Barack Obama says he was unaware of his minister's controversial remarks.
OBAMA AND OPRAH TAKE DIFFERENT PATHS WITH CONTROVERSIAL MINISTER
Oprah Winfrey left Jeremiah Wright's church over controversial remarks.
Summary: New York Times columnist Bill Kristol is being attacked for saying that Barack Obama was in church on July 22 when controversial pastor Jeremiah Wright gave controversial anti-American remarks. Kristol used "NewsMax as a source. NewsMax refuses to take back its reported error. Instead, the conservative on-line media watchdog says that even if Obama didn't attend any services on July 22 he was there to hear the remarks during that month. http://newsmax.com/kessler/Obama_hat%20e_America_sermon/2008/03/16/80870.html?s=al&promo_code=9990-1 What is interesting is that Oprah Winfrey, Obama's most famous celebrity supporter, joined the church in 1984, but then stopped attending and distanced herself from the controversial minister. Wright later attacked her for having broken from "traditional faith."
Slate Magazine (3/18/08) http://www.slate.com/blogs/blogs/trailhead/archive/2008/03/17/cracked-kristol.aspx Cracked Kristol This morning, the New York Times ran a Bill Kristol column whose entire bloated argument balanced on a tenuous, factually incorrect fulcrum. Kristol claims that Obama can’t pretend he didn’t know his pastor, Jeremiah Wright, was a controversial firebrand because Obama was in church when Wright started mouthing off. Kristol originally cited reporting that claimed Obama was at church on July 22, when Wright said the United States of White America was oppressing blacks.
Kristol and the Times have since issued an apology and a correction, but this was an especially preventable offense. Slate’s Map the Candidates tool shows Obama spent the day in Florida, fruitlessly addressing Latinos in Miami.
But the Times didn’t even have to steer their browsers to Slate’s waters. Their own candidate tracker shows that Obama was far from Chicago that day, as well. Kristol relied on reporting from conservative news site NewsMax.com, which is sticking by their story. Last we checked, the Times didn’t rely on reporting from biased outlets like NewsMax. Kristol might, but the Times doesn’t.
