MSNBC Lets a Little Real News Peek Through
By Anita Finlay ("Ani") on October 10, 2008 at 10:15 PM in ACORN, Annenberg Chicago Challenge, Bamboozling, Barack Obama, Bill Ayers, Campaigns & Campaign Financing, Corruption, Hamas, MSNBC, Ronald Reagan, Voter Fraud, William Ayers, Woods Fund
In Friday’s First Read on MSNBC, Mark Murray filed a roundup that has me completely shocked! A little anti-Obama news actually saw the light of day. They’d better hurry and shackle Mark Murray before he gets completely out of control. Here are the pertinent tidbits:
Murray refers to a report coming out of the NYTimes:
If small donors are going to be the fuel that powers campaigns from here on out, then the disclosure laws are probably going to have to change because there is a GIANT loophole. “An analysis of campaign finance records by The New York Times this week found nearly 3,000 donations to Mr. Obama, the Democratic nominee, from more than a dozen people with apparently fictitious donor information. The contributions represent a tiny fraction of the record $450 million Mr. Obama has raised. But the questionable donations — some donors were listed simply with gibberish for their names — raise concerns about whether the Obama campaign is adequately vetting its unprecedented flood of donors.”
Ya think? If someone is entering gibberish for names, as LisaB pointed out in her excellent stories covering the donations of someone named “Derty Pouiiy”, are you really telling me that wouldn’t or shouldn’t raise any red flags for the Obama campaign?
“It is unclear why someone making a political donation would want to enter a false name. Some perhaps did it for privacy reasons. Another, more ominous possibility, of course, is fraud, perhaps in order to donate beyond the maximum limits. There is no evidence that questionable contributions amount to anything more than a small portion of Mr. Obama’s fund-raising haul. The Times’s analysis, conducted over a few days and looking for obvious anomalies, like names or addresses with all consonants, identified about $40,000 in suspect contributions that had not been refunded by the campaign as of its last filing with the Federal Election Commission, in September.”
I’m also not sure just how we can believe the NYTimes “tiny fraction” comment, particularly since last week, the NYTimes erroneously reported that Obama’s ties to unrepentant terrorist William Ayers amounted to ‘nothing to see here folks, let’s move on.’ We see what nonsense that was. The man launched his political career in Ayers’ living room, served on two boards with him and Obama has had continued significant contact with him over many years. I’d say that’s a little more noteworthy than Obama’s statement that Ayers “is just a guy who lives in my neighborhood.”
Perhaps a little further investigation on the part of the MSM will bear more fruit in reference to Obama’s receiving both fraudulent and foreign donations as well.
Next on Murray’s watchlist, per the Wall Street Journal,
“The Obama campaign said it was a mistake for an outreach coordinator to join a meeting last month attended by leaders of two controversial Muslim groups as it seeks votes from large Muslim populations in swing states. Minha Husaini, newly named as head of the campaign’s outreach coordinator to Muslims, attended a discussion session Sept. 15 with about 30 Muslim leaders and community members in suburban Washington, the Obama campaign confirmed. Participants included leaders of the Council of American-Islamic Relations and the Muslim American Society, which have been cited by the government in the past for ties to the Muslim Brotherhood and Hamas.”
Since Hamas has already endorsed Obama – not really the kind of endorsement a future President would want, I would have thought – wouldn’t it have been wise for them to do a little checking before looking for votes with organizations that have questionable ties? And that, by the way, is not to offend or exclude members of the Muslim community who have no such ties.
“The Obama campaign’s Muslim outreach director participated in a meeting in mid September that was attended by several controversial Muslim activists,” NBC News’ Jim Popkin adds on the NBC Deep Background blog. “The Obama campaign now concedes that was a misjudgment, and that its top Muslim staffer would not have attended the meeting if she had known the full participant list beforehand. ‘Would a campaign staffer have attended if they were aware of the complete list of attendees? No,’ said Obama spokesman Ben LaBolt in an email statement to NBC.”
Another Obama “misjudgment.” They are piling up like crazy. Who’s minding the mint over there?
Murray further tells us that talk radio is all over this today:
A Washington Times report essentially accuses Obama of doing something the Dems accused Reagan of doing in 1980. “At the same time the Bush administration was negotiating a still elusive agreement to keep the U.S. military in Iraq, Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama tried to convince Iraqi leaders in private conversations that the president shouldn’t be allowed to enact the deal without congressional approval. Mr. Obama’s conversations with the Iraqi leaders, confirmed to The Washington Times by his campaign aides, began just two weeks after he clinched the Democratic presidential nomination in June and stirred controversy over the appropriateness of a White House candidate’s contacts with foreign governments while the sitting president is conducting a war.”
“Some of the specifics of the conversations remain the subject of dispute. Iraqi leaders purported to The Times that Mr. Obama urged Baghdad to delay an agreement with Mr. Bush until next year when a new president will be in office – a charge the Democratic campaign denies.”
Well, of course the Obama campaign denies it. We have been asking this question for several weeks – did Senator Obama violate the Logan Act?
Please take a look at NancyA story, Obama’s Iraq Double-Take Gate Response and decide for yourself.
Interesting that the most significant story, in re Obama’s possible misconduct during his visit to Iraq, was buried at the bottom of Mr. Murray’s report. Were they hoping we wouldn’t notice?
I find it amazing that internet reporting is ‘suspect,’ meanwhile NoQ has been shouting about the above stories and more for months. ACORN fraud in particular is growing huge legs on TV and talk radio. See NancyA’s excellent reporting on this subject.
I have to wonder if MSNBC dipping a toe in the water in at least mentioning the above indicates the backlash they feel from viewers – their ratings have been tanking as a result of their egregiously biased coverage in favor of Senator Obama.
Money seems to be the bottom line with the corporate controlled media in terms of what they will report and who they favor. If their bottom line starts to hurt at the hands of more angry viewers turning them off, it will be interesting to see if more stories like this start cropping up in unlikely places.
But don’t hold your breath.
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