Roger’s Rules

October 30th, 2008 4:58 am

Write the LA Times. The public has a right to know!

A commentator on an earlier post writes to suggest that readers contact the Los Angles Times to demand that they release the video tape of a 2003 gala in which Barack Obama is said to have praised Rashid Khalidi, Edward Said’s successor at Columbia University’s program Middle Eastern Studies and a former spokesman for the Palestinian terrorist Yasser Arafat. For the background to the story, see Andy McCarthy’s summary at NRO and Gateway Pundit here.

Here ’s the letter my correspondent suggested. Vary at will. The aim is to embarrass the LA Times into releasing the material they are suppressing.

To the Editor (readers.rep@latimes.com):

I’m writing to request you release the tape of Senator Obama speaking with (or about) Professor Rashid Khalidi.

While partisans will no doubt bicker over the significance of the tape’s meaning, the tape itself holds material of direct importance to the public.

It is in the public’s interest to have all available materials on a given candidate. Indeed, the well-being of civil society depends on the free exchange of information.

Please release this tape so we may have direct access to its contents and may evaluate it solely on its own merits.

Thank you for your kind attention to these vital matters.

Sincerely,

YOUR NAME HERE

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4 Comments

1. Will:

You can also go directly to the Times’ reader feedback page and submit your comment there.

Here’s the link:

http://www.latimes.com/services/site/la-comment-readersrep-cf2,0,2821883.customform?sId=Readers%27%20Representative

Oct 30, 2008 - 9:11 am 2. Mark, San Diego:

(A sample for anyone lacking the motivation to author one’s own. Feel free to ctrl-c,ctrl-v. I doubt anyone there will be reading these anyway.)

To the Editor,

It has come to my attention that the Los Angeles Times is in possession of a tape which contains a discussion by Senator Barack Obama of Professor Rashid Khalidi, and that, inexplicably, the Times has chosen not to distribute this information to its readers or to the general public. I am writing to implore you to please release this tape so that we voters can examine the content and determine for ourselves whether it should influence our decision next Tuesday. Given that the dissemination of important public information is the core function of a newspaper like the Times, and that the Times has historically shown no such restraint with similar material, I would also be interested to hear an explanation as to why your organization decided to keep this tape’s contents a secret.

Thank you,

Mark [removed to avoid Obama-supporter reprisals]
San Diego, CA

Oct 30, 2008 - 3:07 pm 3. Fausta’s Blog » Blog Archive » Khalidi tape roundup: The tape the LAT won’t release:

[...] Roger Kimball: Write the LA Times. The public has a right to know! [...]

Oct 31, 2008 - 8:33 am 4. Gaffe Prices:

I wrote them, its easy, just cut and paste the text, then sign your name at the bottom. takes 2 minutes or less, tops.

Oct 31, 2008 - 2:08 pm