L.A. Times Suppresses Potentially Damaging Obama Video

It's one thing for a news outlet to be in Obama's tank. Quite another for a news organization like the L.A. Times to enter G. Gordon Liddy territory and suppress a video that could have profound implications for voters. Call it their October Non-Surprise.

According to a report in the LA Times on April 10th of this year, the Times obtained a video of a 2003 going-away bash for Rashid Khalidi, a former top aide of Yasser Arafat, attended by Barack Obama, William Ayers and Bernardine Dohrn, among others. At Khalidi's going-away party in 2003, the scholar praised Obama, telling the mostly Palestinian American crowd that the state senator deserved their help in winning a U.S. Senate seat. The event was videotaped, and the Times got a hold of the copy of the tape. According to WorldNetDaily, Columbia University professor Rashid Khalidi held a fundraiser for Obama. Khalidi is a harsh critic of Israel, has made statements supportive of Palestinian terror and reportedly has worked on behalf of the Palestine Liberation Organization. Obama was a director of the Woods Fund board from 1999 to Dec. 11, 2002, according to the Fund's website. According to tax filings, Obama received compensation of $6,000 per year for his service in 1999 and 2000. By the way, Khalidi said in a recent book that Yasser Arafat was right to reject the peace deals like Oslo and Wye River, which most of the world considered sensible, prudent and just. Those rejections led to the Palestinian Intifada and years of senseless and unnecessary bloodshed. Besides all the cash Obama steered to his Israel-hating friend, you'll find a link to a Sean Hannity video on the Obama-Khalidi relationship here at Gateway Pundit. There are also rumors a great many unkind things were spoken about Israel and the Jews at a not-so-recent 'bash.'

"During the dinner a young Palestinian American recited a poem accusing the Israeli government of terrorism in its treatment of Palestinians and sharply criticizing U.S. support of Israel. If Palestinians cannot secure their own land, she said, "then you will never see a day of peace."

One speaker likened "Zionist settlers on the West Bank" to Osama bin Laden, saying both had been "blinded by ideology."

So here the LA Times has videotape of an Obama-attended bash that MAY have been rife with Jew-hating as well, and one that might also solidify the ties to Ayers and Dohrn the Obama campaign has been downplaying with near-religious furor. So the LA Times, being a responsible news organization, would have released the videotape for public consumption so the voters can make up their own minds come Election Day? Au contrare, mon frere. Here's the LA Times' response to an LGF reader asking the paper to release the video for all to see:

From: Readers Rep

Date: Monday, October 27, 2008 16:14

Subject: RE: Not read: The L.A. Times Suppressing Obama’s Khalidi Bash Tape?

To:

The Times did write about the tape, so I’m not sure what you mean about suppressing the video or information from the video. Here is a copy of the report about the video.

Thanks again for writing,

Jamie Gold

Readers’ Representative

...

If that is the case, then release the video that you have of the event and don’t merely report it. Why is the Los Angeles Times sitting on a videotape of the 2003 farewell bash in Chicago at which Barack Obama lavished praise on the guest of honor, Rashid Khalidi - former mouthpiece for master terrorist Yasser Arafat?

...

Thanks for your note back. It sounds as if you don’t find “mere reporting” to be enough, but The Times is not suppressing anything.

Just the opposite — the L.A. Times brought the matter to light.

Thanks again for taking the time to write.

Jamie Gold

Readers’ Representative

See, the Times is not suppressing anything. They were the ones that REPORTED on the video. In fact, they were the ones who brought the matter to light, see? In other words: fuggedaboutit. So now the LA Times is not just campaigning for Obama. They're doing their best G. Gordon Liddy-style black bag work for them too. And I thought biased reporting alone was crossing a line. This suppression of a potentially damning Obama tape outright shatters it. I'd like to see it. Wouldn't you? Maybe some Jewish and/or pro-Israel voters would like to see it too. Or even perhaps voters who wonder if there really is more to the Obama-Ayers relationship than the campaign admits. Or, perhaps, Obama's possible relationships to radical anti-Israel groups groups like Not In My Name and Electronic Intifada. If you'd like to see the videotape yourself, you can contact the LA Times and request it be released publicly. Don't hold your breath, though. There are far more important things to the LA Times than reporting the news, it would seem. I can tell you one thing for sure. If it were Sarah Palin at an Alaska Independence Party bash, it would be front and center on their website as we speak. It's what you might call Selective Journalism. It's what we used to call PRAVDA. Welcome to the 21st Century 'mainstream' press in America. For as long as they last, that is.