October 31, 2008

The Obama Tapes***

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THE OBAMA TAPES….In an update on Michael Malone’s General Theory of Media Tankiness for Barack Obama, John Derbyshire offers a Special Theory of Media Tankiness for Barack Obama that applies only to the LA Times. Sam Zell and Hank Paulson are involved. And a unicorn.

For those of you with the good sense not to have followed this story, it’s about a piece the Times ran a few months ago describing a testimonial dinner in Chicago for Rashid Khalidi, a professor of Arab studies now at Columbia University. The Times has a videotape of Barack Obama’s speech at the event, and wingers everywhere are demanding that they release it so that Fox News can put it on a 24/7 loop over the weekend. The Times says it can’t release the tape because they promised their source they wouldn’t, but conservoland unanimously agrees that only fools and knaves believe this transparently ridiculous story. The Times is really holding it back because Khalidi shouted “Death to Israel” on the tape while Bill Ayers lit an Israeli flag on fire, and Barack Obama laughed and clapped while all this was going on.

It’s unclear, of course, why the Times even revealed the existence of this testimonial dinner in the first place if they were so in the tank for Obama, but I’m sure the wingers have an explanation for that. Conspiracy theorists always do. Stay tuned.

UPDATE: I don’t actually know anything about Khalidi myself, but it’s worth noting that he’s a perfectly respectable scholar with mildly pro-Palestinian views that the McCain campaign is trying to use in one of their usual cackhanded efforts to convince the rubes that Obama is a radical/Muslim/Jew-hating/terrorist sympathizer. Hell, even Marty Peretz is standing up for Khalidi. Jo-Ann Mort has more here.

Only four more days until this vile swill finally comes to an end.

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From the desk of Mother Jones CEO, Monika Bauerlein...

Newsrooms can be funded in many ways. One of the most controversial (and volatile) ways is by a for-profit corporation or a billionaire owner. We see it across the headlines on a weekly basis: the claw backs in public media, the gutting of The Washington Post, the bending over backwards to appeal to Trump and his allies.

But not here.

When Mother Jones first started publishing 50 years ago, our founders made a critical decision: to be a reader-supported nonprofit. They knew that no corporate owner would be interested in a muckraking newsroom; they also knew that no muckraking newsroom would be interested in following the agenda of a corporate owner.

And so, we’ve been reader-funded for half a century. We rely on contributions from our readers—readers like you—whether it’s $50, or $15 a month, or whatever fits your budget. People give what they can, and every donation makes a difference for our newsroom, which has grown tremendously—in size and reach and renown—since its inception in 1976.

You may be wondering: What does it take to publish an investigation? And what does my donation actually fund? The answers are one and the same: It takes people, resources, and time. And that’s what your donation funds directly.

Every donation Mother Jones receives from readers fortifies our newsroom, whether we’re covering underreported scandals out of Washington, DC, or the most important news of the day. And right now, each donation will be doubled because of our $50,000 match. So when you make a donation—$5, $50, any amount—it’ll go twice as far.

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