Isn't this convenient? Finally, more than a week after Election Day, Chris Cuomo of ABC News' "Good Morning America" puts together a fairly hard-hitting look at terrorist William Ayers, the would-be mass murderer, who helped to launch the career of then-Illinois state senate candidate Barack Obama.
Now that it hardly matters anymore politically, now that Obama has secured at least 365 of the 538 votes in the Electoral College, Cuomo finally decides it's time to be a journalist and asks Bill Ayers hard questions over and over again. It's not a bad interview, but wouldn't it have had more news value a few weeks ago when Americans were weighing the content of now-President-elect Obama's character? (Article on GMA website here summarizes the interview.)
Although a "terrorist" is one who seeks to create a climate of public fear in order to accomplish a political goal -"terrorist" and "killer" aren't necessarily the same thing-the former Weather Underground leader still insists he was never a terrorist.
Ayers remains evasive and parses his words carefully. "I never hurt or killed anyone," he tells Cuomo, leaving out the fact that his terrorist group plotted to kill hundreds of U.S. military personnel and their dates at a March 1970 dance at Fort Dix. The only reason it didn't take place was because his fellow terrorists blew themselves up while making the bomb.
I suppose Osama bin Laden may not have actually killed anyone either. He just planned attacks. By Ayers's reasoning, bin Laden is not a terrorist.
Ayers also denounced his critics' supposed use of "guilt by association" and "the politics of fear" in tying him to Obama.
Cuomo could have challenged Ayers more, but at least it's a beginning. Now doubt we're going to be hearing a lot more from Ayers as he tours the country promoting his crackpot book, Race Course Against White Supremacy, co-written with his wife and fellow terrorist, Bernardine Dohrn.
Cuomo also took Ayers to task for contradictory descriptions of his relationship with Obama. It appears Cuomo was relying on the Chicago Tribune report that NewsBuster Tom Blumer referenced earlier today. (NB's John Stephenson previewed the Ayers interview yesterday.)
Transcript to follow...
(Note: This post does not necessarily reflect the views of Capital Research Center, a nonpartisan think tank that studies the politics of philanthropy.)
—Matthew Vadum is Editor of Organization Trends and Foundation Watch at the Capital Research Center.
Editor at Large
Comments Policy
LIB-MEDIA FROM NOW ON
November 14, 2008 - 12:22 ET by reelman46LIB MEDIA TACTIC FROM NOW ON
Cowards
in great numbers can do very impressive things…even more amazing things
when truth does not matter. The trial run for this generation was the
years of bashing Bush daily…there was no slack, there was nothing he
could do that met lib-media approval…at least Klinton signed Welfare
Reform for conservative praise. Count on this to continue at least 3
more years, come what may.
Now its “commandment one” to engage in “preemptive” tainting any conservative or Republican that may have national aspirations.
Did any conservative media follow a losing democrat VP home to harass
them? Send hordes of dirt diggers to their home town area? Journalism
now is simply “repeating the AP or Reuters” like magpies. It matters
not how tilted it is, it matters not how unverified it is…the press
borg simply act like a copy machine.
Spiking or verifying stories is limited to negative articles about
democrats. When it comes to legitimate journalism…its reserved for your
political enemies. Hey, when 90% or more of the major news staffs have
been voting liberal all their lives…we call that “balance”…we call that
“objective”.
Why do millions have to search the Web for so much missing
information on major issues? One minor example would be the “oil
company profits” rants…not one lib-media mentioned those same companies
paid record taxes to the federal treasury. The huge tax burden on
business is simply not worthy of lib-media mention because they can
never pay enough to grow socialism-create dependence-buy votes.
Look for the Palin smear campaign to be closely followed by dinging
Jindal, Romney, etc. Obama, the radical socialist, will be on
an endless honeymoon” with the fawning invested lib-media as
blameshifting, factless assertions, lies, distortions and deletions as
the radical applies the failed policies of punishing taxes, wingnut
judges, fanatical spending and serial apologies about America.
We will be told “give it time”, “you don’t understand”, ‘fairness
has some pain”, “you are selfish”, “the world demands we change”.
You can’t have Jimmah Carter II surrounded by the same socialist crowd
and get different results. get your thickest note pad out…its gonna be
filled with excuses…you can also add all the awful “unintended
consequences” liberal policies are famous for generating.
Always remember Obama was the candidate that excited Hollyweird, many
thug dictators and terrorist groups…what does that tell you? (Suckers)
Doug Schexnayder, Ph.D. (theconservativecrawfish)
Of course Ayers was not a
November 14, 2008 - 12:22 ET by SickofLibsOf course Ayers was not a terrorist, he was a patriot.
Too late to regain any credibility now, Cuomo. You all blew it, and we're not forgetting it. Just ask the newly-awakened Campbell Brown how that's going.
A patriot for the Soviet
November 14, 2008 - 16:29 ET by Tim the EnchanterA patriot for the Soviet Union or the Chi Comms, maybe. Not an American patriot.
»→ ABC NEWS
November 14, 2008 - 12:26 ET by Cool ArrowABC now goes back to set the record straight on Bill Ayers? WoooOOO! I'm impressed, aren't you?
The viewer is suddenly imputed capability to connect our President-Elect to the Timothy McVeigh fringe of our society.
Andrew
November 14, 2008 - 12:33 ET by NorthCoasterToo little too late. What use is all of this old news now. A true Journalist would have looked into this story and investigated Ayers thoroughly 10 months ago! The "Chicago Associates" are in control of Washington and it won't be pretty, they will harrass anyone that doesn't tow the line.
MSM says "We covered your story."
November 14, 2008 - 12:45 ET by ckbennetttnThis is so duplicitous. It gives the MSM the ground to say "look we covered the Ayers story and he's just a nice old guy in the neighborhood." First off, with they way he handled him, Cuomo could've done this even before Nov 4. They are trying to re-legitmize themselves by saying they've done a story on Ayers.
We're not buying what you're selling!!!
“I am the latte-sipping, New York Times-reading, Volvo-driving, no-gun-owning, effete, politically correct, arrogant liberal.” --Barack Obama
Third story?
November 14, 2008 - 15:20 ET by BaxterJIsn't this the third post of the day about William Ayers?
BaxterJ
November 15, 2008 - 10:16 ET by Matthew VadumBaxterJ: You betcha. It's hard to get enough of Bill Ayers. He's so fascinatingly depraved.
—Matthew Vadum is Editor of Organization Trends and Foundation Watch, two monthly newsletters published by Capital Research Center
We have control over Hollywood
November 14, 2008 - 15:31 ET by KimnotaThe over-paid Hollywood celebrities donated millions of dollars to get this thug elected. Many delivered 30 to $50K each to the Obama campaign via the DNC. 9 out of 10 movies suck. When an actor can release 7 movies in one year, you get what you should expect. Conservatives who didn't vote for Obama are the backbone [taxpayers] of this country, and spend the most to keep the economy going. People should stop going to movies, completely, not just cutting back. The hollywood elites should not be able to buy our president.