Media ignores Obama concert negatives (Praising Former Soviet Union)

[Christian Zionist]

Media ignores Obama concert negatives
Jeff Johnson - OneNewsNow - 5/22/2008 12:00:00 PM

At least some members of the much-touted crowd of 75,000 people at a May 18 rally in Portland for Barack Obama may have been there, in part, to see a popular local band that normally opens its concerts with the national anthem -- of the former Soviet Union.


National media outlets have widely reported estimates of between 72,000 and 75,000 people in attendance at Obama's rally. What they have largely failed to report, however, is that many in the crowd may have attended as much for a free concert as to express their support for the Democratic frontrunner.
 
"The rally drew 75,000 people, but the media did not give any credit to the opening act, The Decemberists, who are wildly popular in Portland," says Robert Knight, director of the Culture and Media Institute of the Media Research Center. "I'm not saying that Obama wouldn't have drawn a big crowd, but certainly when you have a band that popular opening for him on a beautiful day, that probably should have been mentioned [by the media]."
 
By not mentioning the band, Knight says, the media has been able to avoid a well-known fact about The Decemberists. "You'd think the media would find it interesting that a presidential candidate had a band open for him that typically plays the Soviet national anthem, the song that celebrates communism in Russia," Knight says. "But the media has taken no interest in it."
 

Knight says the Obama campaign could have easily learned that their opening act routinely starts its shows with the Soviet anthem by checking either Google or Wikipedia.
 
"The Obama campaign is secure in the knowledge that the mainstream media will not report any of this. Certainly they haven't so far," he complained. "They know that the media will not do anything to embarrass liberal candidates. They cover for them all the time. So, that might make them a little complacent about checking out people that they are associated with."
 
According to the Wikipedia entry about The Decemberists, "The band is named in reference to an 1825 revolt over the Imperial Russian succession (Decemberist Revolt). It is not related to the Bolshevik Revolution of 1917, although Meloy has referred to the historical Decembrists as a communist revolutionary group."