Common

As NewsBusters has been reporting for months, Obama-loving media are busily depicting every criticism of the Administration as being racially motivated.

On Saturday, Don Lemon brought on a number of guests on "CNN Newsroom" to discuss how the recent controversy surrounding rapper Common's appearance at the White House is all because he's black (video follows with transcript and commentary):

You might think most rappers aren’t exactly Shakespeare, but left-wing radio talker Randi Rhodes was implying that connection on Wednesday when it came to the rapper Common’s "poetry" at the Obama White House. "He’s brilliant, he’s absolutely brilliant," she asserted. And conservatives would oppose Shakespeare, too:

Look, the conservatives, if Shakespeare were alive, and he went to the White House to get, you know, some sort of a reading, they would be outraged about him -- talking about killing his brother, and the father had to go, and a mother he slept with -- They'd be out of their fricking minds with this. They don't understand culture! Or literature!

Rhodes also asserted on Wednesday that it was somehow a Tea Party member that shot Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, despite ample evidence to the contrary.

"It is edgy to have people on the mainstream of Hollywood who celebrate cop killers," but it's quite another thing when the president of the United States invites such a person like rapper Common to the White House for a poetry event, NewsBusters publisher Brent Bozell told Fox News's Sean Hannity last night.

Although Common wrote a rap song defending a convicted cop killer and has been known to be critical of interracial dating, the media largely ignored the controversial figure to protect President Obama from another Rev. Wright-like row, Bozell noted.

[See video after the page break or click here for MP3 audio]

On Thursday morning, CNN largely dismissed the controversy over the White House invite of rapper Common, using talking points from the White House and Comedy Central's Daily Show to marginalize conservative critics.

Anchor Carol Costello deflected attention away from the rapper's violent lyrics by quoting a rap of his that has a pro-life message. She quoted none of his violent lyrics, however. Common has composed work in the past praising cop-killer Assata Shakur in "A Song for Assata," and has also ranted "burn a Bush" in rapping about the former president.

Conservatives were outraged over the artist's invite to the White House for an evening of poetry and song. The White House did condemn his violent lyrics "that has been written about" press secretary Jay Carney clarified, but did not renege on Common's invitation.

(Video after the break.)
 

Washington Post reporter Dan Zak was assigned the story of the rapper Common’s performance at the White House on Wednesday night, and he not only buried the lead – he completely ignored it. I don’t mean that he failed to quote any of the controversial rap/poetry lyrics about “Burn a Bush” or hailing convicted cop-killers Assata Shakur and Mumia Abu-Jamal. He did fail to do that.

No, the more interesting story is how Common’s performance apparently ended by kissing Obama’s ring, that “God is watching” and that through “One [Martin Luther] King’s dream, he was able to Barack us.” Here’s how the poem unfolded:

According to Good Morning America reporter Jake Tapper, a rapper who called for the burning of George W. Bush "is not particularly controversial." The artist, known as Common, has repeatedly defended cop killers such as Mumia Abu-Jamal and appeared at a White House poetry event, Wednesday.

Tapper on Thursday described this as an "uproar on the right" and strangely suggested, "Common is not particularly controversial. He's not a gangster rapper. He's been in a Jonas Brothers song, Gap ads and a Queen Latifah romcom." He didn't explain how appearing in a romantic comedy negates championing a woman that New Jersey State Troopers President David Jones called a "domestic terrorist."

CBS's Early Show and NBC's Today both ignored the story, so Tapper should be given credit for covering the subject at all. He also highlighted some the rapper's more incendiary actions: "...Common praised a fugitive, convicted of brutally murdering a state trooper in 1973."

[See video below. MP3 audio here.]