Paragraph 18
The AP story began conventionally enough in MSM apologia mode, characterizing Jeremiah Wright as merely “fiery”, and taking a dig at the Bush administration. Even the title of the piece (“Wright says criticism is attack on black church”) casts the controversy in misleading terms:
In a defiant appearance before the Washington media, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright said Monday that criticism surrounding his fiery sermons is an attack on the black church and he rejected those who have labeled him unpatriotic. “I served six years in the military,” Barack Obama’s longtime pastor said. “Does that make me patriotic? How many years did (Vice President Dick) Cheney serve?”
Wright spoke at the National Press Club before reporters and a supportive audience of black church leaders beginning a two-day symposium. He said the black church tradition is not bombastic or controversial, but different and misunderstood by the “dominant culture” in the United States. He said his Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago has a long history of liberating the oppressed by feeding the hungry, supporting recovery for the addicted and helping senior citizens in need. He said congregants have fought in the military, including in Afghanistan and Iraq.
But even the AP realized it had to report the news — eventually. This is paragraph 18 of a 19 paragraph AP story on Reverend Wright’s speech to the national press club:
At the press club, he jokingly offered himself as Obama’s running mate and embraced Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan even though he said he doesn’t always agree with him. He criticized the U.S. government as imperialist and stood by his suggestion that the U.S. invented the HIV virus as a means of genocide against minorities. “Based on this Tuskegee experiment and based on what has happened to Africans in this country, I believe our government is capable of doing anything,” he said.
Funny. Many Americans might think that paragraph 18 should have been paragraph 1 or 2.