Yesterday, I showed you how Slate’s Dave Weigel and NBC’s Peter Alexander worked together to journOlist away the Romney campaign’s compelling and troubling evidence that the Obama White House has used billions in taxpayer dollars to pay off campaign supporters.
Today, I’m going to show you how the media is protecting Barack Obama from paying a political price, not only for these alleged payoffs, but also for Obama’s off-teleprompter statement in which he said, “If you got a business, you didn’t build that — somebody else made that happen.”
On offense, the Romney campaign had hoped to capitalize on the President’s VERY revealing statement with a conference call this morning. The call was led by Governor John Sununu, who was joined by four small business owners — all of whom were furious over Obama’s thoughtless comments.
Now, if you read and watch the same corrupt news outlets I do, all you’ve read or been told about this 30-minute call is that Sununu said he wished that Obama, “would learn how to be an American.”
To be clear, I don’t expect the media to NOT cover what Sununu said. Even Breitbart News led with it. But now the media is intentionally using the Sununu comment as an excuse to bury the rest of Romney’s message and to attack Romney and Republicans in general. As an example, MSNBC and Ben Smith’s anti-gay political site, Buzzfeed Politics, are using the Sununu comment to resurrect the “birthers.”
So let’s start with the full context around what Sununu said.
1. When Sununu made the “American” remark, the context was clear. He was talking about Obama’s approach to the private sector and small business owners. Here’s the full quote:
[T]hose comments [the President made about small business owners] are insulting to the hardworking entrepreneurs who really do create jobs, who go out and start businesses, who take the second mortgages and who take the chances and hire some people and get a business growing. These are the people who are the backbone of our economy and the President clearly demonstrated he has absolutely no idea how the American economy functions. The men and women all over America who have worked hard to build these businesses from the ground up — that’s how our economy became the envy of the world. It is the American way and I wish this President would learn how to be an American.
2. Later in the call, Sununu was asked specifically about the “American” comment by a reporter and clarified the comment:
What I thought I said, but I guess I didn’t say, is that the President has to learn the American formula for creating businesses. The American formula for creating business is not having the government creating business. The American formula for creating business that I wish he would get comfortable with is to create an environment in which entrepreneurs’ can thrive. If I didn’t give all that detail, then I apologize.
We’ve just come off a week in which DNC Chair Debbie Wasserman-Swiss-Bank-Schultz and a top Obama campaign official, Stephanie Cutter, have both used the word “felon” to describe Mitt Romney — and unlike Sununu, did not walk it back or apologize.
And yet, the very same media that is now using the Sununu comment to journOlist and derail Romney’s message and to protect Obama, never allowed the “felon” accusation to derail the Romney attacks coming from the Obama campaign.
Just as the corrupt media did in yesterday’s call, today the corrupt media intentionally looks for something — anything! — to latch onto in order ensure Romney’s criticisms get zero traction.
See how this works?
The media also doesn’t want you to hear the words of these four small business owners, because I can tell you they were pretty effective.
So since the media’s not covering what these Americans had to say, here’s some of it:
Kyle Koehler from Ohio, owner of KK Tool:
In reference to what the President said the other day, if all it took to have a successful business, as the President suggested, was a road in front of your house and an Internet connection, then everyone would have a small business — but they don’t. It takes more than that. It takes hard work. It takes smarts. But most of all it takes something he left out in his comments — it takes sacrifice. And that’s something I don’t think this President knows anything about. The American dream is about seeing a need in the free market and deciding to risk everything you have now and in the future to fill that need in an innovative way with the hopes of profiting in the future.
David Napier from Virginia, owner of White House Catering:
When the President says that in basically my hometown, I don’t think he understands that 100% of every dollar that the government receives comes from business activity. Not 99% — 100%. Mostly through payroll taxes but taxes on business directly also. So I feel like I’ve built those roads and I feel like I’ve built those bridges and I feel I have a right to use them to try and make a better life for myself and my employees. And I want the current employees I have [45-50] to be able to have a better paycheck. … And I’m very scared that once I cross that 50 employee threshold I’m going to be penalized [by the government] for trying to grow my business. So do I shrink it back down to 25?
Jerry Pierce from Florida, owner Restaurant Equipment World
When President Obama makes a comment that somebody else helped us in business, I find that highly insulting and highly arrogant. He has absolutely no idea what it takes to start a business and to have a dream of building it for the future. He is very bad for our country. When I started [building my business with just a desk in 1976] there was never a community organizer that stepped forward to help me or anybody else.
Renee Amoore from Pennsylvania, owner of The Amoore Group
I have over 50 employees and have been in business for about sixteen years now and I am happy to say that we have been blessed because of sacrifice. When the president made his comments last Friday about, “If you got a business you didn’t build that,” I don’t where the heck he got that from. And to me, it was a reprehensible statement and he doesn’t know what the heck is going on in this country. President Obama’s comments reflect just how unqualified he is to lead this economic recovery. He really doesn’t understand what it’s about. … As an African-American woman people think I need to vote for Obama because he’s black. Well, I’ve been black a long time and he won’t get my vote.
Things then got real interesting when the conference call was opened up to the media for questions.
Did the very same media that pretends to fight for the “little guy” ask these small business owners logical questions such as, “How will ObamaCare affect your company?” “How would raising taxes by not re-upping the Bush tax cuts affect you?”
No, of course not. The media doesn’t want to hear the answers.
So what did the media ask? Four questions were asked. One was on topic and another was about a potential VP pick. But two of them — Garrett Haik of NBC News and Sarah Boxer of PBS — asked about Romney releasing his tax returns.
Obama says something indefensible about small business owners and there’s credible evidence he’s rewarded donors with billions in taxpayer dollars, but PBS and NBC stick to the White House talking points and all of the media uses something inarticulate Sununu said (and clarified) as a way to ensure day two of Romney’s attempt to shine a light on Obama’s crony capitalism is blocked.
And so ends today’s lesson in how the corrupt media protects Barack Obama.
More to come…
Follow John Nolte on Twitter @NolteNC
COMMENTS
Please let us know if you're having issues with commenting.