The importance of Breitbart's Barack Obama/Derrick Bell video

Fox News' "Hannity" program brought out the importance of the Breitbart video that features Harvard Law Review president Barack Obama embracing racialist professor Derrick Bell.

Hannity's guest Ben Shapiro pegged it:

"I think what is so important, honestly, what is amazing about this video in particular is this was seriously open to anyone. This was not hidden. We were actually able to find -- it was hidden by them, but it wasn't hidden from the media. If the media had really wanted to do the leg work, they could have found this stuff. They could have tracked down, you know, just what was this association with Derrick Bell. Meanwhile, they are checking, you know, Sarah Palin's random e-mails."

Shapiro's exactly right. The press prides itself, supposedly, on providing information to the people and fulfilling a critical role in the democratic process.  Yet during the 2008 election campaign the Rev. Jeremiah Wright story carried quite a bit of buzz. It was journalists at the television station who suppressed a part of that story, though we should note allegations that at least part of the video appeared on the PBS "Frontline" program.

A curious press would have started digging for more. The incurious press found things of greater interest--like Sarah Palin.


March 9, 2012: Corrected misspelling of Derrick Bell's first name in the post title.