ABC News has an interesting headline today:
Presidential Debates 2012: Obama, Romney Set to Spar Amid Video Controversy
Oh good, you're probably thinking to yourself. In the utterly useless traditional media prognostications about what might happen at tonight's presidential debate, ABC News is at least including some context about the devastating videos of Mitt Romney showing his disdain for 47 percent of America.
But, see, you're wrong. Because that's not the "video controversy" ABC News is talking about.
This first of three presidential debates scheduled before Election Day arrives alongside the din surrounding a 5-year-old speech during which then-Sen. Obama gives a friendly shout-out to his controversial former pastor, Rev. Jeremiah Wright, who is in the audience, and goes on to question, in a departure from his prepared statement, the lack of urgency in the federal government's response to Hurricane Katrina in 2005.
The video was uncovered by the conservative Daily Caller website, promoted by The Drudge Report for hours Tuesday on Twitter, and broadcast Tuesday night on Sean Hannity's FOX News program.
Oh. That video controversy? The one where Very Serious Journalists got all breathless when their wingnut overlords announced this "new" video of President Barack Obama was going to change everything? This "new" video that Daily Caller "uncovered" with its journalistic prowess? The video that, as Jed Lewison pointed out, has "been a publicly available speech given by Obama as a presidential candidate in 2007"? Yes, it takes a real journalist to "uncover" something on the internet, doesn't it? Especially when:
t wasn't just publicly available—it was widely reported, including by none other than Tucker Carlson and Sean Hannity's Fox, the race hustlers who spent last night trying to pimp old stuff as brand new.
No doubt the powers that be at Pulitzer headquarters are polishing the medal for Tucker Carlson's brilliant uncovering of his own reporting this very second. He will have some stiff competition, however, as ABC notes:
Daily Caller editor-in-chief Tucker Carlson, who originally covered the speech on his old MSNBC show back in 2007 (FOX News aired video back then, too, and ABC News also had a report), Tuesday accused the future president of employing "racial rhetoric designed to make people fearful."
See, even ABC News had a report five years ago. If only the Very Serious Journalists there had thought to dig through the ABC archives and publish old reports as "new," maybe ABC could also be a Pulitzer contender.
The only thing missing from ABC's article is some blatant ass-covering for the Romney campaign. Oh wait. What have we here?
The Romney campaign quickly sought to distance itself from the video and its distribution Tuesday night, with spokeswoman Amanda Henneberg stating bluntly: "We did not have any involvement."
Well at least the Romney campaign is not in any way trying to use this video to—Oh wait. What have we here?
And Hannity and Carlson also managed to get the Romney campaign to encourage voters to watch the video. "They need to look at that video," said Romney communications aide Kevin Madden, "and make up their minds on that individually."
In totally insincere fairness to ABC, the Romney campaign didn't start encouraging voters to look at this old snooze of a video of Obama trying to start a race war by being black until this morning. After the reality-based world had laughed its collective ass off at this dud of a "gotcha." Brilliant strategy as usual from the Romney brain trust.
But don't worry. ABC News, as a source of Very Serious Journalism, does mention, at the end of the second page of its article, that there's this other video floating about in which Paul Ryan calls 30 percent of Americans "takers, not makers" who want a welfare state, but that's really just a side note that isn't nearly as important as the breaking-from-2007 news that there's a video of Obama being black.
