Sunday, August 29, 2010

Media Misrepresent Jeremiah Wright Sermon, Accuse Him of Describing Obama Detractors as Psychopaths



I've just posted the following to my Facebook page:


Folks, in case you were in doubt, here's how the mainstream media do their dirty business. I heard the sermon described in the attached article. Rev. Wright did not use the word "sociopath." He used the word "sycophant." The author, DeMillo, has now listened to his tape again and admits he had the word wrong. But ...his false report is now all over the internet. We have work to do in our nation on basic moral principles like telling the truth.

I'll have more to say about this tomorrow, I think.  Meanwhile, this is hardly the first time I've actually seen or been in a situation on which the media report, only to find in the media report that the "news" reported is spun in such a way that the truth is turned right upside down.  I've seen this happen often enough to believe it's deliberate, when the media want or need to give a certain spin to a story.

And, of course, once the false information is out there in the public domain, even if its author retracts the false statements, it's as impossible to retrieve the lies as it is to gather up a handful of straws that you've allowed to blow away in the wind.  This story is now an international story.

To repeat: I was there.  I listened intently to what Rev. Wright said.  He did not use the word "psychopath" at any point in his sermon.  The sermon I hear Mr. DeMillo describing in his report is a gross distortion of the sermon I heard, which was about the presence of God surrounding those who struggle for truth and justice--about the presence of God surrounding us through a cloud of invisible witnesses who have walked before us, as we walk towards truth and justice.

P.S. Shortly after I posted the preceding, the Washington Post article to which I link deleted the term "psychopath" from its report of the sermon, though that term is still appearing (6:15 CST) under the picture of Rev. Wright in the same story.


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