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14 comments
August 21, 2010 at 4:59 pm
Moe
Just heard a network news head (not cable) say of Obama’s brief vacation “White House officials say the president is never out of touch iwth events”. Just think about that – an experienced reporter on a network that has covered presidents for 70 years, thinks it’s necessary to preface the obvcious with “White Hpuse officials say”. As in “Movie directors say that talkies may sell more tickets”.
So yeah, FOX is a disgrace, but they get away with it because the competition – on TV anyway – is so friggin’ inept.
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August 21, 2010 at 5:25 pm
Vern R. Kaine
Good video. What did you think of Olbermann’s “Special Comment” on the (supposed) Mosque?
I’m no fan of Olbermann, but the only thing I saw from Fox & Co company as a challenge for what he said was the way in which he said it. Olbermann does have a ridiculous flair for the dramatic (which is horribly cheesy, in my opinion), which they called out, but I saw nothing to say that this was even going to be an actual Mosque. Is it really proposed to be just basketball courts and a library?
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August 21, 2010 at 6:27 pm
Moe
Arb – I am so stealiing this to post (credited of course). It’s been pretty disgraceful all around how poorly it’s been reported. I expect a line from Limbaugh and the like – but most legit reporters (Robert’s is the best example from the video) probably didn’t even bother to listen to Obama’s entire remarks.
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August 21, 2010 at 6:31 pm
Moe
Didn’t hear Olbermann Vern – had to quit him a few years ago. Maybe I should start watching again.
As for the mosque (or so it’s being called), my understanding is that it’s a communiity center (like the JCC) with all the usual stuff – pool, gym, meeting rooms, offices etc and it includes a prayer space, probably what Christians would call a chapel. Not quite a church, but a place to have services in a building whose purpose is broader.
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August 21, 2010 at 6:38 pm
The Ground Zero Mosque Hysteria | Whatever Works
[…] The Ground Zero Mosque Hysteria Posted on August 21, 2010 by Moe| Leave a comment When unbloggy, I ’borrow’ . . . I’ve even lifted part of the headline from the post by my friend The Arborist. […]
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August 22, 2010 at 7:58 am
The Arbourist
So yeah, FOX is a disgrace, but they get away with it because the competition – on TV anyway – is so friggin’ inept.
I agree Moe, but more so I find it disturbing that such a partisan source of information has the capacity to set the tone for a story, or simply fabricate an attack piece and then have other media outlets mimic their lie.
Should we really be surprised though? A good deal of the major media has traded their independence in for ‘access’ to government sources. The complicity witnessed here sadly seems to be par for the course in most cases.
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August 22, 2010 at 10:46 am
Vern R. Kaine
Moe,
Don’t forget the “o” in AbOurist! :)
(Just keeping it real for Canada…)
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August 22, 2010 at 11:17 am
Alan Scott
You people are experts at parsing words. Every word has to be microscoped . Obama ‘did’ infer support for the Mosque. And also if we use the same standards that the narrator uses, then the Fox commentator did not say that President Obama endorsed building the Mosque at ground zero. He said that it was the impression of a majority of the people in the room.
I have said it many times, whenever Obama says ” let me be clear “, he is anything but clear. If he was ‘clear’, no one, not even the evil Foxnews could possibly misconstrue what the man said. Funny how such a ‘right winger’ as Ms. Roberts could get the say wrong impression as the folks at Foxnews.
You know guys, if your hero would stop raising vagueness to an art form, perhaps these little misunderstandings would not happen. Remember George W. Bush’s plain speech patterns and how you guys made fun of it. Well at least, whether you hated what he said or thought he was lying, clarity was rarely an issue.
And as far as our President doing his duty to defend the United States Constitution, when will he, to paraphrase Jon Stewart ‘start kicking his own ass’.
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August 22, 2010 at 12:15 pm
The Arbourist
Obama ‘did’ infer support for the Mosque.
What an interesting observation. Please quote exactly the material on which this inference is based. :)
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August 22, 2010 at 4:07 pm
Moe
Yeah, but I never could get the pronunciation of that wierd Candadian ‘ou’ sound (sorry guys – it’s just wierd!)
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August 23, 2010 at 5:00 pm
Alan Scott
The Arbourist,
” What an interesting observation. Please quote exactly the material on which this inference is based. :) ”
The word is ” infer “. Being a politician by trade the President is always careful about explicitly saying anything. I believe they call it ” plausible deniability “. Knowing you as I do, I was also careful when I said infer. My main defense is that so many people inferred that President Obama supported the Mosque that there has to be something to it.
But you asked for specifics and since you are one of the few Liberals I argue with who provides them to me, when I request them, I owe you my best shot. Forgive me if I get a word or two wrong on my quotes, they are not intentional.
Obama said, ” We must all recognize and respect the sensitivities surrounding the development of lower Manhattan. ” However he never tells us how exactly we do that. I believe he is just covering himself and setting up a contrast with later remarks. Then he said ” Ground Zero is Hallowed Ground “. Again, what the hell does it mean? I am skipping some of his remarks, not to destroy their context, but for brevity here.
Now he shifts gears and says, ” As a citizen and as President I believe that Muslims have the right to practice their religion as everyone else and that includes the right to build a place of worship and a Community Center on Private Property in lower Manhattan.”
Of course legally Muslims cannot be stopped from building on this site, but that is not our argument. Now Obama is inferring that without building the Mosque at the proposed site that they cannot practice their religion. He does not mention that there are plenty of Mosques in New York. He does not mention that there are alternative sites that the Ground Zero Mosque can be built on.
So anyway, I take as Obama’s meaning that Muslims right to build their Mosque is not just legal, but in his mind , trumps the victims’ families ” sensitivities “.
Now as President Obama, to repeat myself is the master of ambiguity, you really cannot blame his opponents for taking advantage and putting a meaning on his words that after the fact, he may be embarrassed by.
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August 23, 2010 at 9:55 pm
Vern R. Kaine
To Alan’s point, the media didn’t help the issue by portraying the issue as so divisive between Democrats:
From the AP: “Sen. Harry Reid of Nevada on Monday became the highest profile Democrat to break with (emphasis mine) President Barack Obama, who on Friday backed the right for the developers to build a mosque near ground zero.”
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5hHYUXhXg36rpzKeUva55Llvea41AD9HKOTM04
Repeated here by CBS News
http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-503544_162-20013773-503544.html
To Arb’s point, even the AP makes clear that the President backed the “right” to build, and didn’t say “build it”, yet in the same sentence makes it out as though Obama’s for building it at Ground Zero, and Reid is against it.
Myself, I remain firm in my position but I’m still curious as to what this “Mosque” is actually going to be.
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August 23, 2010 at 10:49 pm
david michel
people are stupid
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August 24, 2010 at 5:59 am
Alan Scott
The Arbourist,
I must apologise. It has been pointed out to me that I have used infer when I should have used imply.
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