Edits of Videos.. Don't Like it When FOX Does it, Don't Like it When the Left Does it

Last night and this morning, as I was browsing some news before I left to help my mom, I saw a little article I was not too happy about. It seems Glenn Beck has been at it with his edit button again..

This time he is taking the President's words where he has been talking about the Constitution and leaving out passages and changing the entire meaning of what he is saying.

Here is what then IL State Sen. Barack Obama had to say.. This was September 2001 in an interview with radio station WBEZ in Chicago.

HOST: Barack Obama, what are your thoughts on the Declaration and Constitution?

OBAMA: Well, you know, I think it's a remarkable document. I think --

HOST: Which one?

OBAMA: The original Constitution, as well as -- as well as the Civil War amendments, but I think it is an imperfect document, and I think it is a document that reflects some deep flaws in American culture -- the colonial culture nascent at that time.

African-Americans were not -- first of all, they weren't African-Americans. The Africans at the time were not considered as part of the polity that was of concern to the framers. I think that, as [program co-panelist] Richard [John] said, it was a nagging problem in the same way that, these days, we might think of environmental issues or some other problem that, where you have to balance, you know, cost-benefits, as opposed to seeing it as a moral problem involving persons of moral worth.

And, in that sense, I think we can say that the Constitution reflected a enormous blind spot in this culture that carries on until this day, and that the framers had that same blind spot. I don't think the two views are contradictory to say that it was a remarkable political document that paved the way for where we are now, and to say that it also reflected the fundamental flaw of this country that continues to this day.

Now, here is how Beck treated it on his program the other day.

OBAMA: The original Constitution [edit] I think it is an imperfect document, and I think it is a document that reflects some deep flaws in American culture -- the colonial culture nascent at that time. [edit] I think we can say that the Constitution reflected a enormous blind spot in this culture [edit] and that the framers had that same blind spot. [edit] It also reflected the fundamental flaw of this country that continues to this day.

Here is the video also so you can see I am not making this up.



Quite a difference there.. He cuts quite a bit out of what the then Senator said.. and changes the meaning completely.

As Media Matters says..

Does Beck really believe that such original elements of the Constitution should not be considered imperfections -- imperfections that were indeed the product of a cultural "blind spot" shared by the 18th century individuals who authored it?

Even if he doesn't, the intent of a segment such as this one is still clear. Beck isn't interested in seriously examining the Constitution, nor does he care to honestly reflect on race in America. Instead, he wants to portray Obama as a man who harbors a generalized and racially motivated resentment toward the Founding Fathers and the document they authored -- exactly the kind of person who would seek to exact race-based justice through reparations, which Beck has already declared to be at the heart of Obama's entire agenda.

This isn't the first time that conservatives have deliberately distorted this interview to make the exact same point. Rush Limbaugh did so last October, and the RNC did it again in May. It's the sort of willfully ignorant, historically inaccurate, deliberately deceptive, and racially provocative argument that has become common in the modern conservative movement. And it shows how untrustworthy individuals like Beck truly are.

Now, for the second part of this.. the left side of my argument..

I am so tired again of reading crap like this from some of the people on the left and the media.. President Obama has come out stronger for the Public Option in the last 3 weeks than he has before, yet this is what I found on Huffington Post.

President Obama has been desperate to ditch the public option for weeks.

-snip-

But every time they tried to jettison the public option through surrogates like Kathleen Sebelius or "senior White House officials" speaking anonymously to media outlets, the base went haywire and Obama's poll numbers started tanking.

This is written by none other than Jane Hamsher.. of course she has never been a fan of Pres. Obama. So it really doesn't surprise me that she is criticizing him but the dishonest way she is doing it is beyond belief. Look at this and you will see what I mean.



Because they used an edited video, which didn't include a part of the speech where he said "Public Option" but did include his trademark (so to speak) "Fired Up, Ready To Go", and this ad was put out by the DNC, she is using this as her basis for saying he is dropping the PO and has been for weeks.

That's just dishonest, and is really I would say a lie.

That's just as much a lie and just as dishonest as Glenn Beck is being with his edits of the Obama interview from 2001 in my opinion.

You can see the entire post by Jane, at Huffington Post.

Maybe I am off base.. you can let me know.. but it just didn't seem right to me for her to say this.. I could be running around with my head in the sand as I have been told. But to me it seems she is just being dishonest, just as the ones on the right are being by editing the videos and the speeches of Pres. Obama from his earlier years.