Jun 02 2008
Obama Camp: Here’s the transcript of the “whitey” tape that does not exist
Larry Johnson at No Quarter is reporting Obama’s camp is denying the existence of a tape with Michelle Obama referring to “whitey” while sitting with Louis Farrakhan in a meeting.
He then goes on to claim that after the Obama camp denies the existence of any such tape, they then release an alleged transcript of a tape they claim does not exist.
Huh?
One more time, only slower.
Larry Johnson, and others, have claimed there is a tape of Michelle Obama, at a meeting with Louis Farrakhan. On this tape, Michelle Obama allegedly makes reference to “whitey,” a racist term meant to denigrate white people.
According to Johnson, the donors have been hitting the Obama camp hard enough that they had to respond. They did so by claiming no such tape exists.
He then goes on to claim that Obama’s camp quietly released “a doctored or concocted transcript of the supposedly nonexistent videotape.”
“So the campaign created a would-be transcript of the video it says doesn’t exist. In the Obama campaign produced transcript Michelle says “why’d he” instead of “whitey.” Very clever. Then the campaign sent this transcript to key Obamaton bloggers to circulate. And the campaign sent it to the donors to prevent them from having a nervous breakdown.
In other words, the Obama campaign is a two-faced operation, telling the national press one thing and using eager little bloggers as propaganda stooges. But now they’ve been caught in obvious dirty trickery. Will the press play along? The Obamaton bloggers who happily allowed themselves to be exploited have exposed themselves as just junior media whores.”
The plot thickens, as I attempt to obtain a copy of this alleged transcript.
UPDATE 8:50 p.m.
Reported verbiage from Michelle Obama’s tape
“Once again, the white man keeps us down, what’s up with Whitey, Why’d he attack Iraq, Why’d he let Katrina happen, Why’d he leave millions of children behind. This is the legacy the white man gives us”
There exists absolutely no evidence that any video, as reported by Larry Johnson, exists.
Following the outbreak of reports on the rumour of the existence of the video, a Fark user named “1000 Hurts” speculated that what would be presented would be a video of Michelle Obama saying “why’d he” several times and that the quality of the audio made it more or less easy to misinterpret the phrase “why’d he” as “whitey”. Note, however, that this claim was pure speculation; it was not based upon any actual known video or audio recording of Michelle Obama.
This speculation may be seen at http://forums.fark.com/cgi/fark/comments.pl?IDLink=3641352#c41148892
Other internet forum users began repeating the speculation on other Internet forums. Unfortunately, in so doing they reworded and restated the initial speculation when doing so and, over successive iterations, the claims have been misinterpreted as fact based upon a known (though wholly unsourced and undemonstrable) recorded speech.
Individuals promoting the fraudulent claim of such a video — either because they wish for the claim to be true or because they are knowingly promoting a lie — have since utilized this misunderstood speculation as proof of the existence of a video; their reasoning is that the attempts to “explain” Michelle’s wording is evidence that those promoting the “explanation” must have seen the video. Larry Johnson has gone so far as to claim that the “why’d he” explanation was released by the Obama campaign, which is simply false.
It would appear that the alleged transcript excerpt is also based upon this speculation, incorporating the misunderstood hypothetical explanation of Michelle saying “why’d he” combined with an actual use of the word “whitey” in an attempt to show that the explanation, while true, does not vindicate Michelle Obama against charges of racially-tilted rhetoric.
I have concluded that the claim of any such video is fraudulent. No evidence for its existence has been given. Larry Johnson’s claim, issued today, that he has spoken to individuals who have spoken to individuals who have seen the video — thus asserting that he is two levels removed from actually viewing the video — strains credibility so far that it almost as though it appears that he is attempting to deliberately make the story resemble a poorly supported urban legend. Attacks upon Barack Obama should be based upon legitimate criticisms of his various stated policy issues — for example, valid arguments can be made that his positions on firearms restrictions are in direct opposition to the statements of the United States Constitution. Attacks upon Barack Obama that are based upon highly dubious rumour and innuendo are dishonest and dishonorable.
Dimensio,
Thank you for taking the time to post this information.
After surfing through a few thread pages I found the post you appear to be referencing. Here it is in full:
1000 Hurts 2008-06-01 07:21:00 PM
“Here’s whats gonna happen, the tape is supposedly a speech Michelle made concerning Bush et al. regarding Katrina. In it she says “Why’d he…” several times, which given the quality of the audio, sounds like “whitey”. And so will begin the great tin-foil hat of bonanza of the summer of ‘08″
END QUOTE
Is it possible this latest firestorm of alleged transcripts was initiated by an innocuous post on a message board?
To answer my own question, yes, I do believe it is.
On to more digging.
HRC is leading 60% to 34% in South Dakota. Obama is holding on to a narrow 44 - 40 margin in Montana. Obama has continued to slide against John McCain. Rezko is also facing criming charges for $800,000 in unpaid gambling debts. Show me your five closest friends and I’ll tell you who you are. You are the company you keep. Obama will lose if nominated.
Hi Stormy, saw your post at No Quarter and tried to answer but the comments were just closed on that thread. I know Booman personally, though I can’t say that we are friends any longer…….definitely not friends, but we were once. He is very well educated and per his own blog tonight claims that he doesn’t use unreliable sources. I would like to know where he came by the “transcript” too but if any of this makes trouble for Obama in any way we can forget about him revealing anything like that. He’s 1000% in the bag for Obama and then some. Booman used a lot of Larry’s stuff when the Valerie Plame deal was going down and claims he did so because Larry was a reliable source for that. Why Larry isn’t a reliable source now for Booman I don’t know. But according to Booman he doesn’t use unreliable stuff and he put that “transcript” up.
If Larry has the tape, then let’s see it. I can make a transcript of whatever you want it to say…it means absolutely nothing without audio or some sort of confirmation from someone…and I seriously doubt Larry was at a Farakhan rally.
Thank you all for taking the time to reply.
JC, in all fairness to Mr Johnson, he never claimed to have the tape. He has never even claimed to have seen the tape.
militarytracy, it is an interesting dynamic - watching these two groups from the Obama/Clinton camps lining up as they are. I am amazed at some of what I am reading. I am interested in seeing how party unity is to be achieved.
Colin, thank you for the update on the race.
No, Larry doesn’t claim to have the tape. He reports (from sources he considers reliable - who knows?) that the Republicans have the tape and presumably won’t release it until the fall.