The continuing left-wing furor over George Stephanopoulos's perfectly valid question about Barack Obama's associations with a known terrorist reminded me of something I wanted to blog earlier in the week before it erupted: an admission of a leftward bias on the part of the media from BET founder Bob Johnson.
Interviewed by the Charlotte Observer Tuesday, Johnson said that the "liberal media" want Obama to win, partly out of racial pandering but also because he is more liberal than Hillary Clinton (whom Johnson supports).
"They sort of dislike Hillary for her vote on the war. They don't want to see Bill and Hillary in power again," Johnson is quoted as saying. "So Obama comes in and runs a smart campaign. But that's not the Second Coming, in my opinion, of John F. Kennedy, FDR or the world's greatest leaders."
Johnson also said that former Democratic vice presidential candidate Geraldine Ferraro was correct in stating that Obama would not have gotten as far in the race if he were not partially black:
"What I believe Geraldine Ferraro meant is that if you take a freshman senator from Illinois called 'Jerry Smith' and he says I'm going to run for president, would he start off with 90 percent of the black vote?" Johnson said. "And the answer is, probably not... ."
"Geraldine Ferraro said it right. The problem is, Geraldine Ferraro is white. This campaign has such a hair-trigger on anything racial ... it is almost impossible for anybody to say anything."
A very interesting interview all around. I think he's wrong about the 90 percent remark since initially, it was Clinton who had the majority of black support. It wasn't until more non-black voters started supporting Obama that the black vote flipped toward him.
Minus that quibble, though, Johnson's comments are pretty good. It's not often you see a media elite like him admit the national press is dramatically tilted toward the liberal side of things.
Photo credit: BET.com.
—Matthew Sheffield is the creator of NewsBusters and its Executive Editor.
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What does BET stand for, or
April 18, 2008 - 12:01 ET by wiwfJust proves that Democrats still can't get past outdated identity politics.
The Rocky Mountain Collegian: Illustrating Idiocy
Leaders
April 18, 2008 - 12:25 ET by iveseenitallYou may be able to make a case for FDR being a "great leader". JFK, not so much. Barry or Hillary?-never were, never will be.
NEVER,NEVER trust a "liberal"
I don't think the WET
April 18, 2008 - 21:47 ET by ahusserI don't think the WET network is in the cards. Still waiting to subscribe to Ivory magazine.
Liberal media? From Bob?
April 18, 2008 - 12:23 ET by RMRLiberal media? From Bob Johnson of BET? An ultra-liberal media mogul admitting that most of the media is liberal? Well, that's an admission! I guess he couldn't handle all the Obama worshipping going on at BET, huh? Maybe that's why he quit. HA! HA!
The sweet sound of lib-bashing-lib is music to my ears.
I guess he missed the debate
April 18, 2008 - 12:23 ET by motherbeltI guess he missed the debate the other night when the media were so obvious in their bias against him....
Black
April 18, 2008 - 12:40 ET by iveseenitallBlack Entertainment Television, The Black Caucus in Congress, Black Student Unions on campus, Historically Black Colleges, set-asides for blacks. Many want the first Black President. What is it, 12% of the population? Oh, I thought, in America...never mind.
NEVER,NEVER trust a "liberal"
But this black guy is a
April 18, 2008 - 15:02 ET by motherbeltThis black guy is a Clinton supporter. That's why he's dissing blacks supporting Obama as racial pandering.
But what does it tell you when the founder of BET thinks Obama is too liberal?
The Solution is Simple...
April 18, 2008 - 12:50 ET by Tim the EnchanterThe solution to criticism of BHO is quite simple... only criticise his white half.
"Geraldine Ferraro said it
April 18, 2008 - 13:06 ET by bigtimer"Geraldine Ferraro said it right. The problem is, Geraldine Ferraro is white. This campaign has such a hair-trigger on anything racial ... it is almost impossible for anybody to say anything."
Hey Bob your side of the aisle are finally reaping what you have all sown for decades now.
How does it feel...and what are you gonna' do about it...eh?!
I find it humorous to finally see the tables turned on the leftists...we have had to deal with the overboard PC speech forever...including so called hate speech if their side of the aisle says it is....
Oh the hypocrisy of it all.
"Never murder your opponent when he is committing suicide." ~ W. Churchill
Johnson is
April 18, 2008 - 13:10 ET by Delsaabsolutly correct.
Obama has the democrat nomination locked up simply because he is a black man and the delegates will not dare vote against him.
His skin color gets him in and even if Hillary was not his opponent, he'd take the parties nomination.
Johnson has the credibility to tell the truth because he is not white like G Ferraro.
She was a bitter white woman.
Really a sad state of affairs when someone can be nominated because of their gender or skin color.
This Will Shock You...
April 18, 2008 - 13:41 ET by unkeeafRead the "This Will Shock You" post over at USA Conservative. It will prove to you how out of touch one of the Democrat candidates actually is.
http://usaconservati...
Even though the "black guy" is a Clinton supporter
April 18, 2008 - 17:31 ET by DelsaHis analysis happens to be correct.
I'v been thinking as I watch the news media and their in the bag support for Obama and it occurred to me, the MSM and democrats in general just plane ol do not like the Clintons.
Obama will get the anyone but Clinton vote in the democrat nomination process.
Just sayin
Whiner
April 18, 2008 - 19:00 ET by ricklailThis may be off theme but I see Johnson as just another whining lib. Prior to the above mentioned story some other articles ran about the Charlotte Bobcats in the Charlotte disturber. Johnson was crying because big corporations were not sponsoring his team. Wachovia, Bank of America and other companies around Charlotte were not beating down his door to purchase the shyboxes in Bobcat Arena. Why are they not supporting the Bobcats? They stink to high heaven. It is such a shame that Michael Jordan has anything to do with that team. Charlotte had a perfectly good arena that would seat 23,000 for basket ball. Johnson came to town and told them he wanted a new arena with all the luxury skyboxes cutting down the seating to 17,000. There was a lot of gripping going on amongst ACC schools because they didn't get as many tickets for the ACC tournament because of the number of seats. The Greensboro Coliseum seats about 23,000.
A hotel/motel tax was approved to help pay for it. If he don't shut up the people of Charlotte, by the way a crappy sports town, is going to send him and his team packing just as they did the George Shinn and the Hornets. The bad thing about is that the folks around Charlotte will wind up paying for a useless arena. Many country acts won't go there because it is not big enough.
"A pharisee is hard on others and easy on himself, but a spiritual man is easy on others and hard on himself." A.W. Tozer (Pharisee=modern day liberal)
Bob Johson: There is a Liberal Media
April 18, 2008 - 21:29 ET by RMRMatthew, I am not as excited as you are to pat Bob on the back for finally acknowledging that most of his friends in the media are liberals. Bob was well aware of that fact for decades, but said nothing because it was benefiting him. Now that most of his media friends are supporting Obama he suddenly discover they are all liberals?
Keep in mind that Bob is one of a few black billionaires in America. The "cream of the crop". The only thing that surpass that is a black President. Bob will do anything in his power to prevent that from happening.
That's why I believe his admission derives mostly from self-preservation and isolation, and not from a deep desire to tell the truth.
This is a well contrived plot to inspire racial voting!
April 20, 2008 - 05:24 ET by SometimeyBarack not only didn't have a majority of the African American vote from the beginning, he did not get that majority until after the Clintons disparaged Martin Luther King's roll in civil rights, racialized Barack's success, and tried to racialize the vote by declaring that the African American vote for Barack was a vote for "pride." Every description of the African American vote, "pride" and now "a candidate with a real chance to win," are the creation of Bill Clinton.
Ever since the South Carolina loss, he's been trying to reduce the distinction between the candidates to race and gender. If he can get white people to believe that African Americans are voting racially, some of them will do the same, and that's the goal. If Bill hadn't succeeded in polarizing people racially and sexually, Barack would have beaten Hillary to a pulp.
Check out: "Jack Nicholson, White Men and Hillary Clinton" http://www.digitaljournal.com/article/253235
Liberal Media Mention?
September 25, 2008 - 17:04 ET by IndigoChillWhere in this article does Johnson admit that "the media" is liberal? There's a quote "liberal media" but that's two words without real context.
Even that aside, "the media" is made of people, not all of whom are liberal (and I'd need to see some fact-checking from anyone claiming even the majority of "the media" is liberal.)