Obama was not even the most liberal senator as FNC ballyhooed. That rating by one publication was for only 2007 selected votes. Obama’s record for liberalism: 10th one year and 16th his first year in the Senate. Another rating placed him 27th. Obama is a pragmatist who functioned as a consensus seeking centrist in Illinois politics. Chicago Republicans testify to that. Meanwhile, Obama’s appointments and advisory teams since the election prove it. Nonetheless, the right wing aided by FNC portrayed him as a socialist.
Actual conservatives including leading commentators George Will and David Brooks, Republicans including Bush's Secretary of State, General Colin Powell, and former Massachusetts Governor William Weld, came to praise and even endorse Obama. You’d be hard pressed to know it, and why they did, if you get your news from FNC.
A president needs a spectrum of political associations to successfully lead this pluralistic country, not partisanship and relating to only one segment of society. Right wing propaganda, in the end, failed this time. The majority voted Obama as their best choice despite all the false accusations and red baiting. A majority could have refused to see beyond it; the devastating economy could have been overridden in their minds by the slander. The majority could have been swayed by that and dishonest ads that worked against Kerry and Dukakis.
The fact that Obama’s winning margin wasn’t what would be expected for the Democrat after eight years of Republican malfeasance and impeachable crimes (32 articles of impeachment were read in Congress) indicates the propaganda did take its toll. Obama ran behind the Democratic congressional winners in most competitive House elections. In liberal New York I heard even Democrats recite the FNC slander against Obama. How much more influential must those have been elsewhere? Yet, those limiting their intelligence to FNC, talk radio and scurrilously dishonest political ads, were in the minority this time. That doesn’t exonerate from culpability the purveyors of lies under the Orwellian banner, fair and balanced, who lead so many into ignorance and prejudice.
These are not academic concerns. The Associated Press reports: Cross burnings. School children chanting, “Assassinate Obama.” Black figures hung from nooses. Racial epithets scrawled on homes and cars...threatening racist graffiti targeting Obama. A black church was burned to the ground in Springfield, Massachusetts the day after the election. The direct threats, already one uncovered plot to assassinate Obama, and a store window display of book on when Obama will be assassinated, the racial incidences against his election, are all unprecedented. The Secret Service would not comment or provide the number of cases they are investigating. But since the Nov. 4 election, law enforcement officials have seen more potentially threatening writings, Internet postings and other activity directed at Obama than has been seen with any past president-elect, said officials aware of the situation who spoke on condition of anonymity because the issue of a president's security is so sensitive.
While their carping at Obama continues, this real story isn’t emphasized by FNC. In fact, such threats are fueled by inflammatory charges such as FNC routinely promulgates. The critical problem isn't the routine person misled by false impressions. It's the unstable mentalities that take encouragement from perceived incitement to act. When it's the media, what better excuse can they have?
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Elmer Brunsman taught college communication ethics, served in the U.S. Peace Corps, hosted a talk radio program for years, and tutors history, English, Spanish. He proudly wears a U.S. flag pin with the inscription, Obama 08.
