Thursday, October 30, 2008 10:44:40 PM · by RonDog · 43 replies · 1,559+ views
www.popmodal.com ^ | October 30, 2008 | Jeffers Dodge
Posted on 10/31/2008 9:00:00 AM PDT by WackySam
The Los Angeles Times, reeling from the deep cuts and unprecedented layoffs that have perfectly paralleled their self-inflicted loss of respect from all but the most radical leftists, finds themselves again willing to play the shill for their ideological brethren in the Obama camp at the expense of what is left of their own reputation. This time the once well-regarded paper has chosen to embargo from the people a videotape that they admit they hold in their possession that, by all accounts (including the reporter who is currently hiding the tape) shows Barack Obama at a celebration for the Arab/Islamic terrorist-supporter and longtime Obama friend, Rashid Khalidi.
Faced with the reality that the Times holds its own readership in disdain and sees itself not as an honest broker with the job of presenting the facts, but as partisans working on behalf of a particular ideology, forty Angelenos took to the streets in front of the Times' building in downtown Los Angeles this Thursday morning to make their voices heard and to demand nothing more than that the Times do its job as members of The Fourth Estate.
Just about every citizen engaged in the protest carried a sign, with messages ranging from the humorous "Free Tapette" to the personal "I'm From a Communist Country -- I've Seen This Before." (The latter making the slogan on a couple of tee-shirts for the Jewish Defense League -- "Never Again" -- only that much more poignant and powerful.)
Talk on the protest line was concurrently pessimistic and optimistic -- feelings that I share. Pessimistic about the horrors that an Obama presidency -- with a leftist-run media wholly in the tank on its behalf and a Congress led by the likes of Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid -- would most likely bring down upon America, Americans and the world. Optimistic, however, that the same media that is withholding vital information it fears might upset Obama's plans to become the most powerful person in the world is also fudging the truth on the ground in this election, and that Senator John McCain is in good position to win the election in just four days.
Press coverage of the protest was -- as one would expect considering that it is the press itself that was being exposed by this action -- minimal. To their credit, there were a couple of reporters (TV and print) from local colleges and CNN did make an appearance, although the reporter seemed determined to interview no one other than a spokesman for the JDL in an effort, I presume, to spin the story as one of Jews against Muslims, not Americans demanding that the media do its job and present the American people with the facts that even they admit they hold in their possession.
From time to time, Times employees would gather on a balcony overlooking the peaceful protest and mock the people below, while one "editor" for the paper (who refused to identify himself by name) showed the same disdain and condescension for the men and woman (and a number of younger people) who had gathered that their peers at ABC and CBS News show to the Governor of Alaska and Joe the Plumber and other Americans who don't toe the line of their leftist ideology.
This show of arrogance and disdain did not appear to be dented one bit by the poll ratings for the news media that shows them held in even greater contempt today than is the Democrat Congress or by the plummeting circulation that has translated into the Times being forced to lay-off huge numbers of workers over the past several months alone.
There was one counter-protester -- a thirty-something with scraggly hair and one of those Che Guevara/Big Brother-looking Obama designs. When I asked him why he was protesting our merely asking for the Times to release information in their possession he offered one of the usual lines one hears from the other side, he called me a "racist."
Bottom line? The first I'd heard that the protest was going to become a reality was at eight o'clock this morning. I was told it only was officially scheduled around midnight last night. Considering how many people (remember, we're Republicans, not Democrats) have jobs and can't just "take the day off" (as Obama advised his followers to do on election day), it was a good event, and just the first salvo in what I suspect is going to be a long war against a media that no longer even feigns journalistic integrity and, instead, uses what's left of its currency to advance an ideological agenda.
The protest resumed at three p.m. with similar numbers and similar enthusiasm.
Someone should run an ad accusing Obama of being an anti-Semite and use the LA Times as a source. When the Obamites and Big Media attack, respond they will stop running the add 10 times a day if the Times releases the tape. Imagine the pressure on the Times.
The times is trying to have it both ways; wrack up an exclusive story and at the same time prevent republicans from using it against their guy. Well no one needs to play their game. The tape doesn’t need to be released in order to make political hay out of it.
BYE BYE LA Times. Its time for the old media to die for their lies.
Bump.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.