Reverend Wright Sets the Paper of Record Straight

[kpete]

Reverend Wright Sets the Paper of Record Straight
by eleming
Sat Mar 22, 2008 at 01:43:11 PM PDT

Reverend Wright was interviewed by The New York Times.

They then distorted what he had to say and used it in their smear campaign against Obama.

Reverend Wright sent a letter in protest to the New York Times.

They have not printed it.

This was from an earlier controversy a year ago and they didn't correct it then and they won't correct new articles now.

The Wright 2007 letter here:

http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2008/3/22/163534/625/759/482318

(excerpts)

March 11, 2007

Jodi Kantor
The New York Times
9 West 43rd Street
New York, New York 10036-3959

Dear Jodi

Thank you for engaging in one of the biggest misrepresentations of the truth I have ever seen in sixty-five years. You sat and shared with me for two hours. You told me you were doing a "Spiritual Biography" of Senator Barack Obama. For two hours, I shared with you how I thought he was the most principled individual in public service that I have ever met.

............

Out of a two-hour conversation with you about Barack’s spiritual journey and my protesting to you that I had not shaped him nor formed him, that I had not mentored him or made him the man he was, even though I would love to take that credit, you did not print any of that. When I told you, using one of your own Jewish stories from the Hebrew Bible as to how God asked Moses, "What is that in your hand?," that Barack was like that when I met him. Barack had it "in his hand." Barack had in his grasp a uniqueness in terms of his spiritual development that one is hard put to find in the 21st century, and you did not print that.

................

The president of our denomination, the Reverend John Thomas, has offered to try to help you clarify in your confused head what Trinity Church is even though you spent the entire weekend with us setting me up to interview me for what turned out to be a smear of the Senator; and yet The New York Times continues to roll on making the truth what it wants to be the truth. I do not remember reading in your article that Barack had apologized for listening to that bad information and bad advice. Did I miss it? Or did your editor cut it out? Either way, you do not have to worry about hearing anything else from me for you to edit or "spin" because you are more interested in journalism than in truth.

.....................

Maybe it was my faith in the Jewish Holy Day of Roshashana. Maybe it was my being caught up in the euphoria of the Season of Lent; but whatever it is or was, I was sadly mistaken. There is no repentance on the part of The New York Times. There is no integrity when it comes to The Times. You should do well with that paper, Jodi. You looked me straight in my face and told me a lie!

Sincerely and respectfully yours,

Reverend Jeremiah A. Wright, Jr.,
Senior Pastor
Trinity United Church of Christ

http://www.tucc.org/upload/tuccbulletin_mar18.pdf

more at:
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/06/us/politics/06obama.html?_r=2&ref=politics&oref=slogin&oref=slogin
http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2008/3/22/163534/625/759/482318