Trinity Has Done Some Cleaning On The Internet

It seems like the name of Louis Farrakhan will continue to be a part of the presidential campaign until election night.  I believe in giving credit where credit is due.  Barack Obama and his campaign staff have done a great job of handling the Jeremiah Wright controversy.  To his credit, Obama did not cower behind press releases and anonymous statements made by aides.  He came out in front of the American public and gave a speech on race relations that was well received in most corners of the country.  Obama's top adviser, David Axelrod, even got one of the top public relation firms in Chicago to help Trinity United Church of Christ handle the overwhelming crush of media attention it was getting on a daily basis.

Jasculca-Terman and Associates says that their public relations crisis advice is being conducted as pro-bono work on behalf of Trinity.  I am also sure that they advised the church that it would be in their best interests to remove any web site links to material that could be considered controversial.  Now if you go to Trinity's site, their is no available link to their Trumpet Newsmagazine.  In January, I had made mention of the November/December 2007 edition of Trumpet that contained the article about Farrakhan receiving the church's Lifetime Achievement Award.

I don't know who made the decision to remove the magazine from the internet.  It could have been Obama, Axelrod, Jasculca-Terman or the church itself.  It was the right decision to make - I don't care who made it.  Nevertheless, the reason, I am even talking about the magazine again is because during a Pennsylvania campaign stop yesterday, Obama was asked, once again, to address the subject of his church giving the award to Farrakhan according to the Political Radar. However, Obama's response to the question was, in my opinion, a well thought out fabrication.  Obama said,

"This was done by a magazine that was connected to the church. I would have never done it. It was primary focused on the rehabilitation work that they do for ex-offenders in Chicago. That doesn’t excuse it, that just explains it."

I read that article several times and I still cannot remember any mention of rehabilitation work done by the Nation of Islam.  I wish I had kept the pdf version of the article; since it has been removed from the church's site, I could not read it again.  I even tried searching the Internet for it, but I could not find it.  Maybe I'm wrong about the article, but I don't think so.  I would like for someone would have to show me a copy of the old article and show me where the word "rehabilitation" is located in the article. 

My point is that Obama has crafted a good explanation for his church giving the award to Farrakhan and it has tested well thus far.  The Nation of Islam does do good work with ex-convicts and other issues in inner-city neighborhoods.  But in this instance, Obama's explanation is not true.  However, no one will be able to prove it unless they kept their downloaded copy of the Trumpet Newsmagazine.