As if Franklin Graham's comments on MSNBC Tuesday weren't bad enough, CNN decided to bring him on to "explain" and give him a second bite at the Obama-hating apple. This time he was careful to wrap his statement that the President wasn't really a Christian in the mantle of the anti-abortion wedge.
Here is what he said on MSNBC, among other things:
"Islam sees him as a son of Islam... I can't say categorically that [Obama is not Muslim] because Islam has gotten a free pass under Obama."
Wednesday, Kyra Phillips gave him a chance to clarify his answer. First he said he could not vote for Obama because he supported abortion. Okay. Whatever. But then he went on with it.
PHILLIPS: OK, so Franklin, let me ask you this, Franklin then. As long as the president supports a woman's right to have an abortion, will you continue to believe that he is not a Christian?
GRAHAM: No, I've never said, Kyra, I never one time said I don't believe that he is a Christian. Only God knows a man's heart. Only God knows your heart or my heart.
And all of these other candidates, their claim to faith you have to accept what they say. And you have to also look at how a person lives their life. But as it comes to the president, this issue is a big stumbling block for me.
It's going to be a big stumbling block for many Evangelical Christians. That is the way it is. He's the one who made the issue by supporting abortion and so he has to live with that.
Instead of discrediting Andrew Brietbart for being a lying liar that hurts people, CNN's Kyra Phillips thinks the Shirley Sherrod story means we need to attack anonymous bloggers for their indiscretions. WTF? If a liberal blogger had released a phony video that targeted a Republican in the same way as Breitbart did, the outrage that would have followed from the media would have been cataclysmic. But when it's done by a conservative hitman ... crickets.
Phillips calls anonymous bloggers cowards, but what does that make Andrew Breitbart? I wonder if MSMers are really that naive? Breitbart smeared ACORN and essentially destroyed the one organization in this country dedicated to enrolling minority voters with doctored videos -- and yet he was positively celebrated for his efforts, and never faced any accountability when the entire smear was proven a fraud. Then he led the video smear of Sherrod. Who has been anonymous in any of these stories? We know all too exactly who smeared Sherrod. Why is CNN focusing on a nonexistent issue?
Anchors Kyra Phillips and John Roberts discussed the “mixed blessing of the Internet,” and agreed that there should be a crackdown on anonymous bloggers who disparage others on the internet. “There are so many great things that the internet does and has to offer, but at the same time, Kyra, as you know, there is this dark side,” Roberts said. “Imagine what would have happened if we hadn’t taken a look at what happened with Shirley Sherrod and plumbed the depths further and found out that what had been posted on the internet was not in fact reflective of what she said.” But Phillips replied that the mainstream media “can’t always do that.” “There’s going to have be a point in time where these people have to be held accountable,” Phillips said. “How about all these bloggers that blog anonymously? They say rotten things about people and they’re actually given credibility, which is crazy. They’re a bunch of cowards, they’re just people seeking attention.”
The whole reason you might think anonymous bloggers would be a problem is that they could make stuff up and nobody would know who they were in order to sanction them. In this case, though, there’s nothing anonymous about Andrew Breitbart so this problem shouldn’t exist. Except instead of sanctioning Andrew Breitbart, a specific individual with a specific name, and the other specific institutions (who employ specific individuals with names) CNN’s team is lashing out vaguely at “the internet” and “anonymous bloggers.” The issue here, however, is primarily Andrew Breitbart. To a secondary extent, it’s Fox News and conservative talk radio. And to a broader extent it’s a conservative movement that continues to celebrate Breitbart and Fox News despite their legacy of inaccuracy and race-baiting. Anonymous bloggers have nothing to do with anything.
The rage used to be focused on people leaving anonymous comments on websites, but CNN uses a false equivalency to turn it into bloggers. Why doesn't CNN denounce Breitbart and lead the way to discredit any such political operatives who act in a dishonest way?
I think this is telling. This is the only actual example of Obama’s alleged demonization of business that Zuckerman offers — and it’s essentially a mini-Breitbart, a quote taken out of context to make it seem as if Obama was saying something he wasn’t. That’s typical of the whole argument.
Oh, and one more thing: are there no copy editors at the FT? When I quote someone in my column, I supply the source material, and my copy editor checks, not just to be sure that the quote is accurate, but that it’s not taken out of context. But I guess such rules don’t apply if you’re a conservative.
Kyra Phillips brought up an interesting point for the good Senator from the Nutmeg State today on American Morning, namely that even the Iraqi soldiers don't want us there any longer. Lieberman replies with all the grace and aplomb we've come to expect from the man that it's a good thing they don't have "a vote in our election". Lieberman could just as well have left off that stipulation as completely unnecessary, replacing "our" with "their".
PHILLIPS: All right. Let's step aside from the polls and talk subject matter. Obviously the Iraq war, he continues to embrace that. This is high on the agenda of the American people. I just returned from Baghdad and what was interesting to me, I sat down with dozens of Iraqi soldiers and dozens of students at Baghdad University and senator, they said to me, we don't want to see a Republican president. As a matter of fact, out of every single one that I talked, not one person said they supported John McCain. They said we're living a Republican war. Look at this. it's a disaster, we want to see a Democrat for president. What does John McCain say to the future of Iraq and we're talking about Iraqi soldiers and Baghdad university students? They're the ones living this.
LIEBERMAN: Well, I'm real surprised to hear that.
PHILLIPS: I was too, it was very interesting. They were very blunt and very straight forward.
LIEBERMAN: Yes, not that I expect the Iraqis to vote in our election, but I will tell you that in all of the visits i have made there and it's eight, the Iraqi people on the street, the Iraqi military, the Iraqi government that I've talked to don't want us to just pick up and leave because -- which is what Senator Obama, Senator Clinton have been advocating. They want us obviously not to stay there forever, Senator McCain wants the war to stop and to have us pull back into bases and be on a path, a reasonable path of withdrawal. But I think the Iraqi people more than anybody know, they made tremendous progress in the last year and a half towards security, towards economic rebirth, some kind of political, national reconciliation.
And the last thing they want us to do in '09 is just to pick up what we begin to retreat because they'll be the victims. They'll be genocide, there'll be genocide, there will be bloodshed they have made tremendous progress in the last year and a half, thwart security, toward economic rebirth, toward some kind of political national reconciliation reconciliation. The last thing they want us to do in '09 is to begin to retreat because they will be the victims, there will be genocide, bloodshed. Iran and Al Qaeda will win and we will lose. And I'm surprised at what your unscientific poll found. I honestly don't think it reflects the feeling of most Iraqis, certainly not the ones that I've met when I've been there.
And here is the video from March that Kyra Phillips is referencing.
Just to be perfectly clear here, I did ask them are you following any of the republican candidates?…Do you want to talk about John McCain? Within that whole group, not one wanted a republican in the US presidential seat. They were all for a democrat. They were all for that type of change because they said they were living a republican war.”
CNN's Kyra Phillips speaks to some Iraqi soldiers about the U.S. presidential election and democracy in Iraq. While they spoke enthusiastically about the American soldiers teaching them discipline and how to effectively combat their enemies in Iraq, the soldiers were less effusive in their praise for those managing the war and their plans for bringing about democracy. Phillips tried in vain to locate any McCain supporters among the group.
"Just to be perfectly clear here, I did ask them are you following any of the republican candidates?...Do you want to talk about John McCain? Within that whole group, not one wanted a republican in the US presidential seat. They were all for a democrat. They were all for that type of change because they said they were living a republican war."
McCain arrived in Baghdad on Sunday, with his BFF's Joe Lieberman and Lindsey Graham, where they'll no doubt provide yet another upbeat assessment of the amazing progress going on.
This interview is one of the reasons why America is so uninformed about serious issues in our country. Kyra Phillips is really engaged in the Utah mining disaster and has a genuine passion about the story, but instead of asking the real questions to Murray about the dangerous mining conditions he promoted after he denied them---she treated him like a folk hero. The Huffington Post has more...
Murray: A rumor was started by the United Mine Workers. It's false statements they have made. False statements from the beginning. But I've watched them for 50 years and they have preyed on the tragedy of miners and their families to put out false information to organize their union.
Murray always has the time to bash the United Mine Workers as much as he can and then he praises CNN for the wonderful job they are doing.
Robert Murray insists that his company did not change the mining plan at Crandall Canyon after purchasing a joint interest in the mine last August. But documents obtained by The Salt Lake Tribune clearly contradict Murray's assertion, and show that Murray's company sought and received approval from federal regulators to make a significant, and, experts say, risky change to the mining strategy...read on
Isn't that more important than trying to defend your coverage? I understand that there is great suffering in the lives of the families that have to deal with this nightmare and our hearts reach out to them, but when are we supposed to have serious conversations on serious issues?
"The Washington Post turned off the reader comments feature on post.blog after it was flooded by what the Post describes as personal attacks, profanity, and hate speech. Post.blog is a site dedicated to sharing news by and about the newspaper. What set off readers was a Sunday column by Post ombudsman Deborah Howell who wrote that corrupt former lobbyist Jack Abramoff gave money to Democrats as well as Republicans. That's true but most of the money went to Republicans."
Kyra of CNN, had on a journalist named John Seigenthaler, who found a slanderous biography of himself posted on Wikipedia. Jimmy Wales, the Wikipedia founder came on to defend the site and explains it works.
Near the end of the segment, Kyra talks about herself.
Kyra: ...I'm accused by liberals of showing right wing bias---I look like a right-wing commie---that's not how I want people to see me...
Emailer Nikki: "The best part, though, was that she complained about what was written about her there. As this was happening, an editor modified the article to remove a segment of the Nancy Pelosi interview." ( I can't confirm the editing took place at that moment.) Here's the post about Phillips now. Here's the cached segment that she objected to. (hat tip Leo) Here's the video segment with Nancy Pelosi that I posted on 09-08-05 which is at the heart of the claims. Here's an example of the hijacking of the term "swiftboating" on Wikipedia.
Phillips: We've got the resources so what do we need to do.
Grassley: What we need to do is... action.
Phillips: How do we put that action forward, how do we take action.
Grassley: I'm going to stop this because there's no sense in my having a confrontation with you, you're a friend and I appreciate what you're doing and I'm not going to give an on the spot answer because these things...
Kyra Phillips and Wikipedia
Completely Bizarre Heated Exchange Between Kyra Phillips and Chuck Grassley 
