Why Doesn’t CNN’s Roland Martin Get Axed like Carville and Begala Did?

Just this past January, James Carville and Paul Begala were fired from CNN for their association with Hillary Clinton. But Roland Martin? He’s CNN’s new favored commentator. The only thing is, CNN doesn’t tell you that he is a professional apologist for and supporter of Barack Obama. He is also a friend and close associate of Obama’s national Co-Chairman, Jesse Jackson Jr. and he attends the Salem Baptist Church of Reverend James Meeks, another of Barack Obama’s spiritual advisors. So why hasn’t he been fired too?

Let’s begin with a little history.

On March 24, 2007, SEIU and the Center for American Progress Action Fund sponsored a Presidential Health Care Forum in Las Vegas. All of the Democratic candidates showed up but one candidate stood out from the rest of them. But not in a manner he would have preferred. Yes, Barack Obama bombed big time at this forum. He was unprepared. He stammered a lot and generally received terrible reviews. And on March 28th in CNN’s The Situation Room, Democratic strategist James Carville gave his opinion of the race merely repeating what everyone already knew.

The Situation Room

CARVILLE: But what’s happening [...] to Senator Obama is, he has had a couple of less-than-impressive performances at a health care forum out in Las Vegas and things like that.

(CROSSTALK)

CARVILLE: [H]e’s a very talented guy. And he’s very effective. [H]e started out pretty good. I mean, it’s pretty remarkable he is where he is, in terms of somebody…

STEELE: Right.

CARVILLE: … new, and — and burst on the scene like that. But I think that what might be a little troubling, if I was running Obama’s campaign, is, is that he seems to get up — need to get up to speed on a couple of these issues.

Shortly thereafter CNN began receiving phone calls from the Obama campaign complaining that Carville was a Hillary partisan and couldn’t be considered as unbiased political analyst. Then the blogosphere caught wind of the Obama camp’s concerns …

“Respected” bloggers like Stoller and Kos chimed in. First was Stoller, arguing that Carville is just like a Politico hack. Stoller implied that Bay Buchanan, despite her work for Tom Tancredo, was more ethical than Carville.

Stoller: “James Carville’s Blogger Ethics Problem”

James Carville is identified as a CNN Political Analyst, and here he is spreading conventional wisdom about Obama that is worthy of the Politico. That’s fine, since that seems to be what political analysts on the TeeVee do. Carville blathers about how Obama is thin on the issues, isn’t performing well as of late, etc.

What CNN doesn’t mention is that Carville is also sending out fundraising solicitations for Hillary Clinton’s campaign for President and is an advisor for her campaign.

This is crazy. It’s just crazy. When CNN commentator Bay Buchanan took over the Tancredo campaign, she resigned from the network. This isn’t exactly the same situation, but the lines are thin. Carville isn’t getting money from Clinton, but there are other ways of compensation in politics and everyone knows that.

Not to be outdone, Kos jumped in. First, of course, he reminded people of his importance by pointing out that he worked on Dean’s failed Presidential bid. Then he claimed that ordinary Americans have no idea who James Carville is.

Pull out the waders, folks. It starts to get deep.

Kos: “The Carville/CNN ethics dilemma”

Bullshit. When I was a consultant for the Dean campaign, I had a big-ass disclaimer, where the most expensive ad on Daily Kos is placed, disclosing my role. Sure, in his cocktail party circuit, everyone knows Carville is a Hillary partisan, but that can’t be assumed for the general public.

But the biggest culprit here is CNN, which should put up that disclaimer whether Carville agrees to it or not. It’s their responsibility to ensure they remain a “trusted name in news”, and refusing their audience full disclaimers of their guests conflicts of interest is beyond the pale.

Yeah, like no one recognizes Carville’s massive shiny dome. And he is such a humble person that he is quite easily mixed up with any number of people. Yes, it is unlikely that anyone outside of the cocktail party circuit recognizes James Carville. Sure, Kos, whatever you say. Since you are so important. But I assure you, when you describe yourself and use the words big ass in the same sentence, I find you entirely credible.

But what about the message Carville delivered? Was it accurate? Was it partisan? According to most of the people that watched the forum, James Carville was not only correct in his observations of Obama, he nailed it. The well-respected Ezra Klein stated that Obama appeared overwhelmed.

Ezra Klein: “A Lack of Audacity: How Obama’s health care plan resembles the candidate himself”

The first stumble of Barack Obama’s presidential campaign came last March, at the SEIU health care forum in Las Vegas, Nevada. Until then, the Illinois senator’s explosive charisma, preternatural ease on the stump, and inspirational back story had dominated the coverage, pushing down vague concerns about his inexperience and the precise ratio of sizzle to steak. But standing on the podium, Obama seemed, for the first time, unprepared and overwhelmed. He stammered before the surprisingly tenacious grilling of 23-year-old Morgan Miller, who asked, simply, why his web site had more specificity on lead poisoning than health reform. After lamely questioning whether she had visited his campaign or Senate web site, Obama pleaded, sensibly, for more time. “Keep in mind,” he said, “that our campaign now is, I think, a little over eight weeks old … If we have another forum in a couple of months and it’s still not there, I’ll be in trouble.”

If Carville and Klein are not good enough political observers, perhaps the reviews Here, Here and Here will serve as satisfactory unbiased observers of fact.

Despite all of these observations, it was decided that James Carville and Paul Begala had to go. Even Bill Richardson’s campaign got into the act. Richardson’s spokesperson, Tom Reynolds told CNN:

A Clinton Friend’s Role Sets Off Intense Criticism of CNN and a Re-examination

“What you saw last night lacked full disclosure. The average viewer out in middle America may not know the inside-the-Beltway connection.”

With pressure mounting, CNN president Jonathan Klein made a decision that under the circumstances he apparently felt he must. From the way the decision was reached, the chattering masses concluded that CNN was doing the ethical thing.

“He’s not on the Hillary payroll, but he’s on the Hillary bandwagon, and that should be disclosed as much as we can,” Mr. Klein said. “I wasn’t comfortable with it myself as I watched it.

“He has disclosed all of this previously and repeatedly on our air,” he continued. “He happened not to last night, and it’s an unfortunate omission.”

CNN was redeemed. Or so one would think.

While watching a recent installment of CNN’s Sound Off, I listened to CNN’s recently hired contributor Roland Martin. Mr. Martin comes across as an affable gentleman with a long resume designed to impress people. But once he starts speaking, it is clear that he is hardly an unbiased examiner of facts. He has a specific agenda, and it is evident that CNN has given him a platform from which to preach his point of view.

It is important to begin by disclosing that Roland Martin is a member of Reverend James Meeks’ Salem Baptist Church where he is a fellow congregate with Jesse Jackson Jr. It should also be pointed out that Mr. Martin is a firm supporter of Senator Obama. Of course, CNN doesn’t disclose Mr. Martin’s affiliations. We are left to rely upon “resume” information to judge Mr. Martin instead of the FACTS that clearly demonstrate that he has alliances and an axe to grind.

During this show, Martin made it clear that he believes that we need to move on from the Wright and Farrakhan controversy and get back to discussing the issues. Ok…. but in explaining why we should return to “discussing the issues,” his real agenda is revealed. According to Martin, the Trinity United Church of Christ has been given a bum rap.

Controversy [Roland Martin]

The church did not give Minister Farrakhan an award. The Trumpet magazine which used to be a part of the church. It is no longer a part of the church although according to Reverend Otis Moss III they do provide him with some financial assistance. The magazine gave him the award. The church didn’t vote to give Minister Farrakhan an award, the magazine did.

Is this twisted logic from Martin? Does he expect us to believe that everything is “cool” now that Wright has “retired” from the church and that a new pastor has taken over just in time to turn the page? And that these events occurred at the same time that Obama has been scrutinized for his associations?

We are to be assured that everything is “cool” now because Wright isn’t there any more and Obama wasn’t there when Wright said those horrible things? Uh huh… yep, that sure is a good reason to move on. NOT!

Let us examine this Trumpet controversy and then gauge the credibility of Martin’s argument. The most amazing thing about Trumpet Newsmagazine is that it appears to have been disappeared from the Web. All links of which I am aware lead to a page that has NOTHING to do with the magazine. That is no small feat, even for the most Web savvy. Web pages don’t just disappear. There has to be a deliberate action to scrub the information, and the people performing the “scrubs” have to know what they are doing. And in this case it appears that they have done their homework well because nothing exists that I can find. Isn’t it convenient that this would happen at the exact same time that Senator Obama is under increased scrutiny because of his association with his church and his pastor?

Fortunately, not all traces of Trumpet Newsmagazine have been disappeared. For example, we have the original mission statement of the magazine heralded on the Trinity Church’s Web site:

Trumpet Mission Statement

In fulfilling our church motto, “Unashamedly Black, unapologetically Christian” and the mission of the pastor to educate, nurture and empower the people of God, the Trinity Trumpet is committed to honoring our African roots and traditions, to giving voice to our deepening faith in God and to serving the ethnic diversity in the global Christian community as well as those outside the church by highlighting journalistic issues that impact, address and speak to our shared human experiences and beliefs in a racially oppressive society.

So what this does tell us is that Roland Martin was misleading us when he said that Trumpet Magazine was not affiliated with the Trinity United Church of Christ. It may not be now but it sure was until very recently. Could it be that Trinity decided that since there was so much controversy and even an IRS investigation into them that they should probably make all the traces of this go away? Or did they decide that the general public, already repulsed by Wright’s racist and anti-American rants, would go over the edge to learn that in the last issue Wright added another title to his resume: BIGOT.

In referring to the Italian people in general Wright, in the same issue that praised Louis Farrakhan, called the whole of the Italian people “garlic noses.”

Garlic noses

“(Jesus’) enemies had their opinion about Him,” Wright wrote in a eulogy of the late scholar Asa Hilliard in the November/December 2007 issue. “The Italians for the most part looked down their garlic noses at the Galileans.

“From the circumstances surrounding Jesus’ birth (in a barn in a township that was under the Apartheid Roman government that said his daddy had to be in), up to and including the circumstances surrounding Jesus’ death on a cross, a Roman cross, public lynching Italian style. …” Wright wrote.

Not exactly the words of praise one would expect from a pastor. If Wright were Shakespeare, he might have said: “I come to give Caesar a breath mint, not to praise him.” Seriously, this is outright bigotry and such bigotry doesn’t develop overnight. It isn’t a five-minute outburst that occurs incidentally once every 20 years. It is a deep-seated resentment that one has carefully cultured for years. His bigotry isn’t something that someone accidentally just happened to catch on tape some Sunday. And it is clear that the Trinity Church financed the written vehicle for Wright to spread his gospel of bigotry, hatred and racism even if they have disappeared all traces of the evidence for now.

But back to Roland Martin… It is clear that he is an advocate for Wright and Obama. And it is also clear that he is very willing to distort the truth to make it seem like his guys are just fine. But who else is Roland Martin? What makes him tick? Just what other strong beliefs does he have that his viewers should be aware of?

One of the more controversial beliefs that Roland Martin espouses is his solidarity with Reverend James Meeks that homosexuality is an “evil sickness.” In fact Martin takes Reverend Al Sharpton to task for his attempts to make the “black” clergy more accepting of homosexuals.

Faith – not social pressures – must govern church on issue of homosexuality

What leaders of this effort must come to understand is that the fundamental issue is that gays and lesbians want to be accepted and embraced by the church, and not acknowledge that they are engaged, in the eyes of the church, in sinful behavior. This, regardless of what Sharpton or anyone else has to say, is the reason there will never be a happy medium on this issue.

~snip~

As individuals, gays and lesbians – those claiming to be born this way and others who say they have evolved to live a homosexual lifestyle – are naturally going to want to live their life as they see fit. And yes, the last thing they want to do is sit in a church and listen to someone from the pulpit castigate their way of life. I get that.

But someone who is living with a member of the opposite sex while not married also doesn’t want to hear that being preached. And surely the man or woman cheating on their spouse prefers not to hear their behavior cast as being sinful and unGodly.

So Roland Martin believes that homosexuality is both sinful and ungodly. How absolutely fundamental of him. Martin firmly holds this belief. And like the members of Wright’s church, he isn’t apologetic.

That isn’t being homophobic. It’s being a Christian. And no one should have to apologize for that.

Besides being a homophobe, oh sorry… I mean Christian, just who is Mr. Roland Martin? Well one thing about Roland Martin is obviously true. He is intensely focused on “black” issues for “black” Americans. He seems to share the afrocentric belief system of people like Reverend James Meeks and Reverend Jeremiah Wright. And we are expected to accept that it is just a happy accident of fate that he shares the same beliefs as Jesse Jackson Jr. and Barack Obama.

In his resume, Mr. Martin claims to have been the former founding news editor for Savoy magazine. This magazine aspired to be a “black Vanity Fair.” New Savoy Magazine Goes on “Hiatus” The first issue featured an article on Barack and Michelle Obama. But it wasn’t financed well from the start and ceased publication. Another of Mr. Martin’s business adventures is much more revealing because this one is still in publication. Martin was the former founding editor of BlackAmericaWeb.com, another black-focused news source. In fact an interesting article appeared in their most recent issue concerning the controversy surrounding Barack Obama and Jeremiah Wright. True to form, they decided that rather than take a stance about Obama and Wright’s positions, they would instead attack Hillary.

To counter the statement that Hillary made in Philadelphia Tuesday concerning the Wright controversy, BlackAmericaweb put out a distorted article featuring the pastor of the church the Clintons belonged to when Bill Clinton was President.

Clinton’s Pastor During White House Days: Whites ‘Would Do Well to Listen’ to Rev. Wright

The pastor of the Washington, D.C., church attended by Bill and Hillary Clinton during their days in the White House says whites in America can learn from listening to the sermons of the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, Sen. Barack Obama’s retired pastor, who has been criticized recently for statements about race and American foreign policy.

The Clintons are no longer members of Foundry UMC, but have deep roots in the denomination.

According to an article published in the Christian Science Monitor, Sen. Clinton’s mother Dorothy Rodham taught Sunday school at First United Methodist Church in their hometown of Park Ridge, Illinois. That’s also the church where a young Hillary began to grow spiritually and participate in community service.

In Arkansas, Bill and Hillary Clinton affiliated with the First United Methodist Church, Little Rock. According to published reports, the Clintons maintain their membership at that church.

And yes, if what was stated in this article was true it would seem to damage Hillary in some respect. Because if her spiritual advisor feels this way, then she must have some credibility problems since she claims to be very spiritual. But that is the rub to this. Because this story is only half true. And the part that isn’t true is the most important part. But fortunately there are other sources of information to get at the truth, which our media has apparently developed a severe allergic reaction to.

The view from Clinton’s former church

But the senior minister at Clinton’s former church — who took over the pulpit there after the former first lady left — has come out in defense of Barack Obama’s provocative former pastor, chastising white Americans for succumbing to fear in their reaction to his fiery sermons. Read more….

Clinton has not returned to services at Foundry since 2001, her spokesman said, but both Bill Clinton and his wife have thanked Foundry for providing a refuge during the most difficult hours of his administration — particularly his impeachment trial at the height of the Monica Lewinsky scandal.

While the Foundry pastor who closely counseled the Clintons retired soon after they left the church, his successor has stood in solidarity with Obama’s pastor since controversy first erupted over videotapes of incendiary sermons delivered by Wright. One widely played clip shows Wright sermonising against racism and urging parishioners to sing “God damn America”.

Notice the words in bold? They completely contradict the headline from BlackAmericaweb, that publication of which Roland Martin was the founding editor. This helps determine the legitimacy of his credentials despite how impressive they appear at first glance.

But just in case you got the mistaken impression that journalism was alive and well in other parts of the world this article goes on to distort what really took place and who was involved.

The Clintons bid a highly personal farewell to Foundry in 2001, reading from the Bible and delivering a ermon as a family. The former president suggested they would remain active in the church, telling the congregation that “this is not really a goodbye, but the beginning of a new chapter of our lives with Foundry”.

Asked yesterday whether the New York senator would consider returning to Foundry in light of Snyder’s support for Obama’s pastor, a spokesman for Clinton distanced her from the church.

“I think not being a member of or attending a service there for the past seven years speaks for itself and renders the hypothetical moot,” Philippe Reines, a longtime Clinton aide, said in an email response to Guardian America.

Again, the bolded words highlight the inaccuracy. Because you see, it was Bill Clinton alone that delivered an address to the Foundry church at the end of his Presidency. And he very specifically thanked the pastors there who helped him and the Clinton family during their darkest hours.

Remarks at the Foundry United Methodist Church – Bill Clinton – Transcript

Especially, I would like to thank Reverend Wogaman for being my pastor and friend, my counselor and teacher. Most of you know that for more than 2 years now, he and two other minister friends of mine have shared the burden of meeting with me on a weekly basis. It has been an immense blessing to me and to my service as President.

Rev. Wogaman also serves as a spiritual counselor to the President, along with Rev. Gordon MacDonald and Rev. Tony Campolo.

That clears that up quite nicely.

So where does that leave us? Clearly it has been demonstrated that Roland Martin is a known associate with people that are very close to the Obama campaign and that he has a propensity to distort the facts in such a light that is beneficial to his candidate. So where is the outrage? Why aren’t Stoller and Kos writing about this clearly unethical decision by CNN to put an Obama partisan on the payroll with no disclosure at all? None. Zip. Nada. Just where is Bill Richardson’s outrage? Or is he too busy counting his thirty pieces of silver to care about something so trite as ethics and fairness? Yes it seems quite obvious that the people that were so adamant about causing Carville and Begala to lose their jobs don’t really care about ethics at all. But if I am wrong let them prove me wrong, and join with me in demanding that CNN fire Roland Martin immediately. It’s the ethical thing to do.