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The Spectacle Blog
It was so brazen it was amazing.
ABC Anchor Diane Sawyer sits across from Bill O’Reilly last night and casually says that ABC broke the story about the tapes featuring the sermons of now radioactive and decidedly ex-Obama pastor Jeremiah Wright.
“You’re talking to the network…Obama White House remembers this… that broke the Jeremiah Wright tapes.”
The implication?
ABC News was Johnny-on-the-spot on the story of then-Senator Obama’s now infamous — and ex — pastor, the Reverend Jeremiah Wright. In March of 2008.
Remember that date. March — 2008. Here’s the link to the story, filed on March 13 by ABC’s Brian Ross
This remark came about in the course of a conversation with O’Reilly in which Sawyer, discussing the role of ABC News in the last presidential campaign, insisted that her network was not populated by liberals who tilted the news leftward. O’Reilly had cited a study from the Center for Media and Public Affairs on the network news coverage of the Obama-McCain campaign that showed the tilt in favorable coverage for Obama over McCain as follows:
Obama McCain
CBS 73% 31%
NBC 56% 16%
ABC 57% 42%
ABC had fared best of the three broadcast networks, but the point of liberal media bias — the kind of reporting that dates as far back as the 1960 Kennedy-Nixon campaign — stood. So O’Reilly persisted.
And out popped the above statement on Jeremiah Wright.
Let’s be clear here. Sawyer used the word “tapes” — and strictly speaking she is correct.
The problem comes with the context — in which she is clearly trying to imply that ABC was the proverbial dog with a bone in uncovering the relationship of Wright to his famous congregant, and what the implications might be for the country if a man who sat in Wright’s pews for 20 years listening to Wright’s leftist political rants were elected president.
Bluntly put — this is poppycock.
The man — and the network — that did the background research on this was, yes indeed, Sean Hannity and Fox News.
On February 28, 2007 — over a full year before ABC first aired its Wright story — Hannity had located columnist Erik Rush, who had written an article on Senator Obama and his church. He put Rush on the air that night.
The very next night, Hannity had managed to corral Wright himself on his Fox show with liberal Alan Colmes. Here’s the clip.
Out poured the tale of Wright’s devotion to Black Liberation Theology and the radical writings of James Cone and Dwight Hopkins. From this initial work the connections of Wright to Louis Farrakhan and Libya’s Colonel Muammar Qaddafi were uncovered and more.
And on it went.
The role of ABC News here?
Zip, nada, zero.
And yet plain as can be, there sits Diane Sawyer, the anchor of ABC News, on the set of Fox’s O’Reilly Factor trying to pretend ABC was a prime mover in Hannity’s story — a Fox story that surely would never have seen the light of day anywhere had it not been for Hannity’s tenacity in digging it out and putting it on TV. And, as regular viewers will recall, being snickered at while doing it — snickering that stopped when Obama finally felt so much pressure on Wright he stopped going to the church and felt the need to publicly rebuke the man he had once said was like an “uncle” to him.
Ms. Sawyer insisted her network would be providing “fantastic coverage” of the 2012 race, citing the liberal ex-Clinton aide George Stephanopoulos as a key member of her team.
If this is an example of the work to come from ABC News on the 2012 presidential campaign… well, we report, you decide.
View all comments (22) | Leave a comment
More Blog Posts by Jeffrey Lord
http://spectator.org/blog/2011/06/02/diane-sawyer-steals-hannity-fo
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Mimi| 6.2.11 @ 9:22AM
Jeffrey Lord you pinned down another piece of TRUTH, and good for you! Let us HOPE the MEDIA will do a fair and I mean FAIR job of covering the 2012 primaries and election. I said : PRIMARIES cause you never know if the DEMS come to their senses and have willing candidates to oppose OBAMA....anything can happen when you least expect it! The latest news on the economy does not BODE well for the current whitehouse...a lot of fear out here!
W| 6.2.11 @ 9:38AM
O'Reilly did not question her on the tapes, he should have known Hannity broke the real story. O'Reilly is not well prepared, i am surprised at his high ratings.
JmsA| 6.2.11 @ 11:08AM
"O'Reilly is not well prepared, i am surprised at his high ratings." Don't be surprised, for in the absence of greatness, let alone mere compentence, mediocrity stands supreme.
As for Sawyer, a full pledged member of the Club of Sinister, to lie to O'Reilly is not hard; after all she does it every night to millions of dupes.
Wayne | 6.2.11 @ 11:13AM
Doesn't O'Reilly hate Hannity? That is certainly my impression. See how he Greta previews O'Reilly but O'Reilly does not preview Hannity.
W| 6.2.11 @ 1:33PM
I also wondered why O'Reilly never says that Hannity is next. the only good part of O'Reilly is Dennis Miller for the laughs. He has the same tired predictable guests, and most of the show are the guests reviewing O'Reilly's perfomance on some interview or statement he did.
James| 6.2.11 @ 3:13PM
O'Reilly is an idiot. Limbaugh refers to him as "Ted Baxter." Rush is right.
florin| 6.2.11 @ 3:20PM
You are so right...O'Reilly's guests are not allowed to respond to questions a lot of the time - I e-mail O'Reilly frequently asking him if he notices his guests sitting their with their mouths open, trying desperately to get a word in while O'Reilly bloviates. O'Reilly seems to think he is the god of the universe, saving all mankind from evil...he does do good things for children and for our military but he seems almost deranged at times as he takes credit for any major good thing that happens...he is nasty to those who disagree with him, even the women who are part of Fox - and lawyers. O'Reilly seems to be going downhill psychologically - he surrounds himself with himself and he'll go down hard when he falls.
Warrior | 6.2.11 @ 12:25PM
O'Reilly is never well prepared. He is nothing more than an opportunist and attempts to pander to a moderate audience. You are all forgetting his very forgettable exclusive interview with then candidate Obama in which he not only fails to ask anything difficult, he laughs his way though it allowing Obama to pretend how moderate his views are. You are also forgetting the Super Bowl interview where again he is as hard hitting as cooked fettucini (or cabbage if you prefer).
If O'Reilly had a show on MSNBC, he would be a sedated version of Tingly legs moron. His ratings only prove that a good portion of American are nothing more than lemmings waiting for someone to tell them how to think.
Junius| 6.2.11 @ 9:50AM
Here's another take. What was Diane Sawyer doing on the Bill "Give Obama a break" O'Reilly Factor being treated as a serious guest in the first place? She is to put it bluntly, rabid democrat propaganda hack and is tainted goods. No surprise at all that she lied. For her and fellow hacks that is standard operation procedure.
Methinks O'Reilly secretly longs to be once again a member of the mainstream media and is unconsciously auditioning to make a move back to "primetime" television where, in his mind, he can assume his rightful place as the new Walter Cronkite. Makes one wonder if O'Reilly's contract is up for renewal at Fox News soon. Tuned in to his now unwatchable show and my jaw dropped when I saw he had the rather dim witted Diane Sawyer on which triggered an involuntary stab at the change channel button. O'Reilly belongs on NBC, CBS, or ABC with the rest of the Obama worshippers. He'll fit right in.
Ralph Woods| 6.2.11 @ 10:42AM
ABC news people certainly are brazen and stupid. I stll believe they are scarcely aware of the vast new media sources available to people who have an interest in actually getting news rather than being entertained. I still remember Sawyer's show on her visit to North Korea (last time I have watched ABC). When she pulled out a copy of Peoples Magazine with George Clooney on the cover and it was promptly tossed aside by the young Korean girl being interviewed who's main interest was that she got a glass of milk for her excellent performance in school indocrination. The cluelessness that media's fascination with entertainers did not carry over into North Korea's society still amazes me.
Spike| 6.2.11 @ 10:51AM
Saw this last evening, and about fell out of my chair. That Sawyer said it was not astonishing. The O'Reilly let it ride, was embarrassing.
As someone else has said, it appears that O'Reilly is looking to saddle up to the MSM.
We should be less concerned with the MSM slanting their 2012 campaign coverage than O'Reilly. With the MSM, we know that what we're getting is Leftist nonsense. Passing Left-think posing as a Conservative is egregious.
Wayne | 6.2.11 @ 11:11AM
I heard her. She is a dimwit. O'Reilly admitted that most of his staff was liberal.
Erik Rush | 6.2.11 @ 11:33AM
THANK YOU!!!
David W| 6.2.11 @ 12:59PM
I'm reading Ann Coulter's Slander. Amazingly accurate considering what Diane Sawyer is said to have done. Pretty soon ABC and others will have us believing that FOX tried to bury the story about Obama and Wright and it was the truthseekers at ABC/NBC/CBS/etc that broke the story and was responsible for Obama throwing Wright under the bus.
Occam's Tool| 6.2.11 @ 1:36PM
The MSM is worthless. Why else are we perusing TAS?
Clinton Lovell| 6.2.11 @ 1:48PM
I think O'Reilly let it ride because he is not particularly fond of Shawn Hannity.
James| 6.2.11 @ 3:16PM
O'Reilly is a tool. I'm sick of him bashing Palin, too.
He's just ticked because Sarah ignores "Billo" and gives interviews to Greta and Sean.
florin| 6.2.11 @ 3:27PM
O'Reilly has Dick Morris on and they both put Sarah Palin down - Morris says that Palin has ADD--that when she feels she is not getting enough attention, she has to do something to make a splash...Morris should talk!!! He gobbles up as much attention as he can get which you can see from his very pudgy cheeks; they they blamed Sarah Palin for the fact that the 'legitimate' candidates aren't getting enough attention because Sarah gets it all...what a pathetic thing to say. If other 'candidates' aren't getting attention, maybe they haven't merited it...I watch Pawlenty being interviewed by Chris Wallace and he was incredibly bland and coy...he said he had 'plans' for the economy, etc., but could not reveal them yet...it was horrendous. Why should Palin hide herself so others can step into the spotlight? It's like saying the winning basketball team should step back and let another team into the spotlight...not going to happen...Morris and O'Reilly ---two old men bloviating.
W| 6.2.11 @ 3:39PM
Morris predictions:
1. Hillary has 70% probability of getting elected president in 2008. The only republican who has a chance against her is Condi Rice. he predicted hillary v. condi
2. McCain, by suspending his campaign in 2008 to "work in a bi-partisan manner to fix the economy" after the market meltdown, assured himself of getting elected over Obama, because this was a statesman. Actually, McCain should have suspended his campaign until election day in November and just let Sara campaign, then he would have won
James| 6.2.11 @ 7:12PM
Morris is a toe-sucking fool.
Number Six| 6.2.11 @ 1:57PM
There is that possibility that Sawyer was being coy and referring to the fact that Hannity broke the news earlier that day on his radio program and the flagship for that syndicated show is WABC.
Far from an honest assessment of the ABC News record but in fact something they could easily co-opt...
weddingdresses | 6.29.11 @ 5:33AM
O'Reilly has Dick Morris on and they both put Sarah Palin down - Morris says that Palin has ADD--that when she feels she is not getting enough attention, she has to do something to make a splash...Morris should talk!!! He gobbles up as much attention as he can get which you can see from his very pudgy cheeks; they they blamed Sarah Palin for the fact that the 'legitimate' candidates aren't getting enough attention because Sarah gets it all...what a pathetic thing to say. If other 'candidates' aren't getting attention, maybe they haven't merited it...I watch Pawlenty being interviewed by Chris Wallace and he was incredibly bland and coy...he said he had 'plans' for the economy, etc., but could not reveal them yet...it was horrendous. Why should Palin hide herself so others can step into the spotlight? It's like saying the winning basketball team should step back and let another team into the spotlight...not going to happen...Morris and O'Reilly ---two old men bloviating.