Fox News and nutty far-right bloggers like Michelle Malkin and the Matt Drudge (among many others) have attempted to turn this group of elementary school kids singing a song about President Obama into a scandalous-type conspiracy seemingly on scale with the Kennedy assassination, Watergate and the Lincoln assassination. While some are frustrated with No Child Left Behind, conservatives like Malkin, Fox News and Drudge are advancing a new project ... No Obama Smear Left Behind. Operating on the premise that it's better to smear first and ask questions later, some of these far-right commentators have been trying to advance the notion that this is some kind of an indoctrination plot seemingly hatched by President Obama to control the minds of young students.
After Fox News blew up the story on its Web site all day, here is a response from the school district (B. Bernice Young Elementary School) in question about the scandal according to Fox 29 News in Philadelphia:
The first of two Burlington Township School District letters to local families posted online Thursday and obtained by Fox 29 News confirms that a video circulating online and in the media is a class at B. Bernice Young Elementary School singing about the president.
"The activity took place during Black History Month in 2009, which is recognized each February to honor the contributions of African Americans to our country," the letter states. "Our curriculum studies, honors and recognizes those who serve our country. The recording and distribution of the class activity were unauthorized."
Of course, for Fox News, Malkin, Drudge and others ... why let context get in the way of a good smear?
I found this on Daily Kos:
It's what a nutty comedian network would do to our nation's youth:
Drudge and the right-wing blogosphere are flogging a "SHOCK VIDEO" from YouTube that purports to show "[s]chool kids taught to praise Obama."
The children in this video appear to be no more than 8 years old. They have done nothing wrong. Presumably, neither they nor their parents have consented to having their faces plastered all over the right-wing media. They did nothing to justify Matt Drudge's invasion of their privacy. They did nothing to justify Michelle Malkin's invasion of their privacy.
Nothing these kids have done would warrant a decision by Glenn Beck, his enablers at Fox News, Rush Limbaugh, or Lou Dobbs to further invade their privacy.
The right is ruthless.
These conservatives are now using children (via exploitation using an unauthorized video) to advance their bigoted right-wing agenda.
As I wrote earlier, this is stupid, overblown and extremist even by far-right standards. It also shows these right wingers have learned nothing from their hysterical reactions to a speech that the president gave to school students weeks back.
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