This morning MSNBC, fronted by Andrea Mitchell, Contessa Brewer and Nora O'Donnell, continued to play the Wright card with a have-it-both ways twist.
MSNBC gets cleverer and cleverer. Relying on previously established propoganda-- that Wright is an Obama surrogate--it introduces another false premise--that Wright bombed in front of the Press Association. Both premises can be disputed.
First, Wright is not campaigning for Obama. He isn't even Obama's pastor anymore. In any case, Obama's politics should no more be measured by Wright's beliefs than McCain's by Hagee or Parsley's.
Second, thousands of us think Wright accounted himself extremely well in his recent appearances, making a strong defense of the black church and providing context for the controversial quotes MSM extracted from his sermons.
But propaganda makes more compelling television than honest argument. That's why it so often works.
And MSNBC, along with the rest of MSM, has a new gladiator match-up: Wright vs. Obama.
Now, the false syllogism goes something like this:
a) Wright is a crazy Black Power, America- hating, Arab- terrorist-loving BLACK DEMON who claims Obama is lying about who he really is.
b) Obama's association with Wright means that OBAMA is a crazy Black Power, America-hating, Arab-terrorist- loving BLACK DEMON and Wright can be trusted to know that Obama is lying.
c) Therefore, Obama is Wright (A BLACK DEMON)
The important question is not "how does Wright damage Obama's campaign?"; it is WHY does MSNBC want to damage Obama's campaign with this red herring?
I can think of only three possibilities: MSNBC is a T.V.- formatted tabloid; MSNBC has a vested interest in stopping Obama's campaign momentum; MSNBC wants ratings AND McCain.
Which? I'll answer with a syllogism:
a) MSNBC keeps spinning Wright as an Obama surrogate
b) MSNBC does not spin McCain or Clinton associations to near the extent and degree that it focuses on Wright.
c) Therefore, MSNBC has something up its sleeve.
So what do we who support Obama do?
DON'T LET MSNBC/ MSM derail us. Repetition works. Keep repeating the mantra--Wright is not running against McCain. Wright is not in the running at all.
Wright is a center-piece of a propagandist campaign that MSM has endorsed and is actively waging.
Wright is not on the campaign trail. MSNBC is. MSNBC is campaigning, not presenting the debate. Just because it frames an assertion as a question doesn't make it so.
What is MSNBC really proposing by playing the Wright Card over and over?
Could it possibly be saying THAT? Yup. Yup. Yup.