were, heaven forbid, actually moved by something.  My snark radar begins flashing.  But then add a dollop of widespread acclaim and I'm usually out in front leading the backlash.  

I wish Kid Oakland had written this dairy. Or perhaps Pastor Dan. And I’ll allow anyone with a truly powerful voice in this community the opportunity to steal from it freely. I even see one diary by Kalman immediately below mine that starts to go in this direction, but I think we need something even stronger.

Mike Huckabee makes some surprising comments on the Reverend Wright flap on Morning Joe.

Could 527 groups legally play ads with Rev. Wright's sermons in them?

McCain's Campaign Manager essentially says the brouhaha over Obama's Pastor is no big deal.

Subtle and not-so-subtle racist attacks are on the rise against Barack Obama.  Most recently, his affiliation with Trinity Church in Chicago is coming under fire.  Where is the outrage?

There still seems to be an effort to try to use Barack Obama's church in Chicago against him somehow.  A number of stories keep popping up in the MSM rehashing the same old stuff.  I guess they figure if he's still getting these huge and diverse crowds, they haven't repeated it enough times to convince people that he's a racist and who goes to a 'kill whitey' type church.  However, here is a link to an audio clip from Chicago Public Radio that goes into a little more depth, including comments from Rev. Wright, Obama's pastor who he supposedly dissed, on how he feels things went down:

http://chicagopublicradio.org/...

http://audio.wbez.org/...

   There is a great deal of science to back Steven Colbert's recent claim that there are more nerve endings in the gut than anywhere else in the body. We now know that the gut represents a localized form of intelligence. There is also science to back up the idea that the heart is another center for human intelligence.  In other words, human beings are composed of three different centers of consciousness: the gut, the mind and the heart. The President, his architect and his Vice President are being kind enough to act as examples of what happens when things go amiss in each of these three fields of intelligence.

What people are truly moral? Are they people who try to hew a rigid orthodoxy? Or are they people who actively try to make a difference in people's lives through working to change the system? The problem with the whole Fundamentalist mindset is that it focuses on doctrines, not doing what is right.

But that is not how the Fundamentalists claim salvation. They claim that only by embracing Jesus and believing the right doctrines will you be saved. One of these doctrines is the Doctrine of the Trinity. On the other hand, Nicholas Kristof, in this morning's New York Times, discusses the story of a girl named Mukhtar Mai, a Pakistini girl who was gang-raped when younger, successfully prosecuted them and won, and used the proceeds to start a school and a place of refuge for girls and women in her community.