On Thursday, March 22nd, U.S. Senator Barack Obama's campaign released his letter to Federal Reserve Chairman Bernanke and Treasury Secretary Paulson urging them to immediately convene a homeownership preservation summit with key stakeholders to fight foreclosures driven by growth in the subprime mortgage market.
It was overshadowed in the mainstream media by continuing dissection of the Phildelphia speech on values and race from Monday, and in the blogosphere by Hillary Clinton's Bosnia hyperbole,
...or did she simply mis-speak? Well, it got everybody to stop talking about her tax returns. But while Senator Clinton wrestles with what may be a career-limiting memory lapse, it's worth noting that Obama hasn't lost sight of the impact this is having all across the U.S. despite the time-consuming nature of campaigning.
Last year in July, I was on CNN's "Roland Martin Debates" and said that YouTube's greatest contribution to politics was that a candidate had to be authentic. That the person had to make statements that were consistent.
I then used the example of presidential candidate, Senator Hillary Clinton, who attacked he rival Senator Barack Obama for stating that he would talk to and meet with our enemies, when just a few months earlier, Senator Clinton herself said she would do the same thing and the evidence of this is captured on YouTube.
Well, it seems that Senator Clinton learned nothing at all from my statements or the fact that YouTube itself exists as a powerful force for recording what people do and say now, and in our history. Senator Clinton's just made a huge error in judgement that could and should be the final flip-flop that damages her campaign.
In a speech held just one day after Senator Obama's historic "A More Perfect Union" presentation, Senator Clinton clamed that she landed in Tulza, Bosnia under "sniper fire," adding: "There was supposed to be some kind of a greeting ceremony at the airport, but instead we just ran with our heads down to get into the vehicles to get to our base." Clinton said.
But this YouTube video shows just the opposite: We see first that several newspapers have identified Senator Clinton's lie in what happened. Senator Clinton says in the video that they landed under heavy sniper fire and that there was no ceremony. The video then presents footage showing just the opposite, with Clinton walking with her daughter Chelsea and with a large group of people and being greeted by Bosnian heads of state.
The video says that the movie was created by Clinton campaign strategist Mark Penn. The question is will the mainstream media pick up the story.
The answer on the newspaper level is "yes". The Washington Post presented this story on Sunday March 22, entitled "Sniper Fire and Holes In Clinton's Recollection" and reports that "Far from running to an airport building with their heads down, Clinton and her party were greeted on the tarmac by smiling U.S. and Bosnian officials. An 8-year-old Muslim girl, Emina Bicakcic, read a poem in English. An Associated Press photograph of the greeting ceremony, below, shows a smiling Clinton bending down to receive a kiss."
Sinbad First Points To Clinton Lie The great comedian Sinbad was the first one to report that Senator Clinton was lying months ago, when he said "I think the only 'red phone' moment was 'Do we eat here or at the next place?' "
The Washington Post ends the story by giving Senator Clinton "Four Pinocchios."
I've not as of this writing seen this story reported on CNN or Fox or MSNBC, but what's clear to me this year is that the television news system in America is in shambles and has been taken over by entertainers who are influnced by advertisers and PR hacks.
There's no news anymore.
There are just attempts at influencing American public opinion for the purpose of helping some institution advance in power. The only check and balance system that exists is the online news media.
CNN's still presenting the Rev. Wright sound bites again and again. There's nothing -- and has not been to date -- about this news. And this news is about the person running for President and not someone who never thought of running for president and retired from preaching in the church.
It has to be asked why doesn't CNN or Fox explain who it backs for President, just as newspapers do? At least Americans would know and be able to make an informed choice about where they get their news.
Right now, it's a circus out there and there's no reason to consider television news to be a credible source on matters of business and politics. The only service they seem to "get right" is in the reporting of disasters, where having an "on the scene" person and camera gives those of us who are not there vital information about what's happening.
This was certainly true during 9-11. But disasters happen once in a while; business and politics is an everyday thing.
Who are the players on the NFL free agency block this year? Where did they go? To answer that question SBS did some research and went to ESPN and Profootballtalk.com to see who went where, and in some cases why. We present the table first, then some commentary.
What's interesting is that the Indianapolis Colts did not match an offer for TE Ben Utecht and so the second tight end in the Colts system is off to the Cinncinati Bengals. Some write that this leaves a hole , but in my view, Ben dropped a number of passes that could have meant the difference between the Colts being in the Super Bowl and where they ended up. Additionally, the NFL Draft is deep in quality tight ends, so the Colts may make a move there.
As to quaterbacks, the Oakland Raiders paved the way for the Jamarcus Russell era when they traded QB Josh McCown to the Miami Dolphins. The Browns kept the surprising Derrick Andersen. The Rams released Gus Ferrotte, which may spell the end of his long career.
The big news amoung running backs is that Julius Jones is now a Seahawk rather than a Cowboy. That leaves just Marion Barber at RB for Dallas, while Jones is paired with Shaun Alexander, which doesn't make him happy , but wil light a fire under him.
The biggest WR stories are first that Randy Moss is still a Patriot and that Denver WR Javon Walker was released and picked up by the Oakland Raiders.
The defensive line story is that Bengals DL Justin Smith was gotten by the SF 49ers. Some had him going to the Bucs, but this is a great acquisition for the Niners.
