Timothy McNulty | October 29, 2008
Here's a story that's driving talk radio today: the LA Times refusing to release a video showing Obama talking about his friendship with a Palestinian scholar. From the Times:
John McCain's presidential campaign Tuesday accused the Los Angeles Times of
"intentionally suppressing" a videotape it obtained of a 2003 banquet where
then-state Sen. Barack Obama spoke of his friendship with Rashid Khalidi, a
leading Palestinian scholar and activist.
The Times first reported on the
videotape in an April
2008 story about Obama's ties with Palestinians and Jews as he navigated the
politics of Chicago. The report included a detailed description of the tape, but
the newspaper did not make the video public.
The complaints dovetail with the latest Howie Kurtz story saying media coverage of McCain is more negative than it is to Obama.
UPDATE: McCain and Palin are both going after this story hard, and Obama responds from the stump. McCain made the explosive charge that Bill Ayres may have been on the tape too. From the WashPost (which also has the reports that McCain has his own ties to Khalidi):
"What if there was a tape with John McCain with a neo-Nazi outfit being held
by some media outlet?" McCain asked in an interview with a Cuban radio station
Wednesday morning. "I think the treatment of the issue would be slightly
different."
McCain added another potentially explosive charge Wednesday morning to a
growing flap over the release of the tape provided to the LA Times by a source
on condition they not publish it, alleging that former 60s radical William Ayers
had been at the banquet -- something that has not been reported by the
Times.
"We should know about their relationship," McCain said, referring to Ayers.
"Including, apparently, information that is held by the Los Angeles Times
concerning an event that Mr. Ayers attended with a PLO spokesman. The Los
Angeles Times refuses to make that videotape public."
Palin in Bowling Green, Ohio, (where she's joined by Plumber Joe), from the WashPost:
"It must be nice for a candidate to have major news organizations looking out
for their best interests like that," she said, as the audience cheered her on.
"Politicians would love to have a pet newspaper of their very own. In this case
we have a newspaper willing to throw aside even the public's right to know in
order to protect a candidate that its own editorial board has endorsed. If
there's a Pulitzer prize category, for excellence in kowtowing, the L.A. Times
wins."
Obama on the stump in North Carolina, via Time/CNN:
"By the end of the week, he'll be accusing me of being a secret
communist because I shared my toys in kindergarten."
Biden also pushed back re: Israel, in Florida. Via Hotline/NBC:
"I've worked with every prime minister of Israel from Golda Meir right
through to the present prime minister," Biden said. "That's why Barack and I
know, we know what the Israelis know and all our friends know. That is, the
greater the respect for America, the stronger America is in the world, the more
secure Israel and the rest of our friends are in the world."
Posted
Oct 29 2008, 11:13 AM
by
Timothy McNulty