In today's Chicago Sun-Times, columnist Mary Mitchell writes of a panel conducted at the UNITY convention of minority journalists:
Earlier, an NPR editor asked panelists whether it was appropriate for journalists to clap for Obama -- and the question uncorked a mounting frustration among many black reporters."The total duality of it gets to me," said Les Payne, a member of the panel.
Payne is a founding member of the National Association of Black Journalists and an editor at Newsday.
"There's no question that mainstream journalists completely adore McCain and cover him favorably," Payne said.
"Now it is: You cannot do what we do routinely . . . and have been doing for a century," he said.
"You have been writing favorable stories about [President] Bush for eight years. This is a serious problem and one of the reasons why this organization was founded," he said.
That the mainstream media adore McCain comes as a surprise to all of us continually irritated by its fawning and swooning over Barack Obama.
Even more incredible is Payne's assertion that journalists have provided favorable coverage of President Bush for all of the last eight years. The world of the MSM must be even more detached from reality than previously believed.
The Newsday columnist provided useful information as to one of the reasons UNITY was established: To stem the flow of all those gushing pieces about Bush.
Now there's a change they can believe in.
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Hmph...
July 28, 2008 - 10:09 ET by Dr_LibertyWho knew?
<insert witty signature here>
Who knew?
July 28, 2008 - 10:28 ET by Mike BatesNot me. They must have done it so darn cleverly so as to not make it obvious.
I wonder if the FEC and the IRS would be interested?
July 28, 2008 - 10:20 ET by c5thenSo apparently UNITY was founded for a partisan political purpose, not what it says it was founded for. I wonder if it has tax-exempt status?
By the way who was the panelist refering to in the first sentence?n NPR? If so I think they have Mika syndrome. You know...the one where their own version of reality is substituted for the real one because they like it better.
The day that "politician" became a career choice is the day we started losing the Republic. Let's get it back! Alan Keyes '08.
Tax exempt
July 28, 2008 - 10:31 ET by Mike BatesI wonder if it has tax-exempt status?
Taxes? They don't need to pay no steenking taxes.
"There's no question that
July 28, 2008 - 10:22 ET by Newsbusterbrown"There's no question that mainstream journalists completely adored McCain and covered him favorably before he became the de facto Republican standard bearer," Payne said.
Fixed.
“There are no easy answers' but there are simple answers. We must have the courage to do what we know is morally right.” - Ronald Reagan (1964 Republican Convention)
Wouldn't you know it! Darn
July 28, 2008 - 10:45 ET by BuxomAnnieMcGreggorWouldn't you know it! Darn the luck of it all... I just returned from an extended vacation and read Payne's comments this morning. At first I thought I came back to an alternate universe... but then I realized that I just slightly overshot Earth and landed on Uranus. Payne is just one tool among many in a larger tool box we call MSM.
Give the MSM the middle finger.... vote for John McCain! - (I know it's not much... but it just might be all we got) BuxomAnnieMcGreggor
Joke of the day, this one's
July 28, 2008 - 10:46 ET by wiwfJoke of the day, this one's going to be hard to top!
The Rocky Mountain Collegian: Illustrating Idiocy
Joke of the day
July 28, 2008 - 10:50 ET by Mike BatesJoke of the day, this one's going to be hard to top!
I dunno, Barry Obama usually comes out with a serious knee-slapper at least a couple times a day.
Overshooting Earth
July 28, 2008 - 10:49 ET by Mike BatesSubmitted for your approval. . . in the Twilight Zone.
Newsday's Payne
July 28, 2008 - 11:26 ET by xyzzypoofs"Newsday's Les Payne" ----> F A I L !
Payne----> F A I L !
July 28, 2008 - 11:40 ET by Mike BatesDoubt if he was ever interested in "passing."
newsday ?
July 28, 2008 - 11:57 ET by larry on LIonce a decent paper, with a most liberal bent, now a leftist rag with the likes of " les the pain in the ass". he is so over the hill, he has become irrelevant.
Irrelevant
July 28, 2008 - 12:47 ET by Mike Bateshe is so over the hill, he has become irrelevant.
As long as he can play so well to that Obamarama beat, he's got a position with the MSM.
I wonder if Bizarro Lois
July 28, 2008 - 11:32 ET by KillgraveI wonder if Bizarro Lois Lane belongs to this UNITY clutch.
Bizarro Lois Lane
July 28, 2008 - 11:39 ET by Mike BatesShe was sponsored for membership by Magneto and Titanium Man.
4 years ago, maybe...
July 28, 2008 - 11:51 ET by mattm4 years ago, maybe...
Ground Control to Major
July 28, 2008 - 11:57 ET by BuxomAnnieMcGreggorGround Control to Major Payne.... Ground Control to Major Payne.... we haven't heard anything sensible from you for years.... how is that deep space spacewalk working out for you out in the far left quadrant? Why are your messages comming to us from Uranus? Could you please back your head out of that black hole for one minute and respond?
Give the MSM the middle finger.... vote for John McCain! - BuxomAnnieMcGreggor
Black holes
July 28, 2008 - 12:45 ET by Mike BatesCould you please back your head out of that black hole for one minute and respond?
Careful, now. You know what they think of that term in Dallas County. They might put an APB out on you for using hate speech.
Dont you just love
July 28, 2008 - 13:38 ET by I.am.DILLIGAFit when the media pees on your leg and tells you its raining I know I do. And shouldnt he be called Major Payne?
What we have here is a failure to communicate. HE HE HE HE
Guns and Violence are not the answer but they are one solution to the problem== SARG
Payne's Column Today
July 28, 2008 - 14:11 ET by Gat New YorkIn a column today Les Payne took after McCain and Bush and in doing so directly insulted many other militay people:
http://www.newsday.com/news/columnists/ny-oppay285779780jul28,0,7428649.column
“ . . . any scion of a wealthy, white family can be taught to fly a jet fighter by a patient, long-suffering military flight instructor. As for getting one's plane shot out of the sky, as McCain did over North Vietnam, we need seek no analysis beyond that of Gen. Wesley Clark's.”
It is worth noting how he needs to emphasize “white family.” A review of Payne’s work shows a clear pattern of racism toward whites and he does not hide it.
“Other knowledgeable war veterans, and I humbly include myself, know that cocky flyboy pilots like McCain, indeed, tend not to have the right stuff to be named commanders.”“Furthermore, some actual commanders, Gen. William C. Westmoreland for example - as well as some commanders-in-chief, such as George W. Bush - do not have the winning stuff that makes leaders successful.”
I guess Payne didn’t get the memo that we are winning in Iraq.
It is worth noting that Payne, who claims to be one of those knowledgeable war veterans, did serve six years in the Army but as a journalist and a speechwriter for - - Gen. William Westmoreland. In Vietnam he ran the Army’s newspaper there. I guess that places him on the same level as McCain.