Information From School District About President Obama Song That Has Fox News, Other Conservatives Whining About Indoctrination

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.

Fox News Distorts Innocent Classroom Activity To Attack President Obama, Hint At Anti-Americanism

This is a reach by even the low Fox News standards for objectivity.

Fox News on-air personalities have been whining about President Obama not coming to them and kissing their butts when he made appearances on major television networks, but skipped Fox (which has skipped out on him during a few of his speeches and meetings when other networks covered them). Was that a case of putting financial gain before country? (If Fox can ask these kind of loaded questions then I guess others can, too). But, perhaps part of the reason the president has avoided Fox News is its ongoing campaign to demonize him and hint that he may somehow be anti-American or that supporters of him may be anti-American. The latest from Fox News is a video it has plastered all over its homepage of young school students from B. Bernice Young Elementary School in Burlington, N.J., singing songs about the messages they’ve heard from President Obama. But, instead of looking at it as students learning about the presidency and the messages of equality they were actually singing about, Fox News takes it and turns it into the most negative interpretation possible.

Here is the image it put on the Web and (below it) how Fox News described the video:

Here is how Fox News describes the video of those evil messages such as lending a hand, making the country strong, equal work means equal pay and being fair.

Video shows little kids at the B. Bernice Young Elementary School in Burlington, N.J., being taught to sing Obama’s praises — have they already learned the Star Spangled Banner, America the Beautiful and God Bless America?
• VIDEO: School Kids’ Song Praises Obama

The messages below the Fox headline don’t match. The kids, based on those lyrics were not singing the president’s praises, but rather singing about his messages that all good people should embrace. A large majority of the people who are angry are those who just can’t stand that a black man is in such a prominent position and can’t handle the historical significance of his presidency, with positive messages and that people are listening and being moved. None of these people cared about this kind of stuff when Bush was in office or even when President Clinton was in office.

Where were these conservatives when President Bush was going to schools hyping No Child Left Behind and drawing praise from school children?

Now, notice the part where Fox asks if the children have already learned the Star Spangled Banner, America the Beautiful and God Bless America? This is of course done to again raise the idea of the president and those who support him being anti-American or not having the best interest of the country first and foremost. This is yet another case of Fox News injecting its right-wing bias into what should have been a fair and balanced news story. But, as we know, Fox is neither fair nor balanced its news and is especially unfair and unbalanced when it is reporting on almost anything it feels can portray Barack Obama in a negative light.

I bet none of the right wingers at Fox cared about praise from school children toward President George W. Bush when he was in office or since he has been out of office. No, the bigotry of Fox News is on display only in matters related to President Obama.

Watch the video for yourself. The video is completely innocent. I did stuff like this when I was in elementary school where we talked about national leaders, historical figures and others.

This is just stupid, far-right political hate from conservatives , such as those we see from morning to evening on Fox News, who didn’t (and still don’t) care about praise school kids have given to previous presidents.

Angry right wingers, such as the people who run Fox News, are in full-blown attack mode as they go at President Obama and we still are not even a year removed from Election Day 2008.

This one is weak even by far-right standards (on the YouTube page some nut compares President Obama to Kim Jong il, Fidel Castro, Adolph Hitler and others). These right wingers are overflowing with hate. My goodness, well-known people who speak to elementary school students often are praised with songs or get handmade drawings, paintings or handwritten thank yous. This is weak.

A couple of things:

Oh yea, Fox News also had this bullet underneath the video as more evidence of fear and smear politics:
Is Obama’s ‘Safe Schools Czar’ Unsafe for Schools?

Bush visits George W. Bush Elementary (remember when conservatives had a fit when an elementary school was about to be named for President Obama?):
http://blogs.wsj.com/washwire/2006/10/03/bush-visits-george-w-bush-elementary/