Obama And The NYT: They're Both Full Of It

Global Labor and Politics visitors: click here for more Obama/Ayers news:

"I was interviewed at length by the New York Times for this story - in fact, this was the third Times reporter to interview me about the Ayers/Obama relationship - and I provided the Times with the [incriminating] letters I discuss here. They are not mentioned in the story at all.

It may not have helped that the reporter, Scott Shane, specializes in the FBI and CIA and did not seem well equipped to understand the structure and dynamics of a non profit entity like the Annenberg Challenge, had no apparent understanding of educational policy issues or debates, had no prior experience as far as I could tell with Chicago politics or culture and expressed his own sense of 'boredom' with the Annenberg Challenge records he reviewed.

...The nation's leading paper of record is basing its published story on Ayers non-role in Obama's selection on unnamed sources when the two of the three named sources did not confirm that Ayers was not involved. And as I told the Times there is written evidence that, in fact, Ayers was involved in the selection of Board members, and, in fact, that he would have had to have been involved given his formal role in applying for and winning the grant from the national Annenberg Challenge.

The Challenge Board was chaired by Barack Obama and Obama also served as President of the Challenge. The Obama campaign and Obama himself have attempted to minimize the candidate's longstanding and close professional and political relationship with Ayers because of Ayers' authoritarian politics and past record of terrorist activities."

-- Steve Diamond, a lawyer, political scientist and law professor, pointing out what a thorough investigation the NYT performs, on Global Labor and Politics.