Posted by Jed Lewison on Wed Mar 12, 2008 at 8:37 PM Pacific

FOX News pays Jeremiah Wright's church for controversial footage of pastor's sermon

Update, 3/15: It turns out that while FOX News did purchase the recordings, so did other news organizations. There doesn't seem to be anything at all nefarious about the acquisitions, as I had speculated. Apprently, the church makes all of its recorded sermons available for purchase. Still, the timing of of their release -- coming immediately on the heels of the public humiliation of Geraldine Ferraro, a FOX News contributor -- does raise questions. These videos were made months and years ago. Why are they now an issue if they weren't before?

FOX News -- surprise surprise -- is making hay over a sermon made by Jeremiah Wright, the retired pastor of Trinity United Church of Christ, Barack Obama's church. Completely independent of what Wright said, a few things trouble me.

First, there's nothing new here. This video is months old -- why is it coming out today, on the heels of FOX News contributor Geraldine Ferraro's resignation from the Clinton campaign?

Second, FOX News paid the church for the video. From their writeup:

FOX News purchased the video recordings of Wright’s sermons from the church.

How much did FOX News pay for the video, and when did they purchase it?

When Wright was making his speech, was he aware of the possibility that FOX News would purchase it? In other words, did he have a financial incentive to give FOX good video?

The bottom line to me is that FOX News is a propaganda organ for the far-right. They've already admitted paying for this video and I wouldn't be surprised if there is more to this story.

Update: Ben Smith posts video of the speech at politico.com.

Aside from the questions about why FOX News paid for the video and why they are releasing it now (it was recorded months ago -- note the Giuliani references), there's a couple of substantive issues I'd like to address.

First, there's the IRS question. I'm not a lawyer, but I'd be stunned if southern churches weren't even more political than this. Moreover, it's not like Wright was hoping to sway any votes. You gotta' figure the congregation supports the hometown favorite.

Second, there's the identity politics question. I suspect many people will offer this video as a counterbalance to Ferraro's divisive commentary. (Don't forget -- she's a FOX News contributor!) Strictly on the merits, the two statements are interesting to compare -- and they both represent an old style of identity politics, pitting race versus gender. And that's what was wrong with Ferraro's statements, and that's what is wrong with Wright's statements. The subtext of Ferraro's comments was that blacks have it better in this country than women. The subtext of Wright's statements (not just in this video clip but other comments as well) is that women have it better in this country than blacks.

Look, it's not a contest: sexism and racism are both horrible scourges on our nation. Competing over who has it worse doesn't get us anything. In fact, that competition is exploited in the divide-and-conquer strategies employed by the powerful elite -- and typified by FOX News.

As far as I'm concerned, I just don't have any use for what Ferraro said or what Wright said.

The question though is how does -- or should -- this relate to the Presidential campaign?

I'm sure Clinton will try to exploit this FOX News story, but keep in mind that Jeremiah Wright is the retired pastor of Obama's church. He has no role on the Obama campaign whatsoever.

Even if people called on him to resign from the Obama campaign, he couldn't -- because he's not a part of it.

Geraldine Ferraro, by contrast, was on Hillary Clinton's finance committee. She was an active fundraiser for the campaign.

Moreover, Ferraro's comments echoed a long history of divisive politics from the Clinton campaign. Barack Obama, meanwhile, has never said anything remotely like what Jeremiah Wright said.

To the extent that this becomes an issue, it is a perfect opportunity for Barack Obama to once again talk about the importance of working together to battle not just racism but also of sexism. It's an opportunity to talk about the politics of unity.

Throughout this campaign, Barack Obama has appealed to our desire to move past the ethnic, racial, and gender politics of the past. He has tried to exploit our hope -- not our cynicism.

And that is the biggest difference of all.