Wednesday, October 03, 2012

reruns again?

i think the latest drudge "bombshell video" encapsulates the weakness of the right's "vetting" theory. the idea of the vetting is that the media (and/or john mccain) did not do its job in vetting candidate obama during the 2008 election. specifically, it didn't do enough to inform the public about his alleged radical connections with people like jeremiah wright. the theory being that had that vetting been done, obama never would have become president.

the problem with the theory is that it completely overlooks the fact that that kind of vetting was done. the media obsessed about jeremiah wright for several weeks during that election campaign. that's why i can bring him up right now without bothering to explain who he is. (i certainly had never heard of him before the "goddamn america clip" was played ad infinitum, and i lived on the south side of chicago around the time that it was recorded). there was also plenty of talk about bill ayers, and some about rashid khalidi. to the extent the right wanted a discussion about obama's alleged radical connections, they got it in 2007 and 2008.

which is why this new video is such a perfect example of why the vetting theory is total bullshit. this big reveal isn't a new video at all. a video of the same speech was previously hyped in 2007. so while you see tucker carlson touting "exclusive" today, take a minute to watch tucker touting the same speech back in 2007.

(last link via)

ADDING: this has got to be the best quote ever, from tucker carlson himself:
[People will say] this has already been reported. Actually, it hasn’t been reported. I know because I reported it the first time.
(note, i corrected the above quote after watching the video behind the link)