Before fact-free Obama bashing came into vogue, the opinion pages used to be my favorite part of daily newspapers. But now, many of those same pages have become "fact-free zones" and are among those I generally dread because the hate, disrespect and lies being spewed there against our President are intolerable.
There's a huge difference a personal opinion and lying to make a point.
In today's Vero Beach (Florida) Press Journal there's a letter to the editor from a gentleman I'll call "J.P." The gist of his letter is that President Obama is a negligent Commander In Chief and racist who failed to say anything about Army Maj. Gen. Harold Greene, recently killed in Afghanistan, while the President publicly honored Whitney Houston and Michael Brown after their tragic deaths. And for some reason J.P. also slammed the President for having a public opinion about Michael Sam having a shot at playing in the NFL.
I guess that applies because Sam is black and gay. Who knows?
But whatever, here's an excerpt from J.P.'s letter (http://www.tcpalm.com/...):
Major Gen. Harold Greene, the highest-ranking officer to be killed in foreign action since 1970, was killed in Afghanistan in August. This man devoted 34 years bravely serving America. Neither the president nor the vice president attended his funeral.
When Whitney Houston died of a drug overdose, our president publicly expressed his condolences. When Michael Sam, an openly gay football player, was drafted into the NFL, the president publicly congratulated him. When Michael Brown was shot in Ferguson, Missouri, the president and Mrs. Obama publicly sent their deepest condolences, as "the death of Michael Brown is heartbreaking." Three White House officials attended Brown's funeral, and our attorney general coordinates the investigation efforts.
Gen. Greene's death and service to his country merits no statement (as reported by The Washington Post). After the fact, Obama claimed no one loss is greater than the other and to single out the general's death would make it appear generals are more important than other service members lost in action. This announcement followed many articles taking him to task for not publicly expressing anything on the loss of the general.
The problem is (and I'm not sure why the Editorial Page Editor) didn't bother to check this out, J.P. is completely wrong. The President did comment on General Greene's death and Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel attended the funeral.
Check this out. It's part of an article from USAToday.Com, posted August 7, titled: Obama pays tribute to general slain in Afghanistan:
Serving in Afghanistan "continues to be a difficult and dangerous mission," Obama said before signing a bill on veterans health care.
"Our prayers are with the Greene family, as they are with all the Gold Star families and those who have sacrificed so much for our nation," Obama said.
During his veterans' health care speech, the president also said:
"In the years to come, many from this generation will step out of uniform, and their legacy will be secure. But whether or not this country properly repays their heroism, properly repays their patriotism, their service and their sacrifice, that's in our hands."
As for the funeral, a Right Wing pundit had to apologize for spreading the lie that no senior White House officials attended. Here's a portion of a report from MediaMatters.Com (
http://mediamatters.org/...):
On August 18, Washington Examiner editor and Fox News contributor Byron York described how claims that the Obama administration neglected to send a representative to pay respects to Greene began on right-wing blog Legal Insurrection and began to gain traction in the right-wing media. York apologized for personally pushing the story and pointed to coverage of Hagel's attendance to set the record straight:
"I was wrong. It turns out Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel did, in fact, attend the Greene funeral, a fact I should have known. Before sending out the tweet, I made a couple of perfunctory checks to see whether Hagel had attended, didn't see him in the news coverage I read and passed on the information without further checking. If I had looked into it just a bit more, I would have seen, for example, a Stars & Stripes article that specifically mentioned Hagel's presence. Once I saw that, I sent out two tweets correcting the mistake." [WashingtonExaminer.com, 8/18/14]
That might be the first time I've EVER seen anyone from the right admit a mistake and apologize for it.
Anyway, I guess J.P. and the editorial page editor at the Vero Beach Press Journal were too consumed with trying to portray President Obama as a negligent racist to notice York's apology. Perhaps that's what basking in white persecution or being to eager to prove that there's a "war on white people" will do to you.
Unfortunately, I imagine vitriolic letters filled with falsehoods and half-truths like this one are regularly and routinely printed and posted on newspaper editorial pages and web sites across America. Editors must do better jobs of separating fact from fiction before publishing this drivel. That's their job. Otherwise, they're complicit in spreading right wing lies--in spite of what Chuck Todd says.