O'Reilly Factor Calls LA Times About Khalidi Video By P.J. Gladnick

Source: http://newsbusters.org/blogs/p-j-gladnick/2008/10/28/oreilly-factor-calls-la-times-about-khalidi-video

October 28, 2008



If the Los Angeles Times had a video of John McCain toasting a supporter of the old South African apartheid government, does anyone think they wouldn't release it without hesitation? However, because the Times has a video [1] of Barack Obama toasting former PLO operative, Rashid Khalidi, at an Israel-bashing party that also included terrorists Bill Ayers and Bernardine Dohrn, they are now coming up with all sorts of absurd legalistic reasons as to why they can't release the video.

Charles Johnson of Little Green Footballs has posted the messages [2]between a reader and the a Los Angeles Times representative about the release of this video:

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 aboutsuppressing 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

As Johnson stated, the Times is basically telling its readers: “No, we’re not going to release the video. Go away.” And now the Los Angeles Times has also told the O'Reilly Factor to"go away." Here is the transcript of the video [3] from yesterday's O'Reilly Factor as Bill O'Reilly explains what happened when his staff dared to request that Khalidi video:

Check four. Some are saying that zealots on the right are wrong to demand that the Los Angeles Times release a tape it says it has of Senator Obama praising a radical college professor, Rashid Khalidi, in 2002 [actually 2003]. Now we called the Times today. Apparently there's some kind of ethical problem with releasing that tape. Check believes the Times must explain all this and we'll have more on this story tomorrow. You can access the Times article which purportedly tells all about the tape on latimes.com [4]. Now, is this a big deal? Check doesn't know but the folks should decide about that tape, LA Times.

Good luck getting that video, Bill. It seems the Times has found all sorts of lame excuses not to release it. Of course, if it had a damaging video about John McCain or Sarah Palin, you could measure the release time in milliseconds.

UPDATE: Just a thought here, folks, but perhaps everybody is appealing for that Khalidi video in the wrong place. The Los Angeles Times staff won't easily release that video because of their obvious bias. However, the person who actually owns the LA Times is Sam Zell. I don't know Zell's politics but I do know he definitely doesn't want to lose readers. An appeal should be made for that video directly to Sam Zell. If Zell orders the Times to post that video on its website, the hits to that newspaper would reach an all-time high. If they don't then the Times will continue to bleed readers. Sam Zell: that is the person to contact. Sam.Zell@tribune.com

—P.J. Gladnick is a freelance writer and creator of the DUmmie FUnnies blog.

Joyce Comments: You may also want to try contacting Arab American Action Network (AAAN) as it was their event and they may have an audio or video of it.