Sunday, April 13, 2008
CITIZEN CONFLICTED
Barack Obama’s potentially campaign-derailing bitterness comments were only published with real reservations:
The comments came to light as a result of the Huffington Post’s groundbreaking experiment in citizen journalism, Off The Bus. The website runs a network of about 1,800 unpaid researchers, interviewers and writers.
One of those writers, Mayhill Fowler, broke the story, despite being a paid-up supporter of Obama. She attended a fundraising event in San Francisco on April 6 and recorded Obama’s speech.
Fowler sat on the material for days, conflicted about what to do with it. She only published the comments last Friday.
"She had some real reservations about the story as an Obama supporter,” Amanda Michel, the director of Off The Bus, told the Guardian. “But she thought as a citizen journalist she had a duty to report the event, despite her support for Barack Obama."
Zombie has pictures and audio from the Obama fundraiser. And Iowahawk asks: “Can Barack Obama say something so stupid that I can milk two reruns out of it? Yes, Yes he can!”
UPDATE. The Wall Street Journal:
Sen. Obama has encountered other problems in trying to connect with rural whites. At a campaign stop in Adel, Iowa, he drew cringes when he asked a crowd of farmers: “Anybody gone into a Whole Foods lately and seen what they charge for arugula?" The upscale, organics supermarket chain doesn’t have a single store in Iowa. Sen. Obama went on to win the state.