Jeremiah Wright: A Quick Observation

The Rev. Jeremiah Wright, Senator Obama's "Spiritual Mentor," is doing a question-and-answer session at the National Press Club right now. The moderator asked him a question regarding a passage from the Gospel of John: "...I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me" (John 14:6). In the light of this well-known passage, she asked him, what did he think about Islam and Judaism?

Wright's response was brief and illuminating. He said, "Jesus also said, I have other sheep that do not belong to this fold." This generated cheers and applause from the audience, and seemed to suggest that Wright feels there are other paths to salvation. Now while this is a valid topic for theological debate, I find Wright's use of this passage very disingenuous--because he only quotes the first half of the verse. Here is John 10:16 in full (emphasis mine):

I have other sheep that do not belong to this fold. These also I must lead, and they will hear my voice, and there will be one flock, one shepherd.

You can read it yourself; it's part of the famous parable of the "Good Shepherd".

So here's the thing: Wright is a pastor, and he knows exactly what John 10:16 says...yet he rips a piece of it out of context in order to give a "politic" answer to a question (or perhaps more accurately, he gives a politic response to avoid answering the actual question). He insists that he is a servant of the truth. What does his response to this query tell us?

Manufactured Drama, Part II

Looking for an example of the media's obsession with creating the story? Look no further than this piece, detailing Chris Matthews's excited gurglings.

I have to tell you, you know, it's part of reporting this case, this election, the feeling most people get when they hear Barack Obama's speech. My, I felt this thrill going up my leg. I mean, I don't have that too often. No, seriously. It's a dramatic event. He speaks about America in a way that has nothing to do with politics. It has to do with the feeling we have about our country. And that is an objective assessment.

What kind of journalism school did you go to, Chris? "And that is an objective assessment." I don't often mind commentators expressing opinions because, hey, they're commentators; but are you kidding?

Manufactured Drama and the "Potomac Primaries"

No one doubted that yesterday's "Potomac Primaries" (Virginia, Maryland, and DC) would be important. Heck, given the wafter-thin delegate margin between Hillary and Obama, every state is taking on immense significance. But what was most interesting, to an enthusiast of the political theater that's playing itself out, is the degree to which the various media outlets are trying to manufacture drama to fill the gaps between actual news items.

McCain's win in Virginia (50-41% over Huckabee) is a prime example. The early returns, with just 10-15% of districts reporting, had Huckabee with a 4-point lead. Since the results were slow to come in during that first hour or so, the commentators had a lot of time to fill. They constantly gushed about what a blow it would be to McCain if Huckabee upset him here, how this was a sign that "conservatives" were rebelling against him, and how this was going to prevent McCain from launching into the national campaign he'd been looking forward to. Then, with about 20% of the vote in, the gap started to narrow. When it stood at 47-45 Huckabee, I caught Karl Rove on Fox News. He--and only he, at this point--spoke out against reading too much into these early results. He spoke a bit about McCain's campaign in Virginia and predicted that, by the end of the night, the senator would capture Virginia with 50 to 52% of the vote. And he was right.

This became clear at about 40% of the precincts reporting, but the narrative didn't change much: Huckabee still put up a stern resistance, a sign of McCain's weakness in the conservative base. Apparently, a 9% margin isn't big enough. If this had been a Presidential result, it would have been called a landslide.

The Obama/Clinton narrative was similarly flogged to death. There's been a good amount of fretting, in the public and in the media, about whether the news organizations are setting the story, rather than letting the facts speak for themselves. Well, duh. There's a need for drama, and the media fill every empty second with whatever drama they can scrape up. We hear about Obama's momentum (probably real enough), but less about the fact that the delegate count has what's effectively a microscopic edge for Obama. A Hillary sweep in big-ticket states like West Virginia and Wyoming would bring her back. Obama's not running the table...yet. The media just needs to polish its scripts so they can be ready when he is.