Jeremiah Wright is not all wrong

As the Jeremiah Wright "controversy" resurfaced over the weekend and the drive-by attacks from the GOP-shrouded Fox News Channel started up again, you can only wonder how this situation got to where it did.

Part of the problem is the media's reliance on quick hits. Five-second soundbytes. Of course, that is a product of the times. USA Today started it all years ago with its quick hits summary of the day's news.

Newspapers picked up on that like lemmings. The paper I once worked for, the San Jose Mercury News, had endless meetings to discuss how to present the news more concisely and quickly for its commuting public.

Of course, what happens is quotes are taken out of context. Details are omitted. Anything to save time.

This has become the new standard in too much of the media. Get it done quick. Doesn't matter if it isn't all there.

That has been the big gap in the Wright story. Anyone who has taken the time to listen to Wright's sermons in full will find he is not the diehard racist Fox News and the GOP spinmeisters love to tout.

Listen to his sermons: "The Audacity of Hope", the "God Damn America" sermon and the 9/11 sermon. No one who hears these sermons and listens to them will come out with the interpretation foisted off on us in some parts of the media, especially Fox News.

Wright is actually a very very good speaker. I don't believe in his conspiracy theories, but his words expounding hope are good to hear.
There's a lesson to be learned in all this: Hearing words are one thing. Listening to what's being said is something else.