| Howard Kurtz Contradicts the Washington Post |
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| by Tom McGregor | Fri, Sep 19, 2008, 03:09 PM |
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Howard Kurtz is a columnist for the Washington Post, but he fails to defend the integrity of a fellow reporter at his own newspaper. He recently posted a column about an ad by the McCain campaign that links Sen. Barack Obama with Franklin Raines, who allegedly committed “extensive financial fraud” while working at Fannie Mae, and Raines may have pocketed millions of dollars during its eventual collapse. Mr. Kurtz commented, “this John McCain ad is based on a disputed premise.” Not coincidentally, the commercial’s main charge is based on an April story in the Washington Post that claimed Raines has “taken calls from Barack Obama’s presidential campaign seeking his advice on mortgage and housing policy matters.” Anita Huslin, a Post reporter, says Raines told her that during an in-person interview. According to Kurtz, “an Obama spokesman called the ad’s contention ‘ a flat-out lie,’ saying Raines has ‘never advised Senator Obama about anything, ever.” But Raines did not claim to have advised the Apparently, Mr. Kurtz is more willing to believe a statement from the Obama campaign rather than believe in the integrity of a fellow reporter at the Washington Post. To read the entire article from the Washington Post, link here:
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Comments (6)
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written by HSH , September 19, 2008 Tom: Maybe you would like to report ALL of the media organizations who are calling out the McCain campaign on this one. For example, from Karen Tumulty at Time Magazine (writing about the new racist McCain ad): "This is hardly subtle: Sinister images of two black men, followed by one of a vulnerable-looking elderly white woman. Let me stipulate: Obama's Fannie Mae connections are completely fair game. But this ad doesn't even mention a far more significant tie--that of Jim Johnson, the former Fannie Mae chairman who had to resign as head of Obama's vice presidential search team after it was revealed he got a sweetheart deal on a mortgage from Countrywide Financial. Instead, it relies on a fleeting and tenuous reference in a Washington Post Style section story to suggest that Obama's principal economic adviser is former Fannie Mae Chairman Frank Raines. Why? One reason might be that Johnson is white; Raines is black. And the image of the victim doesn't seem accidental either, given the fact that older white women are a key swing constituency in this election. After the McCain campaign introduced the ad, the Obama campaign responded with this statement: Statement from Frank Raines on the ad: "I am not an advisor to Barack Obama, nor have I provided his campaign with advice on housing or economic matters." "This is another flat-out lie from a dishonorable campaign that is increasingly incapable of telling the truth. Frank Raines has never advised Senator Obama about anything -- ever. And by the way, someone whose campaign manager and top advisor worked and lobbied for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac shouldn't be throwing stones from his seven glass houses," said Obama-Biden campaign spokesman Bill Burton." The Associated Press also has a story out on the falcity of the ad, as does Politco. I'm sure by this evening there will be others. John McCain is truly desperate. To follow the Willy Horton playbook is just the latest.
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written by dt , September 19, 2008 Nice try, HSH. Don't divert the argument. Did Raines lie, and did he advise the Obama campaign on economic matters? There seems to be a fact issue on that score. The ad has not been shown to be false. Its "falcity" (sic) is yet to be proved. At most, it is debatable, since Raines is on record with a liberal paper with both stories. I tend to believe the older version, which was not made in the final stretch, did not hurt Obama at the time, and was made before the crisis came to a head. Don't worry-an ad on Jim Johnson is coming. You can only put so much sleeze in a one minute ad. Let's talk about the millions given to dem. candidates over the years, including Obama, by Freddie and Fannie, which didn't help matters. How about the role of the democrats in the creation of the mess we have today? You folks speak about how Phil Gramm engineered an opening to the mortgage finance business, but don't mention the 40 democrat senators, including Mr. Reid, who voted for it and pushed it, with the support of Bill Clinton and Robert Rubin. Who's lying?
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written by jb , September 19, 2008 What a load of bunk... The elderly "white " woman MIGHT be: Hispanic, Italian,Polynesian, Turkish, Greek, Eastern European, even Mexican.... hard to tell, but in the sick universe of the left, ANY ad involving a black man smacks of racism. Meanwhile, Johnson took a sweetheart loan while Raines paid millions of dollars of fines for his role in the Fannie Mae accounting scandal, after being pinged for extensive fraud..Raines was in the driver's seat of the car that bilked the taxpayers of billions. But hey, a white man got a sweetheart deal and so no ad can be run without the white man segment. What a racist load of..... As for sinister...says more about the racism of the Times than it does about McCain. Wow...now pictures of a black man are automatically deemed sinister.
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written by HSH , September 20, 2008 If Raines says he's not an advisor to Obama, and Obama says Raines is not an advisor, I think he's not an advisor. I'm glad Raines paid fines -- they went to shareholders. That's more than you can say for Phil Gramm. We'll see if he has to poney up for the excesses of UBS. Today, Sen. Obama surrounded himself with wise counsel and was careful and measured in his statements to the press. John McCain screamed and ranted and tried to be William Jennings Bryan. So who do you think showed better leadership?
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written by jb , September 20, 2008 "So who do you think showed better leadership?/ [HSH] Yeah, I saw that talking point, too. It didn't work the first time I heard it, either. When McCain gives an impassioned speech to his crowd, he is "ranting and screaming." Hmmmm, and when Obama.....he is a soaring orator. As for yesterday,I watched both, and Obama did nothing more than scoff and point the finger of blame saying it was all the fault of the big bad Republicans. To me, true leadership is about problem solving, not fingerpointing. It would also be good if Obama accepted some of the responsibility for the debacle on behalf of his party who played a huge role. Write comment
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