NBC Nightly News Runs Second Favorable Obama Interview Excerpt --5/2/2008

1. NBC Nightly News Runs Second Favorable Obama Interview Excerpt
An evening after the NBC Nightly News showcased Michelle Obama's plea to move on from focusing on Jeremiah Wright because talking about him "doesn't help kids out there," on Thursday night the newscast again provided a platform for Barack and Michelle Obama to advance their efforts to show humility and paint media coverage as unfair. Setting up a second night of excerpts from the interview the couple conducted with Meredith Vieira for the Today show, anchor Brian Williams explained how "both went out of their way to say they understand that a lot of Americans are right now trying to figure out just who Barack Obama is." The excerpt began with Barack Obama maintaining "it's understandable" to "raise questions" about him because he's an African-American named Barack, "so if I don't wear a flag pin, that becomes a cause for concern," but "if John McCain doesn't wear a flag pin, look, he's a war hero." That prompted Vieira to empathize: "So you're treated differently, then, you think?" And to wonder to Michelle Obama: "So you never sit there and get upset about these?" Barack Obama interjected that "she stops reading the newspapers during certain spans of time" before she quipped, during loving back-and-forth joshing: "I take the paper and I ball it up and I throw it in a corner!"

2. CNN Tosses Wright Softballs at 'Steely-Tough' Michelle Obama
CNN secured an interview in Indiana with Michelle Obama and Caroline Kennedy on Wednesday for that night's Anderson Cooper 360, but the interviewer, CNN reporter Suzanne Malveaux, saw her job as deeply feeling the Obama family pain. Her idea of a rough question on the Jeremiah Wright controversy: "Did he betray you?" She also asked: "How painful was that?" And: "At what point did you stop empathizing with your pastor?" With Caroline Kennedy sitting beside Obama, Malveaux avoided the obvious question of how either woman greeted Rev. Wright's mockery, at Sunday night's Detroit NAACP event, of how John F. Kennedy and Edward Kennedy speak.

3. ABC's Charles Gibson: GOP Owned 'Quote, Issue of Patriotism'
On Thursday's Good Morning America, guest host Charles Gibson featured far-left author and creator of the Huffington Post Web site, Arianna Huffington, to promote her angry new book about "lunatic fringe" conservatives. Gibson, who was a moderator in the April ABC debate that liberals have decried as unfair to Barack Obama, brought up some of the issues mentioned in the debate, such as the Senator's refusal to wear an American flag lapel pin. Speaking of Republicans, he asserted: "They owned, have owned, the, quote, 'issue of patriotism' for some time now." Taking Gibson's cue, and, at the same time, launching an attack on media outlets that supposedly are unfair to liberals, Huffington used the same qualifier: "But the media have helped them own the, quote, issue of patriotism." And although Gibson did occasionally challenge the conservative-turned liberal, he also let her get away with contradictions. As already noted, Huffington chided the media for focusing on alleged distractions, such as flag pins and Reverend Jeremiah Wright's controversial statements. However, in the same segment she frothed over the "lunatic fringe" who "basically, don't believe in evolution but believe in torture."

4. Letterman's 'Top Ten Surprising Facts About Barack Obama'
As read on the Late Show by Barack Obama, the "Top Ten Surprising Facts About Barack Obama."

NBC Nightly News Runs Second Favorable
Obama Interview Excerpt

An evening after the NBC Nightly News showcased Michelle Obama's plea to move on from focusing on Jeremiah Wright because talking about him "doesn't help kids out there," on Thursday night the newscast again provided a platform for Barack and Michelle Obama to advance their efforts to show humility and paint media coverage as unfair. Setting up a second night of excerpts from the interview the couple conducted with Meredith Vieira for the Today show, anchor Brian Williams explained how "both went out of their way to say they understand that a lot of Americans are right now trying to figure out just who Barack Obama is."

The excerpt began with Barack Obama maintaining "it's understandable" to "raise questions" about him because he's an African-American named Barack, "so if I don't wear a flag pin, that becomes a cause for concern," but "if John McCain doesn't wear a flag pin, look, he's a war hero."

That prompted Vieira to empathize: "So you're treated differently, then, you think?" And to wonder to Michelle Obama: "So you never sit there and get upset about these?" Barack Obama interjected that "she stops reading the newspapers during certain spans of time" before she quipped, during loving back-and-forth joshing: "I take the paper and I ball it up and I throw it in a corner!"

[This item, by the MRC's Brent Baker, was posted Thursday night on the MRC's blog, NewsBusters.org: newsbusters.org [1] ]

Most of the portion of the interview Nightly News excerpted Thursday evening had not aired on Thursday morning.

(The MRC's Tim Graham provided this summary of the interview segment run Thursday morning:
Barack and Michelle Obama granted a joint interview to NBC's Today, but like CNN [see item #2 below], NBC interviewer Meredith Vieira didn't ask about anything Wright said, only about their feelings of pain, or whether their timing was off. She asked Mrs. Obama: "Do you feel that the Reverend, Reverend Wright, betrayed your husband?" Vieira also asked the Obamas about attacks on their elitism or sense of patriotism: "So when you hear somebody call your husband an elitist or they called you unpatriotic at one point, when you hear them say about you, well he doesn't have fire in his belly, he has arugula in his belly, how do you respond to that?"
She walked Barack Obama back through how he wished he'd used different words in San Francisco, such as people "rely" on their religion rather than "cling" to it, and that he said people were "angry and frustrated" instead of "bitter.")

The May 1 CyberAlert item, "NBC Highlights Michelle Obama's Spin: Talking About Wright 'Doesn't Help Kids,'" recounted:

The Obama campaign has chosen NBC's Today show as the venue to try to move beyond the Jeremiah Wright controversy and a preview aired on Wednesday's Nightly News, of the session to air Thursday morning, showcased Barack and Michelle Obama making their case. While Meredith Vieira apparently did ask Barack Obama why he had not denounced Wright sooner, Nightly News viewers heard Barack Obama boast in response that he had resisted doing the "politically expedient" and Michelle Obama resorting to a plea reminiscent of the Clinton era:

"We got to move forward. You know, this conversation doesn't help my kids, you know. It doesn't help kids out there who are looking for us to make decisions and choices about how we're going to better fund education."

For the previous CyberAlert article in full: www.mediaresearch.org [2]

The MRC's Brad Wilmouth corrected the closed-captioning against the video to provide this transcript of the segment on the Thursday, May 1 NBC Nightly News:

BRIAN WILLIAMS: We have more tonight from my colleague Meredith Vieira's interview with Barack and Michelle Obama. As part of the interview, which debuted today on NBC, both went out of their way to say they understand that a lot of Americans are right now trying to figure out just who Barack Obama is.

BARACK OBAMA: Let's be honest. You know, here I am, a African-American named Barack Obama, right, who's running for President. I mean, that's a leap for folks. And I think it's understandable that my political opponents would say, you know, he's different, he's odd, he's sort of unfamiliar, and what do we know about him? And to raise questions. So if I don't wear a flag pin, that becomes a cause for concern. If John McCain doesn't wear a flag pin, look, he's a war hero. And I understand why I don't think anybody is going to question about McCain's-
MEREDITH VIEIRA: So you're treated differently, then, you think?
BARACK OBAMA: Well, I don't-
MICHELLE OBAMA: I think what Barack is saying is that, you know, part of what we've been doing is we have to introduce ourselves to people. People have to know all sides of us.
VIEIRA: So you never sit there and get upset about these?
MICHELLE OBAMA: Never. I never get upset, Meredith. Not, do I get upset?
BARACK OBAMA: She gets a little upset.
MICHELLE OBAMA: No, I don't get upset. Do I look upset?
VIEIRA: I just want, I'm trying to know you as you two. Take off the political hats, as two people-
BARACK OBAMA: She, she just, she stops, she stops, she stops-
MICHELLE OBAMA: I'm cool and calm.
BARACK OBAMA: -she stops reading the newspapers during certain spans of time.
MICHELLE OBAMA: I take the paper and I ball it up and I throw it in a corner! Nah, you know, of course there are frustrations. You know, this is, it's-
BARACK OBAMA: She's, she's pretty, she, she gets protective of me. Which is, which, okay. And the-
MICHELLE OBAMA: I, I do. I, I love my husband. I don't, you know, you don't, you don't want anybody talking poorly about the people that you love.
BARACK OBAMA: Right.
MICHELLE OBAMA: But also-
BARACK OBAMA: She's handled it better than I expected, though, because I think she's actually come to believe in what we're doing.
MICHELLE OBAMA: I do, and we've traveled around the country now. And people are decent. And folks might not vote for Barack, but they do want a change. I respect the fact that folks are trying to figure it out.

CNN Tosses Wright Softballs at 'Steely-Tough'
Michelle Obama

[The MRC's Tim Graham posted this item Thursday night on the MRC's blog, NewsBusters.org: newsbusters.org [3] ]

Rev. Wright impersonated Kennedy in a nasal voice, as when a black comedian cracks wise about a stereotypical white person:

In 1961, it's been all over the Internet now, John Kennedy could stand at the inauguration in January and say, "isk not what your country can do for you, isk rather what you can do for your country." How do you spell isk? Nobody ever said to John Kennedy that's not English, "isk." Only to a black child would they say you speak bad English. Kennedy got killed. Johnson stepped up to the podium and Love Field, we just left Love Field. And Johnson, said [slurring, lower voice] 'my fulla-Amurrikans." How do you spell fulla? How do you spell Amurrikan? Nobody says to Johnson you speak bad English.

Ed Kennedy, today, those of you in the Congress, sister [Rep. Carolyn] Kilpatrick. You know, Ed Kennedy today cannot pronounce cluster consonants. Very few people from Boston can. They pronounce park like it's p-o-c-k. Where did you "pock" the "cah"? They pronounce f-o-r-t like it's f-o-u-g-h-t. We fought a good battle. And nobody says to a Kennedy you speak bad English. Only to a black child was that said.

CNN also avoided the other controversy emerging from Wright's Detroit speech, that black children and white children learn with different parts of their brains. But the first question remained: Was it classy for Obama's (just-retired) minister of two decades to mock the Kennedys, who endorsed Obama to great media fanfare? Is it funny to remember what President Johnson said as the nation was rocked by a president's assassination? This certainly would not be avoided if the speaker were connected to the Bush White House or the McCain campaign, or if the speaker were a major conservative talk-radio host. CNN's Malveaux began:
"Michelle, obviously, the headlines here, Reverend Wright. You have known him for more than 20 years. He officiated your wedding. He baptized your children. When he went up there before the national press and said your husband criticized him because he's a politician, because that's what they do to get elected, did he betray you?"

Mrs. Obama made no comment on Wright in any way, no statement about the offensiveness of any of his remarks, but just asserted old talking points about how "Barack's race speech was one of the most powerful, emotional speeches that he's written in his life. And I think the response to that speech spoke for itself. That wasn't a speech of a political opportunist." The answer went on for about two minutes. The interview continued:

MALVEAUX: Let me ask you about this. I mean, how painful was that? This is somebody who you confided in.
M. OBAMA: Right.
MALVEAUX: And, at one point, obviously, you have been misunderstood. You have been taken out of context. At what point did you stop empathizing with -- with your pastor, and you thought, here's something that's over the line; it's over the top; this is it? How did you make that decision?
M. OBAMA: With all due respect, we're just -- we're moving forward.
After Mrs. Obama spent almost a minute of trying to generate talking points and move on, Malveaux tried one more time to wonder if Rev. Wright can be silenced so this controversy can be killed and buried:

MALVEAUX: There are some people who I spoke with who have been trying, on your behalf, on your husband's behalf, to close this and to go to him and say, look, you know, this is enough. Enough is enough. One of the people I spoke with said, we're trying to establish a detente here. But they also describe him as someone who is vindictive, and perhaps there is no buttoning up when it comes to whether or not he's going to come out and talk again. Do you feel confident that you -- you can move forward, that -- that he is not going to speak out again? Or do you think this is something that is going to dog him in the election?

Mrs. Obama looked Malveaux in the eye and insisted the press needed to lay off: "Barack and I and our campaign, we are going to, with everything in our power, if allowed to by the press, to move forward."

So Malveaux turned to Caroline Kennedy, saying "I want to turn -- I want to turn the corner here. I want to turn the page." Mrs. Obama cracked with a smile, "No, you don't." And so Malveaux tried to flatter her: "Well, you know, you...You're nicknamed the rock behind Barack. And there's -- there's a reason. I know -- I know you can handle all of -- all of the questions that we're going to throw at you." She then asked Caroline Kennedy two horse-race questions about how Obama can improve his standing among women and white "working class" folks.

This Michelle Obama, fearlessly intimidating CNN's reporter on the Obama campaign was hailed by CNN anchor Campbell Brown at the show's beginning, filling in for Cooper:
"Tonight, everybody, a steely tough Michelle Obama up close, speaking out for the first time since her husband started dealing with the fury of a pastor scorned. She talks about the controversy, how her husband finally put the hammer down about race, about the possibility of Hillary Clinton as a running mate."

After this first segment of the interview -- the only segment where Caroline Kennedy spoke -- Brown interviewed Malveaux about Mrs. Obama, and Malveaux dutifully repeated every move-forward spin Mrs. Obama had just used, as if she were reading a press release:
"Well, you know certainly there was a sense that obviously this was painful -- and she actually acknowledged that -- this Reverend Wright controversy. But you really get the sense from her that they are ready, ready to move on here, that this is not something that, when you -- actually, when you cover Obama and you see, it's not something that really comes up with a lot of the voters here."

Then, after a commercial break, the taped interview continued with the question of whether America was too racist for Obama to win: "Michelle, there's been talk about really winning over the blue-collar white families in the contests ahead. There's an 800-pound elephant in the room, too, which is that this race, a lot of people see as becoming more racially polarized. Do you think that, at a certain point, Barack Obama can work as hard as he can, and he can give him message to people, but there's always going to be a group where they're going to look at him, and they're not going to give their support because of his race, because he's black?"

Hold it. If voters -- Democratic primary voters -- now choose Hillary over Obama, based in part on the controversies over Rev. Wright and the bitter-people-clinging-to-guns-and-religion comments, why would CNN describe that as Obama rejected "because he's black"? Mrs. Obama argued that her husband was popular and a unifier:
"And our job is to become better known. One of the reasons why we try to do interviews like this is not to talk about Reverend Wright, but to talk about who we are, beyond that caricature. And, sometimes, things get bogged down. And, you know, we do our best to say, this is who we really are. And that takes time. But with time comes familiarity and -- and growth. And we're confident that the American people are ready to move to a different place. And we just have to be confident and give them the benefit of the doubt, that they get all the information and we sort of come out of the muck, that they will be ready to embrace the truth."

So America needs to accept Obama, so it can show "growth" and embrace the "truth." Malveaux went really soft at the end:

"Are you still confident that your husband can win?"

"The last time you were asked about a possible Obama/Clinton ticket, you said, well, I need to think on that a little bit. You have had some time to think. What do you think about an Obama/Clinton ticket?"

"This has been a very long campaign of 16 months. Barack Obama says on the trail -- he kind of jokes, and he says, people -- babies have been born, and they're walking now...and he's still running in this race. What is the most trying, what is the most difficult thing about -- about being in the race now, the toll that it's taken on your family?"

"Do you -- do you think that your husband has been treated fairly? Are you surprised at how nasty this race has gotten?"

"And, Michelle, I under -- I understand, win or lose, that [daughters] Sasha and Malia get a dog...But of them is allergic to the dog...How are they holding up?"

It was almost comical for Brown and Malveaux to repeat the move-forward talking points when the interview was finished, after it commanded the first half-hour of the program:

BROWN: Suzanne, this was a lengthy interview. You spent a lot of time with her. You guys covered a lot of ground. What did you find about her to be the most striking thing to you?
MALVEAUX: I think she's very determined. I think she really is very confident in her husband and their ability to move forward.

A lot of ground? CNN didn't ask Mrs. Obama a single question about policy matters. It was all horse-race politics, scandal-dampening spin, and tired questions about how hard and nasty the campaign trail is.

ABC's Charles Gibson: GOP Owned 'Quote,
Issue of Patriotism'

On Thursday's Good Morning America, guest host Charles Gibson featured far-left author and creator of the Huffington Post Web site, Arianna Huffington, to promote her angry new book about "lunatic fringe" conservatives. Gibson, who was a moderator in the April ABC debate that liberals have decried as unfair to Barack Obama, brought up some of the issues mentioned in the debate, such as the Senator's refusal to wear an American flag lapel pin.

Speaking of Republicans, he asserted: "They owned, have owned, the, quote, 'issue of patriotism' for some time now." Taking Gibson's cue, and, at the same time, launching an attack on media outlets that supposedly are unfair to liberals, Huffington used the same qualifier: "But the media have helped them own the, quote, issue of patriotism." And although Gibson did occasionally challenge the conservative-turned liberal, he also let her get away with contradictions. As already noted, Huffington chided the media for focusing on alleged distractions, such as flag pins and Reverend Jeremiah Wright's controversial statements. However, in the same segment she frothed over the "lunatic fringe" who "basically, don't believe in evolution but believe in torture."

[This item, by the MRC's Scott Whitlock, was posted Thursday afternoon on the MRC's blog, NewsBusters.org: newsbusters.org [4] ]

It should also be pointed out that, although Gibson mentioned that Huffington had switched parties, he never actually labeled her a liberal. And a reasonable retort to her contention that the media are doing the bidding of conservatives would be to simply point that she's on Good Morning America discussing the issue.

Gibson also offered his theory as to how the country operates politically: "Let me propose a theory to you and get your reaction to it...This country, basically, in its history has been centrist. And yet, we've gerrymandered ourselves into a situation where 90 percent of the seats in Congress really are safe for the Republicans or safe for the Democrats. So, in order to get nominated, you have to be more liberal if you're going for a Democratic seat or more conservative if you're going for a Republican seat. And what we've wound up with in Washington is gridlock. Because the extreme sides of both sides of both parties control their party."

First off, congressional seats may be reapportioned to benefit the incumbents, but isn't that done more to benefit the party, rather than ideology? Secondly, if the "extremes" control the Republican Party, how did Senator John McCain end up with the GOP nomination?

To be fair, Gibson did challenge some of Huffington's points. He called her out by saying: "Words matter and lunatic is a very pejorative term." When Huffington trotted out the liberal canard that McCain is devoted to endless war in Iraq, Gibson dismissed that entirely: "But, you know that's not correct. I mean, it's not endless war in Iraq. He's talking about troops in Iraq in the same way we have troops in Korea or the way we have troops in many other places."

A transcript of the segment, which aired at 8:43am on May 1:

CHARLES GIBSON: Arianna Huffington is with us. She is a political pundit. You know her well. You may not agree with her, but she is always outspoken. You always know where she stands. And this Republican turned Democrat actually is now taking on in a new book what she calls the lunatic fringe. Her new book is "Right is Wrong." And I can, sort of, sum up, I think, the thesis of the book if I rename it "The Right is Wrong." But joining us now is Arianna Huffington. So, I'm right, right? That is essentially your thesis. That the right has captured American government. And, to some extent, I know you have a thing. You think they've taken on the media as well or taken over the media as well. But, basically, you feel that this country has been captured by the more extreme wing of the Republican Party?
ARIANNA HUFFINGTON: Right. And writing the book, really, to ask why, and to explain why did that happen? How did we allow the lunatic fringe, who are basically the people who promised us that the war in Iraq was going to be cheap and easy, who told us after the Virginia Tech massacre that, you know, the solution to gun violence is, are more guns, who didn't believe in global warping. Who, basically, don't believe in evolution but believe in torture. And, that's, really, the lunatic fringe that has taken over the Republican Party and there are many disaffected Republicans, as you know.
GIBSON: Words matter in this world. Words matter and lunatic is a very pejorative term.
HUFFINGTON: And I use it with absolute passion and conviction. And that's what they are. They are the lunatic fringe that has made this country less safe. That's why I put that sentence in the title. Because, we are less safe, Charlie, because we invaded Iraq, because we took our eye off Afghanistan. We just had the commanders on the ground in Afghanistan saying that there are credible threats to our safety being prepared there right now. They asked the White House to widen that war. The White House said no, because they're obsessed with Iraq. A war that we cannot win. Today is the fifth anniversary of "mission accomplished" and look where we are. This has been the deadliest month since the fall.
GIBSON: Let me propose a theory to you and get your reaction to it. Because I think we're in a situation, this country wants to be governed in the center. This country, basically, in its history has been centrist. And yet, we've gerrymandered ourselves into a situation where 90 percent of the seats in Congress really are safe for the Republicans or safe for the Democrats. So, in order to get nominated, you have to be more liberal if you're going for a Democratic seat or more conservative if you're going for a Republican seat. And what we've wound up with in Washington is gridlock. Because the extreme sides of both sides of both parties control their party.
HUFFINGTON: Actually, Charlie, I fundamentally disagree with this analysis. I actually have two chapters where I explain that the center has shifted. The center is not where it was. Right now, many positions that used to be on the left, universal health care, doing something about global warming, bringing our troops home from Iraq, these are now positions held by 60 to 70 percent of the American people. It's the right that has been marginalized and discredited and yet continues to dominate the debate and dominate our policy. I mean, how else do you explain why we are still in Iraq?
GIBSON: We elect them. We elect them. You have, you have very liberal, a very liberal contingent in Congress. We have a very conservative contingent in Congress. Those are the major groups in Congress. The center is relatively small. We have to elect a president. We've been electing Republican presidents over and over. They owned, have owned, the, quote, issue of patriotism for some time now.
HUFFINGTON: But the media have helped them own the, quote, issue of patriotism. You know, like, as you know, I have written about the question, you asked at the debate about equating, basically, wearing a flag pin was patriotism. I don't really think this is a central issue in America right now, at a time when millions of people are losing their homes, when our American military is being broken. A thousand suicide attempts among our troops every month. I mean, these are serious times. And I think the media have a responsibility to focus on the serious issues, instead of flag pins, Reverend Wright, whether Barack Obama knew a '60s radical. All those things are truly distracting us from what we should be focusing on.
GIBSON: Well, if you're going to get into the debate, I know we are taken to task a lot about that. But all that went to the issue of whether Barack Obama is electable. And that's an issue that's being much debated now.
HUFFINGTON: But that's an issue that an issue, really, that the right has been putting out there. I mean, John McCain, who has abandoned every position, is not getting the scrutiny he deserves He's still-
GIBSON: Well, but Arianna, we got a Democratic -- we got a big Democratic race going on right now.
HUFFINGTON: Right.
GIBSON: The McCain/X race, whoever he runs against, will get very major attention soon.
HUFFINGTON: Yes. That's why I included a whole chapter called "John McCain: Hijacked by the Right." And that was a hard chapter for me to write. Because, I like many of us in the media, fell in love with him in 2000. And now, there he is. He's abandoned his position on immigration. He said he would not be voting for his own bill. He basically abandoned his position on torture when he voted against a bill banning torture for the CIA. He's abandoned his position on tax cuts and he wants an endless war in Iraq. This is a man who would give us the third term of George Bush.
GIBSON: But, you know that's not correct. I mean, it's not endless war in Iraq. He's talking about troops in Iraq in the same way we have troops in Korea or the way we have troops in many other places.
HUFFINGTON: But how can that happen? Look at our troops there now, 49 American soldiers dead last month. After five years there. After "mission accomplished" was declared five years ago. That's the lunatic taking over, Charlie.
GIBSON: As I say, you always know where Arianna Huffington will stand. Good to have you here.
HUFFINGTON: Thank you.
GIBSON: You can read an excerpt of her book on ABCNews.com. The book again, "Right is Wrong."

Letterman's 'Top Ten Surprising Facts
About Barack Obama'

From the May 1 Late Show with David Letterman, as read on the show by Barack Obama from South Bend, Indiana, the "Top Ten Surprising Facts About Barack Obama." Late Show home page: www.cbs.com [5]

10. My first act as president will be to stop the fighting between Lauren and Heidi on "The Hills"

9. In the Illinois primary, I accidentally voted for Kucinich

8. When I tell my kids to clean their room, I finish with, "I'm Barack Obama and I approved this message"

7. Throughout high school, I was consistently voted "Barackiest"

6. Earlier today I bowled a 39

5. I have canceled all my appearances the day the "Sex and The City" movie opens

4. It's the birth place of Fred Astaire (Sorry, that's a surprising fun fact about Omaha)

3. We are tirelessly working to get the endorsement of Kentucky Derby favorite Colonel John

2. This has nothing to do with the Top Ten, but what the heck is up with Paula Abdul?

1. I have not slept since October

To watch video of Obama reading the list, click on the video camera icon on this page: www.cbs.com [6]

-- Brent Baker