The Reverend Wright & Obama

[_aussieguy55]

I live in Australia, and recently had installed Fox cable. I was surprised to say the least with the bias in FoxNews. No reporter in both public and private media would express their own opinions so much in our programs. O'Reilly points, speaks over guests who disagree with him and encourages those who do. The issue of the Rev Wright is one they are flogging like dead horse. Some of the statements in his sermons were considered provocative and racist.
I have had an interest in the life of Dietrich Bonhoeffer,a pastor who was involved in a plot to kill Hitler. Bonhoeffer when studying in New York in 1930 at Union Seminary attended a black church in Harlom. The pastor of this church was Adam Clayton Powell Snr. His son Adam Clayton Powell Jr , also a pastor ran for Congress and won a seat. In the New York Times March 25 , 1968 the following
Johnson, Thomas A. "Powell's Ouster As Pastor Sought by His Church Foes." New York Times, March 25, 1968, p. 1, 46.

Adam Clayton Powell, pastor of Abyssinian Baptist Church in New York City and Congressman from New York, spoke before his congregation on March 24th, 1968. This sermon came at a time when there was a concerted effort to replace Powell as pastor within the church due to the controversy surrounding his exclusion from his Congressional seat. During this sermon, Powell reiterated his opposition to the Vietnam War stating, "Why should we impose a democracy on a group of sweet people in Southeast Asia that we don't practice at home?" According to the article Powell had "consistently ignored" requests from other civil rights organizations to "come out strongly against the war in Vietnam." However, in 1966 Adam Clayton Powell came out very strongly against the war even comparing the draft system to Hitler's idea of Aryan supermen.


And Semple, Robert B. "Powell Charges Draft Test Bias." New York Times, May 11, 1966. P. 4.

Adam Clayton Powell lashed out at a series of upcoming tests designed to determine student deferments. Powell compared the tests to the racial policies of Hitler. The exams would help guarantee a deferment if the score recieved was high enough. However, there was an inherent bias in the test because as Powell stated, "First we provide an inferior education for black students. Next we give them a series of tests which many will flunk because of an inferior education. Then we pack these academic failures off to Vietnam to be killed." Later on Powell said the tests were designed to:
"select out the culturally gifted for continued college education and consign the intellectually deprived to the armed services. Implicit in the draft deferment tests is the theory of a race of Aryan supermen and the belief that rare great minds alone are fit to direct the destinies of a nation and to dispose of the lives of its untutored masses. Instead of a social democracy where equality is encouraged to flourish these draft deferment tests lay the foundation for a racial aristocracy. These tests are reminiscent of Hitler's twin system of eugenics and education -- weed out the intellectually deprived or socially undesirables by conscripting them for cannon fodder."
Adam Clayton Powell stated that he told his own son to refuse to take the test but his son said that he did have plans to do so because the tests were better than draft deferments based on class criteria alone.


Nothing has changed.

[_Gazelam]

What you recognize in Fox news is merely the tip of the iceberg. It is nigh unto impossible to get any real news anymore, its mostly "Info-tainment". What is regularly seen is commentary by the so called anchors, and most of the stories are insubstancial and uninformative. Most newscasts discuss the private lives of curent celebrities. We know more about Britney Spears and less about our political leaders, the whole thing is upside down. Why on earth do we need to have Britney Spears on a newscast at all?

BBC World News on the BBC channel on Cable is far more informative and discusses real issues instead of the constant inflo of pop nonsence that fills most newscasts.

Why go out and interview the soldiers who suffered chemical burns while removing Iraqi weapons caches when we can get Alec Baldwins opinion on the war? people will stop channel surfing to hear Alec Baldwin, right?