The Liberal Media and Dr. Ben Carson

E. Ablorh-Odjidja

November 07, 2015

Dr. Ben Carson is in the news again, at the mercy of CNN and The Politico, two foremost liberal prints.

Carson had written in his book, Gifted Hands, that as a 14-year-old, he stabbed a playmate, and had it not been for a belt buckle on that kid and the hand of God, the blade would have sliced through the kid’s belly.

No need to say that Dr. Ben Carson, the renowned brain surgeon was a Black conservative Republican candidate for the primaries.

The stabbing event of 50 years ago, a prospect-shattering experience at that young age, yet young Carson went on to become who he was.  

A redemptive story, but for CNN, this story was only good to use to frustrate Dr. Carson’s ambition as a presidential candidate for 2016.

The same redemption angle didn’t matter for the bounty hunters at The Politico.  The desire for dirt to sink Carson was the goal.

Carson was ranking high in recent polls.  He was topping every hopeful presidential candidate, most of all Hillary, the liberal darling, in the trustworthy polls. 

Suddenly, the “belt buckle” story became the Achilles heel of Carson’s stellar reputation. And the scouring in the brushes for dirt about him was put ahead of the major Hillary Clinton’s imperfections breaking in the news.

The two liberal publications have held to their biased ideological tack and racial contempt for Carson, a trait mostly reserved for Black conservatives,

No deed could be bad enough for Hillary.  She had just wiped clean off her server 30,000 plus digital files, which had been previously subpoenaed by Congress.  But the two publications had ignored the story.

During the Watergate Investigations, Nixon had an 18 minutes gap (wiped) on his White House analog recorded tapes, space equivalent to about 18 pages of typed double-spaced documents. 

The gap became the “smoking gun.”  And it sank Nixon in 1974.  For The Politico and CNN, Hillary’s 30,000 digital files gap, probable about the size of the pages in a Bible, meant nothing.

All this coming on the heels of the atrocious stories from Benghazi didn’t matter either.  Still, Hillary had a positive press.  But like the bloodhounds of old, the liberal media wouldn't allow Carson to shake off his trackers.

The sad allegory on slavery was missing for the Black Congressional Caucus. Carson was a conservative; therefore, he couldn't be black enough. The bloodhounds could have him.

The same Black Caucus, like all Democrats, had a wall of support around Hillary.  

When Democrats wanted Nixon out, they had some Republican support. Democrats never allow any bi-partisan opposition against their own, least of all Hillary.

"What difference does it make," Hillary said to the Senate Hearing Committee investigating the affairs of Benghazi, on January 23, 2013.  And the liberal press lauded her defiance.

But the difference was that an American Ambassador and four security officials had died under terrorists' attack at Benghazi.  

Comparatively, for CNN and The Politico, the "belt buckle” story of 50 years was more important and newsworthy this time.  And you ask, where is the media fairness?

There was more.  CNN dredged out another story on Carson, told at a college commencement 17 years ago. He had offered a theory on the use of the pyramids of ancient Egypt.

"My theory is that Joseph built the pyramids to store grain," Carson had explained.

And the cry went up, including some from our Black community, suggesting that Carson was a complete idiot for offering that explanation.

Dr. Carson, a neurosurgeon but also an ardent Christian, had differed in his opinion with some seasoned archeologists.  Whether Joseph had built the pyramids and why should not have been the end-point for that debate.  The science of it should be whether any view on this subject had been settled to date.

A pyramid for a single pharaoh, as espoused by some archaeologists, or grains for a whole nation as espoused by Carson, should have been the debate.

The Politico wouldn’t wait for an answer before moving on to another story that supposedly illustrated Carson's lack of candor.  

He had stated in his book, "Gifted Hands,” that he was offered a scholarship to attend the prestigious West Point military academy.

The Politico had contacted the academy and they had no record of Carson’s application for admission.  The problem was a manufactured one. Carson never stated that he had applied to the academy for admission.

His story was that, as the top ROTC (military cadet) student in the Detroit area in 1969, he had dined with Gen. William Westmoreland, the then Chief of Staff of the US Army, 1968 - 1972.

Gen. Westmoreland meeting the "top ROTC” student and then to have encouraged him to become an officer with a promise of "scholarship" at West Point, ought to have been a positive story. 

But The Politico found in the story the opportunity to obfuscate; to twist it so as to dim the prospects of a Black who happened to be a presidential candidate.

"An application to West Point begins with a nomination by a member of Congress or another prominent government or military official. After that, a rigorous vetting process begins. If offered admission, all costs are covered for all students; indeed, there are no “full scholarships,” per se," wrote The Politico.

However, The Politico missive forgot to state the difference between "full scholarships" and "all costs are covered."

The actual requirement was for Ben Carson to get "all cost covered" he would have had to be first nominated by "a member of Congress or another prominent government or military official." 

If Gen. Westmoreland didn’t qualify as a “prominent military official” who would?

Ben Carson was already a brilliant kid from Detroit, the top ROTC student in a Vietnam War era, and went on to finish as an excellent neuro-surgeon.  Except, there was no interest on the part of The Politco to investigate if Gen. Westmoreland could have met and offered Carson the West Point opportunity.

Carson's so-called "fabrication" paled in comparison to Hillary Clinton's lies on Benghazi and the missing files.  Both of her acts had caused others to lose their lives as well as severely compromise national security.

A puzzle?  Your answer is as good as why the Pope would be a catholic.  

But for the liberal media, a Black conservative politician, who was off the Democrat plantation, would always present the vicarious opportunity for them to attack his race. 

The morale is Blacks cannot be diverse and mentally smart enough to support two ideologies.

Ben Carson, in the position of a Black conservative outside the liberal Democrat party, must return to the Democrat plantation, where all Blacks were supposed to belong, like the slaves of old.

E. Ablorh-Odjidja, Publisher www.ghanadot.com, Washington, DC, November 07, 2015.

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