Re-inventing Jeremiah Wright

I'm sitting here watching CNN's coverage of Jeremiah Wright's speech at the Detroit NAACP convention and am struck by what's being attempted here.

Defenders are quick to jump on his critics, basing that defense on the notion that snippets of his many words spoken (or written) over the years are being used to twist who he really is.

And so what are they now attempting?

The. Very. Same. Thing. 

They take snippets of words spoken most recently (today on CNN, the other day on PBS), words shaped by the knowledge that every syllable will be dissected and reviewed, words influenced by that knowledge, words purposed in taking advantage of that knowledge and they attempt to tell us that these words, and not those used by his critics, define the man.

Snippets that critique are wrong.  Snippets that defend are right.

We're watching the rehabilitation, the reconstruction, the rebuilding, the remaking of a man... from bigoted hate-monger to enlightened social critic. 

Old Media will defend despite his many words over the years because Old Media and Jeremiah Wright are ideologically entwined and connected.

It'll be up to New Media to counter that defense.  Not just because New Media is opposed ideologically though that can't be denied but because New Media remains enamored with truth-telling.

Old Media used to be.  Now they're into truth-creation. 

And now they're into creating a new truth about Jeremiah Wright, led by Jeremiah Wright himself.

How quaint.  How convenient.

How deceptive.

Jeremiah Wright can't go back now and re-tape the videos so many of us have seen.  He can't go back and erase the relationships he and his church have nourished.  He can't go back and rewrite the church bulletins that have been published and many of them still available on the church's website.

Neither can Old Media.

New Media won't allow it.

Comments

[Marc V]

Wright (no need to be reverent with a title) lost me when he hollered out that people don't "understand" black religion. Huh?! I can understand when he's using the pulpit as God's emissary yet badmouthing the country and leaders who allow him the freedom to badmouth.

Obama is still clinging to the "taking snippets out of context" defense too. It could be his undoing.

[xtnyoda]

I just keep thinking of Jonah and his hatred for Nineveh. He was soundly rebuked by God.

I think of Joseph and Daniel, slaves in foreign lands, yet for their loyalty to the benefit of their captors were elevated by God in government positions, Prime Ministers in fact. They worked for the good of their countries...God blessed...and used their grace filled responses to the benefit of God's people.

God uses not bitterness to impart grace.