{"id":1737,"date":"2009-10-01T14:20:46","date_gmt":"2009-10-01T18:20:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/000af36.netsolhost.com\/wordpress1\/2009\/10\/01\/politico-buys-into-mischaracterization-of-carters-remarks\/"},"modified":"2009-10-01T14:20:46","modified_gmt":"2009-10-01T18:20:46","slug":"politico-buys-into-mischaracterization-of-carters-remarks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/griendling.com\/wordpress1\/2009\/10\/01\/politico-buys-into-mischaracterization-of-carters-remarks\/","title":{"rendered":"Politico Buys Into Mischaracterization of Carter’s Remarks"},"content":{"rendered":"

UPDATE:  <\/strong>It seems odd to me that while most stories linger for a day or two on Politico\u2019s home page, the one I allude to below, published at 5:07 p.m. yesterday is already off it, as of noon today, 10\/2\/09.  My bet is that Jim VandeHei & Co. knew that this was a weak story all around:  It not only furthered a false story, there was nothing in it that suggested \u201cwalked back\u201d from anything.<\/p>\n

I mentioned about a week ago<\/a> that President Jimmy Carter\u2019s remarks about racism were going to be translated by the media to be more condemning than they were.  David Gregory asked President Obama about Carter\u2019s comments this way:<\/p>\n

\n

Your election, to a lot of people, was supposed to mark America somehow moving beyond race.  And yet, this week you had former President Jimmy Carter saying most, not just a little, but most of this Republican opposition against you is motivated by racism.  <\/strong>Do you agree with that?<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Of course, that\u2019s not what Carter said, which was <\/p>\n

\n

An overwhelming portion of the intensely demonstrated animosity toward President Obama is based on the fact that he is a black man, that he’s African-American.<\/strong> <\/p>\n

I live in the South, and I have seen the South come a long way. And I have seen the rest of the country that shared the South’s attitude toward minority groups at that time, particularly African- Americans. That racism in connection still exists. <\/p>\n

And I think it’s bubbled up to the surface because of a belief among many white people, not just in the South, but around the country, that African-Americans are not qualified to lead this great country. It’s an abominable circumstance and grieves me and concerns me very deeply.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

I put more of the applicable quote up there to give it context.  There is no way any credible, responsible journalist would equate \u201can overwhelming portion of the intensely demonstrated animosity toward President Obama is based on the fact that he is a black man, that he’s African-American\u201d with \u201cmost of this Republican opposition against you is motivated by racism.\u201d  But Gregory did and he helped advance the story that Carter thought GOP opposition to Obama\u2019s policies is motivated by race.<\/p>\n

Today, we have Politico buying into Gregory\u2019s interpretation<\/a> and saying that Carter\u2019s more recent comments are a \u201cwalking back\u201d from his earlier comment.  The title of the short article is \u201cJimmy Carter walks back racism charge.\u201d  But nothing in the article indicates he \u201cwalked back\u201d or in any way retreated from what he said.  In fact, Carter said what I said:  he was misinterpreted.<\/p>\n

\n

\u201cBy the way, that\u2019s not what I said,\u201d Carter interjected as he was being asked about the comment. \u201cIf you read the remarks carefully, you\u2019ll see that\u2019s not what I said.\u201d <\/p>\n

\u201cI said those that had a personal attack on President Obama as a person, that was tinged with racism,\u201d Carter explained. \u201cBut I recognize that people who disagree with him on health care or the environment, that the vast majority of those are not tinged by racism.\u201d <\/p>\n

\u201cI meant exactly what I said,\u201d he continued. \u201cWhat I actually said, if you look at the transcript, is what I just repeated to you.\u201d <\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Obviously Andy Barr didn\u2019t bother to read the original comments.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

UPDATE:  It seems odd to me that while most stories linger for a day or two on Politico\u2019s home page, the one I allude to below, published at 5:07 p.m. yesterday is already off it, as of noon today, 10\/2\/09.  My bet is that Jim VandeHei & Co. knew that this was a weak story… Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[184,90,206],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/griendling.com\/wordpress1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1737"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/griendling.com\/wordpress1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/griendling.com\/wordpress1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/griendling.com\/wordpress1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/griendling.com\/wordpress1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1737"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/griendling.com\/wordpress1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1737\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/griendling.com\/wordpress1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1737"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/griendling.com\/wordpress1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1737"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/griendling.com\/wordpress1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1737"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}