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READERS' REPRESENTATIVE: Coverage of Obama and Wright needed more detail
Since Obama’s emergence as a viable candidate, I’ve received a smattering of e-mail from readers who think The Star should report more on the beliefs of Wright’s Trinity United Church of Christ and his emphatic, often controversial proclamations.
I believe that readers could perceive bias against Obama if journalists investigated his church’s teachings and not the other candidates’, as if Trinity United’s mission alone is worthy of scrutiny because some find its pastor extreme. And it’s worthy of mention that some of Wright’s comments, including his affiliation with Louis Farrakhan, have been discussed in The Star as far back as March 7 of last year.
After an ABC News report on Wright a week and a half ago, talk shows and the blogosphere kicked into overdrive debating some of Wright’s comments, including his suggestion that the government supplies inner-city neighborhoods with drugs, and that HIV is man-made. Most divisive to many readers: His vehement declaration of “God damn America” for its treatment of the black community.
The Star ran a story about the controversy on Page A-5 on March 15, and the Opinion section has touched on it dozens of times since. But many readers thought The Star was late to the party.
The topic was the lead story on Page A-1 last Wednesday, in a news story from McClatchy newspapers that keyed on Obama’s speech about Wright and the larger issue of race. The piece largely focused on political analysts’ opinions on how Obama handled the affair, which I think was fine.
But I agree wholeheartedly with several readers who thought the second sentence — a fairly gushing approval from analyst G. Terry Madonna, saying the speech “transcends John F. Kennedy’s speech on his faith and his politics” — was way too positive so high in the story.
The story also flatly mischaracterized Wright’s “God damn America” statement by paraphrasing it: “blacks should damn America for continuing to mistreat them.” That’s absolutely not an equivalent sentiment.
There’s also the legitimate question of whether many journalists have allowed the Obama campaign to frame the debate exclusively in terms of race and not Wright’s patriotism.
The deliberation will obviously continue, and I’m sure the numerous Hillary Clinton and McCain supporters who have complained about a lack of media scrutiny on Obama are relishing the storm.
This discussion will score at least one definitive blow for the truth: It’s finally common knowledge that Obama belongs to a Christian church. Now let’s hope that people will quit circulating that absurd chain e-mail declaring that he’s a covert Muslim intent on foisting Islamic law on the United States.