12-01-2008 CASHILL DEMANDS PUBLIC APOLOGY FROM STAR A scathing on-line article by Kansas City Star Readers' Representative Derek Donovan, where he called local author Jack Cashill a "liar," has resulted in Cashill now demanding a public apology from the newspaper. Here is a copy of an email Cashill sent to the Star's political writer Steve Kraske and Donovan: Each morning the Star sends out a "Smart Start" newsletter that features the "10 Hot Topics Today In The News." On August 26, your piece "Obama watches wife's speech from KC" was understandably number one. I was not in KC that day so that was all I had to work with. I cannot now access the article through the Star, but I have found a reprint online from democraticunderground.com that I am confident is what I read that day. I do not how or if it was edited down--"snip?"--but this is what went out online. I wrote about it the day afterwards, stunned by the omission of the Obama gaffe, and referred to that earlier piece to write the longer one last week in American Thinker. Here is the online version unedited by me: Barack Obama appeared Monday at the Democratic convention in a video feed from Kansas City. He talked with his wife, Michelle Obama, and daughters after her speech.The Barack Obama whom many Americans know typically is a pillar of confidence. Monday night at the Brookside home of Jim and Alicia Girardeau, he was a nervous wreck.The presumptive Democratic nominee picked the Girardeaus� living room to watch his wife�s opening-night speech. For most of the time he sat like a statue. "It�s nerve-racking," he said as his wife took the stage at the Democratic National Convention in Denver, where he�ll deliver his own big speech Thursday night at Invesco Field at Mile High, where the NFL�s Broncos play.
After a pause, he added, "She�s pretty cute."
His nervousness showed � not so much in what Obama did but in what he didn�t do. He barely moved. He hardly brandished emotion. He said little, even as his wife described their hardscrabble upbringings, their courtship and their dreams for the nation.
Only at the very end, as Michelle Obama dedicated their campaign "in honor of my father�s memory and my daughters� future," did the senator from Illinois lighten up. A smile streaked across his once-solemn face, and he looked up at the Girardeaus and the assembled reporters. As Michelle finished, Obama turned toward the Girardeaus and the assembled media and said: "So what do you think? She�s pretty good, huh? She�s pretty good." Pausing and smiling, he then repeated: "I thought she was pretty good. She was fantastic." He then said he was glad they didn�t pan to his mother-in-law because he would have gotten choked up.
Considering that you write here about how nervous Obama was, would it not have been entirely natural to mention his St. Louis gaffe in the lead? Had this been Sarah Palin would you not have lead with it? I would have if it were either one, unless, of course, I fekt the chivalrous urge to protect Palin (which I might have). It is possible that not you, but your editor was protecting Obama? Eearlier I had noted that an editor undermined your story about how the GOP picked principle over politics in the Kline case with the absurd headline, "GOP picks principles over progress." Progress? My argument stands: of course, the Star manages the news to advance its liberal/Democratic causes. I do not believe that the Star does so consciously for the most part, but that does not change the reality. "Censoring" does not mean eliminating stories; it means diminishing their impact, and in all five cases I mentioned, including this one, that is exactly what happened. In any case, I deeply resent Derek's suggestion that I was lying. I would like a public apology, thank you. Respectfully Jack
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