Corporate Media’S ‘Outrage’ Over Obama Pastor Is Pure Hypocrisy

The Corporate Mediafails to understand that only a true slave society would say that Rev. Wright has no right to express his views, however unpopular they are.   Corporate Media’s ‘Outrage’ Over Obama Pastor Is Pure HypocrisyBy Cliff Montgomery – Mar. 28th, 2008“I do not agree with what you have to say, but I’ll defend to the death your right to say it.” – VoltaireThe Corporate Media’s treatment of Reverend Jeremiah Wright–the former pastor of Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago, and hence of Senator Barack Obama (D-IL)–has revealed a rather vulgar characteristic of those who claim to inform the public.Much has been written about Rev. Wright’s comments while pastor of that church in Chicago’s South Side–and practically all of it has been damning.Numerous examples of Wright’s statements have surfaced in the last few weeks, including a speech he delivered at Howard University, an historically black college, in 2006. Among other things, Wright said:“Racism is how this country was founded and how this country was run…We believe in white supremacy and black inferiority and believe it more than we believe in God.”“The speech was quoted in an op-ed article in Friday’s Wall Street Journal,” stated a March 15th Washington Post story.The fact that the Journal‘s opinion page is justly infamous for its own foul-mouthed, inflammatory right-wing rhetoric was not reported by the Post, however. Which is precisely the point.Wright’s ideas have been so vilified by the Corporate Press, they are often openly referred to as “tirades” or “rampages”. What corporate talking heads fail to mention is that Rev. Wright has as much right to speak his mind as has Bill O’Reilly or Ann Coulter, or those who edit the opinion page of the Wall Street Journal for that matter–even if most of us don’t like what they have to say.Voltaire proclaimed that everyone has a Natural Right to speak his mind for two reasons:1.) A self-proclaimed “freedom-loving people” are never really free until everyone may speak their mind, even those who disagree with the majority; and2.) Those who speak the unpopular sentiment just might be right.Rev. Wright’s supposed “tirades” hinge the idea that a state of slavery has for far too long existed in this country–that the very people who proclaimed that “all men are created equal” were in fact often “owners” of other Americans until an American civil war made that illegal.But, Wright continued, a change of law is not a change of heart. Fact, not legalisms and blind sentiment, determine how people really treat one another. And the facts show that those “former slaves” continued to remain slaves after that war, in truth if not in law.Since this state of slavery is a social state–a state of the heart and of the mind–this state remains until facts show otherwise. Thus as long as there is a disproportionate number of Black Americans in prisons and an equally disproportionate number not in positions of power and influence, an essential state of slavery remains.One is of course free to reject these ideas of Rev. Wright’s, or honestly debate them. But the Corporate Media fails to understand that only a true slave society would say that Rev. Wright has no right to express them.  Those who shout down others, and who openly vilify any idea different from those in positions of high influence, ensure that individuals who think too differently have no right to express their views–even if the shouters haven’t proclaimed it in law.Among Wright’s most infamous comments was that Sept. 11th, 2001, was proof that “America’s chickens are coming home to roost.”Yet it’s hard to determine how this is too different than the sentiment of U.S. Founding Father Thomas Jefferson, who apparently offered this statement on race relations in America:“I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just; that his justice cannot sleep forever.”Nor is the passion of Wright’s sentiment too different than that offered by Rev. Jerry Falwell just days after the horrors of Sept. 11th. With those wounds–physical and spiritual–still quite raw, Falwell proclaimed:“I really believe that the pagans, and the abortionists, and the feminists, and the gays and lesbians who are actively trying to make that an alternative lifestyle…I point the finger in their face and say, ‘You made this happen.’ “Or this related gem from The 700 Club‘s Rev. Pat Robertson:“The Feminist agenda is…a socialist, anti-family political movement that encourages women to leave their husbands, kill their children, practice witchcraft, destroy capitalism, and become lesbians.”These ideas are at least as “colorful” as anything proclaimed by Rev. Wright. Yet Corporate Media outrage over those statements either was weak or non-existent.Of course, right-wing reverends like Falwell and Robertson have every right to express their unpopular views–as has Rev. Wright. But the Corporate Media’s clear double standard in its treatment of controversial right-wing and left-wing speakers says more about its own prejudices than anything else.Like what you’re reading so far? Then why not order a full year (52 issues) of thee-newsletter for only $15? A major article covering an story not being told in the Corporate Press will be delivered to your email every Monday morning for a full year, for less than 30 cents an issue. Order Now!