Obama gave the Chicago Trib a heads up

I invite you to look with me at parts of a Chicago Tribune story.

The entire Trib story is here. I also link to the story at the post’s end.

Excerpts from the Trib’s story are in italics; my comments are in plain.

As we look at the Trib story, bear in mind it appeared yesterday, Friday, Mar. 28, and therefore was “put to bed” sometime before deadline on Thursday, Mar. 27.

The Trib begins:

On the Sunday in 2003 when Rev. Jeremiah Wright Jr. shouted "God damn America" from the pulpit of Trinity United Church of Christ, he defined damnation as God's way of holding humanity accountable for its actions.

Wright held “humanity accountable?”

What a surprise. I thought Wright was just holding Americans accountable.

Who knew he also included in “God damn America” the Chinese, Zambians, Swedes, and everyone else, even Hugo Chavez and Joseph Mugabe?

It's all news to me.

Ah, but then, what’s a newspaper for if not to give us news?

Rattling off a litany of injustices imposed on minorities throughout the nation's history, Wright argued that God cannot be expected to bless America as the anthem requests unless it changes for the better. Until that day, he said, God will hold the nation accountable.

Did Wright really rattle off a litany of injustices imposed on Irish, Jewish and Italian immigrant minorities?

Did he talk about the injustices, including lynching, imposed on Mormons?

Has Wright ever spoken out against the injustices Rev. Al Sharpton and his followers inflicted on the small Hasidic Jewish population in Brooklyn's Crown Heights?

And that's when Wright uttered the three infamous words that have rocked Sen. Barack Obama's presidential campaign.

For the Trib to say it’s “the three infamous words that have rocked” Obama’s campaign isn’t just minimizing to help a favored political candidate. It’s an outright deception.

The Trib knows what’s rocked Obama’s campaign is the totality of Wright’s racism and anti-Americanism over many years, combined with Obama never having until just recently condemned Wright or left his church.

That, and Obama’s unbelievable denials, blame-shifting and abrupt changes in position since the American people began learning about “the beloved” and “prophetic” Jeremiah Wright.

The Trib provided the false “three infamous words” script because of what was to follow in its story.

Not long after a Democratic front-runner emerged from the pews of Wright's church, the pastor's long-winded oratory found itself at odds with the sound-bite culture that feeds the 24-hour news cycle and YouTube. Thirty-second snippets of 30-minute sermons led pundits to question how Obama could remain a member of Wright's flock.

The rest of the Trib’s “anything for Obama” story is a rationalization, complete with quotes from “experts,” for “how Obama could remain a member of Wright's flock.”

Too bad for the Trib that on the same day its story appeared, Obama did a 180 and announced that if only he’d known about Wright’s screeds, he’d have left his church then and there.

If the Trib editors are upset with Obama, they shouldn't be. He gave them a heads up back when he said he was "the CHANGE candidate."

On the other hand, it is a little surprising to realize only a few days ago Obama was still talking about Wright’s “snippets” and how they fitted in with what you hear in “the black church.”

Here’s how, a little further along in its story, the Trib reported Obama’s pre-Friday, pre- “I would have left the church” position:

Obama has denounced Wright's most provocative remarks, but in a speech on race last week he defended Wright as a person and refused to disown him as his pastor.

Wright's preaching, which mixes theology with the often-troubled history of race relations in America, is in the "prophetic" tradition, one of many that have evolved in black pulpits.

Now what does the Trib want us to think of a presidential candidate who would disown his pastor simply because the pastor preached “in the ‘prophetic’ tradition, one of many that have evolved in the black pulpits?”

The entire Trib article is here.