on this same program which I was glad to see happen:

http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0803/16/rs.01.html

CNN RELIABLE SOURCES

Coverage of Spitzer's Resignation Examined

Aired March 16, 2008 - 10:00 ET

HOWARD KURTZ, HOST: "It's been clear for some time that Barack Obama's pastor, the Reverend Jeremiah Wright, is a controversial guy. But I didn't realize just how inflammatory and racially divisive the reverend could be until this week, when Fox News and ABC obtained videos of some of Wright's sermons. In one case here we've bleeped his use of the N- word.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BILL O'REILLY, FOX NEWS: Fox News has obtained portions of Reverend Wright's sermons that are anti-American, to say the least. Viewer warning -- some offensive material coming up.

REV. JEREMIAH WRIGHT, TRINITY UNITED CHURCH OF CHRIST: Barack knows what it means to be a black man living in a country and a culture that is controlled by rich white people! Hillary can never know that. Hillary ain't never been called a (EXPLETIVE DELETED).

The government lied. The government lied about inventing the HIV virus as a means of genocide against people of color.

And they will not only attack you if you try to point out what's going on in white America, U.S. of KKKA.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KURTZ: Wright also said that white America got a wakeup call after 9/11.

Obama tried to dismiss the controversy with a tepid statement, but on Friday night he made the rounds of the cable networks to criticize, but not disavow, his longtime friend.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KEITH OLBERMANN, MSNBC: Do you repudiate the man? Do you repudiate the comments? Do you repudiate both? SEN. BARACK OBAMA (D-IL), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: No, I would not repudiate the man. I would describe it as a member of your family who does -- says something that you really disagree with.

ANDERSON COOPER, CNN: I mean, uncles are blood relatives who you're kind of stuck with at family gatherings even when they say outrageous things.

OBAMA: As I said, Anderson, if I had heard any of these statements, I probably would have walked out, and I probably would have told Reverend Wright that they were wrong.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KURTZ: Joining us now to talk about the coverage of race in the campaign, in New York, Deroy Murdock, syndicated columnist for Scripps Howard News Service and a contributing editor for "National Review Online." Here in Washington, Ed Schultz, host of the nationally syndicated radio program "The Ed Schultz Show." And CNN senior political analyst, Gloria Borger.

Gloria, I thought Anderson Cooper did a good job of interviewing Obama on Friday not, but on Thursday -- and you were on the set at the time -- he said, well, we have to cover this, but it just feels completely off track. And he also was apologizing for it.

Isn't this a legitimate story?

GLORIA BORGER, CNN SR. POLITICAL ANALYST: I think it is a legitimate story. I think it became a legitimate story when these sermons -- somebody went out -- talk about great investigative journalism, as you were saying -- somebody went out and bought the DVD.

I think it becomes a legitimate story given the environment of identity politics now in which we're operating. And the fact that Gerri Ferraro made some comments that people though were incendiary about Barack Obama, and now you have the Reverend Wright. And I think Obama was probably a little late in getting out there and disavowing these statements.

KURTZ: Well, let's look at the media behavior, Ed Schultz.

Fox News made a big deal about this on Thursday. CNN and MSNBC did it on some programs. On Friday, there was nothing in "The Washington Post," nothing in the "L.A. Times," nothing in "USA Today." "The New York Times" did an item. Some of them have now caught up.

Isn't that the liberal media at work?

ED SCHULTZ, RADIO TALK SHOW HOST: Well, the story is going to go on because conservative talk radio in America is not going to let this story die. So there's still plenty of time for "the mainstream media" to do the full vetting process of this.

KURTZ: What about liberal talk radio? Aren't you talking about it on your show?

SCHULTZ: Well, it looks like it could be the soft underbelly of the Barack Obama campaign. If he was in attendance at any of these sermons, it's going to be a problem for him. But so far it doesn't look like the story has resonated too much across the country, because just last night in the conventions in Iowa and California, he picked up another 16 delegates.

KURTZ: All right.

Deroy Murdock, McCain -- John McCain has a pastor who's endorsed him, Rod Parsley, who has criticized Islam as a false religion. Not much media attention there. So in the case of Obama and Jeremiah Wright, do you think there's a certain media reluctance here either to criticize Obama or to go after a black minister?

DEROY MURDOCK, SCRIPPS-HOWARD NEWS SERVICE: I think there might have been some reluctance for the following reason -- we've seen rumors on the Internet, and all sort of chatter and gossip and so on, wondering whether or not Barack Obama is a Muslim, and was he perhaps trained in a madrassa when he grew up in Indonesia. And that's been discredited. Those are not true.

And there may have been some hesitance get into this story thinking, well, if we're not going to talk about his false Muslim background, maybe we should stay away completely from the whole question of what goes on in his church, what sort of religious faith is he involved in. As these videotapes have come out, as these comments have come out and been so completely incendiary -- the term "radical cleric" comes to mind -- it really came to the point where this no longer could be ignored, and I think the story will continue.

Obama, I think, has done a pretty good job on trying to get on top of this, writing something for The Huffington Post, going out on these TV interviews. But as long as that tape's around, they can play it over and over again, and not just the words, but seeing this man waving his hands around and looking kind of wound up I think keeps the story going.

KURTZ: Right. Had there not been videotape, even if we had the transcripts, I don't think the story would be as big as it's turning out to be.

But now, Ed Schultz, this is not just the guy who happens to be the pastor of Obama's church in Chicago. I mean, this is a guy who presided at the wedding of Michelle and Barack Obama, baptized their daughters, a longtime friend, so that does naturally make journalists wonder, well, how much of this did Obama know and why has he been close to this guy?

SCHULTZ: How could he be in that church for 20 years and not at least have a sense of some of the sermons that he's given. If he was in attendance of some of those sermons, it's going to be a problem. That's the next angle, and that's where I think the media is going to go. In the meantime, Obama, I think, played the media well, didn't let it get to a Swift Boat situation. He went out on all the networks on Friday, and he has an innate ability to kind of reduce the tension in the room. That's the attractiveness of this guy. But I do think it's not totally over...

KURTZ: How much should journalists hold a presidential candidate accountable for ugly comments that are made by surrogates and supporters? There's been a whole string of these incidents, and most of them have been pretty big stories.

BORGER: Well, I think the answer to that is, honestly, it depends. I mean, I agree that now journalists are going to go out and find out when Barack Obama attended that church, what he was listening to at the time.

If incendiary comments like the one you just showed were said in sermons while he was there, if he did not object to them, what does that tell you about what Barack Obama believes? And it could say, gee, is Barack Obama as so-called unpatriotic as the Reverend Wright, and that could become a big issue in a presidential campaign.

KURTZ: So that makes the question, Deroy Murdock, you know, the old journalistic standby -- what did he know and when did he know it?

MURDOCK: That's a really serious question. If he attended this church for 20 years, did he just go at Christmas and Easter, or was he going there every Sunday? And depending on how often he went, did he actually hear these sorts of things? Did he talk with his pastor about this to try to dissuade him from using this sort of language?..."

"MURDOCK: That's a really serious question. If he attended this church for 20 years, did he just go at Christmas and Easter, or was he going there every Sunday? And depending on how often he went, did he actually hear these sorts of things? Did he talk with his pastor about this to try to dissuade him from using this sort of language?..."

This is where Obama fails his biggest test. If he can invest 20 years in a close relationship and not convince his pastor of his vision of transcending the racial divide how can he unite the country? How is it that he has such good judgement on day one?

COLBERT: Maybe they were just bored with Hillary, because she was a story they already new. Barack Obama was the new story, but then he became the old new story, and not treating her well became the new, new story. And the press not only got to talk about her, but talk about themselves, which is their favorite subject.