Obama addresses race: hear the whole speech, not the BBC's meme

I'm posting the whole of Obama's truly great speech yesterday addressing race. It has been filtered and cropped, so watch the whole thing (it's 27 minutes).

Mainly the cropping by our media is in terms of how it will affect the election and mainly, it has to be said, by BBC journalists who simply cannot relate to black experience. The BBC's Justin Webb posted the following, which illustrates this:

I can well understand that the black folk memory of America is hugely different to the white version but is this what black people really think? Is that what they were thinking five days after 9/11?

So he knows it's there but doesn't understand why? Which American history did he study? This ignorance is blatant and pathetic from someone paid a lot by our lead broadcaster to cover America.

Matt Frei cherry-picked his media reaction, the GOP's meme about Rev. Wright:

He did not denounce the man, "who has been like family to me". It was an honourable omission. But it may have killed his campaign.

This is 'buying-in' wholesale to that meme and failing to report what Obama actually said. What is the difference between 'denouncing' Wright's views and denouncing 'the man'?

Jamie Coomarasamy continues with what amounts to the BBC's line on the speech:

It may have been too nuanced ... why did he not object to his pastor's comments earlier?

No mention of such things as the New York Times editorial or leading conservative Andrew Sullivan's comments that it was "an epiphany" or other conservative reaction, which has been similarly impressed by Obama. That's 'news'.

These BBC journalists are taking their - frankly - lazy lead from people like these NBC (MSM) journalists:



... who describe Rev. Wright's "hate speech" (an opinion, not a fact) and - pointedly - ignore another religious leader backing a candidate: Rev. John Hagee and John McCain. Hagee is not just violently anti-gay but anti-catholic. Again, just like the US MSM, the BBC has also completely ignored that story.

Their 'take' on Obama's speech is also very different to the broadsheets. The Guardian and the Independent perhaps predictably, but both the Telegraph and the Times have much better reports - the Telegraph actively rejecting the GOP's meme.

It’s a message of reconciliation and a post-racial future that many Americans will want to hear.

Watch Obama's speech (or read the full text). Ignore the BBC's 'reporting'.

Postscript 1
Postscript 2: More Obama speech reaction - it's positive but you won't read about it