As nation watches Denver, Obama campaign muscles Chicago station over ex-radical Ayres

In a surprising attempt to stifle broadcast criticism of its candidate, the presidential campaign of freshman Illinois senator Barack Obama is organizing supporters to confront Chicago's WGN radio station for having a critic of the Illinois Democrat on its main evening discussion program.

"WGN radio is giving right-wing hatchet man Stanley Kurtz a forum to air his baseless, fear-mongering terrorist smears," Obama's campaign wrote in an e-mail sent to supporters. "He's currently scheduled to spend a solid two-hour block from 9:00 to 11:00 p.m. (Wednesday night) pushing lies, distortions, and manipulations about Barack and University of Illinois professor William Ayers."

Kurtz, a conservative writer, recently wrote an article for the National Review that examined Obama's ties to Ayers, a former 1960s radical who helped found a protest group that advocated violence.

The magazine was blocked in its initial attempts to obtain records from the University of Illinois at Chicago regarding the Chicago Annenberg Challenge, a school reform project that Obama chaired and Ayers co-founded.

As The Ticket reported here, the school later reserved its position and opened the records Tuesday. Media organizations are poring over scores of boxes of documents to study the Obama-Ayres relationship, which the senator has described as merely casual.

Obama's campaign is urging supporters to call the radio station to complain. "Tell WGN that....

...by providing Kurtz with airtime, they are legitimizing baseless attacks from a smear-merchant and lowering the standards of political discourse," the note said.

WGN, like the Chicago Tribune and The Times, is owned by Tribune Co. As a clear-channel station at 720 on the AM dial, WGN's signal reaches dozens of states. Such efforts to prevent programs often backfire by calling even more public attention to the controversy.

"It is absolutely unacceptable that WGN would give a slimy character assassin like Kurtz time for his divisive, destructive ranting on our public airwaves," the note continued. "At the very least, they should offer sane, honest rebuttal to every one of Kurtz's lies."

Zack Christenson, executive producer of the longrunning interview program "Extension 720 with Milt Rosenburg," said the response from Obama supporters was strong. Rosenberg like Ayres is a college professor.

"I would say this is the biggest response we've ever got from a campaign or a candidate," said Christenson. "This is really unprecedented with the show, the way that people are flooding the calls and our email boxes."

Christenson also stressed that the Obama campaign was invited to send a representative to appear on the show to balance the discussion of the newly-opened documents. But the campaign headquarters just down Michigan Avenue from the station refused the request. This is not the first time Obama's organization has sought to steer supporters to influence a broadcast outlet airing criticism.

Our colleagues John McCormick and Steve Schmadeke have more details on this brewing controversy at the Swamp.

--Andrew Malcolm

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Comments

[Mul]

"As The Ticket reported here, the school later reserved its position"

"Reserved"? Tell me Sam Zell didn't sell the copy desk as an independent property.

[njartist]

Is this what we face if this guy is elected: brown shirts at the media's door if they dare to criticize the LORD OBAMA?

[Joanne600]

Joe Stalin would be proud of the way the Obama campaign seeks to silence dissent. Why didn't they send a representative and properly debate Stanley Kurtz? I believe the answer is that Kurtz has the proof that Obama and Ayers are indeed thisclose.

[Timothy L. Pennell]

Where have I heard something like this before? Oh yeah, when the CLINTON Administration came down HARD on ABC, for running their 'Docu-Drama' on the lead up to 911. By the way...Anyone seen that little ditty in Blockbuster? Hmmm. Now I wonder why it NEVER WENT TO DVD? Read 'Liberal Fascism'. Remember when the CLINTON Administration made sure that their little toady, George Stephanyopolis, got EQUAL TIME, whenever that F.B.I. agent was on television, pluuging his book? You know, like the way 60 Minutes makes sure there's a BUSH Administration guy there, when THEIR disgruntled employees are pushing their tome. Oh,wait. THEY DON"T HAVE ANY BUSH OFFICIALS THERE. Read 'Liberal Fascism'. So why is THIS little episode, anything new? Read 'Liberal Fascism'. And if tis "young Black Boy" gets in, you can expect this, in SPADES. Read 'Liberal Fascism'.

[Mary MacKenzie]

This reaction by the Obama campaign is the scariest thing I have heard yet about BO. If he can get so worked up over standard campaign rhetoric, what in the world will he do if he is elected President? Eventually the press will turn on him (they always do) and he will have the power and authority to do anything he wants in order to supress criticism. How frightening is that? This reaction by Obama tends to give more credence to the accusations, not less. Of course the press could do its job right now by really checking the facts on this whole Ayers-Dohrn connection. They probably wont because they dont want to do anything to mess up Obamas mystique. If this was a Republican with doubtful connections, it would be on the front page of every major newspaper in the world. Luckily the American people are smart enough to sniff out the truth for themselves, no matter who it helps or hurts.

[Michael McNeil]

Ayers is an ex-radical? Not according to his very own web site. Notice there Ayers' full-throated paean to Hugo Chavez of Venezuela — from November 2006, less than two years ago; hardly ancient history — whereby in addition to lauding Chavez as having created "something truly new and deeply humane," Ayers further declares:

"'Let us try revolution and see what it will do now.' I walked out of jail and into my first teaching position — and from that day until this I’ve thought of myself as a teacher [...]. La educacion es revolucion!"

Read the whole thing and see if I've distorted his essential context. (I think not.)

Since embedded links (and even special characters like '&'ed quotes) don't work on your site's comments (at least not in preview; kind of lame), I'll state those links explicitly:
http://billayers.wordpress.com/
http://billayers.wordpress.com/2006/11/

[Mitchell in NY]

You know, the Swiftboaters destroyed Kerry, an honest man, with lies. Well, this time around we should all use our right to free speech to protest against trash talk pretending to be journalism. We all know what is going on here, guilt by association. Obama does not support extreme left wing groups. (McCain, on the other hand, has some pretty crazy neo-con friends these days, as well as Rove people working for him.)

"A Dozen Reasons Why Obama will be the Next President: Money-Back Guarantee”
http://msa4.wordpress.com/

[CindyP]

Well, there we have it another example of democrats trying to shut done free speech.
Barry is a fraud, wait not only a fraud but an anti-American, anti-white anti-semitic bigot.
God help us if he is elected.

[Exile]

Why is this surprising? Obama is a typical Fascist who hates free speech.

[J Davis]

Gee, just like the Nazis..Imagine that!...

[Dan]

Good for Obama. The electorate is sick and tired of these swiftboat LIES AND SMEARS. If these right wing hatchet men had something of any significance they would have thrown it at him before now. I am tired of Dems being cowed by the mainstream media. Look what it has done to our country. There is no truth in media and certainly not from WGN part of a conglomerate owned by a conservative paper the Chicago Tribune. As the big 4 networks had low ratings for the convention, but cable had soaring double digit numbers, people are turning away from mainstream media and turning you off. GOOD FOR OBAMA.

[Ronald Joseph]

I know that freedom of speach is a constitutional right. That applies to both sides of an issue. News media that gives a platform to people to spread outright lies about a politician such as Barack Obama are the slime that will end up destroying out country if not corrected. Ok give the SOB a platform but put someone with him that will point out how baseless his ideas are.

[Catherine]

I realize the significance of holding this interview during Obama's speech but still feel it would have been much more effective if it had been done on the Don Wade & Roma Show.

[eyedoc]

Obviously the Obama campaign is absolutely terrified about the public finding out about his relationship with Ayers. They were invited to send somebody from their campaign to debate Kurtz, but they refused because they understood that what Kurtz had to say was indisputable. So instead they try this childish prank to try to disrupt the radio show. Who's running the Obama campaign, a bunch of 12 year olds?

[dka]

The average DEM does not have enough brain cells to digest this!

[Totto]

This is exactly why media monopolies must be broken up. WGN, owned by the Chicago Tribune (World's Greatest Newspaper") also owns the Los Angeles Times and is a prime example of what the current Administration would like to exist coast to coast. A media that follows the daily talking points of the RNC
is not in the interest of the American people. To have only one viewpoint blanketing this country is why so many believe the lies of the right. No where else in the western world are the citizens of a country so propagandized as they are in this country.

[Brendan]

God, could this article have any more sneak words? There is a difference between criticizing Obama and smearing him. Just as no one should be allowed to air baseless accusations against John McCain, no one should be allowed to do so for Obama.

I'm not saying stifle free speech. I mean, that's what blogs are for, right? But when a credible news organization like WGN lends its own credibility to a whack-job like Stanley Kurtz (and yes, he IS a whack-job), it needs to be called out.

This article, by the way, is an opinion piece. For the LA Times to lend its own credibility to an opinion blog really demeans the meaning of "news."

[heebie]

interesting how free speech only applies to the left.

[J.D.]

Its too bad that this blog has adopted the wrong tone about freedom of expression, to be in support of four more years of George W Bush, and ultimately follow the same voices that pre-empted the civil rights movement all these years leading up to this moment. You are on the wrong side of history.

[JGxHitzert]

Saying that the Weathman advocated violence is a bit misleading. Under the direction of Bernadine Dohrn and William Ayers they advocated destruction of property. Indeed these two lost favor because they were against hurting people.

In an aside Gandhi believed that his approach to Civil Disobedience was violent. He believed that forcing the hands of the oppressor to commit violence was in fact a violent act.

[c'est moi]

I feel a chill wind...

[scootmandubious]

Tell you what I am getting sick of...the fact that you are selectively pursuing the most salacious and anti-Obama type stories to post here.

With Obama getting set to appear tonight after major speeches by Clinton and Obama, this is what you deem important?

Can you step back and put things in context and tell me what makes this your focus today? Where are the comparable stories about McCain? Or are you saving that for the day he gives his acceptance speech?

A co-worker just received propaganda e-mail that spouted points from Corsi's slander-fest book, as if it were the gospel truth. That's why this is unacceptable.

Mr. Malcolm, are there really no other newsworthy items regarding Obama today, or was it your agenda to obscure the Obama speech with a non-issue like this.

In case folks aren't noticing, this is a page out of the GOP playbook.

Who made the suggestion to you to post this? Karl Rove himself? Or was it somebody from the McCain campaign?

[gregory allison]

I listened to Mr. Kurtz's findings so far on WGN last night. The most damning point was not Obama's association with Bill Ayres. It is that Senator Obama has had only one real stint as a chief executive in his life, and while acitng as such he managed to squander $110,000,000 on feel good leftist idealogue programs and stiff those that sought to teach Chicago's kids about Algebra, math, and science.
No wonder he does not want the country to hear abut it.

[Jerry]

Note to the Obama people:
THE TRUTH HURTS; TRY IT SOMETIME

[Ace O'Dale]

Is this a preview of how an Obama administration will handle negative press?

Chilling...

[syscom3]

I'm shocked!

Who would have thought that the party that proclaims itself as the protector of free speech is attempting to stifle an unknown and inconsequential talk show host!

Shocked! I am shocked!

[Sandi Nista]

40 years covering politics and you still haven't the slightest clue. Just a Pathetic shill for the right wing. At least Rush and Kurtz have 'real' jobs, fearmongers all you are the Real Terrorists.

[Allswell]

Dear Obama supporters, Just because you put things in capital letters and add exclamation points doesn't make it true. HAve fun losing in November.

[Aldo]

Mitchell in NY says, " this time around we should all use our right to free speech to protest against trash talk pretending to be journalism."

Actually, you guys used your freedom to shout down someone else's free speech with scripted slogans provided by the Obama campaign. Is this a preview of the Obama administration?

If Obama captures the Presidency the Democrats will control the Executive branch, Congress, and the press. It will be left to people like Dr. Kurtz to brave the howling mobs in order to quesion authority.

JGxHitzert claims that Ayers and Dohrn only advocated destruction of property. This is toally false. In fact, Dohrn even applauded when the Manson family stabbed Sharon Tate in the belly with a fork.

[Carol in Oregon]

To my dear fellow citizens that make up the Democratic Party:

I worked to end the war in Vietnam, and I voted Democratic all through the 20th century, but have watched you with growing dismay these last few years. I know most all of you aspire to the highest for the nation. But you have allowed yourselves to take a terrible turn toward righteous intolerance, vicious revenge, and absolute control.

Take a step back please and get some proportion.

Compare: Obama's response to these spitwards tossed at his candidacy VS. President Bush's response to the incessant firebombing of invective he has endured.

Who has Bush sued, jailed or shut down for their lies distortions and invective? Despite the possibilities of his power, No One.

However, based on these recent stories, the treatment of Clinton voters at the caucuses and Pelosi's "show-trial" Congress, we'll begin a lovely Inquisition era come January.

I say "Freedom!" In all its messy glory. Our nation depends on it. The best of us can take it. Can you? If in your new zealotry you do not agree, full of argument and the favorite NPR-style stutter "B-B-Bbut," then you really need to chil and recalibrate.

Only you can say "Stop. No more of this."

[Lazlo Toth]

The pro-Obama contingent getting its collective feelings hurt is pretty funny considering the "Bush=Hitler", "Cheney/Halliburton/nazi conspiracy" and similar diatribes we've seen over the past 7 years, along with the whining ("that nazi pig Bush has sex with animals and won't let us criticize him"). The remedy for bad ideas and inaccurate expression is good ideas and accurate expression. And the Swift Boaters never "destroyed" Kerry - his personality did.

People on both sides get pretty funny when they hear things they don't like. This is no different except that the left is so used to having the press on its side that it flies into a tantrum at any (rare) exception. The Obama campaign's juvenile response is one of the reasons why it's so hard to amend the Constitution (including the Bill of Rights). The First Amendment cuts both ways and grownups should be able to deal with that - apparently Obama's advisors aren't grownups.

[Chalmers]

I second the comment about Sam Zell's copy desk. Bill Ayres is a New York-based former priest and disk jockey who has done tremendous charity work with the group World Hunger Year. He worked with Harry Chapin before his death. The former Weather Underground member is Bill Ayers.

[MISTAHCOUGHDROP]

John Gibson on Fox Noise loving this nonsense. Obama was 8 years old when this happened. How old was Don Rumsfeld when he was cutting deals with Saddam?

This is what the election is about:

http://storefrontwindows.blogspot.com/2008/08/ob.html

[charles]

Scary isn't it? Block the freedom of speech, if obamaRama is elected the goe's all are rights and our security as a nation. Shame on the DNC

[Bobby b]

"Its too bad that this blog has adopted the wrong tone about freedom of expression"

- - - -

"The wrong tone . . ."

Reading that line gave me a quick shiver of fear - and I do mean honest-to-gosh fear - as to how quickly my country could be smothered and enslaved and killed by what passes here for a "liberal" philosophy.

Truly, we need to review labels we've been applying to various political ideologies out of habit for years. More and more Democrats - including their leaders and candidates - speak as if Winston Smith has already been cleansed. To call such repressors of wrong thought "liberals" or "progressives" is inane. They are closed-minded, controlling, repressive, and elitist.

My one ray of hope rising out of this horror: I read the "wrong tone" comment just a few comments away from the guy telling us that the L.A. Times are GOP lackeys. I'm left with the final impression that, while these people may be venal, crafty, dishonest, and willing to murder anyone who stands in their way, ultimately they're too clueless to be dangerous.

[bobby b]

"He worked with Harry Chapin before his death."

- - -

Oh, we know that, we know that all too well. We've never accepted that whole "died in a collision on the Long Island Expressway" fantasy, either. Makes it kind of obvious why your guy kept changing the spelling of his name, eh?

[Captain Obvious]

To those parroting the Obama-sheep talking point... he was NOT 8 years old when he was working with Ayers at spending 110 million and accomplishing NOTHING.

Interesting that whatever Kurtz has to say is a lie BEFORE he even opens his mouth. What if he had said the sky is blue. Automatically a lie? Who exactly is sliming who here?

If you'd bothered to listen to Kurtz as I did, you would understand that the only claims he actually made on the show (unlike the Obama bleating points' predictions) were that:
1. The MODERN Obama has a pattern of working exclusively with hard leftists, in contradiction to his "post-partisan unifier" rhetoric.
2. The ONLY executive experience Obama has had, the Chicago Annenberg Challenge, evaluated ITSELF as a failure.
3. Obama lied about his relationship with Ayers just being "some guy who lived in the neighborhood."
4. All of the above are proven FACTS in Obama's own CAC documentation which you could read for yourselves if you'd bother to come up from the Kool-Aid for 5 minutes.

Oh wow! Such lies there! Such filth! How will Obama sleep at night? (End Sarcasm)

How many of YOU would be comfortable being friends with Charles Manson TODAY? After all his crimes were way back in the 60's too... Do you honestly believe such a friendship would cast no doubts on your judgement and character?

[lou011]

Obama brought it on by his lies. Freedom of Speech, Obama, that's what you sponsored, but not when it
concerns you. These are records, are you saying
these records are smears, distorted information of
your dealings with Bill Ayers? Let everyone see
them and let the people judge for themselves. If
Obama has nothing to hide he should welcome
everyone to read them.

[Iris]

When journalists and TV station play right into the hands of smear spreaders, push back is in order and is my right of free speech to engage in. Republicans did the same to 60 Minutes last election, and Dan Rather lost his position, as I recall.

[nachtwache]

Being Canadian, I can't vote in the U.S. elections, but I can follow the campaign and one thing is very obvious, Obama has lied so many times, I'm amazed that some people don't notice that. Is it self deception?

[Leaping Spark]

Obama's only hope is that he can fly under the radar, keeping his black militant Muslim past hidden from America until he is elected. Then he will try and change the USA into a Islamic, Socialist, dictatorship riled by the new prophet, Baraka Hussien Mohammed Obama. This is hope and change I can live without.

Peace

[Anthony]

No matter how much we care or don't care for the media, it's FREEDOM of SPEECH, our very 1st amendment. You don't see the Bush administration trying to shut the media down, even with all the nonsense we hear about it. Democrats are such illogical, whinning pieces of S*%T! I can't stomach them anymore. WAHHHHHH WAHHHHH MOMMY!!!!

[purpleOnion]

So Obama plays hardball with the guys who consider politics to be a blood sport and their hand wringing begins. Modern conservatives remind me of sociopaths who after having raped one's spouse, burned down one's house, murdered one's kids, and killed one's dog say to the surviving member of the family, "Can't we be civil about this?" They flip back and forth between perpetrator and victim so quickly it is as if they are completely disconnected from reality or at least hope that everyone else is.

[elephty]

Just a reminder who is being written about here. Obama was raised by a single mother and then his grandparents, neither of which were well off. He then excelled in school and went to Harvard where he became the head of the Harvard Law Review. He then worked in community service for three years. He taught Constitutional law for nine years, before running for the Illinois senate. He served two terms in the Illinois senate and then ran for Unites States senator from Illinois where he served for two years and continues to serve as he campaigns for the Presidency. He established a web site that shows where taxpayers' money is spent by the federal government. He helped with ethics reform both in Illinois and the U.S. senate. He also worked with Lugar on legislation to control the spread of nuclear armaments to other parts of the world. He was against an illegal and immoral war. He wrote two books that provided him additional income for he and his family. Both books reveal his deep love of our country as well as insights into fatherhood, legislation, politics, and family life. He has run a smart campaign that reveals his leadership skills and his ability to remain calm in the face of crisis. His campaign though not without its faults has met or exceeded realistic expectations for a well run campaign. He established a web site to counter the lies, the same type of lies that defeated both Kerry and Gore who did not take their opponent's distortions seriously enough to counter them.

I am appalled at the amount of misinformation, repetition of lies, and blatant racism on this blog. It is an embarrassment to our nation, cripples our credibility, and reveals an immaturity in communication unlike anything I've seen in recent memory. It is sad. It is shameful. It is disrespectful and dishonest. The hyperbole is ridiculous and the vitriol is narrow-minded and stunted. If the responses here are the best this nation has to offer I am humbled by the regressive nature of the comments made here.

[okello francis]

wants to know much on obamas' external policies