CNN Anchor Soledad O’Brien believes President Obama is a
Communist.
At least, that’s the corner she backed herself into in a set-to
with former GOP senatorial candidate Christine O’Donnell. And
O’Donnell performed a valuable public service this morning
illustrating what’s really going on over at CNN. Now that the late
Andrew Breitbart’s name has become
a verb, concerning taking down the left-leaning media, you
might say Christine O’Donnell Breitbarted Soledad O’Brien.
Take a good look at
this CNN clip in which O’Donnell and CNN anchor Soledad O’Brien
square off, the former with some assistance from Utah’s Congressman
Jason Chafetz.
In the clip, Ms. O’Donnell says — correctly — that the 2012
campaign is essentially about “capitalism versus collectivism.” She
accurately cites President’s Obama’s well-stated beliefs in
redistributing wealth (here’s an example)
and economic equality as well as nationalizing private business.
Although O’Donnell didn’t cite it, the Obama’s administration’s
government takeover of General Motors is exactly an example of
“nationalizing.”
O’Brien immediately gets worked up and says that when O’Donnell
uses the word “collectivism” O’Donnell is accusing President Obama
of being “a communist.”
Actually, that isn’t what O’Donnell said. At no time did she
accuse the President of being a communist. Period. Yet O’Brien kept
trying to get O’Donnell to say it. So O’Donnell said this:
“President Obama himself has said that he wants to nationalize
more of the private sector, and that’s not what America is all
about.”
O’Brien bridles. She becomes visibly agitated. A debate is
suddenly on and the two spar on nationalizing, with O’Brien
indignant the President would be accused of nationalizing. Citing
the fact that her mother is from Cuba, O’Brien says she knows
something about the subject.
O’Brien: “So when you talk about
‘nationalizing’ something and you’re really taking sort of the
words that they use in Cuba, frankly. And Communism. Really.”
Stop right here.
Now why in the world would Soledad O’Brien get so visibly
agitated at O’Donnell’s insistence that Mr. Obama is in favor of
nationalizing?
Ms. O’Brien is a smart woman. Surely she knows as a CNN anchor
that O’Donnell was correct that the president is a fan of
nationalizing. And O’Donnell certainly isn’t alone in saying
so.
For example,
here’s the Washington Post in June of 2009 (bold
emphasis mine):
President Obama laid out his case yesterday for committing
billions of dollars more to the rescue of General Motors,
arguing that the nationalization of the industrial giant
was necessary to bolster the foundering U.S. economy.
… The government has needed to take ownership stakes in private
enterprises during the economic crisis, Obama said yesterday, “for
the simple and compelling reason that their survival and the
success of our overall economy depend on it.”
But hey, Soledad, if President Obama himself and the
Washington Post aren’t enough of an authority to back up
Christine, here’s perhaps an even better authority on the subject
of Mr. Obama’s record on nationalizing.
That would be no less than Fidel Castro’s old chum, Venezuelan’s
leftist leader Hugo Chavez. As seen here, when Chavez
noted the President’s GM takeover and referred to him as “Comrade
Obama” for nationalizing GM — saying that if he, Chavez, and
Cuba’s Communist dictator Castro didn’t watch out they would be to
the right of Obama.
Interesting, no?
Humorously, Hugo Chavez, President Obama, and the Washington
Post all are on exactly the same page as Christine O’Donnell.
They all agree: Obama loves nationalizing. The only difference
being O’Donnell is appalled at nationalizing.
When O’Brien insists that saying Obama believes in nationalizing
is to accuse him of being a communist, O’Donnell immediately closes
the trap O’Brien got herself into, and correctly says:
“You’re saying that the words that they use in Cuba are coming
from President Obama.”
To which an alarmed O’Brien, perhaps realizing what’s she done,
vehemently replies:
“Oh certainly not! You’re saying that!”
Fascinating.
What Christine O’Donnell has accomplished here
is to out O’Brien as yet another standard
leftist who masquerades as an objective journalist, this time at
CNN.
We’ve written two items this week,
here and
here, about the role NewsBusters is playing in exposing the
leftward bias of the mainstream media.
Noting specifically the first appearance of this bias in the
very first modern presidential campaign of 1960. It was in that
Kennedy-Nixon campaign that Pulitzer Prize winning author Theodore
H. White specifically noted the blatant behind-the-scenes tilt of
the national media (or “the press” as it was generally called in
1960). Wrote White of this bias, the journalists of the day
pretended to objectivity but really were “marching like soldiers of
the Lord to the New Frontier” — which is to say, marching for JFK
and the liberal cause of the day.
In the clip with Soledad O’Brien and Christine O’Donnell, CNN’s
Soledad O’Brien is shown by O’Donnell to be one of today’s leftist
flag carriers ill-concealed as an “objective journalist.”
I spoke with Christine O’Donnell today. She was amused, and
should be.
O’Donnell had caught a CNN anchor not just defending President
Obama. She caught Soledad O’Brien unwittingly making a direct
connection between communism and President Obama. Specifically a
connection between Fidel Castro and Mr. Obama.
And who better to vouch for Ms. O’Donnell’s point than… Fidel’s
buddy Hugo Chavez, the Washington Post — and President
Obama himself?
Not to put too fine a point on it… but there is a reason Soledad
O’Brien gets so jumpy when critics accuse the President of being a
left-wing extremist.
Because they’re right.
