The New York Times Drops the Ball on Ayers and Obama
By Larry Johnson on October 4, 2008 at 8:45 AM in Current Affairs
Some may be inclined to commend the New York Times for a “good start” (You know the old joke? What do you call a 1000 lawyers chained together at the bottom of the ocean? A good start.) But while offering the appearance of an in depth investigation The New York Times actually tries to help Senator Obama cover up his lies about Ayers.
For those living in a cave in recent years, Bill Ayers is a self-confessed unrepentant terrorist who played a key role in launching Barack Obama’s political career. Let’s take this step-by-step. First, here is what Barack Obama claimed earlier this year when questioned by George Stephanopolus:
Can you explain that relationship for the voters and explain to Democrats why it won’t be a problem?
OBAMA: George, but this is an example of what I’m talking about. This is a guy who lives in my neighborhood, who’s a professor of English in Chicago who I know and who I have not received some official endorsement from. He’s not somebody who I exchange ideas from on a regular basis.
And the notion that somehow as a consequence of me knowing somebody who engaged in detestable acts 40 years ago, when I was 8 years old, somehow reflects on me and my values doesn’t make much sense, George.
The New York Times does concede that Obama has not been accurate about his relationship with Ayers:
A review of records of the schools project and interviews with a dozen people who know both men, suggest that Mr. Obama, 47, has played down his contacts with Mr. Ayers, 63. But the two men do not appear to have been close.
But the Times perpetuates the nonsense that contacts between Ayers and Obama were of no consequence. The Times reports:
“The suggestion that Ayers was a political adviser to Obama or someone who shaped his political views is patently false,” said Ben LaBolt, a campaign spokesman. Mr. LaBolt said the men first met in 1995 through the education project, the Chicago Annenberg Challenge, and have encountered each other occasionally in public life or in the neighborhood. He said they have not spoken by phone or exchanged e-mail messages since Mr. Obama began serving in the United States Senate in January 2005 and last met more than a year ago when they bumped into each other on the street in Hyde Park.
Fortunately we do not have to depend on the Times to get the story. Instead we have the work of Steve Diamond (see his piece here) who has done the real investigation that puts to shame the NY Times effort.
The Obama campaign continues to insist that Ayers had nothing to do with Barack’s selection as chairman of the board of the Chicago Annenberg Challenge. According to the Times:
In March 1995, Mr. Obama became chairman of the six-member board that oversaw the distribution of grants in Chicago. Some bloggers have recently speculated that Mr. Ayers had engineered that post for him.
In fact, according to several people involved, Mr. Ayers played no role in Mr. Obama’s appointment. Instead, it was suggested by Deborah Leff, then president of the Joyce Foundation, a Chicago-based group whose board Mr. Obama, a young lawyer, had joined the previous year. At a lunch with two other foundation heads, Patricia A. Graham of the Spencer Foundation and Adele Simmons of the MacArthur Foundation, Ms. Leff suggested that Mr. Obama would make a good board chairman, she said in an interview. Mr. Ayers was not present and had not suggested Mr. Obama, she said.
Not true. The documentary evidence suggests otherwise (again, thanks to Steve Diamond for these nuggets). The national headquarters for the Annenberg Challenge was located at Brown University and managed under the direction of Brown’s President, Vartan Gregorian. Diamond has uncovered several letters between Gregorian and Ayers. According to a letter dated November 18, 1994, Gregorian informed Bill Ayers:
”This probably goes without saying, but I urge you as you compose the governing Board and the Collaborative, to engage people who reflect the racial and ethnic diversity of Chicago.”
On December 1, 1994 Ayers and Anne Hallett (who co-chaired the CSRC with Ayers) wrote back to Gregorian:
“Thank you for your letter of November 18, 1994. We are continuing to build a broad base of consensus and support for the main thrust of the proposal….We have given careful thought to the issues raised in your letter. We are working with Adele Simmons, Deborah Leff, and Pat Graham on issues of management and governance to ensure that Chicago’s Annenberg Challenge initiative is successful. We offer the following responses:….Board of Directors. A five-to-seven person Board of Directors of highly respected Chicagoans is being assembled. Pat Graham, president of the Spencer Foundation, has agreed to serve and is willing to work with the Board. The duties of the Board will be to approve grants, to help raising matching funds, and to hire the executive director….The Board and the Collaborative will reflect the racial and ethnic diversity of Chicago.”
So what? The issue is not who actually sat down with Barack Obama in March 1995 and asked him to become the chairman of this board. No. There are two critical, unanswered questions. First, why was an inexperienced lawyer like Barack Obama asked to chair this board? Second, why has Barack refused to discuss in detail what he did with this board and his interactions with Bill Ayers during the four years he chaired this effort?
That is what does not make sense. Obama is running for President and faces the charge that he lacks significant experience running anything. Okay, here he is chairman of a board that was responsible for raising and disbursing more that $100 million dollars and Obama says nothing about this time in his life? Why? Because he did regularly interact and exchange ideas with Bill Ayers. Look carefully at the statement issued by the Obama campaign, “they have not spoken by phone or exchanged e-mail messages since Mr. Obama began serving in the United States Senate in January 2005.”
Got that? But they were speaking and exchanging email prior to January 2005. We also now know that Ayers is communicating with Obama through David Axlerod. Axlerod and Ayers have been in regular communication on figuring out how to manage the potential fallout from the public learning that Barack Obama for many years thought it was okay to work with and accept advice from an unrepentant terrorist. Those are uncomfortable facts and go to the essence of the charge that challenging Obama’s judgment in hanging out with unsavory characters–e.g., Ayers, Rezko, Wright. It is both troubling and reflects a bizarre lack of political acumen for someone allegedly such a gifted politician.
If you want to let the NY Times know what you think here is the address: public@nytimes.com
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