Obama’s speech on race – CNN’s pathetic headline

After Barack Obama‘s brilliant, moving speech (video) on the issue of race in politics and America, I was interested to see what sort of coverage he’d be getting at the major news outlets.

Here’s what the genius brigade at CNN decided to run with:

This headline was quickly retracted in favor of one that far more accurately captured the spirit of the speech:

Ah, sweet, sweet main stream media. Good job.

Obama’s win “rejiggers” the race, or does it?

In an interesting choice of words, both Time and the Dallas Morning News websites posted articles yesterday using the word “rejiggers” in association with Barack Obama‘s crushing, devastating, awesome landslide victory over Hillary Clinton in South Carolina.

This word seemed completely out of place as it’s such an obscure word.  It also didn’t quite seem to do what was necessary in the sentence.  Rejiggers means readjusts.  It carries, however, a connotation of slight tweaking.  Obama’s smashing victory couldn’t be said to be subtle by any stretch.

So, the word doesn’t quite do what it needed to do.  What rejiggers does do is rhyme with niggers.  In a race that has been far more about race than it should have been, I think both Time and the DMN published a cheap shot.

They have since realized their mistake and Time has replaced the word with “reshapes” and DMN has gone with “reshuffles.”

Updated articles found here (I’ll see if I can find a cache of the originals):

Obama’s Win Reshapes the Race

Barack Obama’s South Carolina win reshuffles race

Was I right? How race focused is the coverage of Obama’s SC landslide?

Follow up on my prediction from earlier.

Summary of voter race discussion:
Mentioned: 10
Ignored: 1

I can’t be bothered researching this any more.  I was wrong, they didn’t all mention race.  All of the main stream media sites did.  Kudos Crooks & Liars for not wallowing in the muck.

Obama projected winner in South Carolina: Economy remained top concern; half of electorate was black
First mention[Headline]: half of electorate was black.

Barack Obama wins South Carolina, CNN project
First mention[Third paragraph]: Obama, who is hoping to become America’s first African-American president, did well with black voters, who made up about half of Saturday’s electorate, according to exit polls.

Obama wins South Carolina primary
First mention[fourth paragraph]: About half the voters were black, according to polling place interviews, and four out of five of them supported Obama. Black women turned out in particularly large numbers. Obama, the first-term Illinois senator, got a quarter of the white vote while Clinton and Edwards split the rest.

Breaking: Barack Obama Projected Winner In South Carolina
First mention[NONE!]

Obama wins South Carolina
First mention[third paragraph]: Seemingly buoyed by a large African-American turnout – exit polls indicated at least half those voting were black

S.C. Voting Wraps Up as Obama Seeks Broad-Based Victory
First mention[fifth paragraph]: It is also the first state to offer an indication of Barack Obama’s political appeal among large African-American communities.
Further down: while Obama was the pick for 83 percent of black voters.

Obama wins South Carolina Democratic primary
First mention[first paragraph]: Barack Obama easily won South Carolina’s bitterly contested Democratic presidential primary with the aid of heavy black support on Tuesday

Barack Obama Wins South Carolina Primary
First mention[sub-heading]: Large African-American Turnout Carries Sen. Barack Obama to Victory in S.C.
Further mention[first paragraph]: Sen. Barack Obama, vying to become the nation’s first black president, has won the South Carolina primary today, ABC News projects, boosted by huge turnout of African-American voters in a state whose electorate appears polarized along racial lines.

Obama wins in South Carolina
First mention[second paragraph]: Drawing heavily on support from African Americans, Obama led Clinton by several points in a primary powered by one of the most significant shows of voter turnout in recent history in the Palmetto State.

Obama Wins South Carolina Primary
First mention[third paragraph]: More than half of the voters who participated in Saturday’s primary in the state were black, according to early exit polls, a higher turnout than the 2004 Democratic primary and a signal that Mr. Obama enjoyed strong support from African-American voters.

Obama Wins Big in South Carolina
First mention[third – fifth paragraph]: The audience chanted “Race doesn’t matter” as it awaited Obama to make his appearance.

But it did.

About half the voters were black, according to polling place interviews, and four out of five of them supported Obama. Black women turned out in particularly large numbers. Obama, the first-term Illinois senator, got a quarter of the white vote while Clinton and Edwards split the rest.

A prediction: we are racist.

I’ve been reading a lot about the upcoming South Carolina Democratic Primary.  I started to notice something, every single article was talking about Obama’s support among the black voters of South Carolina.  It’s not the biggest problem with our political system, but the fact that we ignorantly allow the media to frame politics in these terms is fucking disgusting.

What possible benefit apart from scaring racists in other states could talking about Obama’s support among the black community possibly have?  Honestly, who cares?  Why should that be a noteworthy news item?  Why not devote the copy space to talking about the differences between Obama and Clinton? Why not serve as a tool for enlightening the population about what’s important rather than focusing on what’s clearly not?

I’m going to post a link to all stories I read that talk about the South Carolina results.  I will keep a running count of “mentions voter race” vs “doesn’t mention”.  My prediction is that, in the post counting analysis, every single article I read will mention the racial make up of those who voted for Obama.  Without exception.  Now, I don’t claim that I need every single one to mention race to prove my claims of racism, but it’s more dramatic that way.  I also believe I’ll be right. We’ll see how it turns out.

So there it is.  We are, on some level, a nation of ignorant, racist knuckleheads and the media coverage of the results in South Carolina will proclaim this for all to see.  Few will notice.